Enjoy
August 2006 I decided to part ways with my Audi and purchase a subaru. I’ve always like the liberty’s and we’d always had at least one in the family so from what I’d seen, I figured they were a good sound car. At this point I had absolutely no plans to mod the car at all...until I discovered ozliberty.
The day I bought her. 1998 Subaru Liberty Heritage
So after a few months I decided that what the hell, I might get it lowered, tinted and get some rims for it. I went out to Tempe Tyres and picked out a set of K-Speed Nitro’s in 17” x 7” in black with chrome lip from the big wheel wall which was exciting as it was the first “after market” item i’d bought for the car. I got it lowered on Pedders springs down at Cromer Exhaust. I also came across a set of clear side indicators on ebay that I bought. Tints by Solar Tint Artarmon. That was the start of what would turn out to be a very expensive hobby...
It was about this time that Jarrod had just had his car converted to turbo by AM Auto so he had a his old headers and exhaust left over that I purchased from him. This would be the first of many exhaust modifications that I had done to it. I also got an intake pipe made up to replace the factory air box and pipe. I put on an Apexi pod from Japanparts as well.
For a bit of extra chassis stiffening i added GCD Prodrive front and rear strut braces.
Tuffy mufflers in Rosebery were the first to do my exhaust for me. Pulled out the ridiculous stock exhaust that has the bend up over the cross member and put on Jarrods headers. Originally we had a straight through 2 1/2” centre pipe with no cat which went into a x-force cannon muffler. That was changed several times including cats, hot dogs, 2 1/4 centre pipes, different mufflers etc etc until it stayed at headers > 2 1/4” centre pipe, cat, hot dog resonator and GD STI muffler.
Next thing was a couple of new grills. One was an RFRB front grill from EKW in Melbourne and the other was a replica Hippo-Sleek grill from Japan via ebay again. Also added was a set of 4 pot front and 2 pot rear callipers from Akira Imports. Adam from Tuspeed helped me out with the rear dogbones by ordering me a set from Kartboy. The GT/RSB bonnet also came from EKW
The next thing to happen to the car was a run in with those orange lane divider poles that split the lanes coming up to the toll booths on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I took evasive action to avoid an accident and thinking those pole bend over (they don’t), drove straight over them which caused some minimal but annoying damage to the front end. The dented the front bar, both front guards, bonnet and punctured a nice hole in the exhaust.
Got the front end fixed by Shane at A&J Smash Repairs through insurance. Really happy with the job he did and I was planning on getting the front bar re-sprayed anyway so it kinda worked out. Since the paint was already mixed i got him to spray the Talon rear spoiler i got from Kenan. I actually bought an extra front bar at about the same time from Darren (The Game King
) with reo and JDM foglights that he had left over from a front cut.
I decided it was time for a change of wheels. I’d had the K-Speeds on for a year and a half so felt I needed something new to look at. I’ve always loved Rays TE37’s but at the time they were a bit out of my price range. Aydin had just scored a set of Starcorp 19’s for his Gen 3 and had a set of BSA AU Racing TE37 replicas in 18” x 7.5” that I happily took off his hands.
When I got my tax return I decided to spend it on another exhaust modification. I still wanted more of a boxer sound from it so this time took it to Hi-Tech mufflers in Darlinghurst. From the headers back we did a 2 1/2” exhaust with a hi flow cat and oval sports muffler with Hi-Tech replica STI tip. It came up a treat!!
Apart from a few more cosmetic things like STI pedals from Japanparts and Legacy rear garnish from EKW not much happened for a while until I started talking to Dylan and seeing all the boosted goodness out at hooters every month. I thought i’d lined up a 2001 drive line from a mate who wrote off his car but that ended up falling through.
It wasn’t till 6 months later that I decided to bit the bullet and do a turbo conversion. I lined up a 2001 gtb halfcut from Patrick at General Japanese Spares in Landsvale and had them drop it off to Frank, Louie and Paul at A & B Motorsports. I’ll cut a long story short (if anyone wants details pm me and I’ll give you the full run down), this conversion ended up being a nightmare. We had so many set backs and everything that could go wrong did. In the end this is what we ended up with.
EJ20TT converted to a single turbo running a KKR-380. The brains of the operation is a Haltech E6X ecu. Stainless steel tuned length headers with custom up pipe, dump pipe and 3” exhaust flowing into a Prodrive stage 2 muffler. It also has a FMIC and K-Sport pod filter. Scott swapped me my old shocks for a set of MD coilovers which are handle really nicely. A lot of work went into the gear box including a custom valve body and a B & M Pro racing ratchet shifter. Don’t ask why. Planning on doing a regular manual conversion at tax return time but might keep this a back up..or for the 1/4 mile haha. Damo hooked me up with a JDM carbon fibre gauge pod (that I filled with Autogauge Boost, Air/Fuel, Water Temp and Oil Pressure gauges) genuine hippo-sleek front grill and some ganador mirrors that he sent over from Japan. I got some GC8 rex seat that have been recovered in black and white perforated leather as well. Put in a Cucso strut brace with brake master cylinder stopper, oil catch can and turbo smart manual boost controller also.
Twin Turbo:
Single Turbo:
Interior:
Stavros was cleaning out some of his old stuff from under the house so I scored a set of Rays Volk Racing SE37’s to boot!!
Andy was also off loading a set of Bridgestone forged wheels from Japan so I grabbed them as well to keep as a second set.
Finished:
This Dyno reading was on 10psi with standard fuel delivery system and 2 1/2” exhaust.
It didn't take long for something to go wrong unfortunately. On the first cruise cruise i went on (two days after getting it back on the road), which was up to Newcastle i snapped a rear drive shaft on the way home on the M3. It was pissing down and try as we might we could not get that shaft removed with the limited tools we had available. The shaft snapped at 7pm and i didn't get home till around 3am. Caught what i thought was my death cold as well...
Since this the ring on the 4th piston went so have had to start over with the engine. I now have a JDM 2001 rex block going in tomorrow. Parallel fuel rails, fuel reg, fuel pump, surge tank and 660cc injectors are also going in. Am looking forward to seeing what she can do on the dyno this time with the boost wound up and the exhaust done.
Andy recently had a trip over to JDM land and got me some STI centre caps for my Rays from Subaru in Japan when he was just there
I actually ordered some Morette headlights direct from the factory in the UK but due to the global financial situation some of their suppliers have gone broke so they have stopped production until things over there get better. Dylan the goat herder hooked me up a mint set of projectors and i've got some HID's that i'll put in when i get around to it...
Intake manifold came up better than i expected...
Back together:
Into the car today:
Just waiting for the injectors to turn up. The surge tank arrived today and exhaust will also be finished so apart from the injectors and tune she should be good to go early next week
