The Angry Toaster: Now With More STI
How it started
Back in 2015, I picked up a 2004 Forester XT as a daily driver. It was an elderly owned, stock, and automatic plain Subaru wagon—exactly what I was looking for at the time! This one came with a cracked rear hatch and a cracked sunroof. Fortunately, I had some local friends who dismantle and part out Subarus, and luck would have it, they had a sunroof and a hatch. I proceeded to clean and detail it thoroughly and make the immediate repairs within days of my ownership.
First Things First: Wheels and Suspension
Most car enthusiasts would agree that often the simplest big impact on your car can be made with new wheels and a slight drop in ride height. Subarus are very much like legos, and this era of Forester shared nearly everything with the WRX of the same year, to include the suspension. So I picked up some new top hats, some WRX shocks, and H&R lowering springs for a WRX and the forester came down by several inches. This was paired well with a set of 18×8.5 +35 square wheels. I couldn’t afford real BBS LMs at the time, so bear with me as I share the STR wheels here.
Japanese Influence: JDM Forester STI
The Forester was offered in the states in a base, naturally aspirated configuration, and a 2.5-liter turbocharged configuration like this, as the XT model. Japan however, per usual, gets much better variations, such as a full STI Forester with multiple package options. Back then, it wasnt as easy as it is now to source and acquire large JDM parts that can transform obscure models like my Forester. Through research and travel oversees, I discovered the Crossfire option for the Forester STI and knew I had to have it!
Understanding the challenge I had in my pursuit of a Forester STI, I decided to make the best of my own attempt at an OEM+ conversion. In the end, I found the entire front clip from an STI and had it shipped to Speedyroo Motorsports, a neighborhood Subaru shop run by a good friend of mine. Dave, the owner, let me use his shop and lift as late as I needed after they closed to swap everything over, but I had to be done before they opened the next day; start the clock!
While most of it went pretty quickly, I was soon confronted with snags as I discovered that the grill, headlights, and headlight surrounds were all different in subtle ways. I was not planning on swapping the lights, but now I had to, so I dug into the wiring and set it up to function with the OEM JDM ballasts, which was much more difficult than expected. While the wiring was open, I also extended the blinker wires to the new JDM fender side markers. Once routed, the looms were wrapped with OEM-like fabric tape.
The car went back together pretty easily after that, and in the early hours of the morning, I stood back and appreciated that I was able to transform my Forester in time, and get the shop locked up before they opened. While it looks pretty extreme, and it was, this bumper is actually multiple pieces with the lip, carbon fiber fog light surrounds, and the bumper skin itself, all of which were OEM Subaru STI parts.
Attracting the wrong kinds
As the Forester started to take shape and look so much better, it unfortunately became a looming worry about parking it anywhere in public. At this time, I was taking the lightrail to downtown Denver every day and had been parking the car in the parking garage at the train station. They had cameras, guards, and lots of light, everything should be ok right? RIGHT!?
Unfortunately, no
After a long day and ride home on the train, I casually walked across the garage in the flickering lights to discover my paranoia was well founded. My door propped open, glass shattered everywhere. I could hear it crunch under my feet as I approached to inspect the damage. They had attempted to start it but could not; fortunately, I had some anti-theft deterrents in place. They proceeded to steel my stereo and destroy my interior too.
The Come Back
Following the theft and repair, I stopped driving the Forester to the train station. This allowed me to reconsider more significant modifications. I had sold another car I owned at the time, and with the cash, I decided to make the Forester as much STI as I could at the time.
I was able to source a v7 STI 6 speed swap with the proper 5×100 knuckles, 4/2 pot Subaru brake upgrade, STI intercooler, STI turbo, STI Manifold, and STI injectors, along with a Cobb Accessport, ACT clutch, and a few other pieces to make the swap come together!
A small set of 5mm spacers allowed the wheels to clear the brakes. A little bit of wiring and tuning got the ECU reading as a manual transmission with all functionality intact. This is why I love modifying these cars with OEM parts; everything just fits, works, and looks factory-like since it is. I was able to install the STI steering wheel, shifter trim, and a later model factory stereo with factory auxiliary port, trying to stay as OEM STI as I could.
The car made decent power with a standard Cobb tune—nothing crazy, but it was fun, reliable, and drove like a normal car. It turns out there is a tremendous amount of work to go into something like this to make it look, feel, and drive like nothing was done.
My Forester came with a cold weather package, which meant heated seats, and I really wanted to get the STI seats installed but did NOT want to lose the functionality of the heated seats. I came across a local compromise that I was happy to live with. A set of WRX Limited bucket seats, which are the same bolstering as the STI seats, but leather AND heated! I jumped on these and immediately tore mine out. The wiring was swapped over, and the airbags even retained the same harness connectors. I was happily surprised that these were plug-and-play once you swapped the harnesses over. Everything worked; there was no airbag light, the seats moved with ease, and heated seats worked great! Perfect for the OEM+ style I was after.
Paint and Body Upgrades with Repairs
Following the break-in, I waited to gather some items before getting it into the body shop. Some of these took so long to source that I was getting a little worried, but I held out!
Tracking down the Crossfire fender garnish, side skirts, and rear bumper aero trim was a challenge, but I got them! I got the parts and the car over to the body shop to have the insurance work completed, and I threw some cash to the painter to paint match the parts in the same color, it turned out amazing!
The Forester STI was one of my favorite Subaru builds I have done, but it was still a Subaru. So, of course, it was a matter of time before the engine had to come out…
But not because it broke!
The Forester gets MORE STI!
I have been driving with the factory EJ255 engine that the 2.5XT come with, but a good friend of mine was selling his fully build EJ257, GT3076R with external wastegate setup, along with a few other goodies. What else could I do, this was the last piece of the drivetrain that was still stock. So we picked it up, got it over to SpeedyRoo Motorsports and got ourselves into another quick swap.
“While I’m in there,” famous last words in the car community, responsible for blowing budgets, prolonging build schedules, and turning mole hills into mountains. I jumped up to an external wastegate setup, electronic boost control, and Injector Dynamics 1000cc Top feed injector conversion. I wanted to stay stock location and top mount to be less obvious, I think it worked well.
It’s Finally Done!
At this point, the Forester STI build was done in books. IT drove like a factory car, and was reliable, powerful, and achieved the aggressive OEM+ look I was going for. Lots of miles, and many smiles later, I really loved the car! It was everything and more than I hoped it would be by the end, the perfect daily driver. On 91 pump gas, it made a very conservative 380awhp, and E85 around 450awhp, nothing crazy, and in my opinion, the perfect amount of power for a 100% street car like this.
Mod List:
2004 Forester XT
Engine:
EJ257 Swap with AVCS
JE Pistons/Wiseco Rods
ARP headstuds
KillerB Oil Pickup
ID 1000cc Top Feed Injectors
Walbro 255lph pump
JDM topfeed TGV Delete
Element Tuning GT52 turbo
Tial MV-S 38mm external wastegate
Grimmspeed top mount intercooler
Grimmspeed AOS
Turbosmart By-Pass Valve
Perrin Intake Inlet with K&N filter
Perrin Electronic Boost Controller
Mishimoto radiator
Cobb Accessport
Cobb 3″ exhaust
Drivetrain:
JDM STI 6 speed Transmission swap (pedals, shifter, knob, harness, subframe)
Rebuilt 4.44 R160 rear differential
ACT extreme performance clutch
Suspension:
Whiteline poly bushings
Whiteline Sway bars front and rear with endlinks
KYB WRX shocks with H&R springs
New OEM tophats and balljoints
STR 601 18×8.5 +35 wheels with 245/35/18 Continental tires
Brakes:
Rebuilt OEM Subaru 4pot/2pot Calipers
Kartboy rear caliper adapters
DBA rotors
EBC pads
EBC Stainless brake lines
Body:
JDM Forester STI Crossfire body conversion (Hood, grill, bumper, lip, foglights, sideskirts, skirt garnish, front fenders, rear trim)
Chargespeed large hood scoop
JDM SG9 rear taillights
JDM rear hatch spoiler
Interior:
WRX Limited leather seats
STI leather steering wheel
STI leather redtop 6speed shift knob
STI floor mats
Defi dash gauge pack
Kenwood speakers throughout
