Even seen the movie True Romance? Remember the elevator scene where Christian Slater pulls a gun on Balki from Perfect Strangers, and Balki starts wiggin' out, crying for someone to "come down and save me!"? Well, if you're stuck in a project car bind, the person that can save you is Eric Hsu. Drop him a line at:
questionit@importtuner.com
But just like Slater's character in the movie, if you rub him the wrong way, there's no telling what he might do.
Fuel Delivery
What's up guys? Love the magazine. I drive an '06 WRX with an HKS intake, downpipe and high-flow exhaust, deadbolt 20G turbo, and custom up-pipe, CCS front-mount, and COBB AccessPORT. I'm not making as much power as I would like, so for my next step I wanted to address fuel delivery-but with my first baby girl on the way, money has been tight. I already have Perrin fuel rails; my question is what is the ideal size is for injectors and fuel pump to allow me to up the boost a few psi? Is the AccessPORT enough engine management or do I have to save more and purchase a whole new EMS? Have you ever tested the AccessPORT in any of your power pages? I went through all my back issues and can't find anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Keep up the good work!
-Randy O.
Plattsmouth, NE
I would run Nismo 740cc side feed injectors (for the SR20DET), since they drop right in to the factory fuel rails, provide OEM reliability and emit an excellent spray pattern. Watch out for some of the "modified" injectors on the market. The stock Subaru injectors can be modified to approximately 800cc, but it takes some skill and flow matching to do it correctly. Just because everybody else is using them, that doesn't mean they're good. If the fuel rails you have take top-feed injectors, then you'll want to run some RC Engineering 750cc top-feed saturated injectors. Just tell RC what size o-ring your fuel rails take and they'll modify them to work. A Walbro 255lph in-tank fuel pump is a great, low-cost replacement. The COBB AccessPORT is plenty capable of handling your setup, but with all the miscellaneous parts you're currently running, I suggest a custom tune. COBB has certified AccessTUNERS that can custom program your AccessPORT for you. Give COBB a call or visit their website (www.cobbtuning.com) for details.
Street Tuning
Hi Eric, I'm writing to you from Ecuador, and was hoping you could help me out. My car is a '99 EK4 with a turbocharged B16A2. The engine is running a T3/T04E hybrid turbo with AR 0.50/0.63, Eagle rods, Wiseco pistons with 8.54:1 compression, KMS block guard, and ACL bearings. I am currently using stock cams with adjustable pulleys. The car is running but not tuned, and there aren't any dynos readily available in Ecuador. Some tuners here argue that tuning on the track or street can actually be better, because of vehicle load, but how is this possible, and how should I go about tuning my car?
-Jaime Rull,Ecuador
In a perfect world, both a dyno and road/track tuning is ideal. Tuning on the track will give the engine exact, real-world loads. After all, where is the car going to be used? A dyno can be extremely helpful to quantify positive or negative gains from the changes you made and can be an invaluable tool to discover and diagnose problems. Tuning can be done with a high quality wideband UEGO sensor, a good ECU (and software), and data logging. The hardest part about tuning on the road is the inability to hear detonation without special knock listening devices. If you're asking me how to go about tuning your car, you're probably better off having somebody more experienced do the job. Or spend some time reading books, forums, ECU instruction manuals, and then give it a shot. Just remember to Listen For Detonation!!! I still have images of cracked Honda sleeves floating around in my head from my Honda drag racing days long ago.