My 2009 WRX Hatch
 

Just picked it up last Monday, and took these photos last night.

http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/Subaru-1wip.jpg
http://www.nthimage.com/create_hits/Subaru-2wip.jpg

They look like Photoshoped pics. What equipment are you using? The car looks good too. Any mods coming soon?

Not sure on mods or not, I'll decide after winter, and an engine-out service I'll do this summer.

I shoot canon... a decent list of equipment.

2x54" softboxes
1x 42" softbox octogonal
160 LED travel light
3x alien bee's B800
580 EXII
1x Umbrella
Canon 5D MK II, 40D
24-105 F4 L
17-40 F4 L
50mm Prime 1.4
70-200 2.8 IS L II
2.0 Extender III
Manfroto tripod
Manfroto 12.2 KG ball-head
Manfroto video head
B+W 77 MM CPL
Rode Mic
Vello shutter remote and timer
wireless flash controller

~at a glance.

snowmageddon king!

Is it really bad enough to need an engine-out service at 5 years old? I'd hope that Subaru engineered that puppy better than that!

As for mods, I believe that a Cobb AccessPort, and a few flow mods (downpipe/intake/larger intercooler) are probably enough to really open her up. Tuned properly, you'll be able to eke out some better fuel economy too.

No, it doesn't "need" an engine out service... it just allows me to change a few more things more easily in the process. :)

I get concerned with leaning out too much, as there is always 1 cylinder who needs the extra "cooling"; but I definitely expect better economy after the tune/mods this summer.

The cooling effect of the fuel is mitigated somewhat by the fact that the WRX motor isn't direct-injected. In my car, the injectors actually do spray a fine mist of fuel that, in part, washes down the cylinder walls providing some evaporative cooling. Port-injected engines have more difficulty doing that, as the air/fuel mixture is already formed prior to the fuel entering the combustion chamber.

I'm not sure exactly what the specs on the WRX engine and OE tune are, and I suspect they're pretty dramatically different from what was on my car.

Stock, my car ran ~14.7:1 AFR at cruising speeds and under low load conditions. At WOT, the mixture tapered down to about 9:1 (which is pretty ridiculously rich) to avoid knocking, particularly with bad fuel.

Since the compression ratio of the MZR DISI is a relatively high (for a turbo motor) 9.5:1 and it runs 15.5psi of boost in OE conditions, there is a pretty high probability of knocking if you run poor quality fuel or in very hot conditions. That said, with the appropriate monitoring tool(s), and air-flow/cooling modifications, it's safe to run around 16.5:1 - 17:1 AFR in low load conditions, and cruising, and a somewhat more aggressive 11.4:1 - 11.8:1 AFR at WOT. There are noticeable performance gains to be had by doing so, both from a WHP/WTQ standpoint, and from an economy standpoint. In addition, I'm running about 3psi more boost than stock, and I have advanced my ignition timing by a few degrees as well.

I can also monitor a variety of other parameters that aid in determining whether combustion temperatures or EGT has risen to such an extent that there's a serious risk to the valvetrain, exhaust, turbo, or other components.

Anyway, you might well be able to run a bit more lean, with a bit more ignition timing, and a bit more boost, and still be well within the "safe" tolerances of the motor. Furthermore, since if memory serves, the exhaust system on the '09 WRX has equal-length exhaust headers, and intake runners, the likelihood of having a serious imbalance in the amount of air/fuel flow seems like it's probably going to be relatively small.

I've got the SPT exhaust on my car, and the headers are unequal length, giving a lovely warble sound still. With the new 2015, they did away with that sound in the name of 3hp and a drop back down to 2.0 liters of displacement.

While I wouldn't say that the cooling effect is totally mitigated vs. DI, I can tell you a very well known tuner melted many pistons before realizing that one always runs hotter in a mass produced performance car that is regularly modified. Yes... very vague :P

It is nice, everyone I have spoken with mentions the 2009 WRX's run extraordinarily rich; and definitely don't need to. I'm going to be running obdII diagnostics in the near future and get a really good feeling of how it performs before, and after.

I highly recommend picking up a Cobb Accessport. It's an OBDII tuning/datalogging/code-reading device. While they've just updated to V3 (and increased the pricing accordingly), there are quite a lot of V2a and V2b models floating around for significantly reduced prices as a result. The functionality between models is quite similar, though the newer model looks much nicer, and can display 6 parameters at the same time rather than only 1. The only other major difference is that the data-logging rate is a bit higher on the newer versions.

Obviously, you'll want to take data points before and after each modification you make to avoid any potential issues and diagnose any problems that might arise.

Interestingly, the MZR DISI comes with unequal length exhaust runners as well. As a result, once you've removed some of the restrictive baffling, you start to hear what I now hear. Here's a quick vid of my car for a point of reference:

Superb car! I love Subaru :)

Impressive car you got there. Got any updates on this?