05-09 Subaru Outback Mod Guide on a budget

Hoping this becomes a Sticky !

Well ive had the outback for a while now and i have read every thread that suited my mod desires, much of this is just facts from other threads but some of it is info from my own personal experience/ measurements...

if there had been a 1 stop shop for info like this when i bought my outback i would have saved me a lot of headache

1) 04 rear struts greatly improve stiffness and lift the rear 1/4-1/2 inch due to spring perch height

2) install Legacy struts and springs, this will lower the car 2.5-3 inches, rides like stock, and has plenty of ground clearance for daily driving. recommend 1/4-1/2 saggy but spacers if you have rear loaded frequently.

KYB is a decent upgrade 10% stiffer, but even monroe will get the job done and is oem equivalent, stay away from ebay brands like STAGG they are cheap for a reason, they ride like repainted used struts. ask how i know lol

King springs makes a standard height legacy spring for the rear raises 1/4-1/2, which eliminates the need for saggy but spacers, and greatly reduces roll, this paired with LGT front springs and struts is what i would recommend for daily driving on bad roads, but quite capable.

there are also Lowering springs made by various manufactures for the Legacy and even some outback specific coil overs. i do not reccomend using legcy springs on outback struts it will be to low for the elongated bodies to ride in there comfort zone and will blow out quickly. if you want to go lower the first step needs to be legacy struts,

The outback stock 225 55 17 rubs the legacy strut a little depending on your camber. the higher offset the wheels the taller you can get away with. i was able to fit 17x7 +48 obxt wheels with 225 50 tires and -1.5camber
i now have 17x7.5 +35 w 245 45 -1.7 camber and i'm fine no rubbing ever on 2.5i suspension

Bump stops need to be changed/cut in half, or removed. if cut make it come to a point again involves shaving them, point makes for softer impact,

the rear upper control arms on legacy are diff from outback, but do not need to be replaced unless you plan on going lower than stock legacy.
ther are also body spacers, however they do not effect ride height only slight tweaks to alignment which is adjustable so not really worthwhile

3) Rear Lateral links are a great addition because they give you so much adjust ability for the alignment, the stock configuration only has one adjuster that does camber and toe simultaneously, so you end up settling on mediocre every time. with these you get full adjustment of camber and toe, the outback has +camber from the factory and handles so much better with legacy specs
i have mine at -1.7 front and -1.2 rear.

Make sure you get the vehicle aligned with 100 lbs or the most weight you will regularly carry in the trunk otherwise when loaded outbacks will be all over the road in the winter time. "Ghost walking"

4) Slot the strut mount holes for more caster in the front, this gives a heavier/sportier steering feel , and make the wheel return to straight faster on its own. ther are also bushings to do this even further or instead, but they dramatically change how the wheel sits in the fender well

5) slot/enlarge the upper strut bolt to knuckle this will give you much more adjustment than a camber bolt, and is safer because cam bolts are significantly thinner and weaker.

6) LGT or spec b rack some sti as well but LGT for sure, the outback and even 2.5i have a 3.2 steering ratio. the gt has 2.7 and speck b is 2.5

7) sway bars:
Tribeca front 25mm sway bar, requires different endlinks, rear forester links work well

Rear swaybar on legacy/outback is also very lacking a 20or 22mm rear bar is a great upgrade and prolly the best place to start from stock
Moog makes exelent end links and they are almost double the thickness of oem
Also for the rear avo makes a reinforcement brackets for the swaybar bracket, they are not needed for moderate street use, but i recommend them for racing. the bracket is very thin and if it bends your screwed

8) Front Brake upgrades:
Legacy GT Front calipers and 316x30mm Rotors
This uses a two piston sliding caliper similar to the other 2-pots, although brackets and calipers aren't compatible between other 2-pots. 17s are required with them.

Also the addition of a master cylinder brace improves pedal feel due to less flexing of fire wall when depressing pedal, esp upon panic stops and racing situations

Steel braided brake lines Will also improve pedal feel, this is achieved because the steel braiding over the ruber hose keeps them from expanding when pressurized, they are also more durable due to protective coating

9) Rear brake upgrade, the outback h6 rear brakes are a whopping 290mm !
all that is required is the brackets and rotors. the legacy/outback backing plate will accommodate these rotors, wrx will require trimming

290x10mm
This is well known as the H6 rear rotor. The Legacy caliper is the same as most other 99-07 1-pot Subaru calipers so you can up size to this rotor simply by purchasing the brackets and correct pads. if you use the cardone brackets they do not come with the sliders, also if purchased separately the sliders may not come with the rubber bushing that goes on the end of the lower slider for absorbing forward rolling impact noise

The "H6" bracket is part number 26625AE000. It uses pad shape D770
Applications:
00-04 Legacy/Outback non-brighton
SVX (5x114.3, 190mm parking brake)
Ver5 STI type-RA (5x100, 190mm parking brake)

the other option is the LGT rear Brakes it also uses a 290mm rotor but it is a vented 18mm wide vs the solid 10mm h6 design. this is obviosly the better track set up however it requires new calipers and brackets to acomidate the thicker rotors, thes will deal with heat much better due to the vent design

10) for turbo model, catless down pipe (hollow out stock) requires tuning of wgdc & Boost map
remove DP and just ram a punch/pole/broom stick..... get all the honey comb out. this is good for faster spool and higher max boost
there are only a few performance exhausts offered for the outback AVO & Nameless , but ther are plenty for the LGT which can be made to fit by using longer exhaust hangers (doughnuts) and trimming the bumper quite a bit, on the cheap there are muffler deletes that are much less $ than a quality dual muffler system

the other option is to use any system for LGT fitment and chop off the tips with turn downs


11) Tuning

a) N/A tuning:
The real na power is had via higher lift/higher overlap camshafts, dollar for hp this is the most worthwhile mod period. some cams will require upgraded springs and or keepers good for 15-20 hp stage 1
head work, porting, zero out cc per cylinder, 3-5 angle valve job, smoothes things out and higher flow best paired with cams
Stoker kits can increase your Engine size and power output
Boaring cylinder for larger pistons, this also makes it larger but also makes the cylinder walls thinner, generally done when rebuilding to ensure proper piston fitment but some power can be had from oversizing
Raising compression is good for some additional power can be done with different pistons, shaving cylinder head, diff thickness Head gaskets, or any variation those
equal length headers, high flow cat, larger pipes, high flow mufflers....
oem fueling will support any power a typical N/A will make
Lowering fan temps
more ignition timing
optimize AFR
light weight and or underdrive pulleys
panel filter

honestly if your not planning on doing cams you woln't see big gains and may as well save your money
cams, exhaust, shave heads, and a tune could get you another 30-40 hp but without very deep pockets that's about it........


b) Turbo:

COBB Access Port good for the entry level do it your selfer but locks you into very specific mods, for wrx AP is great lots of maps for common mod levels, for LGT its very limited intake exhaust 3 port and thats it your done now another 5-$600 for a pro tune, open source has much more adjust ability and is cheaper, $30-150 vs over $500

Btssm app for android, this app can be used as guages and a logger, on its own it can do everything but wide band making it great for keeping tabs on knocks and provides useful data for tuning, you realy need a wide band though otherwise you have to tune for 11.6 which is to lean for tmic

Tactrix/Vagcom, Romraider tune. there are many maps that can yeild incredible gains!
a) avcs settings can be maximized which raises VE a lot ej255/257's love 25-30 deg up till around 4400 then roll off
b) more boost ! stock turbo is good for 18ish psi and roll off, as the turbo runs out of steam the intake temps rise and Intercooler eficiency drops, this results in Knock 1psi is aprox 15hp, rolling off boost twords redline allows you to run more timing which can make more power
c) more timing
d) more requested TQ for 5eat automatics this makes a huge diff, turn lowes up a bit and last row to 400 interpolate beteween
e) lower fan temps, the ej runs great at 180f vs the 200f stock setting can reach, also keep under hood temps down
f) more wgdc down low yields faster spool, should be 90% till spool 90% is max, depending on boost level most turbos should run 40-60% wgdc from 3200-3600 Rpm till efficiency drops off, at which point it increases to 60ish as turbo runs out of steam, vf40 rolls off around 5500 rpm 16g rolls off 6-6200ish, 18 & 20 extend rpm range of max boost even further.
a really good WGDC map is much like trying to pull your parachute at the last possible sec and not break both your legs upon landing for best results the break points should be adjusted so that they are closer together right before and after the spool this will give you more control where you need it, i run 50% from 4k to 6k so no need for 4 50% cells in a row.....

Also the larger the turbo the more boost that can be made per same boost, for example if stock makes 300hp at 18.5psi, a 16g will make same power around 16-17psi, 18g 15ish and so on
g) 3 port boost controller is highly suggested and makes wgdc tuning smoother
h) wide band o2 sensor, you really have no biz doing any tuning without the ability to log an external wideband

12) 04 sti FPR gets rid of the stumble many feel esp with aftermarket injectors, on my car this runs 45psi at idle and 60psi at WOT

13) vf52 turbo upgrade, good for more power up top, allows you to run max boost for a wider rpm range before tapering off, can be found used cheap on forums 2-300ish, this is about as big of a turbo you can install without upgrading the fuel system, unless you want to run lower boost.....
Be ware of cracks around the wastegate flapper all VF series turbos are prone to this... ad always check for shaft play when buying any used turbo. check this by trying to wiggle the inlet bolts in and outward, pretty much any play you can feel means its on its way out, if it moves enough to kind of click its done do not install,

14) Bullet proof stock TMIC, the stock intercooler has plastic end tanks and is known to separate if not bullet proofed. this involves wrapping it with steel bands and jb weld. without this mod i would keep the boost under 18psi. even when bulet proofed the oem unit stops being eficient around 18 either way so if you want more than an intake and exhaust this is the next upgrade you should get.

there are many aftermarket co that make larger TMIC units, I am told most of the small name co TMIS's fit poorly. I personally have an IPR and it fits like crap. i had to settle for 1 hole drilled in the middle of bracket on passenger side, on top of that i had to cut 2 Throttle body elbows in half and use the more extreme bend of both and put them together with 2 clamps and a pipe flared on both ends. then install on TB and push like **** till you get a Phillips head driver in one of the flange holes and twisting till the other hole lines up,
Perrin fits better than the knockoff but it is not an easy bolt-on (adding studds/bolts in the turbo flange helps alot). Supposely AVO fits better
The new GS unit comes with a splitter but isn't a 100% bolt-on as you need to raise the front of the intercooler in order to compensate the body spacers. No issues with rubbing bpv/bov as it sits sideways.

The Process west is and probably always will be king ! this is due to its Large size and much diff design, Process west Splitter for the LGT is now discontinued (IIRC some members had issues with BPV/BOV rubbing with the hood closed)

15) pin hole in the thermostat, woln't keep it from warming up, but will keep the temps down. i tried this because i had 2 diff aftermarket thermostats and one ran at 160 way to cold and the other ran hotter than stock , so i drilled the oem, it brought temps down about 8 deg f

Oil System/ be ware

first things first remove all 3 of the oil filter screens in the banjo bolts of oiling system, they clog and cause turbo failure as well as avcs failure and even blown engines
if you ever get a code for avcs pull over and change your oil before driving any further it is almost always the precursor to a blown engine or turbo if not fixed asap, the solenoids aer controlled via oil pressure and when they clog its often means glitter from bearings

there are aftermarket lines/filters but removing the oem is a must, its either that or replace/clean them every 30k. which involves removing timing belt....

use a good brand name synthetic oil and change it every 3k

if your turbo bites the dust you must very thoroughly clean as much of the engine as possible upon changing turbo and running it again, i don't care how many flushes you do its not enough ! the pan must be removed and either cleaned spotless or replaced, and the oil pick up and pump replaced clean inside of block as best you can, and proceed to change the oil very frequently till your sure you got all the glitter out

magnets on the bottom of the oil pan and oil filter seem to work very well keeping my bearings and turbo safe, remove the magnets when draining oil so contaminates can flow outward. the greddy style magnetic drain plugs with the point at the end do not work on our engine unless you modify the pan, there is a cage around the drain hole which makes them bottom out

when changing your oil make sure to fill the filter with fresh oil before installing it this eliminates the oil light coming on for a sec and is much better for the engine (jiffy lube and other shops do not do this !)
also get the car on the most extreme angle possible when draining the oil with cap off and dipstick out, this lets it vent and gets quite a bit more oil out, ive drained it all regular way and then jacked up passenger side a lot more and it get quite a bit more out.

its not good to use a flush on a turbo motor however it is a good idea to dump a q or 2 of cheap oil in at the end of draining this will get even more gunk that was hiding to come out, then you can use your desired synthetic

sti 11mm pump is a good upgrade
a catch can or even better an air oil separator aos is a great addition, this cleans the air in the return line from breathers, which is good because oil going through the intake will coat the intercooler and reduce efficiency

Turbos:
VF40 is oem 05-06 LGT/2.5xt
VF46 is oem 07-09 LGT/2.5xt

VF52 WRX oem turbo is a decent upgrade good for an extra 30-40 hp close to stock spool time

BNR 16g is even better and good for an extra 40-60 hp also close to stock spool time

BNR 18g is good for an extra 50-80 hp but has a lot of lag

BNR 20G is good for an extra 100hp and has less lag than the 18g

there are other makers of 16g 18g and 20g, even bigger ball bearing turbos but these are the ones i found specs for, as far as bnr vs Blouch the jist of it seems to be the Blouch is higher quality, but bnr is comparable at lower price they will make about the same power per size, this really depends on the tune and setup...

im running the bnr 16g and love it!

Now keep in mind when it comes to realistically picking your parts for a turbo fuel upgrade combo, these need to work in harmony and make sure you have all supporting mods required, do not upgrading your turbo size until you already have a fuel pump, turbo back exhaust, intake or larger maf tube, larger injectors and finally the means to log and tune

16) Fuel upgrades:

Injectors, there are two types top feed and side feed which you need depends on which tgv type you have. oem LGT/2.5xt have 520-565cc injectors these will take you as far as VF52 turbo with boost tapering down. if you want max power with vf52 i suggest 650cc, for 16g 750cc will work but its close ! i have DW 850cc with a 16g and my IDC is 80%
for a 20g i suggest 1000cc
until you are bigger than 20g i see no reason for rails or any other fuel mods, if you find 1000cc running out next logical step would be a fuel pressure regulator with a higer rat fuel psi vs boost psi, the oem unit is a rising rate style however it will reach its limits.

Speaking of TGV's you can delete them, they are kind of like individual throttle bodies for emission, after cold start they open fully and are just an obstruction, gutting TGV can yield 15 hp but requires the code be turned off in the tune

Fuel Pump for up to 16g you can use DW 65c 20g or larger you need the Big one !
ps. DW units are true drop-in, quieter and E85 compatible.
-Walbro pump need some trimming of the housing. Beware of chinese knockoff. E85 compatible??
in my opinion walbro is more dependable but louder....
also if your new to subaru you can replace pump without dropping tank, there is a panel under back seat

17) Spark plugs ask for one range colder at the counter if the parts guy dosn't understand find one that does or go elsewhere

18) Stereo
not a lot of options due to the climate control being incorporated, there is a jdm climate unit that allows for aftermarket head units to be used. there is also a factory sub woofer which can be wired in and hidden away, another popular mod is the jazzy aux mod which allows you to plug in an mp3 player or other aux device.

the other option is to put a 2nd radio in the glove box, or run an amp to the speakers and do a tablet install.
related to tablet install... the storage compartment door above clock/info is a perfect place to put your phone or a tablet via Velcro, i put a piece on the door and a piece on the back of my phone and its perfect for obd2 apps and gps

Tuning with Romraider:

this is how i tuned my 05 2.5xt w 5eat
some maps and logic may not work for 07+


All the below info is assuming you already have your pc set up with ecu flash, romraider ecu editor, romraider logger, latest ecu definitions and proper drivers.
Also it is not recommended to do any tuning without an external wideband o2 sensor installed in the down pipe and the ability to log its data
Also a 3 port electronic boost controller can give much better control


Also i am not going to get into scaling of maf or injectors because the manufacturers specs are available for most maf tubes and injectors



Step one see what you are working with
take a log with the current tune
the most important parameters to log are


Wide band o2 AFR
Engine load 2 byte g/rev
Engine Speed RPM
Manifold relative pressure corrected
Ignition total Timing
IAT C or F intake air temp
ECT C or F engine coolant temp
Knock sum
FKC feedback knoc correction
FLKC fine learn knock correction
Primary wastegate duty cycle
Throttle opening angle
Volumetric efficiency calculated


for best results Take a logs of 4th gear from low rpm to redline
3rd gear logs are very usefull too but at the end of the process you will want to redline 4th at least once to tighten things up, it will hit higher numbers in 4th and 5th gear so tuning in 3rd only is not recomended


find a long, flat, road that is wide open no traffic or speed traps, try to use the same stretch everytime. keep in mind redline in 3rd gear is around 100mph and redline in 4th is closer to 140mph so this is not for the faint of heart.....


Logs can be taken at full or partial throttle, many tuners only worry about WOT, which = bad drivability
best to log at a few diff throttle positions for example 35% 50% 75% and 100%, this will show you many cells in the map that would never appear in the logs with only WOT, diff grades of hill can also show otherwise hard to hit load cells


now time to take your logs, make sure all of the above perimeters are being logged start at a very low speed around 20mph or 2k rpm accelerate, the rear defrost button should work to activate record log....
if you are having a troublesome rpm, or load that knocks, goes lean or feels off try to duplicate it and catch it in a log


Now it is time to review your logs. what to look for:
you will want to see what the AFR's are at diff load's
The AFR's should be 14.7 at idle and off boost cruise
When aproaching boost -1 to 0psi you will want to richen things up to 12.0 to 12.5 this will keep you safe when it spool.
from 1psi-8psi you can get away with 11.5 AFR's
Above +8psi bring the AFR down to 11.0
For max boost on cars running more than stock boost shoot for 10.8
the better the intercooler the leaner you can get away with but for tmic 10.8-11.0 is good target, for quality FMIC 11.5 is ok and can make better power


now that you know what AFR should be its time to compare the log numbers to your target numbers, if you are good with accel you can make very useful charts for this. i just use the columns of raw data...


now keep in mind that the G/rev will not always stay the same for same psi, the fuel map will be RPM vs G/rev so you will need to look at g/rev boost psi and rpm the boost will let you know what you want where and the other 2 perameters will give you the location of that cell in fuel map


the fuel map on this ecu will show the desired afr, just because you enter all 10.8's at max boost does not mean you will run at 10.8, som cells may require 9.46 some may need 12.37 this all comes down to your set up and how well your maf and injectors are scaled.


for example if you have an AFR reading of 11.34 at 5500rpm with 20psi of boost and TMIC you will want to run a more conservative 10.8 AFR so in the fuel map you will find the closest cell that aligns up to that rpm with the g/rev it produced at that psi, and change it to a lower number, you will want to make small changes at first untill you realy get a handle on how much you changes actually change log numbers for this scenario lets say it was at 10.8 in the map but actually running 11.34 , i would adjust the map number to 10.6 and re test, maybe next time it will run 10.96 , so again compair and adjust until the actuall AFR is as close to your desired AFR, you will do this for every cell you can find a match for in logs, you will find this only shows you a small portion of the map, additional part throttle runs will be necessary to get the entire map perfect.


AFR's will change with temperature, you can try to skew the IAT scaling but it really dosn't do much, i have taken logs of temp swings and found the diff of 80 degf to 40 degf changed my afr's by .4 for same tune just diff temp, with this said there is no perfect tune for all conditions you may want a winter tune a summer tune and a fall/spring tune depending on your areas temp swings, otherwise you can tune for 10.6 at max boost when the temps are on the cold side of your areas fall weather. this will get you to 10.8-11.0 ranger when temps drop and 10.4ish in the summer which is safe.


If you are running more that oem boost levels you will need to re scale your fuel and ignition maps to go to higher g rev numbers the oem maps only go as high as 2.5 g/rev, this means that when higher numbers are seen the map will peg at last available cell, this is not good because the map needs to taper and run less timing and more fuel as these oem limitations of flow are surpassed, the trick is to find rows with similar numbers and combine them giving you a free space which you can shuffle to the right. it is ok if you are logging numbers a little higher than last map cell but keep it tight otherwise in winter you will hit even higher numbers and it cant compensate, try to leave 1 cell that almost gets reached, for example if you see max g/rev of 3.5 in logs scale maps to atleast 3.6


Next i wil cover AVCS a lot of power and drivability is to be had here, however on LGT/2.5xt aplications we can only controll the intak can so it is great for low and mid range but does nothing for top end


first things first there is a nasty hole in the oem map between 2k and 3600 they pull all the advance for emissions, this area is all zero's w 5's tapering into 10's. at the very least make this area all 10's it will cruise much nicer and is always ready and happy,



without a dyno the best way to tune the avcs is to Tune for Highest Volumetric Efficiency, try adding 5 deg to everything and comparing the numbers, continue to add 5 deg until it stops increasing efficiency, at which point try coming down in 1-2 def increments settle on highest ve numbers with lowest advance, there is no reason to run more advance if it has no increase in power. changes of avcs may require ignition timing to be less agresive, for the purpose of testing run conservative timing and keep it the same for each avcs VE test. worry about optimizing ignition timing after you have your VE max via valve tuning.



the oem avcs settings go as high as 20 deg very low in rpm, i have found the engine responds much better to 25 in this area and as high as 31 deg even higher after 4k the avcs needs to roll of and after 4400rpm it needs to roll almost completely off
to optimize these settings map should be re scaled to higher rpm and higher g/rev


Next figure out how much boost you want to run and adjust boost map as well as WGDC maps to acieve this boost. you need to realistically figure out what boost you can run and until what rpm

for vf40 you can run 18 psi to around 5-5.5k then taper boost off. do not try to get more out of it because you will just get hot air, more timing and less boost will make more power after the turbo starts to runs out of steam


the boost map should be re scaled so that there are more break points in the spool rmp's 2800-4000 is where the most control is needed, getting the fastest spool out of your turbo is kind of like trying to pull your parachute at the last poss sec and not break both your legs lol, the higher the WGDC the more boost you will make 90% is the highest you can run 0 is the lowest you will want to run 90% until one cell before your spool cell, lets say you hit max boost at 3300 rpm, run 90% up till 3150 then it will need to come down to 75ish then at spool you will need 40-60 % turbo will stay in this range for a while and as it runs out of steam higher wgdc 60-70% may be needed to maintain the same boost, these numbers are just estimates, close to what i have on my 16g ej257



for you boost map up till full boost rpm try to target just above what it makes in logs this leaves room for more and keeps it realistic, you will want to taper the boost target down with less than wot and a lot of drivability and throttle response can be had here.


for WGDC ther is an initial map as well as a max map, the goal here is to have the initial low enough to that it does not over boost and the max low enough to keep it from over boosting, i know this sound confusing but think of it this way, if i want 90% up till 3150 rpm i can set initial and max to 90% and its locked in. now if i want 75% at 3300 rpm i might run 65-70 initial and 80% for max this will give you that much wiggle room, this is needed due to the fact that every gear will spool differently so if you tune for fastest spool in 3rd gear and then throw it in 5th and floor it its not going to be right it will over boost, you need to find the highest numbers that work in 5th gear for max and the highest initial for 3rd gear, this will give you a good low gear spool and keep it safe on the highway, aditionaly there is an target boost compensatin table that can help or hurt you cause depending on how its used, its purpose is to limit boost to a certain psi befor a certain vehicle speed, this can be use full if you overboost in first gear, however it will effect any gear if under that rpm so it can also make the wgdc go nuts, i have mine set to a ridiculous number that i will not surpass 15psi and 2mph



Finaly we get to ignition timing, there is the base map which gives you your starting point, from there timing can be added and subtracted by other parameters for example the knock correction advance max table and iat compensation. the main maps to adjust are base and knock correction advance max, you can start by adding a deg or 2 to the advance table and se how it responds, the main thing you are looking for is Knock sum, if you deveolp any knocking from adding timing, stop adding timing to that area. you can run more timing in off boost areas as well as more timing at higher rpm, however as boost increases so does rpm so you may find it flat lining on total timing, this is what you are looking for you want lots of timing till boost then pull timing per more g/rev/boost vs adding timing per rpm increase, i run around 38-40 deg cruising and 14-16 deg wot at max boost, make sure the IAM ignition advance multiplier stays at 1.0 at all times if it goes lower you have too much timing somewhere ! at this point you should start adding timing to the base map in small increments and closely watch fbck and knock sum, continue to make small changes and reviewing logs until desired power is reached or until knock is present, turn down knock area at which point you can either call it a day or continue to add timing in other parts of map, not all knocks are to be worried about there is the occasional fluke and a half dozen knocks on an hr drive is no big deal, however a few knocks per pull or even 1 consistently is not acceptable, knocks can be remedy by either pulling timing, pulling boost or adding fuel, also higher intake air temps can cause knock due to the intercooler being less efficient and raising the actual intake temps.
the oem IAT sensor by the way is located before the turbo and intercooler so it really just measures under hood temps, i find its generally 10 deg higher than ambient temp and temp rises a deg every few sec when sitting idle
you deff don't want a knock limited tune, meaning that any more timing and it will knock, so make sure there is a deg or 2 left. this way you will not knock on hot days or winter gas.


Also the Fan temps can be changed and this makes a big difference in coolant temps. my car use to run high 190's and sometimes 206 f now it runs between 179 and 189 never gets higher, i have not changed the speed settings due to lack of info on this however you can do a lot with just the ect portion


whenever possible try to tune for 1 new part at a time, so if your going to do bigger turbo and injectors, install the injectors and dial those in first, then install the larger turbo and tune for that


the last map i will get into is DBW the requested TQ number should be increased i have mine at 400 WOT and scaled down to 0 in the 0% i have seen the wot as high as 420 before not sure how high it can go but 400 feels nice !
this will make a huge diff in the performance of 5eat automatic