CovertRussian's 05 LGT Build Thread

I'm in Virginia, you can probably tell that I'm an eastcoaster by the rust that the legacy has...

You see where I'm from, not much rust on the outer body, but my car spends lots of time in VT and MA which use the rust preventive in the road treatment of snow.

My car spent a good bit of time in Chicago then northern VA, it doesn't have any serious rust, just surface here and there and the heatshields/exhaust. As I go in I spray the rust down with rust converter/paint to hopefully help stop it.

 

I can't complain though, it could be a PA/NY car where you can punch a whole through the body thanks to all of the rust.

You'll want to check the coolant crossover pipe under the timing belt cover for rust. It delivers coolant to the oil cooler. Mine was pretty bad when I R&R the short block May 2012.

 

Pictures in my click here link.

You'll want to check the coolant crossover pipe under the timing belt cover for rust. It delivers coolant to the oil cooler. Mine was pretty bad when I R&R the short block May 2012.

 

Pictures in my click here link.

 

Now I thought crossover pipe was aluminum, the one under the intake mani, do you mean the oil crossover? In which case mine is pretty rusty. I probably will clean it up and respray it when it's warmer in the garage.

 

Question about your oil feedneck, is that to send the oily blowby from the valve covers back into the oilpan instead of the intake track?

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x40/92Si/DSCN4779.jpg

Yes, air/oil seperator.

 

The cross over pipe under the intake is Al, the one under the timing belt cover is cheap metal.

In post 12 I see a picture of your coolant cross over tube, that's pretty rusty.

 

One member years back had one burst while the car was running.

You might be the most well researched and informed n00bs of all time. Welcome and good work so far!

This thread should be sticky, for being the all-in-one thread. Nice job.

OP, thanks for the AWESOME pictures to go with your work along with taking the time to share them. Those pictures are gold!

Yes, air/oil seperator.

 

The cross over pipe under the intake is Al, the one under the timing belt cover is cheap metal.

 

In post 12 I see a picture of your coolant cross over tube, that's pretty rusty.

 

One member years back had one burst while the car was running.

 

Yup definitely rusty then, is OEM the only way to go, or does someone make a better quality one (perhaps SS?)

 

Where in VA are you? If NoVA, you could come to one of our meets and I could give you a ride...

 

 

 

The Grimmspeed style AOS has known issues with multi-quart oil consumption and even blowing engines on the track.

 

I'm about 2 hours south and west of NoVA, sadly it's far enough that I have to plan a roadtrip to go to NoVA.

 

You might be the most well researched and informed n00bs of all time. Welcome and good work so far!

 

Why thank you, while I am a newb on these forums (and to Subaru's), I have built a few SR20 powered Nissan's over the last few years, thus I'm used to searching first, asking last

 

This thread should be sticky, for being the all-in-one thread. Nice job.

 

Thanks, more to come as I do the mods!

 

OP, thanks for the AWESOME pictures to go with your work along with taking the time to share them. Those pictures are gold!

 

Your very welcome, when I started working on cars I didn't know how to even change my oil. Since there weren't a lot of detailed how to threads, I took plenty of pictures and tried to do simple to understand how to threads for other newbs to benefit from.

Do your guy's Fans turn on almost always? I know that there is a recall for the fan relay, I checked and mine was already replaced. It just seems like every few starts the fans just stay running even with below 100*F CLT's. If I turn off the car, wait for the relay to click, start it back up the fans are off.

 

What's worse is the fans wont shut off until you restart the car, basically hurting the warm up speed.

 

So tempted to rip it out and put an aftermarket fan control unit!

There may have been two recalls for the fans If I remember right. That was many years back, 05 or 06.

 

My fans don't run that much.

 

I don't recall them running much if ever, when the car is shut off.

 

 

SS cross over tube, Duh, I should have kept the old one and had the guy at work that bends pipes make one up...Me fail

Oh my fans turn off after the car is off, they also will kick on at about 202*F and stay on until about 188*F which seems about right. But if I turn on the car with the HVAC set to on the window the FAN will kick on, even though the AC light is off or has been turned on. Or if I start the car with AC on, fans will run ALL of the time, even if I turn off ac. I might actually do that when I do the timing belt, weld up an SS pipe for the crossover.

Quick update, will have more details later. Installed new side gapped plugs and the K&N Typhoon intake, hoping it would help the highway gas mileage, but to no avail, 25mpg at best. It has been at 25mpg highway since I installed the Invidia Uppipe, I think the quicker spool is what's really killing it, the stock turbo is just too small for the motor of this size and your in boost every time cruise control tips throttle in.

 

At this point I don't think anything will help but outside of increasing turbo lag basically, I might do an open wastegate test in the near future...

 

http://images.rvsmods.com/var/albums/Cars/LGT/Engine/Intake/K%26NTyphoon/CIMG9966.JPG?m=1388212357

It's all in the tune, if you want better mpg a good tune will net a little more mpg, but remember the down side of not enough fuel...burnt valves.

 

The video for side gapping said it works best with high compression engines, that's not what you have.

 

My Spec B on Cobb AP stage 1 will get over 30mpg if driven easy on the highway.

The car is stock accept for the K&N filter.

It's all in the tune, if you want better mpg a good tune will net a little more mpg, but remember the down side of not enough fuel...burnt valves.

 

The video for side gapping said it works best with high compression engines, that's not what you have.

 

My Spec B on Cobb AP stage 1 will get over 30mpg if driven easy on the highway.

The car is stock accept for the K&N filter.

 

Agreed the tune should help it, but when I do highway driving I do not WOT the car at all. From what I'm seeing based on the stock AFR gauge, it's fairly lean overall, I don't tune my Nissans this lean in partial throttle.

 

Side gaping works on all motors, it even worked on my carburated lawn mower, I can mow my lawn on one tank now, before I would use 1.5 tanks (yes I know it's inaccurate to use tank measurements on cars, but there is no other way on lawn mowers!). When I side gaped my 04 FXT's stock plugs, my city mileage went from 14mpg to 19mpg.

 

In this case I did switched over to double Iridiums (stock is iridium center/plat ground strap). Which could be resulting in worse mpg too, I'll side gap my stock platinums that came on the LGT and see what numbers I get. It sucks gradma driving the car for these tests!

 

As for intake, I'm actually impressed by how well the car drives, I know some said they had issues with aftermarket intakes, but this one seems good. I do want to acquire another stock airbox to play around with it myself.

Edited December 28, 2013 by covertrussian

Up pipe is said not to need a tune, though I kind of wonder about that since it does decrease lag.

 

I'm testing mods on a stock tune first, this is why I'm not doing the downpipe until I'm done tinkering with other parts.

I'm not a big fan of chrome, thus figured I would try plasti-dipping the grill to see if blacking it out helps.

 

Pulling the grill is easy

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Exterior/Grill/Plastidip/CIMG9971.jpg

 

Two bolts and two plastic rivets

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Exterior/Grill/Plastidip/CIMG9972.jpg

 

Then a few clips behind the grill

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Exterior/Grill/Plastidip/CIMG9973.jpg

 

The center wings unbolt, thus you can easily paint them separately

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Exterior/Grill/Plastidip/CIMG9976.jpg

 

Using spraypaint plastidip

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Exterior/Grill/Plastidip/CIMG9977.jpg

 

After drying reassemble, peal and your good to go

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Exterior/Grill/Plastidip/CIMG9981.jpg

 

Stock

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Exterior/Grill/Plastidip/CIMG9970.jpg

 

Plasti-dipped

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Exterior/Grill/Plastidip/CIMG9988.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Exterior/Grill/Plastidip/CIMG9987.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Exterior/Grill/Plastidip/CIMG9989.jpg

 

I can't say it's hitting home for me yet, too much black, stock plastic is not actually black it's more gunmetalish with plastidip it became black. Also I think it would look better if surrounding was body colored and not chrome or black. I might peal everything but the inside wings.

Edited August 7, 2014 by covertrussian

That's what I did with my 09 2.5i grill. I think it works well because of the chrome in the headlights.

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Sparkplug replacements are definitely "funner" on boxers. This is my 4th time doing spark plugs on this car, was testing different plugs/gaps, thus starting to get better at it. You should expect to set aside around an hour of time when doing the plugs on these cars. Luckily the Legacy has a wider engine bay, thus doing spark plugs on it is actually easier then on the Forester. I don't have to remove the battery to get to the driver side plugs, which saves time and the headache of resetting clocks/radio stations.

 

Driver side plug removal/installation with battery in place

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261043&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

Unplug the coil packs

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261044&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

Use a 12mm narrow socket to unbolt the coil packs, the front one comes out easily as is, but the rear one requires a trick to pull out. As you can see the frame is in the way.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261045&stc=1&d=1516578009

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261046&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

Flip it upside down and it will come out much easier, follow the same procedure when installing

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261047&stc=1&d=1516578009

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261048&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

I use a 5/8" magnetized spark plug socket and a 90* bendable extension, standard small extensions are too long sadly. Pull out the plug, install new one and reinstall the coilpacks.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261049&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

Passenger side one is a bit easier, it does require you to pull the stock airbox out, but with it out you have a ton of room to breathe.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261050&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

Once again pull out the coilpacks, you will have to flip the rear one upside down again too.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261051&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

This time I can use a longer extension that lets you have better leverage to unscrew the plug by hand

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261052&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

Reinstall and plug everything back up

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261053&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

If you got OEM plugs and don't care to do anything else that's it.

 

Side Gapping

 

I personally sidegap all of my spark plugs, even platinum/iridium tipped plugs. I've seen power gains on the dyno and have seen gas mileage improvement by going to side gaped plugs, also it seems like you can run a bigger gap without blowout. On my 04 Forester XT sidegaping the same exact plugs raised my city gas mileage from 14-15 to 18-19. On my P11 G20, my highway MPG went up from 28-29 to 32-33mpg.

 

Iridium plug as it came, these were -11 gap stock. You can see the group strap still overhangs the tip. I used a sharpie to mark how much to cut.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261054&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

You can see how much to cut and how the ground strap covers the tip

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261055&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

I like fine tipped plugs, you don't have to cut as much from the ground strap, thus the plug life should still be good.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261056&stc=1&d=1516578009

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261057&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

Another trick is to index the plugs, you want the open end of the plug facing the fresh air/fuel mixture. Now on boosted applications this can promote spark blowout. Using a sharpie mark the top of the porcelain on where the ground strap is located at, then make sure that mark is not pointing directly to intake valves.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261058&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

I know it's almost impossible to index plugs on the Subaru, but with some mirrors it is possible, weather on or not it's worth your time is up to you.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261059&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

As for the gap, after you sidegap you will have a rather large gap (doesn't help that these plugs were 1.1mm gaped). I use the wiretool now days, it's more accurate then traditional gaping tool. It's simple, if the wire fits, your at X gap, if it doesn't, your below it.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261060&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

OEM gap is .030, so carefully gap them down. If you reduce the gap too much, carefully bend the ground strap back up, don't damage the center tip!

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=261061&stc=1&d=1516578009

 

 

2018 UPDATE: I no longer recommend side gapping fine wire center electrode spark plugs like Iridium or Platinums. Reason is, fine wire spark hits the same exact spot on the ground electrode and promotes very accelerated gap wear! More details here.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=257250&stc=1&d=1509039842

Edited January 21, 2018 by covertrussian

That's what I did with my 09 2.5i grill. I think it works well because of the chrome in the headlights.

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Yeah it does, though I wonder if body color would look even better. My headlights look to be gunmetal/flatblack thus chrome might not chime as well. Guess I will peel and see.

 

Must resist getting the Avo grill...

This is how I fixed the BOV a month ago and it was fine up until 0*F weather. I used JB Weld putty, which I found is no good for plastics, this is why it came off.

http://images.rvsmods.com/var/albums/Cars/LGT/Engine/Intake/BOV/OEM/CIMG0091.JPG?m=1389363760

 

Just came right off, my fault for not sanding it down.

http://images.rvsmods.com/var/albums/Cars/LGT/Engine/Intake/BOV/OEM/CIMG0092.JPG?m=1389363765

 

Sanded it down this time

http://images.rvsmods.com/var/albums/Cars/LGT/Engine/Intake/BOV/OEM/CIMG0093.JPG?m=1389363760

 

Used this stinky stuff, it seems to stick well though!

http://images.rvsmods.com/var/albums/Cars/LGT/Engine/Intake/BOV/OEM/CIMG0094.JPG?m=1389363763

 

Sadly I got glue in the breathing hole, so had to unscrew the brass nipple. It definitely was stuck on it, to my surprise the new glue held it all in place no problem. Cleaned out the breathing channel used a vacuum to suck the bits out.

http://images.rvsmods.com/var/albums/Cars/LGT/Engine/Intake/BOV/OEM/CIMG0095.JPG?m=1389363764

 

Temp fix done until I decide on new intercooler setup, or until I just cough up for a new BOV.

http://images.rvsmods.com/var/albums/Cars/LGT/Engine/Intake/BOV/OEM/CIMG0098.JPG?m=1389363767