I have a 2002 wrx completely stAndard which is going in my camper. The engine has been in storage for a while so am going through it doing stuff like cambelt etc. whilst I was doing this i have stripped all the ancillaries from the engine for a cosmetic refresh and am looking for gains whilst I am there. Opinions welcomed on any of the below. I am looking for mild tuning and easy simple gains really not all out racing


1) tumbler valves- I can't imagine these are helpful and would like to delete them- partly for performance although it seems this is usually for higher power but mainly as I also plan to run lpg I am wondering about mounting injector bosses in them for a tidy and efficient lpg install

2) I am replacing the up pipe and porting the headers while they are off and a mate suggested a td05 turbo to replace the mint td04 what gains are there ? Will I need remap and bigger injectors too ? Presume there are gains from waste gate shimming too?
3) what's the deal with silicone inlet pipes seems a lot of £ for what benefit?
4) what's the best bov ? Recirc or not?

Thanks in advance

 

1) the TGV's help with low RPM and cold start combustion - they aren't needed and indeed aren't present on some models but you'll need a remap to turn off all the codes for them.

2a) yes porting will see a good increase in spool if done well, if done poorly then your headers will crack. Use the gasket as a template and don't go too mad.

2b) a TD05 will produce a lot more air at the same boost level as a TD04 - but your shifting the power band to a higher set of RPM's. If you like midrange punch stick with the TD04, see if you can get the exhaust housing ported whilst you have everything dismantled as there are some gains to be had there. Either ported TD04 or replace with TD05 (assuming a 16g here and nothing bigger) with remap and STI injectors will see you in the 300+ zone. Don't discount a used VF turbo either, they can be had for reasonable money and you can get rebuild kits for them these days too.

How much does your camper van weigh compared to the WRX - the extra power might come in handy for towing things or lugging around literally the kitchen sink

3) silicone inlet pipes are expensive, but the standard pipes have this neat little trick of cracking/splitting underneath where you can't see them, they are a pig to get to for replacement so whilst the manifold is off for TGV porting it makes sense to get it out of the way. You'll also gain some performance too - I've only seen improvements in power on any of the cars I've mapped. Look for silicone pipes for the turbo/intercooler as well - anywhere there is a wrinkly standard pipe your seeing air turbulence so removing it will only improve the situation.

4) what's best in life? Blow off valves generally will monkey with the ECU as your losing a big hunk of metered air. The ECU doesn't know this so it adds the fuel anyway, when it reaches the o2 sensor the car assumes something is wrong as it's now quite rich and pulls fuel back, then it's lean as the dump valve is now closed so it has to make another adjustment. The constant adjustment is no biggie in most cases, but some cars with the right dumpvalve will become very fussy leading to stalling between shifts. If it's a really crappy valve then it will be leaking at part throttle which will feel like someone has taken the wind out of your engine. If you want the sound effects then look at a 50:50 valve or a quality brand name - don't skimp out as your more likely to run into issues.

Performance tuning a WRX has been done time and time again, follow the path that others have laid out and you'll have no problems:
http://www.andyforrestperformance.co.uk/58901.html

Select a quality mapper to do the work, choose between opensource or ECUtek remaps depending on your budget and your mappers recommendation. Listen to what your mapper tells you - if they recommend brand X over brand Y they probably have a reason for it.

 

Wow what great advice many thanks for being so thorough and tolerant of my naive questions !

Tbh I have no need whatsoever for 300bhp in a camper but I enjoy this sort of stuff so think why not. I am gona go td05 with pink injectors, ported zorst, decat up pipe , diy tumbler delete with Lpg injector bosses as an experiment ( easily blocked but reckon it will work) , I have already made a 3inch zorst, and will splash out on a silicone inlet !
I reckon the only restriction wil be the charge cooler from legacy but this sort of stuff easily done after fitting !

Thanks again for great advice

 

Sounds good, get some pics up and let's see this van then - is there any scope for a wing mounted intercooler like an mr2 ? Might give you a little more headroom just.

If you can pickup an open port cable I can give you a hand mapping it all in as well.

 

Selling some ported headers for £100 if you want to save your self some work

 

also with regard to the tumbler delete, sometimes you can find the tgv-less STI manifold for sale on here with the STI injectors already installed - makes the swapover a much easier task. Mattybr5 has always been good to me so I'd recommend checking with him first to see what he has in stock.

 

Thanks for the tips / advice again and for the offer of set up help too blue god. Seems like pink injectors are easy to find but a reasonably priced td05 -16 not so......however I see quite a few of these vf turbos ...there a guy selling a ball bearing vf28 he reckons is good for 325 bhp.....what are your thoughts on these ? They are more plentiful in availability and hence cheaper. I'm kind of keen to get going with my engine build.
I will get some pics of the van up soon....not much to see atm as all the mods are v subtle so it just looks like a vw camper! there is no scope for mr2 scoop as want to keep body looking externally normal and they aren't that efficient....not a prob though worst case I will upgrade the scooby charge cooler.

 

Get yourself a brand new Chinese 16g off eBay. They work well, and people who say otherwise have never used one.
£200 brand new

 

Boosted....you read my mind I was just about to start a thread re opinions/experiences of these turbos....I'm a keen reader of ppc mag and the bloke in there who runs emerald tuning says no way never to Chinese repro....however I have heard many people like yourself sing praises and I have just recently bought other products like a tank for my bike and silicone intake hoses from China and India and they were great however these aren't mechanical parts so not built to same tolerances. I guess it's gona come down to pay my money and take a gamble...Its that or an unknown 2nd hand one I guess!!

 

I've used six or seven of them, on many cars, over many years and thousands of miles. My current daily driver has one.
Tuners and the like will of course want you to buy their own turbo's!
Worth mentioning all the bearings and parts are interchangeable between Chinese and their branded counterparts. It's not a complicated item, only two fans on a shaft with three brass bearings ffs

 

currently running an ebay 16g in mine too and it's been kicking *** for the best part of 2 years now without any hassles. The bolts the give you to blank off the unused coolant ports are a bit meh but I just replaced them with cut down bolts and has been spot on for me.

Handy thing about the TD turbos is you can get rebuild kits for them much easier than you can with the VF's. Both would do to get you into the 300+ zone, but the high revving requirements to get them going may not be suitable for your application, don't discount the TD04 just yet it can be quite a punchy wee beasty once you get it setup right.

For the intercooler I was thinking wing mount rather than a big scoop on the side of the car, I think im some of the pics of vans I've seen they have cooling vents either side so maybe one could be the radiator and one could be a cheeky wing mount intercooler.

Not sure if your planning on fitting the WRX radiator as well, but good to keep in mind that an upgraded turbo will also be increasing the load on the cooling system so if your using a smaller rad the TD04 may be worth sticking with.

 

Thanks for the further advice gents I scored a rebuilt one on eBay for £125 supposedly proper one too! We will see. Am now chasing the pink injectors and sti manifold to delete Tgv so I can get bosses in For Lpg. Will I need to upgrade my fuel pump too with this td05/. pink injectors malarkey ? Currently a std wrx pump from a classic.

The rad set up is using a jag xj40 rad so plenty of capacity ! It's a bit experimental in an air cooled van but hopefully will work. The rear intakes you mention are not aerodynamically efficient - they are air intakes really due to original engine being self sufficient on cooling but rubbish for proper cooling. I'm using one as cold air intake tho with panel filter mounted inside.

 

Here's a link to my project - tediously detailed and actually outdated - much has happened since - in final stages of paint at mo. If you do decide to waste a few days of your life reading you will see several changes of direction and pointless mods !! To summarise it's a 70 bay, Porsche brakes and rear suspension, all on air, new mini dash and seats, proper back seat / bed, scooby engine and box with reversed r&p, cruise control etc I can't even remember what else :-) general plan is a modern car in shape and style of old van.
http://www.vwkd.co.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?t=254&sid=551391938a2cf87e74c4da4a47 1efed4

 

Your 440cc injectors should
Be adequate for 340bhp, around what the maximum power the 16g will flow (more likley the 16g won't flow 340).
Although if you are set on bigger injectors look for some Hawk eye blues, same 565cc/min as pinks, but newer and cheaper.

 

is that 440cc's with a bump in fuel pressure or a really friendly dyno plus some super super unleaded?
It's just I normally go by the witchhunter calculator:
http://www.witchhunter.com/injectorcalc1.php

Even assuming brake specific fuel consumption of 0.55, the 4x 440's will be running around 112% to make that power. From what I've read our BSFC is closer to 0.60 or 0.65 - that would put you around 132% duty.

The 550's at at the same power would only be around 89% duty - much safer for you and future room for expansion too.

I'd be looking for the STI pinks or blues to match up with the 16g as they will leave you room for a richer AFR if needed due to fuel quality available.

 

Who doesn't run super unleaded lol?!
I always work on the theory that 5.4cc of fuel gives 1bhp. Lots of imprezas making 390+bhp on 550's, blues are 565's.
👍
On that theory 440cc=326bhp
550=407
565=418
650=481
820=607
And so on. Witchhunter has always been VERY conservative with regard power output, plus they assume 80% duty cycle. In reality you can run higher duty.

 

aye using the formula on their site you can adjust the duty cycle part of the equation but there is super unleaded and there is super unleaded. You mainlanders get super super, I can only get 98 at best so the peak figures are never as good

 

V power nitro plus none the less!

 

Didn't even read the rest.

g'on yersel, as we say around here.