'08 OBXT Engine help!

So, I'm finally getting into a sweet little '08 Outback XT in a week or two. I'm having a hard time trying to decide if I want to spend the money on some mods to help keep the engine healthy and reliable with a few performance mods, or just run the engine as is until I have serious problems with it and just go for a full power rebuild when it finally blows.

Welcome to the forum. Here's the service manual. http://people.csail.mit.edu/ilh/vacation/

 

Your want to drive the car for a while and see how it runs. With Winter time coming soon, you'll want to make sure all the fluids are in good shape or recently changed, tranny and read diff and coolant.

 

Is it a 5mt or 5EAT ?

Well if you keep the engine healthy, which is pretty cheap, you can always rebuild using that block. Stock block and everything seems to be good to 325 ish maybe more? And then it's just piston issues it seems.

 

So I'd tell you to keep it healthy and put money away for your 10k giant turbo, fmic, better clutch, better injector, better fuel pump rebuild.

 

 

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Welcome to the forum. Here's the service manual. http://people.csail.mit.edu/ilh/vacation/

 

Your want to drive the car for a while and see how it runs. With Winter time coming soon, you'll want to make sure all the fluids are in good shape or recently changed, tranny and read diff and coolant.

 

Is it a 5mt or 5EAT ?

 

It's the 5mt, recently had the turbo and clutch replaced (With OEM) within the past year, currently has 85,000 miles on it.

Well if you keep the engine healthy, which is pretty cheap, you can always rebuild using that block. Stock block and everything seems to be good to 325 ish maybe more? And then it's just piston issues it seems.

 

So I'd tell you to keep it healthy and put money away for your 10k giant turbo, fmic, better clutch, better injector, better fuel pump rebuild.

 

 

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I'd like to get the thing around 350 or so, potentially more, further down the road. Currently just planning on lowering it and doing a few cosmetic mods right now while I figure out what to do with the engine.

It's over 10 years old, was the timing belt replaced around 10 years ?

Figure out what the end result will be before buying anything performance wise.

 

Otherwise you will end up buying many parts 2 or 3 times. (ask me how I know)

 

Above 400whp will be very expensive. North of 10k.

It's the 5mt, recently had the turbo and clutch replaced (With OEM) within the past year, currently has 85,000 miles on it.

 

How many miles ago was the turbo replaced? A new turbo can be a big red flag when buying an used Legacy GT. The issue with a new turbo, its that if the original turbo failed sent metal through out the engine, the engine can be a ticking time bomb, that ends up with a follow up post of an engine failure shortly after purchase which is too common on this forum..

How many miles ago was the turbo replaced? A new turbo can be a big red flag when buying an used Legacy GT. The issue with a new turbo, its that if the original turbo failed sent metal through out the engine, the engine can be a ticking time bomb, that ends up with a follow up post of an engine failure shortly after purchase which is too common on this forum..

 

Not sure exactly how many miles have been put on since the new turbo. It lives in a small town up here in Alaska, my guess would be less than 8k miles. I went to go check it out in person (obviously) everything looked and sounded pretty healthy, no engine tick at all, no leaks other than a small leak coming from a power steering reservoir.

Figure out what the end result will be before buying anything performance wise.

 

Otherwise you will end up buying many parts 2 or 3 times. (ask me how I know)

 

Above 400whp will be very expensive. North of 10k.

 

I'd be pretty happy with spending a good chunk of change on the car. Right now I don't need anything neck-breaking but i'd like it to get up and go pretty quick.

It's over 10 years old, was the timing belt replaced around 10 years ?

The timing belt hasn't been done yet. I'm actually a mechanic and have worked on Subaru's a few dozen times, mostly just suspension work and several head gasket jobs. However, I've never owned one which is why I joined this forum so I could get some insight from you all. Doing regular maintenance and mods will be pretty straight forward to me, I just have no realistic idea of ownership goes and am very curious.

How many miles ago was the turbo replaced? A new turbo can be a big red flag when buying an used Legacy GT. The issue with a new turbo, its that if the original turbo failed sent metal through out the engine, the engine can be a ticking time bomb, that ends up with a follow up post of an engine failure shortly after purchase which is too common on this forum..

 

 

 

Yea this is a thing. Pull out the banjo bolt before the turbo asap and give it an inspection. They shouldn't have needed a turbo so soon unless there was an oil starvation issue. Mine was 153k with minimal shaft play and a clean banjo filter.

 

 

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They shouldn't have needed a turbo so soon unless there was an oil starvation issue.

 

I have noticed lately more and more low mileage 4th Gen LGT with turbo failures. I suspect those cars have more 'city' miles so running time is probably similar to the typical 150k turbo failures.

I would say, just get an AP and get a nice protune and run that for a while. Then after winter have some fun.

Reliability mods are never a bad idea and are oftentimes needed when you go for more power in the future. Go over the fluids and make sure to change your oil every 3500 miles, and get into the habit and check your oil often, at least once a week. It would also be a good idea to remove your banjo bolt filters. What I did with my car when I first got it was just going through everything to make sure it was 100 percent reliable, and then I started to upgrade stuff. There is no point in throwing money into power mods if the car isn't reliable in its factory state.