That's exactly what I'm hoping, although I already smile a lot as it is :-).

There was definitely a difference after just installing the TBE: faster turbo spool, maybe .5 more psi peak on the factory boost gauge, and generally feeling a bit stronger on the butt dyno. But I expect the difference to be much greater after the tune. I don't have a baseline before the TBE, but I should be able to post up dyno plots of stock STI+TBE versus STi+TBE+ECUTEK next week :-)

- Josh

 

So my car met Shiv yesterday, and came out a different animal altogether. Mine was the 25th car he tuned over the weekend! Fortunately that man is not human, but a tuning machine!! I was actually lucky to be the last one, since no one else was waiting, he spent about 2 hours on it and maybe 15 or so dyno pulls to get it just right. I think mine was the first 05 ECUTEK he'd done on 93 octane. He wanted this to become his 05 STi 93 octane base map ...

In the end, the car pulled 290whp and 315wtq. The baseline with just the TBE was 270/270. So he pulled out 20whp and 45wtq peak with the reflash. I'll try to attach the dyno plot (first try here). FYI, this is a dynojet and supposedly (according to Jeff at TurboTrix), stock STis pull around 240ish on it.

Of course the peak numbers really don't tell the whole story, which is that the turbo spools incredibly fast as compared to baseline with the TBE and sickly fast as compared to stock. The midrange is so unbelievably strong ... if you check the dyno plot, I think it's up around 60wtq at 3500-3600 rpms! That is some serious usable torque. Honestly it feels stronger than I expected!

Last night I drove home from NJ to DC and ambient temp was in the 50s ... holy cr@p that car pulled on the highway in those temps! I floored it in 5th and 6th numerous times and was doing over 120MPH in the blink of an eye. Huge difference over the TBE alone. Max boost in 5th was around 1.3bar tapering off quickly, and in sixth, I think I saw almost 1.4 bar which scares me a bit. I actually tried my best to overboost it ... cold temps, 6th gear, highway, uphill, full throttle, and that's when I saw the 1.4bar. Didn't hit fuel cut though, but will have to ask Shiv if he thinks that's OK.

Anyway, I'm definitely happy, oh yes, I'm happy

- Josh

 

+50 hp is definitely sweet, and so is ~+75torque ... especially just with an exhaust and reflash. I love turbo cars, I could never get those types of gains on my previous E46 M3 without going forced induction ...

- Josh