Ryan's White Whale Wagon

[Shogun506]

http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp188/Ryan_Pineapple/Vidcap%201_zpsikbbv0sm.jpg

http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp188/Ryan_Pineapple/IMG_20160627_212808_zps5ncq2uc1.jpg

 

 

This is my 2005 Legacy GT Limited 5spd Wagon "Shelly". I searched for years for this specific model (since they only made manual wagons for 1 year) and on a whim put out a want ad in Toronto on Kijiji in April 2015. I was in Saskatchewan with the military at the time and someone answered my ad with this car. I flew back home to Toronto a couple weeks later and bought the car, only to have to leave it at my parents house for 1 month. Finally I flew back home and drove it cross-country to my next posting in Manitoba, where I've been for a little more than the past year. I've spent a lot of hours thinking over and building up the car I want and take pride in having done all of the work myself, mostly in a parking lot on ramps or jackstands. I'm slowly getting to know every nut and bolt of this car as I work through and improve it. My goal is a good looking, comfortable and fast car I can daily drive year round and keep for a long time. I try to keep up with newer cars by adding features found on modern cars such as my android entertainment center.

 

The first day I picked her up she was stock except for cleared headlights, a plastidipped grill and a stage 1 accessport tune. I later realized she had dark tints as well.

 

http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp188/Ryan_Pineapple/Mostly%20car%20stuff/Pick%20up%20day_zpshjlbkzbq.jpg

 

Since then I've put in a lot of work and modifications. Some things I've added and later removed. Those won't show up here. Here's a breakdown.

 

Exterior

JDM Spec B Front Conversion including fender liners

JDM STI lip

JDM Honeycomb Spec B grill

JDM Front and Rear Aero Spats

XXR 530 18x8.75 +33

Falken Ziex ZE950 225/40/18

TRS HID Retrofit with H1 bulbs and Morimoto XSB LED DRL bars

LED Switchback Turn Signals

LED White License plate Bulbs

Carbon Fiber Wrapped Tailgate Trim and blacked out Legacy Badges

 

 

Interior

Nexus 7 control center using JDM navigation bezel

Retrofitted 2011 STI Red Stitched Leather Steering Wheel and controls

Custom A-pillar gauge pods

Prosport Boost Gauge

Prosport Oil Pressure Gauge

Homelink Autodimming Compass Rearview Mirror

Diode Dynamics White Full Interior LED conversion

OEM Under-seat Subwoofer (Under Driver's Seat)

Polk Audio DB651, DB6501 6.5" speakers and tweeters

Alpine MRV-F340 4-Channel Amp Under (Under Passenger's Seat)

 

Performance

Cobb Stage II SF OTS Tune

Cobb SF intake and box

Ported STI uppipe

Catted Nameless 3" downpipe and adapter

Grimmspeed turbo heat shield

Front and Rear Hawk HPS brake pads

Exedy SMFW and clutch kit

Perrin shifter bushings

 

 

Parts on Order/In Storage Yet to be Installed

Grimmspeed Crosspipe

Grimmspeed Electronic Boost Control Solenoid

Whiteline Front Strut Tower Brace

JDM Spec B 2.0 Wagon Bilstein Struts with STI Pinks

 

 

In chronological order latest pictures at the bottom:

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=230425&d=1463453702

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=230426&d=1463453778

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=231487&d=1464923576

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=231484&d=1464923437

http://i410.photobucket.com/albums/pp188/Ryan_Pineapple/JDM%20Bezel%20Nexus%201_zpsyifmfkg5.jpg

[Shogun506]

The first on my list of gifts for Shelly. These were on backorder everywhere and took me forever to find somewhere that would ship to Canada for a reasonable price.

 

XXR 530 chromium black 18x8.75 +33.

Falcon Ziex 225/40/18 no rubbing, height is stock.

 

It looks a little high in these pictures because it's parked uphill but I have a solution for that..

[Shogun506]

Installed my Bayson R lip today. I think it fixes up the front end nicely and matches the new wheels. The lip looks great and installed easily but the fitment was a little bit off. The holes for the install didn't quite match up and I kinda had to squish it under the car a bit to make it line up. Will take some pics of that later. Also installed a K&N air filter. Contrary to what I read it does not seem to make any different of a sound and also doesn't feel like it added any power. Who knows though? Anybody installing this filter yourself - if you can't get it to fit in the airbox turn it so the "fins" are vertical instead of horizontal like they are on the stock filter and it should fit properly. Next things I have in my garage to install are LED interior lights from Diode Dynamics, HID headlights from Xenon Experts, LED switchbacks, LED fogs, Perrin shifter bushings, a catless uppipe, and some new sparkplugs.

[Shogun506]

Some shots I was able to take before I swap out for the HIDs and LED signals hopefully tonight

[alex0856]

Nice unicorn! And welcome.

[magnusonsubie]

Looks good! Welcome!

[Shogun506]

Some night shots after installing some Diode Dynamics interior lighting and license plate lights. Still have an HID kit and some LED switchbacks to install hopefully this weekend and then will take some better ones

[08Legacy-GT]

license plate bulbs were a must! Looks great!

[Shogun506]

I was finally able to get around to taking some pictures at night with all my new lighting installed. I'm very happy with my current setup. Next up in the parts bin is an up-pipe and Perrin shift bushings and then a set of 1 step colder NGK spark plugs. I am also interested in removing the airbox silencer so I can hear my car a bit more

For now I got a CEL the other day for my front O2 sensor so I'll be fixing that before replacing any more parts.

 

Check out my lighting walkaround here!

[Shogun506]

I've also started practicing with vinyl wrapping and am considering doing a matte white or satin white pearl wrap sometime in the future... Ordering some vinyl to experiment.

[BL5BO]

Love the color! Clean Wagon!

[hobo2701]

First mods should be suspension and removal of the screens in the banjo bolts in the oil lines to the turbo and ocv also unhook the downpipe from the turbo and check any side play. Oh and by far most important is a proper tune talk to any of the guys on the forum I know Dave at cryo performance is highly recommended but there are lots of options. It is well worth the money u don't wanna join the #ynansb club read all the stickies in the main subject forums on maintenance and ps the search fun too on the top right of the page is your best friend. Ps I love my unicorn but she's like a women I love and hate her at the same time best of luck !!

[Shogun506]

Thanks for the positive comments guys! I'm always tinkering around with this car doing something or the other.

 

First mods should be suspension and removal of the screens in the banjo bolts in the oil lines to the turbo and ocv also unhook the downpipe from the turbo and check any side play. Oh and by far most important is a proper tune talk to any of the guys on the forum I know Dave at cryo performance is highly recommended but there are lots of options. It is well worth the money u don't wanna join the #ynansb club read all the stickies in the main subject forums on maintenance and ps the search fun too on the top right of the page is your best friend. Ps I love my unicorn but she's like a women I love and hate her at the same time best of luck !!

 

Thanks for your input I've been reading the forums for a while now, going to do the banjo bolts with maintenance when I do my next oil change (I've only had the car about a month and a half). My first priority is getting this CEL off from the front O2 sensor and the part arrives next week but will keep the turbo thing in mind for when I change the uppipe later on (also preventative maintenance). Tune really isn't important to me atm since I'm pretty much stock and am already running OTS Stage 1 with Cobb AP. Also I have no qualms with the suspension, pretty happy leaving that stock until I have a bunch of cash with nothing to do.

 

 

ps. also what does ynansb mean? I know it refers to your engine being blown and replaced but I can't find what it stands for

[BL5BO]

Thanks for the positive comments guys! I'm always tinkering around with this car doing something or the other.

 

 

 

Thanks for your input I've been reading the forums for a while now, going to do the banjo bolts with maintenance when I do my next oil change (I've only had the car about a month and a half). My first priority is getting this CEL off from the front O2 sensor and the part arrives next week but will keep the turbo thing in mind for when I change the uppipe later on (also preventative maintenance). Tune really isn't important to me atm since I'm pretty much stock and am already running OTS Stage 1 with Cobb AP. Also I have no qualms with the suspension, pretty happy leaving that stock until I have a bunch of cash with nothing to do.

 

 

ps. also what does ynansb mean? I know it refers to your engine being blown and replaced but I can't find what it stands for

 

"ya need a new short block"

[hobo2701]

The big thing with the tune of u were on stock is when u are at high boost it Will lean out cylinder 4 and u will break a ringland on the piston. I can't stress enough how important a proper tune is and usually the ots maps are decent but not as good as one done with revisions depending on what elevation u are at. It's worth looking into when u have the extra dollars. As far as the suspension goes the stock isn't terrible but if or when u decide to drop coin on upgrades it's the best bang for ur buck mostly sways/end links and and set of braided brake lines would be my first upgrades. But the old saying stay stock stay happy is all but true with these platforms best of luck with the unicorn !

[coppertone]

Congrats and the car is looking quite sharp there.....

[Shogun506]

Continuing with the lighting theme - wired foglights as DRLs. This took me WAY longer than I would have liked and is going to need some touch up because I had shitty connectors. Next up is some maintenance, rust touch up, up-pipe install and some sound system upgrades.

[Shogun506]

I finally got around to some of the performance mods I've been trying to install this weekend. I attempted to do the downpipe and uppipe but got screwed by some uber rusted bolts that just wouldn't budge. I ended up installing the downpipe and then a few days later installing a K&N Typhoon Intake. My downpipe is a 3" CNT catted pipe which looks great and was kind of a bitch to fit but was finally able to get it mounted onto the turbo with some assistance and a lot of work.

[Shogun506]

So after installing the downpipe I must say that I didn't notice a huge amount of performance increase. I was hoping to do both the down and uppipe together but maybe it's better than I installed them separately so I could see the power gains individually. Turbo lag did not noticeably improve with the downpipe and in 1st gear I couldn't notice much of a difference. Once the turbo kicked in in 2nd gear I noticed somewhat more pull but not the amount I was expecting. I'm still running stage 1 until I upgrade the uppipe just as a precaution against putting pressure on that pre-turbo cat. One notable problem is that when I removed my rear O2 sensor it was so stuck that it took the bung with it out of the downpipe. That means I had to order a new bung and delete the code until it arrives. I also noticed only a slightly louder exhaust note after the downpipe.

 

I'm going to write a quick review of the Typhoon in another post.

[magnusonsubie]

I wouldn't drive it too much on the stage 1 tune with an intake not made by cobb and a downpipe. You need to get a protune soon because an OTS tune isn't going to support those mods happily. Obviously you're comfortable flashing tunes but have you taken any logs? If you are able to do that then you should look into E-tuning as it is far cheaper then dyno time and you can get a good tune out of it.

[Shogun506]

I wouldn't drive it too much on the stage 1 tune with an intake not made by cobb and a downpipe. You need to get a protune soon because an OTS tune isn't going to support those mods happily. Obviously you're comfortable flashing tunes but have you taken any logs? If you are able to do that then you should look into E-tuning as it is far cheaper then dyno time and you can get a good tune out of it.

 

I thought about that but I came to the conclusion that the K&N intake is meant to work on a car without a retune which means it must be able to work in place of the stock intake on a different tune. That might not be 100% correct but is the difference enough to cause damage? I don't know. I'm sure a custom tune would be able to pull more of a benefit from it but that's something I'm going to look at once I've finished up with a couple more performance mods. With regards to running a downpipe on a stage 1 tune, I don't know enough about it to say for sure but my reasoning was that the stage 2 tune is probably meant to push more boost through the turbo since it can handle it with a better downpipe and to erase any codes that come from changing the DP so running a more conservative tune should be safe. Like I said I don't know enough to know for sure but could someone with tuning experience chime in here if possible? I know I'm not getting the best power out of this setup without a custom tune but I'm considering it to be a stepping stone while I put the rest of pieces in order before going e-tune or custom tune. If I start to see any problems I'll re-evaluate. Unfortunately iI can't datalog at the moment because my AP is doing this thing where it cuts out at high throttle settings, something to do with electronic interference which I'm working on fixing. Once I get that back in order I can datalog. Thanks for your comments though!

[magnusonsubie]

The reason for the tune is because with the downpipe there is now less restriction to flow and then the turbo spools quicker and will produce more boost. The UP is still restrictive but you are not "pushing" any more pressure through it with a stage 2 tune. You are simply allowing the turbo to be more efficient and because it spools more freely you are pushing more air into the cylinders for combustion. Having more air then fuel creates a lean condition which can burn valves and cause damage to your engine.

 

These cars are very sensitive to everything engine and drivetrain wise so I would definitely put your stock intake back on until you get a protune done. I'd also flash the stage 2 tune and drive very conservatively until you have a catless UP and then get your protune done with all the parts you want.

 

Edit: Read the stickys in the technical forums and different peoples build threads. I know you don't want to go through that because I know I don't want to go though it.

[alex0856]

I second this. Like he said, these cars are very very sensitive. You're going to receive only benefits from going to a Stage 2 tune, and even then you should really get a pro-tune.

 

I've missed a little bit. Do you have the up pipe waiting to be installed or do you still need to order one?

[Shogun506]

The reason for the tune is because with the downpipe there is now less restriction to flow and then the turbo spools quicker and will produce more boost. The UP is still restrictive but you are not "pushing" any more pressure through it with a stage 2 tune. You are simply allowing the turbo to be more efficient and because it spools more freely you are pushing more air into the cylinders for combustion. Having more air then fuel creates a lean condition which can burn valves and cause damage to your engine.

 

These cars are very sensitive to everything engine and drivetrain wise so I would definitely put your stock intake back on until you get a protune done. I'd also flash the stage 2 tune and drive very conservatively until you have a catless UP and then get your protune done with all the parts you want.

 

Edit: Read the stickys in the technical forums and different peoples build threads. I know you don't want to go through that because I know I don't want to go though it.

 

Good to know. Will be a bit conservative until I've gotten the rest sorted out here.

 

Alex - uppipe is waiting to be installed. Actually what I'm waiting for more than anything else is a better bolt I ordered to block off the EGT sensor hole.

[jonah_ow]

Your wagon looks great my friend! We nearly have the same car aside from interior color.