Member Profile- 2007 3.0r-b sedan 65Z 6MT

[JezzaH6]

Been a lurking member for the last 12 months or so, but been reading forum posts for easily the last 5 or so years!



After over a year of looking for a really nice clean one, I ended up deciding on this bone-stock MY07 Liberty 3.0r-b sedan 6MT in diamond grey. I bought it from a friendly chap in Adelaide, flying up and driving it back home to Melbourne. Bought in early Q4 2017, the car remained stock for the most part until 2020, when I got off my p's and decided it was time to remedy the issues and short-comings I'd found over 3 years of driving it. Bought with 154xxx kms, it now (Jan '21) just clicked over to 230xxx.



The car is definitely not stock now! Proud to say that pretty much all of the work has been done by me, with definitely a lot of help from mates! The first thing I attempted on this car was replacing a CV boot- which meant rebuilding the front CV's. This gave me the bug to start actually working on my own car- from that point on the only work I've paid for other people to do are wheel alignments!



The first mods were infotainment based- first was the install of a GROM BT-3 module to add Bluetooth support to the existing Macintosh headunit. This left me wanting more, which led to the replacement of the stock 2007-spec GPS unit with a tablet mount. As I wasn't a fan of using an old Nexus tablet I made one from a current-gen Samsung 7" tablet with cellular, which fit in the existing screen-hole with some custom 3D printed parts. This worked out quite well and existed on the car for a good 12 months.



Aside from tyre and brake upgrades (Dragon Sports (crap) to Pilot Sport 4, and Bendix Ultra Premiums (atrocious) to Intima SR's) the car remained like this for a good 2 years.

The first couple of track days I went to were fun days, which I mainly used to learn more about the track itself, as well as how the car actually handles closer to the limit. The car was practically stock for these two track days, and actually held up surprising well. No good time was set- with the fastest time I set in the low 1m50s mark.



Since then the mod list has grown quite substantially, as all the things I found I didn't like about the car got remedied.

Engine:
-DIY upper engine rebuild after headgasket failure at 212xxx kms

-ARP headstuds
-OEM headgaskets and seals all around
-Rebuilt heads, with new OEM valves and heavy duty valve springs
-New hoses and clamps all around
-New OEM timing chains, guides, bolts and tensioners

-Custom exhaust
-Koyorad OEM single core replacement radiator
-Fully custom alloy 42mm triple core radiator, black anodised

-15% Redline Water Wetter, 15% gylcol and pure distilled water as coolant

-Kobe Motorsport silicone EZ30 coolant hoses
-Lightened flywheel
-Mishimoto oil filter sandwich plate with custom OLED oil temp and pressure gauge setup
-Full custom DIY oil cooling system

-AN10 lines
-10 Row plate-and-fin oil cooler behind passenger fog light surround
-Hollowed fog light surround
-Custom aluminium guard

-Possum Bourne Motorsport baffled sump plate insert
-5203-2RS double row ball bearings replacing crappy OEM serpentine belt idler bearings

Transmission:
-Full transmission swap

-JDM TY856UB1KA from a 2009 GRB WRX STi
-DCCD
-Close ratio
-Helical front differential

-DCCDPro SpiiderPlus DCCD controller

-Fully automatic, programable and adjustable
-Wheel slip detection

-Quaife ATB rear differential
-Mantic 'Stage 1' heavy duty clutch
-HEL performance stainless braided clutch line
-Motul RBF660 brake fluid as clutch fluid
-CorgiWerx shifter bushings
-Type N transmission mount
-Superpro diff cradle bushings
-Whiteline diff subframe bushing inserts
-Cheap ebay aluminium pitch stop with poly bushings

Handling:
-Shockworks Coilovers
-Godspeed adjustable rear upper camber arms
-Godspeed adjustable rear toe control arms
-Superpro bushings everywhere except

-Whiteline front lower control arm caster-adjustment bushing

-Superpro antiroll bar endlinks F+R
-Drive Industries custom 18mm rear anti-roll bar
-AVO rear anti-roll bar mount brace (painted black)
-Cusco lower control arm brace (unknown part number)
-Whiteline bump steer and roll centre correction kit
-HardRace roll centre correction lower ball joints
-HardRace adjustable pillowball tie rod ends (bump steer correction)

Braking:
-WRX STi 1 1/16" brake master cylinder conversion
-WRX STi 'For Brembo' brake booster
-HEL Performance stainless braided brake lines
-Brake proportioning valves
-Motul RBF660 brake fluid
-AP Racing CP9040 6 piston calipers front

-APF404 pads
-Intima SR pads
-2 piece 355mm x 32mm rotors

-AP Racing CP5200 4 piston calipers rear

-APF404 pads
-Intima RS pads
-Two piece 345mm x 28mm rotors

Old:

-Cadillac CTSV front Brembo brake conversion
-Intima SR pads F+R
-Forza FP3 pads front
-Intima SR's rear
-Winmax W7's (track only)
-ATE Superblue brake fluid
-VMax 'J' Type brake rotors F+R

Exterior:
-DIY number plate riser (front)
-Restored OEM headlights
-Full LED exterior light conversion (except HID's)
-4500 lumen fog light conversion
-All guards rolled and pulled
-Blacked out OEM honeycomb grill (after an encounter with a wallaby)
-Reversing Camera
-Custom external boot release button
-Elite Garage 'STi Style' front lip spoiler

Wheels and tyres:
-WedSport TC105x 18x8.5 +43 on Yokohama AD08r 235/40/18 Rest In Piece
-OEM 2012 WRX wheels 17x8 +53 on Michelin Pilot Sport 4 235/45/17 Sold
-Rota Gravel's 18x8 +44 on Yokohama AD08r 235/40/18 Rest In Piece(s)
-One single Wedsport TC105n 18*8+42 on Yokohama AD08r 235/40/18 as a spare
-WedSport TC105x 18x8+45 on Nangkang NS2R 235/40/R18 180tw

Interior:
-Postfacelift tbSTi seat swap (front and rear)

-Modified with seat heating elements (5 way adjustable driver and passenger)

-Replacement handbrake and shifter boots (unknown ebay seller)
-Fully custom android infotainment system based around ROCKpro 64 SBC

-ECU connection and gauges via Torque Pro
-Tyre pressure and temperature monitoring system via app

-Fully custom OLED arduino gauges, with currently oil temp, pressure and GPS speed readouts
-1kg fire extinguisher and custom aluminium mount
-USB PD (15w charging) and USB3.0 ports (infotainment) in custom 3D printed mount in centre console
-2008 tbSTi steering wheel with Outback (dark grey) steering wheel controls
-GPS tracker
-Response (Jaycar Brand) rear subwoofer
-Macintosh subwoofer power increase amp hack
-Sound deadening on parcel shelf
-15w Qi wireless charging phone mount
-Alcantara wrapped OEM steering wheel (East Detailing kit)

[Turbo Lag]

Nice one! Finally made one after months of bugging you.

Definitely worth documenting the engine rebuild particularly in detail as I'm sure there's a lot of valuable info you've learned from doing so.

[nvmylh]

Nice car mate! Thats basically all the things I want from my car, but in a wagon and maybe a turbo on the side

Can you tell me where you got the head studs and valve springs from? Part numbers and costs would be awesome if you dont mind? Cheers

[JezzaH6]

Nice one! Finally made one after months of bugging you.

Definitely worth documenting the engine rebuild particularly in detail as I'm sure there's a lot of valuable info you've learned from doing so.

Hahaha yeah only taken a few months lol

More documentation is on its way when I have time- didn't want to have one massive post with everything will try and make it somewhat readable compared to my usual rambling!

[JezzaH6]

Nice car mate! Thats basically all the things I want from my car, but in a wagon and maybe a turbo on the side

Can you tell me where you got the head studs and valve springs from? Part numbers and costs would be awesome if you dont mind? Cheers

Thanks mate! Headstuds and valve springs I bought from Possum Bourne Motorsports in New Zealand (headstuds: https://www.possumbournemotorsport.com/ ... d-stud-kit, valve springs: https://www.possumbournemotorsport.com/ ... spring-kit). I got the heads rebuilt professionally, but supplied parts. The head rebuild with new valves, seals, springs, solenoids and gaskets supplied by me came to a smidge under 3k. I spent just over 9k on the rebuild, including all new timing components, the above head components, headstuds, all engine seals, hoses and a lightened flywheel (IMHO compulsory for any driven-hard H6).

Next on the engine list is a baffled sump (Possum Bourne again ftw) as well as some raptor goodies.....

I initially bought the car with the intention of adding boost. However, after driving a few turbo cars, and given how hard I actually push the thing, I think a decent N/A tune and some really nice handling mods suits my goals for the car better- and likely to be much more reliable for track and hard mountain driving! The idea was with a bit more valve retaining force and the increased clamping of the headstuds the car can reliably sit at full throttle all day and not run into issues (and not have to worry about it either).

[Yowie]

Very cool. I like the OLED arduino gauge ( oil temp, pressure and GPS speed readouts).

Also - great design philosophy in terms of a bulletproof NA 3 litre for road & track.

[bigBADbenny]

Love it!!! Keep it up

I hear your loom building skillz are up there with the best!

[Tonic]

Just broke my transmission mount.... $150 delivered from Superpro for the hardened type n one. Subaru Orem..... $370.....

[JezzaH6]

Very cool. I like the OLED arduino gauge ( oil temp, pressure and GPS speed readouts).

Also - great design philosophy in terms of a bulletproof NA 3 litre for road & track.

Thanks mate! The idea eventually is to combine a whole bunch of different aftermarket sensors and log to an sd card. Probably easier with an aftermarket ECU but that's not in the budget for a long time! Eventually would like to custom design and 3D print a full upper vent and screen mount to try and get the android screen more flush. And 4 OLED screens would be nice too maybe some brake temp sensors

Thats the goal anyway- hopefully it'll hold up!

[JezzaH6]

Love it!!! Keep it up

I hear your loom building skillz are up there with the best!

Thanks! I like to think so anyway- in no way a professional though

Can't wait to the next time you run a check up- very curious to see what someone who knows what they're looking for thinks of my DIY engine rebuild!

[JezzaH6]

Just broke my transmission mount.... $150 delivered from Superpro for the hardened type n one. Subaru Orem..... $370.....

Damn that I wish I knew you live you learn

[statetro]

Nice choice of rims. Was eyeing a similar-looking rims on 4wheeonline.

[nvmylh]

Just noticed your front brake setup, interesting! I've heard about porsche cayanne or osmething calipers being used but never really got into it. Did you get the kit straight from the USA?

[nvmylh]

Hey just had another thought, what sort of coolant temps do you see on track days?

I put a 25mm koyo radiator in my ez30r and a lower temp EJ25 thermostat. Yesterday cruising home from phillip island to boronia I saw an average of 37-38deg ambient temp, 85-88C coolant temps with the A/C running at 95-98kmh. Pretty good I thought! Coasting down hills and for a fair distance before stopping so the temps drop to like 80 at times.

[JezzaH6]

Nice choice of rims. Was eyeing a similar-looking rims on 4wheeonline.

Thanks man I've always been a big WedSport fan! Only about 17.5kg with 235 wide AD08r's so incredibly light too