Dream Build?

RevRico

New member
So I'm getting closer, but up front I must say it will still be a couple of months before I buy my STI. As I don't own it yet, I assume general forum is a good enough place for it. Also, in complete transparency, the end game after warranty is a caged and built rally car, but I'm more posting this for DD in the meantime.

I'm currently awaiting a large enough inheritance that money really is no option for a build out, but I have sedated goals for daily driving. I will be starting with a 2015 Limited as a base. My goals are around 400whp/tq as through experience with older models and other cars, that's not unreasonable to drive around, but still have a lot of room for fun.

If you were shooting for that goal and money really wasn't an option, what would you do? I'm thinking, and after reading the warranty warning thread, debating, Intake, exhaust, accessport, fuel pump and injectors, and if need be a slightly bigger turbo setup.

Would I need meth injection, or could those numbers be capable? For where I'm currently living, E85 is out of the question, so I'd be tuning probably for 91 until I move back out west. Not the best of situations, but workable.

I don't even want to get into suspension components, but I think sways, ALK, RCE yellow springs and an xbrace are all kinda given items, I'll probably go Perrin or Whiteline for much of those.

Please understand, I'm coming from stupid power miata's as playtoys, while my current daily is a beat ass 300k mile saturn sedan.

This will be my first personally owned stock turboed car, as such I'm a little out of the loop for what works and what doesn't. While my post counts are low, trust I'm reading every build journal and every thread. I'm happy this is a slower forum in some segments as it makes it easy to see problems through generations of models, but it's been tricky finding parts and people who've used them with the 15's.

So I leave you with, i guess multiple questions, but one main one: If you were buying a 15 STi, and aiming for 400 WHP/tq, what would you do/go with?
 

IGOTASTi

System Operator
Staff member
[MENTION=4577]TK-421[/MENTION] answer the man. ?
 

TK-421

New member
Okay first, let's establish the fact that your talking about tuning for pump gas on 91 octane. Normally I would say that 400 WHEEL horsepower wouldn't be that tall of an order.

BUT considering that your trying to make this a daily driver at 400 wheel is a bit of a tall order.

The Pistons in the EJ series start to degrade quickly at higher horsepower numbers, I start to see issues around the 370 to 380 range.

For reliability your going to need to at minimum think about Pistons.

But when it comes to power upgrades, I would go with the following.

Intake of your choice.
Inlet of your choice
Either a Blouch DOM 3.0 XTR or a FP Red Turbocharger
DW65C or Walbro 255 LPH
ID1300cc injectors, 1000cc at the absolute minimum
Meth Injection isn't really going to be as good of an option as a higher octane fuel or Ethanol based fuels
Also you should look into TGV deletes, Air Pump Deletes and adding a AOS system.

I would also consider replacing the oil pick up tube and oil pump as well with a high volume pump.

Buying a standard off the shelf kit will give you satisfaction for a little bit. But the pre fabbed Kit will cause unnecessary engine stress on stock internals.

If you want to do it right the first time, go with the tried and true methods. It's what I tell every single one of my customers
 

RevRico

New member
I guess I've gazed past piston issues, I'd seen "higher numbers" before, but had assumed 450-500+ that could be an issue. I do agree and understand why 91 is a tall order, but you know the greensburg area, maybe 93 is feasible, but without going way out of the way every time, E85 or higher octane are just hard to find from my experience. I miss the west coast, and will be relocating to the midwest or back to northern cali somewhere probably next year, in which case, with updated location and conditions, come updated tune and accessories.

I was foreseeing the fuel system as well, that I had seen as having trouble above 350, there was an old sticky I was reading this morning that mentioned that the injectors couldn't keep up.

Obviously, there are more than one way to go about it, but after so many frankenstein cars through the years, it's time to do something right the first time.
 

TK-421

New member
Well as for the GBG area, we actually have a VP fuels station that sells 118 out of the pump up in Blairsville and the BP off 119 next to Murray electric sells 110 out of the pump as well. Granted the only E85 stations in our area are in Uniontown or Monroeville at Sheetz. I do agree with wanting to move back out west, this is my last year up here in Greensburg, I'll be in Florida permanently by the end of fall this year.

If you would like to meet up and go over the fine menusha and details of a build like this Id be more than happy to do so with you.
 

Grinder34

Track Monkey
Without getting into the specifics for engine building, but focusing on the add-ons:

So an honest crazy build would involve a standalone engine management, and a VTG turbo for quick spool everywhere and a monster top end. Of course it'd be set up for anti-lag! And probably meth. If you wanted to keep the EJ (over say an EZ), I'd get the KillerB EL headers in inconel or something super light. I'm not sure what the status on their front-mount turbo project is, but I'd try to mimic that for even faster spool and, lets be honest, the "wow" factor. I'd then couple this whole thing to a CF driveshaft.

I'm not particularly knowledgeably about ralle suspensions, but that would get the full treatment of course with some lightweight wheels, rally coilovers
 

RevRico

New member
I was actually just looking into antilag systems, because I hadn't seen anything on this particular site about it. Aside from a VERY outdated thread at nasiouyrty or whatever the letters are, I can't find much info. Does have me wondering if the accessport would be capable with hardware modifications, or if MuTech would be the better option. Are hardware mods even really required aside from a switch to turn it on? From reading the australians take on it, its just programming for fuel in a really bizarre way, but that seems to ...simple?... to me.

It would be nice, I think, if I could just run the entire car from my tablet or a laptop instead of the ECU, just to have exact and constant logs and control over EVERYTHING, but I'm self aware enough to realize I don't know nearly as much as I think I do about cars and would probably wind up killing the car doing that.

I'm still in 2013 of the bigass EFR thread over there, but if the 7163 ever actually came out, or perhaps even has been upgraded by now, it appears a likely candidate, for now. Just looks like it covers the spread very well, with a nice margin of error built in, but killerBs front mount looks intriguing, I'll be check it out later. Always was a fan of remote-mount turbos. Years down the line when I get bored, and have a replacement, and this thing gets the full rally treatment, I'm probably going to just clone Blocks old subie and just add some personal touches.


@TK-421 that would be awesome, especially once I actually have the vehicle. But I'm always for meeting new car people, my options on friends are rather low, they all have the VW bug, and I'm beyond sick of 30 year old cars no matter how fun and noisy and understeery they are.
 
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Batmobile_Engage

Squirrel Meat Aficionado.
Staff member
If I had the money, I'd install a Haltech ECU so I'd have the "flex fuel sensor option". That way, whatever you put in your tank, 93, E85, a mix of both, etc. etc. it will be able to adjust fueling and other parameters to run like it should. This is especially helpful for the people that run E85 and would otherwise have multiple tunes for the times that the ethanol quantites in what is supposed to be E85 changes throughout the year with seasonal temperatures. I'd seen some guys that run an E85 tune in my area run into problems. They end up testing the fuel and find that it's E70, or some other blend.
 
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