moonspoon's 2015 BRZ

[moonspoon]

Hello all! I bought my BRZ brand new in Jan 2015 and she remained stock for most of those years but I've slowly been modifying her with the intent of adding boost and it's finally time!




I went with the JDL UEL recirculated turbo kit featuring the GT2860RS and CSG for Ecutek tuning.

I'm waiting on some new parts from JDL that should be here in about a week and figured I'd eat up some of my wait time with writing about my baby.


My goal is a fun, comfortable, fast car that works for myself and my wife. A sport-luxury coupe if you will. I'm aiming for 250-300WHP on 91 octane.



Through the years I have done the following projects:
Painted the roof black.


Installed Joying 9inch headunit and rearview camera.


Installed/installing Siless sound deadening as I take interior panels off for other things. Roof and driver outer door skin completed as of this post.

Installed second gen door stops.
Installed sliding arm rest.
Installed Verus carbon synchros.

Installed Southbend stage 2 daily clutch, Battle Garage RS ultimate throw out bearing, Verus pivot point and fork.
Installed CSG Spec Tein Flex A coilovers.
Installed JDL slim fan shroud, SPAL fans.

Installed P3 analog boost gauge.



Things that I'll probably get sooner:
Oil cooler: JDL is releasing one that should compliment the rest of their kit nicely
Hood: Seibon FA style or Carbon Creations STI Look Hood. Not a huge fan of carbon fiber so would like to get color matched to my crystal white pearl.
Air/oil separator: Radium recirculated version. I took off the intake to clamp the hoses for the turbo install and cleaned out a bunch of oil that was coating the inside.
Turbo blanket: I got all the hot parts of the turbo cerakoted so will monitor temps to see how necessary a blanket will be.



Things I'll probably get later:
Wheels: Thought I'd end up with gloss black but I really like the bronze GR forged wheels by Toyota.
Brakes: Probably a set of Brembos and rotors from a Performance Package model.
OEM Audio+ sub or the OEM sub itself
2017+ steering wheel and cluster retrofit
Roof rack and/or hitch


Thanks for reading! I'll update and add pics as I can

[jamie0404]

I'm here to follow your car tuning journey. I am excited to see how the JDL turbo kit and all your mods come together.

Chill Guy Clicker

[moonspoon]

Install complete and I've fallen (more) in love with this car! It's so much fun to drive! It sounds amazing, it feels amazing, it _is_ amazing!




Overall the kit was fairly straightforward to install, a few hiccups along the way but it only took me two afternoons to get all the hard parts in.



Currently going through the remote tuning process with CSG.



I ordered a factory turbo'd PCV valve (11810AA141) that'll be popped in when it gets here too.

[moonspoon]

So I had left the plastic and aluminum under body panels off so I could still access everything. This turned out to be a bad choice because while on the freeway the now unsupported front end of the fiberglass under body panel caught the air and ripped it partially off. I could hear something scraping but everything still worked fine mechanically.


When I got home I cut out a portion of the aluminum panel to clear the recirculating dump tube and installed it and the plastic front panel back. Guess I'm adding a replacement fiberglass panel to my shopping list.




My oil drain back hose was rubbing on the belt so I pulled it away with some zip ties but am gonna think on a better bracket or belt guard or something better than zip ties.

[moonspoon]

19mm and a wobble socket got the old PCV off and new one installed! Weird angle but once I found a combination of socket/extension that fit it was easy. I added a stainless hose clamp too, not sure how necessary but I had it so why not.







JDL bash bar was also delivered, just need time to take the bumper off again.

[moonspoon]

Bash bar installed! All of the parts I've gotten from JDL are so nice!
Also installed the top support for the intercooler, had to chop it down a bit to clear the bumper but even without the top support the intercooler was rock solid. I may futz with everything again to get the intercooler to line up exactly parallel to the bash bar but I ran out of time.

[moonspoon]

Making some more progress! Hunting phantom knocks I found several issues in my exhaust system. The overpipe flanges were not flat and even with a replacement gasket there was an exhaust leak so I filed and sanded them flush. Removing the heat shields around the overpipe and cat revealed a few witness marks where the pipe was contacting the shield. I tried to wrap the pipe and reinstall the heat shields but couldn't fit both so I only used exhaust wrap on the overpipe. The cat I was able to wrap and use the heat shields. After reinstalling everything the car was noticeably quieter from inside the cabin.


While I was under the car I replaced the front black plastic panel and fabricated some replacement tabs for the bumper that had broken off.


My tuner responded very positively to the logs after all these changes so phantom knock is getting crossed off my list. (hopefully for good!)


Installed EBC slotted rotors with EBC yellowstuff brake pads and Project Kics wheel spacers.

Installed a Funk Motorsport turbo blanket.

Picked up a damaged Seibon FA style hood from OfferUp and have been prepping it.

Lots of sanding later.

Fitted to the car.

Installed Aerocatch hood latches.



I'm getting my bumper replaced by a bodyshop and they're going to finish the hood for me.
I've got a BLITZ oil cooler on order from Japan and after that I think it'll be wheels and tires.

[moonspoon]

Finally got my hood and bumper back from paint!




Also received and installed the BLITZ oil cooler (10475)
It's designed with the OEM crash beam as a third attachment point so it doesn't fit perfect with the JDL bash bar.
The oil cooler works too well for daily driving so I currently have a piece of cardboard blocking off half of it.
On initial installation and test drive it was 110 degrees F outside temp and the oil wasn't able to even hit 90 degrees C after 15 mins of city driving. Temps would rise to 88ish at a stoplight but as soon as I started moving and air flowed through the cooler's core it would drop to 85ish.
I'll replace the cardboard with a sheet of ABS or something else waterproof once I know the size my block needs to be.





I also ran into an issue with installing an oil temperature sensor into the kit. The documentation calls all the sensor ports "1/8 PT" however my 1/8 NPT sensor was not compatible. Instead of searching for some kind of adapter I just re-tapped the port on the spacer to 1/8 NPT and the sensor threaded in perfect. If/when I get a oil pressure sensor I'll have to re-tap a different port.





The temperature sensor wired into the P3 Cars analog gauge but I'm thinking I should have gone with the OBD version from the start. The analog version was $100 cheaper but I ended up spending $80 for a compatible (0-5v linear) sensor so I saved $20 and can display only boost, battery voltage, oil temp, and one more analog input. The sensor I used (Autosport Labs) uses extremely small gauge wires which were difficult to crimp connectors to.