Hello all, I am looking at getting a tbe, up pipe and headers for my 06 WRX. I currently have a STI catback and SPT intake on the car right now. I want the deep exhaust note that the subby is know for and not the loud honda sound. Does anyone have and suggestions on a complete setup for my ride? I have been doing a lot of research but can really find what I am looking for. I know unequal length header will keep more of the deeper sound but I'm not sure what brand to match up with for the rest of the car. I would like to keep everything by the same manufacture so i know it will fit and give the best performance. Thanks for any help.
First off, unless you just have money to throw away, don't get headers. the stockers are just fine, we put down 510hp on the oem header. AM will not change the note that much...put that money elsewhere. I would get a huge DP and have someone fab up a magnaflow exhaust. Sounds great and cheap. if you want to blow a ton of cash, get name brand, I love the perrin twin tip.
So its the same as with EVO's. You don't upgrade the headers until you are ready to upgrade the turbo.
I don't have a ton of money to blow but I am looking for quality, performance and the deep exhaust note.
Ebay Just be careful on which system you get. Some are actually better than others as far as fit and finish
i upgraded my sti headers...to wrx ones. The runners are slightly larger and allow for more flow IMO, the best sounding exhaust out there is the Blitz Nur Spec. Damn near impossible to find, but isn't obnoxious and sounds fabulous under WOT. I used a Cobb, sounds like stock at idle, opens up a little deeper when you floor it.
I want the most for my money with out having to get knock off's. I want this done right the first time. So if I have to pay more for quality then I will do so.
Good, then your exhaust choices will be easy I would hit up CobbTuning.com and go ahead and order their catted downpipe and their catback. Done and done! Want to save some coin? Order up a Helix or Invidia catted DP and use the cobb catback. You will have to have the catback modified a full 3" however (as it features a 2.5" -> 3" bottleneck).
Throw another $700 on there and I have a complete rotated set up with your name on it...it comes with up pipe and down pipe too
wouldn't it be easier to just get the cobb tbe instead of getting their down pipe and catback separate?
I have ScoobySport. If you want the deep exhaust note, you do not want ScoobySport. My exhaust is 2.5" from the Uppipe back. Because of the diameter, the sound is not loud under normal driving conditions. It has a nice growl when I step on it. If you want the deep exhaust note, you want a 3" diameter exhaust.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; Droid Build/FRG22D) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1) Isn't the 06 UP catless? Id do a nice round purchase of a used downpipe, front/rear sways, front/rear endlinks, cobb ap v2 and maybe a set of the whiteline rear sub lock bolts. Also, I see no point in changing headers unless your after good power. Round two features cobb catback, protune, springs or coilovers, new tires, pads and fluid. Somewhere along the way do yourself a favor and buy TICs holy shift kit, kb exhaust hangers and consider a large tmic if you are staying stock location.
Course if you want a 100 hp over stage 2 (up, down, tune), the rotated kit fits the bill and does it without breaking a sweat
As much as I would love to upgrade the turbo I would want to do all the supporting mods first. I just would not feel safe running it with out everything else and a extra 700 is WAY over budget.
What are your power goals, everything is relative to that. If you want a nice deep sound then the Borla Hush is one of the best on the market. For a downpipe the Invidia Catless Bellmouth is a really well made part for very little money. If you want to talk more about it give me a ring at TopSpeed tomorrow and Ill give you some more detail. I'm not there all the time so you will either get me or Nathan if you call either way one of us will be happy to help you. If you are on a tight budget a rotated kit would be a huge mistake.
Spend the extra money now? Well if I don't have an extra $700 to spend then I can't. We are not talking about $100-$200 extra we are talking about $700.
The goal for the car is to make a solid 450/400 to the wheels. I want fast spool along with that power goal. I am not looking to run on the hwy but more setup for a track.
I should have said that my end goal for the car is 450/400. I am wanting to build the car to get to that point.
I have no issue with going to a rotated turbo setup just not right now. I want the car to be fully built so when I do go that way I can crank the boost way up
Maybe I am not understanding you correctly, but you dont just roll up the boost on these cars without a proper tune.
sounds like you need to step back and figure what you want to do. If you jsut want exhaust, then do that. Anything more will require a tune which will add another $4-500 to the list. No offense, but if you're stuck up because $700 is too much to spend, you don't need to be modding your car to those power levels. There are maybe 6 or 7 people on this board (non-vendors) that have experienced those levels, and I only know one person who did so with no issues. Everybody else has gone through multiple turbos / motors / trannies / etc. You're asking a 2.5 liter forced induction setup to put out 450whp (~560 crank), that's 225 HP / liter or 140 HP / cylinder. At those power levels, shit breaks
OK, let me explain this again. I have $1500 to $1800 to spend on parts not including a tune. I want to get the most power for what I have to spend. It's not that I don't want to spend the extra $700 its that I don't have the extra $700 to spend. In all the research I have done upgrading the turbo is one of the last things you do. I want to have the car fully built to support a turbo upgrade. I know that building the car will take awhile unless I run into some extra cash to spend. I know what I want and it is more power. The end result will be a 450/400 street car.
ok, let me explain this again. You will spend $1000 on an uppipe and downpipe for a stock location turbo and another $400 for a Cobb APv2 to flash you to stage two, at which point you may hit 300whp. When you're tired of that, you'll then spend ANOTHER $1000 on an uppipe and downpipe for a rotated turbo to make your power levels, then more money on a new turbo, injectors and tune. If you want to go bigger in the future, why waste the money now? Maybe I just don't get it...but if that's your goal, get a used POS downpipe for $150 and spend $100 on an STI uppipe, get an AP and flash to stage two and be done with it until you decide for more power.
Can you tell 07Ltd has been down that road ? Around 400 is not a big deal. We have a car we built a rotated kit for and tuned that is making 400 on a very conservative tune and stock motor that now has 180k miles on it. Amonsta is his forum name. But for over 400 at the wheels it gets more and more expensive the higher you go. If that is your goal, either spend the money on a quality rotated kit now or save till you can, otherwise you will end up buying parts twice and paying more in the long run as 07Ltd said above. Just my thoughts.
This seems to be a great time for this quote... "Stay stock, stay happy" Or get a protune from Mike @ Killshot and save your pennies for another day. The "used" rotated setup Mike is selling is a ridiculously good price. Personally I would not run a rotated setup on a stock bottom end (even with conservative tune) unless I knew I had a spare forged bottom end ready to go... Even the el cheapo option option of "drop-in pistons" which seems to be universally accepted as a bad idea, would be the minimum requirement for a block that will sustain 400WHP for any amount of time unless you go with a ridiculously conservative tune (which you won't). It will probably burn oil like mad and may or may not have reduced piston life due to a less than ideal fit. I am also the resident board jerk on thinking a stock location turbo is pretty good. I will be approaching the reasonable limit of a stock location setup at 400WHP on E85, but I have spent additional money on injectors and fuel supply. 340WHP on 93 pump is also my expectation. However, I also have money in headers, +1mm valvetrain, upgraded topmount, TGV deletes, external wastegate, EBCS, etc, etc...
I just realized I did not answer the original question as thread went crazy ... How about: 1. An Invidia (budget) or Cobb downpipe (higher price nice piece) or ERZ (seems to be getting good reviews for dirt cheap if they make one for your car) 2. Balance being a custom Magnaflow muffler/exhaust with whatever pieces you want. Get it welded up to fit perfect no silly clamps and it will sound great. I just bought a muffler for my midpipe from hottexhaust.com. Ridiculous pricing on Magnaflow and free shipping to boot. Andy@ Killshot is welding it up.
To flash to a stage 2 you have to have the stock intake on, which I do not have. That is what is posted on cobb's website. So even if I get a uppipe and downpipe or a uppipe and a tbe I would still have to get a pro tune. I'm not saying that is a bad thing.
What they are trying to tell you is that if you want a reliable 450whp that you are going to need a rotated turbo kit and a GT30\35R size turbo. What that means is that there is no point in buying a downpipe, or any of the other stage 2 crap because its all going to be replaced by the rotated kit. You could buy fuel injectors and a fuel pump but its not going to be a noticeable difference. You could get a front mount intercooler but you are going to need custom piping to get it to work with a stock turbo. Heres what you need for a reliable 400-450whp GT30\35R rotated kit $3600 Front Mount kit $1400 Fuel Pump $100 Fuel Injectors $450 BOV $250 Tune $500ish Clutch $500 Install (unless you are doing it) $1500-2000 So in total you can plan on $8000-$10000 for a nice reliable setup.
Also on top of the $700 for the rotated kit I would also have to have another $400-$500 for the tune which would make it an additional $1200 over what I have to spend. I know someone is going to say then wait and save your money until you can get it. I want more power now
You only have to use the stock intake if you use the off the shelf map. Go to TopSpeed and get a Protune, its Runs $350 and you will be happy.
I don't plan on doing a rotated turbo within the next year and I could resell the parts that I get for the car. I understand what you guys are saying about buying parts twice because the rotated turbo kits change the location. And how it would be a waste of money, but since I don't plan on doing it anytime soon and I want more power now I feel this would be the best way to go.
In that case its easy. This is a simple stage 2 setup that I did for a couple of people when I was at TopSpeed. All of them loved it. Invidia Catless Downpipe $300ish Borla Hush 3 inch exhaust $600ish Borla 3inch adapter $50 ProTune by Doug @ TopSpeed $350 Results...Priceless
Even cheaper would be: ERZ Downpipe - $160 Great reviews and look exactly like the Invidia GMS Cat Back - $250 Cobb Replica Opensource Protune by any of the vendors on this board - ~$300 There are a few of us that have gone the +400whp range on this board. All of us agree that we should of just gone rotated to begin with. If you really want +400whp, save up some money and just go rotated.
Fair enough, just trying to save you money in the long term. Integroid's suggestion is pretty solid. I will say this though, the Magnaflow muffler that was suggested earlier does have a nice deep sound to it on the Subaru motors. That is the muffler I plan to use on my personal car.
though i kept all the receipts, i dont know exactly what i spent. but at the end of the day i think i got as much out of a stock wrx as YOU SHOULD before you really throw the money at it.. 2003 WRX, around 52k miles pde up, cobb turbo back, evo III 16g, turobXS topmount, id1000 injectors, grimmspeed ebc, cobb AP2, innovate widband, self tuned for e85, i can also run 93 or anything in between. i assume i approach 300 at the wheels. i run just under 21psi on e85. i also replaced all of my bushings with 'performance' bushings (not race and not comfort), lower control arms are STI aluminum units, whiteline ALK, steering rack bushings, turn in concept finder braces, ground control tophats and custom adjustable struts. in did all the installations and the tune. final alignment was done by kingwrx at SOK. i went about as far as i want to go without upgrading the motor and trans (trans in particular). based on what I determined was right for additional power, i figured if i went to the next level, i would spend around 15k on the motor and trans alone... thats based on a crate motor quote for 9k and around 6k for a built and installed PPG 5 speed. at that point, i figure i'd be ready to starting thinking about rotated and 400 or more HP at the wheels..... by crate motor btw, that was everything assembled on the motor, heads, cams, water pump, oil pump, oil pan.. basically what you get when you order a v8 crate motor, ready to add the intake, drop it in, hook it up and tune... thats my thought process. sounds like a lot of money perhaps but subarus are expensive to push far beyond stock. and 450 at the wheels is far... btw, i dont know if i'll ever get there in this car. its a blast to drive and so far i've not had any problems. if they economy ever comes back maybe a gt500 or vette might be a more interesting toy. if i was you, i'd do the turbo back access port and tune. and then wait till i had more money (a lot more if you want to get to 4 to 450 at the wheels...) there's folks here who have done it for less and been successful and some who have done it for less and ended up frustrated.. btw, you could start non-rotated, and later on go rotated and trade or sell your non-rotated setup.
Ya, but don't forget, he also has a 2.5 block with AVCS if it is the 06 wrx he is talking about. And I am quite sure we could build and install a very nice upgraded gearset for under 6k