lilredwagon

My stock OBXT wheels fit fine on my OBXT when I had it lowered on Swift wagon springs and JDM LGT Bilsteins.

Mine sounds like that, but not as bad. I'd say that if it feels normal, and if you have the funds to get the 6 speed, then just drive it until it breaks or gets worse. If it's a problem, it'll get worse. If it's not, it'll just be annoying. It's no Honda Accord that's for sure.

^ This is awesome! Is this going to work on 08 LGT/OBXT?

No firsthand experience. I 6sp swapped my WRX because I wanted the 5x114.5 wheel bearings and the gearing. But I was planning to do the blast plates on the OBXT whenever I had the transmission out to do the clutch.

Blastplate the 5 speed, and you should be fine. I would count that as another 'may as well do it while everything's out' job.

I have that same whine from my transmission. For me, it started when I changed my dogbone to one with harder bushings. And other cars I've driven with aftermarket dogbone/engine/tranny mounts have exhibited the same whine. I think it's totally normal and the reason why those stock mounts are so soft - to absorb all the drivetrain noise.

Snow in Socal!:

Nice!! Yeah, I'm a believer in the Helmholtz resonators.

So, in diagnosing the misfire, have you tried swapping parts to other cylinders to see if the misfire code moves to another cylinder? That's usually my first step in diagnosing a misfire. I know you changed a lot of these parts, but it still might be worth it to try. At least that would rule out if one of the plugs/wires/injectors isn't working properly. Next I would do a smoke test. I understand that it's NA, but vac leaks affect NA cars too. I'd also run a can of seafoam through the intake to see if that changes anything. 200K could have a bunch of carbon buildup on the valves. Just my thoughts on cheap or free things you could try before firing the parts cannon at it.

I'd also double check all the hose clamps to make sure there isn't a hose coming off, or a vac leak somewhere. Otherwise, yeah, check the ignition components on the right bank. That side sits right above and next to the uppipe, so sees more heat than the other side. Edit: Oh whoops, I came in here to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas if you celebrate it!

If you actually want a drift car, it would be more economical for you to just buy a drift car and keep your LGT as your daily. As mentioned, you're going to go through engines and transmissions, in addition to body panels and whatever else gets messed up in the many crashes you endure while learning the car. I'm not trying to be a buzzkill on your idea - sliding a car is fun - but just consider that you'll be sinking a few grand into an LGT just to get it to slide, and when it does, it's not the best platform for it, so when it goes, it won't be with ballerina-like grace. Whereas you use the same amount of money and get a beater 240, E30, Miata, etc, and you'd already be mostly there. And when it's in the shop (it'll be in the shop a lot unless you plan on getting good at doing bodywork in your driveway), you can drive your LGT. Edit: And ignoring what car you're actually going to put it on, if you want a predictable breakaway of the rear end, you'll need a mechanical LSD. Apparently these new cars with the E-LSDs work well enough, but I don't imagine you're talking about $80K+ cars here. Below that, open, VLSDs, and even some Torsen diffs, are all unpredictable relative to a mechanical LSD. They are usually a large contributor to when a car gets a reputation of having snap oversteer.

If you're trying to make it more tail happy, you'll need a rear LSD as well. The stock VLSD won't do. You can slide a lot of RWD cars with an open diff, butt a Subaru is very front heavy, and usually lifts the inside rear when you setup the swaybars to be more rotation-friendly. With the stock VLSD, you'll just lift the inside tire and spin it in the air. I say this from experience. I've had my 5sp turned RWD by welding the center diff, and you can slide it, but it's super unpredictable with the stock rear diff. You can pretty much only do donuts with that setup. Now, it has the version 8 JDM 6sp with DCCD and a Cusco rear LSD. That transmission has a 35:65 geared center split (not all 6 speeds are split like that), a torsen LSD on the front, a Cusco rear, and a DCCDpro controller, it works well. The thing is that it still isn't stupid easy like a high powered RWD car. It's a grip car, so there's that, but you need to do a clutch kick to get it sideways, but once it's there, it's beautifully controllable. It also has 420whp, which is also necessary to keep things cooking. It's a road course car, so it would probably be easier to drift if it was actually built as a drift car, but the point here is that it'll take much more than just center diff torque split to make it a drift car.

Took care of hatch wiring today. Now my liftgate locks and unlocks with the remote again!

I did exactly this. On my other car, there is a strut tower bar obscuring access to the top adjustment. So I just used a small tube, I don't know what size, but I believe it was more than 1/4". Maybe 1/2"? But I squeezed one end in a vice, and bent the other end into a right angle so I could turn it. Works great!

1988 Jeep Cherokee > 1976 Plymouth Roadrunner > 1986 BMW 524td > 2002 WRX (only car ever bought new, and still have it) > 2008 Infiniti G37S Coupe > 2004 Outback H6 > 2008 OBXT > 2009 Jaguar XF Still have the WRX, OBXT, G37 and XF. All modded and in need of something fixed. 44 years old.

X-Force is good. In Australia, their exhaust systems are on the expensive side. They may not have a huge name here, but they're not a "no name" type of company that sell generic blanks on ebay. I have a Varex muffler on my WRX. Good stuff!

I've recently moved from MD to CA. Yes, the smog rules are ridiculous. What I've done is put the stock downpipe back on, and just made sure all the mods look stock under the hood: VF52 instead of an aftermarket turbo, bulletproof mod on the intercooler, black unbranded turbo inlet hose, K&N drop-in filter, serviced stock injectors, stock STi fuel pump, and a tune. It all fits under the stock engine cover. It's not a lot of power, but that's about all we can get away with in this state:

Well it was my other car. It wasn't too much weight, but it's a Jaguar. Maybe in the neighborhood of 300 lbs, but it was in the back of the trunk, behind the rear axles. Enough for the rear to be visibly sagging a little bit. And the tires were pretty used up before the trip. After the trip, the cords are now showing on the inner edges.

People have reported that the flexible strut bar on an STi helps the car feel more solid and less tinny compared to a rigid bar. They say that when they switched from a rigid bar, to the STi strut bar damper, that it made the car have more of a solid, German car character. That's an impression focusing on ride quality. But it is notable that STi uses them on their 24 hrs of Nurburgring cars. But of course, I don't have anything on my Legacy platform, and my WRX has a rigid bar.

^ don't need to hook it up - Spec B wagon is already the finish line!

One thing to keep in mind about tire wear and alignment specs - I just wore through the inner edges of the rear tires on one of my other cars and the alignment is in spec. The thing that ate the tires was doing a 1000 mile road trip (each way) with the car loaded up. So under load, the toe changes and wears the tires differently than when the car is static and unloaded on an alignment rack.

Just a thought, check the turbo. Often when you can smell either oil or coolant, but can't find a leak on the motor, it's one of the feed/drain lines on the turbo. The turbo runs so hot that it just flashes off immediately without drips. Took me forever to find a mystery coolant leak and it turned out it was from the banjo on the turbo.

I don't remember. That pic was taken in 2010. I worked at a shop back then, so it's possible that it may have been a cheapie that was just taken off the used/takeoffs shelf. The ones I remember buying have been: Invidia, Perrin, APS, and another brand maybe TXS? All reputable brands, and all of them cracked under heat wrap. So I got an Invidia one piece ELH that merges up at the turbo so it takes place of the uppipe. That was a bitch to install without a lift, and that cracked also. Eventually, I gave up the ~20 or so WHP and just went back to stock headers and non-catted OEM uppipe and haven't had any problems since. Not trying to disparage any companies, and it should also be noted that this was from 2004-2010, so even if any of the companies are still around, I'm sure their manufacturing process is different by now.

I would just buy a fresh, used non-catted OEM with fewer miles. I've sort of been all over the place with uppipes, and it's true, the OEM, non-catted is the best. And the OEM heat shields are the best as well. Here are a couple old pics of what happens when a mesh style flex joint goes bad. From the outside it looks fine: But it frayed on the inside, almost completely blocking the flow. This took out my motor: