Gigs

Legacy was sold recently and replaced with a 2013 VW touareg tdi for daily / towing use.

Was a great run for the legacy , 3 years and 30,000 miles with no major mechanical issues.

New thread for the Wrx is over on nasioc

https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2917679

doing the full jdm spec b 6MT (FD 3.9) drivetrain swap next month in it.

That looks great.

 

It's currently just finished snowing here...not much worth in even washing the car...

We got hit last night , Legacy and Wrx are in the garage with a drip pan under the legacy due to a little oil drip.

Its freezing and awful for the next two months so I hide inside and play PC games like Escape From Tarkov.

Never got around to posting pictures of my 15 hour detail experience , I used all chemical guys products from amazon and it turned out pretty great. I had wax under my nails which was painful but it was so worth it.

Steps were

Remove livery

dawn soap bath

Wash car

clay bar car

clay bar car more until hands hurt

wash car again

Wax car

Let wax cure over night

Before

After

So Wrx is sleeping for winter but I finally got the correct outer axle boots and I will likely drop the car off with Matt at Flat Four Automotive this March due to just being annoyed with the axle seal and boot saga in general. I can trust him to do great work to my car and suggest him to anyone in the Metro Detroit Area.

Legacy was driven on down to Cleveland for the holidays and on the way back coming into Michigan on I75 North I hit a pothole so bad that it threw a P0700 TCU code , I pulled over to make sure there was not fluid all over or the car on fire then headed back up to Detroit.

I cleared and reset the ECU / TCU then all was good. The 5AT actually shifts better now.

I really really like this car , even if I get rid of it part of me still wants to do a 6mt Legacy STi Wagon build some day.

Where have you found rims and how much did you pay for it?

When they appear for sale its usually in the $1800-$2400 range depending on condition

I saw your post on reddit

Its a perfect replica

Over the next month I am going to be likely making a new build log due to imgur changing how they link pictures.

I am going to host everything on my own website and greatly increase the documentation on my website while also continuing to post on Nasioc / LegacyGT frequently.

Due to IWSTI , ClubWRX , RS2.5 and many other forums being bought up by ****ty companies trying to squeeze money out of them I am consolidating everything to Nasioc , Legacygt and my own website.

2020 Plans

Buy the house I am currently renting , Its a nice little house with a big 2 car garage about 20 minutes north of Detroit.

Drive the Wrx a lot more but with fewer track days working towards a goal of maybe 4-6 track days a year in 2021/2022 if funds permit.

I would like to buy an H6 Outback from 2005-2008 to be my new winter car and maybe something like an S2000 or E46 Wagon to be another summer driver.

Wrx currently needs

Both front axle boots fixed

Transmission axle seals replaced

Interior finishing

Possible upgrades that may be in the works in 2020

12:1 or 13:1 Steering rack , Original 2003 Wrx rack is starting to leak a tiny bit.

JDM Wrx black seats and full black interior

Adjustable rear lateral links

Possible sway bar upgrades

Hoping for maybe one or two track days next year in September / October 2020 once house buying is over

Legacy keeps on chugging along getting 20-22mpg depending on how I drive , It is likely due for some shocks next year but until then its winter beater.

What chemical was used to clean those valve covers? Seems very effective. The crap I'm using isn't getting it done.

My mechanic uses an ultrasonic parts cleaner , he loves the machine it does amazing work

So things did not exactly go as planned

I had an alignment appointment and they torched the hell out of my axle boots right before Speed Ring.

I should have just taped it up rally style and cleaned the car up but I skipped Speed Ring and ordered the right parts to do an axle boot.

Well fun fact the female axles I have use a 2002-2003 Wrx outer boot not the same boot as a 2004-2007 Sti. While messing around with the outer boot we noticed the axle seal on the transmission was damaged so disassembled that to get it fixed correctly. Somewhere along the line I had a stroke and thought I could just put in a 2004-2007 STi axle so I tried that the week before a track day and it ended it failure due to the seal not matching up with the axles dust boot covers.

So basically I wasted even more money for a month trying to get to events until I gave up and am in the process of putting the car in storage. What a crappy year but oh well stuff happens.

Next year I have no track days planned , My only plans are to buy a house and get the Wrx back to being a fun street car to drive. I really don't care about track days or anything right now as I am having far more fun taking pictures and playing video games than doing car stuff.

Perhaps that will change next spring but in the mean time I am going to start searching for a replacement daily driver for my 2006 Legacy GT Wagon. Right now I am looking at a bunch of Outback XTs that are rust free and need a little love.

So 2020 looks like it will be a lot more of taking pictures and driving the car to work than paying people to do work on my car then having to fix it myself or pay others to do it again.

Here are some pictures

a Supra I shot last week , very impressive car for the price point

Brakes flushed

Oil changed

Fluids checked

Now just need an alignment and to reflash on some calibration changes in the next two days.

Four events in four weeks

September 14th - 15th Gingerman track day weekend

September 21st Speed Ring Sprints

September 28th Subaru Speed Expo at Autobahn Country Club outside Chicago

October 5th-6th Gridlife Round 5 at Gingerman raceway

Just collecting some parts now

Replacement VF42 arrived

Fluid is all ordered

Turbo swap , brake fluid flush and some logging then we should be ready for some track time here in September.

Also headed over to Oakos for their summer meetup

I like the WRX more without the livery! You can see the lines better, and the awesome rear STI flares are more noticeable to me. Looks great!

Yeah the paint shows off the body lines pretty dam well

Hey that car looks awful familiar!

Oh hi

I saw your car at M1 a week or two ago !

LGT clicked over 160,000 today

Only issues are a little rust and a minor oil leak but I don't really care that much because its like a quart every 3000 miles.

I secretly have been browsing for Outback 3.0Rs for sale to adopt to my fleet of lesbian wagons but pickings are kinda slim. They seem to resist rust a lot better than the Legacy wagons and come loaded with every option imaginable.

My ideal garage in a few years would be the following

Legacy / Outback wagon , winter car

Wrx Wagon , track car

Chevy SS Automatic , Summer cruiser

BMW Station wagon Project , E39 or E46 Wagon BTCC replica car

So I decided to pull the livery cause it was peeling and it led to a 12-15 hour detailing adventure.

I used all Chemical Guys products and it turned out pretty great

Cleaned with their Citrus Cleaner

Clay Bar kit

Concours Wax kit

Also got around to installing the Prodrive Headlights !

Try to take a before and after picture(s) from the same camera angle when you take off the livery. I think that would be cool and something I'd want to keep if it was mine. I'll be curious if the paint needs to be buffed to balance out from fading, ie darker under the stickers. That's a bunch of money your pulling off! Oh well, we move on.

 

E85 is awesome. I actually make the same peak HP on E85, because I ran out of fuel pump on 1050CCs, but the area under the curve was way way thicker. I have 4-5 E85 near my house, but it's planning to hit E85 stations on snowboarding trips that got me to switch. But I wish I got that kind of mileage on E85 in daily use! I barely get that on 91 with my terrible commute traffic.

 

312/320 on a 2.0L E85 VF42, quite good for stock turbo... what were your pump gas numbers like? What size injectors do you have with the FF kit?

Oh I plan on a complete shoot before I strip it next week , Car is already planning on getting a good detail , buff and wax sometime next month. The vinyl kit was only like $130 so not that bad , its served its purpose.

Pump gas was in the 280/290whp range I forget , I am running ID1050X injectors so it should be more than enough to support 400-420whp with a Walbro 450 fuel pump.

I would not really want anymore than that , I like driving my car more than fixing it.

Its been a little while since there was an update

Six Star Motorsports in Chicago did a great job sorting the car out after some wiring nightmares and loose grounds. Basically the AEM gauge was dead on arrival which is honestly pathetic for a $450 kit. This will be the last time anything from AEM comes near my car.

Car made 312whp/320wtq , The original VF42 is getting pretty tired and I think that is where the smoke at track days is coming from not so much the PCV system. So that is leading to a turbo upgrade of sorts and I am looking at a Tomioka Twin Entry 2971 as it uses a Garret center section. I would love a smaller EFR but that is roughly double the cost once you factor in fabrication of a custom uppipe and downpipe. Also who knows what fitment issues I might run into with it.

So next up is likely Turbo and TMIC , I probably will only do one track day this year at most or maybe none at all. I enjoyed the last weekend of driving the car around town and just want to enjoy it. I have to continue the refinement of the chassis and get a quieter exhaust as this one drones a little bit much on the highway.

E85 is amazing by the way , I manage around 16mpg driving around town and 19-20mpg on the highway. I have about five stations within a 5 mile drive of me and one is always frequented by E85 running GTRs , Supras and Evos.

Plan is to get these Prodrive headlights installed and take the livery off the car next month while driving it around for work whenever I can. Maybe pull the trigger on the turbo upgrade in August.

The Legacy got new rear brakes this weekend as well , They were pretty worn out and near the end of their lives. Ordered a Power stop kit from Rock Auto and for $450 it had everything now I just have to send back the calipers for the core refund.

I am considering building a Legacy Sti Wagon for a summer car in the next few years now and keeping my 2006 LGT wagon as a perpetual winter beater. I really like the chassis and my only gripe is that 5x114 conversions are kinda a nightmare. I know Subaru's pretty well and as much as I would love an M3 or M5 wagon the costs that go with BMWs are really high. Used M5 S62 Engines are costing well over $4500 + rebuild / service costs. M3 wagon is more affordable but still expensive.

That kinda leads me back to the Legacy as its pretty simple to work on with all the modern creature comforts and I can make it a long term project just like my Wrx has been.

Speaking of the Wrx we ran into a bunch of little issues with tuning and electrical problems so the car won't make it to Gridlife Midwest for the first time in a few years. It kinda sucks but sometimes this happens with old project cars. I will go collect it from Six Star out in Chicago sometime in June with video updates to follow.

But for Gridlife we are going to be grilling and my goal is to fill up an SD card with pictures. Not to mention some of the best GD Time Attack cars in the country will be there so I am really excited to bring full technical specs of them to the masses. Will have a full video of what the experience is like from the track side because people rarely see that side of Gridlife , They see a giant festival of vaping idiots not the serious Time Attack and Wheel to wheel cars that are there.

#Makesubarugreatagain

Bit of an update

Legacy just went over 157,000 miles and got a fresh oil change. Other than that it continues on driving around Detroit for work.

Have E85 and Flex fuel in the works along with some suspension changes coming soon via RCE , Should make for a very fun May and Gridlife Midwest !

Good write up! Thanks for sharing your WRX with us over here in LGT land!

You are welcome !

Not much to report on the LGT side , averaging 20mpg in the crappy Michigan winter with our crappy winter blend gas. Turns out if your calipers are not seizing you get better fuel economy who knew !

MFortyfive article released here

This years plan is to do Gingerman , Road Atlanta , Road America and maybe Mid Ohio.