Hi everyone
I've recently become a proud owner of a 2006 MY06 2.5i manual car. It had pretty low km relatively (117000) and the engine, transmission seem fine (timing belt replaced at 100k) - the previous owner seemed like he didn't neglect the car. It was also nice having a sunroof and leather seats and some other cosmetic goodies which weren't in some other cars I was looking at in that price range. I was considering a 2.5T but those with low kms are getting rarer these days and I couldn't justify forking out at least an extra $6000 for a car with many more kms but a better engine (yet )
Of course, as I see many people have commented in this forum... I'm beginning to want something a little bit more from the 2.5NA engine. The 0-50 acceleration seems a little 'draggy' if I'm taking off from a red light on a highway, and I'd like a bit more throttle responsiveness.
The first question I'd like to ask is, is Matt McLeod still around? Being an MY06, I'm guessing my subaru has a hitachi ECU. I've read comments from this forum dated several years ago that Matt has managed to find a way around this and I've looked at his facebook page Throttle Happy tuning but his last post was in 2018. Have there been recent developments in the mechanic circle where people have cracked the Hitachi ECU and so you could get it tuned without the need to go specifically to Matt? I've also been told from a trustworthy mechanic that a tune would get almost basically next to nothing in terms of ecu re-map because it's a single cam engine and it won't be a worthwhile upgrade for $450 (which he quoted for me)
What other things could you Liberty enthusiasts suggest to improve drive-ability of the car? Would an aftermarket exhaust, or a K&N air filter, or a combination of these and other things add some power to the car? My expectations aren't high - just so long as it's a noticeable improvement from stock. My budget would be $1500 - $2000.