FMIC and general questions

[Snails_R_us]

Firstly I don’t wanna be clogging up the forums but I figure what better place to ask than here since I have no friends with Subarus 🙇

 

Top mounts being as good of a design as they are seem to be the main harbinger of doom when it comes to Subarus and summer heat and sitting in traffic. I own a 3rd gen rev D legacy so unfortunately it suffers from a lot of detonation regardless and I’ve tried many things to mitigate this issue without the need of changing to a FMIC but alas I think without a tune I’m always going to get it regardless and I guess it’s a case of like it or lump it. 
 

I don’t really wanna lump it so….

 

Scarles seem like the only place this side of the pond that do a brand new bolt on kit for my car anyway. Now that’s dandy and I would pull the trigger on it but I do have a few questions for folks that have gone down this path. 
 

do you need a cert for one? 
 

does the car require a tune? 
 

would it be better off considering I am quite well versed in tuning and computers to go down the path of getting a tactrix from the states and flashing a custom rom myself? ( Can someone confirm is it just green test plugs and connect tactrix or do you need a wrx style flash block) 

 

ultimately like many people I wanna have a trouble free car for the least amount of monies but I do understand there is getting a bargain and then there is cheaping out. Second hand could be an option if I knew the pipe sizes and how it all goes together like kinnex right? For the record I do have one of those cheapo Chinese blue diagnostic cables that I can get my laptop to see the ecu and I can do things like adjust global timing change the idle rpm and log data with romraider which I think for 6 bucks is nice. If anyone knows how to flash with it I would love to learn how that goes.

 

but yeah thanks for the advice guys appreciate it a lot.
 

 

[Snails_R_us]

Also reading this is a bit scary. Wondering if a tune and maybe a sti v7 top mount is less of a hassle….

 

http://forum.liberty.asn.au/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=5724

[Gripless]

That post is 13 years old from someone who found the parts they ordered didn’t match up, then did not return them and cut s*** to fit.

Intercooler cores are far better now if you don’t buy cheap ones so you can get a lot of cooling in a small space. Nothing wrong with top mounts.

you could water to air then there is no cutting and you could use parts from other car brands etc.

 

I just don’t get the whole rev D keep the twin turbos thing. It’s not like 20 years ago when parts were hard to get, why not single turbo it and retune.  Turbo tech has also got better and the options for good spool and power are everywhere.

 

[Snails_R_us]

49 minutes ago, Gripless said:

That post is 13 years old from someone who found the parts they ordered didn’t match up, then did not return them and cut s*** to fit.

Intercooler cores are far better now if you don’t buy cheap ones so you can get a lot of cooling in a small space. Nothing wrong with top mounts.

you could water to air then there is no cutting and you could use parts from other car brands etc.

 

I just don’t get the whole rev D keep the twin turbos thing. It’s not like 20 years ago when parts were hard to get, why not single turbo it and retune.  Turbo tech has also got better and the options for good spool and power are everywhere.

 

Good point! I think some people just enjoy that kind of power delivery over a single turbo. I for one would think they both have their place respectively.

 

I just don’t wanna potentially having to go cutting and hacking into my car when I could have a much easier time with a tactrix cable and tune the detonation out then keeping the factory top mount. Or even replacing the top mount which I would probably be more inclined to do if that’s something people have seen good gains from?

 

I have heard of people making up their own IC water sprayer like in some wrx models which seems simple as teeing into the already existing rear window water line making a hose go across the scoop underneath cutting some holes in it and cable tying it to the underside of the bonnet then when you flick your rear sprayer you get your intercooler nice n cold.

[boon]

2 hours ago, Snails_R_us said:

Good point! I think some people just enjoy that kind of power delivery over a single turbo. I for one would think they both have their place respectively.

 

Nope, there are people who prefer a single turbo and people who are in denial.

[Gripless]

Water spray is always a good idea, but get a random sprayer from wreckers so it not got washer fluid and just water.

 

the modern turbos are very easy to spool and you get the low down torque and less hassle.

 

it’s all bolt on stuff to swap. Too many rev D people want to die on that hill and it’s personal taste but most then just buy another car and push the power with single turbo.

rev D is nice car and single turbo swap is good long term as no vacuum setup and stupid pills etc, just simple and way to tune.

[Snails_R_us]

5 hours ago, Gripless said:

Water spray is always a good idea, but get a random sprayer from wreckers so it not got washer fluid and just water.

 

the modern turbos are very easy to spool and you get the low down torque and less hassle.

 

it’s all bolt on stuff to swap. Too many rev D people want to die on that hill and it’s personal taste but most then just buy another car and push the power with single turbo.

rev D is nice car and single turbo swap is good long term as no vacuum setup and stupid pills etc, just simple and way to tune.

With the main gripes I have with the twin turbo eventually I can honestly say I may just end up going single turbo in the future when my wallet fattens and when I do I will have a lot of insanely helpful folk that will be able to give me a hand 👍
 

Correct me if I am wrong but going for a tune/front mount/all the myriads of things you can do to get the best out of the TT system ends up being around the same cost as going single if not more? 

[Gripless]

It’s total cost over time.

anything you do now other than a cheap late model intercooler and an ecu flash by some random place is money that isn’t there long term.

few old Roms around that helped with the rev D issues but not sure which ones. 

not sure what piping is like when you swap so could be wasted redoing it. Also depending on power you want from single the core in the cheap kits maybe limiting.

 

someone on here may know

-what intercooler fit from other models, but the space is limited.

-if you can use a different stock ecu model for the single conversion. 
 

for heat water spray and 8” fan under the inter cooler are options. Easy things to buy now, not so much 10 years ago when rev D was more popular.

[Snails_R_us]

On 14/02/2023 at 12:12 PM, Gripless said:

It’s total cost over time.

anything you do now other than a cheap late model intercooler and an ecu flash by some random place is money that isn’t there long term.

few old Roms around that helped with the rev D issues but not sure which ones. 

not sure what piping is like when you swap so could be wasted redoing it. Also depending on power you want from single the core in the cheap kits maybe limiting.

 

someone on here may know

-what intercooler fit from other models, but the space is limited.

-if you can use a different stock ecu model for the single conversion. 
 

for heat water spray and 8” fan under the inter cooler are options. Easy things to buy now, not so much 10 years ago when rev D was more popular.

I think for now and this depends on how far I wanna go with the power route bearing in mind it’s a daily/family hauler/large crap pickerupperer it might just benefit from a good tune that isn’t like the factory one which seems to be on the absolute bleeding edge ( I’ve gone colder plugs and taken the global timing out by -5 run on bp98 and I don’t get any det UNLESS I’ve been sitting for more than 30mins in traffic and hood it which is understandable) I can live with it’s imperfections and again if it becomes a quest for power gains many have had great success (borat voice) with single turbo conversions.

 

I installed a MBC and wound it up to 16 on both turbos and it quite happily does that without any major issues mind you I’ve got a 2.5” exhaust all the way from the Downpipes so that lets it breath a bit better also k&n panel filter with a snorklectomy so seems to behave a bit nicer than stock. All in all I think looking at the cost and gains from a front mount I could achieve the same result with a top mount that’s in better condition than mine maybe some nicer IC hoses and a decent tune. Which would be around the same as getting a bolt on kit, cutting and not to mention a BOV which I know don’t play nice with these cars. 
 

plus another bonus I thought of I won’t be a cop magnet with a top mount.
 

 

[Gripless]

So where does the air intake now get air from?
Is it open to engine bay or still sealed up to the front of the car.

 

 

[Snails_R_us]

On 17/02/2023 at 9:49 AM, Gripless said:

So where does the air intake now get air from?
Is it open to engine bay or still sealed up to the front of the car.

 

 

So its just cutting the big plastic milk container shape out of the factory intake piping (inside the drivers guard) an making it run directly to the front intake duct.

So intake duct >> elbow >> filter >> maf instead of having this huge resonator piece that seemed to hamper airflow and reduce those sweet suck noises.

[Gripless]

Ok resonator delete that’s all good.