[horhay]

Alright. So I picked the car up yesterday. Anyone notice I didn't reply to my journal yesterday? Thats because I was out driving it as much as I possibly could! I don't know if its because I haven't driven the car in over a year but the car is just so much fun! Not just the power, the handling, the steering, the shifting, the sounds, all of it! Man, I'd forgotten what I was missing. Enough about that though, here's how everything went yesterday at Agile, and the real story about the car.

As everyone knows, Agile Auto is an extremely busy shop. I had made an appointment for August 15th or so to get my tune done. Unfortunately, the car had developed a serious idle issue, so the car couldn't be tuned that day. Hill and his crew used their free time over the next several weeks to diagnose the idle. From what I remember, the AFR was going from extremely rich to extremely lean just about every second. The MAF voltage was pretty much pinned, meaning that it wasn't the intake that was the problem. Anyway, after many different tests and alot of head scratching, the injectors were replaced (PE 650cc instead of the Helix which seemed to have issues with sealing)and the O2 sensor was replaced. At this point, Hill was confident that there were no other issues with the car, so he told me it was ready to tune. Too bad there were no openings in his schedule to get the tune done.

Annie came to the rescue and was able to sneak me in for yesterday morning. I worked out a ride to Agile for my wife and I, and I left work early to head out there. Turns out I had left work too late though, and I was going to be late, so I called Annie and told them to start without me. When I arrived, Hill informed me that the car was down on power (the gas in the car was from 2005...) and that I needed a new exhaust. Well, not needed, but I wasn't going to make any power with the stock midpipe and the Genome axle back. After the tune he re-emphasized this when he told me that he was nervous about getting too aggressive with the tune because of the back pressure in the exhaust and he shined a flashlight into my muffler to show how small it really is. He said I could easily see, with this tune, a 20whp increase from just a 3" catback. Maybe in time I'll decide to get that 3" exhaust and another tune, but right now I'm happy with what we came up with. What did we come up with you ask? Well, without divulging any numbers just yet, we came up with a 20G STi that feels like a V8 in the lower speeds. Third and fourth gear in this car are downright scary. The thrust is immediate when you depress the go pedal, and the 20G is at full boost of 19psi by 3500 or so. Hill gave me exactly what I was looking for while keeping the tune safe enough for my scarred psyche. As he said, there is still alot left on the table with this setup (if I change the exhaust) but for the time being I'm happy with the power levels.

Where are the numbers you ask? Without pulling out my dyno sheet they are 325/325. Like I said, a lot left on the table (80whp with an exhaust and tune doesn't sound out of line). If you think those numbers are low, come get a ride at the Subaru Challenge and you'll see why I'm extremely happy with this car!

I have to find my camera cable before I can upload the two pics and a couple vids that I remembered to take yesterday.

In other news, I picked up an 07 STi passenger seat and began converting it into an office chair last night. I should have that finished soon as well.