Dalee1104

I'll have to take a look at that and see what it changes. The car has always given me issues with feedback knock and I've searched pretty much all there is to search on this engine. I work at a subaru specialty shop and we've gone over the engine multiple times and cant find anything out of the ordinary. I also worked with dave at cryotune while I was getting my pro tune and the feedback knock was always there and evident. Significantly less after the pro tune but I still see about -4 20 quite regularly. It's been boiled down to the engine just being super worn, previous owners haven't cared for this thing as much as I would have liked so 4th gear synchro is pretty much shot and the engine always gives me feedback knock and knock learning but never shows any issues. The car is on a loan so I actually have a warranty on it so I'm really just waiting for something to FINALLY pop so I can get some of these things fixed. I know it's always had its knock issues but it does that even mid winter so I was curious if heat soaking was what I've been feeling. Or maybe its all just in my head lol

Okay so this may be kind of a dumb question but figured I'd see other legacy owners inputs. I have a 08 spec b, tuned by cryotuning, catted downpipe, and turbo back exhuast. Everything else about it is stock I've noticed lately on my butt dyno the the car feels so sluggish and just not it's normal pull. I'm still building 18.5 to 19 psi sometimes and holding boost properly but the thing feels like a turd. It has been hot outside lately as well, like 95° out. It's a stock intercooler and stock uppipe but the up pipe no longer has the heat shields as that came off in pieces. Does changing to a better intercooler lessen the difference between hot and cold weather? I know the hot weather definitely effects perfomance but is it really that bad? I don't know if this is actually what's going on but no cel and everything is working well, just seems slower than usual lately, pretty consistently with the hot weather too.

Yeah thats pretty much what I'm battling. Getting injectors and a pump might be good if I'm running a bigger turbo but with a vf52 and injectors I might get an extra 10 ish before my turbo runs out. Anybody have experience with modded vf52s? Any large enough difference to justify the mods?

So don't mean to jack the thread but I'm also curious on the vf52. I plan on upgrading to a vf52 pretty soon and going pro tune. We have a local shop here that I'm going to have tune it and the tuner recommended I do fueling mods. Seeing here yall get away on stock fueling. Is the turbo maxed out with stock fueling or would bigger injectors and pump allow me to run higher boost on the turbo? I was looking at getting a modded vf52 with an 18g wheel and get it ported and polished. I guess my question is what runs out first, fueling or turbo?

Dont track it a ton no sir. It's mostly a daily driver between this and my 05 outback ll bean I plan on lifting. The car definitely sees a ton of spirited driving on the canyons near by but will realistically speaking only see a track occasionally

Actually no, they were brand new setups. I replaced them with new stock ones as I generally enjoy stock suspension but I was disappointed with how little it changed. With the 30 way dampening I've been able to tune the car to ride and respond over bumps very similarly to the B6s but it shines much brighter in the corners. No complaints here, seem to be pretty quality pieces for what I have in store for them

Apologies I didnt see this sooner to chime in. In terms of inconsistency on boost what are you seeing? You should see a spike of psi under full throttle and then taper off lower psi as the rpms climb higher. Simple things to check while doing so is your afr. Afr needs to be nice and rich pretty much any time your in boost. Around a 11 or 12 is typically what you would see. How is your fine knock learning or feedback knock? Those can give you some insight as to why your dam is dropping. Did you just install the tune or has it been like this for a minute? Half the times the tune will start out only allowing you to use 50% of your timing advancements (hence the 0.500) it's not only until you've driven the car enough to show the car it's safe to have the full 100% of the timing or 1.000. Now that being said, you do usually gotta get these things in boost pretty hard to get them to change quickly at all. If you cruise the thing around gently and slowly it might take quite awhile for that number to change

Thank you much on the insight everybody, I have been away for awhile and while I was away I installed some bc racing coilovers on the car. While I had it up I took the opportunity to run an inspection on the car. All checked out good other than a very slight oil leak at the oil cooler, per usual. Engine mounts and tranny mount checked out looking pretty much brand new with no cracks or excess softness. Since I was under the car I have yet to check the pitch stop mount but at least I can eliminate a larger portion of the potential issues. The next time I get my hands on the car I will have to pull the intercooler and really dig into the pitch stop and see what's going on. I've never had any issues shifting minus a 4th gear synchro that's been picky since I first got the car. Ran a service on the gearbox and it definitely helped. While i know the flat foots dont help it by any means, it so far hasnt given me any issues but really helps cutting time on shifts. I will happily deal with whatever consequences come my way from using it lol As a plus/side note, I'm extremely satisfied with my coilovers. The bc racing br series seems to have found a nice balance of not shattering your spine on the road but still seriously holding it's own on a track or setting similar to one. The car no longer squats or nose dives on hard braking or acceleration and the body roll has been drastically improved over the B6 series bilsteins. Now I have no idea if any of these are at all connected but the car is a much more planted unit, less power is being lost through moving around the body and is more quickly going to the wheels instead. That being said, i havent been able to replicate this issue after slapping these puppies on which doesnt quite make sense. Not entirely sure but slowly starting to be sold on the fact that it might actually be a firewall weld.

Yeah I thought I heard something about welds having issues. I'll have to take a look at all the mounts. Hopefully changing to poly engine and transmission mounts wont make it worse. I think I might start with the mounts and if I can locate the the broken welds, weld that thing back up. Thank you for the insight

If you really wanted to brake and parts cleaner is pretty much some of the strongest stuff to spray in there. Pretty much dissolves most things. If the brake clean doesnt kill it then I doubt it would come off and affect the turbo too much

Sadly I have never really heard of a wear in period for those guys. It sounds like that may be the issue but as to why I'm not entirely sure. Somebody else might chime in with some more insight but yeah I'd be guessing something is up with that bearing

Off the top of my head I cant think of any metal lines on the passenger side other than the power steering line that runs down to the rack? I suppose it depends on where at, closer to the turbo or up by the valve covers? As mentioned the valve covers on these cars are really known to leak on these cars, suggested the passenger side leaks more often due to the heat of the turbo. Oil feed is usually tapped into the back of the head of I'm not mistaken? I know the 05 and 06 should have the B25 heads whereas my 08 has the D25 heads so there may be some differences. Best bet would be to hop under the car with a flash light and check out those valve covers, they may be dripping on many different places, usually drenches the engine if bad enough. If it's closer to the turbo I'd check the connections on the oil feed lines, and if it's closer to the top of the engine I'd check the oil flow control valves. Good opportunity to remove the banjo fittings while your at it too!

Sounds like the throwout bearing to me. My brother has this issue in his bugeye but it's really bad. Squeaks a ton at idle, is fine while driving with the clutch engaged, and also goes away if you simply press the clutch in. While idling in neutral the thing is nice a squeaky though

Hello all, havin a small issue but havent found much insight on it yet. The car is a 08 spec b modded with just a turbo back exhuast and a pro tune by cryotuning. The downpipe is a rev9 downpipe I got off a friend and there seems to be no fitment issues whatsoever, quite a good gap between the firewall. Now I do drive the car pretty aggressively, I often take it on high speed canyon runs and do occasionally launch it for fun. I know its harsh on pretty much everything doing that but I'm actually a subaru mechanic and am not afraid to do some work if it goes and also take absolute meticulous care of the car in order to drive it hard. As of lately I've noticed a few times that on a launch or during a flat foot shift the car is making this really weird cracking noise in the firewall it sounds like. Cant really feel it, doesnt effect driveability at all, car still continues to perform very nicely, but its definitely making this weird but pretty loud pop/crack noise only during a shift, or when power is engaged via the clutch pretty aggressively. My first thoughts could be engine mounts worn causing the engine to torque a bunch, that or the rear tranny mount being torn. Maybe the pitch stop mount that's mounted on top of the tranny and to the firewall is absolutely toast. I'm not too sure as I havent had a chance to look at it but I was curious if anybody else has had this issue? I thought I remember reading something about the firewall welds being garbage? Not sure if it affected these cars? I've also seen master cylinder braces for sale everywhere, does that mean these have an issue flexing around a bunch? If I find the mounts are shot I'll likely be upgrading the engine and tranny mounts to poly mounts with likely a larger pitch stop mount as well, if that is the case any recommendations on the best poly mounts out there? I am aware it will make the car a little more harsh, as you feel more of the transmission movements transferring through the chassis but am fully prepared. I have a spare subie almost always and currently an H6 outback is very soon being purchased, that being said, the spec b is slowly becoming more or a 50/50 split between being able to drive on the road while still holding it's own on the track. Anyways any insight on the issue is very much appreciated!

well the boost control solenoid is in place to control boost levels so unplugging it i'm not surprised you saw a large number. Again, like i stated, i may be wrong but me personally i would take the five minutes to put the stock recirc back on and see what happens.

In every instance that I've seen if these engine run an aftermarket blow off valve without them being tuned in they can run pretty harshly. With the factory recirc valve the car recirculates that extra boost during a shift back into the intake manifold and the car is tuned to see that extra air coming in. With a atmospheric blowoff valve that air is getting expelled out which is why you can here it but then the engine isnt seeing that extra air when its tuned to normally want to see it so it can run a little rough. I slapped a bov on my spec b for shits and gigs and the car maybe made 8psi when it was supposed to be at 16 and then the car stalled during a shift. After that immediately went back to stock recirc. I may be totally wrong but if you want your car to run happily with that blown off valve you'll want to get it tuned in

Yeah it shouldn't be too bad. Pull the exhaust heat shield, use a long flathead to wedge the u-joint, and then loosen the 4 12mm bolts connecting the driveline to the rear diff. The rest will just slide out

How long have you had the blow off valve installed? Was it reaching target boost with that guy on? Or is it doing this after the install of the BOV?

We got a lot of subarus needing driveline replacements at our shop. Honestly they are super super easy to do

Oh yeah that's a really good one, i agree with max try checking for vacuum leaks. I use starting fluid and spray it carefully around various vacuum lines and listen for a change in pitch of rpms. Might not be the most effective way but it's worked for me so far

If I had to take a guess I'd think either rear diff or maybe if the U-joint is bad the driveline. Crawl up under there and wiggle the diff around and the driveline. If you've got play then likely that your issue

That's kind of an odd one. I don't think I've seen people post with this problem yet. Stage 2 is a aftermarket downpipe and generally speaking its smart to have at least the k&n drop in filter. If you go to Cobb's site you can download a stage 0 tune. It's a stock tune that allows you to still use the function of the accessport and log things. I'd say try that and then check how much boost your building on stage 0 vs stage 2

Absolutley agree, theres a few pieces that require Subaru only parts. Thermostat is a major one, as I just discovered the hard way as well the oil flow control valves must be subaru only as well

Moved the turbo feed from the passenger head to underneath the turbo inlet pipe. Kinda a pain in the ass, I've pulled most of mine out

Umm I'm not too sure? These cars are like legos so generally a lot of things swap over. On top of the considering the radiator just slips into 2 little grommets on the bottom and then has some bolt in brackets on the top I dont see why not. My only hesitation would be the fans and how they're mounted and such