It was a long day. I should have plots on Monday, so please be patient. I should also have some dyno pulls uploaded. In the meantime, I guess I'll give a summary of the day.
The Tuners
Since last August, I had been talking to two tuners, Eric and "Thorne" of Applied Tuning Solutions (ATS), about this tune. Eric was going to tune my car and made me those infamous limp maps. They knew about the header test. Unfortunately, the header wasn't ready in August, but neither was I since I still had a lot of supporting mods to install. They used to share a building with Performance Theory Motorsports and tune on a Dynojet dyno. Recently, the two tuners merged with IPS Motorsports on the other side of town. IPS is huge - a ton of cars, lots of lifts, lots of techs pumping out twin turbo kits. They specialize in American muscle, I mean real muscle, as in their V8's make 2-6 times as much power as my car.
The 8 second Vette is getting a bigger turbo and going for 2000 whp. They have a Mustang dyno, and it's a real heartbreaker. Consequently, my tuner kept telling me the Mustang numbers as well as what it would be on the Dynojet.
The Journey
It started a few days ago. I was day dreaming about 245/40 performance winter tires. I was looking at the speed ratings when I realized I should look at my studless winter tires. Q rated for 99 mph. Fine by me, but not enough for 4th gear pulls on the dyno. I had two days to procure summer tires. I ended up switching setups with TheGuestSpeaker, which is why you see his car above with my winter setup. I sold him my summer setup, so I was back to my stock wheels and bald stock tires. It threw off the alignment a little, but the car was still manageable.
I double checked the car last night at 10:30PM. I woke up at 3:30AM with about 2.5 hours of sleep. The past four nights, I got 4 hours of sleep per night, so I wasn't exactly feeling my best. By 4:15AM, the car was covered in 2" of snow and the roads were caked in snow and slush. It was 30*F with a healthy amount of snow. I was sliding around everywhere and had very little lateral stability. Even though my self-proclaimed specialty is driving in the snow, it took 100% concentration the entire trip to keep the car on the road. I had a couple close moments where I went sideways on a bridge or started getting sucked off the road. I could only go 50 mph on the highway, and everyone was passing me. My 3 hours trip turned into 4+ stressful hours. I got there safely, a bit late, but still before they normally opened.
Due to insurance reasons if I were to get hurt in the shop, they wouldn't let me back there except for the final pulls. I surrendered the keys to my car, and they went to work. That had to be the worst feeling I've ever had. Giving my keys to strangers and having them work on my car without me seeing anything. I had to sit in a bare waiting room all day (9 hours) with my box of granola bars.
They first fixed the brackets on my HyperFlow TMIC. The brackets were slightly off, so I think they were for the WRX TMIC brackets. They then had to mill the flange on the Forge BPV in order for it to fit on the TMIC. Moreover, strapping the car on the dyno took some time since I had removed the U subframe and every tow hook. Oops, it was for weight loss...
Tuning
First off, there were no hints of knock throughout the entire tuning session. Also, I had zero oil blow by. That was very reassuring for me. The car saw more pulls today than it has in its entire life.
Eric did all the tuning and was in control of the testing procedure. I agreed with his procedure and believe it is as fair of a representation as one can do. He started at wastegate pressure, and the car shot up to 19 psi. I ordered a 1 bar spring, but it seems I got 1.3 bar's worth. Didn't BAD STI have this problem too? Eric WOT tuned the stock manifold. A tech then installed the header since they wouldn't let me be frugal and install it myself in the parking lot. Eric then ran the header on the stock manifold map - same boost, timing, A/F, AVCS, etc. After getting those numbers, he went for the car's potential with the header. At this time, I was invited to the dyno area and got some video. After that was done, he drove the car on the street to work on driveability. I paid and drove 3 hours home. It was 40*F during the day so all the snow melted and the roads were safe, but I was fighting my heavy eyelids. I got back a little after 10PM.
The Results
When I first heard the numbers for the stock manifold, I swallowed hard. The heartbreaker sure broke my heart. They reassured me that the numbers were typical and at the upper end of stage 2 cars. I wondered why I wasn't making more than stage 2 power if I had an EWG and big TMIC. I should also have more wheel power from the lightweight pulleys and carbon fiber driveshaft. After the header install, the car instantly made more power on the same map. After Eric tuned for the header to see what the car could do, both tuners and myself were very happy with the end results. I was no longer heartbroken. Eric did a lot of pulls, and they need to go through them to find the correct ones for comparison purposes. I can't wait to get the plots and post them.
They said my car is the highest horsepower, pump gas, stock turbo STI that they've ever tuned. When I get used to the power, they recommended E-85 since it's just a gas tank and tune away. They also wanted to see my car with an 18G or 20G since I essentially have all the supporting mods already.
The Sound
It sounds really, really close to the stock manifold. It's not raspy, and it doesn't sound like a traditional 4-1 UEL header. The stock manifold might be a hair deeper in tone, but that's it. Before and after, it sounds like the same car from the driver's seat. I didn't get as much stock manifold video footage as I would have liked though. That's my bad.
My Impressions
The response is ridiculous. Boost comes on so much faster. I actually dipped into boost in the first minute of the test drive while trying to drive easy and get used to the car. It pulls nicely with a firm push back into the seat.
Both tuners liked the response and low end torque. I think Eric has an STI. Thorne has an 03 WRX with a built hybrid motor and an 18G with E85. He has 400 ft-lbs of torque and recently sheared two teeth off of 2nd gear, STI RA gears for his 5 speed.
It feels good, but it's not scary fast. I still recall the fear that BadlandsRacer's built engine and 18G-XT put into me. I can manage WOT in a straight line. 1st and 2nd gear are pretty brutal though. The EWG is nowhere near as loud as I thought it would be based on people's descriptions. I think it's great and sounds mean.
The Final Pull
Here's the video of Eric testing the waters before making the final pull. I used my mediocre camera with a tripod, but at least the sound is better than a GoPro's.
