I took my MY93 WRX to Power Engineering on Thursday (21/03) to have it 'looked at', as the car didn't seem 'right'.

The rolling road showed I was quite down on power - 220BHP and 180lbs/ft torque This is with an STI center and backbox Mervyn asked if I was getting any hesitation, and he showed me the retardation (sp?) - as the boost increased to about 9psi the retardation went from 0deg to -8 or -10deg!

Mervyn then said he has been working on an updated ECU for the older models, as this has come up a number of times before. I put the new chip on, and my power increased to 253BHP and 234lbs/ft! The retardation stayed at 0deg for the whole power band, and the turbo pressure increased to 11psi

What a difference! I now have a permanent smile on my face when driving the Scoob - it is THAT different! Rather than stuttering when accelerating (which I put down to turbo spool-up), it now just powers all the way to the red line... I also now get better fuel economy - about 20-30% (21mpg up to 24mpg!).

I am very happy with the 'mod' (as you can probably tell ). For £400 + VAT I have a completely transformed Scooby that doesn't embarass me at the 'traffic light grand prix'!

Well done Mervyn at Power Engineering!

Daniel
MY93 WRX

 

very interesting, I thought all 93 wrx pulled like that.

£400 + vat you say, does that include rolling road set up & diagnostics ??

how long did it take to do ??

 

I've just spet a fortune trying to get someone to find that problem...... they told me they all ran a bit hesitantly due to the octane being low....

What a waste of money that was, thanks for posting this, I'm gonnahave to go get mine done now, brilliant

 

Took my MY94 UK to see Merv last year. It was hesitating at about 4,000rpm. But it couldn't be reproduced on the rollers.

We spent about an hour banging around the countryside with the select montitor attached, but still couldn't pin it down.

Had Merv scratching his head and I could tell he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Maybe he's now cracked it ?

I recently fitted a Prodrive Chip which seems to of helped, although not sure if it's totally cured it.

[Edited by Scott.T - 3/25/2002 1:53:15 PM]

 

Would this help out with my overboost problem? or is that only surmountable with a restrictor being added?

 

barge,

The price is for the chip only. I was charged an additional £125 + VAT for the rolling road diagnostics. Not cheap, but definately worth the money!

Scott,

Mervyn said it took him a long time to solve the problem, and IIRC he said that he only finished it a little while ago - might be worth giving him a call?

Markus,

Sorry mate, don't know about your overboost problem

Daniel

 

Yep, exactly the same with mine. 93WRX running rougher than a doggy. Merv said he swapped the ROM boards for those of an MY96 WRX and bingo...263 bhp/245lb ft and no rough running at all. I've spoken to more than a few early WRX owners with similar probs, and this is the way around it. Mine cost me 450+ and the 125+ for the diagnosis so it came out to 700 knicker which the dealer I bought the car off eventually stumped up for.

My insurance company (Bell) werent that keen when I told em tho. Even tho I told them it was a necessary repair they cancelled my policy so I had to go to Schofields and save some money. Moo ha ha.

 

Dan,

I'll have word with you at the next meet I have this problem intermittantly, it's a pain in the butt [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]. Not so much recently though. I am changing my intercooler pipe as I know it has a split in it. I think that may have something to do with my loss of boost pressure. It zaps up to .9bar but slides off to an even .5/.6bar. My top end is a lot better now since fitting ITG panel filter.

Are your figures psi or bar? seems low for psi???

Dave

 

Dave,

The figures are in psi. I thought all early Japanese cars had quite low pressure limits (11psi the norm) - the extra power came from the larger turbo than the later models/UK spec machines.

I wonder if (by fitting a Dawse Device or similar) I could increase the pressure to the same as UK cars... Hmmm... I wonder what 16-18psi would give me...

Daniel

 

Dan,

Cheers for that, I realised after the post but never mind. I may have to stand corrected on this but I thought I read here a while back that the Dawes Device could'nt be fitted on WRX's? UK models only. Someone please advise, thanks.

See you at the next meet.

Dave