Hey from a lurker, and a few Q's
 

Hey guys. I've been looking for a car to replace my GTR for a while now, I narrowed it down to an STi or an EVO, and I think I've further narrowed it to an evo for the simple reasons that they're a bit easier to work on (Boxer's are Greek to me) and they're much less common around these parts. Maybe 5 or 6 evo's in the whole city of a million plus people. So I have a couple quick questions while I'm still looking for a car.

Firstly, I looked in the newbie evo buying guide and one of the plus points for the 2006 cars was they have a head with redesigned coolant and oil passages, which allows slightly more power on pump gas. Is there some real truth to that, or are we talking 10whp more in hot weather kind of additional power? I'd like to make around ~500 WHP on pump gas with a 2.3 stroker, which seems reasonable enough.

Secondly, is the ACD a big deal to have? Ive driven VR4's and GTR's a lot, so I really have no clue what benefit the ACD provides. But between that and the front LSD it seems like it would make the 05/06 cars much more desireable than the 03/04 cars.

Thanks for the help guys. I think I might just end up buying my car off of here, because nobody on autotrader wants to deal with Canadians.

Unless you poor some serious time and money into the evo, your gonna be missing that gt-r very quickly ;]. But in all seriousness you picked the right car to work on !

GTRs suck

The real reason for the bump in the 2006's is MIVEC, the variable valve timing on the intake side of the evo. yes, this has a significant effect on power delivery (as it changes the timing during low revs vs higher rpms, resulting in what a lot of ix owner's say is better power delivery across the range, and less noticeable turbo lag down low.

ACD controls when the center differential locks based on a variety of input factors on the wheels. From my experience, it locks almost immediately on tarmac when the back end starts to step out, as to induce understeer. On snow, it allows you to rotate the car a bit more, and gradually locks (since instantly locking while you're sideways in a turn will probably cause instant death and send you spiraling into trees). It all depends on what you plan to do with your evo. the acd is an electronically controlled clutch pack. we do a bunch of rallies in upstate NY, so we couldn't live without it. If you're into more straight line racing, then, i'm sure there are other drag evos out there that can tell you if there is any value to the ACD. Basically if you ever plan on driving in the slick/snow, the ACD is responsible for the awesome dynamic handling when the evo is pushed to its limits.

Thanks a lot for the advice!

My plans for the car are to keep it fairly stock for the next year and a half till I'm finished school (by fairly stock I mean full exhaust, IC pipes, reflash, and suspension mods) and drive it through winter, then do a stroker after I'm out. I live in Alberta where there's tons of snow and ice in the winter, so it makes me think the ACD would be a very, very nice feature to have for winter driving.

I think I've made up my mind to get an 05/06 after that. Some of the 06's are a bit out of my price range, but I think the ACD and the front LSD sound like worthwhile enough upgrades to make one worth the extra money over an 03/04.

Definitely a good choice going with a evo. I've had two fast subarus, and I own a evo 9 now. lol