batlegacy wrote:Legacy777, my budget is whatever I earn at work, because I have the luxury of being a college student who is home for the summer with no major expenses (between 2-3k or so)
And trust me ive done the math, its definitely a better (and more fulfilling)/cheaper idea to build up my turbo leg, than buy an STI, because I do not have 8k to spend on a used WRX STI although id love too...obviously it wont be a quick 1, 2, I know it will take time, patience, and money, but I have all 3...and im merely asking for help guys...so far only one of you has been helpful (thanks turnNburn). I though legacy central was a fam helping each other out...still have that hope
Help can come in all forms. Please try and take Dan (93forestpearl) and I's comments as constructive feedback. We both are speaking from direct experience with these cars, and are trying to give you realistic feedback, rather than a bunch of rah-rah feedback, which leads you down a path that you may not have wanted to go.
These cars are aging, and the technology, especially the controls (ECU) technology is very dated compared to today's standards. So that should be considered in your modifications. The other thing I will add is that modifications/upgrades can be done in many different ways. From my experience, you have two different category of modifications. The first is where you spend the money or build the components/pieces to fit a specific need or function. Everything is working the way it was designed and all is good. The other side is where you piece some things together and it mostly/kind of works, but there's some issues. There's probably areas in-between, but those are you two extremes.
A good example of the above that is related to these cars is fuel. If you want to up the boost, you need more fuel. You can do that in a couple ways, but usually adding larger injectors is what is done. You can use 440 cc/min injectors from JDM Legacies (stock are 370 cc/min) to get a little extra fuel, but they will run rich compared to the stock setup. The stock ECU has the ability to trim a little bit of fuel, but not that much. So people go this route to give them a little more fuel so boost can be turned up. This "works" but is not the "right" way to do it, and has drawbacks: poor fuel mileage, less power than you should be making with the same amount of fuel, and washing of the cylinders, espeically at off boost running.
The proper way to add more fuel would require you to modify/upgrade the engine management. Piggy back fuel controllers have their place, and different people have had different experience with them, but they are an option. Additionally, a
RobTune ECU is another option, and really is the best option out there right now for these cars, unless you want to go full stand alone.
So with all that being said I can tell you from my experience when I rebuilt my motor the first time I had about $2,000 give or take in just parts. That didn't including machining costs, assembly/labor, etc. That was rebuilding the motor with stock components. Upgraded turbo, TD05-16G was around $600, give or take, full turbo back exhaust was around $1,000 or so, full stand alone engine management was around $1,700, I've probably got between $2,000-$2,500 in tuning (multiple tuning sessions), and other miscelaneous costs. All that....and I'm putting down 242 hp / 280 ft-lbs of torque to the wheels. On that particular dyno, that hp is around what a stock STi puts down, and a little more torque. So if you add all that up, I've spent about $7,000 to make around what an STi makes, and that doesn't include the misc. costs, which I would guess would be about another $1,000 or $2,000. I'm sure costs could have been saved here or there, but even if you take $2,000 off of what I've spent, I've still probably spent $5,000 - $6,000 just on the power side of things.
I'm in the process of building the motor again with forged pistons, rods, upgraded bearings, and a cam. So I've got probably another $2,000 or so into this build. If all is good, that may get me closer to 300 whp, but still may be a little on the shy side. If you think about it, 300 whp is about 350 crank hp. If you talk with the guys that have dyno'd stock cars, a 40-50 hp drivetrain loss is about average.
When you get into those higher hp ranges, you really need to pay closer attention to the transmission, the suspesion, the brakes, etc.
The bottom line to all this is we want you to have as much information as you can so you can make an informed decision. If I had to guess, to make the kind of horsepower you're wanting to make, make it reliably, and have supporting systems (transmission, brakes, suspension) that can handle that kind of power, you could easily spend $10,000 - $20,000. You'll find that I tend to advocate going the direction which may be a little more expensive, but yields a better end product in my opinion then half assing something together.
Anyway, so that's a little background behind the comments that were made. You can do with them, what you see fit. If this is something you still want to pursue, we can try and provide assistance as much as we can, but you also need to realize that there is a very few number of us that are in the +350 hp range. So comments from direct experience will be limited.
