You ain't lying on that one, I wouldn't be surprised if something like that happens. I've been seeing the WRX guys are converting to our intake manifolds using adapter kits so I'm hoping there's something we could get as well cause I know they'll want the fa24 also. I'm hoping to get a hold of one at the dealer soon to just tear down. Prime motoring has been pushing the fa24 to the limited and have determined they can handle around 500whp no sweat daily and I believe they blew it up at 600whp only due to running out of fuel. They bought another block directly from Subaru and should be posting new numbers with adequate fuel soon.
https://www.ibuildracecars.com/store...t-brz-manifold
I think you nailed the best way to upgrade to the MY17 manifold. That extrude hone is crucial. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing those (3) dynos back to back. The reason I aimed at the black manifold was looking at the way the k20 RBC manifold and S2000 manifold are oriented with the shorter runners in there high powered (4) cylinders but there are inline (4) also.
Surprisingly I actually thought the same thing on the heat soak and did some testing with my infrared thermal heat gun to see how they differed after a 30-minute drive under the 100* Texas sun.
The MY17 coating actually works pretty good:
Red MY17: 102* outside pulling into my driveway sat at: 143* / 10-minutes with the engine off jumped to 159*
Black IM: 100* outside pulling into the driveway sat at: 139* / 10-minutes later 150*
Not too bad but I guess the longer they sit(ie staging lanes), the more they could differ.
I also used a local shop we have for the FD and it was a lot cheaper being that all BRZ/FRS use the Toyota 8" differential, it can be done a lot cheaper than we think, only other item needed being a rebuild kit as I believe the crush washers are one-time use only.
https://www.4wheelparts.com/p/g2-toy...CNB-2-2041-456
I grabbed an automatic FRS diff from the junkyard for a $100 to tear apart and play with, not too much to lose. I do know most transmission shops are wanting about $400 for labor but then when I tell them its not a truck, they're like "oh, it's not 4wd? That shouldn't be too bad at all." I haven't confirmed if they'd charge me any less or not but I really wanted to do it myself.