I also received the finished powder coated front subframe from TSSfab, that'll probably be one of my next projects after I move. Hopefully sooner than later...
Those TSSfab parts are nice, i have a white one. Yow whould talk to william about the 08 rear frames... he'd prolly do ya a free one if he used your car as a mock up...
Yeah I thought about seeing if he wanted to use my car as a mock up last winter, but it sucks that he's all the way out in Washington
Finally got around to posting an update. Been pretty busy with moving and the new place. I also broke my computer during the move and decided to replace it with the cheapest laptop they sell at Best Buy, which makes using the internet agonizingly painful. On the plus side, I have a little more room to work on my car now. Just got done installing the TSSfab front subframe. Install was pretty straight forward. I was actually really surprised how good the fitment was. I thought I'd have to fight with it a little bit, but everything lined up perfectly. I just need Fobia to weld up the new steering column joint and outer tie rods, and it should be ready to steer again. I wish I would've weighed everything, but it was a pretty good weight loss when you include the subframe, pump and everything else that goes with the power steering. Also installed some D2 drag spec coilovers. You can get whatever spring rate you want with these, I ordered mine with 6kg front and 4kg rear. My dog keeping me company... A couple other things I've picked up for the fuel system. Moran 275 lb/hr injectors and Aeromotive fuel rails. That's about it for now. I should be getting the motor back from RS very soon. It probably would've been done by now but we decided to upgrade a couple things at the last minute. My transmission is also in the process of getting the 3.54 gears swapped in, and a couple updates done. Hopefully things should be moving pretty quickly now. Still no sunroof plug... no idea what's going on with that. I may have to start looking for different options. If anybody knows anyone that makes carbon fiber roofs/sunroof plugs for 08+ sedans, feel free to let me know....
There are companies that make them, but most of them that I could find including MSI only make them for 02-07 years. The only one I found that made one for 08+ was Aeroism Research, and they only have the hatch listed on their website. I tried emailing them about 08+ sedan but they never responded. On the plus side, the carbon fiber sunroof plug actually shipped last week, so at least I can finally cover the giant hole in my roof!
Just a little update on the build. I got the transmission back a couple weeks ago. Thanks to Derek (WhiteLegacyGuy) for working on that for me. He installed the 3.54 ring and pinion gears, new bearing retainers on the front diff so I could use the newer style male-end front axles, and also updated a couple things. Once I got it back, I gave it a fresh paint job and got it installed in the car. Also installed a B&M Pro Ratchet shifter I got the motor back from RS Motors, thanks to Bikerboy for building that for me. Everything stayed the same from the original motor list I posted earlier in this thread, with the exception of the cams. The original Kellford cams and some of the buckets were showing signs of premature wear, and there was also some damage to the inside of one of the heads from some welding that had previously been done to the cams, so we decided not to use them. Instead of the Kellfords, I'll be running a set of BC 280's that Fobia was willing to let me use, so thanks to him for letting me use those and keeping my motor build going. Drive Shaft Shop Level 5 front axles on top, stock front axles on bottom PST carbon fiber driveshaft AMS Lightweight batter mount and Odyssey PC680 battery Hydra Nemesis 2.7 stand-alone EMS. I originally had a version 2.6 in the 2004 Sti, but that wouldn't work in the 2012 because of the CAN bus system in the 08+ Sti's, so I shipped it to hydra to have the CAN bus board installed, they also upgraded the software to 2.7 and sent me the 2012 wiring harness. As for the brake stuff, after talking to people who know a lot more than I do, I decided not to eliminate the brake booster. I actually ended up buying an external vacuum pump to assist the brake booster to help hold the auto at the line during launch. I removed the ABS box, the front brake lines and all the engine bay lines, and will be running new front lines, and a proportioning valve going to the existing rear lines. If anyone is interested in the brake booster delete master cylinder, Ill be listing it soon, or feel free to PM me. Next step will be getting a turbo kit made by Fobia. I decided to try running a compound turbo setup, using both the gtx3076, and the Etr-ho 76 turbos I showed earlier in this thread. In theory, that setup should spool as quickly as a 30r and make the power of a billet 76mm turbo. Should be interesting at least, this is where the fun part starts!
And I like the injectors - any time you buy car parts and they come package in a custom protective container, it's like those high-end clothing stores that only have 20 items hanging up - you know you're getting the good stuff
The turbo setup is intriguing, can't wait to see how it ends up! I know that is really common in diesel trucks, has it been done on a Subaru before? Does the small turbo become a restriction on the exhaust side at high rpms? Are the hot sides connected in series just like the compressor stages? This thing is gunna be fast!
Basically the way it will work is on the intake side the air flows through the large turbo first, then the small turbo and then the intercooler. The exhaust side flows through the small turbo first and then the big one. I don't think the small turbo exhaust housing will be a restriction, but I put the biggest exhaust housing I could find on the big turbo. It originally came with a 1.0 a/r t4 housing and I put a 1.25 a/r t6. I don't think too many subaru guys have run a compound setup. Fobia did it a while back though. I forget what size turbos he was using. It didn't spool as fast as the small turbo would've alone, but he did get a benefit in spool. We're thinking that with the larger "race" compressor housing i put on the big turbo, the little one will be able to pull air through a little easier and spool quicker. Still kind of experimental though
Ahh I see, I suppose the wastegate on the small turbo will be open once it is out of its efficiency range so it isn't a restriction. And the small one will get the hottest/fastest exhaust for best spool. Makes sense to have the cold side in reverse series too so the small turbo doesn't have to blow through the big one for more efficient low end. Your powerband should be huge! What are going to rev to?
I'm pretty pumped to see what the powerband looks like myself! The whole idea is to build boost and get on the converter quicker at the line, so I don't have to wait so long or use spray. Should be pretty fun on the street too I thought the gtx3076 was already fast on it's own! That Forced Induction's etr-ho 76 wheel for the s400sx turbos sounds pretty beastly, they claim it makes similar power to a cast 80mm, and spools quicker than a cast 75mm. I'm not sure what we're going to rev to yet, I'll have to talk to Ron about that when we get to that point
we will be using a turbosmart 60mm gate on the small turbo so it should have a vary easy path to the big one once at its boost target. totaol boost is regulated on the big turbo using a 44mm gate.
Sounds perfect, 60mm is almost 2.5"! As long as the wastegate enters the "downpipe" at a low angle there should be no increase in backpressure at high rpm. Super cool. I want to see pictures of all this piping when it's welded up! Finding enough room will be hard!
I'll definitely be posting some pictures! Fitment will probably be tight, but it'll work. The big turbo will be mounted in the fog light location, and the exhaust will dump out the front right fender. The small turbo will be between that, and the intercooler. We're also doing a half radiator on the drivers side, so that'll clear up some more space. The divided housing on the big turbo doesn't change anything since the exhaust will be combined after flowing through the small turbo anyway
Very interesting, can't wait to see the fab and how it works out! Would be pretty interesting to put in a tap for boost and temp between the two turbos, then you'd be able to get a much better picture of the deltas for the two stages... Anyone know if what impact it would make to intercool between the two stages (water/air or chemical injection)? I could probably work out the thermodynamics but it's easier to ask the experts here : )
This is all a learning experience for me, I'm not an expert on anything except blowing all my money on car parts lol! If someone else wants to chime in on that, feel free. Thats one of the first questions i had too. From some of the stuff Ive read and the people I've talked to, i think it might be a little more efficient to intercool between each stage when it comes to multiplying pressure ratios from the big turbo to the little one, but not really necessary. We're just going to intercool after the small turbo, and I'll be running e98, so that should help a bit too. For anyone who was curious about how the compound setup works, i found this post on yellow bullet. He does a good job of explaining it without being too long winded. http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=216811
I've kind of been neglecting this thread a little bit, so here's a few pictures of where we're at. I post pictures on Mnsubiez on facebook every once and a while, so some of you have probably seen a couple of these already. The turbo kit, sunroof plug, and fuel cell are all done. All the fab work with the turbo kit and carbon fiber was done by Fobia, I really like how it turned out, looks sweet in person. Right now I'm just working on some of the finishing touches. Taking everything apart and cleaning it, shaved and polished the intake manifold and dropped that off for powder coating a couple days ago, ceramic coating the turbine housings, laying down reflect a gold, etc. Still need to do some wiring and order all the lines and AN fittings for the vent and fuel lines. I'll post some more pictures when everything is done under the hood, and hopefully some video when we finally start it up!
Take this with a big grain of salt because me smart not, but this is how I think of it: small turbo gets full exhaust flow and spools like normal. Exhaust continues on through the large turbo, but with low energy so it's not being aggressively spooled up, just sorta along for the ride at this point. The charge air is being compressed by the small turbo as in a normal setup - it just happens to be getting sucked (basically) through the large turbo compressor housing first. as the interstage WG opens, the exhaust begins getting diverted to the large turbo, spooling it up and compressing the intake air. This pre-compressed air is fed into the smaller turbo, which does its thing and compresses the incoming air with a given pressure ratio based on its shaft speed. The magic is that a) the pressure rise of the smaller turbo rides 'on top' of the pressure gain provided by the big turbo, and b) the next thought that comes to mind is that the small turbo is going to overspeed and explode when it gets fed the huge amount of air from the big turbo which it wouldn't be able to handle if it was by itself, but that doesn't happen because turbos only care about volume flow rates. Since the big turbo compressed the air that enters the small turbo (increasing its density), the small turbo sees a normal _volume_ flow rate coming into it and is happy to compress it further - it just happens to be a much higher _mass_ flow rate than it would see in a normal application. High pressure out, high mass flow rate (= HP), two turbos operating at happy efficient operating conditions, one very happy driver : ) Eventually the second WG modulates to dump excess exhaust energy, like a normal EWG setup.
good explanation. now know that the gate on the small turbo is regulated by a big 60mm gate. that gate is all controlled by the spring in it and not by a controller. the spring is a 24psi spring so it starts bypassing the small turbo at 24psi and dumping it all in to the big turbo too feed it. the top port of the gate is linked to the compressor of the big turbo. so every psi the big turbo makes it holds the the spring down for every psi extra the bottom port is seeing from the over all boost pressure the big turbo is making so the small turbo is always regulated at 24psi. so the small turbo is never over sped and stays at its 24psi speed and the big turbo is responsible for everything over that 24 psi. just a little more info on how it works.
Just think turbo charging a turbo charged car with a remotely mounted turbo instead of the typical off the header mounted turbo. Nice fab work sir.
This is one he'll of a build, however my question is, what is going to happen to the wrb blob eye in the 3rd pic???
My original plan was to build the 04 next for a street car, but now I'm planning on trading a buddy for his 99 2.5rs if we can get the financial part figured out.
