[Dylan Opp]

Hey all,
I just bought a 2013 wrx and I had some questions that google wasn’t really answering. Right now the tunes that are loaded onto this car are: “ECU Realtime” (stage 1+SF 91 v350) and “ECU Reflash” (stage 1 +SF 91 v350). I was wondering if these are good tunes to have on your wrx or if I should upload different ones that are on the access port? The motor that is in this vehicle is rebuilt with 17k on it. I’m looking for whatever will make this car last for as long as possible, or in other words I don’t really care about power that much.
thank you very much,
Dylan Opp

 

[WRX-maniac]

What modifications, if any, are currently on the car? The accessport is a tuning tool where you can use a map from the accessport (stage 1 +SF, stage 2, etc) to tune the ecu, permitting you have the correct parts on the car as described by the map notes. The accessport IS NOT a tuning tool where you can or should just be throwing random maps on your car to see which one makes the car run better or whatever.

To answer the question of what will make the car last as long as possible. Selling the accessport, keep all parts stock, and stay on top of the maintenance. Seems you may already be in too far over your head with the accessport alone. Let alone the tuning capabilities and maps offered on it.

 

[Ian-2013]

Ya if you don't care about power, and if you have the modifications of the air intake and the tune, that is really all that can be done with the accessport. Maybe switching to a stock air filter and box would be your best solution and unpairing the accessport to the car. I do recommend keeping the accessport though. Keeps and informs you on live data regarding your car. May not be the most accurate thing but it does help with a general understanding.

 

[Dylan Opp]

The only modifications that I know about are a Cobb cold air intake and some kind of aftermarket headers. I’ll probably keep the access port since it does tell me a ton of info about my engine. I went on a drive and saw that it was pushing 17 psi @ 5k rms. Is this too much?

 

[Ian-2013]

The only modifications that I know about are a Cobb cold air intake and some kind of aftermarket headers. I’ll probably keep the access port since it does tell me a ton of info about my engine. I went on a drive and saw that it was pushing 17 psi @ 5k rms. Is this too much?

are you sea level? I don't know your location. If at sea level that sounds about right, I think the stock PSI of the turbo can handle 22 PSI? probably wrong, I have faith that someone will correct me on that. the Cobb air intake isn't a bad thing to hold on to, but for reliability it is typically better to stick to stock.

 

[XJman]

Ecu reflash permanently flashes the tune to your car, realtime just temp loads parameters until restart. You want to flash the tune to your car. You choose the tune based off of your mods and octane available in your area. acn 91, 91, and 93.

Cobb staged packages are basically
Stage 1 Ap tune
Stage 1+ AP tune and intake
Stage 2 AP tune and turbo back exhaust
Stage 2+ AP tune, intake and turbo back exhaust.

There are some other random things available but we will leave it at the basic for now.

Although there are other tuning solutions for your model year, as of today Cobb is going to be the most supported as many in the open source have moved on, some to Cobb. Very simply put when you modify your engine you have no option to tune the car and the Cobb Accessport is by far the most supported by the various tuners around the country. Don't get rid of it as you have no option but to have it.

At your current position you need to identify exactly what is modified on the vehicle. It will determine your next steps.

 

[WRX-maniac]

are you sea level? I don't know your location. If at sea level that sounds about right, I think the stock PSI of the turbo can handle 22 PSI? probably wrong, I have faith that someone will correct me on that. the Cobb air intake isn't a bad thing to hold on to, but for reliability it is typically better to stick to stock.

Really max boost isn't measured by the turbo itself, although the turbo does have its limits. What restricts boost is the MAP sensor. The stock MAP sensor is a 2.5 bar. Once calculating in atmospheric pressure, it does come out to around 22psi +/- 1.

 

[zax]

IHI doesn't publish compressor maps for their turbos, but if you look around on the internet, various tuners have tried to cobble together compressor maps from empirical evidence. As I recall, at a PR of over 2.5 to 2.6, the VF39,43,48,52 (essentially the same internals) largely become a heater -- efficiency drops below 72%. A pressure ratio of 2.5 is ~22 PSI at sea level.

It seems you are both correct -- it is both the limitation of the OEM MAP sensor (to control the wastegate) and the upper limit of the turbo itself. Sure you could force the VF52 to produce 25 or even 30 PSI, but the car would make less power at those boost pressures.