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pete25r's bugeye progress

48K views 211 replies 21 participants last post by  pete25r 
#1 · (Edited)
pete25r's bugeye progress

Short story:
2002 WRX Sedan
Mods:
3in TBE exhaust – cat welded in downpipe, Borla muffler
silicone inlet
silicone afta MAF
VF-39 with billet compressor and lightly PNPed
Grimmspeed up pipe, wrapped
AEM UEGO Wideband
Deatchswerks fuel pump - DW200 / 255LPH
Kartboy Short Shifter
Perrin? shifter bushings
tint
kenwood headunit with pioneer speakers
12" sub with amp
aluminum radiator
Kartboy Front and Rear Endlinks
Whiteline Adjustable Swaybars - 24 front on softer and 22 Rear on middle
Konis and RCE Black(7-23-13)
Group N tophats
Grimmspeed splitter
Grimmspeed TMIC
Grimmspeed IC Hose
OEM JDM Bugeye hood scoop
JDM Pinks
STI transmission mount
Group N motor mounts
Kartboy Rear Diff bushings
opensource tuned by your's truly

Stock:
everything esle

Long Story:

I'm a Subaru fanboy. I've had 3 80's models, loved each one. I wanted to get a turboed car so heck, I'll go find myself a WRX. Here's what I found (Feb 2011) License plate is photoshopped, dealer tag was there and ugly.




Underhood - TurboXS atmos. BOV, COBB SF with beatup, dirty filter, exhaust leakS



yeh, filter was supposed to be blue...


So you wanna see some wierdness? Someone welded a largish cat on the 3" downpipe. You might not be able to see in these pics but man-o-man them welds ain't pretty. The welds are structurally sound looking but more of the "bigger the blob, better the job" category.



From the downpipe back its 3" and looks like Borla, resonator in midpipe and dual tipped Borla embossed muffler. Sounds good, not to loud but sounds like it has a pair.

Paint looked good, somewhat fresh. Interior was ok, carpet was beat up, wholes under floormats. It was missing the clock, had a stock 6disc/tape radio, stock speakers, no guages, stock fog lights, wholes drilled in most of the "blanks" by the cruise switch. There was also an off brand remote start unit in it, still wired up just no fuse in the 12v+ line. There were also some other various rat's nests wired in under the dash. When I took it on a test drive I noticed there was a Cobb AP USB dongle-thing on the OBD-II port, no AP though.

I didn't know this until I went to a meet but it's got a short throw shifter with a kartboy sticker on it under the boot. And the boot trim has an STI on it and doesn't quite fit right, it's always falling down off the part that's supposed to hold it up.
 
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#85 ·
I don't have any parts really. I've got a stock front sway somewhere. cracked radiator, 90k-ish struts, a set of PNP TD04 housings (CHRA is toast).

I like to hang onto my old parts for about a year after a mod. Just to make sure I like it and if it breaks I have a fall back.
 
#87 ·
to see gains from exhaust it needs to be bigger or more free flowing than what you have on there now. I don't have any experience with STI exhaust, but its probably not a huge gain, search on here and NASIOC. I know getting a bigger downpipe on there will help out.
Mine came with a downpipe so I have no reference to stock.

Also you'll want a tune for a bigger exhaust.
 
#89 ·
if you have a stock up-pipe on a bugeye, swap that for a catless one asap. little pieces can come out of the cat and screw up your turbo real quick. that doesn't always happen but it can.

be sure to have some engine management lined up too. COBB, Open Source like Tactrix and a tuner or some other resource to get info on what mods need a tune.
do some research, it'll do you some good. I've learned a good bit about my car. Still learning though.

Hit up EJ257, he has tuned a few bugeyes(and others), don't know how busy he is but .
 
#97 ·
Not sure what that's doing, but I love the Incubus in the background. That was without a doubt their best album.
 
#98 · (Edited)
I was about to dedicate the video to you Mikie, but I wasn't feeling very ****-erotic when I posted it... and yes that what I was jammin' to just before I broke out the video camera for the capturing of the blinky. Blinky is good.

I'll post some more info on the mod. Just trying to make the most entertainment out of my mod. It's going to be a slow fall/winter, slow in the mod dept.
 
#114 ·
stupid weather

It's been cold and wet/snowy, with that and my lazyness no picts yet.

For updates sake... Matty looked at my map and gave me some pointers. I am real sporadic with my tuning process, had a tuning laptop meltdown and basically forgot where I was with my tune. Well Matty got me pointed in the right direction, I did some adjustments to my map. I flashed the updated map Monday morning, drove it around. Man it felt more alive. I didn't change that much either. Matty has good eyes or a lot of experience or both.

So this morning, Tuesday, on the way into work, I was getting on the throttle a little to merge with traffic and "pSSSssh" :confused:. One of my hose clamps wasn't tight enough. Limped into work, found clamp and tightened it. Dude in the parking lot asked me if I needed a jump. Was like, thanks but I'm good...
 
#115 ·
It's been cold and wet/snowy, with that and my lazyness no picts yet.

For updates sake... Matty looked at my map and gave me some pointers. I am real sporadic with my tuning process, had a tuning laptop meltdown and basically forgot where I was with my tune. Well Matty got me pointed in the right direction, I did some adjustments to my map. I flashed the updated map Monday morning, drove it around. Man it felt more alive. I didn't change that much either. Matty has good eyes or a lot of experience or both.

So this morning, Tuesday, on the way into work, I was getting on the throttle a little to merge with traffic and "pSSSssh" :confused:. One of my hose clamps wasn't tight enough. Limped into work, found clamp and tightened it. Dude in the parking lot asked me if I needed a jump. Was like, thanks but I'm good...
He's good. He pays a lot of attention to detail and is very meticulous with his tuning.
 
#116 ·
woo-hoo!

Last weekend I got my PNPed TD04 swapped back in. Had to fight with some worn out exhaust bolts but got it done.

long story

So I was logging my trek home today, had a little fun with the pedal on the right. And yes I was being safe, stayed with the speed limit (barely, but I did) and no one was near me.

went from -0.95 to 16.82 manifold pressure in 2480 milliseconds (2.48 secs)

log

and yes the log could be prettier. my stupid tuning netbook is acting up again. got everything backed up on dropbox though so no big deal, just the fun of reinstalling all the programs and stuff. I need to stop messing around, get it up and running good and image that sucker.
 
#117 · (Edited)
been busy...

The wife and kids are out of town for a little bit. I'm home all alone to tinker on some projects. I've worked on my car some, worked on refinishing a table, played some video games. I've got so much "me" time I almost don't know what to do.

But here's what you really wanna see... an update on my car.


before:



It was a lot dirtier on the inside than shows in the picture. Especially around the IACV

after:



I knife-edged the leading edge on the top and bottom of the plate. Didn't wanna do front and back and screw up my idle, not that it would if it was done. I'm lucky like that so didn't want to chance it.
On the bottom have I pretty much just took the edge off, rounded it over a bit. I didn't take any material off of the circumference area.


I carved it up last night, got it on this morning. When I took it off I went off and did the coolant bypass mod. I was there, had a coupler..why not?

Alright, alright. I'll tell you what it feels like now.
Well, since I did all that sanding and whatnot, I took off the IACV and cleaned it. Dude. That thing was funky. I seafoamed my car about a year ago, but I put it in a vacuum hose on the manifold. I cleaned it with an old toothbrush (it wasn't a used one), a q-tip and some seafoam. All sorts of black oozed out.
So I cleaned the my IACV really well and after my wrx warmed up the idle was beautifully smooth. Like butta!

What the PNP job did was improve throttle response, increased intake noise, and made the accelerator a bit more fun. As soon as I feel the slack tighten out of the throttle cable, I can feel the engine working and pulling the car forward. Under heavy throttle the spool/air rushing through intake noise is a little bit louder.

Engine breaking feels a bit less pronounced, doesn't slow me down as much. I think that has to do with all the crap I cleaned out of the IACV though. Don't really know though.
 
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