I've finally gotten around to posting up the results I had with my current setup. The setup is comprised of the following:

DB18G turbo
DW 650cc injectors
APS DR525 FMIC
COBB SF intake
Custom 3in exhaust w/ high-flow cat
Walbro fuel pump
COBB 304ss UP
BKR7E plugs
And a tune from Christian@COBB

Here are the results compared to my very impressive stage 2 setup:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j58/PC_tuner/sc000042ff.jpg

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j58/PC_tuner/sc000019c4.jpg

Most of the time when you see low numbers on a setup like this it's followed by a giant explination of why they were low and why the car is still fast as hell. I'll omit that paragraph. The car isn't very impressive, I was much happier with my stage 2 setup. Don't get me wrong, 19whp is a significant gain but not for the $3000+ investment I made. I want to make sure this doesn't happen again when I get my 104oct tune for road racing so I'd like some imput as to what may be causing the car to perform under expectations.

Thanks,
Hunter

Dont worry about the parts you got, they are all very well chosen. A turbo inlet is the only thing im seeying here thats missing (pretty much unimportant).. Which spring does your turbo-actuator have? either that is the problem, or you have a pretty bad boost or vacuum leak. Checking the the pre-turbo exhaust, and the INTIRE intake system. If that ok, might a fuel system problem (Check your fuel pump first). Getting some high performance spark plugs might be an idea, especially because your fatigued stockers might also be a factor.

your setup should putting down well over 300 ponies to the wheels on most dynos, and should be pretty darn close to 300whp on a MUSTANG dyno (93/94 octane). DO NOT accept these results! Deffinately check everything up, and then you'll probably know if you need a new tuner or not..

The thing is the poor midrange power (as illustrated on the dyno) IS most ALWAYS caused by the fmic, but that in turn should yeild even MORE topend power with your 18g. NOT 20, not even 50whp. MORE. Either way I would guess its a mechanical issue, because "anyone" can tune for 30+whp with your mods. 19whp is just bs. You can get up to 25 with just porting the stock headers and that crappy tdo4 hairdryer

Wow.....

How the heck did the cobb tuner even DARE to give you your car back with such results? I thought for a moment more, and I just cant believe such stuff happens... If it were a tune problem or not, DONT mess with them again. :furious: ... and please loose the cat.

And I wanted COBB to tune my car. Why do they tune so low?

How much boost?

I'm running brand new NGK BKR7E plugs gapped to .028, so that isn't a problem. I don't think the fuel is an issue seeing that my IDCs are in the mid 60's.

I'm not worried about the tuner, I agree with him on pretty much everything. The main concern is the mechanical soundness of the car. I only have 18,500 miles but I'm still wondering if the motor is on it's last leg. This will be confirmed shortly with a compression and leak down test.

I'll look over all of the IC plumbing and pre-turbo exhaust for leaks. Probably will do new gaskets, again, all the way around for peace of mind.

One thing to remember is that this setup is for road racing so the torque curve cannot have any spikes. This is one reason the results may be unimpressive. I'll be adding CNC ported heads and some mild cams to help keep maintain torque above 5200rpm where cam roll-off occurs on the ej205.

Thanks for the imput, keep it coming!

How much boost?
The car wasn't being very consistant above 16-17psi because of the 91oct winter gas so we decided to keep the boost down for longevity. I'm aware that the efficiency range of the 18G on an ej205 is around 19-23psi and on 104oct we'd do everything possible to run it in this range.

To give an idea of how powerful the stage 2 tune was, I was passing EVOs on the straights while driving on the track.

you seem to be a decent guy... but please make sure you make at least another 20whp before getting new power mods. Loose the cat, up the boost, a port some stuff like throttle body, headers. well worth the time (or money). Oh yeah... TGV deletes work thier magic :)) get a turbo inlet too...

And I wanted COBB to tune my car. Why do they tune so low?
I'm definately not ready to throw the towel in on getting tuned by them again. Christian is a conservative tuner, he'll be the first to tell you that. This is one of the reasons I choose to get tuned by him for road racing.

This is certainly not the end of my dealing with Christian or COBB. I'll keep you guys posted with how things turn out. One reason I started the work on my car early this winter was because I anticipated needing to do a lot of work to get my car operating up to my expectations for road racing this year.

you seem to be a decent guy... but please make sure you make at least another 20whp before getting new power mods. Loose the cat, up the boost, a port some stuff like throttle body, headers. well worth the time (or money). Oh yeah... TGV deletes work thier magic :)) get a turbo inlet too...
I try not to be too hasty. Until I'm certain that the car is running correctly in it's current state I will not add the heads and cams.

As we speak I'm working on getting some P&P&C headers from Crucial aswell as getting a solution for being able to run a cat on the street and run catless on the track.

Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.

You've got a lotta headroom to play with... a ton of fuel, and ice cold intake temps with that sweet IC. Conservative tunes are about 20g running crappy tmic and stock injectors. Take advantage of what you paid for, well, at least some of it... chorus: up the boost up the boost up the boost :lol:

224whp on an 18g?

I made over 100whp over that on the same setup. lol

I try not to be too hasty. Until I'm certain that the car is running correctly in it's current state I will not add the heads and cams.

As we speak I'm working on getting some P&P&C headers from Crucial aswell as getting a solution for being able to run a cat on the street and run catless on the track.

Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.
Sure thing...

You need at least a 93 octane tune,so maybe safely turn up boost to the range of the turbo.

Some other things that I will be adding before I get tuned again are a PLX R-500 to help tune timing and an EGT sensor.

You need at least a 93 octane tune,so maybe safely turn up boost to the range of the turbo.
I completely agree. We only get 91oct at the pumps here in Utah, so if this is as good as it gets with our pump gas, I'm fine with that. I'm just worried that this sub-par performance will also be present on 104oct durring road racing, which I wouldn't be fine with.

hope you get those numbers up at least 75 whp. good luck!

Just for comparisons sake, stage 2 STi's put down around 250whp on this dyno.

I'm looking for 260whp with my setup. Knowing how the car feels now, I don't think that's too optimistic.

Well, I went through all of the IC plumbing and didn't find any leaks. I also couldn't find any obvious leaks in the pre-turbo exhaust pipes. I'll order some T bolt clamps just to be safe but I'm at a complete loss right now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to settle for $160/HP on this setup. That's NA territory. :(

Hope you can get it squared away. Looks like you have tons of room to play with.

I'm thinking about adding meth to the 91oct map. Maybe I could see some decent performance out of that setup.

definately the way to go.... but an agressive tune is what counts

Just for comparisons sake, stage 2 STi's put down around 250whp on this dyno.

I'm looking for 260whp with my setup. Knowing how the car feels now, I don't think that's too optimistic.

It shouldnt be optimistic at all with the set up you have on there. There is no reason I can see why you arent in the 300+ range.

Best of luck to you, I hope this all gets sorted out soon.

Thanks for the support guys!

All of the guys at COBB are very busy right now with the release of the V2 AP so I don't expect to get this sorted out until the first or second week of January. Until then, I'll be making some minor changes to the car to make sure nothing holds it back for the next tune.

Thanks again,
Hunter

I hate to badmouth people but I would find another tuner. I live in Salt Lake and Cobb is notorious for poor customer service and weak tunes. You should be making over 300 WHP on that set up.

well according to him, stage 2 sti's make around 250...so if he can make around 260ish that'd be great.

Man, you told me Cobb's new dyno reads really low, but that's too low :eek:

Even on a low reading dyno, you should have gained more than 19 horsepower and -7 ft-lbs. Your car was running strong at 205 wheel, there's no reason your set-up can't put down atleast 265 whp on that dyno, or ~300 on most other dynos.

I'm definately going to say it's a mechanical issue, not the tune or dyno. My first run on the dyno made 184 whp and 212 tq. Five runs later it was at 144/199 and it was misfiring the whole time. I was about to s**t my pants.
Turns out my dumbass slightly cracked one of my spark plugs when I was installing them at 2:45 am the night before the tune :o Replaced the plug, and the car hit 297 wheel right off the bat. I was like -->:D

Good luck sorting everything out.

I'm certain something mechanical is wrong aswell. When I finally got everything installed on my car, it was 7:20am and my tune was at 10:00am so it's very possible I didn't get everything installed properly.

I'll pull the plugs and check them tomorrow to see if there is anything obviously wrong with them. May as well put new ones in while I'm at it.

I'd put a quality bet on a torn turbo inlet or something similar. Pressure test the intake for sure and check for leaks.

I didn't notice any rips on the turbo inlet but I'll take another look...

I knew that you need more conservative tune for road racing, but that seems little too low as well. Time for you to get StreetTuner. :)

I knew that you need more conservative tune for road racing, but that seems little too low as well. Time for you to get StreetTuner. :)
I've had StreetTUNER for a while now, I just need to get a PLX-R500 before I can really start tuning. :)

Hopefully I'll have one by the end of the week.

224whp on an 18g?

I made over 100whp over that on the same setup. lol


with an 18g you made 100 more on a dyno jet maybe,or race fuel.on a mustang it would be a different story;)

PC tuner, just ditch the engine and go for a 2.5 set up. I know you want to go there.

Trust me, I'm looking into it. :)

Did you get the Prodrive solenoid yet?