2013 STi Dom 1.5 built motor by TopSpeed 330whp?

Cross Post to NASIOC: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?p=43271617

I just got my car tuned by JR at TopSpeed today. I only hit 332WHP/359ftlb torque on the dynojet with 93 oct. JR seemed to think that power was normal for my mods. Here they are and you guys chime in and tell me what you think. Note: my TMIC was fairly hot to the touch as well.

2013 STi Sedan

Injen CAI
Perrin turbo inlet
Dom 1.5XTR 10cm hotside
GrimmSpeed 3port EBCS
New model ETS TMIC
TGV deletes
NGK one step colder spark plugs
TopSpeed Pro series top feed 980cc Fuel Injectors
DeatschWerks 65C fuel pump
lightweight competition flywheel
stage 3 competition clutch
KillerB oil pickups
CP Pistons
GSC valves
HKS headers
catless Invidia divorced wastegate DP
Invidia Q300 catback

I hit 85% IDC on a highway fourth gear pull as well which seems really high for 93oct on those 980cc injectors in my opinion.

I hit 314WHP with just catted turboback exhaust and CAI for the record.

Updates:

I had some severe GR stumble going on, so TopSpeed swapped the Fuel regulator setup with the Perrin adjustable one with no tune and it is even worse now. I also have to prime my lines a few times before starting it otherwise it won't start ever since the new regulator. TSM did a compression test with good results. I threw a P0103 error yesterday "Mass or Volume Air flow Circuit High Input".

I have noticed recently on hard pulls, I am only hitting around 74% IDC on near stock fuel pressure (Perrin regulator is just slightly higher than stock on the lowest setting). Perhaps the original was a faulty reading as my AP tends to always screw up my maxes and mins of numbers especially boost.

TSM is going to put it back on the dyno to try to pinpoint the issue. I am waiting on them to contact me back at this time.

The correct JR: http://www.jrtuned.com/

Updates 3/31:

TopSpeed has had the car on the dyno all day and it is still not making power. They have pulled off the exhaust, the intake, the intercooler, and still hit the same numbers. They even tried with race gas (MS109) and it only hit 374whp. They are keeping the car at least another day to test other components.

Update 4/1:

TopSpeed pulled off the Dom 1.5 and took it apart. All looked good. They are keeping it for another day and pulling the up pipe and headers and slapping on a Tomei set up to see what happens.

Update 4/2:

As expected, The Tomei headers/uppipe did little in the horsepower department. TopSpeed is considering trying in a different turbo.

Update 4/3:

Welp, Looks like TSM pulled through and found out the inside of the turbo was smaller on the one that was on my car than another they had in the shop. They threw on the new turbo and hit I believe 377whp on 93 and 41x on MS109. A lot closer to what I was expecting.

Thanks TopSpeed!

 

Yeah, I think that's a bit low after re-reading everything.

 

It feels a BIT quicker, not by a lot though.

 

That does seem very low.

All the extra mods with that turbo only produced extra 16hp? Doesnt add up. But then again, I never tuned a car in my life.

 

The Op's motor has forged internals too. And he has headers. Should have more power, but being on 2 different dyno's, its hard to compare.

OP,

was the 314WHP read on the same dyno? TopSpeed has had 3 different dyno's in the last year.

 

Didn't robb get over 400 with his Dom 1.5 with stock internals? Or was that w/ e85?

 

Different dyno though.

 

and who is this JR guy? I though Rob was tuning for Topspeed now?

 

TSM is having JR from www.jrtuned.com mentor Rob on Subaru tuning. Rob is actively involved fine tuning skills.

 

Not the exact model. It was their previous dynojet. I should also note the previous horsepower was on a very hot day.

On a good note, Cicio from TSM has contacted me and agrees there is an issue. They are going to take the car back for two days to fix\diagnose the issue.

Here is a guy with stock headers and less power mods minus his front mount IC making 400whp. http://wrxatlanta.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34950

I would sure think with my build I would be hitting 390-400 whp based on many other people in that range with less mods.

 

That's good on top speed. Hopefully it's an easy/ cheap fix

 

Yeah absolutely.... Pretty cool Topspeed is willing to look into what is going on...

Let us know what the outcome is.

 

interested to see the issue. ive never seen a dom 1.5xt car make that low no matter the dyno or supporting mods

 

Yes I did minus a couple things like the fuel pump.

 

Any update?

 

DeatschWerks 65C fuel pump explains the 85% IDC's since you are likely @ stock fuel pressure on the stock fuel pressure regulator (didn't see that anywhere in your mods list) and that seems appropriate to me.

Seconding everyone else about the dyno switch, their new dyno is a bit of a heart breaker compared to the old one, so a lot of comparisons will be off.

Regarding JR tuning, there are about 5 "JR's" across NASIOC, IWSTI and the country in general so it can get rather confusing as to which one is which.
There is only one that i'm aware of that brings the caliber of tuning skills I could see Cicio investing in, and if that's who they now employ I would say he's more than qualified to tune a Dom 1.5 subaru.
I cannot speak for Rob on fact, only opinion (which i'll keep to myself).

That said, with an aeromotive 340 fuel pump or larger, you "should" be making >400wtq on 93oct with this setup "ON THE OLD DYNO" no idea what that would mean on this one but I would imagine at least 375-380wtq so you are still low.

 

I had some severe GR stumble going on, so TopSpeed swapped the Fuel regulator setup with the Perrin adjustable one with no tune and it is even worse now. I also have to prime my lines a few times before starting it otherwise it won't start ever since the new regulator. TSM did a compression test with good results. I threw a P0103 error yesterday "Mass or Volume Air flow Circuit High Input".

I have noticed recently on hard pulls, I am only hitting around 74% IDC on near stock fuel pressure (Perrin regulator is just slightly higher than stock on the lowest setting). Perhaps the original was a faulty reading as my AP tends to always screw up my maxes and mins of numbers especially boost.

TSM is going to put it back on the dyno to try to pinpoint the issue. I am waiting on them to contact me back at this time.

The correct JR: http://www.jrtuned.com/

 

Yeah do not use min/max values to determine anything with fueling on IDC's. When I use flat foot shift or hit fuel cut I will see erroneous IDC max values of 100-118% which of course is not accurate.

Do an actual datalog with the right columns selected to know true IDC during load.

 

For the record, 72% when logging is my peak currently.

 

Yeah you got a nice fat margin then.

 

Enough for an E85 tune? At first I was thinking for race gas tune I'd run MS109, but now I am leaning E85 due to low cost.

 

not worth the effort/headache to run E85 if anything just run some ChiCom brewed VP fuel

 

E85 will need ~30% more fuel to maintain a stoichometric mixture ratio of air and fuel in the combustion chamber compared to gasoline.
Given you are already at ~70% IDC, you don't have ~30% of safe margin to run E85. Plus I don't think the 65c pump will last with E85 as the wiring termination points and the impeller would likely get eaten up as it wasn't made for use with ethanol.

 

TopSpeed is taking the car back Monday to run it on the dyno and figure out the issue as well as perform an MS109 tune.

 

Updates 3/31:

TopSpeed has had the car on the dyno all day and it is still not making power. They have pulled off the exhaust, the intake, the intercooler, and still hit the same numbers. They even tried with race gas (MS109) and it only hit 374whp. They are keeping the car at least another day to test other components.

 

Dang dude, that's extremely odd. Good of Cicio to stand by you though, that's a lot of labor.

 

Wow Doug is not at topspeex tuning anymore??? Shows how long I have been away...

 

Yeah man I hope the nail down the issue.... This just shows how something is not right... Bucky Lasek's sti did 440 whp with e85 with a dom 1.5, injecters, and a fuel pump... Stock internals....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2esk64WViV4

 

They posted on fb that it does have upgraded Pistons. Still impressive!

 

Gotcha... From the video it seemed like it was stock internals.... Good to know!

 

^^ same dyno?

Too lazy to open the link.

 

Update: TopSpeed pulled off the Dom 1.5 and took it apart. All looked good. They are keeping it for another day and pulling the up pipe and headers and slapping on a Tomei set up to see what happens.

 

Update: As expected, The Tomei headers/uppipe did little in the horsepower department. TopSpeed is considering trying in a different turbo, but they are genuinely stumped at this point. Does anyone have any tips that I can relay to help point them to figuring out what the massive power loss could be?

At this point I feel like it has to be something screwed up inside the motor, but TSM is saying because it passed a compression and smoke test, that means the internal motor work is all fine. Is that true?

 

If you're talking about what have they done to the block since my stage 2 tune, they did valves and pistons and sent the heads off for machining. When the place received the heads, they said there were issues and charged me extra to do more than normal machining. They claimed the heads got so overheated at some point it warped stuff including the head bolts. They claimed the head bolts were so warped that they wouldn't even thread anymore then I had to buy all new head bolts as well.

 

They checked gap on the spark plugs, compression tested, and smoke tested. That is all they have told me they have done.

 

Sorry your having such a hard time with the car. Wish I could help but I have no idea what it could be.

 

This could be a stretch but check the voltage going to fuel pump at WOT.

 

Morning guys!

I just wanted to jump in here and shed a little light/explain what we have tried so everyone understands how seriously I take a matter like this.

As the OP said his recent upgrade did not yield the power that any of us would have liked or expected. I was not here during the final dyno pulls but heard about it the next morning and immediately got on the phone to figure out the direction to take with figuring it out.

The first time the car came back we did a compression test, FPR and threw the car back on the dyno to verify everything. Even tho everything seemed in order the car still just didn't wanna make power. So I set up another appointment to dig in deeper.

This is what I have done this week (for FREE btw)

-Compression test
134,135,134,136 (Perfect)
-Leak Down
12%,12%,12%,11% (Perfect)
-Check physical timing
-Checked Cam AVCS gears and Solenoids
-Plugs
-Swapped Intakes (no change)
-Swapped Intercoolers (no change)
-Swapped BOVs (no change)
-Pulled Intake Manifold (inspected perfectly)
-Swapped Header (no change)
-Swapped UpPipe (no change)
-Pulled turbo appart for measurement and inspection (perfect)
-Inspected Wheel bearings and diffs for drag (no issues)
-Pulled exhaust ran open dump (no change)

As for the tune everything looks perfect! AFR graph is perfect, timing is right where it should be, turbo holds boost and makes boost no problem as it should. As you all know this is not our first rodeo, I have been building and working on Subaru's since 02 personally and so have most of my technicians... I consider my guys some of the best there is and if there is a problem we will find it.

So, that all said today I am going to swap the turbo just to see if there is something we can not see going on in order to go the extra mile. The car is IMO about 40-50whp down both on pump and on race gas from where it should be. That is not a huge number but I know something is wrong and it is bugging the hell out of me to be honest.

To the OP I am sorry for the inconvenience and I assure you I am doing all I can to get you the extra power you deserve. I have had a technician on your car all week and have swallowed 40+ hours of free labor because I want to make you happy.

Mike will touch base again today to let you know how it goes.

P.S. I hope you are enjoying my 2015 GT-R as a loaner during this difficult time (sorry I had to LOL)

Thanks as always for the support guys!

 

Thanks Cicio, you guys are definitely looking out. I really appreciate it.

 

Pretty awesome stuff Cicio, I know you took care of me as well in the past.

I'm with you, this is beating me up mentally, what the heck is wrong with this car lol
Ebrake dragging? Pretty sure you'd smell that...

 

Yeah... uhm... if the e-brake was dragging there would be a fire...

asssskkk me how I know LOL

 

lol oh yeah, forgot about that.

I mean if the coils were undervolt or the fuel pump was undervolt the data logs would show in both cases this is strange indeed.
already tried open dump exhaust so mufflers aren't clogged or blocked...

subaru warranty time? LOOL

 

wastegate? boost solenoid?

 

They just swapped the entire turbo and are putting it on the dyno now. Wastegate will be tested, but not the BCS.