Spent all day Friday down at Enginetuner in Plympton - a lovely 570 mile round trip.
I was booked in for new turbo, intercooler, fuel pump and a few ancillaries.

As ever their garage had a few very tasty cars there - a beautiful Dax Cobra replica which they'd sorted and brought it back up to a very high standard. Also of interest was a 1970's style Beach Buggy - 100% fun machine looking very worn but in for a list of repairs for its MOT. Plus engine-less Evo's and a nice selection of Imprezas - a superb blue hawkeye running 600+, a beautiful classic with twin zorsts (soon to be 600+), Martyns drag machine (650 nitrous classic) and various others including a Prodrive styled bug Sti (always liked those) and a few classics to boot. Also good to see some bread and butter work - a couple of tweaked Seat Cupras.

Big thanks to Alex and Paul for working on my car👍

I'd brought with me a Blouch 2.5Xtr Dominator turbo with 8cm hotside. Alex fitting it commented on how it was slightly diff from the many SC 46's they'd fitted. Had to grind the turbo just a tad to stop it rubbing on something or other - and bend the water feed pipe a little - and it was on. I was actually a little excited.

Next was a 'new to market' Grimmspeed top mount intercooler imported from the USA - the only one in the UK right now. It came sprayed up with heat dispersant black coating - pretty much identical in size to the existing oem tmi but maybe an inch thicker. Should be interesting. It needed a bit of work to fit nicely, the fact that my inlet manifold sits on 8mm phenolic spacers didn't help. But with a bit of squeezing and manipulating - on it went.

Next up Martyn Jeffries - mapping maestro extraordinaire - we talked about my car. Road car - twin maps being one high boost and one low at actuator pressure. So onto the rolling road, laptop plugged in , fans on, and twenty pulls and an hour or so later (remembering Martyn previously has mapped my car three or four times in diff configs) and he's happy. The fuelling is good, temps are good, nice curve and twin maps on.

Final results. On 1.6 bar dropping to 1.4bar - 452bhp and 454lbs
On 1.2 bar dropping not much at all - 416bhp and 420lbs

So how did the new top mount fare after an hour on the dyno and all those pulls... It was stone cold to touch. Not bad.

When you consider a decent Perrin front mount is £1500 + fitted - the Grimmspeed tmi is a bargain at half the price. Enginetuner will sell lots of these I reckon.

We could have pushed further with a touch more boost to crack 460 but tbh this is my daily driver and everything is not pushed to the ragged edge in search of maximum power. We have stepped away a little - to a safer and probably more durable place. I was very happy with the outcome.

The drive home was amazing - ballistic is the word. How the power comes in so fast and hard is amazing. And even today I can't tell where it's coming in and spooling to when - as it's so incredibly smooth. No discernable transition. I'm sure there must be a step somewhere but right now I can't find it.

From 391 to 452 isn't so much of a jump... but the way it comes in so fierce and brutal is brilliant. Instant punch with knockout ability.

Why travel so far to get this all done... Enginetuner are one of the very best out there - and I've tried quite a few . Attention to detail, expertise, and understanding what I want (not an outn'out track car on maximum everything) - they have scored high again. Good job.

Alan and Martyn are top blokes. Highly recommended.

An amazing result ON A TOP MOUNT... lag... never heard of it... lol

A

PS this leaves me now with a lovely Xmas pressie for someone - a 390bhp kit with associated mods. Consisting of a VF48 - no play in shaft at all, no cracks in the round bit, PLUS a 2008 STI top mount (largest oem top mount made) - no Y pipe (Scoobyclinic can sort you a second hand one v cheap), PLUS an ATP turbo blanket to suit, AND should be able to find the black top feed injectors 565cc i think. A great upgrade for an old classic, a new WRX or a even a bug or blob Sti... Up soon for a 'monkey'

PPS Photos please Alan (he took some for me). And maybe Martyn can stick up the graphs showing my old 390 overlaid the new 452 - with no loss in anything low down - only gain gain gain

 

sounds like a bit of a beast now mate,whats the engine spec?

 

classic is mine looking for about 650 - 670 on 20% meth

 

Hmmh... 2.5 Hatch Sti with Enginetuner forged build over 30k ago.. (Wiseco Pistons
K1 rods, flowed heads, ARP, Cossie, etc) Cobrasport 3" sports cat custom exhaust, RCM headers and HS up-pipe, Perrin inlet, Forge CAIK, Grimmspeed 3 port, Perrin parallel rails, Denso 750 inj, etc. Oh and the new 'drop in' DW 265c fuel pump

Lots of heat management, fully wrapped down pipe AND turbo flanges, DEI Titanium turbo jacket, extra venting in front wings, Carl Davey manifold spacers, throttle body water heat delete, plus the factory finished heat dispersant coating on the tmi.

Fast road GEO setup by Powerstation using COBB springs, Whiteline ARB, ALK, and other yellow plastic bits in the back end, PS steering feel mods lol

Owned since new, an Euro Import - looks a little like a sleeper - sounds like a rocket launching..

A

 

Best lookin' classic I've seen.... Really nice job there

 

whats the mileage on the vf48 matey? how much you want for it?

 

Nice work there, How comes the torque figure is conservative ?

Any pics of it all fitted ?

 

Pics please

 

Just the right amount of boost, gently catchee monkee ..

 

Gratz on the results dude

I myself am currently in the fmic and bigger blower saving stage after alan and co built my hawk during the summer.

Im quite interested in this top mount you speak of. whats the sort of price? Pics? Etc...

 

Please excuse picture not to my usual standard.
It was under the lights outside, which makes the engine look grubby!



It's a snug fit, but by no means a struggle.
I'm getting into these properly next week, when we'll see what we can supply them for..

 

Nice work again, all round
Enjoy it John

 

Rob tbh I was a little bit frightened that the torque would be sky high - as it's always been generous. On the VF48 with meth it gave an astonishing 490lbs - which is the main reason I stopped using the stuff. I didnt want to blow the motor or put it in a dangerous place. I think we know 450/450 is generally considered a 'safe' amount of each as the bores can move down the bottom with higher torque.

So I was pleased and surprised at Martyn's skills. A nice balance of insane instant power plus a degree of let's be careful with it too.

It's enough now. Certainly enough for a road car.

What did yours finish at ?

A

 

Cheers Jay 👍

Prob a diff kettle of fish to your monster @ 565bhp 👀

 

So you can go over 400 with a TMIC, is there a panel filter that can?

 

Just a reminder, but intercoolers are about charge temperature and nothing else. Bear in mind the stock ECU doesn't even refer to it. You COULD run 600 bhp through a top mount, but I'd consider the amount of boosted air, and the likely charge temp of such air, might be too much for the top mounted position to be adequate.
We sort of had a rule of thumb in our head that 400 bhp is a good guide for the limits of a large STi top mount. Having said that, 450 bhp could well be ok, depending on exactly what you're doing with it.
EG
Track use. Front mount.
Hard driving on "B" roads, constantly on and off boost. Front mount.
Road use, pootling along with everybody else, occasional fast overtake or a blast for a bit of fun. Top mount probably fine, large one like John's even more so.
I've always considered that charge temp really should be monitored if you're going to push against the limits. After market ECUs such as the Alcatek and Syvecs not only look at it, but take action if it doesn't like what it's seeing.

Panel filters? not sure, although we find that with anything more than 350 bhp available from your turbo, there's a noticeable gain from fitting a nice big cone filter.

 

Hi Alan,

What about maf related issues when fittin a caik? Speculation or genuine issue leading to running mafless?

 

Is the grimspeed unit on a par with the hyperflow TMIC?, a mate of mine ran just under 450hp with the latter, STI8 , SC46, 20%meth.
Trev

 

Complicated. The main issue is the direct effect on the MAF output by altering the way air passes over it. These devices are carefully designed at the factory, and changing intakes can make a big difference to load control. It's not a problem if checked out, and remapped if required.
Re the MAF sensors themselves, the version 5/6 with the cassette type had a justified bad press for failure causing lean mixture. The new age versions aren't as bad, but still fail with similar results.
Speed density mapping, using a pressure sensor for load control, sorts that one out. In fact it's a great way to fix the new age cars, as the MAF's cost hundreds of pounds.

 

Only back to back would figure that one out. Similar, possibly.

 

Once I sorted the issue of a knock sensor being faulty and pulling 6 deg of timing every time it was sat at idle it finished up at 460bhp 500ft/lbs at 1.65bar boost on straight v-power. I also ditched the meths it was beginning to be a pain in the **** to put in on every tank full of fuel..

 

I reckon re : build quality / engineering the Grimmspeed unit is right up there with the best of em.

So both units must be v similar specced (upto 550bhp iirc - but at that power I'd want a front mount lol).

The SC46 is pretty much identical to what I have, but I get the same power without the meths - STI8 must mean 2lt not 2.5lt ? Even then it's depending on other supporting mods to help... I'm guessing he may have other things he can do to help ?

A

 

Moving to syvecs was a massive eye opener for me in regards to ACT. On a hot day in traffic, you can see the ACT rocket up, even with a big perrin front mount. Certainly stops me booting it up the road until I have got some cold air back through the fins. I didn't even realise the oem ecu's don't refer to it.

 

So how do you 'see it' ? Do you have gauges or another display ?

A

 

I have a toucan touchscreen display connected to the syvecs. It shows gauges for pretty much everything going on

 

So whats my power to weight ratio ?

Anyone know how yo work it out ?

Have 452 bhp & weight ?

Help...

 

If I remember right, divide the bhp by the weight and multiply it by 1000.

so 452/1300ish=0.34769*1000= 347bhp/ton

 

I'm really interested in one of these Grimmspeed TMIC for my JDM STI bug, as for FMIC theres only the Perrin one that i like and its big money.....

 

I have one of these but I run water/meth injection with it which complicates any comparisons. The grimmspeed replaced an AVO tmic which I'd had on for 5 years, also I changed the nozzle size on the W/M injection, up from 0.8mm to 1mm, so not that much but got another 40hp from the changes, run 1.6bar instead of 1.5. now at 466hp/490lbsft.
You may be interested in a back to back comparison with an STI intercooler over on NASIOC which has them at about the same level, that's in the section on intercooling/water meth/ nitrous section. Wether or not one would come out better the more it was pushed isn't answered.
I don't know if they are for sale in the UK, I got mine from a company in the States via Ebay, you can obviously get them direct from Grimmspeed.
I'm pleased with mine and at one point I considered a MD321V and to try for 500hp.
Trev

It is available on Ebay, from the States approx £575 posted + any uk charges

 

Must save time messing about with extra pipework for front mount