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2004 Liberty GT Premium: A Log


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So pretty much I would just like to log what I am doing with my 04 Liberty/Legacy on here.

 

Bought in March 2017:

2004 Subaru Liberty GT Premium Pack

Automatic 5EAT (yes I know, but for dense Sydney traffic it makes sense)

StoCHK as a roCHK (VL guy reference)

2 Litre EJ20X (Forged crankshaft and connecting rods from the factory)

VF38 Twin Scroll Turbo

 

Aim:

Decent sleeper performance & looks on a budget. No stickers, no aero, no non-factory looking external modifications.

 

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Stock Review:

 

-Best part of this is the twin scroll turbo system. Boost kicks in at around 3000rpm, acceleration is ready right under your foot with a great turbo kick in the seat.

-Stock exhaust isn't very restrictive, but it does cover up about 90% of the sound this engine has

-Air conditioning and heating is the best. No other car I've driven comes close.

-Does a 0-100 powerbrake launch in about 5.4 seconds (3300 RPM)

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April 2017:

 

Had the power steering grind and make weird noises. Felt very uneven and not smooth. Typical air in power steering issue. Seems the likely problem was the O-ring on the power steering pump's inlet. I bought a replacement red colored O-ring from Suttons Parts (Sydney) for AU $6 or so. Installed it, replacing the original black one. It took a couple of days for all the air to work its' way out, but it did end up completely fixing it, making the power steering extremely smooth.

 

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June 2017:

 

Car needs more induction noises. Picked up a pod filter from Supercheap Auto for 30 dollars along with a straight silicon joiner. Bought a stainless steel pipe with a fitting for the air flow meter off Ebay for 50 bucks too. Made a 2mm aluminium plate to block the feed for the diverter valve from the intercooler for flutter.

 

Works great, turbo spool up noise is extremely noticeable, along with a decent flutter. Needs a front mount intercooler though, will definitely buy one when I find a kit.299f52bcadeae94ec9459aba68de8991.jpg

 

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August 2017:

 

Had a mate of mine replace the stock mufflers with some other aftermarket ones. Not for performance at all, just for a bit better sound. Kept the stock exhaust tips and positioning thereabouts to keep it stock looking at least.

 

I have noticed a slight drop in torque though. Although it probably has nothing to do with backpressure as there is a turbocharger RIGHT after the the engine in the exhaust system, It definitely is noticeable. Sounds a hell of a lot better though. No boxer rumble as twin scroll turbo systems need equal length headers by design.

 

Sound Sample:

 

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September 2017:

 

Needs more BOOST. Picked up a GFB Atomic boost controller for 30 bucks. Kept the stock electronic boost control in line with the GFB to keep the ECU happy.

 

Installation:

The stock system has the wastegate port, compressor housing port and a hose for the Subaru boost controller. There is a 3 way tee piece connecting the compressor housing part directly to the wastegate insert. The third part of the tee is where the hose for the factory boost controller goes in. Undo this hose and add a line vacuum hose to the top part of the tee. Connect this line to the outlet of the manual boost controller (where the boost controller wants the wastegate to be). Use a joiner fitting to adapt the thin factory boost control hose to whatever vacuum line youre using. Connect this line to the inlet of the manual boost controller. At the end, your factory boost controller should still go into the same part of the 3 way tee, just intercepted by the boost controller. You're all done, mount the boost controller somewhere accessible. I zip-tied mine on for the time being to the power steering return hard line.3cae093249b8056294db498d08be201f.jpg8b64276ee02b1814cdad9dbcdcdbd407.jpg

 

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Keeping track of boost using a KKL 409.1 USB OBDII cable with FreeSSM. No physical boost guage until I find a way to make it invisible/hidden away. Adjusted the boost controller to 17psi which is as much as you can run responsibly on a VF38 as they are fragile beyond. Much better pulls compared to the factory 13 or so psi. The car also started to like backfiring in the exhaust ;)

 

Pull:

 

Backfire:

 

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Playing around with launching the 5EAT.

 

It's relatively simple; foot on the brake, foot to the accelerator pedal and let the revs build up to 3000 or so rpm (You could leave it as the torque converter will stall at the max rpm, which is about 3500 rpm) The moment it reaches your desired rpm, pull your foot off the brakes and hold on. It's all good doing a launch once in a while, just be sensible and don't build up the revs for too long as the auto transmission fluid heats up rapidly doing this, so think about what you're doing and what the road condition is when also thinking how much strain the launch going to put on the driveline.

 

On 17psi, leads to some pretty respectable 0-100 times. Twin scroll FTW!

 

0-100:

https://youtu.be/fgFf0g8v59g

 

Launch:

https://youtu.be/WZQ2d8_0bz4

 

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October 2017:

 

Brake rotors are gone as well as pads. Been driving around with mediocre braking for a while, need a serious upgrade but on a budget. Decided to try the cheapest bang for buck setup I could get, as the stock Legacy GT brakes are pretty big. Also these calipers are pretty ugly, they will be cleaned up sensibly.

 

Calipers:

Cleaned up and painted baby blue rather than red. Added Hi-Temp vinyl labels for the GC8 WRX brakes with the lines cut out. I say they look pretty good without looking over the top. Total for it was about 20 bucks including misc parts.

 

Discs:

Picked up RDA EBC dimpled and slotted rotors. They will eat brake pads only *verrry* slightly faster. They come with a black coating which comes off during the wear-in process. Front and back rotors for 300 bucks total. Work and look great.

 

Pads:

Went for the cheapest pads I could get locally. If they were to end up not working well, I'd go buy better ones but thought I'd give these a go. They are 'Racer' brand brake pads for the front and rear. They look really good as they have glossy red paint on the backplate. 35 dollars for front or back pads including brake hardware. These turned out to work pretty damn well at a crazy price. Oh and they look good once on your calipers.

 

Fluid:

Castrol React Dot 4 Response fluid. Expensive but is damn responsive. Product is self explanatory.

 

Result:

Not much to say, replaced all myself with the parts only costing about 400 bucks total. Brakes work shockingly well.764435fd3c20c8d6bd7377d72d0d1318.jpg4e8c90e236c6e86623afb2903410abc0.jpg

 

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November 2017:

 

Mighty Car Mods Nationals Sydney is coming up, and my tyres are due for a replacement. Went to my local tyre shop and picked up a 300 dollar set of 4 'Winrun' tyres to thrash on the track and skidpan. I know they're cheap but for a day at the track and a few more thrashing days, they might do the job.Guy there insisted they're decent tyres, really good tyres when you consider the price.

 

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December 2017:

 

Went to MCM Nationals Sydney. Car performed well, and those cheapo 'Winrun' tyres turned out to work great. The track was Sydney Motorsport Park, and these tyres held up great. Rarely lost grip at all and worked through the sessions really well. At the end of the day they barely lost any tread. You wouldn't notice they were used for a track day. These tyres are pleasantly suprising. Brakes also ended up holding extremely well :)

 

Track Session:

https://youtu.be/wIpsK1uyo8w

 

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December 2017:

 

Need more BOOST for a new year. Picked up a Kinugawa bolt on upgrade turbo for 200 bucks slightly used from a local performance shop which replaced it and had no use for it. Not bad when the new price of it on Ebay is about AU $1400. Kinugawa's quality control isn't the best, some people complain about their turbos failing after short use. Seeming that this one was used and had no problem, I think this turbo will live a good long life with the right care. It is a TD04HL-19T

 

Installation:

Diverter valve off, intercooler off, turbo heatshield off (see my other thread for heatshield and related parts removal), Dump pipe off, Oil and Coolant lines off. Remove the oil feed line from the flare joint rather than bending it out of the way, use a 17mm spanner from memory. I highly reccomend replacing the turbo oil return spring clamps with worm drive hoseclamps. This whole job will use only 10, 12 and 14mm sockets and spanners.971c233344e700a3fd8b8017add3cca0.jpg

 

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December Update:

 

The Kinugawa TD04 was pretty much bolt in except for the oil inlet banjo bolt. VF series and TD series are different, so I picked up a TD banjo bolt from Earl's Performance Fittings in Padstow (Legends for being the only ones around readily carrying them).

 

Only problem is, I've lost twin scroll goodness!

The turbo appears to be twin scroll up to the turbine housing, which works for a bolt on but doesn't provide twin scroll functionality. Boost comes on at 4000rpm or so which isn't too good for me. No where near responsive as the VF38, although it is running factory boost. Hopefully as the internals of this turbo arent twin scroll, it will be much stronger than the fragile VF38 and I could make up for the loss of response with more boost along with work from an electonic boost controller I will probably install in the future. Also discovered a couple of small hose issues and such that I will eventually replace, they aren't much of an issue right now

 

Until then, Merry Christmas and have a happy new year! :)

 

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