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KiwiJoe

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Everything posted by KiwiJoe

  1. Found my old WRX on trademe. https://www.trademe.co.nz/2020777352. I thought they would return it to stock and then sell the aftermarket bits separately, but I guessed wrong.
  2. Doesn't arrive for a week or two, but I'll post more then. The WRX is definitely a better-handling car, more mechanical, and more connected to the driver. The Stinger is a GT car so a lot more relaxing place to be, closer to a Legacy in size and intent, but also blazingly fast in a straight line. Likely to be a handful in the winter as well.
  3. Signed the paperwork that ends my ownership of my 2016 WRX. Now officially a Kia owner!
  4. First wash of the new year! I'm surprised how good the carbon hood scoop looks considering it was a US$200 gamble on Amazon with free courier shipping from Taiwan. It's hard to see from the photos, but the depth of the carbon fibre in the sunlight looks amazing.
  5. Replaced the OEM silver hood scoop with a new black carbon fibre one tonight. The installation hardware that came with it was S*** and caused a blood sacrifice, but some decent Bunnings leftovers sorted it out. Looking forward to seeing it in the daylight tomorrow.
  6. Put replacement fender emblems on the WRX (gloss black with white text instead of all silver) and got someone to put on Whiteline sway bars (three way 22mm for the back and two way 26mm for the front) and matching HD adjustable end links. I could have put them on myself, but just cbf at the moment with end of year fatigue and a six-week-old doing her best to stop the household getting any sleep. Also got EGR and TGV delete kits a few days ago to install after Christmas, which means another visit to the tuner.
  7. I got the plate from Subispeed in the US. You can also get an actual short shift kit from several manufacturers, or an official STI version, but those will be a mission to get in (Google to see what I mean). The Boomba plate is relatively straight forward.
  8. For anyone interested, this is what they look like installed on my WRX:
  9. Just had these WRX COPLUS Hayabusa tail lights arrive on my door (red not smoke, and using the Japanese LED pattern not the US). Will install today or tomorrow.
  10. Yeah, it's still pretty early days with these engines I think, and it's hard to find much reliable information out there. From what I've learned so far, remaining low-effort (and non turbo/ethanol) upgrades at this point are TGV and EGR deletes and a header (also adds support for an external wastegate, but is super spendy) for maybe an extra 20kW and no need to change anything other than the tune. Ethanol and a flex sensor setup would give maybe an extra 40kW, with the factory injectors and fuel pump up to E30, and a replacement pump with more than that. With all of these mods and a FMIC, and maybe an intake for a handful of extra horsepower, I could be looking at anywhere from 270-300kW. I could get better numbers with a bigger turbo (but not a whole lot of options there). Either way, anything over 250-260kW means the possibility of throwing a rod on the factory internals. Torque comes on really hard and early thanks to the tiny twin-scroll turbo and its low positioning, but it also starts running out of puff above 5000RPM. That 4500RPM dip seems to be almost universal on tunes of the FA20DIT that I've seen. No idea why, but even the NA BRZ has the same dip there. When it was new it was really, really noticeable but is much less so now.
  11. Here's something a little more modest. Model: 2016 WRX 6MT, VAB Displacement: 2L Mods: Cobb catted j-pipe, HKS Legamax cat-back exhaust, GrimmSpeed 3-port EBCS, Process West VertiCooler TMIC and charge pipe. Fuel: BP 98 Tuner/dyno: Spec Performance, EcuTek Peak power 210.8kW, torque 452.5Nm
  12. No, it's not Phil. Phil did my Cobb tune and he's a top bloke.
  13. The results seem fine. The throttle mapping is pretty different so it's hard to judge. The new tune is going from a Cobb protune for a downpipe to an EcuTek tune with the downpipe, an intercooler and a boost solenoid, so I really want to see what the differences are between the two. I'm also wondering now why he won't provide one, which makes me nervous, so this is now also about peace if mind. Another issue is that this is my second tune with the same company, but this was literally twice the price of the last one. Despite that extra cost, I have nothing in black and white showing what was actually done.
  14. Nope. Nothing. Promises to email through something then silence. I'm giving the tuner a bit more time to come to the party before I burn any bridges, but it's all a bit shithouse.
  15. Tried for the third time to get the before/after Dyno sheet for a dyno tune I had done two weeks ago. Tuner is no longer even replying.
  16. Pretty much. I really wanted to get a dyno tune for the added safety and to squeeze the most out of the mods, and around here (South Island) there isn't any support for that using Cobb. In the NI things would be a bit different as you can get a Cobb protune and a Dyno.
  17. Dropped her off for installation of a new Grimmspeed three port boost controller, and a dyno tune (which also means unmarrying the Cobb Accessport and swapping to EcuTek).
  18. I put in the remaining stuff I bought: a Boomba short shifter plate, a Perrin steering dampener lockdown, and a Perrin brass shifter bushing. The dampener lockdown is probably the easiest piece I've ever put on, and literally took five minutes. The brass bushing would also be pretty quick, but means detaching the shift cable and the bushing cover. The Boomba, on the other hand, was an absolute bastard to put on as it has the plate has a heat shield on it that you have to take off, with a hidden bolt tucked way up high next to the transmission, and a roll pin that just didn't want to come out. For good measure, I also cut my hand on the exhaust heat shield. Again. Here's the factory and the Boomba side by side. The boomba is more than twice the thickness (which you can't really see in the picture) and weight: I'm happy with all of them, but surprisingly the one I think makes the biggest different was the easiest one to install: the dampener lockdown. I would definitely recommend it.
  19. It does. The new aluminium ducting replaces the factory shroud, and has rubber seals around it to stop air escaping. When closed the shroud presses up against the intercooler, so the plastic factory engine cover goes in the bin.
  20. The shift knob feels great. It's a lot heavier that the factory knob (which is light and feels pretty rubbish), which makes shifting easier. It has a Delrin cover so heat and cold aren't a problem: this is why I never looked at the solid metal versions. Considering it's something you touch all the time, it was definitely worth the upgrade.
  21. I installed some stuff, and got some stuff in the mail. A shift knob from Raceseng in translucent red (already had the silver core, so just got a red one): Some red aluminium surrounds for the AC knobs: And lastly, a shiny new Process West Verticooler kit arrived, courtesy of @mlracing.co.nz, which will be installed this weekend along with a Boomba short-shift plate, a Perrin brass shifter bushing, and a Perrin steering dampener lockdown:
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