05GrayWRX

NASIOC will net you better advice. Typical route is up pipe & turbo back with a tune (Cobb off the shelf stuff isn't that great, get a custom tune from somone that knows what they are doing, ie not in Roanoke). Then its bigger turbo, injectors, fuel pump and front mount. I've done the up/tbe and a bunch of suspension & brake upgrades, no turbo or other engine stuff.

Several modded Subarus around the Roanoke region and people that work on them regularly, we just don't run our mouths as much as other car owners. lol

If you're in the area stop by at one of the meets - forum.flat4va.com.

~Eddie

HatefulMechanic

Any more lol.


Damn, I was unaware of that group existing.

VIR EURORALLY

Um....welcome back?!?! Is this WRX an 4EAT(auto) or 5MT(manual)? There are a few 2.0L's making good usable power. With the 5MT and depending on how well this car has been treated those 165k miles, I would suggest staying around 300whp to avoid breaking the tranny. 2nd gear is pretty weak in that tranny. These are like many imports. They will last 300k with proper maintenance, I have several customers with mail/news cars on up there in mileage. I just sold a Forester in the spring of the year with 180k on it with only a test drive in the parking lot. Beyond that, there are a few 400whp+ 2.0L's out there.

This was only a certain rare few that were demos in '04, they were to get reflashed before being sold. These were the factory freaks of '04. I have 1 of them and I know where 2 more sit. The '07's with there new 32bit ecu also had some lean issues that required a reflash as well. There were also some issues in the dynamic advance tables in tuning. The AEM and K&N Typhoon intakes are your best out of the box intakes that do not skew your MAF sensor outside of OEM specs.

The Cobb AccessPort as mentioned is a programmer just as you have mentioned. You also have the ability to have the car ProTuned by a certified ProTuner(such as our shop) to give you added power and fuel economy. As covered the Cobb OTS stuff is very rich and conservative.

Very few extensive modded members on here. We mostly lurk. As with all forums, there is a ton of useless stuff on them. In the Roanoke area, we do lay pretty low. I have a moddest amount of mods.

There are plenty of happy UTEC users and some who trashed them long ago due to some conflicts and the use of MS-DOS for tuning. In my opinion, the best options are Cobb, Hydra, and AEM (not listed in order of preference). The Cobb is $695. The others do reach $1200+.
ClubWRX will not you little help in this area. There is just not a huge VA base on there.

For a DD and the risk of wrecks and stuff, I somewhat agree. Look at all of the owners of other makes on here with cars 150K+ in miles that mod (repair) them continuously.

Subaru is far from the king of cars. Even the Bugatti Veyron got beat on a circuit test on Top Gear by a Zonda. It's how the car is built and setup for its particular use. If you want to drag race it.....you can, we have a 700whp+ on break in tuning. This is a fabricators car with our tuner doing the tuning. Yet, it makes as much sense as rallying your Cobra.

There are a few shops in NOVA/MD that I would take my business to, having our own shop, I would still trust these guys to work on my car should the inevitable happen at the shop.

Cosmo

That's incorrect. They run pretty rich from the factory. Do NOT put an intake on it. There are a lot of bad intake designs out there and they can make it run dangerously lean.

The downpipe is where power in a WRX is made. You can change the downpipe without doing any other mods. On the STi you need to change the engine management because the stock turbo is notorious for boost creep aftet you change the downpipe, but on a standard WRX it's fine. On a fresh engine, that is good for 15-20 hp usually. That should be your first mod. An uppipe and engine management would be after that. A cat back will do very little, as the stock Subaru exhaust is remarkably free-flowing.

As far as engine management goes UTEC>reflash by a long shot. I haven't used Cobb's tuning system, but all the cars that I've seen that had a reflash didn't run well.

VIR EURORALLY

What reflash did they have, OpenSource? Our ecu's are learned systems. Once you tune the car, you drive it as you would want the car to learn the power. Over time, with being easy on the car, before you really run it, you would be best to reflash the map to reset any parameters that may have been lowered due to conservative driving.

I'm not endorsing weekend qualifying laps on WIlliamson Road.

If you do go with the UTEC, there are tuners who will tune it in NOVA, but why would you when TXS is in Gaithersburg,MD and they tune in house? My point is you would have the car tuned where the UTEC is made and designed, those guys will knwo it better than anyone else.

Cosmo

It was the Cobb reflash where you take your ECU out and send it to them. When I got out of Subarus, Cobb was just coming out with their personal tuner.

I have tuned probably 25-30 UTEC's in my day.

kidinatype_s

Not always, as (VIR) has said, but any car with more than a intake, and a cat-back in my opinion, should have some type of engine management.

Cosmo

Intakes on WRX's are bad news. I have seen more than a handful of perfectly good engines ruined by an intake. Cat-backs on a WRX make no difference other than more noise.

Subarus don't work the same as most cars...

VIR EURORALLY

As I stated earlier, the K&N Typhoon and the AEM intakes are the only 2 on the market that will not skew the MAF readings on a WRX/STi with the stock ecu flash. Now if this intake you have seen was an Injen,Spt, or any other brand, it would create a lean condition in the upper RPM's on boost.

The issue of overboosting on the STi is not created by installing a downpipe. The issues is created by a internal wastegate that a touch too small and during spool up, the wastegate cannot dump the air fast enough. The downpipe (in most cases divided or bellmouthed, whereas the stock downpipe is blocked off) when installed contributes to this condition because the backpressure is now significantly less.

kidinatype_s

I said any CAR??? not necessarily Subaru's ..... Also that it was my personal opinion, not saying you can't run them and be ok with bolt on's, but I would not do so without some type of engine management.