MickyC

Ok,
Heres the deal!
I am new to owning a scoob, I am new to tuning cars, but have caught the bug seriously since aquiring my 99V 5 door impreza turbo with 40k on the clock.
I have decated her completely and what a fantastic difference it made.
Now my point is this, and I dont think I am alone when I say this but I am about as technical as a pizza!!!!!!
What I would dearly, dearly love is this;
I have exactly £1000 to spend on getting as much power, correctly, safely, and quickly out of my car,.........but!.......I know nothing, and i mean nothing.
People have advised boost gauges, knock links, ECUTEK's, but i have no or very little understanding of what these things do in terms of adding power to my car.
So are there any kind hearted Subaru fanatics out there that would take the time to put themslves in my position, with 1K to spend on adding as much power as possible to my car which as I said earlier has a brand new full decat exhaust only at the moment and explain to me why they advise a particular part?????
Remember, we all had to start somwhere and hopefully my lessons start here?

Looking forward to hearing from you guys

Micky

Fatman

Micky - a good place to start would be to have the ECU remapped. That's the ECUtek reference people throw around. Actually it's the name of the firm who provide the mappers with the software to do the job. Remaps update the software references used by the ECU (i.e. keep the same ECU hardware, it's just flashed. That will cost £500-£700 depending on where you go.

There's a number of levels of remapping. The "Tek-2" is a map that can be applied to cars of your type. It's enhanced relative to the standard map, and should allow ~270bhp. The peak power isn't the whole story, as there's more power and torque all over the rev range. The car is more willing to pick-up the revs, and the torque doesn't tail-off at 5/5.5k revs as it would when 'stock'.

The Tek-2 been used hundreds of times, and is regarded as safe for a well maintained car. The "Tek-3" is a custom map tailored for a particular car, used for more extensively modified vehicles.

Some people advocate use of Knocklink devices. That will monitor for a potentially harmful combustion condition, and would cost (I believe) around £150 - £200.

I'm sure other people will have other varitation on this advice, but I think quite a few will suggest an ECU remap.

[EDIT: tuned cars should be run on higher octane fuel. If you're going to make these sorts of modifications, run the car on super unleaded or Optimax. Don't use ordinary supermarket fuel, which can be of poor quality.]

[Edited by Fatman - 4/28/2003 9:16:22 PM]

MickyC

thanks for that man!

i do run her on optimax, and nothing else.

she has done 40k, is 3 years old, with full subatu history, and the last owner was a company director, so I dont think she has been abused !

micky

RICH WILD

I'm a company director and I abuse the cr@p out of mine!!

Seriously, yes a ECUtek is a good idea for tuning 99 onwards cars as Fatman says.

I'd DEFINATELY fit a Knocklink though, for £150 it could save you an engine rebuild, although at 270ish bhp, you shouldn't be THAT much at risk, running the fuel you do.

That will use up a fair chunk of your budget so options are fairly limited after that. For serious power, front mounts and bigger turbos will set you back a bit.

Probably the biggest restriction on your car is the turbo, the TD04 is pretty small and 300bhp is roughly its limit. What about a VF turbo second hand or a TD05 FE? You can pick these up for £200-£300, though you'd be wise to fit that BEFORE youhave the car mapped. You need to speak to John Banks or Alan G really on here. They've both got late model UKs. I'm more of an early model man myself. They've done just about everything you can do to a Subaru between them.

Cheers

Rich

SiHethers

MickyC

John Banks does a Tek2.5 remap (sent via post) for MY99 cars. This is an enhanced Tek2 (which is meant for standard cars) which has been designed for cars running a full sports exhaust. You would need a knocklink/deltadash plus some uprated intercooler hosing for this but would be inside your price limit. As is mentioned above you're unlikely to get much above 300bhp on a standard turbo, but you will get a fat torque curve and improved response from a tek2.5.

Cheers

Simon

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

I'd advise you to spend your money on brakes and suspension before going up to 270ish on a remap.

For brakes the minimum upgrade is front discs and pads, rear pads to compliment, with braided hoses and uprated fluid. Should be about £500 I think.

Suspension wise I'd fit solid droplinks all round, and an uprated rear antiroll bar. That should cost £200. Once you're used to the handling characteristics of your new car (read lift-off oversteer) then you could consider bumpsteer removal, this virtually eliminates understeer. Best £120 I've spent on my car (and I've spent quite a bit ).

This should give you a car thats more than capable of handling the power of a TEK2.

For £1000 I'd spend £500 on the brakes, £200 on suspension with the other £300 spent on a boost gauge, knocklink and a Dawes MBC (manual boost controller). Its not a remap like a TEK, but if set up correctly you can raise boost to get around 260-270bhp.

Justin

Fatman

Jay m A - since you seem to have done some suspension modifications, some advice - please. I've a full decat system on my Scoob and a Tek-2 remap as well (yes, already upgraded the front brakes). with the additional power I've found the nose of the car pitching upwards under heavy acceleration. Any suspension mods you can think of to combat this?

Apologies for going off-topic, Micky.

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

I don't claim to be an expert, my advice was based on dailing out a bit of the imprezas 'safety for the masses' understeer - ie stiffening up the rear ARB - a very common mod. as is replacing the plastic droplinks to solid items, it stiffens up the suspension a tad WRT the ARB's hence slightly sharper responses allround.

Your situation I think needs an Anti lift kit (ALK) however a while back there was a big debate in the suspension forum about its merits, good and bad - worth a read. I suggest taking your question to the suspension forum!

Fatman

OK - fair point. I'll see what the suspension peeps have to say.