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

11 minute(s) of a 312 minute read

In other news, I got my wife and I "his and hers" Subarus on Saturday:



My wife's car is a 2014 "Premium Sport Hatch" with custom leather and my car is a 2014 WRX 5-door. It was interesting buying two cars at the same time and even more difficult trying to get them both home since it was just me at the dealership.

Since I am sure somebody will ask, no, I am not selling the STI from this thread, I just needed a new daily driver. I would also like to pre-answer the followup question; NO, I wont be modding the WRX into oblivion (or at least I hope not). Finally, my 2012 Forester and my wife's old 02 WRX are both gone (replaced by the two from

4-27-2014

Well, the car put down 510/510 with 460wtq at 4000 RPM (mustang dyno) which makes it feel extremely responsive. Peak torque is made around 4300 RPM and peak HP is somewhere over 7000 RPM. Driving it is insane, you can get wheel spin in 3rd gear so you have to "manage" your throttle inputs with care. The torque is above 400ft/lbs for over 3000RPM of rev range and about 300ftlibs for over 5000 RPM of rev range so the power band feels pretty nice. The EFR is a small turbo so it doesn't make but torque numbers at the very top of the rev range but it's till making over 300wtq at 7500.

I will get a graph posted as quickly as possible but in the meantime, wish me luck when I start it up today as "the day after" seems to be a historical point of trouble with my car.

I will get a digital copy in a day or two:

Thanks everyone. I am really pumped about the numbers and the graph, its really exciting to know that I am VERY close for the first time. Having said that, I do have a few issues to work out and I need your collective knowledge and experience to solve a tough one.

I will start off by saying that its hard to imagine that the car is not healthy as it makes fantastic power, drives perfectly, etc. Unfortunately I have a very frustrating idle control issue that manifests its self as a hunting / surging idle. As soon as the car moves over to closed loop the tach starts fluttering up and down by about 150 RPM and the AFRs bounce around pretty good. The main fact that I want everyone to keep in mind is that this is NOT a new issue. I had the same problem when I last ran the stock ECU/Access Port in 2012 which was the number one reason why I went back to they Hydra. Even on the Hydra I had a bit if this same issue but we were able to almost entirely tune it out.

To further complicate things, the car WASN'T experiencing this issue when Mike (the tuner) started working on the car yesterday. Then, about 20min into the tune, I had a few minor issues and while messing around with the car on the dyno trying to resolve them, I accidentally crossed my battery terminals for a split second which caused the car to instantly shut down. Just prior to the short, the motor wasn't surging at all. Mike (the tuner) is convinced that shorting out the battery damaged something which resulted in the surging issue BUT as I said, this isn't a new problem. In fact, the car was doing this very thing when I arrived onsite yesterday.

How about your $0.02 guys!

5-27-2014

Just a few quick updates:

I have flushed the car with E85 a few times and ended up at 82% E content. I am going to flush it one more time with the hope of getting it up around 85%. Thankfully a good friend has a flex fuel F250 that is ALWAYS on empty so we have been running the fuel through my car and then dumping it into his truck at his expense.

At the strong suggestion of Mike from Innovative, I have replaced my factory oxygen sensor and alternator with brand new units from a Subaru dealer. The alternator was an aftermarket rebuilt unit that wound up on my STI due to an emergency repair on one of my other Subarus. During the dyno session we noticed that the voltage was mildly unstable so we swapped an alternator in from another car as a temporary fix. In addition to the new alternator, Ryan Moore suggested that I add a few more grounding wires to the motor since that has proved to be a successful fix for strange issues so I will be working on that this weekend.

The only factory front oxygen sensor that I had access to prior to the most recent tune was MANY years old and had seen a bit of leaded fuel in the past. When the car started having idle issues due to floating AFRs we quickly turned to the oxygen sensor as a possible source of trouble. Unfortunately, I swapped the sensor with a new one form my local dealer and it doesn't seem to have fixed the issue. The other leading theory around the hunting idle is a vacuum only manifold leak which could possibly be at or near one of the injector seats so I decided to give Injector Dynamics support a call for some new o-rings.

When I spoke to ID support, they asked me a number of questions about my situation, the car and my usage pattern. After answering their questions, they told me that they were very concerned about my car's usage pattern. For reference, my car regularly sits with E85 in the tank for may days and possibly weeks at a time without being started and run. Since the ID2000s were not designed for E85, they tend to have corrosion issues if they are not used for long periods of time. Their recently introduced 1300cc injectors are apparently 100% stainless steel inside and don't suffer from any of the issues that the 2000s could possibly see if left sitting.

Since the car is using less than 50% IDC on the 2250s, the 1300s should work just fine and will likely end up being easier to tune in the process. I already have another appointment with Innovative to get the tune modified on the 14th of June. Wish me luck!

6-13-2014

Today went really well and I am very happy. Its hard to believe that the car is actually working well! The only real work that I have on the radar for the entire summer is to change the oil.

6-14-2014

Just a quick pict of what the engine bay looks like these days:

11-17-2014

I havent posted in a while but after about 3000 miles I put the car in storage on Nov 2nd. It was a GREAT year and I am really happy with the car! My plans for the winter include some maintenance items, a few "fixes" for things that I am worried about (fuel & oil line placement) and possibly softer wastegate springs.

8-9-2015

Yes and i couldn't be happier! I have burnt quite a bit of E this year on the back roads but unfortunately, I haven't had it to the track at all. The car has been pretty reliable, I haven't had any non-wear/consumables related issues with it at all since the spring of 2014.

I swapped the gear oil to the new stuff that Subaru sells and I hated it. It made the car really hard to shift, especially under high RPM/aggressive conditions. Today I swapped to the "Andrewtech coctail" of redline shockproof and motul and it drives like a dream.

I also need to get my brake rotors machines because I am getting some pulsation so I need to get that taken care of ASAP.

10-11-2015

About five minutes after I hit the button on the above post on Aug 9th I decided to check the schedule at my local race track, Pittsburgh International Raceway. Interestingly enough, they had a track day scheduled a few weeks later so I signed up. The event was fantastic and the car performed very well! The only thing that didn't work too well was my five+ year old set of star spec tires.

Since my tires are shot, I think I am going to get a really wide set of rims, fender flares and some new Toyo R888s. I may also get a removable front splitter and a new, fully functional rear wing but that may not be until next winter. I also want to do a few things that I feel will make the car safer like changing a few of the lines on my fuel system around.

In the meantime, there's about 11 gallons of E waiting to be burnt and when it's gone the car is going to be put away for the winter.

Here are a few Picts from the track day.

Here's the track map, there are lots of elevation changes, it's pretty fun.

Here's my race rig; truck, tent and all:

My tires are getting pretty hot after 20min.

2-23-2016

Check out my new wheels (and my old dog):


They are 10" RPF1s with a +38 covered in 275 Toyo R888s. Up until now, I have been running 245 Star Specs and my STI will easily spin all four in the lower gears so hopefully these will tame the tire eating beast a bit.







I also have a real set of Karlton flairs (they are back in production) on their way, and they should be here in about a month. With a little luck, the car should look like this (obviously with different rims) when all said and done:



NOTE: This is NOT my car, just an example of what it will look like when done.

5-25-2016

Had some time to work on the STI for the first time in a long time. I am getting ready for my "hella huge wheels and tires" project.

5-22-2016

Thanks! Could you take two pictures for me so I have some kind of idea what needs to be cut? I need one of the front and rear of the wheel well like this: