Bought a 2005 STi with 205000+ miles

Street_sly_STi

New member
I just bought a Blobeye (2005) STi a few months ago, and I absolutely LOVE it. The car has about 205000 miles, I bought it from a dealership in the northern Cincinnati area (Springdale/Tri-County), with a brand new clutch just put into it a week before I drove it off the lot. The car has had two previous owners (I'm the third) and the sales manager told me that the guy who traded it in had the engine replaced 50k miles before... idk, it runs strong and is pretty quiet - but I have no real way of knowing if that's true unless I split the case and look.
Anyone have any advice on how to confirm if the engine is the original from factory, or if it's been replaced?

Happy to be here, thanks for having me!

- Sly
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I recommend asking the dealer to give your contact information to the previous owner and ask them to contact you.

Car looks great! Welcome and thanks for the pics.

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Good looking car! I wish mine was white! (I have a silver) Haha. Hope you can find out if everything is legit. Welcome to the group though, any future plans for it?

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Street_sly_STi

New member
Good looking car! I wish mine was white! (I have a silver) Haha. Hope you can find out if everything is legit. Welcome to the group though, any future plans for it?

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Thanks so much! The white is definitely my favorite also. Yeah I have a few things in mind glad you asked.
I have a catch can system I plan to get soon, along with new silicone hoses and turbo couplers from Mishimoto. I got a new PCV valve from Subaru a week ago, and will install that when I have all the other hoses to do all that at the same time. After I replace all the gaskets, seals and belts, both front axles and endlinks, I'll be looking at a Cobb intake, new catless turbo-back exhaust (hoping for Ti Invidia or Tomei), blouch ceramic coated ballbearing turbo (oem has seen a good life already) not bigger just new, some sway bars, replacing all the bushings I can, and sit it on some nice race coilovers - not really for stance (although a little low would be okay) more for performance handling. I'm searching for new wheels, I think I want to go 9.5 wide if I can fit them without rubbing or cutting the body. A few little things here and there, but that's most of what I have planned for it so far.
One day, the sooner the better obviously, I'd like to buy a brand new EJ25 block and build it up with forged internals, pistons, rods, ARP head studs and case bolts... I'll do all this on a stand, while running the engine I currently have, then just do a clean swap to the built block, and rebuild the engine that's in there now. Throw a nice race clutch on, and that mostly sums it up.
Anything I might have missed? Suggestions? Thanks for asking

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Alin

Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Welcome to IGOTASTI, fellow Ohioan! You're going to absolutely love it here!! Congrats on the new ride!!

What other cars have you had in the past? How does the STi compare to them?

Can you post some pictures of the interior and the engine bay?

Due to age, mileage, and being an Ohio car, does the car have any rust? One aspect that is extremely often overlooked is the weatherstripping in between the trunk and the spoiler. 17 bolts hold that spoiler onto the trunk, so extremely few people ever bother to replace it! I had to get rid of my trunk years ago because it was rusting under the spoiler. The easiest way to to check is with a flashlight through the two drain holes on both ends of the spoiler. You will see small indentations for narrow water drains.

Here is the best picture I could find online to give you an idea:


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Grinder34

Track Monkey
Its never been an issue for me, but dont engines have the VIN on them? So if the VIN matches your car its original, otherwise its not.
 

TerryCFT

New member
Welcome to the club. Turn In Concepts in Cinci has an all wheel drive dyno. I am sure they can tell you if it is stock or had a tune. There are a lot of nice packages out there. Feel free to check mine out. Maybe I will see you around Cinci.
 

Street_sly_STi

New member
Its never been an issue for me, but dont engines have the VIN on them? So if the VIN matches your car its original, otherwise its not.
Not sure if the block has the VIN... definitely has the engine code at least... but I'll surely be pulling the engine and will definitely find out then.

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Street_sly_STi

New member
Welcome to the club. Turn In Concepts in Cinci has an all wheel drive dyno. I am sure they can tell you if it is stock or had a tune. There are a lot of nice packages out there. Feel free to check mine out. Maybe I will see you around Cinci.
Thanks! I went to TurnIn Concepts first thing for an inspection, they found some things I had missed on my own inspection, and Tony seems pretty cool. I'll definitely be going there for a dyno visit at least, and probably meet with them more in the near future for advice on build plans, and possibly help with the actual engine build - since I only have a beginner's level knowledge. But I've been doing all the reading I can any chance I get to build it up, and I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty!

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Street_sly_STi

New member
Welcome to IGOTASTI, fellow Ohioan! You're going to absolutely love it here!! Congrats on the new ride!!

What other cars have you had in the past? How does the STi compare to them?

Can you post some pictures of the interior and the engine bay?

Due to age, mileage, and being an Ohio car, does the car have any rust? One aspect that is extremely often overlooked is the weatherstripping in between the trunk and the spoiler. 17 bolts hold that spoiler onto the trunk, so extremely few people ever bother to replace it! I had to get rid of my trunk years ago because it was rusting under the spoiler. The easiest way to to check is with a flashlight through the two drain holes on both ends of the spoiler. You will see small indentations for narrow water drains.

Here is the best picture I could find online to give you an idea:


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I'll get some more pics up soon, sorry for the delayed response... life's been crazy.

Also I typed a big response on my history of vehicles, locked my phone, came back to continue typing on it and lost all that I'd typed lol frustrating

You definitely touched on some good points though, and yes... those are the spots

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Alin

Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Over 4 months later, but better late than never! :lol:
 
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