anyone,

i need some advice as to what steps to take next for my WRX. all that i currently have done to my car performance-wise is the sti exhaust, gauge package, and injen cold-air intake.

there is a subaru dealership with connections to TurboXS out where i go to school, and they showed me a bunch of their products (UNIchip, full exhaust system (up-pipe, downpipe, hi-flow cat), UTEC can be ordered).

i'm probably looking to spend around $1000-1500 right now, and i'm not really sure which move is better. some people have said to get the exhaust first (sti exhaust fits with TXS parts), then the chip, while others have said to get the UTEC first because it can be reprogrammed later when i add other performance parts. it'll probably be summertime when i make any more modifications, so i'm not sure which way to go.

some people also say to get the UNIchip instead of UTEC because i don't know anything about programming. i'd be more than happy to learn how to do it. is it very difficult to learn?

i don't know what other companies are offering parts. should i be looking for something completely different than a chip or exhaust system? finally, how is TXS's reputation? pretty solid, or should i look elsewhere?

any help is appreciated

thanks

 

Can't say enough good things about TurboXS. I would highly recommend the UTEC first (don't waste your money on the unichip). Their downpipe and highflow cat would be a good second step. You will probably get somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-45 WHP increase from the computer alone and it will grow with the car as far as you want to go. It is not difficult to use at all.

 

thanks for your reply. i am definitely intereted in this product, although a couple of questions came up after looking into the UTEC further.

i've read that it is a good idea to have an EGT gauge. is it absolutely necessary, or could is that something that i would need if i was to dial in the tuning myself?

i've read a lot of posts about engine knock and know that its not something you want. is this due to a combination of poor quality gasoline (CA restrictions on 91+ octane) and incorrect tuning, or should i expect engine knock if i modify my engine management system? can it be completely avoided with higher octane and good tuning?

i have a cold air intake, will this mean that maps from turboxs will be useless unless i revert back to my stock breather, or is tuning it myself with a laptop not so bad?

are there any places in the new england/central PA area where i could get the UTEC awd dyno and street tuned to ensure that the engine doesn't blow up?

just want to do it right, from the start

 

The UTEC gives you the most control so you can certainly damage your engine if you do something stupid. However, the UTEC has much better safeguards than the Unichip (detonation detection/correction, high temperature safeguards, dataloggin, etc). The most notiable relates to detonation. The UTEC detects detonation and retards your timing for a number of crank cycles to eliminate it (all these paramaters are tunable including knock threshold, amount of timing retardation, and number of cycles to retard). It will also flash your CEL to let you know you have had an event and this will show up in your logs. You can use the logs to identify the RPM/TPS ranges that you are getting detonation in and tune your map to compensate. 91 octane is a big contributor to detonation on performance vehicles as it does not have a very high resistance to detonation. 93 octane allows you to be more agressive with your tuning, but you can definately run 91 octane with no detonation (I am stuck with winterized 91 octane at 4100ft and I haven't seen any since I tuned out the problem spots). Tuning with the UTEC is not very difficult. I had no experience with tuning and picked up the basics in a day or so.

As for using your intake with the TurboXS maps, that really isn't a problem. A map is just a starting point, you would pick the closest one to your setup and make fine tunes from there. As intakes don't appear to yield a lot of benefit on the WRX it probably won't make that much of a difference anyways. Keep in mind that the same can be said with the Unichip or the ECUTEK reflashes. There are so many variances with these cars and your envoirnment that a map is just a best guess. Until you tune for your car in your enviornment you will not get the best out of your car/mods.

My advice would be if you plan on not doing a lot to your car, get a ECUTEK reflash as it is the cheapest option (assuming you don't ever make any changes to your car). I would not even look into the Unichip as that was pretty much a bandaid and the UTEC (or Link, or MOTEC, or AEM ECUs) are worth the little extra cash for the many extra benefits you get. If you plan on upgrading your car further, get the UTEC as it will grow with you better and offers you better options and better safeguards (assuming you don't disable them). Also as they just released the closed loop boost control for the UTEC you won't have to buy an EBC to get accurate boost control.