As the title states, I currently drive an 08 Sti. I love the car. I like the hatchback, the boxer rumble, the power, the handling, pretty much everything EXCEPT for 1 thing...Subaru's total engineering fail of the piston ringlands. Every so often I keep hearing another motor going up the chopping blocks due to these failures. Either its the stock tune, or how much its abused, etc...one can only speculate that its bound to happen to any Sti owner.

I'm at the point where my factory warranty is about to expire and I want to start increasing my hp/tq. I'm currently on Cobb's OTS stage 1 tune and have some suspension mods such as sways, springs, ALK, bushings etc..

I'm fairly hesitant now to even do anything more knowing I'm driving a ticking time bomb. So I'm looking to possibly selling my STI or trading her in for a X.

How is the tune on these cars? Are ringland failures common as their counterpart? The most I would want to do is roughly 350hp @ the wheels. Would this be reliable and safe? How much power can the motor/tranny take? What do I have to look for in terms of modifications that could spell a disaster? Haven't made up my mind which version but mostly a GSR. Although I wouldn't count out the MR without test driving both. Please help as I am 90% sure I will be switching to an Evo X by the end of the year so I can get the best deal.
Cheers.

 

Better in the 2010+'s it sounds like you are looking for a new one so IMO wait for the 2012's

I have not read of anyone having serious engine problems with just bolt ons.

I am not the best person to ask but people on here get in the 330hp range with bolt ons and they seem to be doing fine. At that power level I think you would be fine even with the MR tranny.

Before you make any decisions see if you can find someone with an MR, the tranny is amazing and you get the better/ligher wheels better suspension and two piece front rotors. I have read that people who drive agressively go through their GSR clutch fairly quickly, I didn't want to have to replace the clutch again (I did it on my old Sti). That and the above listed upgrades is why I got the MR over the GSR.

I also went from an Sti (a 2006 model) to an EVO and the difference it unbelievable, the EVO is on another level.

 

It is going to be a lot easier to make 350whp on the Evo and Sti. The X has proven to be quite reliable. The 2008 stock tune wasn't that good.. But they have reflashes at the dealer to help and a good tune from a dealer will net you close to 290ish if not 300 in stock form. If you like the Sti, than you will love an Evo. The downsides tho.. GSR can get a little noisy at highway speeds (75-80) because it only has 5 gears, there is almost NO room at all as far as trunk space goes.. I'm not kidding you will be stunned, and if you get an MR the maintance gets a little pricey because of the new tranny.

Overall tho, the Evo is the superior car, in almos everyway.. Almost.

 

To the OP, I'm on the same boat as you. I can't enjoy the STi with out worrying about ringland failure. And the fact that Subaru will (edit) deny warranty even if the car is stock worries me. I am going to look at an Evo X GSR this week. I can live with upgrading the clutch/CMC on the Evo, but can't deal with a built motor on an STi (due to SCCA classing).

 

If you are worried about you warranty get something else Mitsubishi has a worse reputation than Subaru.

 

Understood, but the Evo X seems to have far less engine failures than the GR STi. And that's the warranty work I'm really concerned about.

 

350 whp should be pretty easy to get to with a few bolt-ons, and I believe the X's motor will be fine below 400whp as long as you keep the boost below 27.

I am currently driving a Evo X MR, and I am loving it everyday since it's my DD, even the sti owners admires the TC-SST transmission after test driving it. =P

You should definitely test drive one of the MRs before your purchase imo.

 

If you're used to and love driving, you may miss manual as I did. I had the MR, drove it for 2.5 years with TBE and intake stage 2 custom tune @ 332awhp/314 torque with the first gear limiter removed. For myself, even at that level it wasn't as fun as my stock form GSR. You just can't replicate the complete control of a manual tranny with the twin clutches at slow city speeds. Make sure you can live with this notion if you go MR.

As for the STI, I almost bought a 2011 instead of another Evo, but after doing the research, I was too scared about the 4th cylinder ringland failures. On Naosic forums, they concluded that it didn't matter whether you were stock, lightly modded or tuned, that cylinder failure could happen due to a physical fuel starvation problem that Subaru is ignoring and only fixing on a case by case basis. It probably won't happen to u since you've driven it for 3 years now, but who knows. This is not a common problem on the Evo

 

Ringland(4th piston failure) failure is not the only downside of an STI. Obviously many people are unaware of the superior AWD system of the Evos. Whatever you do to your STI, it will not have the Torque vectoring AWD handling. Been there, done that.

STI's advantages:
Yes STI has a bigger trunk and that ends there.

EVO:
better motor, better handling,better seats,modability, responsiveness to the mods, better gearing(5 spd),better looking also(Subaru was never able to make nice rear end design),smoother power delivery,higher revving engine

On the paper you would expect to get a better low-end torque and overall power out of a 2.5 lt engine right?Wrong, In reality a stock Evo feels a lot faster than my Stage 1 STI that I recently sold(check my signature), stage 1 Evo (just Cobb Ap) was waaay waster than my friends stage 2 STI and now I am stage 2 and there's no comparison. I tried so hard to love the STIs(well I bought 2 of them) and each time was disappointing.I don't know if it's because their engine design flaw or TMIC that causes the heat soak . I seriously don't know WTF but Evo wins pretty much on each category you can think of(but the trunk space, pfft)

 

that issue scared me from the stis as well, even long ago.. had a couple friends with the 2.5 that blew their motors not too long ago

 

Yup, can't wait to trade my STi in. I'm even willing to take a loss.

 

Guess I will narrow my search to 2010 and up then . I will definitely test drive both and am curious myself what its like to drive a car w/paddle shifters. Ok I am a total Evo noob as I didnt know the MR came w/2 piece Brembos. I thought it was just the dual clutch tranny.

 

Wow just a flash gives you almost 300whp? Thats normal stage 2 #'s for STI's. I dont mind noise since I already have an exhaust and even cruising on the freeway, that's not the only noise I hear coming from my car. STI's rattle & clunk like crazy. I agree that the Evo is the more superior car, hence why I am now 90% sure of making the switch. Before I was 80%.

 

I just wished SOA would just man up and accept the fact that either the tune/engineering of the flat 4 has caused so many issues even on 2011 Sti's. Ive heard of so many motor stories lately its actually quite sad. Mind you these are from stock to modified Sti's even WITH a protune. Sigh...

 

Kind of jumping the gun here but what are some basic good starting mods one should take to get close to 350whp? I wont be afraid of modding since I take it the motors are wayyy stronger than my EJ257. Hence why I chose to just stay at Stage 1.

Thats good to hear even the MR's tranny will be safe even @ 400whp. Now its just a deciding factor on which tranny and/or options I like better?