rebourne's '06 OBXT build thread

[rebourne]

Great question. Not sure this is a great answer, just what I observed. He jacked up both rear tires, and they rotated freely, so he could use the roller. In the front, both wheels stayed on the ground and he used the pipe and skillz. Talking to him, he seemed to know his way around awd cars n such.

[housemusic1]

Great question. Not sure this is a great answer, just what I observed. He jacked up both rear tires, and they rotated freely, so he could use the roller. In the front, both wheels stayed on the ground and he used the pipe and skillz. Talking to him, he seemed to know his way around awd cars n such.

 

Hmmmm, ok. I was actually going to ask if you were concerned about snow getting up into the engine bay, now that you trimmed out a good portion of the black plastic under carriage protector, but then I saw that you are in SoCal. I need to do the same trim job, but that's my only concern, here in Minnesnowta.

[rebourne]

Here's pics of the cracked ring landing from the #2 piston of the original engine and sample of the scored cam shafts:

 

 

 

[rebourne]

Finally crossed 1000 break in miles! Finally finally finally! Took nearly two months of normal commuting and weekend local trips. Friday morning changed the oil, with dyno 10w40 as required by builder, and Tokyo Roki filter. Drove around a bit before letting it cool and re-checking the oil. Then let er rip! Haven't WOT'd the throttle since early June? Feels nice! Did a few short 3rd gear runs on the way to work. Smooth and strong.

 

Monday I couldn't wait and I flashed with the ACN91 Stage1 map. Wooo! Really noticable in the torque coming on much earlier. Saw 15.83 psi on the AP guages. Highest I saw on the stock tune was around 13.5.

 

Not much else to report until I get the up pipe and down pipe installed, and switch to the stage2 tune.

[rebourne]

Swapped out the stock OBXT wheels for some used Enkei Imolas.

 

 

The fitment and tire size isn't exactly what I want, but the price was great. They'll suffice for now. The tires are slightly taller than stock LGT size, but much smaller than stock OBXT. Here's a bunch of numbers:

 

stock

17x7 +48 w/ 225/55/17

~49 lbs measured

26 1/2" diameter, measured

 

Enkei Imola

18x8 +40 w/ 225/40/18

~42.5 lbs measured

24 3/4" diameter, measured

 

Speedometer reads a whopping 9 mile too fast. 80 indicated is only 71mph as read by GPS via Waze. The LGT ABS sensor swap is calling my name.

 

Overall the car sits 3/4" lower due to the smaller diameter.

 

Corner heights before and after:

 

Stock wheels w/ 225/55/17s with about 60% tread left

LF 25 15/16

LR 25 7/8

RF 26 1/8

RR 25 15/16

 

18x8 +40 w/ 225/40/18 with about 30% tread left

LF 25 1/8

LR 25 --

RF 25 5/16

RR 25 3/16

 

So far they feel great. Tires are a bit noisier, which just emphasizes that I need some exhaust noise (that'll be another entry soon, I hope).

 

Pics (My camera doesn't suck, I'm purposely blowing out the highlights so we can see the wheel gap clearly):

 

Before:

 

After (drove around to settle the suspension):

 

Outside:

 

Front quarter view:

 

Rear side view:

 

Needs an alignment, badly. No reason for this much negative camber. That's just the setting the whiteline camber bushings were set to, when I installed the upper arms.

 

Sadly, I see that the rear has settled to be a tad lower than the front since installing the H-Techs. I'm surprised, or rather, dissappointed, as it seemed for the first couple weeks that the rear was just a hair taller than the front with just a 3/8" spacer. I'm thinking of ordering up some 1/2" spacers, but request bolts long enough to install the 1/2" and 3/8"s at the same time. Or maybe I just need a 3/4" spacer. Hrmm...

Edited September 3, 2015 by rebourne

[rebourne]

Took the lazy way out and had AQ install the catless up and Cobb down pipes. flashed stage 2 OTS. Updated first page of the thread with all the recent updates.

[rebourne]

Alignment finally done. Rears were at -1.9, and fronts were way toe'd out. Now at 0 toe and -1.25 all around. Really hooks in the corners

(for a mild street alignment, I'm really happy!), steering feel is way improved, and looks better. The rear wasn't benefiting from all that negative camber in looks or performance. Need to clean it up and get some better pics.

 

 

 

 

Alignment notes:

Only extra parts I have are the Whiteline KCA399 camber adjusting upper bushings. The rear toe is 0 in the rear with around 50% of the adjustment available. No toe arms needed. My alignment guy would have preferred a lower control arm to adjust, like the KCA124 or Megan's, versus the bushing one, because it required pulling the wheel off to adjust the camber, then putting it back on and re-measuring. But he still got it done first try, and I won't be making repeated adjustments, so it's a good budget solution.

[rebourne]

Installed some mufflers off a used LGT catback exhaust I picked up.

 

Stock OBXT versus the ProTuningLab/generic/ebay muffler:

 

Left side clearance:

 

Right side clearance:

 

Front hanger (if the bumper is the "front") is using extended hangers, 3" center to center on the holes. My local Napa stocked them.

 

Left side:

 

Right side:

 

Left side back is using a 2.5" hanger (stock is 1.75ish):

 

Right side back is using a stock hanger.

 

I had to adjust the mount on the downpipe, and use a longer hanger on the Y to get the left muffler piping away from the sway bar.

 

 

The CBE came with a mid and Y, that I'm not using right now, mostly because without a resonated mid pipe the system would be really loud. My ultimate plan is to ditch the ProTuningLab cans, install the mid and Y with a Vibrant Ultra Quiet resonator, and a pair of good muffs with a little rumble but not too much drone.

 

3" mid pipe and 2.25" Y:

 

Or maybe something completely different, using the mid, Y, a cut out and ...? we'll see

[Golf4283]

How about a couple wider shots of the new mufflers installed. Curious to see how they look from the back and the 3/4 angle.

[rebourne]

I posted this in another thread here:

 

 

Been too busy prepping for my twins 4yo birthday, and being sick with a fever to do anything since slapping those on. There's a mild clunk over certain parking lot speed rear bumps, but other than that it's working out. I need to get it up in the air to see if everything's where I left it, or if it's shifted.

 

I'll try to get a few better pics this week.

 

I haven't lived with them for a whole week yet, but I did get about an hour of low traffic (for LA) freeway driving in addition to my normal commuting, so this is a short term review:

 

Love the tone at idle and off throttle. Pull to redline sounds sick. They drone too loud between 2k and 3k, when slowly increasing speed and especially when climbing hills, but drops fast to zero exhaust noise starting at 3.1k. By 3.5k I can hear my tires much louder than the exhaust. And it's wonderful from there to redline. With my small diameter tires 70-80 is in the sweet spot and I'm learning to keep it in that rpm range on the freeways by dropping to 4th as it starts to boom. Pretty easy. I can hear the kids whisper in the backseat. It's not the ideal trade off, but it's far better than I expected.

 

We're driving to Yosemite in October though, so not sure if I'll swap them out for the stocks or not. Except for the 2k-3k drone, it's quieter than the wife's EvoX. She says she's had worse on her cars, but the drone is pretty bad in that zone. A pressure that's borderline hurting my ears.

Edited September 22, 2015 by rebourne

[rebourne]

right 3/4

 

back, slight angle

 

left 3/4

 

left side

[rebourne]

The muffler tips scrape coming out of driveways and parking lots. I have to do some crazy diagonal stuff to prevent it. They'd fit better with shorter tips or tuck the mufflers up with turn downs.

[housemusic1]

Any drone with that exhaust? Edited October 18, 2015 by housemusic1

[rebourne]

Yup!

Heck yeah...

 

Between 2k and 3k it can be powerful. Your ears take a beating while pulling a hill in the 2.5k range. This is not my bff exhaust. But she's a fun mistress, the wife likes her still and she makes the kids giggle way more often than complain.

 

Speaking of drone and kids. We were out and about this weekend and my 4 yo's really needed a nap, but we didn't have a place to do that. I put the gear lever and throttle in "mega drone" and within 7 minutes both were knocked the F out. Adjusted out of drone range and the wife and I wasted some gas over enjoyable adult conversation, and a few U turns, before arriving at our destination. Win-win.

 

dropping into 4th, bringing revs above 3k drastically reduces the drone, when the freeway isn't full speed. Probably hurts gas mileage, but hardly compared to my stop and go commute. As K. Block says #JustAintCare.

[rebourne]

Oh, but it sounds so good!

[rebourne]

Those huge ass, low hanging, exhaust tips scrape exiting nearly any kind of ramp or drive way. If i can get a good angle, they don't touch, but it's not always possible. Been carrying more people and stuff than usual these holidays and that's not been helping at all... Sadly, i hardly even flinch any more. It's only when the scraping exceeds a touch and continues for a second or two that i cry inside.

 

Having said all that... It's sounds great, was dirty cheap, and it isn't worth my time or money to attempt to "improve" it right now.

[rebourne]

Swapped out the 225/40/18s Bridgestones for 225/45/18 (lightly used) Falkens. The old ones were done.

 

The math says that the 45 series tire should be .77" taller in diameter, which would raise the car 3/8". Well the difference between the worn 40s turned out to raise the car 5/8" as measured at the wheel flairs.

 

The tires fit better on the wheels too, less stretched. I think it looks tougher, as opposed to ... uh, stance-ier?

 

Old tires:

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=222495&stc=1&d=1452229655

 

New tires:

http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=222496&stc=1&d=1452229655

 

I'll get some better pics when it stops raining and I'm willing to spend the time or money to wash it.

[MTBwrench]

IMO you're definitely right about the tires. Looks much tougher now. But I also despise stretched rubber, so my opinion is biased!

[rebourne]

A few random updates:

 

Since installing the 45 series tires and with their extra 5/8" ride height, I haven't scrapped the exhaust once. They absorb plates, rail road tracks, bumps, etc so much better than the previous tires.

 

But! I actually feel a noticeable amount more body roll. Like, on the 40s, I wasn't thinking of sway bars... the car was pretty damn flat in the corners. But on the 45s, it seems like the scales have tilted. I've read a few books on suspension angles and math (so that makes me an expert!) and I'm not surprised... It's not huge, but I feel it.

 

Paid for an etune with Cryo, but haven't got my shiz together to get it started. I've got plenty of excuses, don't you worry.

 

Pretty much convinced myself I need an ELH; influenced by a few threads here.

 

Bought a VF52 from another member, via ebay. ( http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/ct-oem-ihi-vf52-turbo-246977.html?t=246977 ) Waiting to see it before I decide how it alters my trajectory.

[Rhitter]

I far prefer the look of a little meat on the rims/tire. How much fendor work do you think it would be to fit 245/45/18 on your rims? or is your car just too low for that?

 

Were your tires rubbing on the outside fender? or on the inside finder liner?

[rebourne]

I far prefer the look of a little meat on the rims/tire. How much fendor work do you think it would be to fit 245/45/18 on your rims? or is your car just too low for that?

 

Were your tires rubbing on the outside fender? or on the inside finder liner?

 

No rubbing with the 8" et 40s. With stock OBXT wheels and rubber, they rubbed inside and out in front. And still rubbed outside after the fender work.

 

I'd run 245/40s instead of 45s, for fear the tire would get to tall again and have the OE tire size problems. 245/40 is just .25" shorter than the 225/45 I am on now. Less than the difference between full tread and worn. Hrmm, well a wider wheel would stretch that 245/45, and with right offset I bet the rubbing would be minimal, and entirely reasonable.

 

But the more I think about it, the less likely I will run 245s. Maybe 235s. I don't need the width, and I'd like to dial in a little bit more low in the front. Coil overs will probably happen in the spring to make that happen. This is just a freeway/offramp car.

[Acerguy]

No rubbing with the 8" et 40s. With stock OBXT wheels and rubber, they rubbed inside and out in front. And still rubbed outside after the fender work.

 

I'm curious where they rubbed on the inside with the stock rubber. And was that only after you added the lowering springs?

[Rhitter]

I'm curious where they rubbed on the inside with the stock rubber. And was that only after you added the lowering springs?

 

My stock wheels rub very slightly on the inner fender liner. Up high and in the front. The outer fender liner is worn away because I was missing clips for awhile and it flopped down a little. Note, this is on basically stock legacy springs with a 3/4inch spacer on top of the Bilstein HD strut.

 

Edit: turns out I have a picture

http://i.imgur.com/oqa9WcU.jpg

Edited January 21, 2016 by Rhitter

[rebourne]

My stock wheels rub very slightly on the inner fender liner. Up high and in the front. The outer fender liner is worn away because I was missing clips for awhile and it flopped down a little. Note, this is on basically stock legacy springs with a 3/4inch spacer on top of the Bilstein HD strut.

 

Edit: turns out I have a picture

http://i.imgur.com/oqa9WcU.jpg

 

That's the spot. There's a L shaped ledge in there, and mine was showing signs of healthy rubbing (is rubbing healthy?). But this was after lowering.

 

I got my roll after installing the Tein H-Tech's so I can't tell you if it was a minor, reasonable rub on the LGT springs or not.

 

But on the Tein's I was just tucking tire. I think the stock OB diameter tires look too big in the wheel wells when lowered this much. But my eyes might be tuned for LGT tire fitment, since I owned one previously.

 

[Acerguy]

Good info, guys. Thanks!