[jharris48]

I forgot to get an overlay copy of the before and after dyno runs with the Process West TMIC, but fortunately they are both printed on the same scale. It's not an elegant solution, but some time and tracing paper works. Green is the retune after installing the PW TMIC and the Blue is the previous tune on the identical motor with the exception of the PW TMIC. The tunes were done on the same dyno by the same tuner. The OAT was a high of 82 with 47% humidity and barometer of 29.96 on the non PW tune. The day of the PW tune the temp was 66 with 64% humidity and Barometer of 30.10" Hg.

The 5 HP and 21 Ft-lbs numbers don't tell the whole story. The HP gain around 4080 RPM is pretty substantial. Furthermore, other than an insignificant dip in HP and Torque around 2820, there is consistent power gains across the power band. Overall, I'm pretty impressed. Of course, I wouldn't expect to see these gains on a mostly stock motor/turbo set up. This motor includes:

-IAG stage 2
-Blouch Dom 1.5 XTR
-Killer B ELH
-COBB intake/SF
-COBB fuel rails
-COBB fuel pump
-COBB AOS
-COBB 1050x injectors
-COBB GESi Catted 3" downpipe
-Antspec 3-Port Boost Control Solenoid

 

[jharris48]

Ok, So I basically gave up on keeping this thread up to date for….well over a year. Bad on me. I got busy with work and kind of busy just working and running the car at the track. I’ll try to concisely sum up the last year or so in a few post.

After the final tune on the new motor with the PW TMIC I deployed for 7 months. But then I got home and got carried away on car projects and track time! First up was Racer X Upper Rear Control Arms which saved 8 pounds (4lbs of unsprung weight) and I installed the STi tow links and lower control Arms. I wanted the STi parts for the spherical bearings while maintaining OEM weight. Most the aftermarket lower adjustable control arms with spherical bearings are heavier than the OEM arm.

The Racer X upper control arms are nice for adjustability because the toe change due to camber changes is much smaller than when you adjust camber via the lower control arm. The only down side is you have to remove the upper arm from the hub to adjust the camber. Once you get the hang of it, the process is quick. I’m very happy with the purchases, but admit you can save some money with just a good set of lower adjustable arms and get similar results.

 

[jharris48]

Gauges, gauges, gauges! I should have done this with my engine install with all the track time this motor was meant for. Was in the plans, but didn’t know how critical it was. The gauge install happened over a few months because the oil pressure and water temp Defi gauges were back ordered. I got the Oil Temp immediately and installed it with the Advanced Control Unit. At first I thought this control unit required for the advanced gauges was a gimmick to take my money…I was wrong! This set up is pricey, but so worth it just from an install perspective. I went through one round of pulling my dash apart and running a power cable through the fire wall, and I’ll never have to do that again! Once you have the power, on switch, and initial sensor cable connected to the control unit, all you do is connect each gauge to the one next to it and then the sensor wire runs to the control box! That’s it! I should get some better pictures, but I mounted the control unit in the glove box, so I just run each sensor trough the firewall to the glove box. No disassembling the dash required! The peak feature to review the maximum values of your gauges is really helpful for track days.

For water temp I just installed a fitting with the sensor into the upper radiator hose. Overall a very straight forward install.

Oil Temp gauge was also pretty straight forward by just using the 1/8 NPT adapter in the M20 plug of the Killer B Oil Pan. Finding places for the wire to mount to took some care and thought, but I haven’t had any issues with it on track yet.

The Oil Pressure was the PIA. The Defi sensor must be bigger than others, because the adaptor most people use in the YouTube install videos will not fit underneath the alternator with the Defi sensor attached. However the Killer B deal oil sender adaptor worked great! I had to find just the right angel, but the configuration depicted worked!

Overall I have been loving these gauges. They look amazing and are incredibly accurate. The down side is they are very expensive. But I guess that’s how it goes. You get what you pay for.

I’m currently traveling for work, but I’ll add a picture of all three gauges installed when I get back home.

 

[jharris48]

Heat! I got it! I got the car out to Laguna Seca for a HPDE event and noticed I was seeing temps around 220 at time in Monterey when it was 55 degrees outside. Not great! All the extra power was creating thermal issues despite the upgraded CSF radiator. Also I saw oil temps peak at about 270 degrees before I got them cooed off at Button Willow! Yikes! I’m lucky I didn’t destroy a rod or bearing. Likely backing off in time as I saw the temps climbing over 250 saved me. Also the IAG Stage 2 block is legit!

The heat was manageable, but if I ran flat out for more than 2 or 3 laps at Button Willow either oil or coolant would get out of control. What I would see is the coolant would start to climb and once the coolant gets around 220, it no longer effectively cools the the oil in the OEM oil cooler. Then the oil starts to heat up and it just becomes a spiral out of control. So as you will see in some other posts, all my next modifications are about getting temperature under control.

 

[jharris48]

Cooling Mods! Here we go!

First on the list was an Oil Cooler. I went with the Process West Oil Cooler for the GR. The material quality was excellent and it came with great directions. The install was surprisingly uneventful and straight forward. Just follow the instructions step by step.

Once I had the sand which plate in though, I couldn’t help but notice how much closer the oil filter is to the Killer B headers. In retrospect I should have 100% paid for them to be coated by Swain Tech when I bought them. However I did not and ended up sending them off for coating by Jet Hot. If you go Swain Tech it won’t effect your warranty with Killer B, but that’s not the case with Jet Hot. I went with Jet hot because I just found them first, their customer service was excellent, and when I got into the details their newer performance coatings are competitive with Swain Tech. I went with the 2500 ceramic coating and copper red color. I thought it would be more red than copper based on picture, but oh well, I wanted the thermal protection, not aesthetics. Hater disclaimer I’m not arguing Jet Hot is better, so don’t scold me about Swain Tech. If I did it all over again I’d probably send it to Swain Tech for the warranty consideration, but didn’t realize that till too late. The performance data is similar but seems like maybe swain tech has a bit of an edge. I’ll defer to an engineer or someone more competent than myself to prove any claim though.

 

[jharris48]

Here are a few pics of the Jet Hot coating. The return packaging was excellent! Couldn’t have asked for more care. So much of this work was done over the holidays and the car spent a full month on the lift. After all the work was done and the headers came back I finally got to drive it again! Next is some track time at Button Willow to see how the oil cooler and header coating help!

 

[jharris48]

If your interested in my build you can also follow the progress on Insta @kittykatdisaster

You read that right 😂 I get tired of all the ego that comes with car culture sometimes. There are so many aggressive car clubs out there, I coined Kitty Kat Disaster as a bit of a ironic joke about the names people come up with and it stuck. Also, it’s way easier to just throw things on there, so I keep it up to date unlike my journal here haha.

 

[jharris48]

First up, PW Oil Cooler, it works! Next trip to Button Willow showed Oil temps under control the whole time! Never got above 250 on the hardest runs. Bad news, I traded an oil temp problem for a coolant temp problem. With the cooler out in front of the radiator the oil cooler is affecting the oil flow over the radiator and with the oil temps under control then naturally the coolant will be the weak link. The coolant temps hit 228 in 64 degree weather at one point! Yikes again! So more must be done. Got my Button Willow lap time down to 2:05.6 which was rewarding, but I had to find a way to cut the heat issue even more.

On a comical note, my Tomei Expreme exhaust did not want to stay attached while on track! After a couple runs it worked itself off. Thankfully it weighs only 15lbs! It was being held on only by the two bolt in the flange of the Cobb Down pipe! Thanks to the flaggers for the timely black flag. I was able to get off track and put my SPT exhaust back on and keep running.

Tomei took the beating well. With only two pick up points and not very prominent barbs on the hangers, I wasn’t confident it wouldn’t just fall off again without some kind of modification. Which lead me to searching for new exhaust solutions. My SPT is about 10 years old and had to be repaired once already. It’s times for something new.

 

[Karlot]

man i love seeing the track updates. i can not wait to get onto the track myself. i need tires...and brakes...booo lol. i'm also worried about cooling and did alot fo what you did ahead of time. so far i have only done autocross/trackcross/track sprint.

your car is gorgeous. i feel like i need to re read the journal

 

[jharris48]

man i love seeing the track updates. i can not wait to get onto the track myself. i need tires...and brakes...booo lol. i'm also worried about cooling and did alot fo what you did ahead of time. so far i have only done autocross/trackcross/track sprint.

your car is gorgeous. i feel like i need to re read the journal

Thanks for the feedback! I’m happy to say I currently have my temps under control on track. I have a few more updates to post. I’m planning on getting those updates on here over the next couple days.

 

[Karlot]

Thanks for the feedback! I’m happy to say I currently have my temps under control on track. I have a few more updates to post. I’m planning on getting those updates on here over the next couple days.

Nice. i love it. mine is a gd. currently i have a csf radiatior and a mishi (i know, not the best choice haha) oil cooler. as well as alot of heat wrap+gold tape around anything hot or what needs to stay cool. i do worry about keeping my car alive on track, but i'm sure it's plenty capable of hpde days. just need brakes/tires to get out there and do it this year.

 

[jharris48]

More cooling! For $125 the Killer B Motorsports EJ water pump housing seems like an easy cheap mod for getting temps under control. I also found where Killer B recommended doing 80/20 water coolant mix with water wetter to help with thermal control. So I did both. The install was straight forward per the Killer B directions. I’d include info on how to do it, but I’m not going to create a product better than the Killer B instructions. Be warned, at least one YouTube how to video does not follow Killer B’s installation instructions, which is the host has such a hard time with it. I found the install pretty easy.

Killer B has graphs on their site documenting the improved flow, however it seems obvious just by looking at the two housing side by side, how much better their product is.

My main fault in my install is I’m doing multiple cooling mods all at the same time and not testing each one individually. However, I’m on a tight timeline before I run out of chances to run at button willow, so I’m just throwing everything at the car to get it in great track shape.

 

[Karlot]

Oh I do have that too lol. Completely forgot to mention that.

did you see a noticeable difference with it

 

[jharris48]

Unrelated to cooling, but figured I’d knock it out with the rest of the work, fender rolling! I’ve set the most cliche goal for myself, run under 2 minutes at Button Willow. I’m going to need some wider tires and a lot more talent to get there! So I went ahead and rolled my rear fenders based on all my reading.

It was surprisingly easy. However, the advice of take your time and use heat is so so important! I did crack just a little bit of paint on the back edge of my right rear fender well. The metal bends in multiple directions and frankly, I just was impatient, went too fast, and didn’t heat that section up enough. The second fender I managed to get done without any chipped/cracked paint. Also, be mindful that the arch of the fender isn’t even, so force on one section is not the same across the entire swing of the roller. Do small sections at a time and keep the section you are working around 120-130 degrees Fahrenheit. Now I’m ready for some wheels and tires!

 

[jharris48]

Oh I do have that too lol. Completely forgot to mention that.

did you see a noticeable difference with it

It’s hard to say for sure. Since I did the water pump housing, 80/20 mix, and hood Louvers (not posted yet) all at the same time, it’s hard to say how much each helped. However, with all three of those done, when I went back to Button Willow my car ran much cooler in the exact same outside air temperature! Problem solved! For now at least. We’ll see how it keeps pace as the season warms up. I’m trying to get the louver pictures and track data posted this evening.

 

[jharris48]

Ok, this was easily the most stressful mod I’ve ever done! Hood Louvers! Want to destroy a perfectly good hood in the name of cooling?! Want to let rain fall into your engine bay and just hope it doesn’t screw anything up? Count me in! I can’t explain how long I debated about this and of many times I changed my mind, be below are a few pictures from my hood louver install. You can find more on my insta @kittykatdisaster

I went with Racing Louver because of their association w/ SCCA and the fact they are wind tunnel tested. There are some other quality products that use CFD modeling and have proven to work great on some very fast Subarus. However, I also think the Racing Louvers model looks the best!

All and all I am very happy with they way they turned out. If anything I wish I had cut the holes about 1/8” wider because the inner edge would just be hidden a bit more and clean up the overall look. On the passenger side of the car it’s just the ABS control and SF Intake box that might get wet in the rain. On the right side though the Battery sits right below the ducts, which makes me a little weary of rain. The car isn‘t a daily anymore, so not a huge issue, but something to keep in mind.

As will all the other mods, I’d offer some detail on the install for other looking to do something similar, however the instructions racing louver’s provides are adequate. My main concern was cutting too much under structure off. I was afraid the hook scoop ducting might not have enough support to stay rigid, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue. I cut away some of the structure but left as much space as possible around any support screws/hardware for the hood scoop and I haven’t had any issues.

Data to follow in another post, but between these louvers, the water coolant mix, and the Killer B water pump housing, the car ran lap after lap without getting to any concerning temperatures on track!

 

[jharris48]

Before track data though, you may have notice in the last post…Titan 7 wheels! These things are great looking! 18x9.5 +40 T-r10 wheels! You can only get the gold version through COBB and comes with center caps and COBB engraved in the lip. I love the way these wheels look!

I got a set of 265/35R18 Kuhmo Ecsta V730s for the track. I’ve been running these tires on my OEM wheels for the last few track days and love them. The testing I’ve seen show they are slightlay off the pace of the pointy end of the super 200 tires, but they are incredibly consistent! They also wear like iron. I never feel them get greasy during a 20 min session on track even driving a heavy pig like a GR around. When I’m nipping at the heals of the fast cars in time attack, I’ll switch over to the RT660s, new Bridgestone, or Yokahams, but for a fast tire, at an incredible value (have you noticed how much cheaper they are in most sizes), that turns consistent laps, you can’t beat the V730s.

The great thing about this set up is that I didn’t add any weight to my wheels compared to the OEM! (Okay one time I weighed them they came in one pound more, but these preform scales measure a cars weight, they tend to fluctuate one pound based on how they feel that day)

Here are two 265/30s weighted together. I didn’t want to break the packaging straps to make them easier to move around. So divide the weight by two and add to the rim for comparison.

Here is the OEM wheel and 245/40R18 I have been running. Also has four or five track days on it, so lots of tread worn off.

Same weight of 44lbs for each set up, but I gained 10mm of tire width! Okay, here is the picture of me weighing the new wheels post mounting and it came out to 45lbs. Even if they are a pound over, totally worth it.

 

[jharris48]

Ok, one more thing before I get to how all this fared on track. I found a solution for my Tomei “doesn’t like to stay attached” exhaust and my SPT “I weigh as much as the moon” exhaust. Cobb recently released a titanium exhaust for the GR hatch! It weighs in at 23lbs. Eight pounds heavier than the 15 lbs Tomei. The Cobb still saved me 21 lbs over the SPT though, which weighed in at 44 lbs. Is 21 lbs going to make a difference, well yeah, maybe. Between that and a light weight battery I cut out 51 lbs from the car. The most surprising thing about the Cobb exhaust though is how livable it is! It sounds loud and snarly when you get on it at WOT, but suprsingly civil when just cruising. It sounds so much better than my 10 year old SPT cat back. I love it! This is a purchase I really didn’t need to spend the money on, talked myself into with some creative rationalization, and then BAM! I wish I’d bought it a year ago! Worth every penny! Such a great product!

And if you want to save an extra 2 lbs, you could just not put the fancy tips on the exhaust. Maybe I’ll get that hard core when I’m chasing the last few tenths to get below 2 minutes at Button Willow.

 

[jharris48]

Track day! Back to Button Willow to see how well all these mods do!

Ok, so 1) Temps never got above 208! The car ran 20 degrees cooler than my previous fast lap and the outside air temperature was the exact same, 54F! No oil or coolant temp issues! Never had to take a cool down lap, only slowed down when I caught up to the back of the run group.

Ok, the bad news about the track day…neglected spark plugs = no track time for you! The very first out lap on Saturday, the car started stuttering, check engine light came on, and I had two codes. P0101: MAF Circuit Range/Performance and P0300: Random Cylinder Misfire Detected. Not great. I limped the car off track, inspected for intake track leaks, reset the ECU, and took it for a short test drive. The car seemed fine, so I took it back out for a slow pace on track to see if the issue repeated itself. The car stuttered and ran like trash again. Pulled off track back to the pits and then car even stalled out pulling into my parking spot. Eventually the car wouldn’t even idle, but the codes didn’t pop. I’m guessing this was a function of the ECU being recently reset. I pulled a spark plug to try to rule out issues and found this:

Pulled the other three and they were all fouled. I’m running one step colder plugs and they had been in the engine since the rebuild, about 8000 miles. I believe the tuner recommended changing them every 10K, but considering I’ve done about six track days and some autocross on these, it was probably time. After an hour and a half of driving, I was able to find an auto store that kept the right plugs in stock. Got back to the track and put the new plugs in. I figured there was no way that was all that was wrong with the car. Got everything put back together, cranked the car, and BAM! The GR cranked up like it was new! I took it for some easy to moderate driving near by and it seemed to be running no problem.

I figured it’d be better to take my chances breaking down on track vs somewhere on I-5, I went out on track for the very last session of the day. The car ran incredibly well! It hadn’t felt that good since the final tune! So I stuck around, swapped the good tires on over night, and hit the track on Sunday!

The next morning the weather did not develop as forecast, and rather than an early morning drizzle, we got a morning of legit rain.

Went out for the first session which was very wet. Just doing my part to dry the track and see how the car was running. The GR ran strong and all my mechanical woes seemed to be behind me. When I went out for the second session, there was still some wet spots on track and standing water in Cotton Corners. However, the rest of the track was surprisingly dry, so I started pushing where I could. I ended up setting a new personal best of 2:04.7 on a somewhat wet course! The 265s were a shocking difference! There is so so much more grip. It’s going to take a while to find the new limit. And as show cased earlier, my temperatures were all under control lap after lap!

One other thing I was testing on this day was my new wheels and tires. Do they rub? They hadn’t on the street, but this was the first true test of aggressive driving. I didn’t notice any rubbing at all during the track day. On further investigation post track day, there was just a bit of wear against the inside rear plastic bumper where it meets the metal fender. Not significant and the plastic just filed itself down till there was no rubbing with no damage to the tires.

For fitment: I’m running -2.8 camber up front, -2.0 camber in the rear, zero toe all around, and have the super pro offset LCA in the front. I think the rear fender rolling I did is a must for track driving with this set up, but have read of some people who say it isn’t required for street driving.

After the emotional roller coaster that was my track weekend and seeing more rain in the forcast I decided to pack it up and head home. I figured starting from “oh my god I destroyed my car” to a successful test of all my mods and setting a personal record was enough for one weekend and headed home. I have some track time coming soon and am looking forward to seeing just how fast the car is with dry conditions. I’m hoping to find another 2-3 seconds, which will get me really close to my 2 minute goal.

I also sent some data logs to a tuner to try and asses if the spark plugs were the problem or simply a symptom of another issue I have yet to identify. My last oil analysis came back with a clean bill of health, so I’m hoping I’m just a dummy and waited too long to change spark plugs on a modded motor.

 

[jharris48]

Completely forgot about my RooDuckts! I also installed these over the holidays to help keep brake temps under control. The AP Racing brake kit is still holding up to the job with a track pad, but as I pick up speed I have found times that I start to get some very minor fade. The brakes are very much still up to the job based on my current speed, however where these ducts will really help out is reduced wear. I know I’m putting a ton of heat into these brakes with 3300 lbs getting scooted around the track. After I added the RooDucts pad wear rate dropped significantly. I’ve noticed on track that the brakes stay solid regardless of the abuse and my pads are lasting longer. Also, the heat checks on my rotors are getting more prevalent and I’ll need new rings soon. I expect the next set of rings to last quite a bit longer now that I can keep them cooler, but time will tell.