Lgt005 build thread

[Lgt005]

 

Just the story of my journey with my 05 Legacy GT. Here for my own records but open to anyone that’s interested.

 

So to start this journey I owned a 03 wrx sedan that I loved and never imaged letting go. I had that car for over 2 years and it treated me great, never let me sit and was very reliable. One day I was giving a co worker a ride home from work when we had to stop at a stop sign. Behind me was an old ford truck 50-60's so it was straight steel and heavy! He decided he didn't care to stop at the stop sign and took out my rear end. My entire rear end of my wrx was crunched in and the car was obviously totaled. I was heartbroken but atleast no one was hurt.

 

I little time passes and I get the insurance money for my car but still can't get over the loss. I missed my wrx but also wanted something a little more refined and less "boy racer" at the same time I knew I didn't want anything else but a turbo Subaru. After looking for a new daily driver for a while something poped up! A 2005 legacy gt in MD that an older gentlemen was selling. She was dark blue, completely stock, looked well maintenanced and a killer price. She did need a couple small things but overall it seemed like a great deal.

 

I purchased the car when I was 21 in 2016, drove it home and got it inspected the next couple days. After digging threw the car I decided there were a couple things I wanted to get done. Here's were my modding bug got ahold of me a little.

 

First banjo bolt filters needed to be removed, and the catted uppipe needed to be replaced with a catless one.

 

The exhaust was rusted out and leaking close to the meeting point behind the mufflers and was leaking. They actually almost separated. I also missed the Subaru rumble and wanted to get that back. With that being said not many places still make exhaust for this car so I decided to go with the magnaflow cat back.

 

Next I saw a killer deal on a used catless downpipe. Stage 2 it is!

 

Ordered a new grimspeed catless upipe and accessport. Waiting on some parts in the mail I ran the cat back for a couple weeks before I got my up-pipe and accessport in.

 

When I got time I install the up-pipe, downpipe and flash stage 2 and around this time I also changed all spark plugs with NGKs

 

Next I ordered and installed a set of Feal 441 coilover with the swift spring upgrade.

After installing the coilovers I decided to throw on the wheels off my 03 wrx. 2013 wrx wheels 17x8

 

My legacy was running great and treating me well but with the miles I realized it time to replace the clutch. Hmmm the trans will have to be dropped to do this. Should I just find a 6 speed and swap it in while I was there? Who knows? I pushed off replacing the clutch a little because I wanted to find a deal on a 6 speed swap. Well my patience payed off! I found a spec b 6 speed swap from another legacygt.com member and decided I would take it. I rented a Home Depot truck grabbed a friend and head down the road. A couple hours away sat my 6 speed swap. Boy was I happy when I got this. Loaded it in the back of the truck headed home and hid all my goodies in the garage. During this I had switched jobs and could no longer afford to take chunks of time off at a time. Financially and accommodating work, time off would not be availe at this time. Being my daily driver and working 6 days a week I wasn't having any lucking finding time to work on my car. During this time I decided on a southbend stage 2 daily clutch with an oem sti flywheel for the new trans swap.

 

Knowing I have the 6 speed swap and new clutch kit waiting in the garage but no time to install it was really getting at me. Finally I decided I need to get my swap in but still could call off work. So I was talking to a buddy and he used to work at a performance shop in Baltimore. After talking to him and giving the shop a call I decided I would let them knock out the swap for me. So I drove my girlfriends lancer for 3-4 days while my car was in the shop. Boy did that ever make me miss my car.

 

Picked up the car and man was I impressed! This trans feels great. My 5 speed didn't feel bad by any means but this 6 speed feels completely different in a good way. I had always wanted to go 6 speed and now I finally have! Plus the upgraded clutch over the original stocker.

 

Next I had some weird a/f learning values. Decided to change the oem turbo inlet to a new Cobb silicone unit. Helped a little bit something was still throwing off my numbers. One day I went ahead and installed my iag aos that I had been meaning to put on. Once the aos was installed I looked at my a/f learning values. The values are within spec! I guess I fixed a vacuume leak while installing the aos. This made me happy. Knocked out the AOS install and fixed my a/f learning values.

 

Found a set of wheels and tires 18x9.5 ENKEI NT03’s and then some 265/35/18s. Fenders has to be rolled and pulled to squeeze under. Also installed whiteline KTA 124 whiteline rear lateral links

 

So I can't express enough how much I love my legacy gt. This car is great: it's comfortable, has a little pep and isn't "boy racer" atleast to me it's not and didn't cost me a fortune to purchase. (Although I have dumped a lot into mods) I also have plenty of interior room without being huge like the new wrx and sits (personal opinion) I don't like big cars. I will say one thing that I'm not a fan of on these cars is the us dash and climate control. I hate that I have to order a jdm double din kit to put a new headunit and system in my car. For some reason my radio is fuzzy (maybe it's my tint or maybe the antenna in the rear window is pinched and damaged somewhere, I did look but didn't see anything) ether way being an 05 I have no aux in and all my radio stations are fuzzy. I'm sure the average person can see how this would get annoying for a daily. And personally I have had aftermarket head units with aux ins and sound systems with subs in all my cars. So spending $300 on a jdm kit is a little anoying to me because right now all I can listen to is fuzz lol. But evenatully I'll have to get the kit or I'll go crazy.

 

 

New air fuel sensor. DONE

New maf sensor. DONE

 

DBD front rotors. DONE 8/5/18

Girodusc front pads. DONE 8/5/18

Kns rear rotors. DONE 8/5/18

Hawk rear pads DONE 8/5/18

Front and rear braided lines DONE 8/5/18

Front and rear shifter bushings DONE 8/05/18

Kartboy front and rear endlinks. DONE 8/05/18

Front wheel bearings. DONE 8/5/18

 

 

TO DO/ need to get:

 

Catted downpipe with a/f bung

Aem wideband gauge

Blackout headlights DONE 8/05/18

Grimmspeed tmic

Cobb e85? (Hopefully will be released soon)

Injectors

Wires to log wideband on accessport

Accesstuner

Jdm double din kit

Sti steering wheel and controls (need to find controls for radio, Cruise,BT)

Rear cup holder

Front lip

Tail light and mirror and fog overlays

6 speed trans mount IAG

Pitch stop mount IAG

Fog lights

Short throw shifter

 

 

 

 

I do also plan to make more power down the road. Bigger turbo (get the horrible vf40 out!) intercooler and injectors exc and any supporting mods.. I wouldn't want to go huge turbo just something to make a killer daily driver.

 

To be continued and to be edited. Just trying to get some things down while I have a minute. Will be back to correct and add to this later!

Edited September 6, 2018 by Lgt005

[Lgt005]

Reserved #1

[Lgt005]

Reserved #2

[Lgt005]

Reserved #4

[Max Capacity]

http://people.csail.mit.edu/ilh/vacation/

 

In case you don't have them.

 

Glad your taking time and doing the car right.

 

Have you removed the banjo filter on the back of the passenger side head and a catless up pipe ?

[Lgt005]

Thanks!

 

And yes, I have replaced the up pipe with a grimmspeed catless up-pipe and removed the banjo bolt filters. I will have to update the thread. I'm sure there are a couple more things I have forgotten. I will continue to update the thread when I think of things I have done or I do anything new.

 

Those are 2 important things to do when first getting these cars.

[Lgt005]

Fixed... Edited July 27, 2018 by Lgt005

[relative4]

You can get a paint can smoke machine off eBay for $80 or DIY for half that.

[Lgt005]

Haven’t updated in a little. I made a little progress, but I still have a ways to go.

[Febreze Mee]

Dude, I wanna know everything about your wheels, preferably all in the same post. And I want a lot of pictures from all of the angles too.

 

Wheel model:

Wheel specs:

Tire specs:

 

Suspension:

Fender work:

 

Issues (if any):

Where/how/when it rubs (if any):

 

Pics:

 

I'm thinking about doing an extremely similar set up with gunmetal RPF1s.

[Lgt005]

Wheel model: Enkei NT03 +m

 

Wheel specs: 18x9.5 +40 offset

 

Tire specs: 265/35r18 Hancock Venus evo2

 

 

 

Suspension: feal 441 coilovers w/ the swift springs upgrade

 

Fender work: all 4 corners rolled and pulled

 

 

 

Issues (if any): sometimes slight rub if coilovers are set to soft.

 

Where/how/when it rubs (if any): if coilovers are soft on a hard bump may rub where rear quarter panel meets the plastic piece by the back door. I have trimmed this down some to help. It doesn’t rub that much so I don’t really worry about it. No real visual marking on the tires.

 

 

 

Pictures of this set up are mostly on my broken old phone. When I have some more time I’ll try to see what pictures I still have.

[Febreze Mee]

Thank you sooooo much!!! Big fan of your set up. I look forward to seeing more pictures and hearing updates on the car.