REVIEW: FA20Club Tune, AFE Intake, and Perrin Pulley

[draggin_az]

I drive 30 mins to a hour and 15 mins every day to work depending on traffic. I spend alot of time in stop and go traffic and on the highway. I don't do a lot of burnouts but I drive the car the way it was ment to be driven, like bat out hell sort to speak.

Perrin Pully

Installing it was straight forward. Getting the bolt off the factory pulley was no easy task. I was using a 1/2 drive, 20" in length "breaker bar style" ratchet. I couldn't break it loose. I live in apartments and my air tools are in storage. If you had a small impact, it might fit in there. It took 2 of our maintaince men to break it loose. 1 pulling and 1 pushing. After the bolt was loose, the install was smooth.

AFE Intake

Installation was rather easy (minus getting the snorkel out). If you wanna keep the "in cabin tube" (which I did), you can drill a hole in the intake tube where you slide the tube over. the biggest bit I have is a 1/2". I drilled that out then used a drimmel to make it a little bigger.

The sound is different when your giving it hell. It has a deeper throater "wahhaa" for about the first 2000 rpms as the engine winds up then the sound softens up. At normal cruising rpms/speeds/throttle position, there's no noise but once you stomp the gas the deeper throater sound is there. When your rpms/speeds/throttle position level off, the sound goes away.

I installed the pulley and intake at the same time and waited a week to install the tune so I could get in enough drive time to see the difference between stock and intake/pulley.

Together the throttle response is noticable.

FA20Club Stage II tune

I ordered the tune, cable, and license (the same time I ordered the intake and pulley). A few days later it showed up in the mail. I wasn't ready to flash my car so I set it aside. A week later I was ready to get her flashed. I have 0 experience and didn't have a clue what I was doing. I called FA20Club and he informed not to download anything bc there was an issue with EkuTech software. Once everything gets worked he'll email me my file.

A couple of days later (Sunday evening) I got the file along with detailed instructions on installing all the required software and step by step instructions on how to flash the car.

Without going into too many details there were a few issues. FA20Club was up till midnight with me working those issues out. He is a stand up guy and I cant say enough towards his customer service. I couldn't stay up any later and called it night. When I woke up there was an email from him with all the issues worked. I flashed my car and the beast was alive.

I drive it to work this morning and omg the difference is incredible. Rev match is on point, the "dead zone" is 95% gone, and shifting is much smoother. In stop and go traffic 1st gear is too low and 2nd is too high. With the tune 1st gear is perfect. When cruising at 75 and needing to pass someone, 5th was too high of a gear and 4th was doable but it didn't quit have that get up and go. With the tune I can dump from 6th to 4th and it's right on point.

I can't say enough about not only his customer service but the tune really smoothed the engine out. Highly recommended.

Once you get all the software and drivers installed, flashing your car is hella easy. Its literally plug it in, select your tune, then flash. The file takes about 3 to 3 and half mins to load then your done. Start your car and enjoy the wonders of driving your freshly tuned FRS/BRZ.

Gas Mileage

After having this set up for 6 months now, I was able to got some "mpg" results. Last week I went on a 980 mile trip from VA beach to Indiana. I drove through the flat lands of VA, the Shenandoah Mountains, and the highways of KY (hilly) and IN (mostly flat). I averaged 31 mpg. That was with a mix of cruise control and non cruise control depending on how my leg felt. I was driving anywhere between 70 and 90 during my trip.

As far as every day driving, I constantly get 26 mpg. Thats a mix of highway and city, but mostly back roads. When I'm on the back roads, I drive in a "spirited" manner and tend to "keep my foot in it".

[Foobar]

Good review, thanks for sharing. Now get yourself an exhaust system and call it a day!

[draggin_az]

Originally Posted by Foobar

Good review, thanks for sharing. Now get yourself an exhaust system and call it a day!

I'm in the process of listening to all videos in the exhaust thread. I know how I want it to sound just need to hear it.

[ML]

Do you think bigger brakes are needed with this setup? Also did you put on bigger tires or are you stock in that area?

[JPxM0Dz]

Yeah great review! Customer service is dead on and the STG2 tune is amazing

[draggin_az]

Originally Posted by ML

Do you think bigger brakes are needed with this setup? Also did you put on bigger tires or are you stock in that area?

I'm on stock brakes and rims/tires.

From time to time if I'm driving kinda of fast and the the light turns yellow, I'll slam on my brakes to test it's stopping power. They preform great every time. For everyday driving a brake upgrade isn't neccessary but wouldn't hurt.

[JPxM0Dz]

I'm in the process of swapping out my Airaid intake for the Takeda.
Didn't realize you had to drill out the port for the soundtube

Thanks for the heads up!

[draggin_az]

Originally Posted by JPxM0Dz

I'm in the process of swapping out my Airaid intake for the Takeda.
Didn't realize you had to drill out the port for the soundtube

Thanks for the heads up!

No problem man. :happy0180:

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by draggin_az

I'm in the process of listening to all videos in the exhaust thread. I know how I want it to sound just need to hear it.

Hear it in person. All the videos in the world won't give you a true appreciation until you're in the car driving.

I love the sound of my GReddy Evo3, but you'll never experience the silencer-delete 3K drone until you've actually taken a ride in the car with it. Some folks don't care about it, but others can get physically ill from the low frequency resonance. To that end, make sure you can give your system of couce an in-person test drive, so to speak.

[draggin_az]

Originally Posted by Foobar

Hear it in person. All the videos in the world won't give you a true appreciation until you're in the car driving.

I love the sound of my GReddy Evo3, but you'll never experience the silencer-delete 3K drone until you've actually taken a ride in the car with it. Some folks don't care about it, but others can get physically ill from the low frequency resonance. To that end, make sure you can give your system of couce an in-person test drive, so to speak.

I like quiet exhausts. I dispise drone on the highway. I know hearing them in person is the best to experience it but there's no way your going to get a chance to hear them all in person. The exhaust thread allows you to compare all the exhaust systems. It may not give you the exact sound but you can tell the difference between greddy and perrin for instance.

[xwd]

What's the difference between the Stage 1 and Stage 2 FA20 reflash?

[draggin_az]

Originally Posted by dwx

What's the difference between the Stage 1 and Stage 2 FA20 reflash?

stage I is for a stock engine. stage II is if you have an intake or other bolt ons. your best bet to to contact FA20Club for his reccomandation.

one thing I forgot to mention is he does look at your data logs then optimizes your tune.

[Foobar]

Originally Posted by draggin_az

I like quiet exhausts. I dispise drone on the highway. I know hearing them in person is the best to experience it but there's no way your going to get a chance to hear them all in person. The exhaust thread allows you to compare all the exhaust systems. It may not give you the exact sound but you can tell the difference between greddy and perrin for instance.

I would agree with you if all of the videos used the same location, vehicle, and recording equipment. Unfortunately, it's a crapshoot at best since none of these variables are static.

It is a good starting place to at least get the exhaust note characteristics out of the way, and for that the records are useful. Volume, which is important to you, may not be easily discerned, however.

The GReddy with the silencer is too quiet for me. It's almost stock-like, so I drive sans silencer. Unfortunately, this introduces the drone. Gah.

Anyway, plenty of us forum members around with after market exhausts now, so feel free to ask in your regional forum for people willing to show off their system in person. I'd be happy to do it for anyone around me (Long Island, NY).

[TIE Pilot]

hopefully you test you car on a track and let us know how it drives there...

any plans to get dynos? times 0-60...?