Immediate Impressions OFT
 

OH MY GAWd! So I gots headers back equal length to be exact and just tuned my car with OFT stage 2. Immediate impressions, FAST! No, like really. Like blistering FAST! Feels like a completely different car! I came from an E90 M3, and I know they're different monsters but wow my BErZ feels up to par with my M3! I'm so excited to wait till my ECU can get used it on a week or so blah blah! Anyway, for those with headers or not, this OFT is the perfect package to get some more speed for your 86. And I am impressed with how smooth the power train is over the whole band! Very quick very accessible very smooth power! Now who has windows so I can scale my MAF so I can install my Perrin 3" CAI!

OH LAWWDDD i can't wait to turn my BRZ in to a M3!!!!!!!!!!!

Heh.... I must have flashed my tune wrong, because my FRS still feels slow...

I guess if you close your eyes and put your foot down, it's kind of the same as an e90. No torque and lots of high RPM noise.

I snapped my back the first time I floored it after my drop in filter and stage 1 tune

Right Raven? It basically feels turbocharged!?

I ripped a hole in the space-time continuum the first time I flashed mine. Now my BRZ feels like it's in slow motion ever since, maybe I need FI ;)

Maybe its because I am only running stage 1, but my car does not feel fast. Quicker? Yes. Fast? No

I feel so damn fast. Maybe Prius territory bro. No jk. All joking aside, it does feel extremely smoother and torque dip in non existent :) feels great.

I will give you that @Darkparadox911

Sorry for the bump but I just installed my OFT stage 1 tune and wanted a few honest inputs. For me I feel like in the mid range it's a little faster, definitely makes more noise at least but in the low range I'm a little let down.

When at low speeds it feels like i'm having to push in the gas a little more than before the tune for the car to respond. Completely stock it felt pretty quick when accelerating from idle and then lagged in the middle, now it's like the reverse where it stalls at the beginning then picks up the rest of the way through.

Anyone else experience anything similar? I had planned to get UEL headers but not sure if I am now after being a little underwhelmed from stage 1 impressions. I know the uel will definitely boost performance but is that across the board? (ie will boost the low-mid range up) or is it going to feel the same as it does now just with greater acceleration when it hits that mid range?

In my area I don't typically get a chance to go past 60kmph (37mph)- 80 kmph (50 mph). So i'd consider the low rpm range to be more important for backstreet cruising and not sure if 1.2K AUS is worth it for headers unless the difference between stage 1 and 2 is significant

(also I have no plan on using the E85 tune)

When reflashing the tune, it resets the throttle position sensor. It takes a few days to recalibrate. You’ll notice better throttle response the more you drive it.


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Never heard that mentioned before when looking into the OFT but thanks for letting me know. Hope i'll see that change as it's the only gripe I've had

Check around here and on reddit, there are ways to lessen the dead pedal feel after flashing. It's too late now so just drive it around for another 50-100 miles and it'll go away.


OFT is not worth it for stage 1 alone IMO. Fixes RPM dips at stops and adds maybe 1-2hp from the dynos I've seen?

Oft/header=waste of money. Should just save up for FI.

Can't legally turbo/super charge for another 2 years. Also not sure how I feel about the long term effects doing that will have on my car as I intend to keep it as my daily many years

Yea I read up after the fact and saw those methods. I think the car has almost adjusted to the tune now.

Not sure about only 1-2hp, I definitely did notice an immediate difference in the cars performance from the stage 1 tune alone, so whilst it might not be major it's at least enough to notice a change. I don't get to enjoy the sound of the car as much as pre-tune because of how quickly it reaches my desired speed now

I think its more like 3whp at peak power and about 4-5whp in the torque dip making the dip smaller.

The difference between stage 1-2 is pretty substantial.
Assuming OFT = 500$ for 3whp 166$ / whp
Catless header varies between free (punch out cat) to 1700$ And range from adding an additional 10-20whp on top of stage 1.
even at the premium 1700$ for 20whp it’s still 85$ / whp with many other headers having an even better cost to benefit ratio although lower whp increase.

Ace > jdl 4-2-1 > ptuning 4-1 and jdl EL 4-1 are tied > 2017+ header w/ punched cat > pretty much any other header.

My strong suggestion is to buy it second hand. Because the power gains is not worth buying it new unless you just have money laying around. I bought my stuff new and was dissapointed on the money spent.

Was that with headers installed of OFT performance alone?

Last bit of reassurance before I go and pick up some Tomei UEL headers, overall if we're talking low-mid range is the stage 2 + headers tune recommended? Or should I just enjoy the OFT and then revert to stock and sell it

Not specifically the HP increase but stuff like, is the sound change worth it (with stock exhaust), is the acceleration/ torque increase significant enough over stage 1? etc.

As I said I can't do any major mods legally for 2 years so the header + tune would pretty much be the extent of my performance modifications to last me that time.


- Also noob question but am I correct in assuming that after a header install I can then just load the stage 2+ tune and overwrite the stage 1? Or do I have to revert to stock tune, install headers, then install stage 2+?

If you decide to get uel header, you just have to overwrite the exsisting stage 1. No need to revert back to stock first. Yeah i spent $700 on tomei uel and $400 on oft. For $1100 bucks, i honestly dont think its worth it. It did give it a rumble tho. I didnt drive the car too long before i got the oft. So i cant recall how super bad the torque dip was. Just wait around here, trust me. Someone will be eventually selling header for a good price.

I think everyone is different and something i dislike, you might like. I honestly think you should find someone who has a oft stage 2 plus uel header car and test drive it. If you were anywhere close to me. I would let you test my car out so youll know what youre getting.

Appreciate the insights. Unfortunately I don't know anyone with an 86.

I've only had my car for 2 months but i've driven it enough to notice the difference stage 1 made.
Just wish it was a little cheaper and i'd do it without second thought. Hesitant to go the 2nd hand route as it's harder to find sellers where I live and I don't like the risk of buying a faulty/ run down header

People still buying 86s to go fast in a straight line?

No, I just want the torque dip flattening and subaru rumble. Didn't buy this car wanting to go and race people

Then why would you care at all about a torque dip?

Because I don't like being in situations where I'm on a highway and I need to accelerate either to get into a lane or avoid something and my car takes a few seconds of holding the gas before it begins to accelerate??

Learn how to drive then.

Just to update on my experience with the later part of the thread.

Installed my TOMEI UEL headers today and tuned the car with the stage 2 + OFT. Did the post tune instructions to let the tune settle in, although it'll still probably be a few days before the gas response time is properly calibrated.

I didn't go out of my way to check the speed increase but I would say it's definitely there as I found myself inadvertently 8-12kms (5-7mph) over the speed limit when driving with the same style as I was before the install. More or less was used to it by the time I got home.

As for the sound it's a nice bonus. My car is stock aside from the headers and when it started up after the install I couldn't believe it was my car as it sounded so different in a good way. That initial sound did settle down, when it was taken outside and the car began to warm up, but it still has a very nice "rumble" when the car idles and accelerates. The loudness is more or less the same, it just has more personality. You need your window down to really here it though, and I would say it sounds better to people you pass than to you yourself when driving, i'll have to try get someone to record me driving to see how that sounds.


So overall still deciding, these are just my immediate impressions but for 2k AUD (probably around 1.2K USD if you don't have to deal with overseas shipping costs like I did). I would say it's worth it. At least over an exhaust as whilst it isn't as loud or probably as cool as an actual exhaust, for the same price you get that increased speed and acceleration response in the mid range, as well as a slightly new sound.

Plus there's all the additional things you can do with the OFT like e85 and editing the tune for exhaust pops (not that I plan on doing that myself)

Been following this thread and on the same boat as OP, so thanks for the update and quick review. Same setup as I am planning for, though leaning towards the FT86 UEL catted header, so should be quieter than what you described but probably what I prefer.

If you're planning to keep stock mufflers/ exhaust system I'd still say go TOMEI for the higher quality. When I described the loudness that was only on the initial start up, as it is right now a day later- it's not really any louder than stock it just has a different sound than before (the slight rumble).

From what i've seen, to get the crazy loudness from the tomei's you'd need a muffler delete or a different exhaust so if you don't plan on doing either of those you won't have any issues if you're worried about it being as loud as a new exhaust system.

got it, will look up more into the Tomei header then, but good to know it’s close to stock as loudness go. planning on keeping the stock exhaust as well. did you get CEL after install? if so did OFT 2+ tune fix it? I know it’s been asked around a lot in this forum, just curious about your experience.

No I didn't but it's too early to tell. Apparently even without the tune you won't get a CEL until after about a week. But I did the OFT 2+ tune straight away so hopefully after the week it remains off.

Cars running fine still, no issues with the UEL install, only other differences I noticed is you smell the petrol a little bit more on the initial cold start if your window is down and it seems like the header produces more heat as the car seems to run a little hotter. But I don't think that's a concern as the Tomei's came with some kind of heat wrap for the pipes during install

Hey bro, im glad you enjoy it and im glad you like it. At the end of the day, its your car, your money you do what ever makes you happy and im glad it makes you enjoy your car that much more.

Yea tune has finally settled and I can say no regrets with the headers. I let a friend drive my car today who had recently driven his friends stock 86 and he immediately noticed the torque increase and acceleration response without me even really explaining what the headers did. He liked it so much he's considering getting an 86 as well- and he already owns an EVO 8

awesome! did the throttle response time go back to how it was before the tune? like close or exactly the same, if you can tell? also, what specific steps did you do post tune to help with said recalibration? getting several answers when researching about it.
sorry for the questions and kind of hijacking the thread, ended up getting the Tomei UEL header as well plus OFT so pretty pumped about this lol.


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That's great, hope it's as good for you as it has been for me.

After getting the headers installed I loaded the stage 2+ tune, did all the steps and after finishing and letting the car rest for a minute I put it in accessory mode and just slowly fully pressed down the throttle. Did that for about a minute changing up how fast or slow I pressed it then went on my way.

I don't think it fully calibrates the throttle response, but it was definitely a lot less noticeable than when I didn't do it when I did the stage 1 tune.

After a few days of driving I think it's back to normal as in no weird delays when accelerating. I say think because its been awhile since I was fully stock so don't remember what it's like. I'd say it's noticeably more torquey when you put it in sport mode but i'd suggest not putting it in any modes (sport/ vsc sport) until you feel like the tune has settled in or at least don't drive it for long periods of time in sport. (I don't know for sure how much of a difference it makes but at least for me- the only times I felt the delayed throttle response from the tune being fully settled was when I put it in sports mode as I was swapping it between normal and sport fairly frequently which might of slowed down the ECU calibrating) That being said, still improves the cars performance as a whole.

My friends description of his friends stock 86 was that it felt like a "slug" until you got to the high range where it started to pick up, but in my car he felt the responsiveness immediately all the way through

Long term opinion
 

Had my header, exhaust Oft stage 2 combo for 5 years now without incident. Response and sound is much better with this setup over stock. Very pleased.

got that noted! again I appreciate all the input and help, feeling really confident now going with this setup with the stock exhaust. just the waiting game now for the shipment to arrive lol.