EVO IV or Impreza WRX blob eye?!?

[BimBimerBoi]

Hi all,

Hope this wont cause many arguments or rattle too many cages however I am having a slight crisis and I cant seem to make up my mind, I have had the offer on a EVO IV for £3.5k, the shell is on 140k looks good and I have been told it has no rust and has been under sealed in the past. It's had an Evo VI engine dropped in which has 75k.

Bad bits: AYC is starting to play up, told lines might need clearing and throttle body needs looking at, my guess AYC pump needs a recon? Any advice on that? Bloke said its not much of an issue whilst driving but I need to look into it.

Mainly I thought it was a banging offer first off but being Subaru also having the blobeye WRX for the same money is leaving me conflicted, any opinions and advice welcomed. Cheers.

[GravelBen]

An Evo is a fair bit more hardcore than a regular WRX, with corresponding pros and cons - harder/sharper/generally more expensive to run vs softer and more user friendly but not as direct, the STi Impreza would be a closer comparison. Also a big age difference between a IV and a blobeye. If you can try both of them out they are different enough that it will probably be obvious which one suits your use better. The Subaru will always sound better though!

IIRC the Evo IV had issues with crank-walk killing engines, I don't know the details of the problem but something to look into with that version.

ETA: Don't worry about that last part, just noticed your comment about having an Evo VI engine in it! Maybe that's why it got the VI motor...

[rich861]

BimBimerBoi said:

Hi all,

Hope this wont cause many arguments or rattle too many cages however I am having a slight crisis and I cant seem to make up my mind, I have had the offer on a EVO IV for £3.5k, the shell is on 140k looks good and I have been told it has no rust and has been under sealed in the past. It's had an Evo VI engine dropped in which has 75k.

Bad bits: AYC is starting to play up, told lines might need clearing and throttle body needs looking at, my guess AYC pump needs a recon? Any advice on that? Bloke said its not much of an issue whilst driving but I need to look into it.

Mainly I thought it was a banging offer first off but being Subaru also having the blobeye WRX for the same money is leaving me conflicted, any opinions and advice welcomed. Cheers.

It would be worth trying to confirm the 'no rust' condition of the chassis. Underseal can hide quite a lot and you probably wont be able to tell much but if you can get underneath the car then the rear chassis legs tend to give a good idea.

AYC refurbs are getting really expensive these days, £1000 is quite common now unfortunately.

Throttle body needs looking at - I'd be asking why he says this? Ask for what the symptoms are and try to confirm it is a throttle body issue and not something else.

A 4 with a 6 engine will be a hell of a car though, the WRX wont compare.

[kins]

If it's a clean rust free iv with a vi engine for 3500 then that's a steal. Chances are for that price it will be a dog and rotten underneath. Check the rear chassis legs and signs of freshly applied and/or thick underseal as it's likely there to cover up rust.

An evo vi engine is worth 1.5 -2.K on it's own. To find out if it is a VI motor - check this thread out for details on the engine prefixes and where to find them on the block https://www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?t=22...

There's a useful thread here on the differences between between the 4 blocks and the 5-9 blocks.
https://www.lancerregister.com/showthread.php?3438...

Yes, crank walk can be an issue on the IV's due to the fact it has a different design main/thrust bearing arrangement. The reality is if you don't want to mod the engine and fit a heavier clutch the likelihood is you won't run into issues with it but it's worth bearing in mind the later engines are a better design.

If you haven't already guessed it - the MLR forum is a really useful source of info for evo owners.

Good luck with your hunt.