New Spec.B Owner! Typical First Mods Questions.

I picked up a 2008 Spec.B and have enjoyed driving it the last couple of days.

Onto the Mod Questions....maybe they're not typical.

I want to SCCA Solo (autocross) the car in it's stock D class. I could go into the long version if people want to hear it, but at this point I'll give this brief information. I will use this as a daily driver and my kids will start driving it in about 4 years. I want to stay in the stock class. I've been told that the car may be more competitive in some other classes, but I want to stick to stock, keep my A/C (street modified allows removal of this), and keep the power where it's at.

So, what modifications should I look at doing?

What aftermarket (lighter) wheels are available in 18x7?

I've done some reading at this point and it looks like I'll be keeping the stock intake, but what I haven't seen made clear is if there are gains to be made with a K&N style filter, or if I'm perfectly fine if the previous owner was putting in a wal-mart paper filter.

Give Mike at AZPinstalls.com a email. They race these cars. He'll have lots of free info and good products you can buy from him.

My 05 Wagon has a Perrin panel filter since Aug 04 I use the K&N cleaning kit on it once a year.

Welcome to the forum.

Lighter wheels? Volk CE28N in 18x7.5 are light as hell but will put a huge hole in your wallet unless you find a used set. I'm going to unload mine in a bit, but 2 need repair (bent) so I'll likely let them go for super, super cheap so I don't have to deal with the hassle. They weigh about 14.5 lbs each. I don't think anything in this size weighs less. They're forged aluminum.

Don't bother with intake. There won't be any gains to be made, and possibly only harm to be done. Read some of the stickies and do some searching. Stick to a paper failter. Welcome to the forum.

Lighter wheels? Volk CE28N in 18x7.5 are light as hell but will put a huge hole in your wallet unless you find a used set.

SCCA rules to stay stock I have to stay with an OEM size wheel. that means 18x7 not 18x7.5. Or the stock size off of any other Legacy from 2008. I think the regular Gt used 17x7 wheels, but not 100% sure on that.

Don't bother with intake. There won't be any gains to be made, and possibly only harm to be done. Read some of the stickies and do some searching. Stick to a paper failter. Welcome to the forum.

So I've read "stick to a paper filter" in a lot of places...but is any cheap paper filter from the auto parts store good enough? or are there gains from a high flow style filter?

Stage 1, a ecu reflash, that's still stock to me or better tire's

ECU changes are not stock by SCCA rules.

Ah, didn't realize you had to stay with stock width too, doh. Yeah, regular LGT is 17x7 stock.

No gains from a high flow air filter or anything like that... certainly not at stock levels. Autoparts stores should be just fine. I use a stock Subaru paper filter personally.

But that throws him out of stock class, doh!

Personally, I'd rather get the tune and get thrown out of stock, than to not get the tune, have a slower car, and worry about valves and pistons going.

If the tune is stock not for HP gain but durability, how would they ever know ?

The OP will know. Cheater!

If your going to be driving the car hard, your going to want to get a custom Tune. There is a flaw in the OEM MAP that can cause burnt valves and problems with #2 and 4 pistons.

Can you point me to more information on this OEM tune problem. would like to know more information about the circumstances under which this can appear? Is a 50 second autocross run going to cause a problem, or is the real problem if I start doing 20-30 minute sessions of tracking the car?

Does the Cobb tune the problems out? My car has 70k+ miles on it and I'm not too sure of its history, should I be concerned my valves are bad? ( sorry for hi-jacking)

you can get a compression and leak down test to determine that.

i have 70,000km on stage 2 cobb ots map, with no issues.

Can you point me to more information on this OEM tune problem. would like to know more information about the circumstances under which this can appear? Is a 50 second autocross run going to cause a problem, or is the real problem if I start doing 20-30 minute sessions of tracking the car?

Just saw this again.

Here, same issue in the 4th gen's.

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/dangerous-cylinder-trims-5th-gen-lgts-193842.html

Does the Cobb tune the problems out? My car has 70k+ miles on it and I'm not too sure of its history, should I be concerned my valves are bad? ( sorry for hi-jacking)

Cobb is ok, I was on it a 8000 miles, my valve are great when the machine shop redid the heads.