I wanted to document my journey from a TMIC to FMIC configuration. I've been to 4 track events with my STI, the thrill from ripping around the track and the things you learn about your car are priceless. If you haven't gone to the track, i highly recommend it!! The biggest problem with my TMIC (Grimmspeed, for sale lol) is it heat soaked so fast out on the track. One session at 20 minutes its almost too hot to touch. This will promote knock and rob power. Also removing the TMIC will free a lot of space in the engine bay. My ETS TMIC kit arrived today, i had purchased a Turbosmart BOV flange and sent it to ETS for them to weld it on. A IAT bung was welded on as well because i plan to switch over to speed density. To protect the intercooler, i purchased some GrillCraft grills and plan to add a custom 'Aluminati" badge I will update this thread as things progress. Pictures of the goodies! ETS FMIC Kit GrillCraft Grills GM IAT Sensor Visconti Tuning Speed Density Piggy Back Cable
UPDATE- My DW300 (later found out i needed the DW300c for my car) pump came today. Now the waiting came to get a tune…..
UPDATE- Got on the dyno and Jordan told me right away it was a heart breaker, so we were't expecting crazy numbers but i am glad we got some baseline numbers for us to compare with after the FMIC install and custom tune. Also ordered a fuel pressure gauge from Summit Racing to make the fuel pump install easier. All the parts will go on Saturday the 15th and the tune is scheduled for the 17th, took the day off Dyno video http://vid1141.photobucket.com/albums/n591/mkbenchmark/Dyno 1 _zpsobyoe4qp.mp4 Got a fuel pressure gauge to make things easier to adjust and monitoring
Update- Got the FMIC installed this weekend. Overall everything went pretty smooth but now the car will not start. We think the car is in diagnostic or limp mode. My Cobb air intake bracket needed to be modified and modified and it'll need more l0l. I will cut one side off completely and it should work finally. I wanted to protect the IC, so i got grills from GrillCraft and they look great! UPDATE- After the install, my car would not turn over and it was towed (free AAA) to NF Performance for trouble shooting. Nuke figured out what was preventing the car from cranking over, it was a ground to the intake manifold and it's starts great now! We are running 100% speed density and i am loving the new intake air temps. The fuel pump did not fit, i was suppose to get the DW300C instead of the DW300. This will be exchanged soon. I could hear a squeak sound when i started the car and had a friend listen to the engine bay. It was a intercooler pipe by the air intake rubbing the chassis, this was a simple fix by moving the pipe over and adding a rubber edge protector for more insurance (not pictured). Finally got the air intake bracket trimmed down enough to fit. I'm loving the new setup, my temps are staying pretty cool. Heres the GM IAT sensor installed.
UPDATE- Got on MAP's dyno Wednesday, Nuke got it to 473whp and 464wtq. Car is running mid 11.5 AFR and 25PSI. Same initial pull as before but the mid to top end pulls crazy hard. Very pleased with the results!
i wrote about this in another thread but no one seemed to have picked up on it: https://mnsubaru.com/threads/what-did-you-do-to-your-subaru-today.20350/page-210#post-802391 is there a quantifiable spec that any of these manufacturers provide? Based on my calculations the GS intercooler would only offer about 6% increase and that's at lower temperatures. I'd think at higher temperatures and due to higher pressure drops due to larger intercooler piping you're really on the border of seeing any marginal performance.
It's hard to say if there will be a huge gain or not. Having the intercooler further from the engine with lessen the effects of heatsoak, I'll have more engine space and I get to work on my car which is a lot of fun for me. Pressurizing air creates higher temperatures and cooling it off does lower the air temp but the pressure drops at the same time.
I did notice one thing with my TMIC last year when I was on the dyno at Map Performance. With each pull I dropped 10-15 hp and tq. It was heatsoaking. The first pull was 321whp and at the end it was 290whp. This was when I was e85 stage 2. I'm probably in the 400's now and should be close too 500 after the re tune.
I'm at 25-26psi now and we should be in the 28-30psi range after. Also Map's dyno reads high (dynojet).
I can't have wishful thinking? More realistic number would be 40-60hp. I just ordered a DW300 pump. It'll need more juice!
Did you/your tuner forget to turn the over head fans on. There is the the fans up front, but there are also the large fans up top to keep the room cool and circulate air. Seen it a few times (included when we first started tuning my old car) where they would forget to turn those on and power kept dropping because of it. Once we kicked the fans on (you can't hear anything in the room once they are on they're so loud) and let the room/car cool. Thing went back to normal.
So every one is busy till September, RS, NF and DB. I am holding off on the install till then. DB seems like a good company and there facility is super clean and organized. They have some open spots for baseline pulls. I'll post them up when I get on the dyno.
I can't believe somebody hasn't opened another shop in the cities. Being relatively new to the scene, and plenty "green", I find it crazy that with how many of "us" there are, that there's still only 2 or 3 shops that specialize in tuning these cars, resulting in them always being booked out so far people end up having to go different routes with upgrading and all that jazz.
I haven't had any personal experience with DB, but I've heard some not-so-good things about their tuning. YMMV...but it might be worth waiting for NF or RS to tune.
Way to come in here and ruin my fun!!! Seriously kidding Jordon It sucks when everyone is busy…. What stories have you heard about DB if you don't mind me asking? I really want this all done by the end of August for an autox event but that might be hard.
There are stories about all of the shops. Good and bad. All you can do is do your research and make your choice off of what you're comfortable with. Thing about stories is you almost never get both sides. As far as shops opening in the twin cities. There are a number of them, but those 3 are the popular ones with MAP no longer doing service/tuning. Its also hard to warrant building a business on a car scene that's lucky to be up for half a year before everyone's cars are hidden away in garages. Between that and having to make a name/compete for business with the other established shops and the buy in commitments you required to become a vender for some parts manufactures that's a lot of risk.
I believe the tuner from MAP (Jordan) started his own shop with a dyno. Exactly. Folks carry their half baked builds to be tuned at a shop and when something fails they will blame the shop. Its not necessarily the tuner's fault if something fail. Though, no one would ever admit when they are wrong...
^This is true in anything in life, some places are good and some are bad but to a certain person this might be the other way. Things happen i guess. To me a shop that is organized, clean and has good communication is a good shop. So far i've had nothing but good communication with RS and DB.
Check out SM Speed, it's run by Charlie and Jordan (formerly at MAP). Looks like they're open for appointments now.
Jumping in here, I've delivered to this place down in Eagan multiple times called Full Blown Motors. Seen a bunch of Subarus, some evos and other goodies in their garage. Anyone know about them? They're located off of Yankee Doodle and Mike Collins.
I'll post up a chart tonight when I get home but it made 381whp on a Dyno Dynamics (heart breaker) on baseline pulls. Custom tune on the 17th.
They are very similar. Both are called "heart breaker" it seems like. Jordan said it would've been 430whp on a dynojet. But I just want to see changes, not overall numbers.
How do you like those grill things? I'm thinking about getting them, I just don't know if they are really worth the money
I've had the hood scoop one on for a long time and it works extremely well. My tmic is in great shape. Less leafs too lol The front grills will go on when I install the fmic. I assume these will be just as good at protecting the ic.
Thanks man! They didn't have the overhead fans hooked up yet, so after each session we did a cool down (fan and water sprayer) and went onto the next. My TMIC was extremely hot after the last session…. Excited for the custom tune!
