Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone knew whether the WRX has a auto cut-off at high rpms (redline) on a manual transmission. That is, does the ECU / on board computer kick in and prevent the engine from reving any higher than a certain rpm, so as to protect the engine from excess heat and wear (breakdown)? The reason I ask is because when I push the WRX, I usually shift just as it hits the redline and sometime into the redline area.....

 

It's not a limp mode, it cuts off fuel. No fuel = sick feeling.

 

Tell that to the drag strip numbers. Sure if you wanna maintain 6800RPM its not going to do you better than 6500, etc. But then you don't want to maintain such high RPM ever since you'll be maintaining stress levels that should not be sustained for longer than a few seconds. But if you are winding through the gears for accelleration, go all the way to 7200... dynos may lie, but the drag strip doesn't. Knowing the need to truly wind out the gears is from personal experience testing it out at the track.

jason

 

Yah but.... that's not what DaWorstPlaya was asking about. I was adressing him because being at higher revs (whereever, street or strip) is what he was talking about. Just making sure he didnt get the idea that he was committing a cardinal sin... I wasn't really out to contradict you

jason

 

From my limited experience... I have found that bringing the rpms up to and slightly above 6900 before shifting (at the track) benefits one most in that, once you upshift, you will be at about 4200 rpms? depending on the gear shift. This puts you well into full boost conditions which keeps you from loosing acceleration.

 

Thanks a bunch guys! I appreciate all your input. It's good to know there as soo many knowledgable people out there. Its also good to know that Subaru has some built in features for people like me that like to push it to the limit at times. Here is another question tho, will installing a Vishnu Xede piggy back chip remove those safety features?

 

Bingo! Its a case of "area under the curve." Its the shift which keeps the highest boost numbers (or, really highest hp/tq numbers) between shift points. Don't confuse this with merely having peak boost within the curve.

jason

 

I believe the answer is "NO". One point of having a piggy back over a complete ECU replacement is to keep the cold start and safety features intact even while modifying performance oriented signals to the ECU... for example piggybacks may alter the 02 reading, but not tell the ECU to stop checking for outrageous readings. This doesn't mean you are free to tune any way you like. You can still damage your engine by over doing it, but you do still retain those features. Read the documentation, the actual come-with documentation BEFORE buying a chip or ECU.

jason

 

....just remember that even the rev limiter won't help if you mis-shift.