Tanker's TurboSnail: I choose you!

[TankerTruck]

Oh, it's worth every penny! But people should just be aware of the noise level.

Another thing of note that I didn't realize until a few days ago: my car (and all the associated low-level noises with it) puts both of my kids to sleep on the 30-minute drive home after day care every night. What used to be a lot of talking/giggling/yelling is now a yawn and snoring. Yeah, it could be that they are tired from school, but the only thing that has changed in the last month is the tranny mounts, and with most of my driving in 4th gear, I think the low-level whine makes them both sleepy.

Something for those dads to think about if their drives home with the kids is rather... distracting.

[jsBLwrx]

Oh, it's worth every penny! But people should just be aware of the noise level.

Another thing of note that I didn't realize until a few days ago: my car (and all the associated low-level noises with it) puts both of my kids to sleep on the 30-minute drive home after day care every night. What used to be a lot of talking/giggling/yelling is now a yawn and snoring. Yeah, it could be that they are tired from school, but the only thing that has changed in the last month is the tranny mounts, and with most of my driving in 4th gear, I think the low-level whine makes them both sleepy.

Something for those dads to think about if their drives home with the kids is rather... distracting.

Haha kids and cars! Awesome llulaby machine!

[TankerTruck]

OK, after much delay and debate:

I installed the DW 65C fuel pump. Awesomely easy (except for the little tabs holding the OEM pump in place), direct drop in. It seems to work well, so there is that - not really sure what else to say. It seems to be a good reliability mod.

I also ordered some NGK one-step colder plugs, and some heat wrap for the DP and uppipe.

Now on to equal length header research.

[TankerTruck]

Huh... would you look what came in the mail today:

[Mikie13]

Yay headers!

[Calvinball]

Yay headers!

ELH turn a subaru into a porsche! Fact!

[clt-wrx]

hi i just went through the whole thread. it has been a lot of fun to read, keep it up.

[anthony360]

I'm jelouse of all your mods! How many miles you have on yours.

[TankerTruck]

Did the headers today. Super easy install. Less than an hour. Also did oil and motul300 in the front and rear. Vids and pics to follow. Short story is the car is quiet.

[TankerTruck]

My car just turned 10,000 miles today.

First, about the headers - I love them and hate them. I believe they have helped my spool times, particularly from getting from negative psi into 5 psi positive. I probably should look at getting the perrin inlet now, to help even further - but that install scares me a bit to be honest. I also have to install my NGK one-step plugs.

I've contacted Eric at TP to help me along with getting the tune 'fine-tuned' before I go to a dyno, but you can definitely feel something is different. It does seem to need more fuel in the mid-range, for some reason, after the install.

Youtube video before fine-tune from Eric: 3rd gear pull - 55 mph zone - YouTube
The video has the windows down, so you can sort of hear the sound change. Mind you, it's a 55 mph zone, so I'm not going to go crazy on the car yet. And ignore the horrible camera work.

Here is a video of the car in the garage with the headers installed. You can hear that it really is quieter, and smoother, but it isn't a HUGE shift in sound: just like someome turned down the base on a radio to me (hopefully that makes sense). Ignore the stupid person talking and terrible camera work:
Perrin elh installed. Stock cbe. - YouTube

Speaking of the sound change - I've stalled my car 2 times since the ELH install, and been pulled over once since I put them on. The issue is, I used to shift the car by sound, and drove it at certain speeds by the sound of the motor (for instance, the 3000 rpm rumble meant I was doing 45 in 3rd gear, and to slow down in certain areas) . Now, without that, I have a hard time figuring out what speed/rpm i'm at, so I've had to start looking at the tach more often. The cop was very cool, and a total motorhead. I did not get a ticket or a warning (that was only because I had the stock exhaust), and he even had me pop my hood to check out the headers (apparently he drives a heavily modded evo 8 (I think thats what he said)...ewwwwww).

My wife's reaction when I told her it sounded like a Honda to me: 'YEAH! It sounds exactly like a Honda... if Hondas had a big set of balls!" I love my wife, and I'll leave it at that.

So all in all a very interesting change, that I think I'll like once I get the tune dialed in. The question is, is it worth $700? Probably not - but I do like to have a different sounding car than the rest of the world, and I got some very interesting looks from a beautiful white STi hatch that I passed while we were cruising around in Oxford today.

Now, on to a change I demand everyone makes (well, recommend anyway): I changed my stock front and rear diff fluids out for Motul 300 75w-90. Wow. The car runs quieter, shifts more smoothly, and overall is a more pleasant driving experience. Both my front and rear diffs had quite a bit of particulate in them, and were disgustingly black, so perhaps its how I drive, or part of the break in, but I believe that you should get that crap out of your car as soon as you hit 15k miles. I'm going to change it again after 10,000 more miles, to see how it looks, but so far the shifting feel has dramatically improved. I'm going to be using it when I change the C14s gear fluid as well.

Anyway, I am probably going to go to the WBM, so if anyone wants to hear it. I think I know who I'm using for the dyno tune, but I want to shop around to make sure I'm satisfied with him before I schedule.

[wrx50]

Good write up Jesse. When can I hear it in person? I used redline gear fluid in mine. I'm sure it's the same

[f7bb]

SPEECHLESS!!!!! All I have to say is GREAT WRITE UP!!!!

[elblanco1987]

Just finished the whole thing. Great write up man. I also love the tid bits about your kids. Thought it was funny though how you said "I'm not gonna try for any more power" and then halfway down the page you got some EL headers lol. I think that the reason stage 2-3 TP tune wasn't such a big deal was because you already had the top mount when you got the stage 2. If I remember right, aftermarket intercooler isn't until the TP stage 3.
Keep it up though! Great read

[Mikie13]

Yeah...equal length headers definitely need to be tuned for...so I hope you're on that sooner rather than later!

[TankerTruck]

Eric had the previous tune set up a little rich (i.e. a safe pre-header tune for the install), and now we are onto our first revison of that.

I haven't actually driven the car to test it in a few days because the weather is so nice, and I've been commuting on the bike (yeah for kids on vacation!) - now I want to get that tuned (and turboed!). Sigh... anyway, I expect to get something pretty 'final' by the end of next week, but we are already basically just tweaking the tune with the AFRs now to get it to run constantly around the 10.8-11.0 that Eric likes.

I'd like to get it 'in place' by WBM.