The 510 Realm

Have been re-visiting and re-reading this thread every few months wondering what has become of this amazing build and hoping there might be some updates.....has anyone heard from ecote510 and his incredible 510....?

It's hard to believe it's been four years since the initial build of my car. Well, the car is still alive and well. Thousands of miles and lots of revisions. It barely resembles the pictures in this build thread now. It's now painted, and has been improved in nearly every area. Still GM Ecotec power but now I'm running an '11 LEA 2.4l direct injection ecotec motor mated up to a T56 6 speed. Custom stainless fuel tank to allow the use of E85 with the new motor. Numerous suspension tweaks including completely custom front suspension arms and mounting. 225's on 8" wheels on all 4 corners under stock sheetmetal. Much stiffer spring rates. Custom designed headlights using Hella 90mm bi-xenon modular units. Vintage air a/c install. I'll let some pics do the talking. Current project is the build of a custom 4.44 R180 from new Subaru parts. I recently toasted the clutches in the Sti LSD in the current 3.9, and feel like the 4.44 ratio might be better suited with the crazy 0.57 6th gear ratio in the T56.

May I be the first to say..... WOW! Well done, sir.

So many cool details, well done indeed! Very clean

Does the ecotec have oil pressure issues?

Incredible....what a treat...worth the wait!

two_68_510s wrote: Does the ecotec have oil pressure issues?

The accusump is just an insurance policy. It's overkill but one less thing to worry about when abusing the car. The ecotec pan is not the greatest design for high grip cornering situations. I have a remote filter setup that feeds out of the oil filter housing in the block, through a water to oil mocal laminova cooler. The accusump is connected to the loop and is setup to pre-lube the motor before startup.

ecotec510 wrote:

two_68_510s wrote: Does the ecotec have oil pressure issues?

The accusump is just an insurance policy. It's overkill but one less thing to worry about when abusing the car. The ecotec pan is not the greatest design for high grip cornering situations. I have a remote filter setup that feeds out of the oil filter housing in the block, through a water to oil mocal laminova cooler. The accusump is connected to the loop and is setup to pre-lube the motor before startup.

And it is friggin' cool!! Nice work in general.

I would really like to see a dyno graph of this thing. I have the LE5 version, so your should make about 10 more whp. Did you notice a performance gain going to direct injection? Or do you really only get gains by using e85? MORE DETAILS!!!!!!!!!!

two_68_510s wrote:

ecotec510 wrote:

two_68_510s wrote: Does the ecotec have oil pressure issues?

The accusump is just an insurance policy. It's overkill but one less thing to worry about when abusing the car. The ecotec pan is not the greatest design for high grip cornering situations. I have a remote filter setup that feeds out of the oil filter housing in the block, through a water to oil mocal laminova cooler. The accusump is connected to the loop and is setup to pre-lube the motor before startup.

And it is friggin' cool!! Nice work in general.

John Powell makes a trap door oil pan for cobalts(ecotecs) for cheap(sub $300)

I'm surprised after all that work you didn't opt for an lnf motor? Surely Direct injection plus a turbo couldn't be a bad thing

Loved this build from the start.

Sleepys-14 wrote:I would really like to see a dyno graph of this thing. I have the LE5 version, so your should make about 10 more whp. Did you notice a performance gain going to direct injection? Or do you really only get gains by using e85? MORE DETAILS!!!!!!!!!!

The direct injected ecotec is much more refined power. It's instantaneous, and very quick to respond to any changes in throttle input. These new ecms are very good at controlling fueling and spark and it shows. The ecm is all torque based now, so you can create super smooth throttle maps, and have excellent throttle modulation which is great for autox type driving. I have it set up with two throttle maps that I can swap on the fly. The fuel system has an ethanol sensor plumbed inline which will adjust the mixture on the fly based on the % of ethanol in the tank. E85 does make more power but burns about a 1/3 more fuel. I can log immediate torque on my scanner, on E10 I usually hit a peak of around 190ftlb, on E85 I've seen 220. That doesn't mean much but it is what the ecm is calculating it thinks it's making. Much less bottom end on the DI motor, power doesn't come on strong until 3k rpm. It doesn't like being lugged under 2500rpm. Peak power is around 5k. My cam timing is much different on this motor than the old I'm guessing due to the DI. I've found good gains from tweaking the cam timing to get much more power under the curve. I do need to get this car dynoed. It is a great power level for a car like this.

m33pm33p wrote:
I'm surprised after all that work you didn't opt for an lnf motor? Surely Direct injection plus a turbo couldn't be a bad thing

Loved this build from the start.

I could have swapped the LNF/LHU turbo motor in, but I'd rather not deal with all the plumbing and packaging of the intercooler. I love the feel of a healthy naturally aspirated engine, it works well in a lightweight car like the 510.

I totally understand what you are talking about. I love my LE5 engine, and it has more than enough torque, but it could use a bit more hp up past 6k. It still pulls good till 7k, but you could always use more hp up top. I am going to dyno my car again to see what the header did to my power. Last time I dynoed the car, it was at 162whp/159wtq. Not to shabby, but you can always use more!

Sleepys-14 wrote:I totally understand what you are talking about. I love my LE5 engine, and it has more than enough torque, but it could use a bit more hp up past 6k. It still pulls good till 7k, but you could always use more hp up top. I am going to dyno my car again to see what the header did to my power. Last time I dynoed the car, it was at 162whp/159wtq. Not to shabby, but you can always use more!

I ported the head and made my own intake for my old LE5, that seemed to improve the top end. Here's a pic of the short runner intake, it moved the powerband a bit higher.

Really enjoying this.....

So, what about the handling of this car; one of the amazing features was the bespoke front and rear suspension set ups - how are they travelling now? Was very interested in how the rear IRS with the aluminium rear arms turned out and its adjustable roll centre, etc?

matt, I'm estimating you got about...40-50K miles out of that STI diff before wearing out the CLSD? Are the R180 clutch diff wear parts still available? Was your switch to the 4.44 motivated by anything other than the tall T56 2nd overdrive gear and...um..the insatiable desire for more thrust? (Otherwise the R180 is holding up well I mean?)

The 510 is still going strong. 50k miles on the build now. I haven't been on the realm lately but recently made some progress on some new parts for the 510 I'd like to share. Recently added a CNC mill to my tool arsenal and decided to whip up a finned deep rear diff cover and mustache bar to go with my R180 rear that I built two years back. I think the rear cover came out pretty nice. 7075 aluminum. -8AN O-ring boss plugs. Ended up holding about 1/3 more oil.