I really like Subies. My Dad had a couple Subaru's which he really liked and got me interested in them because of their dependability and performance. My wife just purchased a Legacy 3.6 Limited and really likes it. I have a 2010 Forester XT I purchased new while selling them at a dealership in Duluth MN. I have done the basic suspension upgrades ( larger sway bars, sport springs, Megan Exhaust and K&N filter. I'm now taking it to the next level and glad I found this site. I ordered a VF52 turbo and will be ordering a CNT catted downpipe. I'm now going into unchartered territory for me anyway with tuning and could use some help and shared knowledge from those who have gone this route. Bob from Duluth MN Area
Hi Bob from Duluth! Welcome to MNSubaru. Do you plan on tuning yourself, using a Cobb or contacting a tuner?
Thanks for the welcome! Grey Guy. Is there a good tuner in the Duluth area? I would hate to put the turbo and downpipe on up here and drive it to the cities to have it tuned. For now I'm just going with the AP tune. I don't see the point off buying a cobb ap for $600 and then having it fine tuned or dialed in.
Last year Nuke from NF performance came up and tuned 10-15 cars in a weekend. If that happens again you'd be set, otherwise you pretty much have to go to the cities.
I will send him an email to see if that's a possibility. Did he tune your car and if so were there noticeable improvements? I don't have a choice but to have it tuned with the upgrades. A member from the Subaru Forester Form said I should ne able to drive the XT down to the cities if I stayed out of the boost, which would be pretty hard to do.
He tuned both my swapped legacy and my wife's wrx. Both were vast improvements, my car went from disappointing to clutch slipping madness haha
You can get a base map from a tuner, stay out of boost and meet up for a better tune. Is there noticeable improvement? Is that even a question? Just you wait. I have had a tuner use remote control software on my laptop and he tweaked the tune in the car remotely after the tuning session. Fairly conversant with a computer and have a laptop? My two cents, add a Grimmspeed BCS to your parts list and a tactrix adapter (even borrowed) and get a open source tune from a tuner. Want to get multiple tunes for pump gas, e85 or whatever? Cobb AP might be the way to go. I have heard the Cobb canned tunes can be iffy. That could be a evil rumor spread by tuners though.
I sent Nuke an email last night and this morning with some questions and where he is located. Thanks again for the welcome. Bob
I have been notified that they just have the divorced belmouth downpipe at this time. What are your thoughts. Waite or buy it.
I've had divorced bellmouth downpipes in both of my turbo Subies and a regular bellmouth for a period of time in my last turbo saabaru. All worked fine and there wasn't a noticeable difference...but I still tend to lean towards a divorced wastegate to help separate the exhaust gases. Helps me sleep at night and feel like it's faster behind the wheel Welcome to the forum by the way. +1 for getting a custom tune, whether on an accessport or open source. Makes a world a difference, especially when Nuke is in the passenger seat.
I talked to someone at CNT about the divorced downpipe and decided to go with it. It was shipped this morning. The VF52 arrived Monday so things are coming together. I need to pick up some new spark plugs and install them before a tune.
Found a cobb tuner V2 for a good price. New spark plugs ordered. Things are coming together. I didn't want to put the turbo and downpipe on and limp it down to the cities for a tune.
The deal fell thru on the V2 so I bit the bullet and ordered the V3 I found on sale. UPS will be dropping it off tomorrow and hopefully I will have everything together this coming weekend (VF52, CNT downpipe and Cobb V3). I wrapped and painted the downpipe this weekend. I also polished the inside of the downpipe where it hooks up to the turbo (better flow). This will be all the mods I will be doing until spring. Oh that's right, a tune from Bullwinkle. Does it every end? Happy Thanks Giving Bob
Update! The VF52 and CNT downpipe were installed. The bad- it had the PO277 code or something like that. I looked it up on the accessport and cleared it. I reinstalled a stage 2 WRX map and it's running good. I put 170 miles on today in crappy driving conditions (6 inches of snow and icy roads) and averaged 27mpg. I was up to 27.3 at one time which I though was pretty good. Pro tune next. I really didn't get into the turbo too much with the conditions the way they are.
