Ford Focus ST Forum banner

wrx blew up the day I bought it.

7K views 41 replies 17 participants last post by  MonsterTuned 
#1 ·
So let me give yall some background here. I have a build thread for my corvette. Corvette is still at the shop. I traded my mach-e in for a subaru wrx that was owned by one of my customers previously (They had an old stage-x tune for their focus st). Well they eventually traded their focus st for a 2020 wrx.

The wrx is fully bolted with flex fuel and was on e60 fuel tuned by phatbotti. I purchased the car Saturday and after 4 pulls the motor let go. My intuition here is that the person who traded the car didn't have any idea and probably didn't do pulls on it. I like to drive my cars and do pulls.

The car was making 380whp and a spun rod bearing is common on these cars for that power level, there was no knock feedback until the rod spun meaning the tune was not the cause I just mentioned the tuner because they are actually a reputable wrx tuner from what I've read.

Unfortunately this was my daily so now I'm driving my 2 motorcycles :p

I will be ordering a stage 2 IAG shortblock and having my old turbo vendor that built our focus st hybrid turbos rebuild the turbo into a hybrid turbo.

I will be re-tuning the car myself with ecutek to keep flex fuel functionality.

and so it begins......

Picture captured while waiting on a flat bed as I pulled over after hearing loud clacking at 3-4k rpm to minimize damage.

Wheel Tire Car Sky Land vehicle
 
See less See more
1
#22 ·
What’re your plans? Get a engine out of a escape or something compatible..
 
#3 · (Edited)
I worked with a guy who had a 16 WRX, ported and polished turbo, intercooler, intake, DP, EGR delete, and exhaust.

  • Brought it to the dyno, made 310 about, it spun a bearing on the ride home

he rebuilt it with an iag shortblock like you are, spent months in the shop, same ported and polished turbo

  • threw a rod very shortly after being dyno tuned again

Last I heard he was building the motor again, I don't know what he ended up at with the car. He was stunned that I was making near on 350WHP and even more torque on a fully stock motor with a turbo and bolt ons. They're really cool cars but I just never hear anything good about the longevity of those motors, if I ever were to find myself in one of these I'd personally leave it stock, feels too much like a time bomb.
 
#5 ·
I worked with a guy who had a 16 WRX, ported and polished turbo, intercooler, intake, DP, EGR delete, and exhaust.

  • Brought it to the dyno, made 310 about, it spun a bearing on the ride home

he rebuilt it with an iag shortblock like you are, spent months in the shop, same ported and polished turbo

  • threw a rod very shortly after being dyno tuned again

Last I heard he was building the motor again, I don't know what he ended up at with the car. He was flabbergasted that I was making near on 350WHP and even more torque on a fully stock motor with a turbo and bolt ons. They're really cool cars but I just never hear anything good about the longevity of those motors, if I ever were to find myself in one of these I'd personally leave it stock, feels too much like a time bomb.
from what I've read the iag stage 2 block is bullet proof up to 475 whp and also comes with a warranty. If it also spun a rod it sounds like there was oil contamination and the guy didn't replace the oil pump, sprockets, turbo. Anything oil touches needs to be replaced.
 
#8 ·
Porsche has had a far better track record in this regard. Subaru has a reputation for rod bearing failure. For example:


However, you would think that a properly built engine would have any known reliability issues taken into account and dealt with. A major part of any decent engine build is modification to improve or maintain reliability.

My condolences on the failure of a newly purchased car. That really sucks.
 
#9 ·
@kgh I should have specified Subaru, but we could take a look at Porsche vs Subaru here. What percentage of Porsche owners mod their cars, versus Subaru owners? How many drive spiritedly as Subaru owners? Not that this plays any role on the lawsuit, which is referencing stock vehicles that also have failures.
 
#12 · (Edited)
There is an industry for Porsches and modifications, etc. A large one. It isn't nearly as extensive as the Subaru market, but it's bigger than you might think. This has existed for decades, and even Porsche used to be in on it (to a lesser extent today). For example, for the 1974 Carrera RS you could add options such as brakes (off the 917, if memory serves), and other RSR components, to make for something approaching a street legal race car--at least if you lived in Europe.

Ruf, Singer, Gunther Werks, Gemballa, Raauh-Welt Begriff, and a number of other companies offer custom builds, specializing in vintage models. There's a reason the classic air-cooled 911s are getting to be so expensive. Want a 1974 Carrera RS but can't afford a million USD or so? No problem, you can have a beautiful replica built for a fraction of the cost.

Extensive engine builds are a popular inclusion, with built 3.6 and 3.8 liter flat sixes being common.

An that's only for the 911s. Most people who put that much into these cars tend to drive them pretty hard. I don't think many use them as daily drivers, however.

There are also outfits that will build you a replica 935 race car, one that can be tuned for up to 700 plus bhp from a flat six.

Porschephiles are well acquainted with these.

For modern models, the mods are fewer and farther between.

There was a recall several years ago for connecting rod fasteners on GT-3 models that used 3.8 liter engines, but only two failed before the recall. Engines were replaced after Porsche had studied the problem and found a solution, and that seemed to take care of the issue. This engine produced around 475 bhp at 8250 rpm.

Another recall, affecting 120 cars, happened in 2021. This was a result of a potential rod surface defect that could lead to cracks from normal stresses.

None of these issues was a result of inherently poor design (bear in mind that Porsche ran various versions of flat 8 engines and two versions of a flat 12 for sprint and endurance racing, and both proved to be pretty reliable.
 
#14 ·
I'm no expert, but when I was looking for a project vehicle I wanted a 4 cylinder awd manual transmission vehicle. Out of the candidates the wrx did not make my list. I had a neighbor years ago whose wrx saw more downtime than my xrunner and I dropped the transmission in that truck a couple of times over a weekend. I was still driving more than his wrx. I would have scooped up a Focus RS but I couldn't find one that I thought was worth what they were asking (38k+).

BUT, I hope your wrx project has great success!
 
#15 ·
Sounds like you went in knowing the risks, but still sorry for your bad experience with the worst timing. 😢

I quit keeping up with Subaru, for me kinda a combination of them dropping the hatchback, most MTs, and FA oil consumption and piston issues acquaintances had.
It pisses me off they maintain high ratings in the car magazines etc, but overall haven't stepped up over the years covering their issues any better for the average customer.

I still might be a sucker for a clean 2000s Subie hatch/wagon with an EJ and an MT, but anything remotely affordable is becoming more of a unicorn every day. 😕
Probably a better chance of me building a late-run XJ trail vehicle or something fun one day. 🤔
 
#21 ·
Everything paid for except ecutek pro ecu and turbo rebuild.

Gonna tow it to the shop this week.
 
#24 ·
LOL, love the Subi hate.

My 01 WRX never missed a beat.
My sons '06 puts 220kw at all 4 and hasn't missed a beat in the 3 years he's had it. Stock internals.
I think the main difference is tune and whether you drive it hard or thrash it.

In saying that, my ST is on its 3rd engine......
I had a 92 legacy wagon, a 96 Impreza wagon, a 91 SVX, at least 3 other late 90s Imprezas, an 02 outback wagon, an 85 XT, another 92 legacy wagon, an 04 WRX wagon, and a few others I can't think of. Not a tune or an aftermarket anything in any of them and at least half of them committed suicide at some point. And no, it doesn't matter that most of those cars were purchased with 250k+ miles on them for $500 or less. THEY SHOULD HAVE NEVER DIED!!!!

And yes, this entire post was a reason for me to mention that I had an XT. Slowest goddamn spaceship in the world, but dang that thing was cool.
 
  • Love
  • Haha
Reactions: MtnMan and TurboGT
#28 ·
Yeah, Subaru's are known for being great cars... As long as you're talking about the non-turbo'd ones. I'd still love to have a Baja, but after 2 blown engines (custom dyno tuned) and 2 transmissions: IN BOTH ('09 and '11 WRX's), I had to leave that platform. I know they changed the engine since then though. I sure beat the snot out of them, but 40 miles away from home after a drive out to Arizona and back, 5th gear blew into 3 pieces. One of the pieces punched a hole in the gear box and leaked all the fluid out. I pulled over super fast and watched it drain... They denied warranty because apparently I was "pulling the parking brake while in 5th gear" :rolleyes:🤯 Obviously you're not talking warranty stuff, but I had 293 whp on both (+/- 5whp, all same mods) and it just didn't last for a $30k car. I certainly wish you much better luck than I had with them! They're super fun, when they're running =-D
 
#30 ·
WRX is at the shop now with new motor, clutch and I sent my turbo off to my turbo vendor that used to build our hybrid turbos to give me the +100hp turbo treatment.

Also we are now an ecutek master tuner for subaru. Going to build a basemap to get 800-1000 miles on the car, and then will turn it up to 450 awhp~ when the motor is broken in.

Rectangle Gadget Table Font Eyewear
 
#33 ·
Waiting on my vendor to send my hybrid turbo, he said he's sending out Monday/Tuesday, then Antonio at JMS will try to knock the entire car out within a week once he has the turbo.

Meanwhile I hijacked the maf 0-5 volts with custom maps/inputs on ecutek and using MAF signfal as input for ethanol sensor to do flex fuel logic.

Going to tune with speed density since maf is hijacked.
 
#34 ·
mbrp catback arrived for WRX, still waiting on the turbo to ship, shop pulled motor already and wants to knock it out this week, but we don't have the turbo yet :\ big sadge.

Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Automotive tire
 
#35 ·
4 bar map sensor arrives tomorrow. wrx only has 2.66 bar usable range since it's maf by default, going speed density so ordered a 4 bar omni tmap

turbo arrives this weekend too. wrx fa20 hybrid turbo to monster tuned spec. Turbo supports 500whp with stock spool, but I'll run out of fuel around 440whp so It's gonna live there for quite a while.

Helmet Bicycle part Rim Alloy wheel Automotive tire
 
#36 ·
WRX is taking priority over corvette at the shop. Car is getting put together this week and will be running by Monday.
 
#38 ·
Subaru ECU doesn't have controls to make Adapt-X possible. Only ecoboost as I need octane learning that controls airflow and spark, spark alone is not safe enough.
 
#42 ·
forgot to update this. 500 miles on the new motor, still dialing in the speed density map and waiting on ecutek to add missing tables for me to force full time closed loop.


Tire Wheel Vehicle Car Grille
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top