SageAbkatsor

Keep a hammer in the car!

Planning a full engine build is never a bad idea, so that you can understand what things might cost if the worst case scenario is upon you and what direction you want to head if that scenario is realized. But you can just as soon plan for the best case scenario until you know for certain what is wrong. I still think your first step needs to be finding and confirming the point of failure. You may just need a valve adjustment which is a small repair compared to what you are suggesting. My ringland failure was very obvious, as my engine knocked so bad I thought for sure I had spun a rod bearing as well. After teardown my bearing was fine. In some cases of ringland failure you may still have good compression numbers. Your compression test may or may not indicate a failed ringland. Until you know the point of failure, this is all just speculation. Sure, a new short block, rebuilding the heads, etc. will resolve your issue, but that may be an over-repair depending on the point of failure. If I were you, I would try to do more diagnosing first, and in the meantime I would make 2-4 basic plans from here. Best case scenario to worst case. These don't need to be super detailed plans, hell just make the plans in your head, as you still need to find what is wrong with the engine first. But it will at least prepare you for any of the possible diagnostic outcomes, and give you an idea of what the next steps are and what it will cost. Plan 1 ($300-2000). Best case scenario: You need a valve adjustment. Essentially just a point of maintenance on these vehicles when they have higher mileage and something that should be checked at least anytime the heads are off if it hasn't been done in the last 30-60k+. Not cheap, even if you do it yourself as the valve shims are usually about $20-25 each and you may need, or want, to replace all 16. Maybe you only need 2 or 3 and some can get swapped around. You'll need gaskets too. Probably throw some new plugs at it while things are apart. Add probably 6-8 hours labor I would guess depending on the shop (that assumes this can be done without removing the heads, which I think is the case but I could definitely be wrong). If the heads have to come off, then things are getting more expensive still, but this is all still way cheaper than a new block by a long ways. Plan 2 ($1000-4000). Middle of the road: Maybe all you need is a valve adjustment, maybe you have a dropped valve guide or some additional damage is found and you need a machine shop, or maybe you want to go further for peace of mind, or maybe take this as an opportunity to make performance or reliability upgrades while things are getting taken apart. The heads are probably coming off in this route whether you have to do it or not, but your block is in good shape and you decide not to touch it, but maybe you don't know the full maintenance history of the vehicle, or you do, and it is time for timing components, water pump, a new oil pump, etc. Plan 3 ($3000-7000). Failed Ringland, but you are catching it early: If you do actually have a failed ringland this is where you fall, as your car still runs and drives and doesn't make a bunch of terrible noise. Things are probably not terribly damaged and you are smart to do the work before it gets to that point. There is a good chance your block is still in good enough shape that you just need to throw a piston or two at it if you are going for a budget route. But you have tons of options now as things are apart. You can throw a block at it, but probably don't need to, maybe you do Cyl head work, cams, forged pistons, any and all manner of bolt ons. Have at it. Plan 4 ($5-25k+). Worst case scenario or maybe even best case and you just want to burn money and turn your car into a monster: Your ringland is shot, your cylinder walls are scored, you have metal in your oil, rod or main bearing failure, your timing has failed, pick anything catastrophic. This does not seem to be your case, but maybe you just want to put a new engine in it for peace of mind, or you want to go forged and put a six speed in it and make something crazy awesome. Or maybe you just hit the lotto. Go crazy. These are just examples and the prices I put next to each plan are not necessarily founded in reality but are probably pretty close. Some may depend on you doing the work yourself. These just give you an idea of plans you might formulate so that you can take action once you actually know what has failed. To answer some of your specifics, the IAG blocks are not technically 255 or 257 as they don't have factory pistons and the stage 1 uses the old style rods, but they all use the new style crank. The distinction is irrelevant. They are awesome, but they are also probably overkill for most applications. I am seriously considering one at the moment as I need a short block, but it is completely overkill for my goals. You can get a new factory block for a little more than half of an IAG block and still safely modify your car for good power. Your heads don't really have hoses or belts per se, but having the heads rebuilt never hurts, nor does installing new hoses and new belts. If you are on a stage 2 AP tune, then you are tuned. Any type of custom tune will be better however, as it will be adjusted exactly for your vehicle and your modifications. Your accessport will allow a tuner to do everything they need to tune your car. You can get an e-tune by working with a tuner over the internet, but the best is to get the car to a tuner for a dyno tune. You should not need to replace your transmission but your clutch will depend on its condition after the 30k or so that you have on it. If the engine comes out, replacing the release bearing would be wise no matter what, the rest of it will depend on your budget, the condition of your parts, and your goals. TLDR; find out what exactly is wrong with the car, then set some goals, then set a budget. From there you will be in a much better position to get help from these forums. Without these things, there is not a lot more that we can do for you except help to trouble shoot

The turbo Subarus use an MLS headgasket that has never really been an issue like it was with the N/A SOHC cars. In fact, a common ‘mod’ on those cars is to replace the headgaskets with the turbo MLS gasket. The turbo is a real concern, but like I said, check those banjo bolt screens and you will have a much better idea of the condition of things.

https://www.rallysportdirect.com/ They are running 30% off on ACT products right now... Might be able to find something. I don't have any recommendations on a particular product based on your needs, but my ACT has been good to me.

RecklessWOT is correct. If it is ringland failure there is no quick fix. Your turbo definitely has nothing to do with it. You could maybe have it tuned to just be as safe as possible from detonation events just to limp it along, but who knows how much time that would even buy you. You would also probably castrate the car's potential in doing so. Again, wasted money. The poor compression/leakdown could be the valves not sealing properly. Why are you jumping right to ringlands? If it is something to do with the valves, you would still have a decent amount of engine work in front of you to get the cylinder heads dialed in again, but it would be significantly cheaper than a new block. You might also be saving yourself from larger failure in the future if things progress from there. I would definitely look into things a little...

I linked it in my post, but I can never see links on these forums. The link does work though, but here it is again: https://www.rallysportdirect.com/part/radiator-hoses/tcs464-anc-wrx-blu-samco-ancillary-hose-kit-blue $331.86 - should qualify for free shipping They would not confirm fitment but I looked at all of my hoses, seems right. They only have it in blue. I emailed them to see if I can get it in black.

Machine shop says the head is salvageable. I saw a 23 window VW samba bus in damn near pristine condition. JMP got back to me so I am pulling the trigger there on the custom route with my VF52. Have pretty much got myself sold on the IAG stage 2 block, even though it is definitely more than I want to spend. Getting some odds and ends from dease42's part out. Things are looking up.

Yeah I’d vote starter. You could try a hammer. No joke. If you can get the brushes to contact you might get it to start. Have someone tap-tap-tap on the starter with a hammer (rubber mallet is better) while another person cranks she might just pop off, and it will tell you your point of failure all at once. This trick saved my ass so I could get my Miata to my buddies house to start the auto to 6 speed swap. Otherwise his wife was going to call it and steal him for the weekend. Got it there, and the starter had to be swapped as part of the trans swap anyway. Have never had an issue since, except when my ignition switch fried... no starter issues though.

I understand not wanting suggestions, it's the same reason your doctors don't want people self diagnosing or making suggestions. There are tests that can be run to solve any given problem. With that said, this winner may not be great with diagnosis, just as sometimes patients have more insight or information than a doctor would like to let on. A dealer, not a great dealer, service department could not diagnose the torque converter shake in my 08 Tribeca until I read about it on a forum and told them (turned out there was a TSB for it, lol...) Was your battery disconnected or did it die before the symptoms start? Did you have a CEL cleared before the symptoms started? When did the symptoms start? I have seen a really dirty throttle body cause this type of symptom on a SOHC car, but only if the battery gets disconnected or CEL cleared which resets all of the learned parameters. Have not seen that on a turbo car, but we did not see a lot of turbo cars at the dealer. Cleaning the MAF takes all of 2 mins so that is a good place to start. The throttle body cleaning also takes about 2 mins on a SOHC car, which it looks like yours might be. It is a lot more involved on the turbo cars.

INBEFOREFLAMINGANDDIDYOUEVENTRYTOSEARCH https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/idea-web-links-saved-various-parts-219238.html https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/turbo-failure-wiki-173358.html https://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/begin-modifications-your-legacy-gt-19037.html These should keep you quite busy for a while. There are hundreds of pages like these all over this forum as well as NASOIC. All of the good stuff gets stickied. DO LOTS OF READING! Most of the time your questions have been answered before you could ask them. But I am new here so, as MaxCapacity just recently pointed out in another thread, I am not yet tired of these threads, lol. On any belt driven Subaru, the timing belt and components are absolutely critical. Do you know the history of your vehicle's last timing belt service? Did it get just a belt or did it also get the tensioner and all idler pulleys? You have an interference engine so if any of these components fail, your valves and pistons make sexytime and you will almost certainly need major engine work. On Turbo Subaru's, oiling is a critical point of maintenance. There are banjo bolts, bolts with oil passages that have small screens. These screens can become clogged and starve your turbo of oil. Rod and main bearings can also be starved of oil but I don't believe that is an issue with clogged banjo bolts. More so I think bearing issues happen when your turbo gets starved and sends metal particulate through the engine. The other big thing is that people run the vehicle low on oil, which can obviously starve the engine. These vehicles use oil, especially as they get old and rings wear out and turbo seals fail. Check your oil frequently. Regardless you should replace, or at least check the screens on(they are cheap though, have some on hand to replace if you are going to take them out), your banjo bolts unless you know they have been done very recently. Some people actually remove the screens. I am not going to recommend that but I understand why they do it. Detonation and ringland failure is another weakpoint of the turbo subaru engines. Makes sure your fuel and ignition systems (plugs and coils) are up to par. Run the highest octane fuel you can get your hands on (you don't need to track down race fuel). Beyond that, you should have the vehicle tuned, even if it is not modified. If it is modified, then you should definitely be running a tune. Apparently the fuel mapping from the factory was fairly lean for emissions purposes. You want to enrich your AF mixture to keep intake temps down. Change oil regularly or get an AOS/catch can. Blow by WILL happen and this reduces the octane rating of your fuel making detonation more likely. Enjoy!

Does anyone know about silicone coolant hoses? I found an old thread for a venair group buy. I found a samco kit that rallysportdirect does not list fitment on the LGT, but does fit 08-14 WRX that as far as I can tell is identical to our engine bays. Mishimoto does not seem to offer anything with correct fitment, which is kind of shocking to me. I have found a few on eBay that I am pretty skeptical of in terms of quality, even if fitment is right. The goal is to replace all of my small cooling lines, there are plenty of options for upper and lower rad hoses so that is easy. I want all of the Ancillary lines. It seems like Samco is my only option, but I haven’t been able to find anything that confirms fitment. It also does not tell me what hoses are included (is it all cooling hoses? Are some of them vacuum lines?). I confirmed it does not come with a routing diagram, but Samco said they can assist with routing. As long as fitment is correct, routing should be very straightforward. Unless anyone has any other ideas or recommendations. Is the 08-14 WRX the same set of coolant lines as our cars? The Samco kit is pricey, especially if I can’t pick a different color, but if that’s what it takes...

Definitely! And it was a big one with a lot of venom I guess. My heart was racing when I found that VF52, and for the price I got it, and the condition it is in (no shaft play, no wastegate cracks, clean housing. Probably does not even need a rebuild but I don't trust like that), hnnnnnnng... May as well have literally found it on the street. I have spiraled out of control in the last 24 hours. I just looked over my bank account, savings, cash box, and stocks, and I realized I have room to go a little crazy. This is a dangerous thing to realize lol. I need to see what JMP comes up with on the turbo (I think I have a rough idea on his normal range though, maybe goes up from there a bit depending on what else extra he does. Hoping he gets back to my email today), and I will try to find out today if my cyl head is salvageable. Then I will have a much better idea as to what I can budget for the short block. But yes, that's why the JE pistons seem really nice. All of the benefits of 2618 forged (and then some with the aligned grain forging process), plus you can damn near run the clearances of a hyper-eutectic. 8.5:1 CR. I see why IAG uses them. $852 before shipping for the set... Makes me understand why IAG has a premium price tag now. Their stage 1 block is not stock in the slightest, and it is all new parts. Stage 2 adds forged rods (and thereby the capacity for another 100bhp) for another $200... Obviously that is all obscene considering the goals I had when I started this thread, but having that kind of overhead would be nice for a 6 speed swap down the road. And I have a VF52 now, so I may as well go for it at this point. All of my buddies are encouraging a full send. I have spent the last week (more or less non-stop) learning so much about Subaru turbo engines... It is simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating. I am not eating properly, I sleep maybe 6 hours a night, my hygiene has taken a dive (don't worry I caught up this morning), I forget what day of the week it is... I wish I had the space/time/budget to do my own engine build. If I do end up keeping my core, maybe I can keep it in my dad's garage. He is close to retirement and I am moving closer to home in a couple weeks. He wants to rebuild one of his Norton engines. Maybe we can build some engines together...

http://blog.jepistons.com/ultra?hsCtaTracking=857faea3-fefd-4a90-b71c-514fd5849133%7C8d6e3f0f-0274-403b-bceb-2b512be41f85 http://blog.jepistons.com/perfectskirt These JE pistons seem pretty damn nice...

Yeah, I think I got caught up in using aftermarket bearings. I saw IAG takes a brand new short block and uses ACL or king bearings and I wanted to emulate that. There has to be a reason they do that in their stage one block. The only other difference is the pistons they use which they wouldn’t have split the case for. CORRECTION: IAG starts with case halves, not a new block. But I have never really believed the bearings are bad from Subaru, people are just bad at maintaining turbo subarus. I have 150k on my original bearings, as far as I know. I know a lot of people have a lot more than that. Plus when I look at it that way, Sunwest is only giving me ~$300 for my block. I don’t think I want, or need, to go forged, even with the VF52 I picked up yesterday. If I find a great deal on the machine work I guess it will be tempting. 257 huh? I knew that was an option but hadn’t considered it based on my dilemma. As far as my block, the walls look great, it has to be bored and honed. The very top of the chamber on #3 got chewed up a tiny bit from the metal bouncing in there. It’s kinda strange to me how that even got damaged though. It’s like the deck surface part of the wall. I’ll post some pictures later, this thread deserves it at this point. EDIT: Compression ratio goes up slightly with the 257 pistons... Not sure I am comfortable opening that can of worms.

Yeah that is the first place I was talking about. $360, cleaned, bore and hone, machine the crank. No assembly. Unfortunately he does not have deck plates for my engine as we never do that type of work there. We install new short blocks when it comes to that type of failure and just use him for head work mostly. If he has a block from us it is just to resurface the deck and that tended to be pretty rare. Great price imo, but not quite what I am looking for. I talked to my buddy and he does not really feel comfortable assembling the block. He said he can do it, but he really does not want to, so he wouldn't give me a number. I get it. Too much work, too much margin for error, he already does not have enough space, and he has too many other projects going on top of two jobs. He is already giving me a killer deal on labor, so I don't mind catering to what will make his life easier. He has already made my life easier. Meanwhile, the foreman makes it sound pretty straightforward. I could ask him what he would charge for assembly, but I really think I would prefer a machine shop to assemble and balance things. One of our senior master techs gave me the name of a machine shop that might do it, so I will try that place tomorrow. The place I talked to yesterday never called me back today, so I will also try them. Otherwise it is $1455 for the sunwest block shipped, if I give them my core. $1955 if I keep my core. We pulled the pan today and while I found a tiny bit of bearing material on the pickup screen, there was almost none elsewhere and #3 had next to no play in the bearing. We took the cap off and it looked surprisingly good. My crank should be in good shape if I can find a shop to do the work. My core should be worth the $500 or more, I would think, but at the same time I doubt anyone would pay more than that. I am not sure it would be worth the hassle of trying to sell it, and then maybe getting more than $500, maybe not. I saw a longblock for $500 for sale not terribly far from me. Maybe that is my answer. I could buy that, send them either one as a core, and basically walk away with free heads. I talked to the guy selling that and he said it has tight valves, so who knows how clapped out that engine is though... still. Don't mind me, just thinking out loud here...

Just found a VF52. Things just got wild

I talked to a couple machine shops and specialty car shops yesterday. One was absolutely laughable so I figured I would share. Called to ask what they would charge to bore and hone, balance, and assemble if I supplied all of the parts. He was clearly flustered by my questions and the information I was giving him about the engine and before I could say "if you have to crunch the numbers feel free to call me back," he spurts out "I dont know $2000." I said "dude I can buy a new short block for less", and he said "well you should just buy a new shortblock."and hung up. It was shockingly poor customer service, but based on what Tehnation posted for the work on his engine, also shockingly expensive. It was clear he was not familiar with the engine and just pulled a number out of his ass. I don't think I could rest easy if I had him do the work even for a fair price. You all made it seem like it should be so easy to find a machine shop for this work, lol. The other one I got a good hit on is supposed to call me back today with a quote, and they said they have Subaru guys running 30 psi, blowing em up and bringing them back... at least they would be familiar with the engine, and clearly people are happy with the work if they are coming back for more after blowing them up. EDIT: Called the first shop back, the one that said they can machine but they do not assemble, and he said $60 to clean, $160 to bore and hone, and $140 to machine the crank. Really not a bad price. He does not have Subaru Deck plates though which definitely deters me.

I bought the car with an accessport, V2 I believe. I am in Minnesota. My plan was to reach out to DB performance or Modern Automotive Performance Will probably reach out to Cryo though as that may work well for me too. Clearly he knows subarus. I think I would prefer a dyno tune though. Otherwise how does that work, I send datalogs while driving and he sends me tunes, Rinse repeat?

I see both sides of the arguments on this one. I love the SOHC subarus and can't blame someone for wanting to mod one. With that said, simple bolt ons will not get you much of anything beyond aesthetics (looks/sound). Don't mod expecting any sort of real improvement in engine performance unless you are planning to tune as well. Even then, the tune is what is getting you the bump, more than anything, not those mods. Plus you will likely be shortening the lifespan of your engine and that is why SOHC subaru's are awesome. They can go forever. What I was getting at in my first post is that you should, generally, not mod for engine performance on these cars. Make it sound a little better, sure, do some brakes upgrades and suspension mods, sure. Getting more HP is not something you will see with simple bolt ons. The CAI would be more for the induction noise than performance, if it wasn't tuned for. Even with a tune, any gains would be more attributable to the tune than the CAI. The stock airbox on these vehicles flows quite well and is not your limiting factor. I would be surprised if a tuner could get more from an otherwise stock Legacy with a CAI than a completely stock Legacy. It might sound cooler though. SubarNoob is commendable for answering the question, and is correct in that, if you are going to mod a SOHC engine, this is the way to do it (again I think the Tune is the most important first step before IHE if you are looking purely for $/hp gained). Going back to my post though I would not run the headers or CAI without a tune so if you are going for more pep, either just do the catback (sound) and a tune (performance), or do the works IHET and know that the tune is what got you more performance than anything else in this equation. Tehnation, while failing to answer the question, is just being practical. If you are looking for engine performance in a SOHC subaru, you are doing it wrong. It's just not something you will see without a tune. Cams and springs, cyl head porting, and possibly block work too if you want to really get something out of it) If you are going to tune, you may as well do a few of those IHE supporting mods, but at that point you are what, 2-3k into your free subaru for what? Your slow car is still slow. Instead you could take that 2-3k, plus whatever you can sell your free car for and have something in the same form factor that is much faster. Then at that point, you are in the same boat, where bolt ons are not doing a lot in the way of performance unless you have a proper tune. You may as well just burn money if you are talking about strapping a turbo onto the SOHC engine (or give it to me lol, I could really use it). I am not sure what it takes to do a DOHC turbo engine swap into one of those cars, but I am certain that it would be cheaper to go Tehnations route. You may even come out ahead if you have a good clean example and find the right deal on an LGT. I sold an automatic, base model, 2002 bugeye Impreza for $4700, which is more than I paid for my 5mt LGT wagon. I certainly have more than $4700 into my car now, and defintely will after my engine rebuild, but the point is I came out ahead swapping cars and got a lot more HP. That is all Tehnation is trying to get at.

Cryo? I am not in contact with Cryo, but I will contact them if I should be in contact with them, lol. I have not heard of this Cryo person. A tuner I presume? The car is tuned, and not with an off the shelf COBB map. I have no idea who tuned it or what modifications were done before or after the tune though. No idea if it was a dyno tune or just something downloaded from somewhere. Definitely something I should have addressed sooner. But I was a very busy guy and the car ran well and was fun to drive, so it was something I neglected. The guy I bought it from I don't think had any idea it was ready to let go. I don't blame him in the slightest. He was not a car guy, and I don't think he made any modifications. I blame only myself. The car has actually been relatively problem free, all things considered. I think one of the big reasons he sold it is because it was leaking water through the roof rail. This is something that he did not tell me and it took me longer than it should have to put all of the pieces together. I had noticed the water stain on the A-pillar but it was relatively minor so I didn't think much of it. On more significant rains the A-Pillar would actually become wet and even drip. He had front weathertechs that he had forgotten to give me but was eventually able to meet up. With those installed, the driver's footwell no longer allowed for the water to evaporate, so it got soaked underneath the floor liner after a more significant rain. The water not only dripped off of the headliner above the A-pillar trim, but it would also run down the A-pillar trim, and into the carpeting at the front of the footwell. Now I saw why he had weathertechs but wasn't running them (or any floormat for that matter. With the weathertech out, it generally did not allow enough water in that evaporation would not take care of it. Still, with significant rains or extended rains (3 days or more), there was not enough sun to get the evaporation process going and enough water got in that it would get pretty soggy. Lots of testing sunroof drains ensued to no avail. Eventually I confirmed it was the roof rail. I neglected to fix this until the engine went. Then I was just going to sell the car but I didn't have the heart for that. Once I decided I was going to have it fixed is when I finally buckled down and ripped the headliner out. Helped that I finally was leaving my job. Technically I did most of it on my last day of work, but finished it the following morning. Headliners can be stressful when crunched for time.

Fair enough. Like I said, there are enough downsides to forged that I don't think that I want to go that route. I will be looking for a relatively conservative 91 tune. I also would like to install my AOS before it gets tuned as well. If JMP rebuilds my turbo that will be one piece that will work against me in this regard. Small turbo + extra boost = higher IATs. Maybe I need to look at intercoolers. I have the Perrin TMIC, I wonder if the Grimmspeed is better at handling heat soak. I think the difference is probably not worth it though.

So I have been doing some learning again, dangerous I know. Sunwest says this on their website for their OEM+ blocks – NPR Teflon coated, Hyper-Eutectic (not cast) Pistons and rings But what I am learning is that a Hyper-Eutectic Piston is in fact a cast piston, despite what they claim. While this does not mean that the pistons are worse than stock, it does mean they are wrong, or lying... While I have read that it is possible to forge hyper-eutectic alloys, I am not seeing anywhere that states NPR is doing this. From the sounds of it, a hyper-eutectic forged piston would be quite expensive A few questions I have as a result of this discovery and other information I have learned about hyper-eutectic alloys: 1. Does this actually improve the pistons ability to avoid ringland failure in detonation events? The added silicone matrix, while making the alloy stronger, also makes it more brittle. While they have great thermal expansion properties to keep clearances low, are they actually an improvement to Subaru pistons primary weak point, the ringland? 2. What are the stock pistons made of if not a cast hyper-eutectic aluminum alloy? Just a regular cast aluminum alloy with no silicone? I read some information, from 2004 I think it was, that the STI was using hyper-eutectic pistons from the factory. Maybe the primary issue is that they ARE hyper-eutectic. Maybe that is why Subaru piston's suffer this weakness in the first place. 3. Perhaps the teflon coating helps? This seems like a stretch. The teflon should be to provide low friction. 4. Are these pistons a good option as a stock replacement, and do they offer better protection against ringland failure than the OEM? NPR seems like a quality company and I have read a fair ammount of people having luck with them. I have read all about the downsides of forged and they are enough that these hyper eutectic pistons are appealing. I definitely don't want to go OEM, but are these hyper-eutectic pistons simply a one-for-one replacement over the OEM. I will reach out to Sunwest for their answers, but would be curious if anyone else has any insight. EDIT: Yep, stock pistons are hyper-eutectic. After the failure I saw with mine, I am hesitant to put another set in there. Would be great for the SOHC non-turbo motors if ever needed as these NPR pistons are not expensive. On a turbo motor... maybe not so much. I'll call NPR and talk to sunwest as well. I am really curious what they will say.

Yeah I sent JMP a message... or two (I am still learning how this whole PM thing works. Nothing showed up in my sent message box... derp) to see what he would charge for a VF40 rebuild and see what his turnaround time would be. I would have a local shop do a stock rebuild if I can't get him to do it for me. I have spoken with them a few times and wouldn't hesitate to trust their work. But I want the car off the factory map regardless so I may as well get something with better performance along with the better reliability.

I would personally be a little wary about a CAI without a tune. I have seen turbo cars with a CAI and no tune throw CELs, but have never seen an N/A car of that vintage. There is somebody that owns a bugeye impreza with a CAI that lives in my apartment building but I have no idea if it is tuned. I also think those cars may have been a little more forgiving on the A/F ratio than an 08 Legacy/Outback would be, so that car may not need a tune where yours might. Somebody more knowledgeable might be able to chime in here. If you want it to sound differently, just find some catback exhaust you like. If you want it to handle a little better, there are a lot of suspension options. Pretty much any interior mod would be identical. Lighting mods I would imagine are the same. I am not sure about brakes, but I would think you would have all of the same options. Just wait till your headgaskets start leaking and throw the turbo MLS headgaskets in. That is the best mod for those vehicles. Then she's bulletproof.

Seems like you found some great deals and have the start of a great plan in place. Keep on planning that rebuild. Your goals sound realistic, though IDK how long the transmission will hold 400whp.