Matt wrote this post. We’re going to get him a login so he can post under his own name. I wish I could take credit for some of the work he did but I can’t.

-Alex

Friday has come yet again.  Dan C. brought in his 2008 STi for some minor upgrades.  A set of Cusco swaybars and a Cobb catted downpipe were ordered ahead of time so as to arrive just in time for the job at hand.  Dan wanted slightly better handling and power without compromising the ride quality or creating excessive NVH.  A Cobb catted downpipe was installed in order to reap a sizable torque gain in conjunction with a dyno tune.  The combination of a downpipe and a tune can yield as much as 80 ft/lb at the wheels!  In addition, peak torque occurs much earlier, making the car faster without having to rev it to the moon.  The swaybars are a cost effiective and simple way to sharpen the handling of your STi.

Cusco swaybar painted stealth black

Cobb downpipe

Cobb downpipe compared to stocker

I began my tuning day with John’s KA-T powered S14 Nissan on the dyno.  The car has a GT3076 turbocharger, AMS exhaust manifold, a built engine, and a Haltech E8 ECU.  For the last 2 days, Bill and I have worked on this car here and there in order to get the ECU configuration correct.  The car fired up and ran well after getting the trigger angles sorted.  I began by calibrating the base fuel table.  After a few minutes of steady state tuning, there was an oil spray coming from the valve cover.  Whoever assembled the motor had forgotten to install the o rings in the valve cover and the spark plug tubes had filled up with oil!  This was a quick fix for Bill, who knows his way around a Nissan engine.  Once rolling again a leak in the front main seal halted progress for the day.  Come Monday the car will be back on the rollers to finish the tuning.

Bill examining the oil soaked engine

The afternoon has been filled with Corolla love.  We have had this Corolla here for 2 years.  It is a friend/customer and that makes for long projects.  Today is the beginning of a final push, D-Day if you will, in order to finish this car.  Nick has been working diligently on the power distribution wiring.  We are using a Megasquirt to control fuel delivery and ignition timing on this Silver Top 20V engine.  After working out the VR sensor outputs with my newly acquired 4 channel ’scope, we put a plan down on paper and began to execute it.  More to follow next week.

Ryan picked up his turbo Prelude today.  This car was brought to us half way completed from another shop or shops.  We executed the finishing touches, some electrical diagnostics, and dyno tuning.  The car ended up making ~285 wheel HP with a 2.5 inch exhaust and a very restrictive log manifold.  He is coming back in the spring in order to finish this build properly with a 3 inch exhaust, free flowing turbo manifold, and some retuning.

Ryan's Prelude engine bay

Bill working hard in the office as always.