My New Subaru

Hello to all, as has been said 1000's of times before i am new to the forum and new to this AWD world. I found myself looking for a new project and bought my new baby, a 2007 Legacy GT in silver. She has 260,000km (161,500mi) on the clock and i picked her up for $2,500CAD ($1,900USD). she came with a Cobb Accessport device and cable, probably butchered that again new to this, alleged 4inch DP, whiteline sway bars and links, bilstein shocks, short shifter, 17 inch mags, subwoofer the size of a watermelon in the trunk, and so many other odds and sods i cant possibly list them all.

 

The previous owner babied the crap out of this thing, changing oil every 7,000km (4,400mi), changing banjo bolts every 50,000km (31,000mi), always full synthetic. For her age and mileage she pulls like a freight train. I have had fast cars before but nothing has felt this torquey. Any speed, and gear she'll pin your head back.

 

I have grand amitions of 3-400wwhp as im sure everyone does. I have already procured myself a VF52 with 70,000km (43,500mi) on it for $420CAD (320USD) and plan on doing injectors, fuel pump, catless headers w/ up pipe and better TMIC in due course. And likely a full engine rebuild myself. Living 5 minutes from my local drag strip is awfully motivating

 

So there it is, what do we think? Am i in over my head? For my first Subaru i think i did pretty well. Pictures will be forthcoming and any input is welcome. I live in the Luskville Qc area about 45 minutes north of Ottawa so anyone in the are give me a shout. Im always down to cruise.

 

Cheers ladys and gents

Budget for a new motor with that many miles. It may last a while, but it may only last a week. I consider at 150k miles, the Legacy's turbo motor to be a crapshoot.

Seems like you found some great deals and have the start of a great plan in place. Keep on planning that rebuild. Your goals sound realistic, though IDK how long the transmission will hold 400whp.

Thanks for the feedback, my RockAuto cart is currently full of $1000CAD ($760USD) worth of gaskets, belts, rings, bearings and bolts for the rebuild. Im going to get it baselined at my local dyno shop before i do anything to it then off to the track this weekend. Checkers or wreckers right, ill post the aftermath of it all on monday. How do we feel about my posting all units in English and American?

'Merican

 

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

Dang, you scored on the initial purchase price. That'll help offset all you're about to spend...

 

I don't mind if you post both units. I don't understand that metric stuff 'cause I live in a backwards world where someone's body part became a unit of measurement 800 years ago.

Leave it to 'Murica to turn 2 inches into a mile hahahaha

 

Small update.

 

Spent some time tooling around with the AccessPort unit, henceforth known as 'The Dongle", last night. Found that the previous owner has loaded the stage 2 91 octane tune. max boost set to 16psi, I peaked at 15.8psi according to The Dongle, ramping down to 13psi by 6900rpm. Now I know there's no need to chase it all the way to 7500rpm before shifting.

 

Also found the performance page. The Dongle claims 233hp and 244lb/ft. Did my pull in 3rd gear from 2000rpm-6500rpm. We'll see what the chassis dyno has to say on Friday.

have you done a compression and leak down test?

 

when was the timing belt done?

 

don't do any mods until you are sure your longblock is healthy...

 

make sure that turbo you bought doesn't have any shaftplay!

 

this car on those specs shouldn't be reving past 6k rpm... your in dangerous territory going past 6k on stock block/heads/turbo.... is that an ots tune or custom tune?

Edited July 25, 2019 by Tehnation

the f**king engine alone in the car is worth 2.5-3k in good working condition, to think they sold the car for 2k.... i would triple check that long block!

timing belt and head gaskets were last done at 190,000km (118,000mi) giving them 30,000km (18,600mi) until the next 100,000km (60,000mi) interval. not that im waiting that long. i will likely drive it as it save for drop springs until mid fall when itll go into hibernation and be completely rebuilt. at that point itll be time for headers, UP, TMIC, injectors, fuel pump and the VF52.

 

as for the turbo, considering i was the one to dismantled the car when it came in, a 2013 wrx in blue that caught a tree in our last tornado, i can say with great certainty that there is zero shaft play nor signs of fluid leakage. we deal with a shop that exclusively rebuilds turbos and i will be sending it and my stocker off to them for freshening up come time.

 

as previously stated the tune is out of the COBB AccessPort, not much more to it then that. came preloaded in The Dongle and buddy ran with it.

Welcome!

 

Using the Cobb AP you can load one of their "canned" or "off the shelf" generic tunes or use the AP to have a custom Pro-Tune.

 

The Pro-Tune is the better option and becomes the only viable option once you start upgrading parts like the turbo.

 

It sounds like you are currently running a Cobb OTS tune. Might want to read up on Cobb's website as there is a ton of useful info on there.

 

https://www.cobbtuning.com/support/

Welcome!

 

Using the Cobb AP you can load one of their "canned" or "off the shelf" generic tunes or use the AP to have a custom Pro-Tune.

 

The Pro-Tune is the better option and becomes the only viable option once you start upgrading parts like the turbo.

 

It sounds like you are currently running a Cobb OTS tune. Might want to read up on Cobb's website as there is a ton of useful info on there.

 

https://www.cobbtuning.com/support/

 

Thanks, I'll definitely look into that.

 

 

Disappointing news over the weekend. I learned that the dyno shop right behind my work can only do 2WD. This means that I will now need to go to Toronto, a 1,000 km (600 mi) 10 hour round trip, and the cost of my baseline just went from $150 CAD ($114 USD) to closer to $500 CAD ($380 USD) plus cost of fuel to get there and back.

 

 

On the upside, despite not going to the track I did go on an hour and a half drive up to my parents cottage for my dad's 50th. 45 minutes of that drive is on an awesome piece of road that follows the river. This car loved third gear and I averaged about 70 km/h (45 mph) and found that this thing takes corners quite well for being 3,300 lbs. I found that if I did push it a little too hard it showed just enough understeer to tell me I was being a knob.

Before you drive all the way to toronto to just do a dyno run... try these guys they are in ottawa

 

http://www.capitaltuning.com

TRACK DAY TRACK DAY TRACK DAY!!!! This weekend at Luskville dragway. Its their biggest event of the year with 3 days of racing, funny cars, promods and jet cars. Cruise night saturday night opens the track up to street cars from 6pm-11pm for 25$Cad for car and driver +5$ for each additional passenger (19$+3.75$Usd) I dont work for the track so im not here to promote it but i do live right behind it so ill be there all weekend and it would be cool to see some of you ladys and gents out there. This weekend offers the best track conditions of the year so grip isnt much of an issue.

 

i realize its a bit of a hike for a lot of people but being one of the only full quarter mile drag strip in the are the price cant be beat. it would be great to see some of you out there, we cant let the Hondas have all the fun so lets see em out there.

Its been a while nut i fin ally have a meaningful update to my legacy ownership. Its been some amount of weeks that I've owned this thing and other then the fuel economy its been great. Twice I've found gad stations who've run out of regular/midgrade gas and are selling only 91 at regular prices, score. I've broken a couple hearts from stop lights already, mazdaspeed 6 that was WAAAYYY louder then it should have been and a 128i drop top who's driver was the poster child for DB.

 

More notably i FINALLY managed to get it out to the track this past Saturday night.

 

20C air temp (68F) and 97% humidity didn't make for the best of conditions but despite this i laid down 6 runs and managed to eek out a 14.820@93MPH. I must say, launching these things can be tricky. I had my launch control set to 4k and no lift shift at 6k and put the hurt on a MazdaSpeed 3 whose front mount was to big, a newer Golf GTI, a SVT Raptor and pulled even with a 2013 STI hatch who's driver didn't understand the idea of building boost before dumping the clutch. Found a Lexus IS F who had my number all night though. Maybe next year things will be different, I have just received a large shipment of parts for this winters rebuild. Build thread to come

Now the best thing you can invest in with a winter build.... a heater for your garage

Oh don't worry, this isn't my first rodayo, I have my 24,000 BTU kerosene heater primed and ready. Bigger problem is my garage is currently taken up by my '53 Bel Air resto mod so it'll be a lot of grunting in snowbanks and cursing from my back this winter with the only reprieve coming from the engine rebuild itself. Maybe a pair of heated gloves are in order.

20C air temp (68F) and 97% humidity didn't make for the best of conditions but despite this i laid down 6 runs and managed to eek out a 14.820@93MPH. I must say, launching these things can be tricky. I had my launch control set to 4k and no lift shift at 6k

 

That seem kind of slow for a LGT with Cobb AP. It seems like you knew what you were doing (launch control/FFS) and the MPH is inline with ET.

 

Did you datalog your engine with the AP? I suspect that you will may find the engine is not running 100%.

That seem kind of slow for a LGT with Cobb AP. It seems like you knew what you were doing (launch control/FFS) and the MPH is inline with ET.

 

Did you datalog your engine with the AP? I suspect that you will may find the engine is not running 100%.

 

I did not, I'm still not that familiar with the AP nor would I know what I'm looking at if I had. She does seem to stumble in 1st when running up through the rpm. I figured the somewhat lackluster performance was due to poor conditions. i ran a "test hit" once and through the AP and it claimed 14.53 on a 25C (77F) day with 20% humidity

I did not, I'm still not that familiar with the AP nor would I know what I'm looking at if I had. She does seem to stumble in 1st when running up through the rpm. I figured the somewhat lackluster performance was due to poor conditions. i ran a "test hit" once and through the AP and it claimed 14.53 on a 25C (77F) day with 20% humidity

 

The engine not running smoothly and stumbling is not right. You can start by looking at the DAM and fuel trims. There are threads around this forum. It is lot easier to troubleshoot a cars issues when its stock. Adding performance parts only brings in more variables and often the increase air flow of aftermarket parts will just damage the engine quicker.

From what I've read it seems to be a common issue. I'll probably just stick it out for now and when I rebuild it I'll drag it to a tuner to make sure it all checks out before first drive. Sort of wipe the slate clean with the rebuild and start fresh if you will.

From what I've read it seems to be a common issue. I'll probably just stick it out for now and when I rebuild it I'll drag it to a tuner to make sure it all checks out before first drive. Sort of wipe the slate clean with the rebuild and start fresh if you will.

 

An engine rebuild doesn't wipe the slate clean unless every single part is replaced. I have seen many times where the owner thinks a new engine is miraculous going to fix all the problem when the wiring, sensor or leak is culprit and they end up with a big expensive headache.

I am doing a bottom rebuild, rings, bearing, seals gaskets, lap the valves so on. It'll be a clean slate for the motor is what I meant. Should there be a mechanical issue with the engine its self the rebuild should take care of that. It will also help to focus troubleshooting should issues arise since I know the motor will be good to go.