AP Stage 2?

Hi Team

 

I'm currently running a stage 1 AP tune with the stock intake. I was doing some research, which sparked my interest. My questions are as follows.

 

Would it make sense to get the Cobb Intake and run that variation of the stage 1 tune?

 

If I wanted to go stage 2 would it be safe with an Invidia Uppipe and Cobb Downpipe?

 

I really don't want the car to be loud so I'm not necessarily looking to do a full blown exhaust, but just looking at what minor things I can do to add HP safely. If none of these versions are safe I'd rather keep the car factory.

 

I appreciate any opinions on this matter.

 

Thanks,

 

Josh

 

If I wanted to go stage 2 would it be safe with an Invidia Uppipe and Cobb Downpipe?

 

Do this and load the stage2 map. Skip the intake.

 

Dont forget to use new uppipe gaskets.

Up pipe and just a downpipe won’t make your car loud. I run an invidia up pipe and catted invidia downpipe into the stock exhaust and it’s quiet. More quiet than I’d like actually

The catted downpipe and catless uppipe are good upgrades that won’t hamper longevity. The latter will actually help. You don’t want to load maps from the Accessport though. Have the car professionally tuned on a dyno.

You don’t want to load maps from the Accessport though. Have the car professionally tuned on a dyno.

Details or supporting logic?

What year car ?

 

2005 -2006 need the catless up pipe. 2007-2009 came with catless up pipe.

 

You'll be fine on Cobb AP stage 2. It's a fine tune, if you want the best Tune for your car then have it custom tuned.

 

A lot of us enjoy our custom tunes. There are a couple of Tuners we recommend.

 

Tell us where your from and may be we can recommend a Tuner for you if you want to spend the money.

Details or supporting logic?

 

 

I think he means OTS maps

I think he means OTS maps

 

To clarify, the stage 2 tune preloaded on an accessport is an excellent and safe tune with the required stage 2 modifications. It won’t be as good as a custom tune specifically for your vehicle, but it won’t be leaps and bounds more noticeable over the stage 2 tune either

What he said ^ The Cobb OTS maps are fine to use and will work well with a your DP / UP choice. You definitely don’t need an intake and in fact it may hamper more than help you at this stage of modification. You will get more out of stage 2 if you have the option to have it tuned as the Cobb OTS staged maps are pretty conservative to keep a good margin of safety.

an intake upgrade doesn't become useful until you are over 400hp, which is very expensive to get on these cars.

an intake upgrade doesn't become useful until you are over 400hp, which is very expensive to get on these cars.

Because they arnt race cars

Because they arnt race cars

 

I was always bummed you couldn't get a racing stripe on a lgt, when ordering. Though it would have ruined the sleeper status.

Details or supporting logic?

 

Accessport tunes are safe, but leave a lot of margin for error so they can work well with cars that have 200K and potential issues as well as factory-fresh examples of cars. A tuner can make sure your car is perfect before you throw more power at it.

I have a JMP custom VF40 on it's way soon, I'll be running a Catted Cobb DP and catback Greddy SP2 exhaust. John (JMP) suggested I run a AP Stage 2 tune, I was surprised by this but I trust John's opinion (safety is a concern too, though I will rebuild if I blow it up, Lol). After reading the above posts it seems many are in agreement. My original wagon has 138k well maintained and babied miles, I'm ready for some more powah.

I have been running the Cobb stage 2 tune on my 08 legacy for about 6 years now no problems but as Cobb will tell you their tunes are designed and calibrated around the parts they list as compatible with and will not recommend using it with parts other then what they tuned the vehicles with because not all parts are the same from one manufacturer to an other at least that's what one of their tech people told me on the phone he said to go get a pro tune but I don't have a local tuner that wants to put my 200,000 mile legacy on their dyno so what I did is load up my stage 2 tune and make an appointment for my local shop that does road tunes did some data logs and let them check out the data and make sure things were not out of wack now with my list of pets I am over boosting to 23.67 psi max I had some boost leaks and was over boosting a bit more and so far all is good so I'd say their tunes are fairly safe

 

Tomei ARMs MX7960f turbo

Cobb high flow catted down pipe

Perrin turbo inlet

Turbo smart plumb back bypass valve

Edited October 8, 2020 by 08legacygtturbo
Spelling

All

 

I do appreciate all the responses in regards to this subject. All of them have been very helpful. I think at this point I'm sold on the Cobb downpipe and a stage 2 tune for now as I'm going to be using the factory exhaust.

 

I am however, looking for opinions on up pipe. The car is an 05. It looks like there's a version of the up pipe from Cobb and Invidia, however on the website when you put the make of your vehicle no products are listed. Does anyone have any solid advice on what to use here?

 

I just want to make sure I get this right. Any additional opinions are helpful. I'm located in Michigan so if there's any tuner recommendations I'll definitely take them as well.

 

As always, the help is appreciated.

if you can find one of the cobb inconel up pipes, its closest to the stock size. In addition to being super bling.

 

find a stainless steel up pipe. cobb, perrin, killerb all make good products. The ap2 was setup with the cobb parts in mind. ymmv

From what I've read, all the catless uppipes perform about the same at stage 2 power levels. Some of the solid pipes are more prone to having fitment issues, and flex joints are potentially more prone to failure. STI pipes are catless, as are 07+ LGT pipes. The cat on your stock pipe can be gutted as well, making it into a catless uppipe. Just be sure to remove all traces of the converter if you go that route. When installing a catless uppipe, you will probably be removing the EGT sensor (which can also break and damage the turbo) so you will either have to disable the EGT sensor codes when you reflash the ECU or install a 2k2 resistor in place of the sensor. Some aftermarket uppipes have a bung to reinstall the factory EGT sensor, but it serves no purpose after the cat has been removed. Hope this helps.

I'm in the Detroit (well, Pontiac) area and have 2 catless up-pipes sitting in my shop. You're welcome to come grab one for beer money.

^^^^ The best catless uppipes [beer] money can buy ^^^^

I'm in the Detroit (well, Pontiac) area and have 2 catless up-pipes sitting in my shop. You're welcome to come grab one for beer money.

 

Better grab one of those up pipes! Also when you do, delete the egt sensor. 2.2k ohm resistor and plug the bung. Recently learned that I missed this when I “bulletproofed” my build.