Hi All!
This is my first post to Scooby net and I am looking for some advice on my 2000 AWD PPP Impreza I bought a few weeks ago. It's my first Impreza and an awsome car! Has a scoobysport straight through exhaust, P1 OZ alloys and eibbaacs springs. Other from that it's standard. I have a rolling road print out that says it 258BHP and got 13.5 at Santa-pod the other day which I was pleased about. I still have £1k left over from my budget and was wandering if I could put it to good use performance wise. Could anyone tell me what I should do for best cost : performance ratio. Would it be possible to achieve 320BHP+ without damaging the engine?

I am interested in a boost controller because I like the idea of only having it turning up when needed and driving with better economy when I don't. As you can tell I'm not exactly a Subaru expert so I was hoping for some good ideas.

Any Comments would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Richard

 

You've already got a reasonably strong engine there. If I were in your shoes I'd spend some of your £1K on the brakes, some cost-effectivel handling mods like solid rear anti-roll bar links and a good four wheel geometry setup at a place who knows their stuff. Add in a KnockLink, AFR meter and a good boost gauge to enable you to keep an eye on the most important aspects of the engine's health, and spend the rest on some driver training to help you get the best out of it.

Probably not for less than a grand. Safe limit with your current turbo is around 280bhp, so you're looking at changing that. Only real option then would be a secondhand TD05 or VF of some sort. Add in a remap to make sure it's all running within safe parameters and you're likely to be over budget, not to mention the fact that you'll have to stump up additional premium to cover the power hike, and will also invalidate any warranty you bought the car with.

If you're thinking of spending a few hundred quid on a fancy in-car boost controller, it's probably going to be a waste of money given what you seem to want to achieve.

No boost controller is going to get you to "320bhp plus", and you are unlikely to get noticeably better fuel economy by reducing boost either.

If you do want to improve the cruise fuel economy (to some degree) at the same time as liberating more power, the best way to proceed is a good custom remap rather than a fancy electronic boost controller. As mentioned above though, there are much more worthwhile ways of spending a grand on your car than simply making it a little quicker in a straight line.

 

Thanks for the advice mate! Any other experts got any suggestions?

I've heard a lot of people talk about front mounted intercoolers on the forum, would it be worth getting one in my situation?

Also, I have a green air filter, would an induction kit be much of an advantage? If so what would be the best one to get?

Cheers,

Richard

 

Not worth fitting an FMIC at this point in time. That's the sort of thing you should be thinking about further down the line.

No benefit at all from fitting an induction kit, no. If anything you are likely to lose out.

 

Hello m8

GM has given you pretty sound advice there, so not a great deal more I can add.

However, you say you have a full de-cat (straight through) & are running the PPP ECU?

In that case, I would STRONGLY recommend getting a knocklink fitted asap. That ECU is not designed to run with a full de-cat (can't recall tech reasons) & may damage the engine in the process.

In addition, the MAF sensor and the Lambda sensor on the MY99/00 are weak and should be replaced regularly as they are prone to fail. Replace MAF annually at least. If they fail, then det is possible leading to destruction of engine - I know it happened to me Knocklink will help detect this but better safe than sorry.

Further to this, it is not advisable to run an induction kit on the MY99/00 models as this "easier breathing" mod can lead to contamination of the MAF & adds virtually nothing to the performance. K&N panel filter is best but the OE one is perfectly good.

You will need to upgrade your ECU if you wish to increase performance, something like a Tek3 mappable one, but ensure you don't do it with your PPP ECU as that can be sold for £350-400 and can re-coup a part of the outlay.

In addition, you'll need to look at an upgraded fuel pump & regulator to get enough juice flowing to your new turbo.


FMIC is probably not going to do much for you at your current state of tune & might increase turbo lag. Looks the mutts though in most cases

P20SPD's standard internaled MY00 Wagon ran 12.1 at last years ScoobyShootout with basically the bits talked about above. His turbo was an MD304. Roughly 340 bhp. There are now quite a few MY99/00 engined cars (standard internals) out there with 320+ running on a daily basis.

I ran 13.5 @ Elvington last year in an MY99 PPP car too

 

Thanks for all the advice guys! I will defiantly look into some new sensors. The guy I bought it off told me the ECU (prodrive) will remap itself if I go up a steep hill in 4th and floor it at a low speed, any truth in this?

 

No, in a word.

 

PTMW

You say the PPP ECU isnt designed to run with a full decat, on that basis neither is the standard ECU

I know the PPP ECU has a different Map, raised boost (not exactly sure what else) but from what I am led to believe the old TEK 2 map is a PPP Map, or rather the other way round

Is there any other reason why not to have a full decat with a PPP, especially if you have the relevant monitoring, and correct size restrictor (if required)

S

 

It certainly made a difference, guy showed me print off of the rolling road before and after the 136bhp to 158bhp. So it seems worth it even if it does mean replacing a sensor or two every so often.

 

Yes and no. Neither are designed to run with a decat as you say. The specific problem with the PPP ECU is that it is tuned to the extent where use with a full decat can cause oscillation/pulsing/overboost. The lower state of tune of the standard ECU doesn't tend to cause the same problems.

Incorrect.

Provided you have the right monitoring, and the facility/ability to fit the correct restrictor, there's no reason not to use the PPP ECU's with a decat. If you do initially find the boost running out of control, it can be sorted by fitting a slightly larger bored restrictor.