ecs_wrx

I did a search, yes I'm a noobie, on Vishnu and Easy Street Motorsports and I heard good things about both of them. I wanted to know some opinions on who people think is better. It would be good to hear from people who actually have had these companies work on their cars. Much help will be greatly appreciated.

I figured out that you can fix up your car to what you want, ESX doesn't have any custom parts, and Vishnu has their own line, but I just wanted to know if having custom Vishnu parts are beneficial to your car.

truWRXtacy

i would say if you live in cali than go vishnu if not than its up to you, i have the vishnu sub zero upgrade and its freakin awesome but since i live way the hell up in colorado i'm planning on upgrading to the vishnu Xede so i can custom tune it at a shop.

ecs_wrx

I live in Northern California, I know that Vishnu is located 30 minutes away from me and I know that ESX is in Hollywood or somewhere in Southern Cali.

What's a Sub Zero upgrade? I don't see it on the vishnutuning.com website.

Wingless Wonder

iTrader: (7)

SubZero. EcuTek reflash.

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0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

bone324

Vishnu, Cobb, and TurboXS are all more reasonably priced and actually have their own lines of parts, instead of piecing together packages like Easy Street does. There's nothing wrong with doing it that way, but you can do it yourself for much cheaper.

ecs_wrx

Thanks Wingless Wonder. So everyone over in Northern Cali gets their car tuned and upgraded over at Shiv's place, or is there any other NorCal tuning shops. Are there people who do their own work also. I'm going to be doing upgrades on mine, I just don't know if I should bring it to a shop or do it at home following instructions. I've worked on a car. I just haven't worked on a STi, I came from a Celica.

Also, has there been anyone on this board that has an extensive amount of upgrades from either Vishnu or ESX. The reason why I would like one of these 2 companies to work with is because they know about CARB and SMOG laws regarding the STi. So I know that they would know what to have legal and what to move on with.

Wingless Wonder

iTrader: (7)

What's your general location? Bay Area? There are a number of tuning facilities to choose from. Most can install upgrades if you choose not to install them yourself. Most have ECU re-mapping capability which tunes the vehicle to match the upgrades. It is possible to install the parts and tune the car yourself. I don't suggest this route if you've never tuned a turbo car before.
Technically, except for a few parts most parts are installed and tuned for off-road use, only. That is a disclaimer to absolve the shop of liability. Some of these upgrades like an ECU reflash can pass smog with little problem but the obvious changes like the elimination of all catalytic converters and big turbo swaps will not even pass the visual inspection. To my knowledge, none of the tuners have submitted turbo upgrade kits for CARB exemption to make them 50-state legal.

How do members with extensive mods pass smog? Well, most of us have not yet had our cars long enough to require a bi-annual smog check but for those that have purchased their cars used, they often swap the modded parts back to stock before the test.

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0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

ecs_wrx

I thought that if your car had a turbo, you can upgrade it, even though it's not CARB exempted. Although if you don't have a turbo on your car and you put one, you would need a CARB sticker or something equivalent to it. Such as kits made from Greddy.

I was told by Greddy in Irvine, CA that if the car that they fabricate turbos for a car that already has a stock turbo, then the turbo that they put in there has to just past CA emissions. If a car like a Honda doesn't come with a turbo, then they have to make it CARB legal. Something to that fact. I just wanted to make sure with someone that seems more knowledgeable than a vendor trying to make a sale.

Yes, I'm in the Bay Area.

bone324

Any modifications to the intake or exhaust of any car must be CARB certified in order to be legal. A turbocharged Civic would fall in this category due to the fact that the turbo is driven by exhaust gasses. Any modification you make to your turbo Subaru's exhaust or intake must be CARB certified to be legal. A few intakes are certified and probably some catbacks. But I don't know of any turbobacks, uppipes, or aftermarket turbos that are (or would be able to be) CARB certified.

ecs_wrx

Thanks bone 324 for the answer. I know that ESX is selling their version of the STi for about 60,000. I think that's a lot of money for stuff you can do yourself, and it has those weird racing stripes trying to look like a Viper.

Anyway, the reason I was talking about ESX is because if you look at their "limited edition" STi, it states that its CARB legal and it will certainly pass smog.

There's a lot of people who already asked this, what are good mods to start out with being that we live in Cali?

mw1029h

I believe that you can have any catback exhaust you want because its a "catback" your not removing a cat. Anthing in front of the last cat, up pipe down pipe, turbo, injectors could present a problem even with carb numbers, not to mention that just because a part has a carb number doesn't mean you are going to pass smog especially if you have other carb registered after market items on the car.

1reguL8NSTi

OK Just to give you a little perspective on the quality you are dealing with at Vishnu.......I live in New Orleans and ordered their Signature Exhaust and XEDE. I will be driving to Cali from New Orleans to get a tune done by Shiv (and go to a few meets). ESX makes a good car but it's way over priced and could be done with better parts for cheaper. You're essentially paying for a warranty exclusion.

Egan

iTrader: (14)

There are several Northern Kalifornia tuners who are also vendors on this board:

1) Vishnu in Pleasanton (or have they moved to Fremont/Union City yet?)
2) Gruppe-S in Hayward
3) S2 Motorsports in Sacramento
4) FLI in the North Bay

As for CARB stuff, you're not going to be able to do much to your car without violating some smog rules.

MARKSTI

iTrader: (4)

Driving out here for a tune on a basic setup???

Y not wait for a dyno day closer to you if you want SHIv to tune the car...or go to one of the many good tuners closer?Kingpin,Topspeed?

1reguL8NSTi

I'm mostly going out there just because I want to go to some of the meets. When and where does Shiv travel? I would def. drive up to get a tune done.