San Diego builds, One the easy way, one the hard way

[STiPWRD]

I love the video! The exhaust sounds great btw

[Frank818]

Man man man, sceneries everywhere! You and Chad, awesome places. I envy you.

You call that a long drive? 2mins19s? loll Joking. I took a longer look at your inside rear camera to verify the angle and installation I did for my oil cooler, tnx for that!

Besides, your engine sound doesn't sound like the others I've heard. Really smooth yet quiet or so, I love it!

[wleehendrick]

Part of building a car is testing it.
I went for a long hard drive yesterday. It was awesome!
https://youtu.be/WHqoVPTuNQ8

818 on Palomar... nice! I've driven/ridden up/down both grades and the video really does not do the road justice.

For those unfamiliar, this is Palomar Mountain South Grade Road, San Diego's own mini Stelvio Pass:



South Grade.jpg

[07FIREBLADE]

My 818, isn't up for that drive yet, need to tweak the suspension a bit more. But that road looks like a lot of fun might just have to ride that this weekend instead of GMR

[matteo92065]

Worked on the 818 a little this weekend.
Finally put on the EBC with Cobb stage 2 flash. Wow! What a difference. The weird high rpm off throttle surge is now gone. Turbo kicks in earlier and harder.
I'm ready for autocross now!

Some 818 porn from this weekend. Taken with new toy.
https://youtu.be/BU4vy9z5pPQ

...patiently waiting for new nose to be shipped....

[Hindsight]

Looks fantastic! Love the drone footage.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Great Video

[Mechie3]

I liked when you flew almost into the cabin.

[AZPete]

Oh no. Watching that video has probably cost me the price of a drone.

[Aero STI]

Awesome video. I love high quality aerial video footage.

Be extra careful with your autonomous flight. I had around $1,800 wrapped up in this one. My "neighbor" (half a mile away) found it after 6 weeks outdoors and returned it to me after watching the go pro footage. The only thing that was bad was the battery.

[Scargo]

Back to the car... Can't remember your whole engine setup but a tuner can do far better than the Cobb canned tune. I increased my MPG by four and had more power after a pro got through with it. It was still a semi-conservative track tune. It is an EJ257, but I went up 30 WHP and 49 FPT from the baseline Cobb tune and only increased boost by .3.

[matteo92065]

Back to the car... Can't remember your whole engine setup but a tuner can do far better than the Cobb canned tune. I increased my MPG by four and had more power after a pro got through with it. It was still a semi-conservative track tune. It is an EJ257, but I went up 30 WHP and 49 FPT from the baseline Cobb tune and only increased boost by .3.

Yeah, I know I need to take it to a dyno/tuner shop. I have asked every (Subi) person, that I run into, where to take my car (local to San Diego). I have not gotten a consistent or positive response to this question. Many people have taken their car all the way to LA (2 hour drive one way). So it becomes a minimum 1 full day off of work, but because of your comment about Cobb tunes, I'm more likely to take a day off. I didn't know how much power is safely & easily available.
That said, I would be very frustrated if I made an appointment at a dyno, took the day off, had them run the car, then tell me I need to replace xxx (say for instance bigger injectors), and come back to do it all again to get an easy/cheap extra 30hp.

Right now I have a 2006 WRX (all stock minus smog stuff) in it. I'm slowly building an '09 STI long block (converted to AVCS from DAVCS), with a Dominator 1.5x turbo and ????. I will for sure get that professionally tuned when and if I finish it. But then I will be very concerned about breaking axles/transmission.

For the immediate future, I am really happy with where it is at. The car felt really fast before, and now it feels even faster, with power that is more controllable.

[STiPWRD]

Conversely, you could tune the car yourself. Just throwing it out there, I know it's not for everyone. There are lots of good resources out there, it just takes research, practice and data logging. For instance, you could data log your injector duty cycle to see if they're close to maxing out - that will tell you if you need bigger injectors. Granted, you will be road tuning so you won't have actual dyno hp numbers but you may be surprised in the improvements to be had in fine tuning your boost and AFR curves, which you can measure without a dyno. Engine tuning seemed daunting to me at first but after a few years of reading and tinkering with the ECU, it seems much less of a challenge.

Also, some car clubs will rent out a dyno for the day. This can be a cheap way to dyno your car ($50) as opposed to having an expert necessarily dyno tune it ($500).

[matteo92065]

Conversely, you could tune the car yourself. Just throwing it out there, I know it's not for everyone. There are lots of good resources out there, it just takes research, practice and data logging. For instance, you could data log your injector duty cycle to see if they're close to maxing out - that will tell you if you need bigger injectors. Granted, you will be road tuning so you won't have actual dyno hp numbers but you may be surprised in the improvements to be had in fine tuning your boost and AFR curves, which you can measure without a dyno. Engine tuning seemed daunting to me at first but after a few years of reading and tinkering with the ECU, it seems much less of a challenge.

Also, some car clubs will rent out a dyno for the day. This can be a cheap way to dyno your car ($50) as opposed to having an expert necessarily dyno tune it ($500).

Thanks for the words of DIY encouragement. I was motivated today, so I emailed a local dyno shop for a quote and asked for recommendations based on my current car. They replied back with its close to ideal right now (leave it), and if I did want to add to it, I should look at their Flex Fuel kit, larger injectors, and corresponding tune". The Flex Fuel kit does look enticing. I will be missing out on E85 most of the time, as its not available near me and my tank is small (~12 gallons). http://www.delicioustuning.com/flexfuelcobb
Pump gas dyno tune runs $775 for 3-4 hours.

I'll look into tuning it myself, if nothing else, just to learn the process, and to be an educated consumer when I do bring it in.

[07FIREBLADE]

I would plan on taking a full day off or dropping the car off so the shop can work on it without being rushed. I'm fortunate enough to live just down the street from Cobb Fountain Valley. They took 1.5 days to get mine completely tuned and worked out. They had a few issues to work through but got it all done and Im very happy with the power levels its producing. To be honest after driving it for awhile I've considered turning the boost down a bit. I wish I got the racelogic traction control while it was still available.

[wleehendrick]

Yeah, I know I need to take it to a dyno/tuner shop. I have asked every (Subi) person, that I run into, where to take my car (local to San Diego). I have not gotten a consistent or positive response to this question. Many people have taken their car all the way to LA (2 hour drive one way). So it becomes a minimum 1 full day off of work, but because of your comment about Cobb tunes, I'm more likely to take a day off. I didn't know how much power is safely & easily available.

I've got pretty much the same set up as you (emissions stripped 2006 WRX with EBC) and plan to run the COBB OTS to start with; I'd be interested in your experience with local tuners. Crawford Performance is Oceanside. I've never been there, but a possibility I was considering when ready as they're close to me and big in the Subie World.

Also, has anyone ever used a remote (e-tune) service like this?

http://www.iaperformance.com/product...oducts_id=2997

[flynntuna]

There is a shop down the hill from you in Santee that does tune Subies. I don't have any personal knowledge of their work so I'm hesitant to recommend it. There is a family owned shop in Kerney Mesa that I can recommend but I don't know if they do subies. They're mostly Ford guys ( that's what they race) but they tune a lot of aftermarket CPUs megasquirt ect. Worth a call anyway.

http://jbaspeedshop.com/p-30874-custom-dyno-tuning.html

http://cccmotorsports.com/upgrade-services/

[matteo92065]

Aside from tuning the Engine, I've been working on my Gauge Cluster. I started with an Impreza dash that was fairly scratched and the lights behind the LCD displays would not light up. I've gone through the wire harness thinking that I cut a wire that I shouldn't have, but I seem to have power where I should. So I bought a WRX cluster off of ebay, and put it in last weekend. I had that damn dashboard in and out 5 times taking care of a whole bunch of little odds and ends. I really like how everything turned out, especially that big centered tachometer! But.... Now none of my gauges light up!? WTF?
Last night I did a lot of troubleshooting, on my old cluster, and finally came to discover that many of the bulbs themselves were blown out. ARGGG! Dash has to come back out (assuming new dash has bad bulbs).
Maybe I'll take this opportunity to put in LED bulbs, maybe change them to red, that would be cool.

10 minutes later on Google I find this! -> http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=1124644
It was exactly what I was looking for. AND look at WHO wrote it, and look at WHEN it was written. Mechie3, in 2006! Thanks Craig

I did not read through all 472 posts (last post being only a month old)

I will probably experiment with my old cluster using LED strip lights.
It never ceases to amaze me how everything on this car ends up taking hours longer than I think it should.

Craig, are you still using your original cluster w/mods?

[David Hodgkins]

This is AMAZING! One of my bucket list items is to learn how to shape metal. I'd like to do an aluminum cobra body some day and maybe even an original design. You are hitting this one out of the ballpark! Do you have a rendering you are working against?

[Scargo]

... Also, has anyone ever used a remote (e-tune) service like this?

http://www.iaperformance.com/product...oducts_id=2997

I would not hesitate to use them or another similar Cobb franchised (I'm assuming) service. I don't know how many shops can technically (and legally) do tuning with an Accessport and be able to unlock it. I have had "starter" program files sent to me to load, so I could get to the shop for a dyno-tune without risk of damage to the engine, so there is no reason they can't do it remotely, as stated. There might be some nuances that might be missed if you don't take it somewhere. A good shop, a good tuner and his band of merry men poking their heads under your hood can be worth a lot. Sometimes, you have small vacuum or boost leaks or what you are using or how it's hooked up is not optimal.
That being said, once you've been there, done that at $300-400 a pop you start thinking about managing it yourself with open-source programs. A number of internet "E-tuners" have been around for a while. Perhaps a half-dozen or so scattered about the US. I may have a short list I could share.
Try these links for further education:
http://igotasti.com/vBforum/showthre...-Source-Tuning

OPENSOURCE TUNING: Your questions answered here!!! RomRaider + Tactrix

[matteo92065]

Been logging lots of miles with the 818s.
The Hard-way is is also coming along.
IMG_2270.JPGIMG_2269.JPGIMG_2259.JPGIMG_2261.JPGIMG_2260.JPG

[turbomacncheese]

I used to do that in my WRX. It was modified enough that things sometimes went wrong. It was hilarious to watch me pull over, hop out, and in 5 minutes be back in the car speeding away.

I was on my way to the junkyard once in my turbo dodge to get a bolt for my steering knuckle. Hit a bump and it came loose, pulling the axle straight out of the trans, wheel flopping forward and away from the car. Cop pulled up behind me as I'm jacking up my car. "Want me to call a tow truck, son?" "No thanks, officer, I got this" lol. Finished the drive and got my part.

[Mechie3]

Is the "hard one" still an 818?

[matteo92065]

Is the "hard one" still an 818?

Good question. Probably not.