2001 lgt ltd. 5mt and $1000 to spend

I am going to be out of my warranty (extended to 100k miles by s.o.a. on engine) in a few months and am looking to spend a little cash on squeezing some ponies out of my stock 2001 lgt 5mt. The car is mint in every sense of the word but it is just a little slower than I would like. This is my third legacy that I have owned (91ls, 98 ob, and current 01 lgt) and I have never really done anything to any of them. SO here is my question.........I have a grand to spend on and I am not sure what I want to do yet........? I am going to do all of the work myself in my garage/shop so labor is not a factor in my cost at all.

 

My thoughts so far were to add:

1. borla headers $350

2. custom cat back exhaust $200 in materials

3. cobb cold air-short $225

 

THat brings me up to $725..........what else would you do? My goal is to add 15 to 25 hp and to make it sound like a boxer engine should. I dont want to have a loud high school honda fartcan car.......I just want it to have a little bit better acceleration. Any positive feedback is appreciated. My car has 87k miles on it.....and I plan on keeping it at least until 150k. Thanks all.

First!

you wont get 25hp from those mods. maybe 15 tops. Id put the money in to suspension if i were you. trying to get big gains in power out of the 2.5 Na motors will cost you alot. you will get much better bang for your buck if you work on the suspension and brakes. Rims and tires will be good to get too.

EL headers with catback and PP6 piggyback with get you close to you your goals.

 

That would be 25 crank hp.

Camber I appreciate the advice. Just a little deeper on your recomendation though..........(hate to sound like a noob dum bass) what is the piggyback setup that you are recomending. I am good with the header and catback advice, however could use a little help steering me in the right direction with the piggyback setup......a link would be much appreciated. So you think that these tweaks would deliver the desired 190 ponies? What kind of cost are we talking about per component.....ie 1. headers 2. cat back exhaust 3. and piggyback????? Help me out man. Thanks for the feedback.

 

On a sidenote:

I have a coworker of mine that just picked up a nice 04 volvo s60R yesterday. That appears to be a nice ride. Plush, luxurious, awd, and fast as Hell. Spanked a 07 mustang gt on our lunch break like it was nobodys business. I hate to say it but.......it may pull me away from my beloved subies at some point. What does everyone think about the volvos.

I like the volvos but I believe that the AWD of the subarus is far superior to that of the volvos. I saw a video on one of these forums that did a comparison of the AWD systems and showed the difference. The volvos couldn't even make it up the same hills that the subaru was climbing. It was pretty interesting. I'm sure it could be found on u-tube.

OBX/Rallitek currently have equal length headers.

 

IIRC

 

OBX $300-400 off ebay

Rallitek $700

 

Also, Cobb made headers but no longer makes them. All of these headers can be found used and are sold off quite frequently on NASIOC and rs25.com. Borla headers are unequal length and won't get you as much power gain as the equal length headers. You will lose the boxter rumble with equal length headers/

 

PP6 - Piggyback

$400 new from Rallitek

2-300 used on NASIOC and rs25.com

 

Also, you can look into the throttle body spacer which should give you a little boost lower in your power band. This will claw back some power you'll lose when freeing up the exhaust.

 

$100

 

Crankshaft pulley will free up maybe 1 hp and makes you engine rev faster.

 

$60-100

 

Group A has the best prices on the throttle body spacer and pullies.

BTW

 

You really should be over at NASIOC or rs25. Not much tuning information or many experts for the EJ25 around here.

goto www.sl-i.net. there's tons a people there who have your car. even some in wisconsin

sl-i.net x2

 

Don't take this as pessimism, but I doubt you will even see 15hp crank. You will feel it, but that is your senses f'n with you.

 

HP doesn't really matter anyway unless your dyno tuning or drag racing. If it makes you car more fun that's really what matters.

 

--

 

And for free power, try weight reduction. You want to get your hp/lb ratio higher. The 00-03s are kind of pigs.

They are fun pigs though.......I am keeping it stock. I am going to save my pennies for a wrx limited in a year or two.

They are fun pigs though......

 

I don't doubt it---I bought a 98 LGT a few years ago, thinking it was going to be slow as a turd (it is compared to our OBXT).

 

But the way this thing takes corners, makes me giddy!

 

You can still make it fun on the cheap cheap cheap. Have a cheap ebay muffler welded to the axleback section. Get some sticky-ish tires.

The video I think you're referring to:

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7dVFY5CxT0]YouTube - Subaru AWD vs. Everyone Else[/ame]

 

It's pretty subaru-friendly, heh, sounds like it might even be made by subaru but still interesting. The Volvo Haldex system isn't really that great. I'm surprised how planted the Tribeca looks.

sl-i.net x2

 

Don't take this as pessimism, but I doubt you will even see 15hp crank. You will feel it, but that is your senses f'n with you.

 

No one say that it would make his car as fast a turbo:lol:

 

Just the PP6 and a good tune with stock everything has been shown to get you 7 whp and similar wheel torque. Therefore with the addition of headers and intake I would expect at the very minimum to see 10 whp gain.

 

BTW -These cars ran pig rich and leaning them out a bit garners some good gains.

You should consider borrowing a tactrix cable and downloading the rom. Then post the rom on enginuity.org so that merchgod can disassemble it and create defs for it.

 

He said that in the next defs update, he will be including normally aspirated cars. Of course, he needs the rom to do this. Each rom is year, model, and transmission specific so don't assume he has yours.

 

If you always run premium then you can get a few horsepower out of it by tuning timing and AFR.

 

IMHO, I would save my money and get a used 2005 LGT.

 

EDIT: Actually 2001 is a pretty old ecu. It may not be compatible with the current flashing methods. Enginuity supports some JDM 2001 ecus but they are usually one year more advanced than USDM.

lightened pulley