RsvRob
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With all these newbies asking similar if not the same questions regarding there 1st upgrades for further power I thought I'd post this to hopefully help with the repeated questions.
Universal Upgrades
No matter what the base car, all of the Evo IV to IXs regardless of model (fq300/320/340, gsr/rs/rsII, ETC) can benefit from the same improvements to allow the engine to breath better and reduce the backpressure in the exhaust system to allow increased performance from the stock turbo. In addition, all of them will require an uprated fuel pump to ensure safe fueling at significantly higher than stock power levels as well as a remap of the stock ECU or an ECU hardware upgrade to reach stage 1 power levels.
Breathing / Induction
Whilst the VIII MR FQ-400 made its power on the stock airbox, it’s widely accepted that the stock airbox is a restriction on allowing stage 1 cars to perform to their best.
Aftermarket panel filters are available for the stock airbox which can be used with a modified airbox lid. However, there is very little test data to show whether these filters are an improvement over the HKS panel filter fitted to most FQ cars.
Alternatives to the modified airbox include the large K&N cone filters, the HKS Mushroom Cold Air Induction kit and other induction kits.
Exhaust
It is widely accepted that a 3” exhaust from the turbo elbow back is required to reduce the backpressure on the turbo to a minimum, thus allowing the best spool and maximum high rpm power.
In terms of which exhaust is best, as long as the exhaust is 3” along its entire length including the cat/decat and its flanges and mates to the elbow that you have fitted to the car, then it really is just a case of personal preference concerning looks, sound and cost.
Evo IV to VI
The IV to VI only need replace the cat for a decat and any sensor attached connected together to bypass the engine light from the dash.
Evo VIII 260
The VIII 260 downpipe has a different flange angle to the other Evos. This means that if you replace the full exhaust with a 3” exhaust, your main cat won’t be able to be refitted for MOTs. All other VII-IX cats will fit though.
Evo VII
Some models of the Evo VII have a second O2 sensor by their cat and face the same problems as the VIII 260 when decatting. These can be resolved as per the VIII 260.
Evo IX FQ-360 and IX MR FQ-360
These cars are fitted with race cats that can support stage 1 power without being removed.
Fuel pump
It’s widely accepted that a 255 l/ph pump is fitted to any Evo aiming to reach stage 1 power levels, with Walbro being the most popular pump fitted. The Walbro is a direct, fit and forget, replacement for the stock fuel pump.
Remap
All Evos V to IX will require a remap or ECU hardware upgrade to achieve their full potential. Choice of remap or upgrade really is down to personal preference. Popular choices for remaps are ECUTek which is a professionally developed and supported remapping software, usually used in conjuction with a rolling road by a professional tuner. An alternative to ECUTek is ECUFlash, a free to use Opensource piece of software that has several additional features available over the ECUTek software and is very popular amongst amateur tuners.
Evo IV
The IV will need a later ecu from a V/VI/VIII 260 4 plug to get a remap as the std ecu is not mappable. The accompanying 560cc injectors are also needed as the std are smaller at only 510cc. But these can come from any V to IX.
Boost control
All Evos will benefit from fitting uprated boost control of some sort either upgraded 3 port solenoid or standalone controller.
Cams and hotside
The stock cams and hotside were upgraded from the Evo VIII MR onwards to a slightly more aggressive cam set up and a 10.5T hotside.
The Evo VII and non-MR VIII will require uprated cams to achieve their full potential and even Evo VIII MRs and IXs can benefit from fitting more aggressive cams, although they aren't necessarily required for stage 1 especially on the IX with its MIVEC ability. The Evo VIII 260 struggles to reach over 360 bhp on its milder stock cams.
The fitting of the cams really goes hand in hand with fitting a larger hotside on the pre VIII MR models as the larger hotside allows the full impact of the more aggressive cams to be used.
Generally speaking, aftermarket cams with lower duration than 272 do not need uprated springs. However, extremely aggressive cams, such as the Piper range will need uprated springs due to their highly aggressive ramp rate.
Dump valves
The Evo VII and VIII were fitted with black plastic recirculating dump valves that tend to leak under higher than stock boost pressure. Ideally these should be changed for the metal recirculating dump valves fitted to the VIII MR and later cars, or replaced with an aftermarket version. Dual vent aftermarket dump valves are popular as these avoid the stalling issues with permanent vent to atmosphere valves.
Additional items
The below items are not absolutely necessary to achieving good power figures at stage 1, but are likely to show minor improvements in driveability, consistency of performance, response and/or top end power and as such are worth researching, especially if you aren't tuning to a tight budget:
- Uprated exhaust manifold
- Uprated intercooler
- Larger ID turbo elbow
- "Hard-wired" fuel pump
- IX 80 series turbo
- IX 71 series turbo
Hope this helps
Just to add
There is NO guarantee on BHP levels but you should be seeing around the 400/400
Universal Upgrades
No matter what the base car, all of the Evo IV to IXs regardless of model (fq300/320/340, gsr/rs/rsII, ETC) can benefit from the same improvements to allow the engine to breath better and reduce the backpressure in the exhaust system to allow increased performance from the stock turbo. In addition, all of them will require an uprated fuel pump to ensure safe fueling at significantly higher than stock power levels as well as a remap of the stock ECU or an ECU hardware upgrade to reach stage 1 power levels.
Breathing / Induction
Whilst the VIII MR FQ-400 made its power on the stock airbox, it’s widely accepted that the stock airbox is a restriction on allowing stage 1 cars to perform to their best.
Aftermarket panel filters are available for the stock airbox which can be used with a modified airbox lid. However, there is very little test data to show whether these filters are an improvement over the HKS panel filter fitted to most FQ cars.
Alternatives to the modified airbox include the large K&N cone filters, the HKS Mushroom Cold Air Induction kit and other induction kits.
Exhaust
It is widely accepted that a 3” exhaust from the turbo elbow back is required to reduce the backpressure on the turbo to a minimum, thus allowing the best spool and maximum high rpm power.
In terms of which exhaust is best, as long as the exhaust is 3” along its entire length including the cat/decat and its flanges and mates to the elbow that you have fitted to the car, then it really is just a case of personal preference concerning looks, sound and cost.
Evo IV to VI
The IV to VI only need replace the cat for a decat and any sensor attached connected together to bypass the engine light from the dash.
Evo VIII 260
The VIII 260 downpipe has a different flange angle to the other Evos. This means that if you replace the full exhaust with a 3” exhaust, your main cat won’t be able to be refitted for MOTs. All other VII-IX cats will fit though.
Evo VII
Some models of the Evo VII have a second O2 sensor by their cat and face the same problems as the VIII 260 when decatting. These can be resolved as per the VIII 260.
Evo IX FQ-360 and IX MR FQ-360
These cars are fitted with race cats that can support stage 1 power without being removed.
Fuel pump
It’s widely accepted that a 255 l/ph pump is fitted to any Evo aiming to reach stage 1 power levels, with Walbro being the most popular pump fitted. The Walbro is a direct, fit and forget, replacement for the stock fuel pump.
Remap
All Evos V to IX will require a remap or ECU hardware upgrade to achieve their full potential. Choice of remap or upgrade really is down to personal preference. Popular choices for remaps are ECUTek which is a professionally developed and supported remapping software, usually used in conjuction with a rolling road by a professional tuner. An alternative to ECUTek is ECUFlash, a free to use Opensource piece of software that has several additional features available over the ECUTek software and is very popular amongst amateur tuners.
Evo IV
The IV will need a later ecu from a V/VI/VIII 260 4 plug to get a remap as the std ecu is not mappable. The accompanying 560cc injectors are also needed as the std are smaller at only 510cc. But these can come from any V to IX.
Boost control
All Evos will benefit from fitting uprated boost control of some sort either upgraded 3 port solenoid or standalone controller.
Cams and hotside
The stock cams and hotside were upgraded from the Evo VIII MR onwards to a slightly more aggressive cam set up and a 10.5T hotside.
The Evo VII and non-MR VIII will require uprated cams to achieve their full potential and even Evo VIII MRs and IXs can benefit from fitting more aggressive cams, although they aren't necessarily required for stage 1 especially on the IX with its MIVEC ability. The Evo VIII 260 struggles to reach over 360 bhp on its milder stock cams.
The fitting of the cams really goes hand in hand with fitting a larger hotside on the pre VIII MR models as the larger hotside allows the full impact of the more aggressive cams to be used.
Generally speaking, aftermarket cams with lower duration than 272 do not need uprated springs. However, extremely aggressive cams, such as the Piper range will need uprated springs due to their highly aggressive ramp rate.
Dump valves
The Evo VII and VIII were fitted with black plastic recirculating dump valves that tend to leak under higher than stock boost pressure. Ideally these should be changed for the metal recirculating dump valves fitted to the VIII MR and later cars, or replaced with an aftermarket version. Dual vent aftermarket dump valves are popular as these avoid the stalling issues with permanent vent to atmosphere valves.
Additional items
The below items are not absolutely necessary to achieving good power figures at stage 1, but are likely to show minor improvements in driveability, consistency of performance, response and/or top end power and as such are worth researching, especially if you aren't tuning to a tight budget:
- Uprated exhaust manifold
- Uprated intercooler
- Larger ID turbo elbow
- "Hard-wired" fuel pump
- IX 80 series turbo
- IX 71 series turbo
Hope this helps
Just to add
There is NO guarantee on BHP levels but you should be seeing around the 400/400
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