Project STi ... the next steps

[danr55]

looks SO much better with white wheels!!

[WR1 Bro]

Looks sweet fella!

[dynamix]

Whiteline adjustable roll bars have been fitted front and rear

After running for a few weeks with them both on the softest setting (still stiffer than OE) I changed them to the middle setting on the rear.

I was initially dubious as to whether this would make much of a difference as, like you, I have seen so many people say it is a transformation, that I smelled a set of emperor's new clothes.

Suffice to say they work very well on the middle setting at the rear

Much pointy'er and a good crisp turn in - which is nice

[dynamix]

Despite me saying that I was at the upper limit of what the turbo could produce I have been tweaking with the maps myself to see what I could do with a lot of available time and a completely anal approach to logging and reviewing the logs.

Mocom Racing have done all my mapping to date but being done on Open Source as it was always my intention to take this on myself at some point in the future. Zak was aware of this and has helped me to understand what he has done and why he has done it.

I have never mapped the car before but over the past 4 weeks, i have been experimenting with the various elements of the mapping to understand the relationship between them and how to get the best out of it.

This has not been a quick process but a very enjoyable one and can confirm that the car is performing better now (torque around 7% up/ peak ower will be up too) and will hold 1.2 bar to redline It also now hits boost target in all gears apart from 1st. (but who drives in 1st ??)

I will do a dyno run shortly to see what the figures are and post them up.

please note that this is not a sleight on Zak at Mocom's work - he is simply superb IMO but like any tuner there is so much that can be done during a session that it is not possible to fine tune it to the n'th degree.

[dynamix]

Some more map tweaking has been done and now coming in with 372 / 420 figures with a nice broad 2.5 power band.

Going to get hold of some methanol in the next week and get that mapped in time for cadwell

[danr55]

Some more map tweaking has been done and now coming in with 372 / 420 figures with a nice broad 2.5 power band.

Going to get hold of some methanol in the next week and get that mapped in time for cadwell

what difference will that make?

[WR1 Bro]

Reduces the chance of MRSA.

[jd]

methanol will increase the octane rating and cool the fuel.

[WR1 Bro]

Correect

[dynamix]

As JD says it cools the charge and is less likely to det.

This can be used to run more boost if the turbo is capable of pushing more air (mine isnt at the top end), run more timing to gain extra power or run leaner to gain more power that way.

I will experiment and see what can be done but I am told that a few extra degrees of timing can be had - possibly worth 20 bhp ??

[danr55]

As JD says it cools the charge and is less likely to det.

This can be used to run more boost if the turbo is capable of pushing more air (mine isnt at the top end), run more timing to gain extra power or run leaner to gain more power that way.

I will experiment and see what can be done but I am told that a few extra degrees of timing can be had - possibly worth 20 bhp ??

Sounds interesting, keep us posted.

Do you have anything cooling oil at the moment?

[marky mark]

What percentage you going to be running it at Duncan?

Had some great results with it on bikes (20-25% power increase) running 50/50 methanol/avgas, but running it at such a high percentage causes other isssues.

The main one being disqualified if you were caught

[dynamix]

Oil Cooling:

Not needed IMO - the most I have ever got on track is 118C from sustained lapping in the height of summer. I have now changed to a cooler thermostat and that has brought down oil temps by about 7-8C although the highest I got on the ring trip was 104C. Not really worth the additional expense and rissk of the pipes coming off and dropping oil onto track.

Meth:

I am going to try it out at 5% mix and a 10% mix directly into the tank with vpower or tesco 99. I want to know real FACTS about how much extra advance, extra power etc with these hence why I am doing it.

There may be an opportunity to up the boost lower down in the rev range to say 1.7bar but I will tread very carefully with that as I understand that is outside the range of control of the std ECU. (that may be incorrect though)

The long and short of it is that I cant afford to change the turbo nor do internal changes to the engine at the moment so this will keep me occupied and if it works - great. If it doesnt, then the methanol is only the same price as the petrol it replaces so azero cost experiment (assuming i dont kill it )

[jd]

Good luck, be interesting to see the results.

[WR1 Bro]

You should change your tag to "The Mad Scientist"

[dynamix]

Just trying to explore the absolute potential of what is on there before following the masses and inevitably fitting a FMIC and huge turbo

[dynamix]

oh and E85 is next after this

[jd]

getting brave.

how long before the rebuild?

[dynamix]

.... not long

[WR1 Bro]

E85???

[jd]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85

[dynamix]

doing my bit for the environment

E85 is 85% ethanol produced from the crops. Runs much cooler than petrol so has significant power advantages. One subaru that I know got an extra 30% power from changing to that alone. Tesco 99 is 5% ethanol.

The trouble is that you need to run approx 30% extra fueling so big injectors are needed which luckily I have already

[danr55]

excellent stuff, all very interesting. I get annoyed with the oil getting up to those temps quite quickly on track and want to keep going, it does drop very quickly when you back off though. I will see how I get on at Cadwell this time around before deciding it that's an issue I need to look at.

[dynamix]

You should try a cooler water thermostat - £40 well spent in my opinion as it lowers oil temps aswell because of the modine.

[WR1 Bro]

You should try a cooler water thermostat - £40 well spent in my opinion as it lowers oil temps aswell because of the modine.

Can you add anymore detail to this please?

[dynamix]

The std subaru thermostat opens at around 85C iirc to allow the water to flow to the radiator and get cooled.

The Zero Sports Thermostat opens at 77C i believe. This allows the water to run cooler. (available from Lateral Performance amongst others)

Cooler is better to a point.

An added benefit is that the water cools the oil in a modine near the oil filter transferring heat from the oil to the water. As the water is colder it cools the oil more.

Much cheaper than £300 for an oil cooler.

[danr55]

The std subaru thermostat opens at around 85C iirc to allow the water to flow to the radiator and get cooled.

The Zero Sports Thermostat opens at 77C i believe. This allows the water to run cooler. (available from Lateral Performance amongst others)

Cooler is better to a point.

An added benefit is that the water cools the oil in a modine near the oil filter transferring heat from the oil to the water. As the water is colder it cools the oil more.

Much cheaper than £300 for an oil cooler.

this sounds interesting!! might have to give this a go. any potential disadvantages of doing this?

[dynamix]

not that I have seen so far - been running it for a month now on road and on track.

[WR1 Bro]

I would be interested to hear Marky Marks thoughts?

[WR 1mposter]

The std subaru thermostat opens at around 85C iirc to allow the water to flow to the radiator and get cooled.

The Zero Sports Thermostat opens at 77C i believe. This allows the water to run cooler. (available from Lateral Performance amongst others)

Cooler is better to a point.

An added benefit is that the water cools the oil in a modine near the oil filter transferring heat from the oil to the water. As the water is colder it cools the oil more.

Much cheaper than £300 for an oil cooler.

Got a low temp thremostat which was got from RCM, pretty sure they said it opened at 72C !