I iz newbie

[jwilkins88]

ohai gais

I've been trolling around for a little while, so I figured I'd finally make an intro thread. I'm new to 247, but I've been fairly active on MSF. I figured it was probably time I get a bit more active here too.

I have a 2009 Mazdaspeed 3, and it's really slow.

Mods:

Cobb AP - GT3076R - Medival Manifold - Tial 44mm Wastegate - Catless Corksport TBE - TurboSmart Dual-Port BOV - CP-E Fuel Pump - TurboXS FMIC - TWM Short Shifter/Bushings - JBarone Heavy Shift Knob - TRZ RMM - TRZ Transmission Mount - AWR Passenger Mount - AEM Tru Boost EBC - Devil's Own Meth Injection - CP-E Injector Seals - HTP Custom Dump Pipe - HTP Custom Battery Box + Lightweight Battery - HTP Custom 3.5" intake and MAF Housing - DGR Coilovers - Hotchkis Front and Rear Sway Bars - 25 PSI Street - 27 PSI Track

All that nets me 494 WHP and 481 FT-LB TQ. Slow car is slow.

Onto pictures:

K04 sucks

That was my first dyno before I got a bigger intake and MAF housing. I was getting MAF cut on the dyno. Here's the vid from that dyno:

My second dyno was much more impressive:

Anyway, that's basically it.

 

[Tungsten6]

Damn you weren't kidding that thing is sooooooooooo slow.

Welcome to 247!

 

[jwilkins88]

Damn you weren't kidding that thing is sooooooooooo slow.

Welcome to 247!

Thanks dude! I'm planning on making it slower by putting a GT35 and some nitrous on it. My goal is to have the slowest mazdaspeed 3 in the world

 

[Tungsten6]

lol nice! cant wait to see how low of numbers you put down after that little baby turbo!

 

[LionofZion]

Welcome! Just out of curiosity, about how much did that cost you? Just wondering how many years it will take me once I start siphoning the daily change from my wife's purse when she gets home! Def impressive!!! I hear a lot of people knocking the DISI design, mainly because if its lack of top end power, and apparent fragility and moody tendencies towards crazy tuning...usually its coming from guys who are comparing them to hondas/toyotas...like an integra thats putting down 600hp. I would like to think that I could one day turn my car into a incognito ninja to take a mustang/gto here and there, but scared of breaking something. Once again, thats awesome and I really like the way you kept it stock looking instead of blowing $2-3K to make it LOOK fast

 

[jwilkins88]

Welcome! Just out of curiosity, about how much did that cost you? Just wondering how many years it will take me once I start siphoning the daily change from my wife's purse when she gets home! Def impressive!!! I hear a lot of people knocking the DISI design, mainly because if its lack of top end power, and apparent fragility and moody tendencies towards crazy tuning...usually its coming from guys who are comparing them to hondas/toyotas...like an integra thats putting down 600hp. I would like to think that I could one day turn my car into a incognito ninja to take a mustang/gto here and there, but scared of breaking something. Once again, thats awesome and I really like the way you kept it stock looking instead of blowing $2-3K to make it LOOK fast

The total cost of the mods on the car right now (including wheels and tires) is about 6-7k. That includes custom parts that I've had to have fabbed up. I got most my stuff used.

To address the "fragile" nature and lack of top end power, this motor has neither of those characteristics. I'm on stock block, stock clutch, and stock transmission, and my car is holding up fine. My car is making more power than identically modded STis and evos, so there's no lack of power here. The biggest things that need to be addressed with this motor are tunes and loading the motor up too soon.

I'm using the AP to tune, and I've got a solid tune on here, and it's kicking ass. I don't worry about my car at all with the tune I have on it. The other thing is making sure that you don't load the motor up too early. If too much TQ is applied to the rods while they're moving slowly (relatively), they're going to bend. My car has proven that this motor can take a beating and keep on kicking

 

[LionofZion]

Pretty impressive for 6-7k inc wheels/tires. You may be right about all that durability...at least your car says so I was simply going by what info I dug up along the way. I also hear that the stock turbo has hardly any room for improvement, but I may be wrong about that. I dont know of any places around here to get a pro-tune, so I was told to avoid the AP and go with the hypertech. How reliable/driveable is your car currently? My current goal is maybe 280-300whp, both because its a DD and I just got married, so dont have tons of extra dead presidents laying around to spend on a dozen upgrades. Any advice from your experience is appreciated.

 

[jwilkins88]

Pretty impressive for 6-7k inc wheels/tires. You may be right about all that durability...at least your car says so I was simply going by what info I dug up along the way. I also hear that the stock turbo has hardly any room for improvement, but I may be wrong about that. I dont know of any places around here to get a pro-tune, so I was told to avoid the AP and go with the hypertech. How reliable/driveable is your car currently? My current goal is maybe 280-300whp, both because its a DD and I just got married, so dont have tons of extra dead presidents laying around to spend on a dozen upgrades. Any advice from your experience is appreciated.

I'm definitely right about the durability of the motor. There's more people than you might think making 350+ on stock motor. It's all in the tune, honestly.

Stock turbo is good to about 300 whp on a decent tune. Once you start pushing it more, it's just blowing hot air. To get more than 300 safely and reliably, you really need at least a GT28. Our cars love big turbos. You also won't even come close to 300 on a hypertech tune. You need to add a lot of timing and boost to get to 300 on stock turbo. Hypertech also can't do anything for a big turbo upgrade.

As far as AP vs Hypertech, I don't think there is a comparison at all. AP has so much more power and flexibility. It's really in another class. I wouldn't let the fact that there's not a pro tuner in the area scare you away from AP. There's lots of options when it comes to tuning, and I think that running an OTS map on the AP would be much better than running a hypertech tune.

You can always get an e-tune with the AP as well, and it's pretty easy to learn how to do small tweaks by yourself.

 

[LionofZion]

So the AP self-tune can bump up the timing and boost enough to make it more effective than a HT and a TMIC? Only reason I'm comparing is because the price is pretty close between the AP and a HT+TMIC replacement, which is supposed to be good for around 20hp. Once you upgrade the turbo, arent you looking at a new manifold, DP (I have stock right now) and BPV? I guess I'm looking at the most efficient and reliable way to get to 280-300 whp, 'cause Lord only knows I'll also be factoring in the cost of new and better tires with more hp as well! Props to you for sourcing some of your stuff used

 

[jwilkins88]

I had a huge response typed up for you and then I hit the wrong button and lost it all. I'm not gonna leave you hanging, but I have to head out to a friend's birthday party.

To summarize the message I had typed up: AP > hypertech

 

[LionofZion]

lol yep, Ive done that before as well. Whatever it is you said, im sure it was "AP>HT". I did some reading and it appears that the Stage 1 AP tune is very minimal gains...I know you might want to crucify me for saying "possibly more marginal than the HT". Stage 2, however, looks much more agressive, but apparently requires a full TBE...something else thats gonna run me $900+. What I have is whatever upgraded exhaust from mazdaspeed (pretty sure its a CBE) was offered as an upgrade, along with the MS CAI. I know the flow is gonna be noticeably different between a CBE and a DP,racepipe, high flow cat. So I would be left with the stage 1, unless I want to do a full TBE? Between that and the AP, im at about $1500+. I was looking to do something very noticeable and reliable for quite a bit less than 1500, but if that's the only way to make more reliable power, I'll have to tuck away a few more bucks

 

[MS3 GT]

recently i just installed the HT, overall is good for what its worth considering half price of AP in new.definately smooth the power!!!

 

[i8urgti]

I was about to tell you to get of m247 joel, since you don't have any kewl leds son. I didn't expect you to come on here and start schooling ninja's and spreading the good word.

As to everyone considering hypertech, don't bother. Its a waste of time and money. You're so restricted as to what you can use it for, and have NO expansion possibility what so ever. Don't bother with the MS CIA and CBE. They will be charging you too much for both, the cbe won't give tou the gains you want, and you run the risk of hydro-locking with the cia.

Go to *************** and check out all the products made my SURE, everything they sell is a good place to start. You can also run a DP and Test/Race pipe combo (catless is only way to go imo) with stock cbe, along with the cobb stage2 map and you will see big gains there.

 

[LionofZion]

I heard that most of the testing they have done showed its pretty hard to hydrolock because of the cai, considering you'd have to go through deep enough water, or really fast through a HUGE puddle that you'd have other problems as well...maybe I'm wrong. I was kinda happy when I found out the prior owner had the CAI and CBE upgrades done, since that would be one less thing I'd have to buy AND it's still under warranty. So are you saying the MS CAI and CBE that probably cost a total of $1000 or something, is pretty much useless in terms of gains? If that's the case, now I'm looking at a race pipe-back, or even full TBE to see any gains by way of exhaust setup??? This sounds like disappointing news to a guy who thought he was a couple steps away from his short term goal :-S.
I found an interesting thread on some opinions/stats comparing the AP vs HT subject, including the bang for your buck aspect of additional req to get to the stage 2 (which seems like the only sensible thing) vs a pretty comparable tune without the AP. Once again, for the guys shooting for 400hp+ I agree, it is the only way to go. I, on the other hand, would like to see 280whp, or a little more if reasonably possible.

 

[i8urgti]

I heard that most of the testing they have done showed its pretty hard to hydrolock because of the cai, considering you'd have to go through deep enough water, or really fast through a HUGE puddle that you'd have other problems as well...maybe I'm wrong. I was kinda happy when I found out the prior owner had the CAI and CBE upgrades done, since that would be one less thing I'd have to buy AND it's still under warranty. So are you saying the MS CAI and CBE that probably cost a total of $1000 or something, is pretty much useless in terms of gains? If that's the case, now I'm looking at a race pipe-back, or even full TBE to see any gains by way of exhaust setup??? This sounds like disappointing news to a guy who thought he was a couple steps away from his short term goal :-S.
I found an interesting thread on some opinions/stats comparing the AP vs HT subject, including the bang for your buck aspect of additional req to get to the stage 2 (which seems like the only sensible thing) vs a pretty comparable tune without the AP. Once again, for the guys shooting for 400hp+ I agree, it is the only way to go. I, on the other hand, would like to see 280whp, or a little more if reasonably possible.

I didnt realize you already had those on there. In that case, just leave them and get a DP/TP combo, leaving you with a full TBE. And yes you can hydro lock with CIA, people have done it before and will do it again. How deep will you know the puddle is until you go though it and its too late? Once again, **** the Hypertech, you won't see 300whp with that, and you can't tune with it. What it offers is what you can use it for. With an AP your tunning possibilities are endless. Look for all of your parts used, 80% of my parts are used. If you want to learn about making power, sign up on m.a.z.d.a.s.p.e.e.d.f.o.r.u.m.s.c.o.m. (remove the .'s that website is censored on here) and read everything they have.

 

[jwilkins88]

Ok... So I'm back, and I'm over my hangover.

So yeah, basically what Justin said. You don't get any flexibility with Hypertech. If your fuel trims are off with Hypertech, they're off, and you can't fix it. You just have no flexibility and no real upgradability.

The other thing that you don't have is the ability to take logs. Logs are crucial for tuning and diagnosing problems. Between the monitoring and the tuning capabilities that you get with the AP, there's nothing out there that even holds a candle to it. It's the best tuning solution for this car and all the other solutions out there are half assing it.

 

[LionofZion]

I am seeing that you two (jwil and i8) are die hard AP fans and i will say that the stage 2 map looks pretty stinkin sweet...I was just hoping it wouldnt cost me over $1000 to gain a few more ponies. I have heard bad things about catless DP's, in terms of oil leak, etc. I dont want any problems there. So a catless DP and test pipe will eliminate both cats, leaving just the upgraded exhaust/muffler? Would that muffler be any sort of bottle neck for the DP/Test pipe? I'm assuming I NEED a DP AND test pipe to run the stage 2 map? I'm not getting lucky finding great deals on used stuff, and tbh, I like the nice rasp and growl of my CBE and would be ok with it being a little deeper/louder but not much. I'm after performance and driveability, not intimidation factor...I like the stock or close to stock appearance. I also am curious if I will be left needing any fab work for the DP/test pipe

 

[jwilkins88]

I am seeing that you two (jwil and i8) are die hard AP fans and i will say that the stage 2 map looks pretty stinkin sweet...I was just hoping it wouldnt cost me over $1000 to gain a few more ponies. I have heard bad things about catless DP's, in terms of oil leak, etc. I dont want any problems there. So a catless DP and test pipe will eliminate both cats, leaving just the upgraded exhaust/muffler? Would that muffler be any sort of bottle neck for the DP/Test pipe? I'm assuming I NEED a DP AND test pipe to run the stage 2 map? I'm not getting lucky finding great deals on used stuff, and tbh, I like the nice rasp and growl of my CBE and would be ok with it being a little deeper/louder but not much. I'm after performance and driveability, not intimidation factor...I like the stock or close to stock appearance. I also am curious if I will be left needing any fab work for the DP/test pipe

I don't have any problems with my catless downpipe, but COBB makes a great catted downpipe for our car.

With their catted downpipe, you'd be fine running a stage 2 map. I believe their downpipe is a long one, so it eliminates the second cat. It should be a direct fit, and no fabbing should be needed.

The AP is the only proper way to tune this car. That's all there is to it.

 

[LionofZion]

So the Cobb DP eliminates the DP cat and the second cat that a test pipe normally would replace?! Anyone ever go in for an emissions test and have any problems?? How much of a timing increase is there in Stage 2? Still just as reliable as throwing on more bolt-ons? Is there any truth to NEEDING a BOV/BPV? I've heard some guys say ours is fine, and others say its a horrible leak of usable boost

 

[jwilkins88]

So the Cobb DP eliminates the DP cat and the second cat that a test pipe normally would replace?! Anyone ever go in for an emissions test and have any problems?? How much of a timing increase is there in Stage 2? Still just as reliable as throwing on more bolt-ons? Is there any truth to NEEDING a BOV/BPV? I've heard some guys say ours is fine, and others say its a horrible leak of usable boost

The COBB dp retains the cat in the downpipe. It will not throw a code because the rear O2 sensor can detect that there is a catalytic converter in place.

I'm not sure of the timing increase compared to stock, but I can tell you that the timing increase if incredibly safe. I've added 3-4* to a local's tune, and he's 100% fine. Not getting any KR or anything.

As far as the BPV, it seems to depend on the car. Some do ok, and some leak really badly. Definitely once you start upping the boost, it's a mod you should consider.