So the story of this car goes like this. I have always wanted an Imperza, long before the WRX came to the States. I finally got to that point in my life that I had to find one. In December of 2004, I started searching for the right WRX, but soon was searching for any WRX since they only stayed on the lots for about 1 day before being sold again. I finally ran across this 2002 WRX Wagon in Springfield MO at a dealership. After cutting a deal through some long drawn out often heated conversations over the phone, I finally worked the deal up to have it shipped to me. When I recieved the car, there was a ton of things wrong with it. This car was a VF30 setup with a UTEC, and while at the dealership they had taken the UTEC,AVC-R, and the gauges out for liabilty reasons. So needless to say the car ran like Crap until the rest of the parts came in. Then there was the whole issue about the Front Right brakes, I had to rebuild the caliper due to some one breaking a bolt off in the mounting braket.

  After finaly getting the car up to normal opperations, I started modding. First was my Perrin Pulley, and Perrin Short Ram Intake, followed by the TurboXS FMIC and TurboXS wideband tuner, and complete Stereo. I then went to my first show in early August 2005, where I met a great friend who also had a matching WRX bugeye wagon. I wound up finishing first at the show, but soon decided that I had to do more appearance wise to the car to keep showing. I started finding my STI Badges, JDM Headlights, and even started painting parts to give the car a different look. I also had replaced the Clutch, Flywheel, Motor mounts, and the Turbo. On December 18, 2005 everything changed, While at the second show, I was beat out by a Stock 2004 STI, which kindof made me mad. Well while trying to showoff on the Ride home, I wound  up spinning a Rod bearing. I imediately started searching for a replacement, but was ultimately not going to go back stock. I ran across the Crawford Performance S@ block which I could not turn down for the price.

   I started taking the motor out of the car on the 2nd week of January 2006, and had the motor back in and running the following weekend. After putting 1000 miles on the motor to break it in, I ran across a head gasket leak that allowed the Pressure to airate the water jackets ultimately leading to an overheating problem while in boost. So the motor came back out of the car mid ways through Febuary. This time I had the motor out on the first weekend, and back together after machining the following weekend. I had a problem with the front intake cam cap on the Drivers side, the manual stated the wrong torque specs, and I wound up breaking this bolt off. I spent about 3 weeks trying to get a Helicoil and new bolt to work in this location, and seal. I could have done it faster, but I was being stuborn and did not want ton take the motor out again. Finaly I got it up and running, and man was it quick. I was putting down somewhere around 300-325whp. This amount off power is more than plenty to break the weak transmission, as I experienced in May of 2006. While driving to work, I pulled out to pass someone when I heard a loud bang from the transmission. Come to find out I had broke third gear. I limped it back home, and found a friend who had a spare transmission that I could borrow at his house. I started searching for and found an STI RA Gearset to rebuild my stock transmission with. So over the next month I worked when I had the chance on building my transmission, which I still have not closed the cases on yet.

   Well here we are and once again my car is down for the count. Back in the middle of September, while driving home from work, my car started running real rich. Well I decided to pull over at the next convienet store and check it out thinking a boost pipe came loose. Well after giving up I had a tow truck take it home, and the next morning I tried to turn it over. While trying to start it, I kept hearing it backfire through the intake which is always a big sign of timing off. I waited until that friday night, and broke into the caovers only to find that the timing belt tensioner's bolt had broken in the water pump. Being that these motors are not typically interference (other than Valve to valve overlap) I figured that I would helicoil the hole and set timing back up. After starting the car, I heard the worst sound I could have imagined, the sound only bent valves could creat. So now I have purchased a set of JDM large port heads, and a ver 7 ECU to control AVCS, as well as the pieces to run EWG. Hopefully by the end of January 2007 I will have all of the parts needed and the car will be back up and running. I still need to purchase a new Timing belt, Waterpump, Head gaskets, and while I am at it I am going to purchase the Cosworth Oil Pump to allow me to turn the new setup 7800 RPMs and higher.

Mod List:

USDM STI 2.5L Block Bored .010 over(Crawford Performance built)

USDM STI Forged Crank

USDM STI Forged Rods

CP Forged Pistons

USDM STI Head Gasket

USDM STI Oil Pump

JDM Ver 7 STI RA Large Port Heads, Cams Complete Valvetrain

USDM WRX P&P Intake Manifold

USDM P&P Exhaust Manifold

HKS UP Pipe ( moddified for EWG)

Tial 38mm EWG

Forced Performance FPGreen Turbo

HKS Down Pipe

Custom 3" Exhaust

JDM Ver 7 STI RA ECU to run the AVCS (variable valve timing)

Turboxs UTEC on top of ECU

Apex-I AVC-R boost control

TurboXS FMIC

JDM STI RA Gearset in the Tranny.

There is plenty more, but this knocks out some of the larger stuff!

Occupation: I am a Supervisor in Call Center Opperations for Navy Federal Credit union, but I also work Partime as a Mechanic at a local Garage by the name of Winged Wheel garage.

I am a newly wed father of 2. Me and my wife have been together for 6+ years, and finally got Married on 11/04/06. We have 2 beautiful Girls ages 4, and 3. I work in the morning from 8:00am until 11:00-12:00 at the garage, then typically work at my primary Job from 1:00pm until 11:00pm. As you can see, I do not get much time to work on my car, which is why I typically do so much work at one time on it. I was raised for a good portion of my life in Talladega AL, which is where most of my family is at currently. This is where I first started working on cars with my father. I am always glad to help anyone out, so feel free to ask my opinion or advise, but allways be sure to double check things for yourself, as I might not have all the answers. Nobody knows everything, but we can all contribute a little to help out.