CovertRussian's 05 LGT Build Thread

[covertrussian]

Makes sense, more roof, more trunk more glass.

 

You wagon guys should hit up a scale too for actual weight comparison. Now this is assuming my local place has an accurate scale too....

[StkmltS]

I think there's a truck scale near where I usually fill up.

[SFerrell]

I've been eyeballing one piece lightweight crank pulleys since I did the timing belt on the Forester and saw how heavy stocker is. Plus they tend to separate and cause some destruction.

 

List of aftermarket pulleys and information: Crank Pulley List (Price, Weight, Part #'s)

 

I went with GrimmSpeed due to the heavier weight, it doesn't cause CEL's like others might when you use it with a lightweight flywheel. Plus Grimmspeed has timing mark and sells a kit for 08+ stretch belts (that I might convert to).

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0585.jpg

 

For those that are curious, GrimmSpeed says the pulley has timing marks, they mean mark. It took me 5 minutes to find that single mark...

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0589.jpg

 

I was under the impression that the pulley would be 2.6lbs, it feels heavy and is a very high quality piece, to my surprise it came out to be 2.05lbs.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CrankPulleyWeight-GrimmSpeed.jpg~original

 

Stock Pulley weighs a hefty 5.65lbs

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CrankPulleyWeight-LGTStock.jpg

 

GrimmSpeed vs Stock pulley

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0607.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0608.jpg

 

 

Start removing all of the parts in the way, I was able to do it with the intake and rad fans in place.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0593.jpg

 

Undo the lock bolt then unscrew the alternator tightening bolt, you will have to push the alternator down to remove the belt.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0594.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0596.jpg

 

Same deal for AC, undo the idler pulley bolt, that will allow it to freely travel, then unscrew the AC belt tightener.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0597.jpg

 

After the belts are off get a 22mm socket and a breaker bar. Make sure your handbreak is tight and put the car in 5th gear. Use the breaker bar to loosen the bolt, then remove it.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0601.jpg

 

I used a big screw driver to slowly wiggle the crank pulley off

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0603.jpg

 

Notice the circular cut in my timing belt cover, also notice the glue on the AC plug. Looks like this car suffered from the crank pulley falling apart previously...

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0604.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0606.jpg

 

Install the new pulley, make sure it goes on the tooth correctly before you begin to tighten it

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0610.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0613.jpg

 

Torque it to 95ft-lbs

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0614.jpg

 

Reinstall the belts, make sure they are aligned on the crank pulley properly before tightening them or you will shred the belts. Then properly tighten them or they will squeak.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0616.jpg

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CIMG0617.jpg

 

 

Gains

 

Now the moment of truth, you're $115 in and how much power does it gain you?

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t188/covertrussian/Cars/05%20LGT/Engine/Pulleys/Crank/CrankPulleyStockvsGrimmSpeed.jpg

 

Sadly loosing 3.6lbs from parasitic mass gained no power (in 2nd gear), at least GrimmSpeed didn't promise/advertise power gains. Usually lightweight and underdriving pulleys will gain you 5whp or so, guess all the power gain comes from underdriving and not from being lightweight.

 

I will say the motor did rev up smoother with the new pulley, I'm driving the car around right now to see if city MPG improves any.

 

At this point I would say only go lightweight if your current pulley falls apart and you need a new one anyway. My opinion may change once I drive the car in a spirited fashion after the MPG test.

 

Update 04-25-14: After driving for a while, it does seem like this pulley help improve my low end torque and the car likes being in 4th at 30mph a lot more. MPG gain/loss has been neglectable though.

 

Just a thought, I noticed the part of the timing cover that got chewed up appears to be oil soaked. I'm guessing that you have or had a cam seal fail at some point or some PB Blaster was spilled in that area. It can cause the plastic of the timing cover to swell and make contact with the pulley. I had the exact same thing happen with my SVX and I thought the cause was a failing thrust bearing. Turns out Subaru timing covers don't get along well with motor oil.

[covertrussian]

That's PB blaster, damn northern cars are so rusty! I replaced the cam seals and crank seal when I did the timing belt.

 

As for the plastics being chewed up, that's actually because the crank pulley failed on the previous owner. AC belt slipped off and chewed up the timing cover and destroyed the AC compressor plug.

[SFerrell]

That's PB blaster, damn northern cars are so rusty! I replaced the cam seals and crank seal when I did the timing belt.

 

As for the plastics being chewed up, that's actually because the crank pulley failed on the previous owner. AC belt slipped off and chewed up the timing cover and destroyed the AC compressor plug.

 

 

You would think Subaru engineers would consider this while developing the part. I mean, with the likelihood of the crank failing and causing catastrophic and potentially dangerous events. Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. It should be a recall or a service bulletin at the very least.

[SFerrell]

I have the same GrimSpeed pulley, but in blue. With my car being the 5EAT do you think I will need the tool for removal? I know the older autos had a service panel in the rear small enough to fit a screwdriver in to lock the trans.

[covertrussian]

It's gonna be much more painful but is not impossible. I finally bought a tool to help a friend with 5AT timing belt job, it's worth the $30 I paid for it used.

[covertrussian]

The bolt that I caught a few weeks back is giving me a lot of pain, the tire plugs keep on coming out, I would take it to get patched but it's in a no patch zone.

 

That means it's time to buy new tires, about a year earlier then anticipated. I really like the Cooper RS3-A's that I currently have but they are about 4/32's at about 24k miles. Kind of short for tires rated for 40k, but I guess with turbo comes poor tire life too . What kind of tire life are you guys seeing?

 

I'm exploring other tire sizes too and comparing the RPMs at 70mph. Here are some calculated RPM's (actual are usually 50rpm higher for all my cars, not sure why).

 

Stock - 215/45/17 - 24.6" - 2902 RPM

Current - 225/45/17 - 25" - 2855 RPM

 

I'm thinking about trying out 215's, since they would be about 50rpm lower revving, plus skinnier tires thus possibly better gas mileage and better snow traction.

215/50/17 - 25.5 - 2799 RPM

 

 

This got me curious, on my 2012 Outback, which has 225/60/17 - 27.6" tires, I'm at 2670rpm (2633rpm calculated) at 70mph in 6th gear, nice and low almost a little too low for the weak 2.5i. I've always thought it was because of the 6th gear and in my head was thinking if I could retrofit it into the Legacy . Glad I did the calculations first though, because putting those same tires on the 05 Legacy would be at 2586rpm (calculated) .

Edited September 26, 2016 by covertrussian

[ScottFW]

You can try what the tire shop guy recommended to me when I got a bolt through the tread that was too close to the shoulder for him to be comfortable patching it himself... slather the plug with RTV before you insert it. Keep the tire at 10-15 psi until the RTV cures, then inflate to your normal pressure and see if it holds that pressure overnight. I did this to one of my Michelin Pilot AS3s and it’s been trouble-free with well over 20,000 miles on it since then. Saved me having to buy a whole new set or having to dick with getting one tire shaved down.

My AS3s have over 50,000 on them and are at ~5/32” give or take. I don’t drive slow, but OTOH I’m not exceeding their limits and sliding them around with great frequency.

IMO you are getting shitty life from a 500 treadwear tire with only 24K miles on them, provided you have a good alignment, keep them properly inflated, rotate them regularly, and aren’t autocrossing or doing HPDEs on them.

Coopers seem generally well regarded but I don’t know how much of that is just because they’re made in the USA, or if they’re “good for the price” versus good [period]. I have a set of their AT3s on my 4Runner. I barely drive that thing so I can’t speak to their longevity, but I’m generally happy with them.

In ultra high performance all seasons maybe look at Michelins or Pirellis. They cost 50% more than Coopers but you might get double the life. I say “might” because I can’t divine exactly why yours are dying young.

Since I bought mine, Michelin has updated the tread compound on the AS3 (now called AS3+) and Pirelli has quietly updated the compound on the P Zero All Season Plus but not given it a new model designation. Tire Rack’s tests show the new compound Pirellis outperforming the AS3+ in noise & comfort and in the wet (and my old version AS3s were already pretty impressive in the rain). AS3+ still had the edge in dry performance but rides harsher and makes more noise (a bit of a complaint I have with my AS3s). Pirellis with rebate plus shipping from Tire Rack would be about $50 cheaper for the set than the AS3+ from Costco with sales tax. Haven’t decided yet but will probably go with one of those two options pretty soon here.

[covertrussian]

Thanks for the feedback & review! I'll try to RTV trick next, I used two plugs and it seems to be holding for now, we'll see if it holds next week.

 

Is most of your mileage city or highway? According to TireRack, highway miles are much easier on the tires then city miles. Most of my miles are city and I don't drive the car nicely. Oh another thing TireRack mentioned is, as you get closer to 4/32's longevity actually increases (something about less tread flex due to shorter treads).

 

The Coopers I'm looking at are $85 a pop, but if I can get double the life for $50 more it would be worth it. I'm just used to most tires not lasting.

[ScottFW]

The vast majority of my miles are on the DC beltway and I-270. Probably 20% stop & go and 80% cruising, and the road surfaces are pretty smooth.

 

I measure tread depth every time I rotate them (about every 7-8K miles). Inside, middle, and outside on all 4 tires to make sure they're wearing evenly across the tread, since alignment issues can sometimes be detected that way before they're felt by the driver. Anecdotally I can say the rate of wear has gotten progressively slower throughout the life of the tire. The first 2 or 3/32" went away probably within 3-4 months, and now towards the latter part of their life I doubt they've lost 3/32" in the past 12 months. Road noise has gone up as a function of decreasing tread depth, but dry & wet performance have been consistently good.

 

Tire Rack prices for stock size 215/45-17:

Conti DWS $95 on closeout. Maybe a consideration for budget-conscious people in snowier areas farther north, but the new DWS 06 is far better.

Conti DWS 06 $128. This tire gets trounced by the Michelin Pilot AS3+ and the Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus in all areas except snow performance, which they haven't formally tested for all 3 yet. It's presumed the DWS 06 will win handily there but I'm not willing to live with its inferior dry and rain performance on the 355 days of the year when we don't have snow.

Michelin Pilot AS3 (old version) $125 on closeout. No reason to buy at this price since I can get the newer and better AS3+ from Costco for about the same price. If they were more like $100 ea (perhaps if Michelin threw in a rebate?) they might get some buyers.

Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus (new compound) $109 after rebate. I probably just need to buy these now before the rebate ends in 4 days.

 

Then there are a bunch that are out of the running for me:

Hankook Ventus S1 Noble2 $92

General G-Max AS-03 $92

BFG Comp-2 A/S $99

Dunlop Signature HP $102

These are all priced close enough to the Pirellis but get edged out in most tests and in particular have worse rain performance.

 

Most of the above are 500 treadwear, same as your Coopers, so hard to say if they'd last any longer for you. The Conti DWS and 06 are 540 & 560 treadwear, but have the same treadlife warranty as the rest of the lot, which is 45K or 50K miles. Problem is those warranties don't kick in until they're on the wear bars, and any tire is going to be much more prone to hydroplaning in the rain and will be useless in any amount of snow by the time the tread gets that low.

[covertrussian]

Nice post, thanks man!

 

I think you do a lot more highway driving then I do, I've put 35k miles on the car in 3 years... most of it is 8 miles a day of city driving, I have to go on highway trips to other cities just to keep the engine happy & clean. That coupled with having backroad fun (no real racing on this car), I think that's why my tire life is much less then a typical user.

 

Sadly tread wears are manufacture specific, there is no federally set limits basically. Thus Cooper's 500 might be Michelin's 400 or 600. All I know is I bought Cooper RS3-S's for my FWD turbo car, treadwear 300, and at 3k miles front tires are at 3-4/32's already. But I dog that car and autocross it, still though front tires being bald before even the first rotation is nuts. That makes me believe that Coopers might be a bit softer then they led on to be. At $70 per tire post rebates, its hard to complain about the all seasons on the Legacy though.

 

I might get a nicer tire just to see if they last longer, I think my plug is finally holding, thus I might be able to save up for a nicer tire while I'm at it.

[covertrussian]

Car seems to like 38-40* of cruise timing, since these are not A-B-A styled trips like I usually do, take these numbers with a grain of salt, but this as usual gives me a baseline to play with.

 

Update to this, did an A-B-A day-evening no headlights test with 38* highway map and got 30.85mpg, which is in top 3 for best mpg to that city ever.

 

I did see parts of the map that got advanced past 38* due to KCA table advances that I missed, fixing that to be lower timing values and will see if I get a chance to test it out again before cold weather rolls in.

[coldsoda]

A lot of great information here covertrussian, thanks for posting so much detail!

 

To add to ScottFW's post on tires, I've had great luck on multiple vehicles with the Michi AS3's in both the mid atlantic, midwest, and southwest (now live in AZ). I used to run a dedicated winter in OH and the DMV even though it was a bit overkill. Nowadays the AS3s are great for phoenix weather, and the occasional trip up north to Flagstaff and Payson where the weather does get colder/wetter. The AS3's I've also noticed are really good in the rain.

[covertrussian]

Got tired of listing to my brakes squealing so finally pulled the passenger calipers to spray some anti-squealing stuff on the backing plates. To my surprise my rear pads had about 1/4 life but the fronts had more then 3/4's, not far from what they were new actually. This is odd since rears usually last 2-3x the fronts, both were StopTech's so it's not like rears are softer compound.

 

I wonder if the subpar braking performance of these cars is related to this, my two other Subarus had much better braking response/grip then the Legacy does, I noticed this before and after all 4 caliper rebuilds on the LGT. Maybe the system sends more braking force to the rears instead of the fronts? Has anyone else noticed rears being eaten faster then the fronts

[Sgt.Gator]

Got tired of listing to my brakes squealing so finally pulled the passenger calipers to spray some anti-squealing stuff on the backing plates. To my surprise my rear pads had about 1/4 life but the fronts had more then 3/4's, not far from what they were new actually. This is odd since rears usually last 2-3x the fronts, both were StopTech's so it's not like rears are softer compound.

 

I wonder if the subpar braking performance of these cars is related to this, my two other Subarus had much better braking response/grip then the Legacy does, I noticed this before and after all 4 caliper rebuilds on the LGT. Maybe the system sends more braking force to the rears instead of the fronts? Has anyone else noticed rears being eaten faster then the fronts

 

Something is not right. You should be going thru your fronts much faster. On my race car LGT I could go thru front pads in a weekend. The rears last an entire season.

 

When you slam the brakes which end locks up first? It should be the front. Or if your ABS kicks in you should be able to tell if it's working on the front or rear.

 

Do you habitually leave the parking brake on? Is it adjusted correctly?

[covertrussian]

That's what I'm thinking too, the rears were eaten at a slant too, I believe the slant was eaten from I pulled the guide pin rubber sleeves (though new pads were with those sleeves for only 4-5 months). Maybe my pad brackets are needing to be replaced by now.

 

Will check out which end locks up first next time it rains, hard to lock them up or ABS them on dry weather.

 

Handbrake always goes down, though with the hand brake using drum brakes I'm not sure it would make any difference though.

[MTBwrench]

I'm willing to bet it's a slider issue, especially if they're not worn parallel to the backing plate. My fullsize chevy does this regularly. The only solution is new pins and bushings.

 

It could also be a proportioning valve issue in the master cylinder, or even just bad flex lines up front(if they're OEM).

 

One of my friends had flex lines go on his TC in the rear, we though the calipers were locked as the rear pads didn't wear at all, and the front went very quickly. Turns out the lines corroded, swelled internally, and basically plugged themselves. We were able to use the front brakes with the rear calipers off!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[covertrussian]

Slider pins are good, they moved freely, I regreased them and replaced boots on them in 2014.

 

It could be the master cylinder, guess I could try to replace it next time I bleed the brakes anyway.

 

As for the lines, I due to the brakeline rust recall I can see my rears being like that. Maybe my pistons are getting stuck a little up front (they shouldn't since I rebuilt them in 2014 too). That's another thing I should check when I do the brake fluid.

[covertrussian]

I've been messing with intake AVCS again, mainly since my fuel economy is plateauing at just under 31mpg with 10* AVCS and 38* of highway cruise timing (going below 38 made me loose economy in the last long trip that I did).

 

Last week I tested AVCS 15* and got 29.14mpg. Which told me that that's is too aggressive for the currently flowing exhaust.

 

Yesterday I tested AVCS at 5* and little less cruise timing and got a much better 30.50mpg. Cliff notes: I believe that with the major reduction in exhaust restriction (bigger turbo with 8CM housing), fuel was escaping into the exhaust due to overlap. Reducing the overlap amount looks to be a promising fix.

 

Today at lunch I remeasured my toe front and back, which last time I set it was set to 0", well looks like after the car set for a bit springs sagged enough to increase front toe in to be 5/32" and rear toe in to be 7/32's. Which could also be eating some gas mileage due to more rolling resistance.

 

Moral of the story, don't set your alignment after the car has been in the air .

[covertrussian]

Took a bunch of pictures in the last few days in order to have some submissions for the 2017 Calendar.

 

These are before I discovered my phone has a "pro" mode which lets you do some custom settings and has much better pixel count (149dpi vs 72)

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=240696&stc=1&d=1479085046

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=240697&stc=1&d=1479085399

 

The quality of the photos is very impressive, especially coming from a phone (S7), good job Samsung.

 

I like the way the back of this car looks more then the front, but at this angle it just looks boss. Besides chopping out the license plate and car in background picture wasn't modified.

 

These pics were messaged by my wife in post process to help with shadows or brightness reduction or to just let photoshop do it's thing

[BrianEarlSpilner]

God I love that GRP

[covertrussian]

I hated red cars before I bought this car, but it really grew on me, even the previous owner he mentioned that it really grew on him too.

 

Cosmetically all I want to do is replace/mod/dechrome the grill and maybe do an s206 lip (which I already have). Everything else if function > form.

[ttnio]

Nice fall and car photo.

[FJuan]

I highly recommend you submit the last photo to the calendar thread.