I'm new to the Liberty scene, and have decided to post my brother's 2008 Liberty Spec B tuned by STI (6MT) on which I've been working over the last year.
So, it was purchased new a few years ago, and nothing had been done to it...until the warranty ran out. So far, it has done (believe it or not!) only ~29,000km.
I found it hard to find parts for this car from Japan, because of the differences in JDM and Oz-spec cars.
I've learnt the hard way. So far, there is a brand-spanking new HKS metal catalyzer (ie. front pipe) which was designed for the twin scroll turbo (as I learned later) sitting in the family room.
There's also a brand new bloody rear Cusco 1.5way RS diff that had different spline diameters and teeth.
However, we've managed to make some correct purchases so far, with successful fitment, albeit with some fiddling and swearing.
- HKS Premium suction with drop-in filter...a bitch to fit in to the compressor inlet because the HKS hose-clamps were a bit thick and kept hitting the flange of the intake manifold.
- Blitz SI Drive controller, running max 1.1bar
- HKS twin power
- Cusco front suspension member brace
- Cusco rear suspension member brace
- Pleasure Racing front TV-link pillow bushes.
- Pleasure Racing aluminium transmission member collars.
- HKS Hipermax III BB tune coil-over-damper kit
- Removed the bump-stop rubber at the back.
- Prova 'Rigi Cola' (Engrish, for sure) I think they meant rigid crossmember collars; machined aluminium spacers that were sandwiched in-between the front and rear suspension member bushes and chassis.
- Pleasure Racing differential mount (rear) urethane inserts with Aluminium plates.
- Laile differential mount (front) with uprated urethane bushes.
- Laile rear strut-tower bar
- Laile Direct Brake System (master cylinder stopper)
- Zero-sports side strakes.
- Zero-sports front carbon grille.
- Zero-sports 'cool radiator II' aluminium shrouding.
- J-Speed "Super Sujiganekun" front crushable zone triangular strut.
- AVO top-mount bar and plate intercooler.
- AVO front-pipe with sports catalytic converter.
- HKS centre pipe - used a double olive to link the front-pipe to the centre pipe because they were different types of flanges.
- HKS SSQV 4 BOV, recirculated.
- HKS Turbo timer
- Cusco 1-way front LSD, type RS; had to have two spacers machined 3mm on big end, 6mm on small end (could be the other way around...), to enlocate the differential in relation to the crown wheel mounting surface and the pinion. No problems...yet. This was a bitch to do...two fresh NTN bearing were sacrificed in the process! Arrgh!
- HKS LA Twin-plate clutch
- DBA front and rear slitted rotors (series 4000) one-piece
- Project Mu Type HC+ brake pads Fr & Rr
- Rolled front and rear guards
- RAYS G25 wheels, 19x8.5J+45
- Yokohama ADVAN sports 225/40s
Problems to rectify...
- Engine and transmission mounts are way too soft. Hard changes cause the whole bloody thing to rock & twist, and there's a bone-chilling bang from the exhaust hitting the chassis. So...taking it niiiice and eeeeasy until the STI mounts arrive.
Future mods in the pipeline...
- Light-weight crank pulley; to be chucked in when the timing belt is replaced.
- Interior LED lights to replace the incandescent ones.
- ECUTEK tune to optimise AFR, iginition timing and etcetera to suit mods so far.
We were considering a cosworth engine drop-in, turbos and what-not but decided to keep it at a not-so-expensive light-tune level!!
