NOTE: THIS IS A POST IN PROGRESS, CHECK BACK FOR NEW PICTURES AND INFORMATION
Project $15k is finally getting some love in the power department. The goal all along was to end up with a car that is great as a daily driver yet still be fun and capable on the track. To achieve this we first needed to fix a few things ……..
1.) The factory turbo inlet hose had a big hole in it and one of the nipples where cracked. Needless to say it had some drivability issues.
2.) All the connectors in the engine compartment seemed to be packed with dirt and road grime, it has 110k miles on it after all. We used the air hose to blow these all clean. Dirty connections can send erratic signals to the ECU so when diagnosing drivability problems on an old car it can be an easy remedy but usually over looked.
3.) The spark plugs where old, maybe original, and gapped way to big. The norm gap on a WRX should be close to .032”, when we pulled the old plugs out they where at .045”
4.) The battery was very weak, after only sitting a few days it would not start. Easy fix, just get a new battery, I chose to go OEM and paid a little extra to get a battery that says SUBARU on it.
That was most of the little issues that had to be fixed. Now on to the power parts.
The car came with a V1 AccessPort so that save some very important money I would have spent. All tuning was done on the AccessPort and all maps will, if not already, be available on the PERRIN Performance web site.
The first mod was a turbo inlet hose since, as above, it was damaged and causing problems with drivability. I chose a pretty red one and our Afta-MAF hose also in red. Red was chosen because the car came with a red Samco intercooler Hose set. I toped off the intake stuff with one of our drop in panel filters.
For the exhaust I am keeping the 3” cat back that came with the car.
Next I “un-moded” the WRX by pulling off the brand-x catless down pipe and installed a factory down pipe we had laying around. This was a little noticeable as a performance “down grade” but it brings it closer to actually being legal. As a note this whole project is going to be kept as a street legal project so we know we will be sacrificing in some areas. This down pipe was sold for $125.00 to add back into the budget. Our catted 3" down pipe sections would have been perfect for this project but the budget did not permit them.
I really wanted headers since I like the sound of them and they added a little power with the stock turbo, though I lost about 100rpm of spool. A little less torque down low but gains on top, hmmm trade off I guess. I really think it will shine even more with the turbo upgrade coming.
That was it for intake and exhaust stuff. Overall the car felt much better than the as delivered state. The butt dyno defiantly showed some gains as it would pull stronger, especially in the upper RPM range. We tested both the free Cobb stage 2 map and our stage 2 map, the car felt strong with the Cobb map but even better with the PERRIN map.
TIME FOR A REAL POWER ADDER!
To get right to it ……… BIG 16G from Blouch Turbo!
AS QUOTED FROM THE BLOUCH TURBO WEB SITE
“Most bang for your buck in a 16G upgrade platform, the WRX/STI TD05H-EVO III Big 16G features the 39 lb/min proven performance of the EVO III Big 16G state-of-the-art compressor design combined with the quick response and high flow capacity of the TD05H turbine. The 7cm2 nozzle area turbine housing includes an internal wastegate port and standard wastegate actuator calibrated at 9 PSI. Optional upgrade actuators are available in incremental pressures from 10 PSI to 19 PSI. The WRX/STI TD05H-EVO III Big 16G is a direct bolt on upgrade shipped complete with coolant pipes and turbo oil drain tube installed and requires no modification to intake, exhaust, oil and coolant connections for installation”
The installation was as straight forward as a turbo swap can be. Just remove old unit and install new one, hahahaha. Here are some pics of the process.