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My Unassuming RBP LGT Journal/Tuning Thread


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A little background. My previous vehicle was a '98 Legacy GT Limited AT that I absolutely loved, but it fell a little bit short on the power potential without big money. In the fall of 2008, It was time for an upgrade, so there were a few vehicles I considered. Since my replacement would remain my daily driver, certain criteria had to be met.

 

Reliable

Perform well in all seasons

Comfortably transport my family

Wife approved attractive design

Rather uncommon

Available manual transmission

Good power out of the box

Good upgrade and aftermarket potential

 

When weighing all the criteria, a few vehicles came to mind. Those include the G35 sedan (expensive at the time with AWD), Audi S4 (same), Mazdaspeed6 (couldn't even find one to test drive), and obviously the Legacy GT. Needless to say, the Legacy GT was the best candidate especially since I liked my '98, figured an updated version of it I'll like even better.

 

I looked at a few different 4th gen Legacy GTs before purchasing mine in September 2008. I chose this one for all the usual reasons; best price per mileage, color, options, etc. It was bone stock when I bought it, but that didn't last long. Purchased and Accessport and flashed to a stg1 map. Shortly after that, I got a downpipe and catless uppipe and flashed to a stg2 map. As time went on, more and more parts got added and it would take me forever to chronicle the piece by piece installation so rather, several years later, here's what's been done.Yes, at the time of this posting I've been sitting on this turbo for about 2 and a half years. It was the last of Edmundu's huge part out thread so I got it. After we made the deal, he noticed that there was a crack in the turbine housing. He had a new and upgraded turbine housing shipped to me and I had that ported and coated. For the next year, I gathered parts for the upgrade. Here is my current setup.

 

Vehicle

 

2005 Legacy GT Limited

5 speed MT

Regal Blue Pearl

102k miles and counting

 

Mods

 

-E85 fueling

-KSTech 83mm CAI

-TurboXS Shorty massive 4" downpipe

-Grimmspeed coated EWG uppipe and dump tube

-Tial 44mm EWG

-Cobb IWG bracket (short)

-Ported and coated stock manifolds

-Grimmspeed ported crosspipe

-Perrin mid and y pipe.

-Prodrive mufflers (stock mufflers until spring)

-AVO FMIC

TurboXS 50/50 BOV

-APS solid turbo inlet

-JDM TGV deletes ported

-DW 1100cc sidefeed injectors (true flow is over 1200)

-Walbro 450 fuel pump

-AVO 450 BB turbo ported and coated

 

 

Tuning Necessities

 

-Cobb V2 Accessport

-Access Tuner Race Cobb

-Innovate LC1 WBO2 sensor.

-Grimmspeed 3 port boost control solenoid and MBC (hybrid boost control)

 

Drivetrain

 

Competition Clutch Stage 3 Segmented disk

LW Competition flywheel

TSK3 snout sleeve

Group N tranny mount

Group N motor mounts

Agency Power pitch stop mount

Custom fabricated tranny blast plates

 

Brakes

 

-DBA slotted rotors

-Project MU NS400 brake pads

 

Suspension mods

 

Koni inserts (4 corners)

Tein H Tech lowering springs

Cobb sway bars front and rear

Moog end links

AVO reinforcement brackets

Whiteline ALK

AVO steering rack bushings

Wheels and tires

 

BBS RC 18x7.5" +38mm offset

Falken ZE912 A/S 235/40r18

 

 

 

As the car sits, all parts above have been installed and the car is running, however not fully tuned. An updated base map needs to be flashed to the ecu before we go any further. I can tell you that at only 14psi, this thing pulls hard and its street manners are actually more mild than the stock vf40. Not nearly as punchy with smooth power delivery throughout. At least that's what the butt dyno tells me. ;)

 

This thread will be updated as the car gets further tuned. I'll be posting logs as they come available as well as dyno graphs. This weekend, we will be working on completing a 93 octane winter tune. Springtime will add an E85 tune to the equation. This was being tuned by a tuner, but I've since taken over the workload assisted by member qikslvr. Qikslvr has helped me immensely get to this point so I'd like to thank him publicly for his efforts.

 

Stay tuned (bad pun)

 

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n29/joeleodee/Mobile%20Uploads/23014818043_04e47af4ba_h_zpssa8ccwwa.jpg

 

23559466961_7bf53d5437_z.jpg

 

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n29/joeleodee/IMAG0752_zpsazfgbhan.jpg

 

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n29/joeleodee/AVO450full_zpslghtxrnj.jpg

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Would like to see the avo450 graph I run the 500

 

Would like to see graphs of yours as well. Do you daily that? The 450 is the biggest I was willing to tolerate. This vehicle is a four season all weather driver. As it sits, it's running great. I have no trouble starting the car in the sub 20 degree weather and no idling issues that everyone seems scared of with big sidefeeds. We could not do any tuning over the weekend, though. A snow storm hit and frigid temps followed. Hopefully, we can get out on the road this week and I can post some logs for you guys.

 

Are you using avo's braided oil feed with the stock hardpipe off the head or a custom line?

 

I'm trying to adapt the infamous filter kit to my avo 380 and was wondering about oil restrictors and what others have done if anything

 

Yes, braided oil feed to the hardline. I can post a pic if you want. Also, ask scooby2.5. He's running a 380 as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Couple updates. The turbo won't boost past spring pressure because there's a pig sqealing under the hood. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to get out there and track it down. The tuner says it sounds alot like a coupler for the piping. Hopefully it's just that. Maf scaling was erratic so that had to be completely rescaled. Some adjustments in the advanced timing brought the surge even more under control so it's even less noticeable. Boost is all over the place but not over 15psi because of the leak. :( We are remaining completely knock free, though.

 

We've switched over to open source tuning since windows 7 was causing erratic readings with the v1 streettuner software. We might go back to the streettuner eventually. Hopefully I'll have some logs to post pretty soon. No point in posting anything now.

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i hope you kept the old maf scale, if you had a boost leak and re-scaled it, it's gonna be all funky when you go back the other way.

 

Yes, all previously accurate scales have been saved.

 

Could be an up pipe leak..

 

That was my first thought, but before I start changing gaskets, especially the uppipe gasket, I'm going to have it smoke tested. I've had to change that before and that's a bit time consuming. Between the stg 2 logs and now, too much has changed to guess where the leak might be. A visual inspection of the couplers revealed nothing to make me think that is the culprit. I'll probably not get to anything until after christmas, though.

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Took some logs last night just to make sure we're still running safe. Yes, it is running knock free and nothing to be too concerned over. However, as stated before, the potential of this setup is severely stymied by that gremlin boost leak. It's definitely moving more air at less psi than the stg2 logs show, but it's boosting way late and only peaking right around spring pressure.

 

The logs look very similar to when I had a boost leak in the uppipe gasket before, only with a larger turbo so everything is shifted to the right. When I fixed that leak, I still had to install the ebcs to get it to hit target boost so it's hard to say how much that made a difference. The gasket did look like it had a few orifices where it was leaking, though. Hopefully, I can get it smoke tested next week.

 

Only other change from the OP is I'm rocking the stock mufflers for the winter. Hopefully, we can get some results and see how restrictive the mufflers really are to a larger turbo with some before and after numbers come springtime.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Taking it in today to be pressurized. If we don't find a boost leak, the only thing left would be the ebcs or the wastegate actuator. It's possible one of those two parts has gone bad. The actuator has been sitting unused for 2 and a half years and apparently, that ebcs can just go haywire sometimes. If it's neither of those.....then I don't know. Updates coming.
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apparently, that ebcs can just go haywire sometimes. .

 

And that's exactly what happened.

 

First we blew compressed air through to the actuator to make sure that was operating properly and that looked okay.

 

Next, we pressurized it, and the BOV was acting a little bit squirrly. To eliminate that possibility, we put the stock bpv back on, but that didn't change a thing as far as the logs go.

 

On to the ebcs, we checked to make sure it was getting power and reacting to changes, and it was, but we were not convinced. He had a manual boost controller sitting in an Evo in the shop so we stripped that off and slapped it on my car. After a few logs with no tuning and no adjustment, we were in the 16.5 psi range. Remember we were struggling to hit 15 before. A couple turns and we were in the 17.5 range...again with no tuning. A couple more turns and it was over 18psi and that's where we stopped because it was showing a little bit of knock. Because it's not tuned yet for the load ranges that 18psi is giving, I backed the MBC down to about 16psi until my new setup comes in. My tuner recommends a hybrid boost control setup so that's on order, but for now I get to leave the MBC on there.

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