Formulating a plan for upgrades 05 LGT

Well I've been asking around regarding some questions I've had, getting some good feedback, reading and researching what I can dig up, and I THINK I'm starting to formulate a bit of a plan or at least an approach to how I'm hoping to tackle some of the future "Wants/Needs" for the LGT...

I have an 2005 Legacy GT, just shy of 100k (97k) on the clock, and this year I've indefinitely decided to recommit to keeping the car for the long haul. So being the particular a$$ person I am, I'm trying to start formulating a plan on the different upgrades or replacement parts I should start planning/budgeting for.

I truly do appreciate the drive-ability of the legacy as my Daily Driver, I enjoy the factory performance, and my intentions would be more or less, to maintain reliability, stay within reasonable OEM performance platform (Minor improvements if possible) and just try to maintain or free up a little spirit on the road while getting some new parts on the legacy to freshin things up a bit.

I've already done quite a bit of the rudimentary protocols pertaining to different maintenance ticket items/tune ups etc needed up to this point...

My focus now would be some of the larger ticket items I'll probably want to upgrade/replace for the remaining life of the vehicle ie:

Turbo

Exhaust (up/down)

intercooler

Tune

etc....

So up to this point, and the information I've been seeing I believe a good basis for what I'm trying to accomplish pertaining to the above parts are as follows:

I think I would probably consider upgrading/replacing the stock turbo with a vf46 or BNR16g

I also currently have an endtank issue like many, which I'll think I'm going to be going the "Bullet-Proof" route (For now at least). And when the time comes to swap out the turbo, I'd probably want/hope to be able to do a up/down pipe along with it (Which particular manufacturers don't seem to make HUGE differences regarding these components, correct me if I'm wrong)

That said, once I where to have these components ready to roll and installed, I'd absolutely intend on having a tune done, whom which I'm working on finding a suitable option in doing so. I do believe I may have already found a reputable person/option to help me in my tuning needs.

Sorry about the long post, but seriously pretty much sums up how I intend (At least at this point in time) to approach some of my larger future replacements/upgrades and honestly how my LGT will roll till the end of it's days. Also why I wanted to post, to get some feedback from some of you 05 owners who are racking the miles and keeping these guys on the roads as long as you can like me

Any feedback would be totally welcome, and completely open format.

Thoughts, suggestions, constructive criticism... Whatever

As a sidenote, I have NO intention on further upgrading the LGT beyond the description listed above, not looking for a race car at any point. Just trying to have a little fun in the planning/upgrading/replacing stages, and keep her feeling good.

I'm running a UP / DP combo with a few other misc bushings etc. Here are my thoughts from what I've experienced..

Stage 2 power is great.. not sure I'll push it until I lose my stock turbo. I've got an Invidia catless UP and a CNT catless DP.. definitely worth the work. The car can actually breathe, and you can finally hear it. It's beautiful.

If you're DD'ing often, chances are your car idles stationary when in drivethru's, traffic, etc. The top mount intercooler heat soaks pretty quick- if you're not careful you'll knock and poof. I heat wrapped my UP and DP, and installed a turbo blanket. My intake temps are way down.. I highly recommend this.

Are you running all stock components so far? IE, clutch, flywheel, bushings, bpv?

I'm running a UP / DP combo with a few other misc bushings etc. Here are my thoughts from what I've experienced..

 

Stage 2 power is great.. not sure I'll push it until I lose my stock turbo. I've got an Invidia catless UP and a CNT catless DP.. definitely worth the work. The car can actually breathe, and you can finally hear it. It's beautiful.

 

If you're DD'ing often, chances are your car idles stationary when in drivethru's, traffic, etc. The top mount intercooler heat soaks pretty quick- if you're not careful you'll knock and poof. I heat wrapped my UP and DP, and installed a turbo blanket. My intake temps are way down.. I highly recommend this.

 

Are you running all stock components so far? IE, clutch, flywheel, bushings, bpv?

As of RIGHT NOW, the only things that aren't ACTUALLY stock, are my LCA front bushings, and sway bar end links (I have White line LCA bushings, Rallitek End links), and the ever so generic K&N filter

And yea, as far as anything I'd probably get that would even be considered an "Upgrade" performance wise, would really ONLY be the vf46 or BNR16g turbo, which is about as close as you can get to a stock performing turbo maybe a HAIR better performance (From what I've read) and then the up/down exhaust components... So I don't see putting TO much stress on anything else thats OEM as long as I do this bullet proofing of the TMIC...? Thats my ASSUMPTIONS at this point at least ha

I've got a thread started discussing suspension bushings on here, but I'm planning on the steering rack bushings, along with the rear diff bushings. I've done all of the other trans bushings.. they made a HUGE difference in shift feel.

The stock intake is solid up to 300whp from what I've read, and a lot of aftermarket intakes are difficult to tune due to the MAF location. My only regret so far was replacing the clutch with the ACT HDSS kit after being told the previous owner installed a lightweight flywheel. I quickly found that the car still had the stock clutch and flywheel- the guy threw a light crank pulley on. In my infinite wisdom I installed the ACT streetlite fw. The combo left far too little rotating mass, and now the flywheel chatter is LOUD on decel. I'm looking for a stock crank pulley to throw in when I do my timing belt. Moral of the story- these cars have a 25lb dual-mass flywheel for a reason. Lesson learned!

Ahhhh.... Sucks when your forced to learn any lessons the hard way =/ thats exactly what I'm trying to avoid!

Yea I'll probably stay away from the intake in all honesty, for those very same reasons you mentioned. As far as power... Shit, If I could see even 25whp after everything is said and done, I'd probably even be happy with that, JUST A BIT to help put a little extra pep in her step if ya know what I mean

90% of my agenda is geared around reliability/longevity

10% Id say performance/upgrade

And yea I def foresee tweaking bushings/mounts from front to back slowly but surely overtime.

keep in mind, the stock bushings cut down on NVH (noise vibration and harshness). The more you replace with higher-durometer bushings the more noisy/harsh your ride will get.

A catless DP might cause exhaust smell in the cabin. If possible, get a ride in a car that has had this mod.

A tune now before changing anything would be educational, especially if coupled with a dyno run or two for a baseline. Changing the powerband to match your typical shiftpoints will do more to increase your fun factor than changing alot of parts.

keep in mind, the stock bushings cut down on NVH (noise vibration and harshness). The more you replace with higher-durometer bushings the more noisy/harsh your ride will get.

 

A catless DP might cause exhaust smell in the cabin. If possible, get a ride in a car that has had this mod.

 

A tune now before changing anything would be educational, especially if coupled with a dyno run or two for a baseline. Changing the powerband to match your typical shiftpoints will do more to increase your fun factor than changing alot of parts.

I dig your angle! Thanks!

Ummm...no. You shouldn't be experiencing knock due to normal heatsoak in traffic. Also, it's more accurate to say that ANY TMIC will experience some heatsoak under some conditions--keep in mind that greater thermal mass will prevent the intercooler from heatsoaking as quickly, but this same thermal mass will keep the intercooler heatsoaked for longer once it happens--long time to heat up, long time to cool down.

 

I recommend an STI up pipe--fitment will be spot on. For the downpipe, see if you can pick up an invidia catless and have a shop custom weld a hi-flow cat into the back section. You could probably do it this way and spend less than you would picking up a cobb downpipe, still have the cat outside of the engine bay, and still have a full 3" downpipe.

 

Start thinking about your clutch and or 5eat mods now as well. You'll need 'em.

Awesome feedback man! Hey u mind entertaining me with any kind of feedback regarding the 5eat mods you speak off? I wasn't certain I would need anything in particular?

The 5eat will benifit from a transmission cooler at the stage 2 power level, bmb has a few cool writeups about install/possible overcooling in the winter months.

The stage 1 and stage 2 driveability is an impressive upgrade compared to stock, glad i could help and my tuning faq in my sig was benificial.

Sounds like your taking your time to put the lgt in the best possible shape for the next 50k

Dave

EDIT: damn you bmb, you beat me to it.....

Ummm...no. You shouldn't be experiencing knock due to normal heatsoak in traffic. Also, it's more accurate to say that ANY TMIC will experience some heatsoak under some conditions--keep in mind that greater thermal mass will prevent the intercooler from heatsoaking as quickly, but this same thermal mass will keep the intercooler heatsoaked for longer once it happens--long time to heat up, long time to cool down.

Yes, any tmic will heat soak. But before wrapping the UP/DP I've seen IAT's over 130 degrees.. normal driving generally doesn't break your car, but spirited driving with intake temps in that region is dangerous.

My point was just to emphasize this concern- just keep to it in mind. The solution is simple.. if you're in a situation where you're likely to heat soak, don't punch the gas until you can cruise for a few minutes. Yes, you may not encounter knock from heat soak, but why even risk it?

If your on pump gas, yes, all and any tmic will heat soak.

but if you run E85, no heat soak at all

I just went E85 and after driving it for hours and shutting it down, the tmic is cold as if you didn't even drive it. I was shocked like this:eek:

Go stage 2 E85, that should put you around 275-295whp

If your on pump gas, yes, all and any tmic will heat soak.

 

but if you run E85, no heat soak at all

 

I just went E85 and after driving it for hours and shutting it down, the tmic is cold as if you didn't even drive it. I was shocked like this:eek:

 

Go stage 2 E85, that should put you around 275-295whp

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is completely unrelated. If you get heat soak while driving you may have some underlying issue. When the car is moving the tmic is great.

The problem comes once your car is warm and you sit at idle for awhile. The core of the tmic collects the heat from the block, exhaust, etc. The fuel you're running has nothing to do with this.

^^^ heat soak comes from idling. The ram jet of air coming thru the scoop cools it off pretty quick once you get above 35mph. If you are really worried about heat soak on the stock TMIC, get gold heat tape (forget the name) and start wrapping the TMIC, put on a turbo blanket, add the gold foil on the underside of the Turbo heat shield. Going to the ProcessWest TMIC will help with heat soak, but you'll still want the turbo blanket & shield for hard driving (track events).

The autox-ers will have more to say on cooling the heat-soaking parts, however, a 5-lb bag of ice fits nicely on a ProcessWest TMIC when doing dyno runs. There is a post or two on using methonal sprays to cool off any TMIC by using an additional windowwasher pump.

If you really wanted to get serious about reducing heat-soak, you'd have to build an insulated outbox for the TMIC, and wrap the outside of everything with the gold heat tape. And likely want to be looking for solutions that exhaust the hot air from the engine compartment. If you are looking at this problem, you are driving the wrong car.

The worst heat soak I've had came from a day of auto-x practice runs. 42 runs spread over 8 hours, idling in between. No amount of water/ice was making much different by the end of the day. The runs werent long enough to cool off the TMIC and the idling (hood up) in hot weather didnt help much.

If you are looking in depth at this issue, you will have solved many other issues first. If you are looking at this issue first, you will waste many dollars chasing a problem caused by improper engineering. Figure out which parts need to be hot and which need to be cool. Work on isolating the heat and the TMIC heat soak issue will largely go away.

Why does it seem like I'm getting the feeling you guys think I'm planning to put WAY more performance/tune into this car then I am?

I'll literally be happy with a near stock, SLIGHT bump in performance

Why does it seem like I'm getting the feeling you guys think I'm planning to put WAY more performance/tune into this car then I am?

 

I'll literally be happy with a near stock, SLIGHT bump in performance

Well, when I brought up heat soak, tmic's came into play. My point was just that you should look into wrapping your UP/DP. All the talk about auto-x was just to prove that if the car can stand up to that torture, it will be more than sufficient for daily driving.

Just look into swapping your UP/DP.. the car will wake up. A mild stage 2 tune will be more than enough.. you don't need to fiddle with an intake, cat-back, or really anything else. I would verify what you need to make sure your 5eat is happy with 250whp though.

Well, when I brought up heat soak, tmic's came into play. My point was just that you should look into wrapping your UP/DP. All the talk about auto-x was just to prove that if the car can stand up to that torture, it will be more than sufficient for daily driving.

 

Just look into swapping your UP/DP.. the car will wake up. A mild stage 2 tune will be more than enough.. you don't need to fiddle with an intake, cat-back, or really anything else. I would verify what you need to make sure your 5eat is happy with 250whp though.

Bingo! Yea you get me... Exactly what I'm talking about... Just that little extra ummmph to "Wake up" as you put it... Everything staying relatively similar just allowing her to breath a little better, with some new parts

Welp may not put an immense level of effort into upgrading for performance, as me and the now WIFE, have gotten married and set a plan for may for Arizona. Think I'm going to keep the legacy around as long as she decides she'll have me, for at least the next 2 years, get down there, get settled in and go from there.

So at this point, I think I'm committing to some solid maint work, along with the LCA bushings and sway bar end links I had pressed in last year, Got new tires last fall, and now I'm taking the plunge on the Timing belt maint (I'm at 103k miles) and going to do it right, even if the water pump and tensioner look good I'm still going to have them done along with the timing belt.

Also replacing the Intercooler, PVC assembly and Power steering pump this weekend and plan to get a full diff front/center/rear, trans and coolant flushes done when the timing belt work is being done. Gonna cost a pretty pennie, but it'll be nice to have it all done! Then I think I'm just gonna slow roll it and enjoy the GT for a while longer... Going on 9 years