Ok, so my WRX destroyed the stock turbo. This is bad news because it costs me $, but good news because I can finally justify going to that VF34.

I have a shop down here (FL) that will put in a VF34, injectors, and fuel pump. (I already have uppipe, downpipe, intake, and exhaust.)

they don't do the ECUTek tune, which I want. They do the UTEC. I like the UTEC alright but I like the ECUTek better, and its a lot less money. A shop over in Tampa, 225 miles away, is the nearest ECUTek tuner.

Unfortunately, I have to be up at school in North Carolina by the 21st. I don't have time to take the car to several shops and get it tuned at all of them. What I'm wondering is, after I have the VF34, injectors, and pump installed, is the car safe to drive the 800 highway miles up to NC without any engine management other than stock, if i drive conservatively?

I would then ship out my ECU to get it reflashed to those parameters as soon as I got there.

Is this doable?

thanks...

 

you ought to be able to send your ECU to an EcuTek distributor and get their off-the-shelf map loaded and have it back in time for your trip. an off the shelf map won't make the most power out of your setup, but it's an excellent starting point and will be very reliable. the bad news is that most of those maps require you to have a fully upgraded exhaust. is your exhaust stock or upgraded?

 

upgraded, hks hi-power midpipe and catback, custom downpipe, pde uppipe.

 

i have heard (but never personally verified) that the oem ecu can actually learn around the sti injectors. it will be rough and rich for a while, but eventually the LTFT will take out enough fuel to make it relatively stable. you will probably be just about on the max correction though (-25% iirc).

i would stay in closed loop fueling as much as possible until the ecu learned. keep the boost down too, wastegate pressure or less would be good.

jm2c
ken

 

you're all set then. any of the vendors on here who do ecutek reflashes should be able to get you a standard map for that setup within the time you need it. just overnight your ecu, and have them overnight it back. www.ss-ms.com, www.cobbtuning.com, www.vishnutuning.com should all be able to help you out.

 

i don't recommend running the injectors on the stock ecu. i'm in the same situation as you right now and i have talked to other members that have had bad experiences.

 

Yes. It'll pin your fuel trim all the way to 25. You dont want to run your injectors so close to max duty cycle all the time. bad idea. technically you dont need someting as big as STi, but its a perfect fit, so...

jason

 

what sort of bad experiences ?

 

exactly what happens when you have too much fuel. its like a non-stop bog. i know someone who did just what you are talking about.