Ellesedil

RavSpec. They used to be a vendor on here, and still are on nasioc I believe. Our forums are kind of slow for wheel sales, though. https://www.ravspec.com/shop/yokohama-advan-racing-rsii http://www.yokohama.com.au/ADVAN-Wheels/ADVAN-RSII.aspx

I'm going to call them Wednesday so they can ensure they have 4 Blizzaks and swing by on Saturday to buy them and have them mounted on the stock GT wheels. Not sure if I want 225/45 or 225/50. Potholes aren't really a thing in PDX like they are in New England, so I may stick with the stock size tire. I'm also not quite sure what size I want on the RSII's that are coming in May, although I think I'll end up going with either the S-04 Pole Positions or PSS. Do you think 255/35 would clear the strut on 19x9+50? It looks tight on willtheyfit.com. It'd be a pretty square tire for the wheel. I'm open to suggestions/experience, since my Weds were more normal 18x8.5s and were utterly drama-free for fitment.

I actually talked to Discount Tire about it and they were uncomfortable mounting them. Speaking of tires, I still need to decide on the size for my 19x9s too.

Yeah, I ran 225 50s for my winters in Mass. I have access to some pretty cheap yet nearly new decent winters that are 60. Not ideal, but the price is right. Oh well.

Has anyone tried putting 225/60 18 into our cars? The Outback has that size in 17s.

Ha! 19x9+50. 14mm closer to the strut than stock, but that's nearly the same as the 57getters we were talking about two black fridays ago that I missed out on.

Ordered something... will receive it in 10-15 weeks.

Hmm, need more suggestions. Those don't quite stir the loins and the TSWs I really like don't seem to have options that fit the STI or exist in the proper size. Then again, the TSW site doesn't say that 19x8.5 Chicanes exist either, so....

I haven't bought anything yet, but I started shopping for some 19 inch wheels that are at least 8.5 inches wide (preferably wider) that can clear Brembos. I have a slow leak in at least one of my stock tires that requires refilling every 3-4 weeks, and the tires need replacing soon anyway so new tires means new wheels so I can just go directly to properly sized tires. The options are slim and I've yet to find something I can't say no to. It's either the wrong bolt pattern, not quite the right style, or can't confirm fitment around Brembos. Stupid 5x100s.... I could use suggestions that anyone has. A small-medium amount of thin spokes is ideal, similar to Konig Oversteers. http://b.cdnbrm.com/images/products/large/wheels/konig_oversteer_wheels_hero.jpg

How is any of that surprising given the context he provides? The guy admits every other paragraph that he puts his foot to the floor when he's accelerating, and appears to essentially treat backroads like a race course. He's accelerating and decelerating constantly given where and how he drives. I get shitty gas mileage in my LGT when I drive like that too, but I simply have less physical space to cram fuel into my cylinders.

Wow, that's crazy how she just casually stands on the wall like that.

Heh, I'm not removing my turbo and sending it to Ottawa, Canada for who knows how long. Why can't they just send the parts out along with detailed instructions for shops to follow? Edit: Never mind. Found this: https://m.facebook.com/turbopartscanada/photos/a.283798391971619.1073741838.259423904409068/474098422941614/?type=3&source=48 Figures, no VF54. Although to be fair, I've doubt they've had the opportunity to try their flapper on one.

Are you suggesting that a larger flapper means a larger hole for the wastegate?

No. Is it the larger flapper we want, or a longer actuator arm? Either way, HMS hasn't disconnected my downpipe or looked at my turbo yet.

I'm not handy enough to fully understand the implications. HMS has only viewed the headers from the bottom of the car with everything still solidly attached. Their concern with EWG's was that the headers were casted instead of tubing, but once the saw the piping, they figured they could install some. I'm not sure how double-walled headers complicates things. Is this something they can discover if they take the turbo off? Or is it really only noticeable once you cut into them?

So, the past two mornings have been in the upper 50's/lower 60's. Once the car warms up, but before the intercooler starts to heatsoak, I've spiked to 20.6 PSI both mornings. I'm going to continue to keep an eye on things, but it's looking like I might still have some boost creep concerns. During tuning, the tuner did mention he was having a little difficulty controlling boost. We talked a lot about boost control and boost creep over the last few weeks (I've been there 4 times in 3 weeks), to the point we started contemplating some potential solutions to potential problems. HMS seems pretty confident they could easily add some EWGs to the stock header. At this point, that might actually be the cheapest option... or I let HMS take another crack at porting my turbo since English really only smoothed some surfaces and enlarged the wastegate hole.

Umm, wouldn't that be completely expected? I mean, they more than doubled the amount of power the car makes. Of course the transmission will fail. We have some owners on here who doubled their power and had to upgrade clutches and started shattering gears. As far as "lawl it's a Ford" gripes go, this is a nothing burger and should have been expected with that level of modification.

This is probably longer then you expected because I think there's actually multiple questions here. Am I happy with 240/300? I kind of expected them to be higher. But if I take my car to a different dyno and get 300/400, then yeah, that'd be pretty nice. But nothing about the car is different between those two sets of numbers, just the dyno and how it calculates things. This would be easier to answer if I had well documented my progress with before and after dyno charts so that I could track the % of power and torque gained between steps, but I didn't. Am I happy with the Nameless downpipe? Not really, but I'm not necessarily upset with it either. I'm at a point that if I ever have another reason to replace the downpipe in addition to "I just want to", then I'll probably do so. If catted downpipes were less expensive, I may have already pulled the trigger on an Invidia by now. With the divorced pipe not really adding any apparent benefit (and may actually hinder things since the flapper doesn't open very far and it's in the way of a fairly narrow pipe), I'd much prefer to have a bellmouth design and the entire exhaust flowing through a catalytic converter. Right now, the thing I'm more upset about going with stage 2 is my turbo housing, which after porting appeared to add 1 PSI of boost. Am I happy with my car? I'm fairly content for now. I need to drive it more in order to notice how it behaves differently and monitor things while the ECU does it's learning thing. Right now, the differences between last week and yesterday are subtle, and most of my gains were torque and I'm not launching my car. At this point, if my car drives without breaking until I'm ready to upgrade more things, I'll be happy.

And just for funsies, here's some pictures and a video of a run mid-tune. I definitely need new wheels. I need to find some budget for that... somewhere.

So now I have a car that can actually hit 18 PSI. In fact, peek target boost is actually 19 PSI right now, but so far, it only really gets as high as 18.6 PSI. There was definitely something wrong with that boost controller, and it's going to be interesting to watch this as the temperature drops through fall and into winter. English did send a new Grimspeed boost controller to HMS, but they sent the wrong one as the plug was different. HMS swapped the plugs and made it work. My final numbers seem pretty low, but based on talking with the tuner, it seems their Mustang dyno simply measures conservatively (he stated about 18% less than a DynoJet). My final numbers were 238.4 HP @ 5600 RPM and 301.6 ft-lbs torque @ 3407 RPM. The car now makes a lot more torque then before, and it comes earlier. Based on the graphs, it looks like torque peaks at least 800-1100 RPM earlier. I've attached all of the dyno graphs I have since going stage 2: my current tune (single graph, Mustang dyno), some pulls with missing boost on the English tune (3 graphs, Mustang dyno), and the graph I got after English finished tuning (1 graph, DynoJet, targeting 17 PSI but could never reach it and seemed to bleed more boost as time went on, probably due to the faulty boost controller). If anything, I learned a lot about how different shops go about things and the differences between dynos. Comparing the last two graphs from the Mustang dyno, it looks like I gained 3% more power and 19% more torque with a fully functional boost controller and a new tune.

I topped off my gas tank at Costco on my way to the shop to have my boost controller replaced. The attendant, an older-than-me woman (mid-40's maybe?) immediately jumped the gun by asking if I'd like a premium fill. Most every gas station attendant (which every gas station has as mandated by Oregon law) just assumes everyone wants regular gas. So, I was pleasantly surprised. After she started the gas pump, I asked her how she knew. Turns out that one of her sons has a BRZ, another son has a STI, and she drives a Crosstrek. Cool. So, we started talking about Subarus, and got some bitching in about Subaru not bringing wagons stateside which she'd really like to have. She also seemed to really take an interest in my Prova rain guards and in particular the shape of the molding... to the point that she actually took notes about them. I have no idea if Prova offers some rain guards for the Crosstrek, but I made sure to tell her they were Japanese and pretty rare around here, but really awesome for our rainy Oregon winters. That was a pretty cool stop.

And what kind of Legacy do you have?

To be honest, my wife essentially agrees with you. But her opinion is more... succinct.

HMS wanted to get English involved since they did the previous work, including the purchase and install of the Grimspeed EBCS. If anything, they at least hoped they'd be open to replacing the EBCS since it's originally their part. So far, the evidence seems pretty definitive, and English seems ok with replacing the EBCS at no cost. Of course, they'd prefer to also diagnose things on their own as well and seem genuinely interested in exploring what's wrong. So, I've got to hand it to HMS and English right now. They're trying to get along and figure out what my issues are so that my car (and thus me) is happy. Frankly, if English can get my car to where it should be at no additional cost since I've already given them a pile of money, I'll be happy as a clam. Things might be a little complicated since HMS had started tuning the car, and I'm currently running something that's essentially a base map. There's still the fact that English Racing is over an hour's drive from me, while HMS is about 25 minutes, so there's still a lot of incentive to stick with HMS going forward. I haven't made the actual appointments yet, so I'm still considering my options. But I have few ways I could go now, one of which will hopefully be inexpensive. But if English can get the car where it's supposed to, I'll be happy. And my wife has been really supportive and seems completely ok with all of this. I'm just kidding. She offered to drive my car into the nearest body of water.

Ok. So, apparently, English Racing installed my Grimspeed EBCS pretty much right next to the headers/turbo and they're not really designed for the amount of heat that's generated there. When HMS couldn't locate an actual boost leak, they disconnected the wastegate signal line and took it for a quick spin. The car builds plenty of boost - 20+ and without pushing the pedal all the way to the floor. So, I get to come back after they order a new EBCS and then we can finish the tune. In other news, my disappointment with my English Racing experience grows.