livinon2wheels

thanks for the info underdog...when the time comes thats what I will do.

Im curious, I have an 05 Leggy wagon 2.5i that I am using part time as a track car and it still has the original rack in it. What would be a bolt in upgrade for that car? And would it be possible to just change the steering knuckles at the wheels to quicken the steering without a rack change?

Nice choice of wheels, they look much like the ones i put on my white wagon. Sadly my wagon is non turbo, but it still is a fun place to play. Sadly mine is out of service pending a new transmission. On a good note it should be back in service by spring.

Thanks for the affirmation Brandon. As i have pondered this problem since my last post, my thinking is as follows, if you are building a hi-po street motor, stay with stock pistons and regap the rings like you would if you were building a track engine, and then use a conservative tune. Not as conservative as the factory tune (duh!) but conservative enough to minimize knock events and then enjoy it. `It will tolerate being driven like you stole it for short periods of time most likely without ever giving a problem. If you are building something for the track, don't screw around, put forged pistons in it, with conservative ring gaps and tune it properly and then go have fun, and it will probably hold up for a couple of hard racing seasons if you treat it right. This is probably oversimplified, but at this point in the day I can't wrap my head around anything more detailed than that.

It seems to me that there is likely no one good number for ring end gaps. The gap needs to be progressively larger as your engines horsepower capacity. If you are going to be consistently running high boost, high load then the ring end gaps will need to be larger than for a stage 2 street engine that sees just a few seconds of full throttle and then mostly just cruising along for relatively long periods of time. This is all conjecture on my part. So does anyone have experience enough to say what those end gaps would need to be for an engine that sees regular track use for example, and what be appropriate for a street engine?

This is the most reasonable explanation for ringland failure i have seen other than the excessive knock event reason SOA is fond of using. I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between....think about what forces are in play when a ring gap closes up...probably high load sustained like climbing a mountain pass for example. If the gap is just barely closed up probably not a huge deal as long as the is no knock event present, but add a knock event and the ring flexes but not in the way it should and so does the piston crown. Add the two together and you get instant engine damage. Or the extra heat from the knock event pushes the marginally closed up ring into binding mode in the cylinder causing instant ring land failure. I have every reason to believe the rings are several orders of magnitude stronger than the ring lands...any thoughts on this?

I had not stopped to consider what higher pressure on stock injectors would do to the flow...and of course it would be more. Still, as elmer fudd would say....be vewwy vewwy careful! hehe

while i wish no one bad luck at all with their setup...i am by nature cautious when it comes to turbo engines especially their tuning. My comment was only meant to get you to take another look and see how close to the edge you really are. For example, lets say your tune is perfectly adequate for normal driving conditions and the way you normally use the car...now lets throw a monkey wrench in the crankcase by imposing much colder than normal weather which would require more fuel because of the more dense air and also because the colder air turbo efficiency goes up and you have more boost than normal....lets see, lean condition from not enough fuel, more boost than normal...what can go wrong? Ring land failure certainly seems very likely at a minimum with a possible total piston meltdown possible at the other extreme...my caution comes from an exchange i had with my tuner who tuned my 09 wrx...inj duty cycle was nearly 90% when he finished with it and he asked me to do a datalog with that parameter monitored...i asked him about those numbers and his response to me was that its good to have some cushion and 90% duty cycle is a good reasonable max with room for those cases when the engine needs a little extra fuel to avoid going lean. The tuner in question is Bren tuning....and i think they have a good rep in the subie community.

I have serious concerns about getting that kind of power out of stock injectors....I would be taking a hard look at the injectors duty cycle and see if it is maxed out or not....if it is, you have a hand grenade on your hands.

I have serious concerns about getting that kind of power out of stock injectors....I would be taking a hard look at the injectors duty cycle and see if it is maxed out or not....if it is, you have a hand grenade on your hands.

Ok so what did u find out? Cracked ring lands? That would explain low compression and high oil consumption and the motivation of the previous owner to sell

I just recently bought a 2005 5 speed wagon that has right at a 100k miles on it. Just wonder how well the longer gearing would work with the NA engine. What kind of revs are you turning at 60 mph?

I have some pristine 17"x7 WRX rims with the centercaps that came off my 2009 WRX I would happily sell to the right buyer. They currently have a set of all season Michelins on them as 'rim protectors' that would pass va state inspection. Clearly they would need to be picked up rather than have me ship them for obvious reasons. They really are in very nice shape with NO curb rash or anything of the kind. Shoot me a PM with your contact info and a serious offer on the wheels. I can get some photos if you like but they truly look like they rolled off the showroom floor.

this is my first photo upload here, not at all sure if it will work...if it works this is my new legacy...an 07 NA automatic...I know...boring. But we have done a few little things to it to make it a little more spicy than it was when I picked it up a week or so a ago. We did a resonator delete from the otherwise stock exhaust and now when you get on it you can actually hear it. And when you rev it up it sounds pretty good. Replaced the front sway bar frame mount bushings with the Energy suspension polyurethane type and that helped the body roll a bit. Also because they dont make the same bushing in a 16mm size for the rear bar, I took the rear bushings out and ran a bunch of sheet metal screws into them and reinstalled...made them a bunch stiffer than they were. At some point the worn out struts will get replaced, but I need to replace both front axles and the steering rack first, all of them have busted seals. That I will have to save up for. I have the rack, need to save for the axles, then we will do it all at one time...and then do ONE alignment. Lots of work to do. I had a set of BRZ wheels off a performance package car sitting around doing nothing, so I bolted them up to see what they look like, and I like em. 7.5" wide, so better than the stock 7" wheels and look better too. Same weight, added plus of having the Michelin 215/45-17 LRR tires that come on the BRZ already mounted up. Those tires work surprisingly well on that car and are a step up in handling over what was on it and the lower rolling resistance makes the lower horsepower of the NA engine a little less of a handicap in daily driving. I have my own EPA/MY ASS loop that I drive to check mileage improvements that while it isnt truly scientific I suppose, it is at least the same route every time, and that tire on that car is getting measurably better mileage than what was on it before.

shortened up that wheelbase just a little bit didnt you????

Love your 05 Ish wagon Joe...that is the most beautiful body design subaru ever penned. I finally got one...been looking for a while...picked up an 07 with automatic 2.5 liter last week. In the process of fixing the mechanical gremlins now. My old 91 may never live again...another dead engine...its sad, there is seemingly no one around here that knows how to build one. Im giving it one more try...if this guy doesnt do it for me Im going to let it go.

Well WRXish is under the knife at the only local shop I trust to touch the car in the hands of the only other mechanic on the planet I trust to touch the car. Its been a bad year. Throw out bearing is ordered and should arrive by shortly after christmas, im getting the brake system flushed and bled and with any luck at all I will have a running car before 2017 dies. The plan is to start on the bodywork then in January and hopefully by spring be ready to shoot the car with paint or plastidip...still havent decided which way to go. It will probably be dip though due to the lower cost and the fact it can be done at home. It will make the car look respectable without making it into a show car. Anyone care to weigh in on the relative merits of paint versus dip? Or should I start a new thread?

today I pick up the new clutch and pressure plate, shifter bushings for wrxish as well as the ac tensioner that seems to fail on these cars after about 25 years or so lol. With luck, in a day or two I can start driving it again and finish breaking in the the new engine. With even more luck this engine will actually hold together without failing, although given the quality of work I have seen so far, I have serious doubts about that. I have put my very soul into getting this car where it is today and cant seem to get anyone to do what they say can and will do when it comes to delivering on their promises. Mostly no one wants to take the time to be careful doing the work and to even make an effort to avoid breaking something else in the process of fixing something. Its been a very frustrating year and one that has meant almost a total loss of utility of the car because its been off the road more than its been on. Finding competent mechanics who will be careful and not damage parts that there are no longer replacements for is becoming a seriously challenging job. I dont know how it is in other areas but no one in my part of the country gives a crap about being careful with an old car. It almost makes it necessary for me to do all the work myself, even the jobs I may not be well suited for because of skill level or equipment. At least I give a crap how it turns out. At any rate, my first gen car has gone from being a fun project to one that has exacted its pound of flesh from me and has due to the lack of competent professional support turned into something of nightmare. I keep hammering away at it because I dont give up easily and I love the car when I am driving it...its the time underneath it that has so far outweighed the seat time this year that is really starting to taint the experience. I hope others are having a more satisfying experience with their cars...

well got the car back from the dumb asses in richmond who rebuilt the engine for the second time and subsequently reinstalled it in the car and they managed to misadjust the clutch badly enough that the clutch is hazed and now must be replaced..... They also broke the wire off right at the connector that goes to the knock sensor making a rather desperate and difficult repair necessary of that piece. That they considered the job complete and finished is unbelievable. Yes....I am naming names now...Ballos Precision Machine in Henrico, VA...totally incompetent and if you go there you have been warned. 18 months and I STILL do not have a driveable car.

congrats on over 300k...I hope I can reasonably get there with my old wagon. Sitting at 205000 right now. But I drive it almost every day. Just added a new whiteline front bar to it yesterday, now I have to stiffen the back bar up to make it neutral again. It never ends and its always fun.

way to go joe, lovely wife and child...I will be glad to drive your car while you take care of the baby lol. hehe

ok I take it back joe, the body on it is nearly as bad as the one on mine, but considering the age, not so bad at all.

Joe I am jealous, that car started out so straight, no rust, wow what a great specimen. And to think it was a mail carrier car? How does that happen? And I guess the hydraulic setup is an easier maintenance item than cable, but how hard is it to do the conversion?

Hey Joe if you keep on you will finish yours long before I finish mine...I am so jealous