I currently have the Stoptech 328mm BBK for the WRX, which could fit under 17 inch wheels. I am running 18 inch wheels in anticipation of upgrading to the 355mm kit after I wear through this set of rotors. Here is a picture comparing the rotor to the stock wrx rotor. The rotor is not a huge step up in size, as it is on par with the oem brembo rotor size on the STI. The major benefits will come from increased thermal capacity, better cooling, reduction in unsprung weight, drastically increased caliper size and stiffness. I compared the weight of the stoptech rotors to the oem wrx brakes, and despite being significantly larger, both in diameter and thickness, the use of the alloy hat allows the rotor to weigh the exact same as the wrx rotor, and significantly lighter than the oem STI rotor. Very impressed so far with this kit, especially since the most significant gains will be when I put the massive stoptech caliper next to the wimpy wrx oem sliding caliper.


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Next project is installing the Koyo Aluminum Radiator. This piece is beautifully fabricated, and with its increased cooling capacity should go a long way in keeping my temperatures under control regardless of out side temperatures. I have placed extra emphasis on the cooling system, as this is a dual purpose car I did not want to sacrifice the amazing cross country abilities of this car, and wanted to be able to put the power down lap after lap. Very impressed with this piece, and will include some custom aluminum shrouding to completely duct the radiator. Motoiq put out an article claiming a 30% increase in effeciency due to the effective ducting of heat exchangers. That increased efficiency makes it pointless to install aftermarket heat exchangers and not properly duct them.


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This clearly illustrates the increased cooling capacity of the koyo unit. I highly recommend investing in a koyo unit, as I have heard horrible reports concerning the quality and effectiveness of the Mishimoto product line. Invest in quality parts for quality results, don't buy fake, knock off ****.


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The stoptech caliper understandably trumps the stock unit. 4 piston, fixed caliper, massive increase in caliper stiffness, thermal capacity, leverage due to increase in rotor size, increased size of brake pad, etc. I can not wait to enjoy the benefits of a quality brake upgrade. With the inehrent heft to the gd chassis subaru's, and all wheel drive vehicles in general, I immediately jumped into a bbk as I felt the oem system was woefully inadequate for driving even at stock power levels. I feel a balanced brake upgrade, along with some basic suspension mods should be the first upgrade for wrx owners. With a little tweaking of roll stiffness, alignement, and basic chassis setup, combined with brakes that can stop the car repeatedly, absolutely transforms the stock car. I absolutely love the feel of a car that feels like it tears up the pavement when you jump on the whoa pedal. Of course, it is the tires that do the actual stopping and limit the amount of brake torque that can be applied, but with the anticipated 265 series Nitto nt-05 tires, I should have plenty of traction to reduce my velocity.


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Oem fans mounted on Koyo radiator. Fitment was perfect, everything bolted right up and aligned perfectly. I had to go to the hardware store and get some new bolts and washers though, as someone had done some work on the oem plastic radiator and used self tapping screws to secure the fans to the plastic. I wasn't satisfied with this method of making it fit, so went down and got some proper hardware. Admittedly, the oem fan setup is a little bulkier than I would ideally like, but I didn't feel like shelling out a couple hundred for a set of slim fans. We will see on fitment when everything is bolted up. Then it is time to fabricate up some proper ducting.


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Here's a better angle illustrating the new thickness with the fans. I don't think I will have an issue, just will have to be carefull routing the radiator hoses, make sure the hoses have suffecient clearence from the fans. Don't want to trim a hole in the hoses with the fan blades.


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Last shot of this beautifull radiator before it gets bolted up and hidden behind the nasty ac condensor. Next step the radiator will be installed and ducting fabricated.


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Koyo radiator installed and checked for fitment issues. It is a little tight on clearance between the fan assembly and the front of the engine, I will have to take another picture to show the fit. This is of course due to the extra thickness of the Koyo unit just spacing the whole assembly closer together. Fit was perfect, and radiator dropped right in. Just by eyeballing it, mounting proper ducting is going to be an absolute ***** with the ac condensor in there. Of course without it, as in a true racecar build, it would be amazingly simple, but since this is a street car ditching the ac condensor is not an option for me. Fit is perfect, it almost a shame to cover up this gorgeous radiator with ducting, but since this build is more about function than looks, I'll focus on making the car go.


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Ductwork mock up completed. Used some CAD- Cardboard aided design to completely box in the Koyo radiator. Top and bottom were exceptionally easy to do, but the sides are and absolute bear with the ac condensor in the way. Sometimes it would be so much easier if it was a track only car and I could chuck the ac- and save a good 50 pounds of weight as well, but this is an aggressive street car/hpde car, so the end result needs to keep this in mind. Proper ducting can increase a coolers effectiveness by 20-30%, so it really makes no sense to purchase an aftermarket radiator and not complete the ducting. If you're on a tight budget, significant gains can be made by ducting the oem radiator. This should complete the upgrades to my cooling system at this time- upgraded radiator, proper ducting, silicone high pressure radiator hoses with tbolt clamps, and colder thermostat. I do have a crawford upgraded water pump in the garage if needed, but am trying to hold off on that part until I do the timing belt. That way I cna upgrade to a cosworth timing belt, head gasket, arp head studs, cosworth valve springs and cams, and perhaps drop in forged pistons. It just didn't make sense for me to go in there at this time and not touch other things that I wanted to.


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So I am rebuilding and installing a Stoptech 328mm bbk for the front of my wrx. I am obviously a huge believer in handling, and I feel massive, effective brakes are essential to developing a well sorted chassis. The Stoptech kit I did purchase used locally for a good deal, but I can not tell you how impressed I am with the little details I have seen with this package. I am sure everybody has read about the benefits of stoptech's approach to bbk, and their focus on total system balance to achieve superior performance.

While disassembling the calipers to be rebuilt, as I do not trust any system essential to the safety and performance of a car to an unknown maintenance and abuse record, I noticed the Stoptech kit uses radial mounts, not a lug style mount kit. This means the bolts go through a custom cnc machined fitting, which then bolts to the oem lug type mounts. This design is pure race derived, and makes the caliper much stiffer under braking. I have been continually impressed with the quality of the Stoptech package, and am looking forward to burning through this pair of rotors so I can upgrade to the 355mm bbk.

This is a perfect product for a dual purpose street/track application, as it includes many of the benefits of a full race brake system without the constant maintenance. It has different sized pistons to increase pad pressure by preventing the leading edge of the pad from digging in, and thus causing the trailing edge of the pad to lift away from the friction surface. The piston sizes are appropriate for the oem brake system, maximizing braking force through all four wheels, unlike many of the bbk which move a disproportionate amount of torque forward and under utilize the rear brakes. The two piece front rotors shave off unsprung weight, which allows the use of bigger rotors without affecting suspension response. These bigger rotors allow more thermal mass to provide a larger heat sink for braking energy, thereby increasing the systems ability to stop again and again and again. Needless to say, I am very impressed with the build quality of Stoptech's products, and I am sure will be adding a seperate post to mirror other members positive experiences once this car is tested in anger. It's funny how products that do little things right instead of taking shortcuts impress me, and seperate companies making proper products from the hacks that sell products that do not improve performance.





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Rear End of the car is pretty much complete. Rear parking brake is reinstalled. What a hassle that was, I absolutely hate drum brakes. I am so glad that they are reinstalled, and so glad our cars do not use drum brakes anymore. I had to go grab my dad to help, and use his muscle car knowledge to help get those pesky things put back together. And of course, after tearing the garage apart looking for it, I can not find one shim , the triangulaar shaped one that goes on top and the blue and yellow spring connect over. I should be happy though, after almost six months I have only lost one or two little tiny parts like that, so overall pretty good. All that the rear end needs for completion is the parking brake shim, and two new bolts to replace the eccentric oem bolts to adjust camber. These bolts are not necessary with adjustable lateral links, and they will not fit the spherical bearings on the Poltec lateral links. I tried a set of the Whiteline Toe Lock kit, but those are too thick to fit the Poltec Lateral Links as well. And as anybody that has dealt with Poltec will know, they are impossible to get a hold of. Another reason to only use reputable manufacturers in your build. This is one of the few parts that I purchased secondhand and definitely regret the decision, as I feel they are a weak point of my build. Through trial and error, I was able to see that the forwardd lateral link bolts do fit the Poltec links, so I will be picking up two additional bolts from the dealer. Learn from my mistake and upgrade to a set of MSI lateral links. I will be saving my pennies to make this upgrade in the future, as I do not have a lot of faith in the Poltec company, and with the lack of response from the company, definitely have concerns about the quality of the bearing used in their links.

Enough with my rant, Parking brake is on and another project checked off the to do list.


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Next project on the workbench, reinstalling the intake manifold and all the plumbing.


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With all the work I have done in other areas to maximize the efficiency of my intake and exhaust system, and trying to use every trick possible to maximize the throttle response and boost threshold while only pushing the tiny exhaust gas that a 2.0l produces, I decided I should undertake the process of porting my throttle body. This would be a relatively painless procedure, as I already had the intake manifold off the car and sitting on the bench. So I busted the throttle body loose and looked at clearances, and decided that this was not worth my time in this application. I checked clearances with the oem throttle body gasket and found no allignment problems or ridges on either the throttle body side or the manifold side. I was disappointed, as through my reading I thought that this would be a horribly designed part of the car with huge obstructions, but mine loked rather good. granted there is a tiny, tiny ridge on the throttle body side, but without anything else to do I do not feel this would make any measurable difference in the end product. Granted, the intake manifold itslef coulod use an extrude hone to smooth out the insides and combined with the flowbench to equalize the air distribution for all cylinders, but an extrude hone goes for something like $700, and if I was going to invest in that amount it would make sense to use the Cosworth intake manifold and truely maximize the benefits. But that thousand bucks would be better spent elsewhere, so for one of the first times in this project I decided to leave well enough alone.

Here is a pretty bad picture of the throttle body, but no restrictions worth porting in my opinion. Sorry for the quality, but it was late and I had quit caring, and had to get on the road to drive up to Sacramento for some job training.


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Beatrush Pitch Stop installed and torqued to spec. All connections to the transmission complete, and ready for the intake to be installed. Besides the obvious benefits of solidifying the drivetrain mounts, such as more positive shifting under aggressive driving, less chance of parts breakage due to the pounding that results from hard driving with sloppy bushigns, it will also reduce engine and drivetrain movement in relation to the chassis. Hopefully the beatrush pitch stop, combined with the cusco motor mounts, will limit engine movement enough where there will be no contact between the fan and the radiator hoses. If not, as touched on before, I will have to secure the hoses so there is no contact. As a good safety measure, the Greddy Infometer will be running water system pressure as well as temperature, so that will give me a measure of safety if an issue does develop and help prevent catastrophic engine damage.


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Intake manifold dropped into place. This is just loosely installed, with just the bolts securing the intake to the cylinder heads attached. Lots of work still to do. Thank god I spent so much time labeling hoses and fluid transfer fittings, otherwise I would be so lost. Fortunately, I did label everything like an ocd kid, so it is easy to piece back together, just time consuming. Still, the engine bay is starting to look like a car again, and this is another big step toward getting this project back on the road again. I am missing my subie.


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