Here is the situation:
I am a college student and will be living ~1 mile from campus for the next 3-4 years. I have a 2007 STi and 1990 Miata project. The motor on the STi just blew and I need to decide what to do.

Options:
1) Build the STi motor with forged pistons and rods, port heads, and upgrade the valve springs. Get the 400whp I was on my way to when the motor went.
2) Replace the blown motor with a stock shortblock and sell the car.

The cars purpose is a DD but I will be riding my bike to school anyways. The only time I really need a "DD" is to get to and from my home town, which is 200 miles away (usually 2.5 hours).

Right now my thought is to get rid of it and buy a diesel truck as a tow rig/DD and invest the remaining money from the sale of my STi as well as finish my miata sooner. Once I graduate in 3-4 years, I can then buy a nice, presentable daily driver, whatever that may be.

What do you guys think I should do? What would you do?

 

um in college all you need is toyota corrola or something along those lines, the **** beer and ample ***** will occupy your free time

 

do not **** yourself financially in college. I'm still paying for my idiocy from the corrado and will be for another 10-years.

 

lol diesel truck, that sounds like a good money saver. Id say sell whatever it takes to pay for as much school as possible. So you dont owe assloads from school loans

 

I guess I should add that the money that would result from the sale of the sti would not go towards paying for college, that is all figured out already.

And no, I'm not going to **** myself financially either way.

 

sell the subaru, get protege5 to daily, build a motor for the miata then.

 

Be a man and DD your miata when you need a car.

Diesel truck?? DD? Maybe something a little smaller if not the miata?

A 400whp STi would be awesome... But how much will rebuilding the engine with all of those fancy parts cost?

 

How bad is the engine? Did you spin a few rod bearings or did some parts come out for air?

 

Sell that jank!

 

sell it, buy another miata as a dd, tell girls u have 2 sports cars, lol

 

I'm fine with driving big vehicles, but ya I'm currently DDing the miata, but I will need something else to DD since I plan to have this down for work for long periods at a time. I'm gonna end up replacing the entire drivetrain and motor along with hopefully fitting 275 r-comps under the stock body.

Looks like building the motor will be $2600 or less, including all machining work and the forged pistons, forged rods, upgraded valve springs, and all gaskets and bearings and rings.
Or, it looks like I could replace it with used factory crap for about $1000...

Compression results: 135, 75, 134, 136

 

I had an eclipse GSX project during college, worst mistake of my life. Save the car building for AFTER college when you will actually have free time and money. You only get 4 years (or 5 in my case) to spend in college having a blast. Money during college should be saved and only spent frugally on cheap beer and cheaper women.

 

ok so you're a rich boy and your parents pay for your school and bought you your sti and you bought the miata yourself? well why not ask them to build you your sti and miata engine for your birthday. or better yet be real classy and sell the sti and rent a villa and go on a $25,000 spring break excursion and then tell them that you need another car because the miata is too impractical and have them buy you a $40,000 diesel truck. sounds good to me.

 

I'm gonna agree with the general sentiment that full-time college students should not be wasting time with project cars. Assuming you're reasonably fresh out of high school, it is possible that you might have too much money for your own good if you had the resources to mod a <2 year old STi to destruction. You need to recalibrate your fiscal priorities and budget your time efficiently. 95% of your time in college should be spent doing one of the following, in no particular order:

- Studying
- Eating
- Sleeping
- Hitting the gym
- Getting drunk
- Getting laid

There's not much else that qualifies as productive activity for an undergrad, and one of the primary purposes of a project car is a means to avoid doing anything truly necessary or productive. You have the rest of your life for that.

 

I've driven an STI at Hallett with 275 ra1's...and it was epic. I'm talking altering the space-time continuum kinda ****.

you have too much money.

 

I bet if you concentrated on those 2-things, your girlfriend would leave me alone and stop coming over to get a MAN to break her off. Seriously man, have some self respect. I have too many women in my life to pick up the slack on your HB6's and 7 GF's. You guys need to learn to step your game and be men for the first time in your lives. Until you guys learn how its done, I'm going to keep it locked up with "catch and release."

 

Not exactly how it works. Parents bought me a $15k wrx when I was 16, I've paid for all mods and was able to sell the wrx and pay the difference to get an STi. Don't be pissed just because you weren't able to make decent money at my age.

Kind of funny how you guys kind of assume that because I'm doing car ****, I can't possibly be getting drunk or laid.

Ya, I'm talking about doing that with the miata... and it doesn't take money to do that (other than the absurd prices for tires), just determination.
Speaking of having too much money...
Now go install a turbo on one of your two miatas.

 

Actually, I did make decent money. Just curious-- what type of work do you do?

 

Was doing web work throughout high school (subydude.com) but currently am just investing.

 

I don't know why you even asked us if you don't want to hear the general consensus (which seems to be enjoy college because you'll have tons of car time after). Not that any of us would have experience...