Install Tips

[Cold_Zero]

Last night we (local Impreza Club) put in my Perrin Up-pipe and Invidia Down-pipe. For a brief moment in time, my WRX became naturally aspirated. I have a few observations about our install day:

1. Never go first on an install day. As we took apart my car to get it ready for the install, we remember all the things we forgot to reconnect to Jake's car.

2. A hair dryer does wonders with getting intercooler hoses back on to the turbo. The stock (rubber) intercooler hose does not reconnect to the turbo all that well on the WRX. If you use a hair dryer to heat up the hose, it connects really easy. You do not have this problem if you upgrade to silicone intercooler hoses.

3. When a guy brings a beer keg to the install day, be very afraid. The Japanese exchange student in our club brews beer and brought a batch to the install day. Nothing like 9am on a Sunday morning and you don’t know what the heck you are installing.

4. A cracked ratchet socket will strip most bolts. In an attempt to unbolt my passenger side motor mount, I stripped the nut. After further inspection of the socket, I had cracked it. Always inspect your sockets before you use them. I am not sure how I am going to get my motor mount nut off.

5. It is not a good idea to jack a motor up using the oil pan. We bent my buddy's oil pan with a car jack trying to up the motor. And yes, we did use a block of wood to create a platform.

6. Read differential protectors make great jack points.

7. Use liquid wrench or WD40 sparingly when trying to unseize nuts. My buddy's WRX is still smoking from the WD40 we sprayed on the turbo bolts to get them free.

8. It is better to do an install of parts when the car is still new. Freeing up the bolts is much easier.

9. Removing a turbo is a very messy project. Because we couldn’t jack up my motor to get to the stock up-pipe, we had to remove the turbo. We had coolant and oil everywhere.

10. All you 240 guys be happy that your motors are in-line longitudinally mounted. Working on a boxer engine is a pain. They have crammed so much pluming and engine components into a very small engine bay.

I am glad this project is done. We got done at 11:45 and I had to wake up to go to work the next day. No exhaust leaks or CEL lights thrown. My car spools a hell of a lot faster and is fun to drive now.

[MasterMan]

what did u do to make it spool up faster? or did i miss somthing?

[Cold_Zero]

The WRX has three cats on it. One in the up-pipe and two in the down-pipe. My exhaust flows freely now. Thus spooling up my turbo faster.

[corn322]

cool, both me and my dad have wanted to do this to his wrx... so when can you feel the turbo kick in now?-and-how much did it cost?

[Cold_Zero]

around 600.

The down-pipe is the easiest to install. That is because you have to remove the downpipe to put on a new turbo or uppipe. I would suggest that you get the directions from Perrin and Vishnu. Not all directions are complete. It helps to have two different sets of directions to consult. It also helps that we had the Factory Service Manual on computer at the place we did the install. If you do install the up-pipe, let me know if you have any questions.

bud

[Mayhem_J30]

bud,did your peak boost increase any? you running an EBC?

[lessthanjakejohn]

Is your warranty voided?

[Cold_Zero]

Chris-Not running a EBC or MBC. I am going to wait to do that stuff. I really havent been watching my boost levels, I need some type of device to capture data as I drive. PSI3 makes one, but its pretty expensive.

Lessthan-We have a guy that has done the following upgrades:New turbo, STi injectors, up and downpipe, STi suspension, STi fuel pump, UTech ECU and electronic boost controller. He took the car into one local Subaru and was denied warranty work, so he drove it over to the place I bought mine. They just told him to take it easy.

[lessthanjakejohn]

I hear a lot of people have been denied when they have no mods, and a lot of people denied for unrelated mods because of all the newbs blowin up there motors from foolish things and then changing back to stock and expecting warranty.

by the way call me John

[Cold_Zero]

I still have my stock up, downpipe and midpipe. I can put it back together before I take it in for any warranty work. I like having people in the community that work on these things. I basically got free installation and knowledge.

[lessthanjakejohn]

Thats cool, What Subura forums (if any) do you visit?

for me:

NASIOCI-club.com

[Cold_Zero]

I-Club and NASIOC use to be the same site. They split for some reason. I use NASIOC. It has a ton more information and the guys are all on it. I do like the setup better.

[Cold_Zero]

There are new pictures of the install day on my yahoo account.

photos.yahoo.com/chemnitz_m

There is also an STi that showed up.

[Cold_Zero]

Chris,The max peak I have gotten out of it was 1.1 atmospheres. I figure that is 16.1 lbs of boost. It doesnt stay there very long and then goes down to 1 atmosphere. I need a better boost gauge to measure this.