Ok guys I just bought a 03 WRX 100% stock with 85,000 miles. I have never had a turbo car before. I have modified numerous other cars but never one with a turbo. I have a couple of questions.
1)Can you turn up the boost on the stock turbo? If so how?
2)I have done some searching and found that the best thing to do first for modding is uppipe, Turbo back exhaust and or downpipe and catback, Any other suggestions.
Some of the best info out there. A TBE (turbo back exhaust) is a DP (downpipe) plus the CBE (cat back exhaust). The up pipe is more for safety, maybe a little bit quicker spool. To turn up boost its called EM (engine management). These cars dont take kindly to throwing on a manual boost controller and just cranking up the boost.
^ Take those words to heart. He knows his stuff. I've been through the Manifesto before too... absolutely top-notch info there.
Yep, an up pipe is a great mod for you since your stock one is catted. A TBE is also great, but make sure you have EM to go along with it. That'll put you at Stage 2 as far as power is concerned.
You probably want to make sure that thing is in tip-top running condition before starting to mod. I'd recommend switching to a good synthetic engine oil and good synthetic transmission and rear differential oils too. You might want to avoid Uncle Scotty's Cocktail as recent analyses have shown it might not be very good for your internals. I've been using Royal Purple 5W-30 for my engine and Redline 75W-90NS for my trans and Redline 75W-90 for my rear differential, but there are some other good options out there too. Research is your friend
No telling either if your plugs were changed at 60,000 miles either. (unless u check) I would probably drop in a K&N drop in filter. It will give you better gas mileage and help your car breathe better. (also depending on the last time it was done)
As Josh mentioned, do not turn up the boost without any proper EM. Looks like you are on the right track as you already have done some research. If it does have the stock uppipe that would be a good start. 85000 miles.....the cat in the uppipe is bound to take a dump.
Thanks for the replies guys. I am trying to learn as much as possible. do the 2.0 motors have a timing belt or chain? I am certainly going to change all fluids and fill using synthetics. What EM do you all reccomend? The cobb access ports seems to be popular.
I run the Cobb AP, very, very strongly recommend it, but thats me. Its a little pricey some say, but has a plethora of features to it. I have ran every stage to inlcude running a custom tune for a 20G now and the AP is great for me.
I'm on the Cobb train too. It's very user friendly and gets the job done. The only downsides are the relatively high cost and the fact that the maps are very specific as far as what mods work with each map, so if you go that route, read and follow the map notes very carefully and you'll have no problems.
Well after taking the WRX by a local tuner shop I was told that I already have a cat-less 3 inch down pipe with 3 inch exhaust and a high flow cat and sombody put some little dinky muffler on the end to sell it. I had them take the muffler off and put in a piece of straight pipe. Wow did that help. Im really looking into that open source tuning option. The tuner shop by my house has worked on alot of WRX's and said he can tune it.
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