FI or Tune and Header?
 

Just joined but have been lurking for several months. My 14 BRZ 6MT will be here in a week or so. Going to get rid of the 911 and go back to my roots. Those include my first four cars being a 60' Austin Healey, 63' XKE, 65' 356 and a 69' 911. That should tell you I'm no spring chicken but I can still get in and out of a car like this.

I won't miss the $800 tires required to make it drive like a sports car or the ponies and top end. But I think I will miss the torque.

The reason I have held off is the overall torque and especially the infamous dip. This will not be a DD and my track days are in the past.

So my question is as the title. Can I make it pull out of a corner decent enough with just a tune and header or should I just skip that and go straight to the supercharger? I am not looking for 250+ HP, just some nice pull.

Edit: I posted this here because I know what the FI thread would suggest.

Have you driven the car yet? If you aren't tracking it or using it as a DD, it may just be spirited enough as is. It's a REALLY fun car even stock.

That being said, header, exhaust, tune will definitely make it more lively. Really depends on what you define as slow.

Test drive only but I've read everything there is. It may well be, had a lot of fun in that 356 at 2200 lbs and 96 CHP.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised the more you drive the car (especially once it's yours and you can push it a bit more).

I've owned cars with a lot more power, but this is still the most fun I've had driving...pure and simple driving.

dance around the dip

tune and header.. keep it NA

Get an innovate sc kit. I completely plan to down the road. Tame enough for both street and track. 250whp is the best of both worlds in this car.

I'm stuck in the same predicament... Not sure what I want. It's my DD, but I had nothing but mustangs before so I do miss the power. That being said, this car is a blast and only gets better the longer you have it.

Going FI will without a doubt be the most fun, but comes with much more work and fine tuning... Can't count how many times I've added the AVO Turbo kit to my shopping cart along with all the fuel and cooling goodies, only to puss out and obsess about it more...

I'm loving the car in the meantime... But man, it is a tough decision.

Yeah, I need to get it drive it I guess before I work myself into a frenzy. Can't do much with a car with 26 miles on it and a salesman riding shotgun.

I was thinking SC as torque is all I want. I have a car that will do 180 and no where within 200 miles where a sane person would dream of going that fast. But 20 miles away are the Blue Ridge mountains where fun can be had at 15 over the speed limit.

I'm leaning toward trying the openflash tablet and the base tune and after a couple thousand miles I'll know whether that and adding a header is good enough or not. Then if I decide to go SC there will probably be base maps for it by then.

I plan on keeping it NA. Considering doing the e85 kit an tune.

Those are some fine cars from your past! I think you'll find the BRZ has everything to make it a proper sports car.

You can get good gains while keeping it N/A -- With the right header + full exhaust + tune on 92 or 93 octane, you can get +20-25whp gain over stock with solid torque gains throughout the rev range AND eliminate the torque dip. That would put you very close to 200whp.

You can easily pass the 200whp mark on E85, if you have that available in your area.

Drive the car stock for a bit to get a feel for it, then you'll have an idea on how much more power you feel you need. You can always upgrade in stages with stock, stock + tune (+10-17whp), then maybe header + exhaust + tune. Maybe consider E85 or a flex-fuel setup.

You will know when you've reached that balance of power + handling for the kind of driving you do with your BRZ.

Enjoy it! It's a really fun car!

-- Bob

You can do full N/A upgrade like pulleys, tune, CF DS, intake, headers, full exhaust, drivetrain. If youre still not happy just bolt on a innovate SC and keep all those parts that you already have, this is my plan when i start making money :( this won't really work if you want a lot of power and need to upgrade with a turbo kit, but you can always try to sell all your bolt on mods.

One thing I've noticed about this car as opposed to other cars I've driven, is that while this car may not be as fast (stock), it feels just as fast because the car is so small, low to the ground, and has a very short front end. So if "feel" is what you're looking for, you may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

However, if you enjoy fast cars, by all means mod her to your hearts content. I plan on doing the same thing eventually.

If you're planning on going with a supercharger, why not go with the n/a upgrades first? As far as I know, superchargers don't require special headers like turbos do, and you'll get more gains out of the supercharger later on.

For me personally, all I have right now is a K&N Air Filter. I think I'm going to get the Open Flash Tablet sometime this winter. Next spring, I'll probably look into lightweight wheels + better rubber. I eventually plan on going hardcore with a fully built motor + turbo, sometime within the next 2-3 years.

On the other hand, there are people who have gone into FI before they even hit 1,000 miles on the car. To each his own. I'm sure you'll figure out what you want to do after you get the car and break it in.

Judging by your past cars, I think you might actually regret it if you go FI.
The best part about driving a car like this is that you actually have to 'work hard at it' to get the best out of the car. Heel-toeing corners just to keep to the power band, keeping best lines on the road to keep your momentum, lol.

Anyway, in N/A mode, the car is no slouch. Can get low 6's or even a flat 6 for 0-60mph/0-100km/hr with some work and a good launch.

Contemplate a full exhaust(EL headers,o-pipe/frontpipe,CBE) with a good cold air feed(HKS :P ) and K&N panel filter and a GOOD TUNE and you should be good to go.

I'm personally going to keep N/A as long as I can(hopefully there will more *more* N/A parts developed SOON). Nothing better than being able to beat on your car for a whole day at the track and not really worrying if the engine is going to CEL or grenade