Andy_Mac's '06 JDM BP5 GT Spec.B

[Andy_Mac]

Haven't done much other than maintenance bits and pieces recently.

 

Have replaced both bushes in the front lower control arms with new OEM bushes. Didn't really fancy poly ones so figured even new OEM's should be a huge improvement over torn ones, which they certainly are. Plus the voids seem to be a bit smaller in the new ones when compared to the originals.

 

 

Have also replaced the inner and outer CV boots on both sides up front to get on top of them before they split as the downpipe side inner was starting to get some decent cracks.

 

In the past i've always had an issue with the Whiteline KCA399's as the first set failed miserably but the warranty repalced set has stood up to the test of time quite well

 

 

Saving the best for last, finally got hold of Zerosports grille which i've been keen on since first getting the car so she's been a long time coming.

 

[WRX USA]

The Zero/Sports grille is carbon?

[Andy_Mac]

Na it's just the fibreglass version.

[Andy_Mac]

Done a couple of little things of late.

 

Replaced the fuel pump with an AEM 320lph one which promptly outflowed the stock reg and made it run crazy rich, after a bit of headscratching got a GFB reg which sorted all the issues out.

 

 

 

 

Chromed indicator bulbs for a completely amber free look.

 

Rear before:

 

Rear after:

 

Front before:

 

Front after:

 

Then with some help converted the stock DP to a bellmouth to see if any improvement could be made.

 

Before:

 

After:

 

And lastly picked up a V7 WRX intake manifold with wiring and fuel lines to do a top feed conversion. Unsure if i’ll use the WRX manifold or just stick with the current plastic one

 

 

Have begun the innard delete on the TGV’s already.

 

[Andy_Mac]

Lastest install is coilovers and rear camber arms.

May need to raise it up a touch in the front as it rubs on some decent bumps when turning. Aim is to be as low as possible without any negative impact to standard driving behaviour which i’m almost at so 90% happy.

 

So far the impressions are that these things are the bees knees. Considerably smoother, more comfortable and controlled all at the same time. Almost zero body roll anymore either. Seemingly every positive aspect of coilovers without the typical cheap coilover downsides

 

 

 

 

 

Still need an alignment and to replace one crappy bolt I snapped when re-torquing, then onto rotors, pads and to enjoy driving it again until motor stuff starts happening somewhere down the track.

[BMCracer]

You've probably had it for years, but where'd you get your front lip spoiler from? I want one for my NZ new 3.0RB wagon.

[Andy_Mac]

Just got it off a car at a local wrecker. Have a ring around and you might get lucky. Heaps of the ones coming into the country right now have them so there’s bound to be a few that have been crashed already

[Andy_Mac]

Got my first track day coming up so figured it was a good time to get a few things sorted.

 

First up was replacing the front seats with some prefacelift versions for the additional support, found a set with the same specs as my current ones so jumped on them. Ideally i'd get something aftermarket like some Sportster CS's or something from Edirb if money wasn't an object, but also need to retain the seat airbags for mine too which makes options more limited.

 

Leather on the base of my current ones was torn anyway so was up for some seat related costs regardless. Leg support is hugely improved over the facelift couches. The only downside is losing the memory seat settings, isn't a major since i'm the only one who drives it but it was a nice feature.

 

 

Then onto braking. Replaced rotors and pads on all four corners, DBA T3's with Bendix Ultimate pads on the front and DBA T2's with Bendix Ultimate pads on the rears

 

 

 

Have put in the Whiteline KDT927 rear diff insert bushes in. No real opinion as yet, but removes almost all movement when lifting the car on a jack under the diff so should have a similar result on the road.

Also have KSR207 steering rack bushes yet to go in due to movement in the stock ones.

[Andy_Mac]

Had my first track day this weekend for the 21st anniversary of the main NZ Subaru club

May have had a slight collision with a tyre wall unfortunately. Not sure if it was liftoff oversteer or just getting on the accelerator a bit early. It was a stupid place to be changing gears anyway, was only the second session of the day with it being raining for the first so hadn't quite worked out what speeds to take each corner and what gear.

The majority has buffed out with just a couple of scratches left and a few missing hooks on the bracket below the headlight so nothing major thankfully.

 

The Brembo's with Ultimates and DBA rotors did a bloody good job pulling the car up time after time without any noticeable fade so besides the squeaking i'm bloody happy with them and the general handling of the car, just need a bit more power for the straights and it'll be perfect.

 

 

 

 

 

Couple of GoPro Video's from the day, can't seem to work out how to embed them.

 

 

[jrho]

Well they say if you ain't rubbing you ain't racing haha. Track days sound like a solid time but it's too bad locally here we only have one option and it's quite expensive. Also for your rubbing issues with your coilovers, I imagine it's your tires hitting the fender liners that is the source of rubbing if you haven't figured it out yet. I removed mine when I installed my coilovers because my tires were literally touching them just sitting static haha

[Andy_Mac]

They’re a bloody good time. Definitely keen to start going more often. Even by the later sessions i’d got a decent idea of how hard I could push things before starting to lose grip and when to pull back.

Have had the fenders rolled about half way up which solved 90% of the rubbing. Was actually catching and pulling the fender lip down. After that it was then rubbing a bit on the liner. Have cut that back from round the fender, don’t wanna get rid of them completely as the intake filter is just on the other side which wouldn’t like being open to all that debris from the wheels.

 

Haha geez, you must be a fair bit lower than me then, still got heaps of space when static.

[Andy_Mac]

Got another track day coming up in late November so have been slowly ticking things off the to-do list for the last few months

 

First up is a Block8head dual vent pod with Defi BF boost and oil temp gauges. Love the look of this thing. Got rid of the tackiness of a gauge pod just glued to the dash.

 

 

Replacement Hardrace pitchstop mount. Went with this one as it still retains rubber bushes, just much firmer than stock. Works just as expected with none of the noise and harshness some poly bushed mounts give. It wasn't until removing the OEM one that I realised how worn it really was.

 

 

Next up came a new shift knob and Radium AOS. Got the knob lightly used for a fair bit less than new. Always wanted this particular one but hated the 'STI' tax that came with it so jumped at this used example.

As with alot of parts, fitting the AOS in a RHD car was slightly challenging. There really wasn't any 'right' place to put an AOS this tall and have it draining back to the block tidily but did the best I could. Still needs a mount fabbed up to attach it to the pitchstop mount bracket but even as it sits currently there is zero movement.

 

 

 

Lastly, after toying with the idea of a set of locally available STI Recaro's I managed to resist, really didn't want to go back to manual adjustment seat life. Instead I had the centre sections of the stock seats re-upholstered with mircosuede. The difference is unbelievable. With the full leather seats you slide all over the place, but even with the stock bolstering the new centre's change them entirely. Can finally see why some markets and special editions used this material instead of full leather.

 

[Roilan]

Looks awesome

[Andy_Mac]

Had the annual FlatNats meet last month. Had a blast being out on the track again, for the most part atleast.

 

There was a few issues with the car unfortunately. Had some crazy brake shudder along with one of the camber arm lock nuts coming loose so wasn't super keen to push it as hard as I could. Struggled to track down the clunk on the day since it ended up being the one right above the exhaust split after the Y.

I'll probably get the rotors skimmed and work out a better cooling procedure for future events.

The recently re-upholstered seats did a killer job too. Still nothing on a decent bucket but all of the slipping around I had last time was gone.

 

 

 

 

Since then i've also finally got rid of the troublesome stock ECU, now running an EMTron STI MY08-15 plugin. A couple of pin changes were needed but almost everything worked right away.

Virtually nothing done performance wise between the old and new tune, the torque increase is unreal and will mean future mods are considerably easier to tune for.

 

Old:

 

 

New:

 

[hadvw]

Can you tell me a bit more about this Emtron thing? Plug-and-play? How hard is it to go back once in a while (to pass smog)? Seems like they have a flex-fuel option?

 

 

 

I guess you need a tuner who knows how to tune it?

[Andy_Mac]

the STI pin locations and CAN streams are extremely close to the facelift Legacy’s, for Jap cars at least, so the previous time I had the car with them they literally just moved a few wires plugged it in, changed a couple of things in the base map and it started right up including the dash which was a very good sign.

 

Wouldn't say it’s crazy hard to swap back but you'd need to know what wires to move back to where but that's about it.

I probably wouldn't have gone this way if I was in the US, or anywhere where AP’s work. SD and flex is pretty damn hard to get working with the opensource software we have to use. Table ranges are considerably better with the EMTron and the way it drives is miles better but going this way isn't cheap.

 

Yea, flex fuel is an option. Tuner had to make up an extra expansion loom for mine for the IAT sensor so he added a bunch of extra wires for future flex, fuel pressure, oil temp/pressure.

 

Tuning it won't be hard. Software layout takes a few mins to get your head around but this stuff should be child's play for a decent tuner

[cryo]

Thats cool, we played with emtron out at efi university during our training.

 

Solid ecu

 

Dave

[Andy_Mac]

Thats cool, we played with emtron out at efi university during our training.

 

Solid ecu

 

Dave

 

It sounds like it's a big step up from a LINK ECU which tends to be the default option on this side of the world.

It's only taken 4 years since you had a crack at tuning it to finally find the right solution haha

[Andy_Mac]

New GaugeArt gauge turned up today. It'll communicate with the EMTron via CAN and can show up to 4 separate parameters including user configurable warnings so should be a neat little addition since I've yet to find a suitable way for the ECU to communicate with the tablet.

 

The only dilemma I've got is which Defi Gauge I'm going to get rid of. Could get rid of both and still display two other parameters in theory. It just won't look half as nice with different style gauges right next to each other if I end up keeping one.

 

Decisions, decisions...

 

 

[Andy_Mac]

The new CAN gauge is now in and working as it should. Decided the oil temp gauge was the one to go, now just need to sort an oil temp sender for the ECU so the gauge can read it.

 

Slightly disappointed with the display. The contrast and brightness isn't terrible but not super great either.

 

It isn't as bad in dual mode but when showing 4 gauges the text is far too thin to be easily readable on a bright day with just a glance. Hoping that is something they can address with future firmware updates.

 

[hadvw]

Your speedo only goes to 180 km/h (~115 mph)? IIRC, top speed of the LGT is around 156 mph (~250 km/h).

[Andy_Mac]

Not sure if it is still the case with new ones but Jap vehicles traditionally always have 180km/h speedo’s and speed cut at that number too. I'd need a crazy long straight for mine to hit 250 haha.

Just under 180 is the max I've got on the track.