It will give similar results to a bnr 16g. There are a lot of people using them with great results. But it's very expensive. A bnr 16g is around $775 while a new vf52 is well over a thousand. You can use stock fueling, but you'll need a downpipe to take advantage of it.

 

You think i would be ok running the 16g without an aftermarket intercooler, fuel pump, or turbo inlet hose?

 

VF 52 is next to BNR 16G the best street turbo for legacy/outback fitment. Power depends on supporting mods and dyno you are running at. I would start with Stage 2 on stock turbo and if you are stock even stage 1 pro tune will net you nice gains. With good tune, CBE and VF 52 you are looking at 280-290 at the wheels at see level....easily over 300TQ so you are looking at clutch upgrade also unless you have brand new clutch

 

I am currently at a stage 2 tune with a catless downpipe. I have been talking with a shop and they recommended I do the VF 52 with Perrin top mount intercooler, Perrin turbo inlet hose, and a fuel pump upgrade. But after install of everything and a tune they are looking to charge $3,900. Seem a little over priced to anyone else? And you think all those things are necessary and worth it?

 

I think way over. AVO Turboworld stuff. Top notch, same stuff $1500 ish parts. Do the work plus a $300 tune. Necessary and worth it id your call. HP BUMP, not there. find somewhere there isn"t mark up everywhere.

 

More air requires more fuel. What kind of peak HP #s are you after?

CHP WHP (est) A/f BFSC Wa (lb/min)
560 510 10.9 0.55 56
540 490 10.9 0.55 54
540 490 10.9 0.55 54
520 470 10.9 0.55 52
500 450 10.9 0.55 50
480 430 10.9 0.55 48
460 410 10.9 0.55 46
440 390 10.9 0.55 44
420 370 10.9 0.55 42
400 350 10.9 0.55 40
380 330 10.9 0.55 38
360 310 10.9 0.55 36
340 290 10.9 0.55 34
320 270 10.9 0.55 32
300 250 10.9 0.55 30
260 210 10.9 0.55 26

 

More air requires more fuel. What kind of peak HP #s are you after?

Im looking for as much as I can get. Just trying to figure out what my next step in adding hp would be and I'm thinking that a larger turbo is next. Would love any advice I can get about what my plan should be!

 

The intercooler won't hold up. There are ways to reinforce it, but they look very rednecky. Look up bullet proof tmic on lgt.

Fuel pump is not necessary at all for a 16g. Nor are injectors or a turbo inlet, unless your inlet is torn. You leave around 20 or so hp on the table by sticking with stock injectors and having boost taper near redline.

You should find a new shop that won't take you for a ride.

 

Any recommendations for an intercooler, preferably one cheaper than the $800 perrin. Found alot that are way cheaper but still want good quality.

 

You could always go WTA from Silicone Intakes/Frozen Boost.

Water to Air Intercoolers

Or, make some room up front: Heat Exchanger

 

The knock offs seem to have fitment problems and minor to severe quality issues. The ones I'm aware of are IPR, which is a perrin knockoff and ~$600 and FMS, which is pure crap and considerably cheaper.

Then there is Perrin, Process West, and AVO. They're all up there in prices, but the Perrin still has fitment issues AFAIK.

There is also the racerX FMIC from ITSME on LGT. His website says its $650 shipped. You'll probably get better results from that than from a knock off.

My personal view is that you should either do it right with a good quality TMIC or FMIC, or bulletproof your stock TMIC, which should hold up fine to a vf52 or 16g. I haven't read of a single case of a bulletproofed stocker leaking.

 

3900 is a joke ...I am not even going to start. I still think you are taking wrong approach to this. I would start with supporting mods to maximize the stock set up first. THEN once you decide you need more you can get yourself BNR 16/18G and just tune or tune+ injectors and pump in case of 18G. There is simple rule in Subaru world and tunning in general. You either invest minimal amount of cash for stage 2 and good tune, that will net you probably 50hp, 60-80TQ or you are going neck deep and you upgrade a lot of things to get optimal result even from a small turbo upgrade like 16G.
At the end of the day stage 2 setup on stock fueling and turbo will get you similar gains as 16G since new turbo will probably run at 90% efficiency. You might see 10hp more from 16G on stock fueling than on stage 2 setup.
Even if you want to pro tune which is always a good idea, you still want to get AP, since tuner has little bit more sophisticated tool to work with and good tuner might get you little bit better tune on AP than what he would get on open source.
Also, AP will let you switch maps if you go for a road trip and end up in 91 octane only **** hole. 350-400 used and it's money well spend.
Start with AP and downpipe, you won't believe how much stronger and more responsive your car feels. These are 2 things that you will need for any further mods anyway so be smart and start with that.
ANYONE that ever modded subaru will tell you this: "stay stock, stay happy" so stay mostly stock, upgrade DP to let that turbo breath little bit better and fall in love with your car again for minimal investment. After few month it won't be enough so like every other poor soul you will start burning cash for more mods to get 30hp here, 50hp there. Some 2 years and 100hp later, you will realize that you pretty much bought your car again, it's already old and you have to pay for timing belt service, clutch....all that assuming engine, tranny and diffs. hold up. Then you will realize that you could have bought low miles, e46 M3 for all that money you have burned on your econobox subaru with turbo slapped on it. I absolutely adore these cars but you have to be realistic about the mess you want to get yourself in
You are in CO so I feel your pain, stock tune is so miserable in Chicago, I can't even imagine at 5k+ elevation. Trust me, stage 2 tune will put smile on your face.
You're not going to like what I will tell you now but what do you want to do with 300+HP on raised OBXT suspension on CO mountain roads??? You want to have Japanease muscle car that will go fast in straight line and will be pretty pathetic in turns? Stage 2, suspension which will turn your car into LGT wagon pretty much, brakes especially in the mountains and then burn that cash away for further mods

 

...and if you do decide to upgrade turbo anyway, go straight to BNR 18G. It's fully serviceable unlike VF52 and it will be much cheaper. At elevation you need to move much more air to get appropriate gain.

 

Drogos is trying to help you. He just crammed a lot in to a small space.

On the flip, if I had listened to the 100s of programmers in the world, my car wouldn't be where it is today. Sleeper VDC Summary Someone, somewhere always comes up with a different approach and you have to find the approach that fits your goal.

Do your research, calculate the fuel/air needed to achieve what you want from the car and be cautious if you need to "piece" the project together. One wrong calculation and the engine is toast.

 

10.9:1 is well on the rich side, not the lean side. Sure, you might get a little quicker cylinder/ring wear, but you won't ping.

 

Doh you're right.

And you'd think after staring at a wideband the last few years ...

Forgive my brains, they don't always compute right the first time around

11.1-11.3 has been my safe spot @ WOT the last few years. Do subies prefer to be rich?

 

I'm running E85 in the SubaruCharged, 10:1 is my target for high rpm runs. On gasoline, the a/f numbers posted have to be matched with timing and the engine should be clean. If you skimp maintenance, carbon build up will allow for the knocking.

The Vampire is a EMS that does for older model custom builds what modern ECMs do for cars. The computers on the Subaru don't need add ons or EMS to get the power. The ECMs are rewritable. Really high HP numbers can be assisted with meth injection, but I'm not going that route on the VDC.

 

Will the Subaru ECM detect knock and pull timing accordingly on the fly without an ECM rewrite?

Meth injection is nice but where a vampire comes in would be a scenario where your meth tank runs empty and you didn't notice it. Sure, this would be dumb and sure someone who loves their car would probably stay on top of that if they knew it meant the life of their motor, but stuff happens sometimes.

See:

I'll get my XT back from the transmission shop this weekend, hopefully I can get some time to tear into it. So far from what I've read I can do with a 20$ cable and ubuntu what I had to pay 650~ (SCT3 Tuner) for in my Lightning.

 

Yes. Does it all the time, especially when owners use crap gasolines. The difference with a stock ECM ROM and a "tuned" ROM is the changes in the base timing and fuel maps to gain changes in the engine performance. Same with modified cars, only you have to work around Higher volumes of air and fuel.

Read up over here: RomRaider Forum Index

 

Thanks for the link, I'm ordering one of those 20$ OBD2-USB cables today.

Kind of excited to see how this works on Ubuntu as well (I switched every machine in my home and office to debian based linux distros about a year ago).

 

The ecu will pull timing when it detects knock, but don't use that as a crutch. It will continue to add timing back in until it detects knock again. In other words, the knock control logic will not protect your engine from running out of meth or using gas on an e85 tune.

 

I want to throw a turbo kit on my '99 legacy outback 5spd 2.5L DOHC and was told that if I get a stock sti manifold then I can look at some options looking to only throw about 5-8LBS of boost seeing how the engine is completely stock with about 123k on it which is very low for the year. Any suggestions on what sti manifold I should use or what year of sti parts I should be looking for?

 

I am going to be installing the IHI VF52 on my 08' XT pretty soon. They reccomend using 650cc injectors. I think the stock ar 530cc. Can anyone point me as to where I can order the upgraded injectors? I checked Injector Dynamics, but didn't see anything.

 

Any updates on this?