Hi all, finally getting around to introducing myself
 

Hey Everyone,

I've been lurking on the forums for over a yr now and finally decided it was time to introduce myself and become an active member of the community.

I bought a GD 2006 WRX about a year ago now and have been enjoying it immensely, this is my second car and has really has made enjoy driving rather than coaxing a clapped out carby Lancer down the road.

The thing that lured me to the WRX was the massive tuning scene that it's connected with, I've been a tinkerer all my life and spent much of my uni years designing bits and pieces and building race engines for the UWA motorsport team. Also spent a bit of time tuning the thing so I've got a feel Motec and how to improve driveability, fuel consumption and help unleash so hidden away ponies, never tuned a turbo motor though.

I've been tinkering with the car, less because I really need more performance out of it and more because I just like taking bits and pieces on and off and checking out the effects of it all.

So far I've done:

3" TBE, with a new up-pie, this caused a heap of drama, long story short, you buy cheap, you buy twice. Turbo had to come out this morning due to cheap nasty gaskets that may as well have been made of cheese.

Innovate LC-1 wideband lambda probe, with dash mounted analogue gauge, I am planning to connect the coms into my tactrix so I can log AFR along with the other engine parameters.

Glowshift electric boost gauge, kinda wanky, don't use it for anything as the factory boost gauge is what the engine maps work on.

Glowshift electric oil pressure gauge, this is actually pretty useful as you can tell when the engine oil is warm (idle pressure goes way down), the factory coolant gauge will read operating temp even when the oil is still way thick. Installed the sensor using an excellent adapter that allows me to keep my factory idiot light and relocate the sensor away from the engine block.

Tactrix OB2 ECU cable, haven't used this much bar to look at some operating parameters. Will be using it for logging and tuning once I start hitting the track which hopefully isn't too far away.

Varex 3" twin tip oval muffler, love this thing, the full loud setting has the perfect note to it and is just the right level so it's sporty but not deafening or annoying. The quite mode is an absolute godsend when heading home late at night.

Future:

Hopefully fixing these gaskets will solve my exhaust issues (strange calibration numbers from the ECU's learning features). Then it's only a new panel filter and intercooler away from hitting a dyno.

Will be hunting much richer people's than me garbage to find a STi intercooler and the shroud and y-pipe to go with it.

What am I trying to achieve with a tune? Mostly I'd really appreciate more low down torque and some better throttle response. A bit of punch out of corners would make 3rd gear much more popular. Also the lack of torque in the last 3rd of the rpm range would make me much more inclined to rev it out when the occasion calls for it. Boost tapers off pretty rapidly above about 4500 rpm so I'm sure there is scope to improve it a bit.

Anyway apologies for the essay, anyone that wants anymore info about the stuff I've glossed over on please feel free to let me know.

Cheers
Egg

Welcome to the forums mate - officially seen its been a year :P

plenty cruises coming up this year, get your car ready and jump aboard.

definately throw us all some pics of your ride as well - everyone appreciates that. look forward to meeting you.

Welcome mate,
You'll need to get a tune if you've fitted a full system to your car. 2.5's don't like mods without tuning to suit, fault codes and engine damage can result. Other then that, there's plenty of info on here, might even find that STI intercooler your looking for.
Pic's of beast?

welcome mate

:worthless

Nice intro - G'day.

welcome to p-wrx mate!

Welcome man sounds like you've got this well set out! Can't wait to see it.

Welcome. Great intro.

Are you tuning it yourself or getting someone else to do it? If you are getting a workshop to do it, make sure you speak to them first about your mods and goals before wasting money on stuff that isn't needed.

Given that you have a WRX, you have the standard TD04 which is why boost and performance is dropping off after 4500rpm. Tuning can help but it can't defy physics.

Multiplier will be out of whack because of the exhaust. Get the wideband on and check the AFR's out.

[QUOTE=Eggstatic;672159]Glowshift electric boost gauge, kinda wanky, don't use it for anything as the factory boost gauge is what the engine maps work on.[/QUOTE]

Factory boost gauge?

Thanks guys, I'll make an effort to take a few pics but really it's only a normal looking black MY06, plus a few shopping trolley dings.

[QUOTE=Kato;672317].

Are you tuning it yourself or getting someone else to do it? If you are getting a workshop to do it, make sure you speak to them first about your mods and goals before wasting money on stuff that isn't needed.[/QUOTE]

I think the first round of tuning I will take it to a shop, like you said the whole 3" system throws the whole map out of whack. A lot of the partial throttle stuff I really want to get right and it's really no good have a bazzillion horses if the only control you've got over them is binary, on or off. Doing that stuff on the road needs heaps of data points.


[QUOTE=Kato;672317]Multiplier will be out of whack because of the exhaust. Get the wideband on and check the AFR's out. [/QUOTE]

Wideband's on there, I check it out when I can, it's not catastrophically wrong so I don't think its a major issue. The leaking gaskets certainly arn't helping anything so I'll check it out again once its fixed.


[QUOTE=Kato;672317] Factory boost gauge?[/QUOTE]

Sorry not factory boost gauge, logged factory boost sensor over the OB2 port.

Cool cool, was curious what this factory boost gauge was :P

Have a search for workshops to do the tuning and as you will be tinkering it seems, you will need someone who does open source tuning. You will also need to check if the ecu is locked with their tune.