Finally got my ass into a JDM Legacy GT!!

[T_double_U]

Hey Guy's and Girls,

Thought i'd say hello! After ~8yrs of owning a 2005 Mitsubishi Magna which i throw lots of dollars at to convert it to manual,change the engine to a 3.8l,swap in some evo 9 Brembos,add coilovers,ECU tune plus some nice wheels and other cosmetic changes I decided it was time to move on.. Couple of pics.




So i purchased this 03/04 JDM Subaru Legacy GT Auto today and have now put the Magna up for sale.

So basically my uncle picked this up while living in Japan in 09 and moved back a year later where it mostly lived in the garage of his house until he transferred the car over to WA before he moved back to Japan, So he ended up giving me a good price and as of today i am the proud owner of this pristine example

Within hours of picking it up i deleted the intake silencer, Not to sure if i like the sound just yet.. First batch of mods will include getting some tint on the front windows,get some boxer rumble happening and lowering.







As you can see the car really does present as new and after giving her a good wash i found the panel and paint to be incredibly straight for a 12 year old car.



Full log book history from the previous owner in Japan and from my Uncle since owning it.

Thanks for viewing!

[bigBADbenny]

Nice. Great potential

[HardwareBoB]

Welcome, nice ride.

First, you're in for a dissapointment if you want a boxer rumble, because it's thousands of dollars and your car will be slower. Your car has a twin scroll turbo with equal length headers (all twin scroll headers are equal length). The signature 'rumble' is because of unequal length headers.

The new is not all bad, however, and with an exhaust, it can still sound awesome. Yours being an MY04, I think the JDM cars all had the TD04HLA turbo, but in australia the auto had the VF38 (I may be wrong, and later cars had different turbos that weren't available on AU cars).

Your options for a dump pipe are pretty limited because the twin scroll exhaust housing of the VF38/TD04HLA are not the same as any other car (the STi twinscroll up pipes LOOK similar, but are NOT the same, and the turbo outlet flange is almost the exact opposite. I know that you can get an AVO dump (because they make the turbo flange interface seperate to the rest of the dump), but I don't think anything else is easily available. Cat back OTOH is available from a whole bunch of different vendors with different sound, quality and price points!

Because of this also, if you are looking at upgrading your turbo, your options are very limited without changing headers/up pipe/downpipe. You will need to think about this before you spend money on a dump for your current turbo, because it might not be worth it (depending on a whole lot of factors obviously).

Depending on your driving style and how much you want the bling factor, you can either replace the rotors/pads with some better ones, which will give you great braking for most applications, or upgrade to a set of brembos or another BBK, but you'll be out a few k for the setup and you'll need new rims (which you'll probably want anyway, but hey).

Finally, if you do nothing else to your car, get it tuned, I'm not sure about the JDM tune, but I am sure that it could do with a few tweaks! (Finally v2, put some shockworks in it. Seriously awesome coilovers.)

[T_double_U]

Some great info there HardwareBob, A little dissapointing to hear about getting the boxer rumble easy, I could just keep it ultra stealth leave the exhaust completely stock spend my money elsewhere such as turbo,injectors,cooler,E85 tune and the coilovers. Pretty sure people are having success with the kinugawa turbo's?

[HardwareBoB]

http://shopping.kinugawaturbo.com/kinug ... croll.aspx This literally the only upgrade bolt on turbo you can get. However you can also get a VF34 turbo modified and have the twin scroll housing put on it.
I would upgrade the dump at least, but the mufflers are restrictive to the tune of 5-7kw, so I would go a new exhaust anyway - have a look at my build thread (linked on the right over there ---->) and see what I did if you like (bearing in mind when I got my car it had a VF36 (STi turbo) and dump already).

You also have side feed injectors which are a little annoying, but not awful, but I'd probably go a top feed conversion - I got my side feeds quite cheap, otherwise I would have gone top feed.

If you do everything you mentioned (add fuel pump, short shifter, LCA bushes, maybe a few other bits and bobs) and go with either the kinugawa turbo or an adapted VF34, you'll be laughing to the tune of over 200kw atw and heaps of low down torque and power.

[shav]

Thats a nice clean example there. Hardware Bob speaks truth. 200kwatw is a fair bit for the street still. You'll hammer most things off the lights with that kind of power

[HardwareBoB]

If I ever go insane and have too much money, I will put tomei expreme headers and a blouch 1.5XTR twin scroll on my car and run closer to 300kw atw until it explodes.

[peadya100]

Beautiful example!
Agree with everything said... don't be turned off an exhaust because you won't get the boxer rumble... it'll still sound great!

[T_double_U]

Thanks for the positive comments guys!

Having a look at your thread HardwareBoB and that's pretty much the road i wanna take, Might not need the short shifter though as mine is auto haha

Can i convert mine to manual in a cost effective manner?

[HardwareBoB]

Having a look at your thread HardwareBoB and that's pretty much the road i wanna take, Might not need the short shifter though as mine is auto haha
Can i convert mine to manual in a cost effective manner?

oh, derp.
yeah I have done things my way slightly , but I'm really following the easy recipe for modding.

And no, you can't. The auto, however, will take all the power you can throw at it on the stock internals, and you have saved yourself a lot of money on a clutch, and maybe a 6MT conversion (which is next on my list)

[T_double_U]

And no, you can't. The auto, however, will take all the power you can throw at it on the stock internals, and you have saved yourself a lot of money on a clutch, and maybe a 6MT conversion (which is next on my list)

That's good news in a way Surely a transmission cooler would be worthwhile though?

[shav]

And no, you can't. The auto, however, will take all the power you can throw at it on the stock internals, and you have saved yourself a lot of money on a clutch, and maybe a 6MT conversion (which is next on my list)

That's good news in a way Surely a transmission cooler would be worthwhile though?

I looking into this recently. Unless your towing, the stock auto should handle a fair bit before it 'needs' a tranny cooler. Plus a tune can iron out any of the inconsistencies the shifting has in the trans.

[T_double_U]

I looking into this recently. Unless your towing, the stock auto should handle a fair bit before it 'needs' a tranny cooler. Plus a tune can iron out any of the inconsistencies the shifting has in the trans.

More good news then

Just took her for a night drive, loves the slightly cooler weather and these headlights are brilliant!

[T_double_U]

Ordered a couple of bits and pieces for the car over the last week.

JB HI-FI are having a car audio sale at the moment so i picked up these today..



Not a huge upgrade i know but the stock integrated head unit with Japanese FM frequency range and no AUX in has worn thin. So the new head unit will go in the glove box bypassing the stock stereo all together.

Also picking up my Turbosmart boost gauge from the post office tomorrow which i'll plumb in myself then have my mate wire it up with me when we do the stereo.

Ohhh and booked in for Kido tune

[shav]

Thats some serious cheap gear. Nice pick up.

Also, your gonna love the tune!