I had heard a lot of people talk about "going stage 2". I knew a lot of things would change but not really the overall picture. Just that I'd "love" it. so I thought I'd throw out my observations and impressions after a week of my new set-up. Im running up to the 'nooga tonight for the weekend, we'll see what kind anything below changes with that run. Just so you know how my car is equipped we'll start there. 2004 Forrester XT 66,XXX miles 5MT Swift Springs (2" drop) STI rear sway bar 17" Rota Tarmac II with 215/65 (maybe 60) Proxes TPT 3" TBE (Helix bellmouth catted-fully wrapped, WBR midpipe and axle back) stock hangars 04' STI catless UP-heat shields removed fully wrapped and sealed Snorkus delete K&N drop in filter Stock turbo (TD04) and TMIC (little smaller than a WRX IMO) Cobb AP running base map Stage 2 93 octane. The idle is very low when the A/C compressor kicks in, sometimes its a little hard to steer. The cabin is now pretty loud at freeway speeds, a fair amount of drone. Im thinking of trying long hangers. I really cant hear the turbo spool any more than before but the BOV is much more noticable Holy crap it spools so much sooner = boost builds sooner = easy to burn more fuel :rofl: low end with no boost the throttle seems much more responsive as does light acceleration 1st gear is just too damn low now! :drool: The car seems to surge a little when its cold, but maybe its just me. The clutch seems to engage with a more firm feel. I attribute this to have a good bit more torque at low RPM. Intake temps sitting at red lights seems to max out around 148 in 98F temps. On the freeway same day, 110 was the lowest. Max boost ive seen on the AP was in 5th and it was 12.0 Looks like I'll be averaging around 22 in town with semi-reasonable driving (for me :ddirty: )
Your only getting 12 lbs of boost? I thought they were pretty much the same as the STI? I get up to 18 psi on the 2.5. On my 2.0 stage 2 I was getting about 15, but I it was hard to determine that because my wastegate flapper was F'ed up and wouldn't achieve full boost.
I dunno. WJM? SS? Comments? While I have the same engine as the STI I do have a different ECU, turbo (TD04) and IC. Maybe that is the effect? I have done nothing with the pill either.
don't mess with the pill... That's not too bad for boost with 66K and an OTS map. Cobb has to make maps that will work with "every" car, so to get more than that you may need to get tuned. BUT, if you're going to do that, I'd pick up a used STi turbo and STi TMIC for cheap!!! It'll add several more ponies and still be perfectly reliable. The '04 XT has an STi engine with WRX turbo, so you'll be no less reliable than an '04 stage 2 STi....
Nahhhh...that is not right...even for a TD04 car. It should be around 15.7 if I remember right. I don't have much experience with the 2.5 with a td04, but I don't see why it would be any less than the 2.0 with the td04....that is more than likely out of parameters. I think they say like 15.6 +-1 psi. So lowest would be 14.6 psi. Have you logged it in various gears just to see what it is actually doing? I don't hit the same boost in every gear. 1st is lower than 2nd which is lower than 3rd-5th. If I had to guess, I would say wategate arm is loose...if that is not it, you can probably find a high WGDC map (wastegate duty cycle) that will run a little higher WGDC to get the boost where it needs to be.
its supposed to be less.. ~ 13-14 if i remember right. the 2.0 has a lower compression ration so they pulled the boost down on the td04 ... cant remember though
Top Speed Tune Time. AP2 MAP is adequate but not optimal. I ran the AP MAP to get from my house to Top Speed My boost was way off becuase my waste gate was F'd up SS fixed this in about 2 minutes. Only way to figure it out is with a prof-tune.
Cobb quotes that your target should be close to below: "Boost Targets: ~14.5psi +/- 0.7psi peak boost pressure tapering down to ~10psi," 12 as peak boost is low...
I scheduled it for two weeks in advance and took a day off. If you get a tune it will take some time and you will want to slobber over the cars at TS anyway.
Mine peaks around 16.0 in third.... I mean, I know my car FLIES compared to stock. It really was a "holy shit this thing is quick" kind of reaction. You might have a small leak someplace. I was only hitting 13.0psi and discovered my boost gauge tee was leaking. Otherwise, congrats!
In the mean time, it is not hard to adjust the wastegate actuator arm. That could be all that is wrong...it was off on mine. On stage 2 I was supposed to be hitting 15.x and was only hitting like 13.5. Couple twists of the wastegate arm and bang, right on the money. I even tried running the HWGDC map before that and it still would not quite hit target. I opted for a slight mechanical adjustment rather than running insanely high wgdc.
How do you adjust the arm? Would you turn it clockwise or counter? I too have had stage 2 for a couple of weeks and am only hitting about 14.7 psi. I thought I should be closer to 15.5. I love the setup though. Very fun! I have the stromung divorced wastegate and can really hear the turbo sing!
Let me do a search on Nasioc and see what I can come up with...I read a thread that had pictures and everything when I did it...as they say, a picture is worth 1000 words. It was just turning the wastegate arm to shorten it. Kinda hard to explain, but easy to do!
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=824323 There it is. It's just adjusting it till there is a bit more tension on the arm. If you then run it (in 3rd or 4th gear) and don't see an increase, adjust it a bit more...if you still don't see anything, adjust it back and try running the HWGDC map. But I believe that was the thread I used back in the day, very helpful. Oh get yourself a can of PB blaster and soak that thing over night before attempting this. It will most likely be kind of stuck. Mine was anyway If you start seeing too much boost adjust it back. Also do yourself a favor and go to advanced auto or some place like that and grab several of those stupid little e clips...I lost one or two when I did not get them on there quite right.