What mods need tuning? Are there any pre done tunes out?
 

Hi,
Im new to the import cars. Mostly had muscle cars. I love the fr-s though and wanna add some power. Can anyone direct me to the right parts and if anyone does "box tunes" for the mods?

Thanks for any info

I'm in the same boat man. I sold my 2002 35th Anniversary Camaro SS for this car.

Headers need tuning, intake too. Intakes and headers gain very little without. Some run fine without a tune, some can run a little lean and cause some bogging. Tune is by far best bang for the buck. Then swap some new tires on (new wheels if money is available). Those are pretty much the mods that work well along with the tune.

I've got a Perrin cold air intake, and a Nameless axleback currently. Stock tune, runs just fine. Not sure about what power I gained, but I'm positive it isn't much. I've got a JDL UEL header coming in along with the rest of my 3" exhaust and I'll be doing an Ecutek tune at the same time they are installed. That is when I will gain a lot of power.

Is the ecutek tune a pre built tune or something that has to be done on a dyno?

Either. You can get a remote tune done with you flashing the ECU and you send datalogs to a master tuner like FA20club or Visconti. Your other choice is to get it locally tuned by an Ecutek master tuner on a dyno if one is nearby. The tune is made for your car, but the dyno tuned one is the more specific one for your car since it gets fine tuned. The remote tuners do a pretty good job though. You start with a tune, drive it for a while, then send more logs to them to refine the tune and they send you a file back to flash again. The ECU after the first initial flash tries to learn the tune after you reset it and it loses some of its effectiveness after a bit. That's why the second tune (which is free from the remote tuners for life of the car) is important.

Intake as the stock unit uses straighteners. Header since it changes VE significantly. Otherwise most of the little things (i.e. exhaust) the ECU can compensate fairly well. But if you do the entire thing it can get a bit rich.

The stock airbox has a very well calibrated Mass Air Flow Sensor.

If you bolt on a mod that increases power because of added airflow, the stock MAF will report the added airflow, and Subaru did you a favour and tuned the car with some margins for increased airflow.

A "custom" tune maybe worth 5 or 6 hp above a dyno run on a otherwise stock car which has learnt it's full advance timing curve.

BRZ Edit is a good option. For $500 for software, plus $160 for a programmer, you can tune your own car, or have your local tuner tune it for you, or you can buy a tune for it etc. It's the only "open" option where you have full access to your own tune. For now.

Any vendors on here that offer everything including tune that im looking for?

FA20Club.com has more or less everything if you only want to shop at one place

FA20club, visconti, drift-office along with a few others.. but those three are probably the most notable on this forum

Unichip comes preloaded and is cheaper than all the other options. Plus it's not a flash.