Topic: Project Blue Sky - Kraftwerks Supercharged BRZ

[Touge Tuning]

Welcome to Project Blue Sky. This is a project we’ve been looking forward to doing since we first sat down with the owner. Since the Subaru BRZ & Scion FR-S hit the showrooms, the cars have been an instant success. The handling, chassis dynamics and overall balance of the car is spot on. The people asked for an affordable back to basics rear wheel drive sports car and Subaru & Toyota have delivered.
But, and it’s a big but, is the unfortunate stock power output of the engine. Professional reviewers, publications and owners alike all expressed that if this car had another 50-60 horsepower from the showroom, it would be perfect…and we agree.  But we also realize that this was likely the goal all along.  Create a solid platform for which the aftermarket industry could build upon adding power, brakes and other upgrades as needed.  To put it simply, the BRZ/FR-S is going to be the next Miata or S2000.

Here is when Project Blue Sky first rolled in to the shop.

Here’s the mod list we completed in the first round of upgrades which we provided for Project Blue Sky.


-Kraftwerks C38-81 Supercharger Kit
-Skunk2 Alpha Series EL header
-Tomei Overpipe
-Invidia Catted Front Pipe
-Invidia Q300 Cat-Back with Titanium Burned Tips
-Clutch Masters FX300 Clutch and Flywheel
-Radium Auto Dual Catch Can System
-Deatschwerks DW65c Fuel Pump
-Deatschwerks 450cc Injectors
-Ecutek tuning by OnPoint Dyno


Fortunately for us car lovers, the tuning world stepped up to the plate in a frenzy, with multiple brands trying to solve this power problem in the BRZ/FRS. It’s been a few years now since the cars launch, but one particular power upgrade kit seems to be leading the sector in terms of cost, reliability, drive-ability and potential for power. No, it’s not a Turbo system, but actually a Supercharger system. This is the Kraftwerks Rotrex Supercharger kit.

Kraftwerks has been at it making Supercharger ktis for various platforms for some time. Their proven S2000 Supercharger kits easily produces over 400WHP. Although at this stage the BRZ/FRS will not be hitting that number, our goal was to produce safely as close to 300whp as we could get on pump fuel. Just for the sake of having a relative number to the stock BRZ output, 280WHP is about 330hp at the crank taking into account the rule of 15% drivetrain loss on RWD vehicles. We cannot stress enough that 15 is not a be all end all figure, rather just a rough figure to give a relative crank number. With that said, 330hp is a  whole 130hp more than stock. These cars also baseline stock under 150WHP on the Dynapack system.

R&D is constant with Kraftwerks, and the BRZ kits are no exception. First coming out with the C30, they now have the C38 available which is designed to be spun much faster and create significantly more power at higher boost levels where the smaller C30 would die off.  Kraftwerks has also been doing lots of R&D, listening to the customers and constantly improving their kits. Their newest design incorporates a toothed belt and pulley, essentially eliminating any belt slip.

Kraftwerks utilizes the Rotrex Supercharger. Rotrex has been at the supercharger game since the 1970s. The company, born in Denmark, has been making Supercharger kits since the 70’s and not just aftermarket but for OEMs. Moreover, not only have they been making Supercharger kits for cars, they also make them recreational powersports (jetskis, quads, motorcycles etc.) as well as industrial equipment. So in short, they know what they are doing. Kraftwerks chose the best partner. We all gasp and aww at sexy turbo kits, but look at this Supercharger and tell me it’s not equally as sexy!

Let’s look at the compressor wheel now, and, just look at that wheel! CNC Billet Aluminum never gets old!

The standard silver finish of the compressor housing was a bit dull, so we decided to add a splash of colour to the engine bay with this blue powder coat.

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we will look at the Tomei overpipe, Skunk2 Headers, and Invidia Q300 exhaust! We'll end with a bunch of random shots of the build.

[Touge Tuning]

Moving on to the exhaust system we installed a header, overpipe, catted front pipe, and cat-back. Let’s first start off with the cat-back portion. After some discussion we felt the Invidia’s sound and quality made the most sense and visually the Blue Titanium Burned tips would look great on the white paint.  Here’s the stock exhaust to start…



Although the stock exhaust isn’t a bad system, there are a few good reasons to install a new exhaust. For this car in particular, it will be seeing more condensed air going into the engine. At Touge, balance of a car is crucial. Denser air in, means more exhaust coming out. An aftermarket performance exhaust like the Invidia Q300 will provide a more free flowing exit of the exhaust gasses. If you do not have a SC kit or have plans to get one, an aftermarket exhaust adds a nicer exhaust sound as well as much prettier rear end aesthetics.  We have to say, the fit and finish of the Q300 is super. It fills in the spaces there for the muffler tips sit very nicely, especially compared to the stock exhaust. The Ti tips add just enough colour and contrast and follow the “Blue Sky” theme.

We took photos of each section of the new Invidia Q300 for you to see up close of how the fit and finish is. Here is the centre section or mid-pipe with a nice big resonator to remove drone and raspiness.



And here is the muffler/tips. We have to say, we really like the Q300 on the BRZ. It provides an exceptionally clean look.




Now let’s move onto the overpipe and front pipe. With most street cars we recommend having at least a single high-flow cat in the system to reduce smell from the raw exhaust.  For this we chose the Invidia Q300 Catted Front pipe which is one of the best quality catted front pipes on the market for the price.  To mate to this we initially had ordered an Invidia overpipe but it ended up being on back-order for too long and in it’s place we used the Tomei overpipe which is similar in terms of quality and fit.
Take a look at the front pipe and a bit tucked away, the overpipe.



Lastly and arguably the most important part of the BRZ/FR-S power production is the header.  Here’s a comparison of the stock header vs. the Skunk 2 Header




The factory header is actually a decent piece and is equal length which is proven to be better for power production.  Where it fails is having the primary catalytic converter so close to the exhaust ports.  Being in this location cat light off time is greatly reduced which is great for tree hugging but not good for power production.  The Skunk2 header addresses this by maintaining the equal length design but removing the catalytic converter from the system. The Skunk2 headers are 4-2-1 single step equal length headers which should really allow this car to grow as needed…..No boxer rumble going on here! The single step means there is one step from the primary piping into the larger secondary piping which then all meets at the collector.
Let’s see it on the car now.



And here you see the 02 sensors installed on the bungs pre built into the Skunk2 Headers, we added a third bung specifically for dyno tuning and future installation of a wideband AFR gauge.




That wraps up Part 2 that covered the entire exhaust system front to back. Here are some bonus images.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

This seems like a weird amalgamation of Asstuna's and 05LGT's BRZs, before they both got bored.

[Touge Tuning]

Now that we have seen the full extent of the exhaust system on Project BlueSky, it's time to move back into the engine bay and explore in a little more detail the new FA20 engine as well as the upgraded cooling system (or at least the planned upgrade)Let us first take a look at the stock engine bay of the Subaru BRZ/Toyota FRS. There are several interesting aspects to this engine bay but most notably is the amount of space given for mods. We believe Subaru/Toyota designed this engine bay specifically with the tuner in mind. They purposely went away with plastic coverings in order to allow easy access to the engine. Gone are the millions of annoying breakable tabs that hold engine covers that hide everything.  As a tuning shop, this is something we rejoice and thank Subaru/Toyota greatly for.

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Those with a keen eye will notice that the oil filter is now inside the engine bay rather than in the typical underside location for a Subaru boxer motor.  Perhaps taking a page from some German manufacturers, setting the filter in the bay is smart because oil changes is the most frequent type of service any car will see. Rather than having to crawl under the car to get the messy filter off, simply pop the hood, unscrew, replace and you're done. Because the oil drain plug  can be reached by your arm and a wrench, oil changes now do not require the car to be jacked up! Unless your car is lowered.If you still haven't spotted the oil filter, you will see it in the photo below, right beside the AC pump on the right hand side of the photo. This photo shows what serpentine belt layout is like.  Unlike previous EJ series Subaru motors the FA20 uses a Chain instead of a belt for the crank/cam and then a single serpentine belt for the accessories.  There's also notably no power steering pump as the rack is electric

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Let's go over the cooling system upgrade we performed.  We went with the Skunk2 Ultra Radiator. With any forced induction upgrade or add-on, it is important to upgrade cooling; both water and oil. Boosted applications run extremely hot so being able to control or normalize temps is very critical. As the BRZ/FRS was not a FI car to begin with it makes it that much more important to keep temps cool.  The factory radiator, while adequate for a stock car, is probably the thinnest radiator we've ever seen and is probably one of the weakest points of the car from a reliability standpoint. Besides the obvious cooling upgraded capabilities over stock, the Skunk2 utliizes stock mounting positions, creating a direct fit install(see notes below) Moreover, the Skunk2 Ultra Rad has a built in oil cooler so you get more stable oil temps on track. The price is also very reasonable for the amount of bang you're getting. Below you can see the rad to rad comparison.


Radiator in place in the car



At this point we thought we were golden, however we then ran into a big snag.  In talking with Skunk2/Kraftwerks we were told this combination of supercharger and radiator would work.  This ended up being far from the case due to the design of the radiator and A/C condenser.  The condenser is bolted to the radiator and as such any change in thickness to the radiator is translated by the condenser being pushed out.  Once we went to install the front mount intercooler for the Kraftwerks kit we found there was a huge clearance issue.  Basically the condenser was hitting the intercooler core and would eventually wear a hole through the aluminum.  We spent a lot of time trying to get enough clearance for this to work and in the end there was no simple and functional way for this to work.  If your car is N/A or doesn't use a front mount intercooler for its kit this radiator would be a great upgrade.  In our case we have exchanged the radiator for the Alpha series unit from Skunk2 and we will document that install after.

[Touge Tuning]

Welcome to the beginning of the end for Project BlueSky, where we will talk about what we all love to talk about, power! However, before we get on to power, let’s talk about how the car will handle this newly unlocked power via the Kraftwerks Supercharger kit. With Project BlueSky we decided to upgrade the clutch and flywheel system to the Clutchmasters FX300 kit. The owner of this car intended this car to be a fun, fast and reliable street car first and foremost. It was not going to see trackday after trackday and with that in mind we chose the FX300 kit – a kit designed for a medium powered car that will see most of its life on the street. The kit offers slightly heavier clutch operation while enhancing the reliability, longevity and clutch pedal feel. Let’s take a look at the Clutchmasters FX300 kit. Below you will see from top to bottom the steel back segmented Kevlar disc mated to the flywheel, next you will see what the stock cltuch/flywheel set up looks like, and lastly, the kit installed and ready for the gearbox to go back on. Although we will never see it, it’s nice that the kit has a white clutch cover which matches the white car.





So now we know how the car will handle this new power reliably while also improving longevity and clutch feel. It’s time to get into the real bits and bobs of the Krafwerks Rotrex Supercharger. What we like about the Rotrex supercharger is that of a  Ultra high efficiency and silent operation while it also operates at low temps. Moreover, the self containted lubrication and cooling system also adds to the reliability and simplicity of the system. the first post we looked at some nice up close photos of the Rotrex system including a photo of the compressor wheel fins. This time let’s look at how Kraftwerks has created this beautiful mounting plate that is CNC’d from one piece aluminum. Kraftwerks purposely decided to create an offset mount for the supercharger, meaning the mounting plate mounts the supercharger slightly off centre from the centralized throttle body we see on the FRS/BRZ engine. There are advantages for this design. This offset location allows for greater clearance around belts, thus reducing chances for rubbing, allows for simple and more efficient tubing layout, and it allows the air intake to have sufficient room to reach the utmost front and lowest part of the car creating as much as ‘cold air’ system as possible. Let’s take a look at a few photos.  The first photo shows just how beatifuly crafted the mounting plate is, followed by preliminary installation into the engine. Then we get a better close up look of the location and another view from the left side showing protrusion and again just the quality, fit, and finish of the KW kit






At this stage it was pretty straight forward. Everything began to come together nicely as shown in the photos below. Apart from the Skunk2 radiator not working with the KW supplied front mount intercooler, everything else was smooth as butter. This is not by coincidence as KW specifically designed this kit to be have a clean almost stock like look. It is important to us at Touge Tuning that off the shelf kits have gone through the proper R&D before being released to the public. We only recommend the best to our customers. With the KW kit it is clear they have done their homework, above and beyond. There is absolutely no cutting, drilling or welding required to install their kit and when installed the engine bay looks very clean and professional. The Rotrex C38 unit supplied with this kit is a proven unit KW has been using in various Honda applications for several years where we also touched on in Part 1 just how good the Rotrex brand is.  Now let us bask at the photos of a completed Kraftwerks Rotrex C38 Supercharger kit for the BRZ/FRS.



As you can see from the photos above, the kit is absolutely superb. Adding just that nice touch of “oooooo, what do we have here” when you pop the hood. If the piping and Rotrex compressor wheel was coated black, most people would not think the engine was even touched. We can’t stress how much we love how clean the KW kit sits inside the engine bay of the FRS/BRZ – it’s absolute harmony. With the front bumper back on, the keen observer will see that this is no ordinary BRZ as the KW logo on the FMIC peaks out from the slats of the front bumper, a very nice subtle touch. Concluding with Project BlueSky are the dyno figures. As we mentioned in part one, our goal was to produce safely as close to 300whp as we could get on pump fuel. As a recap, the stock BRZ/FRS baseline dyno produced under 150whp on the Dynapack system. In otherwords, we were looking to double the power output on this car. As for all of our dyno tuning, we enlisted our partner Sasha from OnPoint Dyno (OnPoint Dyno) to do the tuning on Project BlueSky.



Let’s take a look at what the car made and quickly go over some numbers. As you can see from the graph below we are all looking for that peak number. The car made 283whp and 218ft/tq  on 94 octane. Some great aspects of the KW kit is just how smooth the power band is from 3100rpm all the way to redline. The power never really drops until redline so you have power constantly building, edging you to ring the car out as the revs build. Not only is this good on the track but it creates an exciting street driving experience as well. The flat to slightly rising torque curve also creates a very manageable power delivery to the rear wheels without suddenly having torque spikes creating unstable and uncontrollable power delivery. In turn, this makes the car easy to drive and an easy car to drive makes it a fast car to drive. From 150whp to 283whp, a very simple math figure increase of 133whp. That’s nearly double the amount of power. We are all very happy about the results and some more research/development on the garage side we are confident we could reach 300whp. I think it’s safe to say that a 280-300whp BRZ/FRS is something we can all smile about.



Although this concludes our Project BlueSky journal, we hope that this just a ‘just for now’ ordeal with this car. We at Touge Tuning thoroughly enjoyed working with the owner of BlueSky. We hope that down the road he will have more big plans for the car and we can keep adding to this journal and continue on with Part 5 and maybe even 6, 7, 8 ….. you never know! Lastly, we’d like to thank all the companies and people involved with this build including Kraftwerks, Skunk2, Invidia, Clutchmasters, our partner Sasha at Onpoint Dyno and the owner of this beautiful BRZ for entrusting our services to build his dream car