The year 2015 has brought us many new things; some bad, some good, and even some great. With that being said many might argue that the styling of the 2015 Subaru Impreza WRX and STI are the best yet! While these new vehicles stay true to their rally roots with the ever popular Subaru AWD system, the hearts within these beasts have been altered however.  The 2015 STI is doing the same, and it’s bringing along a bunch of tried and true technology from its predecessor, including the port-injected 2.5-liter engine. But at only 305 turbo-laggy horsepower, though, the STI ekes out just 37 more horsepower than the 268-hp WRX. Now its little brother on the other hand is trying something a bit new by transplant its new FA20 motor out the BRZ and strapping a turbocharger to it. Many ask why did Subaru decide to take the 2.5L  out and replace it with this 20.L? Simply put the 2015 WRX adapted stiffer valve springs and friction-reducing roller rocker arms in place of flat tappets from its cousin the Subaru Forester. Those are combined with direct injection, high compression (10.6:1), Subaru Dual Active Valve Control System, a twin-scroll turbocharger, and an intercooler. As a result, the turbo boxer unleashes 268 hp at 5,600 rpm, accompanied by a broad torque curve that peaks at 258 lb-ft over a 2,000-5,200 rpm engine-speed range. This is an increase of 3 hp and 14 lb-ft of torque over the previous-generation’s 2.5-liter turbo. When we found out a friend of ours had plans on picking a brand new 2015 WRX, we jumped at the opportunity to get it in here and start adding some Agency Power flare to it.  Knowing a large amount of our EJ25 parts already worked with the new 2015 STI we wanted to fill in the gaps for the WRX. The goal is to create a full intake and exhaust system with our background in Subaru’s we fore see great things. The loaner vehicle is owned by Arizona car girl,Kyrsten Stoliker. She traded her Subaru BRZ as she and her husband to be are expecting a little one on the way and because the BRZ lacked the power she desired. Staying true to her Subie roots she ended up with a beautiful pearl white WRX that didnt remain stock for very long, rolling off the lot with a few cosmetic upgrades and lowered on a set of coilovers.

Once we received the car we got right to work and decided that we would tackle the exhaust portion first. From the factory Subaru incorporated a bottom mount turbo and we wanted to improve on it. Like most systems from the factory they are very restrictive and having a large background in Subarus we knew a few things about harnessing that lost power. The manifold was the item on our laundry list, very similar to the FRS/BRZ platform he had a good idea as to which direction we wanted to go with it.

Now this project was a bit different than usual. In most cases the loaner vehicle is dropped off for “x” amount of time. We try and quote as best as possible, but anyone who has ever worked on a car unexpected issues commonly pop up, most often at very inopportune times. To eliminate those from happening, especially with the vehicle owner expecting a baby at any time we took approached this project. We removed all the components we knew we would be creating parts for and made our jigs off of the stock components. This gave us a starting point and ment we could put all the stock parts back on the vehicle and give the WRX back to the owner while we started fabricating.

Before and after with our setup on the car.

***Note***

The gaskets are not reusable and are a single time use. We ended up going through 4 sets of gaskets during this entire projects. The two times we tried to re-use the gaskets we had exhaust leaks resulting in loss of power.

After welding up the manifold and getting the car back into do a little test fitting, we found out that flanges we used (which were used on our FRS/BRZ header) are actually different from the 2015 WRX. So we took down exact measurements and sent to them off to be water jetted out. A few days later they arrived looking great and our second manifold was under way.

Since we were making another manifold we also figured it would be a good idea to start fabricating up our catless downpipe option as well. Upon taking off the manifold several times for fitment changes and alterations, we can across one of the many issues other 2015 owners were having. The studs in the turbo from the factory like to back out and break after a few times. We managed to to get the manifold(s) and both down pipes on on about 4 times before running into any issues. But Murphy’s Law stepped in of course on the expected finish date, just 3 days before the owners baby was expected to be born. This caused a bit of an issue as the vehicle was need to transport the new born. We searched for new studs but Subaru didnt have any replacements in stock and we would have had to wait a week. Luckily we were able to find an alternative option that we actually like better than factory and worked around the clock to get the studs drilled out, turbo re-tapped, and new studs installed.

The project was scheduled to be completed on Wednesday but with a last min call saying the baby was on the way. We put everything together and gave back the car. We were stopped a little short but we are very excited for the owners new baby girl Kambyr,to be driving around safely with our new parts. Hopefully we get her approval and this project will pick back up  in few days so stay tuned!

Kambyr has made it, looking healthy and beautiful, we are very excited to have added the newest and youngest member of the #APARMY. A week or two later the car was dropped back off and we were ready to finish this beast! We lifted the vehicle and inspected all our previous work, everything checked out. Like we had suspected the catless j-pipe eventually through a code for catalytic converter efficiency. This however was no raise for concern as the plans for a tune were nearing, so we started the last leg of this project by removing the stock airbox.

Upon removal we dissected the factory snorkel and found it to most beneficial to retain and build our unit to work in conjunction with it. The fab guys got right to work and started pumping out a prototype. The first attempt our standards were not met and we. Changes were made and we were able to create a great looking, fitting, and power producing intake system with closure. We provided a few photos of the process and finished prototype below.

With a few more changes made to the final design to optimize the intake we have have finally completed the new 2015+ Agency Power Cold Air Intake System for the 2015+ Subaru WRX.

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