Long Life Motor... What do?

My '07 Legacy Estate (R Spec B H6 of course!) has 145000 miles on it... Interior/Bodywork is in fantastic condition for it's age, and the motor has been looked after very well... but it's a project car so i'm looking for gains and boost over the next year or two.

 

Should i rebuild the engine with uprated bits, or just go with a completely different motor?

 

I'm indecisive and i'm not too familiar with the financial side of this so any help/pointers are appreciated!

 

Cheers

Edited August 5, 2021 by projectwagon
Added year!

put an intake, dp & up from ebay on ut and drive it like zombies are chasing you? Please don't. Fastest way to a "partout" thread.

 

145k and well looked after? hope you have deep pockets.

 

Max Capacity is the resident guru on making these cars last. Here's a post with his build link in it - https://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6038578&postcount=6183

 

You'll want to search for other H6 owners that have high mileage cars. The photos sections have good stuff.

 

Create a thread in the "new members" section and post up pics. Or just start a thread in the photos section and post up pics /details.

 

congratulations on your estate, er, wagon

"gains and boost over the next year or two"

 

What kind?

 

I don't think you'll get much for additional power out of the engine unless you wander down the slippery (and expensive) slope of supercharging or turbocharging. Swapping out for a turbo 4 will get really expensive to have reliable gains beyond the H6.

 

If it were me, I would focus on the suspension and handling. Refreshing/upgrading all of the components, bushings, etc should only increase the driving fun.

 

Oh, and please post pictures :-D

"gains and boost over the next year or two"

 

What kind?

 

I don't think you'll get much for additional power out of the engine unless you wander down the slippery (and expensive) slope of supercharging or turbocharging. Swapping out for a turbo 4 will get really expensive to have reliable gains beyond the H6.

 

If it were me, I would focus on the suspension and handling. Refreshing/upgrading all of the components, bushings, etc should only increase the driving fun.

 

Oh, and please post pictures :-D

 

As you can probably tell im starting off fairly clueless, but the end goal is to make a decent track car that I could still daily. I was thinking of turbo-charging it but for the price and effort of running boost I could hopefully rebuild the engine with uprated bits and make some decent gains.

 

Like you say, Suspension and handling are definitely on my list of things!

 

Thanks

put an intake, dp & up from ebay on ut and drive it like zombies are chasing you? Please don't. Fastest way to a "partout" thread.

 

145k and well looked after? hope you have deep pockets.

 

Max Capacity is the resident guru on making these cars last. Here's a post with his build link in it - https://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6038578&postcount=6183

 

You'll want to search for other H6 owners that have high mileage cars. The photos sections have good stuff.

 

Create a thread in the "new members" section and post up pics. Or just start a thread in the photos section and post up pics /details.

 

congratulations on your estate, er, wagon

 

Sound advice! I'll be investigating Max Capacity!

Thanks for the pointers

track car? you don't need a turbo. suspension and tires are enough. Having no idea of you or your past cars (you know, because no thread . ), an estate track car is no joke in the money pit class.

 

I post this every time someone says I want a track car from whatever I bought. Don't. You'll be the goofy car into which you have poured boatloads of money (unless you have a drug business in which case, hello, porsche 911?) for very little return. The daily track day cost will be on the level of an actual race car except you have to drive it on the road too. Anything else is a better track car. Really.

 

However, because everyone thinks I'm joking, if you must continue this foolish quest...change the oil in the engine, transmission, and differentials. Put on long mileage touring tires. Pump them up to 40 psi. Replace the brake pads and flush the brake fluid. Nothing else. Go do a track day. If you think that was about the most fun you've ever had, don't do a thing to the car. Otherwise sell it and buy the least expensive maintenance wise car at the track (because you asked everyone how much they spend per track day).

 

Again, the vast majority think...omg that was the best thing ever. I need $$$$ parts to go faster. Partout threads are usually a couple months down the road.

 

You seem like a reasonable person. Forum backlash says I should be nicer to newbies who want to track their estates. Read some other threads. CapnJack, strizzy, grimlin, ezra1320, shralp, sgt.gator, losangleslgt, brandonspecb, edgar (his avatar is a track car), etc

 

Many years ago, someone decided an estate was the perfect race car. Then a few ppl thought it was still a good idea. I'll ship it to you. It'll be cheaper than whatever you plan to do - https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=284091&highlight=grandam

Edited August 5, 2021 by boxkita

Also for the H6 long term life, follow the wise advice of Al (Mighty Car Mods, Skid Factory) and ditch the OE headers / Cat. Replace with something aftermarket and then the NA H6 will be happy as a clam.

 

 

 

Sort out the suspension and you will be happy

What he said, ^

Spend your money on suspension, brakes, wheels/tires, and enjoy it. Spending money on the engine is a foolish never-ending quest and will give you more heartache than your wallet can handle.

track car? you don't need a turbo. suspension and tires are enough. Having no idea of you or your past cars (you know, because no thread . ), an estate track car is no joke in the money pit class.

 

I post this every time someone says I want a track car from whatever I bought. Don't. You'll be the goofy car into which you have poured boatloads of money (unless you have a drug business in which case, hello, porsche 911?) for very little return. The daily track day cost will be on the level of an actual race car except you have to drive it on the road too. Anything else is a better track car. Really.

 

However, because everyone thinks I'm joking, if you must continue this foolish quest...change the oil in the engine, transmission, and differentials. Put on long mileage touring tires. Pump them up to 40 psi. Replace the brake pads and flush the brake fluid. Nothing else. Go do a track day. If you think that was about the most fun you've ever had, don't do a thing to the car. Otherwise sell it and buy the least expensive maintenance wise car at the track (because you asked everyone how much they spend per track day).

 

Again, the vast majority think...omg that was the best thing ever. I need $$$$ parts to go faster. Partout threads are usually a couple months down the road.

 

You seem like a reasonable person. Forum backlash says I should be nicer to newbies who want to track their estates. Read some other threads. CapnJack, strizzy, grimlin, ezra1320, shralp, sgt.gator, losangleslgt, brandonspecb, edgar (his avatar is a track car), etc

 

Many years ago, someone decided an estate was the perfect race car. Then a few ppl thought it was still a good idea. I'll ship it to you. It'll be cheaper than whatever you plan to do - https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=284091&highlight=grandam

 

I'll retire to my new state of being completely humbled then shall I?

 

You make fair points, and I promise i'm taking them on board! I'm young and giddy with an H6 under my right foot so i'm dreaming big; This thread is the start of my research journey so genuinely thank you for this!

 

Oh, and *someone's* racecar looks utterly awesome. Proper desktop-wallpaper material that!

it's your car. do as you wish. you named your goal. I named ppl who all invested 6 figures and eventually moved on to something better/cheaper.

 

I hope you are the exception...

 

Drive it before modifying it. You'll be much happier

This is a very heavy car to turn into a track machine. I’d leave it stock so it breaks less and save up for a Miata, old Civic, or something along those lines to turn into a track car that’s lighter and has cheaper parts and mods as well as a deeper aftermarket and forum community.

I kind of get the fascination of trying to build a track car that's a comfortable/ reliable daily. But it doesn't realistically make sense, there's a reason they don't really exist. And if they do you are better off spending 6 figures on something that was designed to do so. Though its more likely you'll have a faster track car and a good daily driver, if you have a dedicated car for each task. Depending on the track of course but hp is usually the least of your issues. Pretty much everything else but the engine will make you go faster/have better lap times.

 

I remember one track day I went to. There was a Toyota Yaris that beat everyone on lap times. Faster than a bmw M5, trailered track cars etc. No idea what he had done to it but if I had to guess, all his money went into suspension if anything at all. I do know he had slick tires. Point being is he could corner at speeds almost twice what the M5 could due to size/weight and grip.

From my perspective - if you want a cheap and fun track car, get a Miata. (see this thread: https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/bought-miata-200975.html?p=6037795#post6037795 )

 

 

 

The H6 is a pretty decent machine as is and you can of course do some minor stuff with it to improve the NA flow and make it happier on the freeway. Suspension and brakes will make a lot more difference as others also have said.

 

 

Treated right the H6 should be problem free, just keep an eye on the head gaskets as they are a common issue on all the boxer engines.

looking at nearby tracks, https://www.racingcircuits.info/europe/united-kingdom/ , Idk how valid the list is. However, taking any car on one of these would be fun.

 

My sole experience with speed in the UK was on the motorway due to a misunderstanding of the maximum speed limit. In case you ever wondered, it's not the Autobahn. I spent 2 glorious weeks thinking otherwise. An Audi S4 and a Saab 9-5 turbo are extremely capable cars; and are immune to speed cameras. ymmv.

 

Where are you planning on taking your estate?

looking at nearby tracks, https://www.racingcircuits.info/europe/united-kingdom/ , Idk how valid the list is. However, taking any car on one of these would be fun.

 

My sole experience with speed in the UK was on the motorway due to a misunderstanding of the maximum speed limit. In case you ever wondered, it's not the Autobahn. I spent 2 glorious weeks thinking otherwise. An Audi S4 and a Saab 9-5 turbo are extremely capable cars; and are immune to speed cameras. ymmv.

 

Where are you planning on taking your estate?

 

I didn't have any specific plans just yet for taking it racing, which probably plays into me not having any solid ideas with what to do with it!

 

I know that even stock this car is going to be super fun, im already having a blast with it and I'm pretty much solely driving it 10 miles to work and back most days!

 

So many great points on this thread, the headgasket/open deck issue is coming up in my research too so thats definitely on the list along with brakes/suspension!

 

I shan't be chasing racecar status, id just like to know that the H6 isn't gonna blow up in the next 10k if I start tinkering and (hopefully) improving!