IT RUNS!!! - My 500whp build - Element motor and Moore Performance Twin Scroll Kit! by dexterous

7 minute(s) of a 312 minute read

After last year I am pretty scared of this happening:




This is a motor from Phil's race car with very little run time on it and like my similar situation, everything was a total loss. If that happens again I am sunk.

Since I have no faith in the bottom end I basically have the following choices:

-Get sleeves (PITA)
-Get the deck closed (Element Offers this now)
-Keep the HP way down (like I am now)
-Part the car out (trying to avoid this)

Maybe Phil will comment on this more.

9-23-2012

Yes, thats correct. I am going to figure something out.

Phil hates sleeves and has developed some kind of re-enforcement modification. I trust Phil but the reality of the situation is that his technique is very new and has had very limited testing in comparison to sleeves. On the other hand, sleeves are mostly unreliable especially over the long term. My research has shown that Dan Benson is the one and only person in the world who I would ever trust to sleeve a Subaru block.

10-21-2012

I am 100% going to do it, I dont even think its an option. To be honest, I keep having this nagging feeling that it my already be cracked or something. I feel like the car screwed me again but o well. Its not like it takes more than a few hours to take the motor out and put it back in.

This does several things for me, gets a full inspection on the motor which is good after having the fueling issues that I had early in the year. It also allows for a full inspection of the block to ensure that its ok. Finally, the obvious re-enforcement.

11-26-2012

After a month of silence, here's an update. I have the car put away for the year now but it really hasn't been driven since the beginning of October. I am 110% moving to a Hydra 2.7 with true Flex Fuel support next year. I am also planning on sending the motor to Phil before the end of the year but its my guess that he will need eight weeks prior to returning it to me. I plan on starting the car on the AccessPort, breaking it in and then taking it to Phil shortly after.

11-27-2012

Here are the reasons as I seem them:

1. Flex Fuel Support

I really want flex fuel support because I will regularly drive out of E85 range. Swapping maps around all the time seems to be dangerous and I have a feeling this is why a few cars have lost their motors.

2. The AccessPort has been very problematic

I am constantly having issues with the car switching in and out of closed loop while cruising on the highway which results in a horrible surge feeling and AFRs that bounce between 9:1 and 22:1. I am also constantly having problems with the idle hunting between 800RPM and 2000RPM, its there some day and gone on others. The tuner tells me that I am also having issues with the AP not flashing the changes correctly which may be an issue with either the AP or the ECU (or the map its self). In all, I have had more tuning related issues in a few months than I have had on all the Subaru's that I have ever owned over the past twelve years combined!

3. I want a copy of the damn map!

Every tuner who uses an AccessPort thinks that their maps are some kind of super secret intellectual property that contains all the secrets of the universe. I talked to four different tuners and NONE of them would even consider giving me an editable copy of the map (one that opens in AccessTuner RACE). As a result, I am totally locked out of the tune with no capacity to make changes on my own. This is especially frustrating because the car runs very poorly if its more than 20 degrees colder then when I had the car tuned. If I had access to the map I would learn the EM platform and make changes but it's no use.

4. I like the standalone's inputs and outputs

I spent several man days trying to perfectly replicate what the Hydra could do in minutes. Its done now but that sucked!

5. I know the hydra and feel comfortable with it

Who can argue this? I was super reluctant to move away from the Hydra but I needed local help. I got what I needed and its time to move on (er, a, back).

12-31-2012

Its been a while since I posted a pict of Abby helping me in the garage so here she is with my new Hydra 2.7:

I also spent a good bit of time getting back into the swing of things on Sunday. I installed my new flex fuel sensor, worked on my task list to get the Hydra 2.7 in the car, ordered a few electrical odds and ends from the interwebs, etc. Here are some picts:

My current trunk fuel system config:



My flex fuel sensor:



My Hydra Harness fresh from being modified for the flex fuel sensor (note three wires without a harness):



Look mom, no ECU!

Yep, they do that. For perspective, this was Oct 23rd 2010:



Here's today:

1-2-2013

Speaking of flex fuel stuff, its not ready yet but I have been going through the Hydra software to familiarize my self with the new setup. If you're familiar with the 2.6 software you will find the 2.7 software to be a pretty easy transition. Its actually more user friendly, feels much faster (on the same machine), doesn't crash when used with USB to serial converters (they like FTDI) and seems more pleasant to the eye. I really really like the new input/output programming section. The old 2.6 software listed the IO options by controller which was extremely cryptic for the end user. The new software lists each IO option by the hydra's electrical harness pin number making it very easy and simple to setup inputs and outputs. I would say that anyone who can use an AccessPort should be able to use this with a minimal amount of shakedown time.

Here's a screen shot of the much more modern looking Hydra 2.7 software:

I frequently hear people go on an on about how hard the Hydra is to use which puzzled me. The 2.6 seemed pretty easy but the software was clearly very dated (think windows 2000 era). While I was researching a few questions that I had I came across many screen shots that looked like this example of the Hydra 2.5 software: