Back to the 2004 Sti
The chassis is pretty much exactly how I want it now... so I'm thinking about fattening up the powerband.

Last week I upgraded to a catted Downpipe and Stage II programming on my Accessport. I've got an airbox silencer eliminator.
What's my next step for a little more in the power dept?

My goal is to keep the car kinda stealthy/smog legal (ish) - so no Turbos' or FMIC's

I was considering an EQ Tuning cross pipe but am wondering if there's much benefit of more exhaust upgrades

Thoughts?

 

Full replacement headers is the next gain. Equal length headers will gain you a bit more power. Really you should just get a pro-tune though, they blow the off the shelf maps off the water in response and safe power.

 

Drive it? Pro Tune.

FMIC is technically legal since the car comes stock with an intercooler, BUT is it really necessary?

 

ehhhhh yeah but theres some supporting law that says relocating it is not.

 

His insurance won't be happy and might refuse to pay out in a front end collision. Not to mention that a FMIC would be more detrimental than helpful at this point. That turbo is way too small for anything except the worthless Injen FMIC.

My recommendation is a 3-port BCS, TGV deletes, CARB'ed intake, and tune.

 

A reasonably upgraded turbo would be pretty hard for a smog tech to notice, unless it's rotated or stupid large. Put it under a turbo blanket, and it's next to impossible to tell. With my DEI blanket on there, you can't even see the turbo. I personally think a modded DP would be a bigger smog hassle than a 20g or similar under a turbo blanket. Just an idea, if you eventually want to upgrade the stock turbo. The reason why I say that, is because from my limited knowledge, the stock turbo is going to restrict a lot of modifications to not give a lot of bang for the buck.

What I would recommend, with you wanting to stay smog legal and it's cheap and effective, is to start reducing the amount of heat under the hood. Turbo blanket, exhaust wrapping, heat reflect the TMIC, etc. Other ideas would be to get some TGV deletes (another difficult thing for smog techs to see, especially if you leave the motors).

Outside of personal experience, I've read a lot of comments saying a carbon or aluminum driveshaft increases driveability and frees up additional power.

 

If you're somewhat concerned about smog, I wouldn't recommend much more. Maybe just finish it up with a fuel pump, MBC and custom tune (Ed recommended those on my tune, fuel pump for safety and mbc for better boost control for his tune).

For reference, my 04 STi has catless TBE, CAI, TGV deletes, MBC and fuel pump. Made 272hp and 310 ft-lbs on his low road dyno settings.

In general a custom tune will yield you the most, contact whoever is tuning it and go with what they recommend.

 

Do you drive the car a lot and long distances?
If not you can consider EBS+ E85 and protune while keeping everything stock
a Meth injection kit with all your stock parts and a larger TMIC would be decent gains as well

 

if you already have an AP, a walbro 255 and protune will do the most for your reliability and provide the most bang for your buck in terms of performance with a stock turbo and catted dp. tgv deletes and all of that will net very little in terms of actual hp/tq gains, especially when considering cost. don't bother. this is covered extensively in other forums. cai/sri is a little more than a noisemaker on a stock turbo.

 

Headers, EL or UEL, I have EL and love them, gave me 15 or so extra tq on my pro tune.
Boost controller
Fuel pump
TMIC (get a top mount, easy to remove, smog legal, and very beneficial for stock turbos vs FMIC which gets a lot of lag on a stock turbo)
Pro Tune

just as rob said the off the shelf map sucks, i got tuned at GST and absolutely love the way the car handles. The power band is a world of difference compared to OTS.

 

get bigger injectors, port and polished headers to be more stealthy, and fuel pump, all with a protune.

 

You mean "header" we only have one

Def a good upgrade, but looking at 600+ for a decent brand without installation. Good bang for your buck would be a Manual boost controller ($100), K&N drop in filter ($20), walbro 255 fuel pump ($80), Protune ($300)

 

True. I often mistake these things as the usual "stage II" set up but I forget not everyone views those stages the same lol. I do think if you want to keep the car reliable stick to what Erick posted above.

 

WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN STAGE II IS COMPLETE!!!!

































no clue WTF stage II is, must be a term ricers started to use after this movie.

 

Wear out some tires.