With 900 miles on the odometer, I decided it was high time to take advantage of all this high octane gas I'd been feeding my Evo.

Headed up to Vishnu Tuning in Pleasanton late this afternoon, and to make a long story short, three hours later my Evo is making about 50+ more HP and 40+ more lb.ft. of torque, courtesy of Vishnu's cat-back, XEDE system, and tuning expertise.

I have to disclaim that these results are not "typical" - Shiv put together a custom map for my car, which is running a mixture of gas which is much closer to 100 octane than to 94. This allowed him to tune the car much more aggressively, ultimately permitting the motor to develop 234 wheel HP (up from a cat-back equipped baseline of about 190HP and an assumed stock dyno of about 180HP). I don't always expect I'll run such high octane gas, so he sent me home with an extra 91 octane map that I can burn into the XEDE anytime I'm feeling frugal.

The two most noticeable effects of the stage zero system of course have to do with power:

• It is extremely linear after spool up. It almost feels naturally aspirated in terms of smoothness of delivery. This pays all kinds of driveability dividends, in my opinion.
• It doesn't end.

The catback system is louder than stock but not obnoxious. It seems like they designed it to be relatively unnoticeable at highway cruising speeds (which I define as 65-80mph in 5th gear), but it is louder across the range. I would estimate about 5-6dB louder. This might be the only thing about the system I am not too crazy about, but then again I have pansy ears so more hard-core types might enjoy it more.

The staff at Vishnu are good guys who love cars and are very excited about the work they do. I'm fortunate to live in the Bay Area so I could have the system installed by its crafters. Shiv himself is a perfectionist and ran through about 30 different map tweaks before arriving at my final custom map. Beyond that, he gave me a glimpse of what they're planning to do with XEDE in terms of both hardware and future firmware revisions and I'm pretty darn excited with what they plan to bring to market in the coming months and what it will mean for our Evos.

 

Wow, nice, I can't wait to get my Stage 0 installed

 

Pics of catback? we need more than that....come on man spill the beans!!!!!!!!.....I thought Shiv was on a trip back east at the moment??

 

Very impressive! I like the way he got rid of the dip around 5500rpm. Most evo graphs have a dip there.

 

very nice!
I wish there was a awd dyno in MN (or close) so we could get a bunch of Evo (and WRX) people together and convince Shiv to take his tuning tricks to the midwest. having car specific maps created for you individual car is really great.

I am assuming you are running stock boost and your only mods are Vishnu stage 1?

 

I imagine it's only Vishnu stage 0, I don't think he's complete developing stage 1 yet.

 

Yes, boost was kept stock. It may have increased slightly but that was due to the exhaust rather than tuning.

 

As Shiv has stated before, it is easy to make big power in a octain rich environment. The real deal would be what did it yeild with the 91 map or a 93 map? Please share your 91 results.

 

The car makes 210 wheel HP on Vishnu's mass market 91 octane map, with the cat-back installed. That's just with the base packaged map, no tuning.

Obviously I can't say whether that's the most the kit could make with 91 octane. I suspect there's more to be had with tuning.

 

Not bad, $1600 dollars to be up 20 to 30 whp from stock. A touch on the high side but in line with everything that Vishnu charges. They're always on the high side by comparason. I'm sure it's worth it. They have a very good reputation for reliability in the WRX world. I wonder what will be in their stage 1 kit.

 

I would love pictures of this exhaust and if something would come to the Midwest to set up some type of performance shop for our Evo I would think I was dreaming wait I am dreaming

 

Yes, the stage 0 exhaust has remained mysteriously without pics since its inception? Is it an eye-sore or something ?

 

Nope ...just bought one from shiv...this thing is the business!!! and it sounds awsome..(.man I hate using that word)...I think KK is gonna post pics alongside another system to compare....

 

Scroll down the linked thread and you'll see a side-by-side pic with Buschur and Vishnu cat-back systems.

I'll tell you one thing for sure, the Buschur system is only quiet or mellow if you are deaf!

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...threadid=24551

 

BTW... 3dB is twice as loud and 6dB is 4 X as loud