[jake]

I have some spare cash that I was thinking of throwing into my car. I think we have alot of enthusiasts on the boards and I am fairly new to this so rather than surf through hours of tuner forums I come to the place I trust most.

I was thinking some sort of engine management and intake. Then sway bars, down pipe, cat back when more money frees up.

[tweakmonkey]

I don't know the plan for WRXs, but on most turbo cars the first mods are boost controllers and exhaust (these give by far the most horsepower gain for the money). I'd probably keep the stock intake but put on a high flowing air filter.

[sims]

Don't get a boost controller.

Boost controllers are for older cars like my Celica and Dan's Talon. Nowadays most cars boost levels are completely controlled by the ecu, a boost controller and a car like yours will likely cause you a lot of issues as it confuses the ECU. with the WRX you get a plug and play unit, looks sorta like a palm pilot which allows you to flash the ECU and jump between different settings such as economy(slower then stock, best gas mileage) stock, and performance(most power, worst on gas) I helped my friend install his unit and it took about 5 mins, you simply plug it into the diagnose port(I believe) which is near your peddles. different brands look different and have some different features.

This isn’t really considered engine management though, if you ask for engine management people may assume you mean stand alone, this isn’t something you need unless your going crazy building your motor and going big HP and the stock ECU simply won’t do work. Stand alone requires dyno tuning.

I don’t remember the specifics of the brand, but I should be seeing my buddy tonight hopefully and I’ll get him to refresh my memory. I'm pretty sure its a cobb tuning access port.

My friend ordered his in a group buy that also game with a full 3’ exhaust, downpipe, midpipe and up pipe, these should be the first things you do to your car and the performance gain is very noticeable. 35+ HP wouldn’t be unreasonable. I believe it increased his boost by 3-4 PSI overall plus the benefit of a free flowing open exhaust. I think it was around $1200

His car sounds very mean, throttle response was improved abit.

A rear sway bar is another cheap upgrade that will help a lot. Most any front engine AWD car will have an under steer bias, and thick rear swaybar(my friend runs a 24MM) will help.

I believe the stock air box flows very well and should be fine until your pushing A LOT more power then stock, a simple drop in filter can be done, but don’t expect any power gain.

DO NOT get a blow off valve.

What size wheels do you have stock? A nice set of light 16 or 17 wheels with good summer tires would also make a big differences. No matter how well setup your suspension is, or how much HP your car has your still at the mercy of what your tires are capable off. I would get a nice set of summer rubber and a set of stealies and winter tires and ditch the useless allseasons they come with if you haven’t already.

[tweakmonkey]

Aye, what he said. If you can chip the ECU to increase the boost it's generally a lot safer. If you do go that route (I'd highly recommend it for the best bang for the buck), let us know here what brands you decide to go with. I have some strong opinions about certain tuners.

I think the horsepower gains that Sims suggested are totally reasonable, and you may even get more than that. I second the suggestion to not buy a blow off valve. It's a good way to draw attention to your car but doesn't add power if the stock one's sufficient. If an upgrade is necessary, buy a 1G DSM BOV... they're cheap and work great up to 20+ PSI.

I put a rear sway bar on my car and it was the best upgrade for the suspension I had done. I also have H&R springs, KYB AGX adjustable shocks... but if you are looking to do suspension, nothing beats coilovers, IMO, since they're matched as a set for your car. Check TireRack for the best prices on Bilsteins or other major brands.

I've driven a few WRXs (the first generation that came to the USA) and they all had really bad tires stock.

[86mcss]

pics of this wrx! i hope its blue or black

[sims]

If you drive it in winter I wouldn't worry about coilovers, unless you spend a ton of $$(3K+ for serious stuff) they’ll rust the first year and it will be a nightmare to try and adjust them.

I can't stress the importance of tires enough, so I’m randomly mentioning them again :P
Summer tires / Winter tires >>>>>>> > > > >>>>>>>> >>>>>>> all seasons.

the HP I mentioned is easily reasonable, the general rule of thumb is 1 PSI = 10HP, a 4 PSI increase should be 40 HP in itself without considering the increased flow of the exhaust system, but with that said its always better to shoot low, because rules of thumb only work if every variable is perfect.

The reason why I say no BOV is because the WRX has a recirculating valve stock, it serves the same purpose but routes the air back to an air flow meter that measures air flow and adjusts the amount of gas the engine gets accordingly. If you run a BOV It confuses the ECU, you run mad rich, can stall, poor gas mileage, amoung a long list of possible other issues. Its not worth the PHSSSSSSSSSSH sound. You can run any BOV you want if you recirculate it, but theres no sound, so why bother? The stock BOV works fine until you start pushing very serious power.

[tweakmonkey]

I don't know of any production cars that don't have a valve recirculate stock. Vented BOVs are uber ghetto / ricey.

[sims]

lol, well in most cases, yes but not always.

Once someone is on standalone with a proper tune and no longer at the mercy of an AFM, you can properly run a vented BOV.

[nidex]

You never said anything about how much you're trying to spend.. chips are great, but my broke ass prefers MBC + a little fuel tuning