Lightweight Drive Shaft

2011Wrex

2011Wrex

New member
I come from the late model Mustang world, having owned a 2003 Mustang Mach 1. I did a lot of bolt ons and kept up with the culture pretty decently. The Ford Racing aluminum drive shaft for 279 dollars was regarded as one of the best bang for the buck mods. Going from a ~30lb drive shaft to an 11lb one decreased ETs and increased trap speeds. Now I have looked for drive shafts but no one makes one for the 08+ WRX. I see ones for the STI 6MT which makes me think I would have to swap in the 6 speed out of the sti for the DS to work. If that is the case I might as well just do other intensive mods. I if you figure lessen the work the car has to do to get the power to the ground you get more efficiency and free up some horses. So any ideas?

 
Well sadly the drivetrain of a subaru is not quite as simple as that of a Mustang. In all reality if you want more GO then start with traction I.e. tires. Dedicated snow tires for the winter and some good summer tires. Then work on driving, an under powered car can beat a car with half again the hp and torque ratings if driven right. There have been a few on here that have drag raced their WRXs with good results. Once you have gotten driving down then upgrades to intake and exhaust, sways, struts if you want, and lastly turbo. Once you put the turbo in you should get it tuned if you really want it to go.

 
I haven't tried a really hard stop yet but the stock tires provide enough traction I think. I can drive it all right but I was looking at cheap effective3 upgrades that are easy and in my previous experiences aluminum drive shaft was a good idea. I guess I should just give up then?

 
I believe rallysportdirect has a carbon fiber drive shaft. I feel like there are better bang for buck mods then that though.

 
I would say that stage 1 is a better bang for your buck, but you probably already figured that one out. You can go from 265hp to around 295 to 300hp with just a map from XP Tuning $75, a Walbro 255lph fuel pump $100, and a K&N drop in air filter. You also either need a Cobb AP or someone with a laptop and a Tactrix who can do the flash and check it to make sure its running as expected. Be warned though, before the flash you can run regular if you need to, but only if its the only thing available and it will run like $hit. After the flash running regular will probably cause some bad engine knock, leading to damage. This is true for any tuning on these cars.

 
premium is not an issue though I wish we could get 93 in this state. Could I use one of my laptops and buy a usb->car cable and just swap the tune in or would I have to have some skill of tuning it? That fuel pump/filter/tune for less than 300 dollars sounds pretty good. I don't know what kind of labor is involed with a fuel pump getting installed but I don't think it will be too much right?

 
I don't know how much it is, its a little hairy doing it yourself though becuase you need to take a Dremel to the Fuel Pump housing to make it fit right. Takes about 2 to 3 hours if your careful and haven't done it before. If you have done it before it can be done in about an hour give or take a little. The fuel pump is accessible underneath the rear seat on the passenger side.

 
The new fuel pump itself or something on the car as far as the dremeling goes? Is this something that a local mechanic could do? I have a family mechanic who I would trust to do it but I don't know how home brew it is and how much research he would have to do. I could probably do it if it didn't require risk of damaging the CAR, I could handle ruining the fuel pump.

 
it's not the pump itself. the pump is in a plastic housing which is spring loaded. once taken apart there are tabs where the outlet of the pump "clicks"/"mates" with. the new fuel pump is slightly longer and wider, so the only thing needed is shaving the tabs.

if you search on nasioc I'm sure there is a thread showing how to do it step by step.

 
Thanks! Now what if instead of a k&n drop in filter a full on intake was used, would that mean a whole new XP Tuning tune would be needed and/or would it be any more of a benefit?

 
Someone else told me basically get an aem intake, 3" cast bellmouth down pipe, and a tune and I will be at 90% of what is possible on the stock turbo/injectors/etc. Now if I combined this advice and replaced the fuel pump and got a good tune I would be good to go right? 300hp or so? I don't want much more than that because I don't want to break POOP.

 
on my 09 wrx, I had a perrin intake, perrin ebcs, a 3" turboback catless exhaust system, a walbro 255lph fuel pump and my injectors were maxing at about 5000-5500 rpm.

The exhaust system will really increase air flow, but if you do the intake too, you need to be careful and watch the injector duty cycles and make sure they don't max out early in the rpm band.

 
Well ultimately I want something a little more powerful and with a bit more snarl. I can install the pump myself, are injectors just unplug remove install? If I did the intake, exhaust, fuel pump, injectors if needed, and had a good tuner tune it, how bad would I void my warranty haha. What won't void the warrant? Catback, k&n, fuel pump? I want more power, not for racing but the wrx just doesn't feel raw and visceral enough, I want something that's like a wolverine on 4 wheels. I guess start small and go from there? I don't know

 
Compared to my stock 05wrx this thing is a wolverine lol. I'd look into intecoolers too, ours is f-in tiny if your adding dp, pump, intake etc. Just my 2 cents from what I've heard. Our headers suck too.
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I would love to add an intercooler too. I think I will go the low cost way of accessport, drop in filter, fuel pump, tune, and I would love an exhaust but if it has to be a catback for now so be it. Once I collect all the stuff I will go crazy I guess.

I was spoiled with the mountains of torque my mustang made and its thrusting acceleration. This thing is like a little rocket ship, but it needs to be wound up. I guess I will start small, see how it feels, and go from there. Now as soon as I can get some money I will be all set lol

 
Yessss... Money, always the weak link in the chain. Just FYI if you go custom, not using one of the standard stage 1 or stage 2 setups you will end up feeling that your car is this bottomless pit in to which you throw your money and hope things hold together. Once it finally breaks, that pit becomes a vacuum cleaner, sucking up all disposable income, and then some.

 
Just like my other two hobbies, snowmobiles and guns. Right now I have about 600 dollars in parts I need to order for my firearms/reloading, about 600 dollars in stuff for my snowmobile (if I wanted it in tip top condition) and about 5000 dollars in crap for this wrx. Oh well, a little bit at a time lol

 
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