CovertRussian's 05 LGT Build Thread

Photobucket decided to screw all of us, to be able to externally link images you now have to pay $400 a year. Which means all my photo links are toast.

I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to reupload more important things to this forum. I'm gonna start with How To's first, but it's gonna be weeks of work again

EDIT: What's interesting is, some of my pictures are down and some are not. Looks like they are hiding some of my more popular pics and not whole account...

That's the thing, Flickr might be next thanks to Verizon. A lot of people are saying imgur, but they also have similar TOS. At this point I'm just beat up and sad. My hope is photobucket will wisen up and have more reasonably priced accounts.

Meanwhile I'll be uploading most pics to the forum, especially for How To's and informational threads. Everything else might just have to stay down, since I don't have the man/power energy to deal with yet another host migration.

Figured I would give the inserts at try, to see if it can make the overall driveline be more solid (and hopefully still vibration free).

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252603&stc=1&d=1500257824

These inserts fill the voids in the oem bushing. This is what I have to work with, the rust is nasty with this one.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252604&stc=1&d=1500257824

Started soaking them in PBblaster. To make things worse, I could not fit any length sockets, not even my through socket set. This means you can only fit a 17mm combination wrench, with no real leverage.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252605&stc=1&d=1500257824

With some heat and foot pushing power, I finally broke the nuts loose. The next fun came when the nuts hit the very rusty portion of the thread, it actually started extracting the stud out of the differential. At this point I had to work the rust out by spinning the nut back and forth for about 10 min.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252606&stc=1&d=1500257824

Finally can install the inserts, the bigger portion should face up

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252607&stc=1&d=1500257824

Greased and pressed in just enough to expose threads to screw on the washer and nut, after that it will slowly work itself into place.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252608&stc=1&d=1500257824

You can see the insert fingers on the other side of the bushing

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252609&stc=1&d=1500257824

While I was under there I saw that my forward facing bushings are also shot, once actually leaked out. I wonder if going with poly bushings (Whiteline KDT905 or Prothane 16-1609) will increase NVH a little too much...

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252610&stc=1&d=1500257824

Testing Thoughts:

Overall I can't say I really felt a difference, maybe because my forward bushings are so shot? NVH didn't seem to increase for 99% of driving, though if lugged the motor (usually happens in 4th gear due to poor gearing), I did feel more vibrations.

EDIT: Replacing the diff cradle (with shot bushings) seemed to have fixed the harshness that inserts have caused.

On the forward busings, it's actually cheaper to buy a used aluminum rear diff mount off a newer STI or WRX. They have significantly stiffer bushings (though not poli stiff) and can be had for less then $40 shipped on ebay.

That's pretty awesome! Though those bushings actually have voids in them, so would need the other whiteline insert kit still. I'll check my part out car's differential bushings tomorrow, might just use those.

Odd. I noticed a fantastic difference when adding those press in rear bushings. My setup already had several other bushings replaced for the trans, shift linkage, etc. Maybe that's the difference. I still think the groupN trans mount was the single largest difference maker, although I never got to install the groupN motor mounts.

It's probably because I'm still on stock bushings everywhere else. Since I already have a race car I've been doing my best to not ruin the comfort of this car. Only poly bushings in my car is the front LCA rearward bushing (which didn't increase NVH at all).

I don't mind poly bushings in suspension comments as much as I mind them in engine/driveline components, RPM based vibrations/noise is really annoying.

On the forward busings, it's actually cheaper to buy a used aluminum rear diff mount off a newer STI or WRX. They have significantly stiffer bushings (though not poli stiff) and can be had for less then $40 shipped on ebay.

you mean an aluminum front mount from an R180? as in a 6 speed? from what i've read, most think they aren't swappable.

edit: well, physically you can, but isn't supposed to provide the right angle or spacing.

That's pretty awesome! Though those bushings actually have voids in them, so would need the other whiteline insert kit still. I'll check my part out car's differential bushings tomorrow, might just use those.

 

 

 

 

It's probably because I'm still on stock bushings everywhere else. Since I already have a race car I've been doing my best to not ruin the comfort of this car. Only poly bushings in my car is the front LCA rearward bushing (which didn't increase NVH at all).

 

I don't mind poly bushings in suspension comments as much as I mind them in engine/driveline components, RPM based vibrations/noise is really annoying.

One is solid, one has gaps. On the side that has gaps, they are smaller then the Legacy bushing gaps, so it's probably not worth messing with the insert there.

you mean an aluminum front mount from an R180? as in a 6 speed? from what i've read, most think they aren't swappable.

 

edit: well, physically you can, but isn't supposed to provide the right angle or spacing.

You can't swap the R180 into the steel one, but going the other way works just fine. Angle and spacing are the same at the point it actually contacts the diff. The '15+ wrx has a R160 like the MT cars do, and the carrier is the same part number as the STI. If I remember correctaly that part number cross referances to the same one that was in the JDM '04+ Legacys, but with diffrent (softer) bushings. On the JDM versions of our cars all of them had the aluminum carrier.

Mine's an 05 and doesn't seem to have any gaps at all currently .

Re on 2015's, so your saying they have the weak ass 5 speeds with just an extra gear still (like 2010-12 LGT's?)

Re on 2015's, so your saying they have the weak ass 5 speeds with just an extra gear still (like 2010-12 LGT's?)

More or less, yes.

I started messing with intakes again. My custom CAI worked well, gained MPG, but when it it rained I found water ontop of the flow stack and filter media being slightly wet.

Since my version 1 WAI would get hot real fast, I figured I would try the K&N Typhoon with it's heatshield and all.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=257167&stc=1&d=1508942795

Though the heatshield doesn't seal all that well...

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=257168&stc=1&d=1508942795

Which means after a couple minutes of 90F city & parking lot driving my IAT's would hit 160F...

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=257169&stc=1&d=1508942795

Onto what really matters though, does it make more power then stock airbox?

To be fair to each setup, I fine tuned both setups for maximum safe power. Then on a different day I tested one intake, installed the other intake, flashed the fine tuned tune for that setup and did another test. These logs were taken about 1 hour apart.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=257170&stc=1&d=1508942795

Power Gains: K&N Intake made fairly minimal gains, and that's with it running 1/2psi more boost then the stock intake. I think the K&N intake would actually make the promised 15whp gain on a stock tune (since it's filthy rich and not optimized). But on a fine tuned setup, the gains are simply much more negligible.

Now this is also with the worse flowing OEM filter (16546AA10A) with 25k miles on it. Newer style better flowing OEM filter (16546AA12A) might actually close the gap more. I didn't learn about the filter differences until after I did these tests, so don't have a good comparison graph for newer filter.

AFR: AFR's were richer for the K&N intake, when I fine tuned it the week before, it was tuned to 11.1 AFR, temps got warmer so it got slightly richer unfortunately. I personally don't think there is all that much power to be had from making it slightly leaner.

Boost: K&N Typhoon spools slightly faster and runs slightly more boost (I'm on wastegate pressure only with no boost controllers, so it's not tune or anything else at play).

IAT: Less then 5*F difference, so shouldn't impact HP comparison all that much.

Ignition Timing: K&N Intake wanted 2* less timing, running the same timing as stock intake made it loose power. When I tried to decrease timing by more then 2*, I lost power.

Gas Mileage: I only did one city and one highway test, in both tests I lost about 1/2 MPG, but I'm wiling to bet it's really a wash, more importantly MPG didn't increase at all. My detailed post on the MPG side can be found here.

Conclusion

With very minimal fine tuned power gains, no MPG gains, and IAT's skyrocking much faster then stock. Besides making cool turbo noises, at my power levels this intake is not worth the drawbacks.

Did some testing with drop in filters, and even the K&N drop in filter required a slight retune (Adding 5% to MAF scale), especially with the older style OEM Filter (16546AA10A). While with the newer style OEM filter (which is a little cleaner), I only had to add 2% to the tune to make the K&N filter's AFR's and MAF loads happy.

Left to right: ~25k mile 05/06 Filter: 16546AA10A, ~10k mile 07+ filter: 16546AA12A, ~15k mile K&N Filter: 33-2304

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252699&stc=1&d=1500431800

After that test I started fine tuning the K&N filter (33-2304) and the newer style oem filter (16546AA12A). Results are, as you probably expect, are too close to draw a conclusion. Both filters seem to be fine with same amount of ignition timing, which tells me that there is no real gains to be had from filter swapping.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=252704&stc=1&d=1500431800

Got my hands on a lightly used GrimmSpeed 3" Divorced Downpipe. It's actually very similar in design to my current setup, just in 3" flavor vs 2.5".

Stromung 2.5" on top, Grimspeeed 3" on bottom

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253813&stc=1&d=1502161090

They are very similarly designed, even the divorced pipe merges in at about the same location.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253814&stc=1&d=1502161090

Since this is the special edition of the downpipe, it has a stepped wastegate opening, which is real good since my 16G opens from the center unlike the VF46 which opened from the outside. The gate still blocks most of the divorced pipe, makes me wonder if Bellmouth would be a better design for my turbo's gate.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253815&stc=1&d=1502161090

Since GS uses a nice and thick flange, the bolts were barely long enough to fit with the heatshield bracket. The wideband port is further down then on my previous downpipe, this should hopefully reduce the wear and tear on it.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253816&stc=1&d=1502161090

At first I bolted the downpipe to the stock catback, even with my DIY gasket it still was leaking, I did get a few power runs in (will show those further down). But with the car having an EQL header exhaust leaks don't sound good, so had to improvise. I had a piece of my very old Sentra exhaust, which was a perfect 2.4" which fit the doughnut gasket well. I called it the "bad adapter" because it's a flow wall, even the stock exhaust tapers down gracefully while this one just provides a flow wall.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253817&stc=1&d=1502161090

As you can see my stock catback flange is pretty bent, that's why it wont seal against a flat surface. This is a stop gap until I build a 3" exhaust.

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253818&stc=1&d=1502161090

Finally the dynos...

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=253823&stc=1&d=1502162843

Keep in mind the GrimmSpeed downpipe does have a major exhaust leak, this is before the horribly restrictive 2.4" adapter was installed.

To my surprise the 3" downpipe mainly helped with the low end power, I expected otherwise actually. This could also be due to different cat designs (GS one might flow better down low).

Interestingly enough, the GS Downpipe is actually boosting less, thinking about it, this could be due to better divorced design reducing overboosting.

I did do a few pulls with the adapter, and all of them are way down on power. Either the adapter is that restrictive, or the weather hasn't been similar enough. I'll try to get in a few passes when it hits ~83F again.

Downpipe pictures are properly linked now. Forum has an attachment timeout, so a lot of times I have to make the post to save the pictures, then update the text and actual picture links.

The timeout sucks cause I usually take 30-40min to write a post, so when I go to finally submit, all images have to be reuploaded and re-embeded..

Was the power difference down low noticeable? Is this graph averaged in any way?

Also interesting on your graph that the 2.4" downpipe hits peek boost faster, but the torque is better on the Grimmspeed.

Was the power difference down low noticeable? Is this graph averaged in any way?

Not really, but I didn't drive it too much, since it sounded like a ricer. I did notice the car didn't "pull as hard", but that just means power deliver was much more linear.

Right now on the 2.4" adapter it definitely doesn't feel quite as fast, and dyno's reflected that too (but it was a cooler 73f today, which I've noticed will usually reduce my power).

Also interesting on your graph that the 2.4" downpipe hits peek boost faster, but the torque is better on the Grimmspeed.

I think this is a boost spike, since the wastegate flapper is basically blocking the whole divorced pipe, I can see it causing some overboost and then settling. GS has a machined a valley to help with that.