Looking for information on my 1997 STi

[SubaruJunkie]

So I recently moved to Japan with the Military, living in Okinawa, and I purchased a 1997 STi, this is my third Subaru, and my 2nd GC8 (Previous was actually a GM6 coupe but close enough) and I am having a bit of trouble understanding what's compatible... I don't have any connections for parts here in Japan yet so I am using the internet and I don't get Japanese sites in my results so that is making it more difficult as well...

Right now I have a kartboy shifter set on its way, (Shift knob, rear shifting bushing, shifter bushing kit, Short shifter, and TiC shifter linkage update.

But I am trying to find a Short ram intake...
Yes I know it doesn't have much gain, I don't really care, the stock box is shot and the SRI's look and sound so much better to me.
But I can't seem to find any except for the N/A impreza's back in the states...

Any help would be really appreciated.

[jdmvip]

Welcome to the forums, I'm sure someone will come along with the info you need.
Can you get us some pics of your V3 STi?

You can probably find what you want on Yahoo Japan Auctions http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp and our Sponsors can help you out to buy parts from there if you need.

[SubaruJunkie]

Why of course I can. And the real issue I am running into... well, to be upfront, I have had a love of cars for awhile, but I don't have the knowledge base... I am all about the built not bought concept so it's things I want to do myself I just don't know how to yet and I haven't found someone willing to teach me...

What I really want is to put a cone filter into the wheel well, This STi has been very well taken care of and the fender walls, (those plastic pieces in the wheel well...?) are still 100% intact, so water shouldn't be an issue with it in the fender, and both of the heat vents in the hood have the pieces underneath taken out, so if I just put a filter there, rain will run straight on to it, and I know thats bad lol.

Pretty much needs to be spoon fed to me at the moment...

I have seen a hybrid intake? Someone put the cone type filter into the stock air box? How effective is this?
(Again, I am not looking for power gains, the car is much to fast for this island as it is... I am looking for a cleaning look to the engine bay, get rid of the broken filter in the stock air box, and have that nice crisp turbo sound that my 04 WRX had with the cobb short ram intake)

[SubaruJunkie]

Oh right, and pictures!

http://photobucket.com/user/Futurama...Ti%20RHD%20JDM

Hopefully Photobucket suffices for everyone?

(Can't post links so I hope you can figure this out.)

[jdmvip]

It looks very clean and I've edited it in for you. You can also use VB Image Host to upload before 10 posts.

We're all here to learn so don't worry about that, I had near 0 car knowledge back in 2007 when I started this site and I learned so much just by reading, posting and researching. Then when you start doing small jobs on cars it all comes together with how things work and what does what etc...

To be honest many people in the UK are dead set that the stock airbox is the best for many reasons. Some who have installed a cone intake have had issues in the wet/rain with water getting onto it and second it ends up being near the headers so you get added heat from there.

What a lot of people do is just make an adapter for the cone right after the MAF, it's also a cheap way of doing it if you must. Hopefully some others can give you some more details.

[SubaruJunkie]

More information would definitely be helpful haha

Also, hoping for this answer fast but I am trying to do an update to the shifter, feels really sloppy, Is the Turn In Concepts 5MT Linkage update useful for a 1997 STi?

It says something about it only being helpful for cars that Don't have an external return spring... Which they stopped using around 1998, but that might be USDM models...

Any information on that?

[SubaruJunkie]

streettuned.com.au/Intake-System/Induction-Kits/
Process-West-Cold-Air-Intake-Subaru-Impreza/Forester-
WRX/STi/XT/prod_1856.html

Found an intake for anyone who searches this later on.

[goodveet]

You dont need an actual short ram intake, just a cone filter to go on your existing intake arm. Go on upgarage they have a bunch of them for pretty cheap

[jdmvip]

Thanks for the update and +1 goodveet for the suggestion. I never looked outside of what the OP said but a lot of WRX owners just use a MAF adapter and a cone filter.

[SubaruJunkie]

I have seen this a few times... But there's a couple problems with that...
1. Heat sink. Nough said.
2. The hood vents have no underside so it's see through vents... Awesome for heat escape, scrappy for hydrolock with a cone filter right under it...
3. I think it looks cheap, I don't like it looking cheap. Mostly just opinion there.
This intake is exactly what I am looking for and should be picking up soon, first I need sparks and wires to work on my current studdering issue when boost starts to build.