04 WRX Journey to Power

[chinakid245]

Alright so I've been wanting to start a thread and here it goes. I reside in Phoenix, AZ, own an 04 WRX currently with about 120k on the motor and she still runs strong. When I got the car, it had an agency power catback and an AEM Cai as far as power goes.

That's her on the left.

Now my goals for this car have always been to be at around 300-320awhp and i've been slowly building her up for just that. I'm just going for good low end power and quick spool. I'm also planning to keep the top mount intercooler set up as well.

[chinakid245]

So as with all vehicles new to me, I proceeded to flush the coolant, change the oil with Castrol Edge, fresh gear oil in the tranny as well as the diff. Many thanks to my helpful girlfriend with changing the oil even though she hates to get dirty haha.

Here she is whining about how she's getting dirty lol


So as far as the car's modifications go, when I purchased my WRX, it had the following:

AEM CAI
Agency Power Ti catback
HKS SSQ3 BOV

D2 Front Camber Plates
Ksport Pro Kontrol Coilovers
Perrin Front and Rear Sways
GT spec fron and rear Strut Tower bars


Now these are more recent pictures but i'll get to the newer mods later.

[chinakid245]

Now when I first test drove the car, it has a slight boost problem. It sounded great and seemed to have no problems going through the rev range, but she would only boost about 7psi max. Nothing more. Now of course I knew exactly how much an 04 WRX was supposed to boost stock and of course this was no where close. I talked the price down more and knew I could easily fix it. So next I bought a cheap turbo xs MBC to see if I could manually get the car to boost over wastegate psi. Sure enough, she did. Hit 13-14psi and pulled so much harder. Now I could actually hear the sweet whistling sound of my small turbo boosting!! haha

So next I checked the vacuum lines to and from the wastegate as well as to the stock EBC and turbo inlet pipe. Everything seemed fine but I also added in a stock restrictor pill since my vacuum lines had none to see if that would help when I replaced all the lines just to be safe. Still to no avail. My car would only seem to his wastegate pressure before she opened and wouldn't boost any higher. So back to the MBC I went until later mods.

[UEDan]

CAI... get rid of it unless its tuned for it. And get a vag com cable. Use that to check the car's health via ecu and eventually use as a flash cable. Its pulling boost for a reason.

Aside from that, damn you're lucky. Your girl may not like getting dirty, but you got her to help! Awesome!

Posted from a fone.

[teflon_jones]

I wouldn't get rid of the CAI. I have yet to see proof you absolutely need a tune with one, especially on the older model cars. Since you're going to need a pro tune anyway for your planned mods, you might as well keep it anyway.

Make sure you add some brake upgrades to go along with the power and suspension mods (pads and fluid at least, and maybe some stainless lines.

[chinakid245]

CAI... get rid of it unless its tuned for it. And get a vag com cable. Use that to check the car's health via ecu and eventually use as a flash cable. Its pulling boost for a reason.

Aside from that, damn you're lucky. Your girl may not like getting dirty, but you got her to help! Awesome!

Posted from a fone.

Haha yes indeed I'm thankful she at least helps somewhat and puts up with my obsession.

As far as the car's health goes, sorry these posts aren't current so to speak but I'm going through my timeline of work so far. Sorry if that's confusing. I later did a compression test and saw +- 145 psi in all cylinders. Sorry I'm not familiar with a vag cable. Sounds like a tactrix cable maybe?

[chinakid245]

I wouldn't get rid of the CAI. I have yet to see proof you absolutely need a tune with one, especially on the older model cars. Since you're going to need a pro tune anyway for your planned mods, you might as well keep it anyway.

Make sure you add some brake upgrades to go along with the power and suspension mods (pads and fluid at least, and maybe some stainless lines.

I've heard from various sources as well as a Cobb rep that the AEM CAI is one of the better intakes and that it was even safe for me to later run the OTS maps with it.

I do have a question about what brake upgrades you would suggest though. After I did all my fluid flushes, I also threw on all new rotors and ceramic pads all the way around.

[UEDan]

Hmmm, I stand corrected. I'll keep AEM in mind as one of the good intakes =)

Yep, a Vagcom cable is volkswagon's data cable which will function identically to a Tactrix 1.3 cable for blobeyes, after soldering 1 wire to 2 pins.

Posted from a fone.

[chinakid245]

Hmmm, I stand corrected. I'll keep AEM in mind as one of the good intakes =)

Yep, a Vagcom cable is volkswagon's data cable which will function identically to a Tactrix 1.3 cable for blobeyes, after soldering 1 wire to 2 pins.

Posted from a fone.

Yeah it was kind of interesting, he had told me that AEM is one of the few intake manufacturers that actually puts decent R&D into their products.

[chinakid245]

So after a fresh wash and wax here's a few quick picks with a friend's evo 8

[chinakid245]

Next on to some Poly bushings!! Picked up some Cobb front and rear shifter bushings from RSD and spent a couple hours putting them in along with another synthetic oil change.



Front bushing comparison


Installing both resulted in a much more positive shifter feel. MUCH more solid indeed!!

[chinakid245]

So i was going through some pictures today and decided to entertain you all with some quick pics of my old Z's.

1987 300ZX Turbo coupe with about 195K on the original motor and stock turbo.
9" cone filter, 240sx larger throttle body, plenum spacers, MBC set to 10psi, 3" MSA Turbo back exhaust. Factory LSD. HP estimate at about 250RWHP.
Best 1/4 mile 14.3 @ 98MPH.
data

2006 350Z 50K
AEM SRI, Plenum spacer, 04 VQ lower collector, JIC Magic 3" single exit catback. Rays LMGT4 18" wheels