BrandonspecB

Dude... that's nuts! Sounds awesome and looks traction limited??? How easy is it to use the Dragy? I've been on the fence of getting one..

 

Scotty

 

Thanks man. No not really traction limited there. I had the launch control speed set at 10 mph, so that was the limiter keeping it at 5500 until I exceeded 10 mph. It can launch damn hard if I want it to. It built 19 psi for the few seconds it was on the launch control.

 

The dragy is amazingly fun. Super easy to use, super accurate. I want to dragy everything I see. Front end loader? Let's see what it runs! The app is really cool to go see everyone's times. It's funny to see the 1/2 mile E/T was set by a 6 second 1/4 mile pass while the car was slowing down.

 

I know you are not looking for the E/T, but you have to beat supergramps

Actually, you are probably beating it already due to the altitude difference.

 

Haha, well, after you said this I went and looked at supergramps time. The only time I could find for supergramps was a 12.7 @ 112. Gramps went 11.92 @ 122 making 360 whp, E85, and 8 psi. It was pretty much gutted though.

 

Eventually I'll get faster than that. I'm really happy with 120 mph on what is basically a wastegate pressure, fail-safe map. My next step is going to be getting it up to 25 psi with the meth spraying and some timing in it. I'll do another dragy run then. My end goal is 135 mph traps. I'm sure this setup will make that power. The turbo is barely working right now.

Bought a dragy to get some 1/4 mile MPH data since our track is no more. Wasn't too concerned about E/T or launching or shifting perfectly. The trans is old and has lots of passes on it, so I was shifting as fast as it would let me.

 

For reference, stock GT-Rs trap less than 120 at our 4200' elevation.

 

Turbo EZ30 dragy test

After thinking about it and looking at other logs, I think I know why I get a check engine light on the limiter. It actually only happens when I have flat shift active and lift when I clutch in. You can hear the pop from the cut and then check engine light. Need to look into the wiring for the flat shift.

18 psi. Super soft pump gas tune. Need to figure out why whenever I hit the rev limiter I get a throttle position code.

 

1st - 4th gear

Cars without VDC have 10mm lines that screw right into the STI master. I think with 4th gen 4 cylinder cars VDC wasn't available until it came on the specb in 2007. Just check you brake lines at the master to be sure. If a 10mm wrench fits on the nut then the STI master will bolt right on without adapters or cutting lines.

 

It wasn't too pricey. I found some low mileage parts on ebay that didn't look like garbage and ran me like $120.

Definitely worth it. It's weird going back to the daily now. It used to have the better feeling brake pedal, but now it feels like mush.

 

Your cars would be a direct bolt on. So would my daily. Might have to swap it out.

Got the STI master and booster installed. Pretty boring picture wise. The adapters worked perfectly. BrakeQuip part number BQ44. The brake line on the side needed to be shortened 3/8". This was a bit of a pain. I couldn't push the nut back far enough to get the flaring tool on, so I had to straighten the line out to get enough room to make a new flare and then bend it back.

 

The pedal feel is absolutely amazing. No more mushy pedal. I can rest my foot on the pedal and get the brakes to activate. You do need to press the pedal harder to get the same amount of braking as before, but it's really not an issue. Definitely a worthwhile mod.

I'm just waiting for the booster hose and mine can go in. I can't wait to get rid of this mush pedal.

Few more things.

 

I made a graph showing the difference in oil pressure after cutting the bottom of the pickup off. You can see at 3500 RPM the VVL kicks on which causes a dip in pressure. The modded pickup recovers a bit and then pressure drop starts, but it's quite a bit better than before the pickup mod. Oil temps were 205-208 for both pulls. Oil for both is Redline 5w50. The uncut pickup engine made it 8 months before it wiped the bearings. I'm hoping the cut pickup solves the problem permanently. I'm going to do intermittent oil sampling and analysis to keep an eye on bearing wear.

 

After installing the brakes, the brake pedal was quite a bit spongier than normal. My spec.B has always had a poor pedal feel, but the new calipers made it worse. It has gotten a bit better now that the brakes are getting worn in, but it still isn't acceptable to me.

 

I found that the solution is to install a 2004-2007 STI brake master cylinder. There are a few problems with installing one of these on an LGT with VDC. First, the bolt pattern on the brake booster isn't the same. Second, the STI master has 10mm flare fittings and the VDC brake lines going to the master are 12mm.

 

To make all this work you need an STI master cylinder, STI brake booster, an STI brake booster vacuum hose, and a way to adapt the 12mm brake lines to the 10mm master.

 

I found some fittings by BrakeQuip that adapt a 10mm flare to 12mm flare. All I'm waiting for now is the vacuum line that has the check valve in it. The STI booster doesn't have the check attached to it like the Legacy does. The STI booster hose has the check in the hose.

The final touch for the calipers.

I'm really trying not to go down the JDM rabbit hole. The bumpers have got to go though. May have to look into HIDs.

 

Here's a couple more pics. I love these damn wheels.

Not the only one.

 

:cool:

 

Yeah I guess this would be the place to find other crazy people. Or maybe cool people.

Got the wheels and tires on. I really, really like them. They almost look like they're 19s compared to the others. They're Enkei Raijin 18x8.5 +45 with 235/40 Federal 595 RS-RR tires. Old ones were Enkei EKM3 18x7.5 +45 with 225/40. As you can probably tell, I like this style of wheel.

 

I need to make some adjustments to ride height and then have it aligned, but it doesn't rub at all. I'll probably end up dropping it another 1/2" and giving it another 0.5-1.0 degree of negative camber to make sure it doesn't rub. Right now they fit perfect lowered a couple inches with a stock alignment and a fender roll.

 

About all I have left on my to-do list for this car is getting some JDM front and rear bumpers, replacing all the exposed rubber trim pieces, pulling all the dents out and respraying it. Then it can sit in my garage and be a nice weekend morning cruise car that will be in damn near mint condition 30 years from now. I'm probably the only person crazy enough to do this with a Legacy, but it's my type of car.

Wow, looks amazing!

When I was looking at rotors this pic helped sway me towards these ones. Something a little different than what you usually see.

So I guess we really should be focusing on keeping the car from starting on fire in the first place. Thanks for sharing your experiences. It puts things into perspective.

 

How about I swing this discussion back to happy things that aren't cars burning down. Like these brakes. I couldn't sleep, so I went into the shop and threw them on. I like them.

 

Wheels will be here next week. Then all I have left to do is some tuning.

Yeah, it's not a guarantee an extinguisher or suppression system will save the car, but I'd rather try then just let it burn down. It's like this fire here (fire starts at ~1:00):

Tons of extinguishers, but fuel line and then fuel tank caught on fire and there was no stopping it. Couple of my friends are friends with Rudy.

 

I just want a chance. If I can catch it when it's smoldering or before it gets to fuel I might be able to save the car. A $400 suppression system is well worth it to me.

Here's some more stuff.

 

I made a little video that goes over some of the meth injection system. It's all controlled by the Haltech and if any fail-safe trips or meth pressure drops below 120 psi, the meth injection system and boost control is disabled.

 

Methanol Injection Controls

 

Calipers are painted and ready to go on Sunday!

Yep. I also saw that 1320 video a couple of days ago of that 1000 HP Audi (I think) burning from a leaky brake line.

 

I also have one of these too. But no bracket. I tucked it right behind my seat. Not that efficient I guess since I'd have to open the rear door to get to it..

 

Yeah, that's one of the videos I saw. I also saw another one where a 1000 hp BMW burned. The driver just ran away while his car burned. I at least want to have a chance at saving it.

 

firesense makes a $400 system that triggers several nozzles from a single pull trigger. You can put the container elsewhere (behind the seat). Its a typical install on cheap racecars.

 

That's a damn good idea. Appreciate it.

I have put thousands of hours into this car over the years and I'm not sure I could do it all again if I were to lose it. After seeing a couple videos of highly modified cars burn down I went out and got an extinguisher and a bracket that secures it in a very convenient location. The passenger loses a bit of seat movement, but...oh well.

Are 06 WRX rear calipers direct bolt on or are adapters needed?

 

Scotty

 

Adapters are needed. But the WRX rotor is the same as the LGT, so the parking brake works without changing shoes or rotors like you need to with the STI rears.

Here's some pics of the parts accumulation. Also got some new wheels and tires. Wheels are Enkei Raijin 18x8.5 +45 with Federal 595 RS-RR 235/40. Wheels will be here next week. Front calipers will be here tomorrow.

Ya know, I couldn't hear anything when I made the engine knock with the Haltech. I could feel it and I could hear the exhaust note change after I hit the button, but couldn't hear the pinging it's commonly described as sounding like. It would be interesting to listen to it with a set of knock ears.

Very nice. Wow, 16KHz for the knock frequency? That's pretty high. I was imagining something much lower. This is like the 'treble' part of the EQ to adjust your tweeters on your sound system .

 

 

 

Do you think the EJ25 platform has the same frequency for knock?

 

I pulled up an EJ25 base map from a 2007 STI and the knock frequency is set at 10990. From what I've read, manufacturers use knock sensors that are "tuned" for a higher frequency. This gives a better signal to noise ratio. An aftermarket Bosch knock sensor that you would buy from Haltech would see knock at a lower frequency. A lot of it just depends on the engine and how it vibrates when it knocks. Here's how Andre explains it: HP Academy

 

I did the bore calulations they talk about and doubled the frequency since these are OE sensors, but the spectrogram gave me a much higher frequency than what I calulated. I'm glad they give you a spectrgram to use, so there is no guessing.

This is such a badass build.

 

Thanks man, appreciate it!

 

I finally started getting some tuning done today. First thing was getting the knock control system dialed in and responding to real knock. First you need to tell the ECU at what frequency to listen for knock. By narrowing down the frequency the ECU can exclude a lot of the background noise from the engine. Haltech gives you a way to quickly induce knock and a spectrogram so you can see what frequency it is occuring at.

 

What I did was bring the engine up to 3500 RPM in 3rd gear, left foot brake, and apply throttle to put some load on the engine. Then I clicked the knock button which advances the timing to 40 degrees for 5 seconds (user adjustable.) As you can see on the spectrogram, it is very clear which frequency the knock is happening at. This is really cool shit!

 

Once you dial in the frequency, you do some pulls with a super soft tune that you know isn't knocking and then dial in the "noise" level above which the ECU will pull timing. I've got all that done and the car feels great at 4 psi.

 

I also am going to do a brake upgrade. STI 4 piston front calipers, 2006 WRX 2 piston rear calipers, EBC rotors and EBC yellowstuff pads. Nothing too crazy. I'm waiting for the calipers and rear rotors to show up and I can get everything installed.