Alright, i just got my exhaust done today and had a Velocity muffler installed and now i am debated on what my first engine mod should be. Im either going with an Uppipe, Cold air intake, Ram intake, or downpipe. i only have the money for one of these things within the near future and i was wondering what would give me the most horsepower for the best price.
CAI/ShortRam is useless on your application. Uppipe would be a good cheap first mod. But I'd recommend getting some sort of tuning/or engine management. There are a couple guys in the area that can do OpenECU tuning, and would probably be able to help you for a decent price.
By opening up the exhaust pipes to flow more, you are introducing more flow to the hotside of your turbo, thus raising the boost on your car. Your car is tuned for stock setup. It gives X amount of fuel for Y amount of throttle and B amount of boost. It is set this way from the factory. If you up the boost, your computer then gives X amount of fuel for Z amount of boost at Y throttle position. You can't fuel 17psi with 14psi worth of fuel. And as such, you run the rist of running too lean and hurting your motor. Above all things, tuning is essential to make sure your car is running safe and at peak efficiency. Any power adding mod you put on your car isn't going to give you the best gains until you tune for it, and can be potentially dangerous.
if i tune it to those specs, its it gonna take away more MPG? cuz while i do want performance, i wanna do what i can to not take away from gas mileage.
Uhhh....not really. Fuel delivery is the least of concerns due to 3 words: mass airflow sensor. There are a ton of other reasons why the car should be tuned, though.
Listen, I was trying to dumb it down man. If you wanna pull out your precious Enginuity screens and show him all the timing points and your pretty line art, go right ahead. Better to just scare him into modding safely.
You may actually gain MPGs from a good tune. atleast with only exhuast. I vote Cobb AP. otherwise a downpipe is a good mod. rear swaybars are fun too.
But to answer the original question.... A downpipe + tune will by far give you the most amount of power.
I am not sure what model you have because you did not answer above that I saw but this will at least give you an idea.... mine is a 05 STi. http://www.mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13453 Oh and keep in mind a few of my mods are not really needed and dynos are all relative. Readymix you should post up that what mods to do and not do thread again.
+1, I think this answers the original question. Tchain, ballpark around $500 for a DP with an openecu tune, and $1000 for a DP and the Accessport.
Tom tuned mine about 5 mths ago or so and after sitting for a month it started right up... NO surprise but who knows.. and it runs great.... still waiting for the final tweaks.. wink wink
If your looking for an AP let me know...I have 1 in stock for your 03 Wagon *good Price* for MNsubaru members...
oh snap you're home now?!? I'll see what I can do. But first you gotta burn out all that old poopy gas, hehehe.
here are some great products: http://www.electricsupercharger.com/products-super-eram.html http://www.turbonator.com/index.html http://www.flamekitz.com/ be as cool as this guy! also I'd jsut like to add that I think I found the most retarded thread on the internet. It contains this gem: http://forums.carreview.com/showthread.php?t=507
Tchain, another thing to think about is that if you're going to run a Stage II map you'll need to get a catless uppipe put in. If that pre turbo cat goes to pieces they'll go straight to the turbo and you'll be out a TD04. And an intake isn't going to do a whole lot except make some extra noise and give you some bling in the engine bay. If you decide to get one down the road, do a lot of research or read Unabombers FAQ on Nasioc as that covers intakes (and pretty much any other topic you could think of). Catless uppipes range anywhere from 0-150ish, you can gut your stocker and save money or you can buy a new/used one and sell your stocker for some cash.
I'm ordering eleventy Turbonators now. I'll make Jason and Erik and Matts cars look weak.... I keed, I keed.
since we're sort of on the subject... well until the subject turned to how many turbonators can you put on one vehicle, heh... my question is, what's the difference (or pros/cons) between an accessport which is around $600 (more for new/less for used), and an openecu cable (new) for around $100? From what I've gathered so far you can use either to tune the car... but what makes one hundreds of dollars more special? my second question is of course... how many turbonators can you put on one vehicle, and is there a bulk case discount???
$100 is just the cable my friend... can you use engunuity, ecu-explorer? and other self tuning programs??? Cobb fo r$600 has a bunch of off the shelf plug and play maps.... but to get the best result you would need a pro-tune which adds $$$$$$
Don't mind him Dave, he's still trying to get used to normal time again, Australia made him cranky!?!:laugh: LoLz... Cobb Aps are for us simpletons that don't know computer programming schtuff! Pick a map and go. Pro-tune software, from what I hear, is VERY spendy, and you have to know your shyte! But if you knew how to program custom maps, and had the right software...it would be cheaper to get the open ecu cable. Then you could sell custom maps and the stuff would pay for itself! And btw...you can put as many Turbonators on as you want, but you still FAIL!! And Trent>>>http://www.mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15109;)
Time and energy. If you have the following, go with OpenECU: 1) Time to learn about your car's ECU, and what it does. 2) A Laptop 3) Time to tune, research, tune, research, etc. 4) Smarts! Otherwise, just get an AP and be happy with it. IMHO OpenECU affords more safety, and more power...assuming you learn what you're doing, because you're creating a custom map for your own car (exactly what a Protuner would do). If you just want a safe base map to gain more power with your mods, and then want to forget about it, get an AP.
imo if you are strapped for cash, dont waste your money on a cobb ap when local tuners with openecu can make you a map that can/will out perform a cobb map, and it can be tailored to your driving style, not to mention be safer in certain areas.
I wasnt being cranky although it was posted at 4am just after my kids went back to sleep.... 8hrs sleep in 2 days after 38hrs of travelling....
Actually, a "Protuner" is creating a map for someone else's car, which means they don't have the time it takes to do a really great job. Also, the way people seem to decide who is a "protuner" is more based on whether they have rented a shop and own a dyno than whether they actually know what they're doing with WRX ECU's. I'm still reading that thread Zach. Its pretty funny watching idiots argue with each other when none of them know what they're talking about. Oh, and WOTV'sFTW.
Thanks for all the replies and information guys. I keep seeing all these posts about tuning and it seems like interesting stuff, lots to learn for a new guy! I'll have more dumb questions later, i promise
You misunderstood that sentence. I was informing him that a "protuner" would create a map for his car, just as he himself could with OpenECU. And you're right, the term protuner can be a misnomer.
