Subaru Crew - Modifications II

kens

Ed -- I bought them at: http://www.rallylights.com/hella/horns.asp


I've been dying to blast someone for cutting me off, but as luck would have it, everyone's been driving kinda tame. ;-)


Lucien -- Maybe I'm not understanding your set up. With the stock intake and just the snorkus deleted, you're left a hole in your fender. I've found throttle response to be a little better with the hole unplugged than with it covered -- probably because the hole allows better airflow. The hole does suck in hot engine air however.


Colin -- So do you notice a difference with different gas grades immediately? You mentioned that 92 seems to work best with your setup.


Ken

locke2c

Perhaps not immediately per se, but I do run my car down to the fumes before refilling so I notice fairly quickly.

There's no real difference at low RPM, and as I said I've never heard pinging at all in my car. But there definitely is a difference from 4000-6200 rpm if I use anything other than premium.

-Colin

kens

Colin,

Was that always the case even before your intake and exhaust mods?

Ken

locke2c

Hard to say since I put the exhaust on somewhere around 4000 miles. I have 33,000 now.

It definitely behaved this way before my intake, cams and porting though.

-Colin

francophile

Hoo, I remember rounding off the flats on those babies back in my mechanic days. My grandfather gave me a set of special open-end wrenches, which had just one flat removed so that they gripped the nut on all but one side, almost like a box-end. They were made with brake and other hydraulic lines in mind, and the opening was so that they could be slipped over the pipe. Too bad they were US sizes only. Anyway, they still make wrenches like that, and if you work on brake lines a lot the investment might be worth it.

Cheers,
-wdb

locke2c

ken, thanks so much for the shifter. once I finally got medieval on its [non-permissible content removed] and pounded it into place, everything was a snap.

there's definitely a bit more effort required, which isn't surprising. it is not at all too short for my application, and the throws are probably about half stock but still not as short as the joystick-like shifter in Lisa's miata. overall, I'm very pleased with it.

-Colin

locke2c

Ah yes, I like it even more now after a good 60 mile drive. The best part was 10 minutes of Thunder Road--no idea if the name is Boss-inspired, but that's the real name. Twisty roads are hard to come by in this part of Kansas (gets better towards MO, Ozarks and all) but this is about 10 minutes of a good series of 30-45 mph (posted) corners, including a few esses. I've never gone through it fast enough to squeal my tires, but I can carry better than 70 MPH in most sections. Posted speed limit is ... um, 60 I think. ;-)

Anyway, the kartboy shifter got a good workout on fairly frequent 3-4 and 4-3 shifts. Also a number of 1-3 standing starts, and the result is the shifter gets a big thumbs up!

-Colin

lucien2

yes, that's right. I have plugged the hole temporarily with cardboard and duct tape. I am not sure if that has produced a negative result or not. I can't really figure out how to deliver clean cold air into the fender. Oooh ooh, I could yank the fog light! That would look dorky, methinks.

paisan

Do you want go or show? I say all go-no-show.

-mike

lucien2

true..true... I could just add a pair of hellas to make up for the loss! Not that disabling the stock fogs is a great loss, 'cause they don't do squat anyway!

rsholland

I have yet to drive a car with fog lights that I thought were any good. The ones on both our Forester and Explorer are about useless. From what I've seen, fog lights are nothing but a big marketing gimmick for car manufacturers.

Bob

paisan

On my XT6 the fogs work quite well as well as on my trooper, although that could be a result of the fact that the headlights on both of them are useless. The XT6 ones are better than the Trooper ones though. I guess it's just another reason the XT6 rocks.

-mike

locke2c

My fog lights work quite well. If I have them pointed slightly above the stock position, they are great fog lights. Since it's not often foggy however, I've aimed them up considerably and they function acceptably as driving lights. In this condition I don't shine them on other people, it's a bit dazzling.

-Colin

rsholland

But as you say, you re-aimed them. Maybe that's the issue.

I know fog lights are designed to get "under" the fog, which they do. However, they shine only a few feet in front of the car, so it's very easy to "over drive" them, by going too fast.

Maybe my expectations of what fogs lights are capable of, is just too great?

Bob

paisan

Technically alot of the fog lights you see on US cars are really just driving lights or white fog lights. Outside the US, most all fog lights have a wide-spread reflector and are yellow, not white. But fog lights look real cool on US cars though

-mike

locke2c

Installed my first turbokit this weekend. Eli (Aphex on the iClub) bought a Ludespeed kit from an iClub group buy. It went well in the sense that nothing needed to be re-welded (a good thing), but I did have to go after it with a die grinder in various places and a flex joint on his downpipe rubs on the crossmember. And the intake is too long, stuffing the K&N filter against the fender and ABS controller. I think he's going to buy a shorter & smaller diameter filter and call it good.

It runs quite well. 99RS, S-AFC, T3/Super60, jet-hot coated all over, no intercooler, apexi BOV and deltagate wastegate. He doesn't have a boost controller (but does have a gauge) so he's just using the factory spring in the wastegate, which is supposed to be 5-7 psi. We read 4psi, maybe 4.5. It never spikes above that.

Eli and I put in about 16-20 hours each, my dad probably about 3-4 hours, two other friends of mine maybe 2 hours each.

Overall, I'd say it's a well done kit with some minor issues related to intake pipe length and the forementioned downpipe rubbing. I think what he has came up to like $2600, including the ceramic coatings, blow-off valve and fuel computer. I think it would be like $1900 without the coatings or computer.

Lisa was worried that I'd get ideas I should do this... For now I'd say nah, I'd rather ride motorcycles they're faster anyway. ;-)

-Colin

locke2c

Mike, my fogs have a very wide beam pattern. If I were to use them properly instead of as a poor man's driving lights, I would probably install yellow bulbs to cut down on reflection.

-Colin

paisan

Yep, I agree, most people want driving, not fog lights on their cars here (myself included) I should probably try to re-aim my fogs on the XT6 and my trooper, although on the Trooper now that I have the Hella 4000s, Driving lights aren't really an issue

-mike

hypov

or you could install a pair of these

DE XENON

http://www.hella.com/maineng/lev1b/lev2ba/lev3bac/lev4bacb/index.htm

kit cost: $675.00 and I'm not regretting it.

The MICRON XENON http://www.hella.com/maineng/lev1b/lev2ba/lev3bac/lev4bacd/index.htm

which probably would look good on the Forester is 'bout the same '$'.

kens

Colin,

Hey! You finally did it! Glad to hear you like the Kartboy. Yeah, you need to give it a good firm bashing to get it to pop into the shifter socket. My favorite tool is a brick and a piece of plywood.

The shifter definetly has a nice firm feel to it. Aside from the longer length below the fulcrum point, the fact that it doesn't use the rubber vibration dampeners gives it a much more responsive feel.

I found that it will break in and become just a tad more smooth over time. I've been giving my custom Kartboy a workout on my Forester as well.

Let us know how it does on your autocrosses.

Ken

kens

David,

Nice links on the Hellas. Do you have pictures of them installed on your vehicle?

BTW, where's SGP in Brooklyn? I'm actually a Brooklyn native -- grew up in Park Slope.

Ken

hypov

Ken,
SGP is for "Singapore", that's where I was implanted from. Now, here at Williamsburg 'Northside', Brooklyn.
Park Slopes - nice area. Must be better over in California, otherwise you wouldn't have moved.

Pictures? Will try to get some; then figure out how to get it into the PC and then onto 'Edmunds'.

lucien2

...what if I yanked the stock fogs, made a true CAI on the passenger side out of half the resulting hole, then installed smalle aftermarket lights in the remaining half and wired 'em back to the factory harness?

I don't think the airbox is breathing well enough in the fender. There has been a little loss in throttle response since I cloesd the hole in the fender well.

hypov

wouldn't that setup draw in hot air whenever the lights are on?

kens

David -- SGP=Singapore. Got it. Very nice place. I've had the opportunity to visit several times on business. My last company I worked for had an office on (I think) Beach Road, not too far away from the Raffles hotel.

Yes, it's quite nice out here in Northern CA, but I do miss NYC a lot.

Lucien -- I've seen pictures of Impreza owners who have connected a duct leading all the way down to the fog light assembly to try and get a ram-air effect. I've read that in very wet weather they run the risk of hydrolocking the engine, however.

I guess if you didn't make a direct connection from the airbox to the foglight area, it would work.

Maybe another thing you could do is try and route air to the hole in the fender instead of creating a new one. Don't know how it might be done.

Also, try leaving the fender hole open a little bit. You might ingest more hot air, but you gain a little more throttle response.

Ken

lucien2

I think juice butchered his snorkus so that his airbox draws air through the fenderwell via the stock nozzle mounted behind the grill. That might be the best fix.

aakerson

Just came across this chat room and have what is probably an old question -- does anyone sell an after-market sunroorf for the 2000 and newer Outbacks. I have a standard Outback, no sunroof.

p0926

David- Interesting dream car. They're a blast to X-country in but a little twitchy on the hwy once you get up around 55 MPH.

Alan- Sunroofs can be installed in just about any vehicle.

-Frank P.

hypov

Frank P- didn't get that fast. Highway speed limit in Singapore for this vehicle is 35mph [like the cops are going to flag you down for speeding] Hey, but at least it won't rollover.
Oh oh... rid a tailgater - drop the ramp

viktoria_r

Hi, I hope this is right forum to post my question. Is there any known good supplier of Subaru accesories (bug shields, dust deflectors, stc.)? I tried to search, but these forums are not searchable.

originalbitman

http://www.subaruparts.com/ sells Subaru parts and accessories at a significant discount over dealer retail. You will need the part number to search and order. Most likely you got an accessory brochure with your car and it will have the part numbers. If not let me know and I will post the numbers if I have them.

bit

ateixeira

Saw my first yellow Rex in person yesterday - still think the color is too pale for my tastes. Looks a lot like the yellow they use on Boxsters, though.

Loosh: try timing your favorite hill climb. Do a rolling start, go WOT all the way, and check time elapsed and trap speed. I have long hill near the house and could reach 75mph stock, 77mph with the snork-ectomy, though some of that may have been better driving.

For my intake, I cut the elbow that comes out of the air box just long enough so it's sucking in air from the fender well. Then I "swiss cheesed" part of the lower plastic cover of the fender, but I was careful to make holes in places that were angled in a way that water would not get in. You get no ram air effect, but no water either. It's been fine for about a year now.

Did you figure out the urethane bushings? Mine were not tight at all, but Ken said he had to push to get his 18mm rubber bushings in.

Frank: toggle-switched horns? Hilarious! That's great.

BTW, when one of my Hella H4+30s burned out, I was actually impressed at how well the fogs (aimed as high as they go) filled in for them. I think they overlap a lot with the headlights, though you don't realize that until the headlights are off.

-juice

ateixeira

To clarify, on my intake I also sealed the old snorkus hole with vinyl stickers and carboard.

Just did another oil change, and I looked closely at the position of the oil filter and the hole in the plastic bottom cover for the engine.

Sorry, Subaru, but you missed, big time. Even poking a hole with a screw driver, the oil would spill out on to the cover itself, and not through that hole.

So, what to do? I made my own hole. I cut off about a 6"x6" section directly under the oil filter for the next oil change. I took off the cover to cut it with tin snips, so I haven't tested it yet, but when I put it back the oil filter now appears directly above the hole (mine, certainly not Subaru's by a mile).

So next time I may not have to remove the cover. It looks like it will work - I can see the entire oil filter when I crawl under now.

The hole is small enough that I doubt the engine bay will get much dirtier. It actually gets dirty anyway.

-juice

originalbitman

Juice - too bad about the stock hole on your Forester. On the 00+ Legacys they got it right and the hole lines up.

bit

kens

juice,

Welcome back from your trip. Hope you had fun.

Are you replacing the Hellas with anything new? Try those Philips Vision Plus bulbs I've been raving about. I think you'll like them.

BTW, don't know if you read that far back, but I installed some Hella Supertones on my Forester. Check it out here:
kens Jun 14, 2001 9:04am

I've been thinking of cutting the plastic gaurd to gain better access to the oil filter too. I just keep wondering though why Subaru didn't get that right to begin with.

Ken

lucien2

Got the bushings in with some help from my bro. One of had to sqeeze the bracket with pliers while the other one threaded the bolt up. then we dropped the car and tightened the bolts. I did get to go buy a new hydraulic jack, though! Car tucks right in now with throttle lift, almost seems like it wants a little more bar, like 20mm. Don't think I will go there until I have a strut/spring upgrade. And tires are next for sure.; the RE92s are showing uneven wear- some parts are great, some parts down to the wear bars. I see a set of Ecsta 712s in the near future. Wonder if one can plus zero a 16x6.5 rim?

Got my homemade intake working all right. May still tinker with it some more- dryer hose from snorkus hole to bumper opening maybe? Too long for water, but still delivers the cold air well enough....

seamus3

i saw the craziest forester yesterday. i was driving down alki beach (for those that live near seattle) and i passed this forester that was parked on the other side of the road. it was bright orange! like the color of tang! it had been lowered the front grill had been completely changed, a crazy body kit, and a good size wing on the back, on top. it had 17 inch rims. it was running and i could kind of hear the exhaust growling. unfortunately i didn't have time to stop and talk. this guy was really into modifying his sooby. it looked like he might have gotten a bunch of japanese spec parts, the body kit and grill. i've never seen anything like it before in an mag's or on anyone's site.

p0926

ateixeira

Ken: yeah, I saw those horns. I'd be curious to hear them, though.

I'm going to contact Ken (the one from Susq) to ask if he'll replace the bulbs since they're not that old. I've been a repeat customer (Forester and Miata), so we'll see.

If not, I'll be asking for a URL for the Phillips bulbs.

What size do those Kumhos come in? You could try 225/50R16 like Colin's if they have 'em. I would also consider an alignment, given the uneven wear. I think 225s would be fine on 6.5" wide rims.

seamus: could that have been Pam's Forester? Pam from iSR Subaru, that is. She gets lots of parts from Japan, and that may be hers or perhaps a customer car.

I could do without the Tang color, but JDM hood with the scoop to go with a turbo kit would be nice!

-juice

locke2c

Loosh, a 225/50-16 would be okay on your 6.5" rim, but don't try a 225/45-16. I personally think there's a lot of good 205/55-16 performance tires that would fit with fewer issues.

-Colin

ateixeira

IIRC I saw Ecsta 712s on Justin's car during our Covered Bridge Tour, and they were 205/55s.

-juice

qbrozen

I just wanted to post some praise for Rob Schwenke at mofugas.com. I ordered a 20mm rear sway bar for my forester from them (along with the front strut brace they had on sale). He emailed me a couple of days later and told me that he was having some difficulty locating a 20mm for me. I told him "thanks for the update and let me know how it goes." Well, just a few days later, a package arrived for me. Inside was the brace that I ordered in addition to a 20-24mm adjustable swaybar, along with a note that read "hi, rob, i didn't want you to have to wait for a bar to come from overseas, so here is an adjustable bar an no additional cost."

That is what I call service! Now, don't get any ideas, it's been a couple of weeks and I'm sure they have the 20mm back in stock, so don't order one thinking you'll get a free upgrade to the adjustable.

I just felt that I had to do something in return, so I'm promoting them and, of course, they will have my future business as well.

Now if I can just get my butt out there and install it! This weekend! I swear it!

locke2c

That's pretty good service, alright!

But the 20-24mm adjustable bar is actually 22mm in diameter. On an otherwise stock car it could easily get the unwary into trouble with trailing-throttle oversteer, especially if you have it set to 22 or 24. Please be cautious when you try out the handling in your Forester...

-Colin

leo2633

Does Subaru have their own 20 mm rear bar for the Impreza that will fit the Forester, or is that size only available aftermarket? If so, does anyone know a Subaru part number? Thanks in advance.

Len

ateixeira

Even with my 18mm rear sway on the Forester it wags the tail. Just make sure that at 24mm the tail isn't wagging the dog, if you know what I mean.

Len: I've only seen 18mm and 22mm sizes on OE sway bars, at least for the previous generation Impy and Forester.

-juice

qbrozen

well, thanks for the warning, but I think I'll live. I'm not racing the thing, after all, i'm just commuting 100 miles a day.

Anyway, yes, the bar is heavy (i'll take your word on 22mm), but I guess its supposed to "act" like a 20 when I set it in the furthest holes.

I think I'm more used to cars kicking out the rear, so I guess that's why the Forester feels so strange to me. This may be too much, but I'm hoping that its just enough to make me feel more comfortable when driving. My goal is to get less body roll. Under normal conditions, it feels as if the Forester would be more willing to tip over than to slide the tires. That's what I'm trying to eliminate. Am I going about it the wrong way? Please, I'm open to suggestions. Oh, and I don't want to lower it 3", so don't even suggest it.

locke2c

I'm sure you're not racing it, but its handling at the limit will come into play if you ever have to make a hard swerve, etc. They built in a goodly bit of understeer to save you in these situations, and you've gone up such a considerable amount in rear roll stiffness that you must watch that the rear end does not try to pass the front.

You definitely will reduce body roll though. You could pair it with a larger front sway bar to help body roll even further and get the fore/aft balance closer to "safe" but front sway bars aren't as easy to install.

-Colin

qbrozen

exactly what I'm thinking. I want to see where I'm at with what I've purchased so far. I figure, like you said, I can increase the front to try to "rebalance" it.

fun, fun, fun

lucien2

yea, I supose i'll just slap 205/55/16 on there. people seem to love the Kumho for the money, which I don't have much of right now. Around $80 in a 205/55/16 Z rated.

ateixeira

Sounds like a deal to me. Do they make 235/55R16s?

I already checked for my Miata - no go. They don't even make the Ecstas for 14" rims.

-juice