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Old 06-30-2008, 10:37 PM   #1
brcewane
Scooby Specialist
 
Member#: 63990
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Ontario
Vehicle:
2002 WRX
Flat Grey

Cool Batmobile goes under the knife... Project Hybrid Build begins!!!

So this year's project is about to get underway. The idea of the build is to really show an upgrade path for us Hybrid builders and to do so using some of the newer vendors and products on the block.

Like most guys who ended up with a hybrid motor (2.0L WRX heads mated to a STi Shortblock) I had been modding my 2.0L engine. I had just performed a TD05-16G upgrade, with STi pinks and low and behold, the main bearing went on the engine.

When we took the engine apart we had found that the oil pan had been taken off the car before. So the previous owner had to have done "some kind" of work on the engine before I purchased the car. The car was one of the first cobb Stage II packages ever sold and installed on a WRX in Canada and was one of the testing beds for the packages.

So that is where the hybrid road began. In went the 2.5L STi shortblock mated to my WRX heads and I added on a FMIC for good measure. Like most of us guys who have done the hybrid thing, you soon find out that the turbo you chose before doesn't really match your new goals and engine setup. Also the heads and flow characteristics aren't what you want either.

So this spring I began talking to a bunch of vendors and compaines with new, or newer, products out there to piece together a build for a nice street setup. The idea was that I wanted to do a build that would be relatable to a lot of Hybrid builders out there.

And I wanted to do it with companies that were not the "big" and "usual" names that you hear. Giving the newer guys an opportunity to show that their products can stack up with the best of them and get some real world coverage of a build that would showcase their products and show the gains that were achieved.

Most people doing progressive upgrades have parts from multiple vendors and there really isn't a lot of good information on how they work together. Typically you get one company showing the gains of using all of their products together. Understandably because they are selling their products.

First I started talking to Derek at Group-A performance who I have known through the Toronto Subaru Club and they were happy to get involved when they heard what I was wanting to do. They have an ever expanding product line that is being picked up by many of the different vendors out there. These guys have some great products that I will be using in the build.

- Front/Rear endlinks
- Pitch Mount
- Alternator, Power Steering, Crank Pullies
- Subframe locking kit

Next I started talking to Brian Crower about his 2.0L valvetrain kit and decided that it was the route that I wanted to take for my heads. For the street performance I am looking for with the car, I didn't feel the extra expense of porting work was going to be worth the cost. So I am going with a drop in valvetrain upgrade:

- Brian Crower 272 cams
- Brian Crower Spring/Retainer kit

Next I was wanting to do more work around the flow restrictions of the stock 02 WRX parts. So I started doing some research and got in contact with Justin and the guys at Grimmspeed . They have been doing some great work with their porting and coating of OEM parts to give them that extra performance while retaining the OEM quality. So the following Grimmspeed products will be finding their way into the Batmobile.

- Ported/Coated Intake Manifold
- Ported/Coated TGV deletes
- Ported/Coated Headers & Cross-pipe
- Phenolic Spacers

At this point I still don't think I will be going EWG but we will see.. For emissions and other reasons I'm still on the fence here.

So far the flow parts have been taken care of, so I needed to do something about the little snail that I have on there. Right now the fact that I am running the stock STi shortblock and still running my 02 WRX tranny, made it so that I didn't want to go with a huge turbo, but wanted to go with something that would be a fun street turbo. This is where I started to talk with Jerry back at Deadbolt. These were the guys that I originally bought my 16G from and have had great respect for. Jerry and I talked and it looks like the 16G will be going back to get massaged into a TD06-20G. This will also be paired up with a nice set of Power Enterprise 800cc injectors.

Now that I will have everything off of the car, I wanted to address the crazy Raw Fuel Smell TSB that Subaru won't do anything about other than charge you crazy amounts of money to change out a $13 part. So I started looking around and had heard good things about Agency Power Fuel rails. So I reached out to one of my local vendors, Joe at First Force Performance . Joe is running the Agency Power fuel rails on his 2000 RS that has a swapped JDM WRX engine with lots of other goodies including a nice rotated mount turbo setup. He has been quite happy with the fuel rails in his setup and has been able to source me a nice set of these fuel rails.

Ok.. now I have the Injectors, Rails, Turbo, Heads, Pullies, Porting, and Coating taken care of, I needed some more fresh air coming into the turbo. This is where I started talking to Matt at KS Technology about their 73mm MegaMAF short ram intake. This is a great product and probably one of the only alternatives out there to the Perrin product. Matt has been great and assured me that their quality is second to none and I will not be dissapointed. This BigMAF addition should make sure that we can provide the right amount of air to the new turbo.

So what is the last piece of the puzzle.... TUNING!!! This is where Andy and Paul at Neetronics have stepped up and are taking care of me. Neetronics just installed their second Dyno. So now they have their existing load based dyno for tuning and simulating load and driving scenarios and then also their new DynoJet dyno for providing consistant reliable numbers to be able to accurately measure your gains. Paul pretty much can tune anything that that drives!!!

The car will be at Neetronics for their Dyno Day Meet on July 5th so that I can get the baseline on the car done so we have some starting numbers to be able to compare against after the work has been completed.

So these are the players/products involved and I will be updating the thread as the products arrive and the build moves forward with pictures as well as installation and product impressions.

Lastly, I've been having some exciting conversations with Peter Tarach at Modified Magazine as I've been piecing the build and the concept together. Peter is quite interested to see how it all turns out. As the project draws to a conclusion it is possible that the build showcasing these great products and vendors will find its way into the magazine.

For those who are not familiar with my some of my build threads and my car here are some pics of Batman's Tumbler...



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