2007 LGT.B "Mild to Wild"

I've owned my 2007 Legacy GT Spec.b almost 2 years now at the time of this post.

Just prior i had picked up a 2008 Spec.b, but in a cruel twist of fate, it became involved in a head-on collision, courtesy of a family member.

My 07 LGT.B had 2 previous owners, and came into my possession with 75,000 miles on the clock.

The first year i didn't touch much. Even at the end of that time i had only barley commenced staged bolt-ons.

Here is some video while running a Cobb stage 2 93 oct OTS map.

Later i took it down for a dyno-tune at RT Tuning.

Making 279.174 whp and 292.644 Torque, the power mods consisted of:

(Stock Turbo) IHI VF46

Cobb V3 accessport

Cobb EBCS

Cobb Intake

Cobb Fuel pump

Cobb Catted downpipe

Nameless 3 inch Catback

Perrin 4 inch mufflers

Grimmspeed TMIC

Perrin Turbo inlet

The car ran great for several months, and i had recently scored a mint IHI VF52 which i shipped out to Socal Porting, where it received an 11 blade billet wheel, thrust bearing upgrade and P&P.

Fast forward to about 6 months later, i experienced a chipped piston in cylinder 4. I had not anticipated needing to rebuild this soon (91,000 miles)

But the folks down at IAG Performance took my dilemma by the horns.

Timelapse motor pull in my garage:

My goals for the build were simple

1. i wanted to have the option of making reliable power in the 400-420whp range.

2. My application would be high boost, small turbo, in the hopes of having a very street-able, yet fun daily driver.

3. i wanted oil consumption and efficiency as high as possible (opting for 99.75 pistons vs. 99.5)

4. i wanted a well rounded build that skimped on nothing, but still remained within palatable budget.

In the end we settled on starting with an IAG Stage 2 TUFF Block:

Manley platinum 99.75 pistons

Manley Steel H-TUFF rods

ARP Rod bolts

STI forged crank

ACL race main bearings

ACL race rod bearings

ARP head studs

Perrin Lightweight Crank Pulley

IAG billet valve cover seals

IAG air pump delete kit

DIY throttle body coolant bypass

Killer B Motorsports oil pickup

OEM ej257 heads & cams

OEM coil packs

OEM timing components

OEM oil components

OEM water components

NGK iridium spark plugs (1 step colder)

16 weeks later i dropped the newly built long block back in, and got it running without incident. Running on a base map, i plan to drive the car for a break-in period and schedule it for a tune with IAG, hopefully to reach my goal of 350whp.

Going into this car my mechanical knowledge was fairly limited. Its been a huge learning experience, and i can say i feel much more capable having gone through so much hands on learning, both from friends and YouTube tutorials. As my car continues to evolve i know i will as well, and i'm truly grateful for it.

Current mods at this time are:

2007 Subaru Legacy GT spec.b

Bilstien shocks & struts

Swift springs

Perrin PSRS kit

Whiteline front and rear swaybars

Whiteline swaybar collars and bushings

Perrin front and rear spherical endlinks

Whiteline rear control arms

Whiteline Front Roll Center Adjustment Kit

Whiteline front inner control arm bushings

OEM inner tie rods

Perrin steering dampener lockdown

STi clutch

STi flywheel

STi motor mounts

Perrin trans mount

Perrin pitch-stop mount

Energy Suspension cross-member bushings

Cobb short shifter

Cobb shift knob

Cobb shifter bushings

Perrin SI drive cover

GlowShift Black 10 Color Elite Series Oil Pressure Gauge

GlowShift Black 10 Color Elite Series Oil Temp Gauge

GlowShift Black 10 Color Elite Series Boost Gauge

Redline Goods shifter/handbrake boots

Redline Goods elbow rest cover

Spec.b floor mats

Spec.b battery tiedown

s204 clone front splitter

Centric rotors

StopTech pads

StopTech braided brake lines

BBS SR wheels

Hankook Ventus Evo 2s

Rally Armor mudflaps

Moog wheel bearings

OEM refurbished spindles

OEM refurbished calipers

OEM Ported, polished, coated & wrapped headers

Grimmspeed exhaust gaskets

Cobb uppipe

Cobb catted downpipe

Cobb exhaust hangers

Nameless 3inch resonated mid-pipe and y-pipe

Perrin 4inch mufflers

OEM O2 sensors

IHI VF52 Big 16G by Socal Porting

IAG braided turbo oil line

Injector Dynamics 1000cc injectors

Cobb V3 accessport

Cobb fuel pump

Cobb EBCS

Perrin 4 bar Map senor

Perrin turbo inlet

Samco radiator hoses

STi radiator cap

Redline tuning Elite hood lifts

Grimmspeed air box intake

Cobb heatshield

Cobb BPV

Custom BPV hose

Grimmspeed TMIC

Grimmspeed 8mm Phenolic spacers

Grimmspeed intake manifold gaskets

IAG Stage 2 TUFF short block

Manley platinum 99.75 pistons

Manley Steel H-TUFF rods

ARP Rod bolts

STI forged crank

ACL race main bearings

ACL race rod bearings

ARP head studs

Perrin Lightweight Crank Pulley

IAG billet valve cover seals

IAG air pump delete kit

Killer B Motorsports oil pickup

DIY throttle body coolant bypass

OEM ej257 heads & cams

OEM coil packs

OEM timing components

OEM oil components

OEM water components

NGK iridium spark plugs (1 step colder)

Crawford Air/Oil separator

Motul 5-40W

Nice build!! Saw your post over on the spec B club.

Stickers over the turn signal, that's a new one

Which BBS's are those? Love the look. Also , what does a stock STI or legacy make on that dyno?

The wheels are BBS SR's. You can find them on Tire Rack. Im running 215s on them now and im not a fan of the stretch

RT has a Mustang Dyno, so the readings are on the low side. The tuner told me stock he would have expected 230-240 at the wheels. I've seen them tune quite a few 08-12 Sti with bolt-ons and they are pretty consistent in the 330whp range.

Hope this answers your question!

Well the time has come to begin the break-in process!

I put about a hundred miles on the new motor over the weekend

and everything seems to be in working order after the first oil change.

However, the oil lamp comes on during every start up, and

shuts off about 30 seconds into driving so i'm ordering up

some gauges to rule out any pressure issues. Il update the thread once i get them in.

I experienced a weird symptom where my built motor wouldn't make oil pressure right away on startup (has since resolved itself) but i went ahead and got myself a set of gauges. I had heard good things about glowshift, and for the money i felt i was getting a decent "middle of the road" solution.

The quality out of the box is apparent, and using the pancake adapter made running oil temp and pressure a breeze. There is plenty of wiring run all the way from the bottom of the motor, through the firewall, and up by the A-pillar.

I opted with the Glowshift 10 black elites, and while there are 10 colors to pick from, the signature blue is the best in my opinion.

The gauges operate smoothly, and are easy to read in any light. I havent gone above 5 psi yet, and i get tuned on this coming monday, but the boost gauge appears to be responsive and accurate compared with my accessport read out.

I am currently running them in the included pods, but i have some custom mounts ordered, and they should be in soon.

I run a glow shift afr digi

Im happy so far

Had it for a couple yrs

Sweet spec b

Y no fmic?

I run a glow shift afr digi

Im happy so far

Had it for a couple yrs

Sweet spec b

Y no fmic?

Glad to hear its working out for you still! I've heard of gauges not lasting as long as others.

Thanks man.

I like having the functional hoodscoop. To me a topmount is what makes a subaru different, and with the grimmspeed tmic it really does remarkably well. I like that its protected and easy to remove quickly. So for me it was just a personal preference, and something that will support the max power i will ever decide to push. If i was going above 500whp, a fmic would be the right choice im sure.

In preperation for my dyno tune with IAG i finally got around to installing

my new Redline Tuning hood risers i picked up in a group buy.

The trickiest part was getting the rivets right, but the directions were clear, and

the look is a vast improvement over the stock service stick (although the hood doesn't open as wide now).

Upon arriving at IAG, the car passed tech inspection with flying colors without so much as a minor vacuum leak.

However, after a few initial runs on the dyno, the tuner went to upload a new base map, and on start up the motor stopped making oil pressure.

Now i had experienced this several weeks ago, and with no plausible explanation.

IAG had told me to let the car idle until it built pressure (usually about 15 seconds) and proceed to drive it.

The problem had gone away, and for some reason re-appeared on the dyno.

They put it on the lift, dropped the pan, confirmed that the killer B pickup was properly sealing, then proceeded to remove the oil pump.

Sure enough the brand new 11mm STi pump had locked open and so while it was still circulating oil, there was no restriction and therefore no pressure.

IAG took full responsibility, and it turns out in all their years of assembling motors they had never come across a defective factory oil pump.

I had heard stories of it happening, but never a complete loss of oil pressure.

Unfortunately my car was not the only one experiencing issues, and there wasnt time to tune again that day.

The tuner Cleo was kind enough to give me a ride back up to jersey, and we plan to go back down this coming Monday to re-tune.

On the base map the car made 315whp on only 16 psi, and he feels strongly that we will reach my 350whp goal without issue.

All in all i cant complain about the timing of the pump failure, and IAG went above and beyond to fix the problem and assure me i was in good hands.

I would recommend them to anyone looking to get a motor built done, as their track record is impeccable, and they are dependable in the event something goes sideways, even if it isn't necessarily their fault.

Here we go again! Back down at IAG a week after the oil pump failure.

The car went on the dyno after the first car in line was deemed to have a cracked up-pipe,

and the following half hour of initial tuning was stressful to say the least.

After a half hour or so, Cleo came out to speak with me. He had been passing along a lot of information,

and the ride from Baltimore to jersey and back again allowed me to bounce ideas and questions off him which he readily answered and explained.

He had a serious look on his face, and said to me "Man, you aint gon believe dis sh*t.."

As i entered the dyno room he pointed to the chart. "Max WHP 357.." I was having trouble reading the screen, but was delighted to know we had reached my goal!

He then pointed above the horsepower line, to the torque curve "Max Torque 390...".

I couldn't believe it. No one had anticipated such a decent whp number, let alone the insane torque curve, and it was so rewarding to get the result that we did.

The tune continued over the next hour, and final numbers came to 356.84 max whp, and 393.68 max torque on 20 psi.

Everything was reading normal, and driving it now i can say the car performs wonderfully.

A big thanks is owed to the guys at IAG, who guided me through the build process,

as well as Cleo for the tune and going out of his way to get me out of the jam i was in. i would recommend both to anyone looking for a tune or to go built motor with their subaru

Below is a compilation of pulls on the dyno from last Monday.

Great results, congrats. Anymore info on your turbo--IHI VF52 Big 16G by Socal Porting?

 

I'm really wondering now what the 16g that JmP is building for me is going to do after seeing this. 350/390 is pretty crazy, especially with stock headers!

Thank you sir! I picked up a vf52 from a 2012 wrx. Guy had just blown his motor with a Blouch, and was parting with the vf52 for cheap at 350 with less than 5,000 miles on it. I had heard bout Socal Porting from a friend, and after speaking with them, they suggested a full port and polish of the housing and wastegate, and the 11 blade billet upgrade wheel. There are 3 different blade sizes, each targeting a different area of the powerband. I chose the middle ground and went with the wheel that would that would in theory sacrifice top end power and low end torque for a strong midrange spool. The final bill came out to around 400. So for less than 800 bucks, i got a turbo that outperforms many 20Gs on the market. A friend of mine with a new cobb 20g (1,200 msrp) made only 355/365, and he had external wastage and headers with nearly identical mods and built motor.

It seems like a hit or miss thing, but i really like the idea of having a custom turbo designed for the result you want. Let alone the fact it costs less than a big name turbo of comparable specs. Id love to see your results when its done!

Nice build. Sounds like an animal.

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Thank you sir! I picked up a vf52 from a 2012 wrx. Guy had just blown his motor with a Blouch, and was parting with the vf52 for cheap at 350 with less than 5,000 miles on it. I had heard bout Socal Porting from a friend, and after speaking with them, they suggested a full port and polish of the housing and wastegate, and the 11 blade billet upgrade wheel. There are 3 different blade sizes, each targeting a different area of the powerband. I chose the middle ground and went with the wheel that would that would in theory sacrifice top end power and low end torque for a strong midrange spool. The final bill came out to around 400. So for less than 800 bucks, i got a turbo that outperforms many 20Gs on the market. A friend of mine with a new cobb 20g (1,200 msrp) made only 355/365, and he had external wastage and headers with nearly identical mods and built motor.

357/390 is very nice... was your friend's 20g tuned on the same dyno? Have you raced him from a roll to compare? Any plans to take it to the track?

With 357WHP, you should expect to trap at least 110MPH

357/390 is very nice... was your friend's 20g tuned on the same dyno? Have you raced him from a roll to compare? Any plans to take it to the track?

 

With 357WHP, you should expect to trap at least 110MPH

Thanks! No, he was tuned by Mikey at EFI Logics. We have yet to race, but i've heard he gapped an STI swapped 2012 WRX that made over 500whp on race gas (freaking money pit disaster of a build that is currently on a 93 oct tune) in a 40-90 roll and at 90 got passed up. Im definitely a believer in big torque with small turbos, and i really have no desire to swap up for more HP because the fun factor is real

I'd be really happy with a trap speed around there, but at the moment im tentative to launch it because im on a factory STI clutch that isnt rated for my torque (380 max)

I'm definitely a torque guy, too. Much more fun!

Thanks! No, he was tuned by Mikey at EFI Logics. We have yet to race...

Tuned in for results of race