Tigger73's MY15 2.5i

[tigger73]

SPECS

 

Gen 6 MY15 2.5i Liberty - crystal black silica

 

 

OPTIONS (DEALER FITTED AT DELIVERY)

 

• 
  
• floor mats
  
• boot liner
  
• chrome foglight surrounds
  

 

MOD LIST

 

• 
  
• 20mm rear sway bar
  
• STI 18 x 8.5 ET50 rims
  
• Opticoat paint protection
  
• Full custom exhaust, 4" Twin Exit exhaust, sports mufflers, 2 1/2" mid-pipe, high flow cat, high flow headers
  
• ECU and transmission tune
  
• OEM mup flaps (front)
  
• Hella Sharptones
  
• 316mm front brake upgrade
  
• painted brake calipers
  
• STI gear shifter
  

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=226822&stc=1&d=1458614072

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/02/31c3f046f87698360d3eea6525f9fc19.jpg

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/02/892a90be867f0ef91d9f474d34dc0f45.jpg

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/13/93e0998a658abb4e208e59eb68be13fb.jpg

Edited April 1, 2016 by tigger73

[tigger73]

COSMETIC /EXTERIOR UPGRADES

 

I do a fair amount of country driving so I want to keep the bugs out.

 

Bumper removed:

 

 

 

It's a pretty easy job as it's just held on by a bunch of clips which are simple to take out.

 

 

 

Installed some fly wire with some zip ties in the lower grill. I drilled a small hole in each corner of the plastic grill to allow the mesh to be properly secured.

 

 

 

Upper grill involved taking about 50 screws out to put the mesh in and then putting all the screws back in. Added a couple of zip ties just to keep it all in place where it wasn't being held firmly.

 

 

 

A big thanks to Hamish @ Elite Finish for Opticoat Plus

 

 

And some beading shots:

 

 

 

Gotta love the opti-coat beading.

 

 

Pretty easy DIY to install the mud flaps this morning. Remove 3 x clips, drill one hole and put back with 2 x clips, 2 x bolts and a screw.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully this keeps the side of the car a little cleaner...

 

Debadged the back the other day:

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/28/0ec480ec4cddd19a0942f84fcc3efa83.jpg

Edited January 22, 2016 by tigger73

[tigger73]

FULL EXHAUST

 

I picked up the insert for the rear bumper to for the right side exhaust exit:

 

 

 

A few pics of the OEM exhaust before starting:

 

 

 

 

Round 1 was using some OEM mufflers and y-pipe:

 

 

 

 

 

The location of the tips was a little low and 3.5" tips too small so it went back to get some sports mufflers and 4" tips fitted:

 

 

 

Here's a nice close-up of the tips:

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/17/34e7ca35fdee911a11b318c00912c240.jpg

 

 

And best of all I actually have an exhaust that I can hear now!!!!

 

Here's a video of the start-up. You can notice a bit more of a growl which isn't there with the stock system:

 

 

And another pulling out onto the highway.

 

 

I know from experience that it's hard to hear volume levels from videos. Everyone's opinions on sound levels are very subjective so someone's quiet system will be too loud for someone else.

 

 

 

Headers and Mid-Pipe

 

Had a full exhaust built & fitted today at Exhaust Technology. New high flow headers, high flow cat, 2 1/2" mid-pipe and new Y-pipe. Only bits that were reused were my sports mufflers and tips.

 

OEM headers:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160121/c4a38283736bee4d75ab8e7c94175183.jpg

 

 

Custom headers:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160121/94a0aa3e49dd5003c8762bc89674dff4.jpg

 

 

New bits:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160121/3ef5b8d06ff11876cabb90dac91db293.jpg

 

 

Old bits:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160121/df754a8c73773db1f6f6691787b29b68.jpg

 

 

Definitely a lot more torque low down and really pulls well off the line now. Though it did fail the wife test.... may need to go back to get the noise level dropped back.

 

No noise when you're cruising at speed, however if you just feather the throttle you get a decent amount of volume. Also I wouldn't exactly call it a nice sounding exhaust note - there's a burble which I quite like but there's also a bit of drone which I could do without. I want to hear it on WOT and other times run almost like stock. Anyway Mark's going to take a look at it next week and do a couple of tweaks.

 

Really happy with the job. The plan was for equal length headers which I believe these are. UEL's don't work on the gen6 as they've corrected the firing order on the FB25 engine so you won't get the boxer burble even if you tried. So the equal length headers are better for power anyway so that's the way I went. Also you'll see a stepped design in the header pipework which helps in getting them running freer and not bogging at lower RPMs. That's part of the reason why I think it's so good off the line now.

 

Here's a video of the new exhaust:

 

 

This system has custom headers, 200 cell high flow cat, 2 1/2" mid-pipe with oval resonator and sports rear mufflers.

 

It has a bit too much raspiness for my liking (and waaay too much for my wife) so it's getting some tweaks done in a couple of days to bring the volume down and take out some of the metallic rasp at higher revs. Still has a nice burble at idle.

 

Here's a couple of shots of the larger oval resonator and hotdog which was installed this week. It's cut out a lot of the boom and quietened it up while still allowing a free flow.

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160319/837be638a6e07429a775ac665eba73d8.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160319/788b57e9f51669259ce8ef3e1ba56d16.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160319/e7223ad7d588f7e432fec9f1c1c2cb5e.jpg

Edited March 19, 2016 by tigger73

[tigger73]

DYNO RESULTS / TUNING

 

Here's the dyno results for the car in stock tune. Peak is around 92kW @ 5,500RPM

 

 

The "blip" at the end is the gear change. Interesting is that the gearbox pushes through more torque on the gear change so this is probably closer to the potential of the car.

 

And a short clip:

 

Tune Round 1

 

OK Matt installed the new tune tonight and initial drive home is that it has woken the engine up quite a bit. Throttle response is improved and there's a decent amount more torque through the mid-range. Car is going on the dyno on Monday so I'll be able to quantify numbers a little better in a couple of days.

 

Ran a couple of quick 0-100 runs and best time was 9.08s - which is ~0.9sec improvement over stock.

 

It's never going to be a performance sedan, however what it does do is improve the driveability on the 2.5 NA.

 

Should have some fuel economy figures in a couple of weeks too. Stock I was averaging 8.2-8.3 l/100km so it will be interesting to see how this improves over time.Went out on the highway this morning for some early(ish) runs. Car runs consistently in the high 8's / low 9's. Best time was 8.62 and this was with a full tank of fuel.

 

I am seriously stoked.

 

Now I know for a lot of you guys with turbo cars this is a bit of a joke but for a NA car that was running 10's to drop over a full second in the 0-100 with just a tune is an exceptionally good result. It's pretty much the best I could have hoped for out of the car.

 

I'm really interested what the dyno is going to show in improvement in torque delivery, however from the road results and general more "aliveness" of the car I don't think I could be happier.

 

A big thanks to Matt at KiDo :DDyno results from this morning - red (stock), green (tune)

 

 

Tune Round 2

 

I've been trying to get some data other than the bum data, but it's been pretty hot in Adelaide since getting it retuned. At this point it's definitely smoother and less torque dump on gear change, however I'm not sure if it's picked up enough in other areas to compensate. Though getting on/off the accelerator coming out of corners is a lot more "natural" feeling and the car responds more in line with the throttle input rather than having a lag so there's definitely some driveability improvements.

 

I was really hoping to have a bit more to say but will hopefully get back out on the highway for some more runs in the next couple of days. I did a couple of quick runs but ended up with garbage data - GPS timer didn't catch the start of the run and only gave me a 30-100 time.

 

After a number of 35+degC days it finally cooled off today so I went out tonight and got a number of decent runs in. GPS timer agrees with the bum dyno it's definitely smoother... and quicker

 

0-100 is now dropped another 0.5 sec to average of 8.4sec over 10 runs out/back. So that's a total of 1.6sec off the stock time. For a 2.5 NA I am impressed!

 

The goal is to find another 0.5sec to get it into the 7's and then I think we'll call it job done. So when Matt's back at the end of Feb it's going to get run on the dyno and with some final tweaks hopefully find those last few tenths.

 

Tune Round 3

 

Now time to get a little more serious. I've had a full exhaust installed including custom headers and high flow cat. After a retune, there's a lot more torque - particularly low down.

 

Dyno results below, however rev 2 tune with headers was run with 91 octane and stock was with 95. Even still the tuned version performs quite a bit better.

 

 

And now for the all important 0-100 time... the average is now 8.0 with some pretty consistent runs between 7.9 and 8.1 . Best time below:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160226/97c49fc9e546c284e47dfe2e9588e9b5.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160226/f5d66696bdf6802c29876389357a0b79.jpg

 

Here's a summary table with all the 0-100 runs. Average times highlighted in the bottom row - there's an improvement of 2.0sec over the stock 2.5 with the tune and headers.

 

 

And just for completeness here's all the runs for the Rev2 tune with headers:

 

 

Had a retune a week ago as Matt (throttlehappy) had found some more maps to fix when he was doing some pre-work for tuning the FB25 for raptor superchargers.... and before you ask no it's not for me

 

Anyway low down torque has improved and it really pulls well from the line. Not sure what the nanny limiters were but it certainly has freed up a lot more.

 

I ran some more 0-100 times. There's only a marginal improvement:

 

 

It had me scratching my head a bit but throttlehappy said that where the tune is stronger is in the bottom end and the car spends hardly any time there with foot flat. 90% of the time is up above 4,000RPM where there's not really any change in the file.

 

However driving through the hills on windy roads you can really feel the extra low end torque as the car pulls nicely out of the corners. It used to sometimes get caught in an rpm that was a bit "flat", however now with the latest retune these dead spots are gone and it pulls well everywhere

 

I do plan to put my car back on the dyno. I just haven't got around to it yet. Peak power won't have changed but I'm expecting a bit fatter curve at the bottom end.

 

Area under the curve is what you're after - particularly for a road car where you use a wide rev range.

Edited August 5, 2016 by tigger73

[tigger73]

WHEELS

 

I picked up some STI rims on the spur of the moment...

 

They came fitted with some brand new Bridgestone Potenza RE003's .... but unfortunately in the wrong size for a MY15

 

 

Test fit up wheels today and fitment is spot on - stock wheels sit too far inboard for my liking.

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/04/cc3e7170fd1115a1a9bed89dd4601852.jpg

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/04/1d0b5573ad3b9b9d0dd91c4e9112c6a8.jpg

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/09/04/b1d9e648cbf7b3543719993dfd0bc1fa.jpg

 

There 's a decent amount of space around the wheel as the suspension hasn't been fully loaded and the tyres are lower profile than I'd normally be running.

 

Though jury is still out on the colour. Wife is not a massive fan of dark/black on black. :roll:

 

The rims were previously fitted to a WRX for Bridgestone tyre testing and have some minor marks so I'm considering the option of repainting them... but then part of the attraction of these wheels was that they were an OEM rim.

 

Update:

 

Well I made the decision that the new rims are not going on the car in their current colour so I took to them with some sandpaper today. No going back now - good thing is I get to clean up some of the scuffs/marks.

 

Before and after (sanding):

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/01/541656772414a5e2416e9efcc9ed42d8.jpg

 

Still yet to decide on the new colour...

 

Paint has been bought!!!

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/13/190853f865956262bea00775c6d13b70.jpg

 

I've decided to add some black under the silver to see if I can darken it up a bit.

 

Wheels are painted. A bit of a marathon effort as I had to clear space in the shed first and then repack afterwards. Here's a couple of photos in the process:

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/15/18840f2f7276e22451f0b2056451aa90.jpg

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/15/08d705914b3e86a047aa2bd1e1c168aa.jpg

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/15/5f7650e52ff77690178584d2a1fcbaf1.jpg

 

After I finished the undercoat, I taped up the wheel and painted the inside of the spokes black. Then painted silver over the top. The parts that have the black underneath have turned out a shade or 2 darker which gives the wheel a bit more interest/depth.

 

Now to get tyres on and get them fitted!!!!

 

OK got the new tyres fitted, balanced and a wheel alignment.

 

Took a couple of quick shots down at the Port on the way home:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2016 by tigger73

[tigger73]

SUSPENSION UPGRADES

 

20mm rear sway bar and bushings installed.

Edited January 22, 2016 by tigger73

[tigger73]

BRAKE UPGRADES

Sourced some second-hand brake calipers to suit 316mm rotors:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160319/e4cbb0154d341ce59abdc14b3c4e871d.jpg

 

Cleaned them up and painted:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160325/4e18e0d9694118c90c4f3d2235f9d06f.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160326/fdef897f8592cf60f814d1cdf0b41c85.jpg

 

Reassembled ready for installation:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/c705c673d10a28322dbf3eaf040aac50.jpg

 

Painted the rears en-situ:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/e10001de2005110b09a900466ff017de.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/8ccf51ff70e6683c805a21225d4b849c.jpg

 

Completed:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/91ec1f47a8e55a083f2e0f16bb84f40d.jpg

 

 

Fitted up front GT calipers with new 3.6R 316mm rotors and Intima SS pads.

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160716/cf946c2c4df086f95a32cd4918be248a.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160716/0a1935f9c663440ac4c853fe1fd8d041.jpg

 

 

Initial feedback from first drives is that there is definitely an improvement in braking. They pull the car up quite a bit better than the stock brakes. It's not like you're hitting the tensioners on the seatbelts but it does feel like you're getting pulled up quicker.

 

Sorry no quantitative data on it but you could calculate the improvement in braking efficiency if you had the coefficient of friction of the brake pads, surface area and rotor size... I'll leave that to someone with more time

 

If I was to put a number on it, the butt dyno says it's something like a 15-20% improvement. It's definitely a noticeable/good change but not massive.

 

I'd done 30,000 miles on my stock 2.5i pads/rotors and still had quite a bit left on them - probably another 20-30,000 miles. If you're heading towards needing to change your brake pads/rotors I'd suggest it's a good thing to hunt down some calipers and change these at the same time as the pads/rotors.

 

Plus it's a good chance to paint the calipers while they're off the car

Edited July 17, 2016 by tigger73

[tigger73]

ELECTRICAL / LIGHTING UPGRADES

 

Father Xmas brought some Hella Sharptones...

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/12/25/b08b656314fb585af870323b99def980.jpg

 

Installed the Hella Sharptones this morning. I used the existing wiring and did a direct swap. Required one short earth strap to the body as the stock high tone in the middle only had a positive connection and earthed back through the body of the horn. Hella horn had 2 spade connectors.

 

I was setting myself up for a more involved install, however the connectors on the stock horns use spade terminals so it ended up being (almost) straight plug and play.

 

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/16/01/09/3be5cd9057259adaa8a9fb8008244d2d.jpg

 

 

I wasn't 100% happy with the output using the stock wiring, so I ended up re running the wiring direct from the battery and mounted both in the centre rather than the stock location with one in the behind the front fog light.

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160702/624ee5b900f20dda8638a26b0afa40d0.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160702/a4415784ea24541f5ec4eb7139f5840a.jpg

 

 

Much more sound

Edited July 17, 2016 by tigger73

[tigger73]

INTERIOR UPGRADES

 

STI gear shifter installed:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160329/fd761e2015c7467cf8437a513c03a952.jpg

Edited April 1, 2016 by tigger73

[tigger73]

BODY KIT / FULL AERO AND VINYL WRAP

 

Now if I was going to go completely bonkers.... I'd be getting a Tommy Kaira body kit. Yeah I know this pic is for a gen5 but if they make one for a gen6 sign me up!!!!

 

http://automotophoto.ru/_ph/170/871252102.jpg

Edited January 23, 2016 by tigger73

[GTEASER]

subbed. Nice work Tigger!!!

[tigger73]

Took a video of the new exhaust today:

 

 

This exhaust has custom headers, 200 cell high flow cat, 2 1/2" mid-pipe with oval resonator and sports rear mufflers.

 

It's heading back to the shop in a couple of days to see if I can get the volume dropped back a bit and to take away some of the raspiness.

 

Though I still want to keep the nice burble on idle.

Edited January 27, 2016 by tigger73

[tigger73]

Still 2 weeks to wait until the car gets dyno tuned.

 

Took a shot of the car while out driving this morning.

 

[Grnlantern1]

Thanks.. You made me Build my Mod Thread.. I think we should have a Sticky for Members Mods.. [emoji57] [emoji57] [emoji57]

 

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

[tigger73]

Yes the total build tends to gets lost in the "What did you do to you 6th Gen" thread. So I think if you're doing a bit more than a few basic mods then a build thread has some value especially if it happens over the life of the ownership of your car.

 

Back on topic dyno tune is booked for Friday.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tigger73]

Just a word of caution for anyone changing headers/high flow cat as it likely will result in a CEL and the engine running in a reduced power mode. I can live with the warning lights on the dash for a short time but the main problem is it also disables a number of other features including cruise control.

 

I currently have a yellow Eyesight warning as well as stability control disabled and lane departure warning. The gear selector also flashes and there's a whole lot of beeps when you turn it on.

 

This will hopefully all get permanently fixed with the retune. I believe the issue is with the high flow cat and the O2 sensor going into "fault". I can work around this for the short term by disconnecting the battery which resets the ECU but the fault comes back again after20-30 minutes of driving.

 

This probably would have been ok if I was just driving around the city but I've had some long country trips to do in the last 2 weeks so have swapped cars with my wife until the end of the week. Cruise control is a almost a necessity on the highway.

 

Which brings me to the other downside is that my wife almost ran out of petrol as she didn't notice the fuel was low and with all the fault lights the low petrol indicator kind of got missed [emoji51]

 

Anyway all should be good in a couple of days... fingers crossed!!!

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tigger73]

Retune done. A lot more torque - right across the rev range. I've only driven around the block tonight so I'll get to drive it a bit more over the weekend and hopefully get out and do some timed runs also.

 

Dyno results below, however rev 2 tune with headers was run with 91 octane and stock was with 95. Even still the tuned version performs quite a bit better. Will look to run a couple of tanks of 95 and then rerun the dyno.

 

[hkshooter]

That dyno report is from last may.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[tigger73]

That dyno report is from last may.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

 

Yes and I've superimposed the results from today on top of the old curve.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hkshooter]

Yes and I've superimposed the results from today on top of the old curve.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sweet didn't catch that.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[kayslay21]

So is that like 250ft lbs of torque in US terms? Your up there with the 3.6r, hopefully that's not too much on your cvt since we have the lower torque version

[SubieN8]

^ I'd love a little more torque, but it does make me think twice about the added stress on the components.

[tigger73]

Yes the CVT is/was always the concern. That is why I am stopping here in terms of any additional power mods. There is usually a decent safety margin designed into vehicle components and I am prepared to push it a bit.

 

There won't be any supercharger getting fitted if anyone is wondering.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kayslay21]

Also with the new tune, were they able to fix the CEL problem from the high flow cat?

[tigger73]

Yes CEL is fixed.

 

Just went out on the highway to run a few 0-100's and average is now 8.0 with some pretty consistent runs between 7.9 and 8.1.

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160226/97c49fc9e546c284e47dfe2e9588e9b5.jpg

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160226/f5d66696bdf6802c29876389357a0b79.jpg

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk