Hello I have a 2003 wrx. I have a cold air intake, catless downpipe, catless uppipe, new exhaust. I want to increase my stock turbo psi. Now I ordered a manual boost controller but was also told to upgrade my fuel pump and get my ECU Flashed. I get mixed answers to my questions so I need some professional help here please.
1. If I increase my psi boost do I need to comphensate fuel flow by getting a bigger fuel pump???
2. Do I need my ECU flashed?
Someone also told me I should have already had it flashed ever since I got the intake and exhaust done, is this true?
3. Does anyone know a good place I can take my car to get tuned? I found a place called Signature Motorsports on Warren St. Lyndhurst NJ,, are they good??? Thank you for your help its very much needed!!!
KEN

 

damn i thought i-club had smart people on it>>?

 

I don't live in NJ, but you definitely should get your car tuned or flashed for the upgrades you have. You don't need a dynotune (dynotunes are fine tuning down to your A/F ratios, etc etc.) yet because you only have the basic bolt ons that most people do first (catless dp/up/exhaust/intake/bov, etc), BUT, you can download flash maps from like COBB if you have an AP and just use their STG2 map or an open source tuner and flash it to your ECU. If money is not an issue for you, you get can a quick tune from any tuner shop in your area. Custom tunes are recommended for larger upgrade parts like headers, injectors, turbos, intercoolers, fuel rails, pumps, E85, etc, etc etc.

As for upping your turbo PSI with your MBC, it's recommended to upgrade your fuel pump because you'll be limited with anything that's stock but just by upgrading your fuel pump won't do much. The most popular fuel pump thus far and I've seen on most applications is the walbro 255LPH fuel pump. You won't get much gain over stock psi just by your setup with an open source reflash and your stock turbo. You're psi is limited to whatever your stock turbo is. I think your stock turbo is a td04 so i think it's limited to around 14psi? I don't remember...

Ask around at your local tuner shops for what they think. That's your best bet.

 

thank you for your input, o and yes i do have headers as well... would u consider the next step, bigger turbo, intercooler and injectors? I dont want to get to that step so when im saying im going to do, do u consider right below those? thanks again

 

u say that the stock turbo gets up to 14psi, which is true, but i did have a mbc on my car years ago and got up to about 17 psi....???

 

i say u better get a tune for the mods u got,you can increase boost with the mbc u got,but who knows,u might be pulling timing or had a knock and u dont feel it maybe?

if u wanna save some money:
you can try logging ur car firstly,u can use Romraider software,its for logging and editing the ecu.
anyone can do the logging,but dont touch the ecu editor if u dont know what to do.
after logging ur car,there is some good email tuners,like Cameron@camtuning
and Mathiew @ Benchmarktuning.
u can send them logs and mods u got,then they will tune the car and send the new map,and all what u need then is reflashing ur ecu.

If u can spend some money,u just go to a good tuner near you,and u can get it tuned in 2 hours.

Regards.

 

You absolutely want a tune with those mods, hell I wouldn't even run an intake with no tune. Sounds like you'll probably need a new transmission too if you plan on going with a bigger turbo.

 

do the email tuners charge for the tuning?

 

Yes. Clark Turner is a good one. He is based out of arizona, and you need to have a laptop with at least an hour running battery time. Need to buy Taxtrix cable and appropriate plugs, and download the romraider and ecuflash programs. which are all free

 

You will pay around $150-200 for an email tune.
You will pay around double that for a dyno tune.

02 WRX can handle your current mods without NEEDING an a tune (which is just flashed onto your ECU) but it will run poorly (rich/lean, pulling timing, knocking, and whatever else). You will probably be impressed and glad that you got a tune once you feel how different the car drives.

Your intake mods increase the amount of air getting into your engine, which is why the Cold air intake needs a tune to adjust for it.

You can run more boost on the stock boost control, but manual will get you to peak boost faster. The downside to a manual boost controller is that it is ALWAYS trying to reach peak boost, and you might have issues with partial throttle/full boost situations.

The stock fuel pump is close to maxed out with a full intake/exhaust, so unless you want to be limited in how much power you make by the stock pump you should replace it. If you don't plan on any other mods then its up to you, you don't NEED it, but it's a cheap ($100, 1hr install you can do yourself) weakness to remove from the system.