I don't know if you still have this vehicle, but if you do, or for other people considering building out an LGT or OBXT if you don't, I have some thoughts about this setup. I have an '05 OBXT, by the way. * I agree with @Flat4Life. Get that intake inside a heat shield. The stock intake is actually a really good cold-air intake, and the only reason to go with something else is for the noise. Grimmspeed's cold-air intake is actually pretty good as aftermarket intakes go. I kept the intake on my vehicle stock, and it doesn't limit my vehicle in any significant way. I would like to have a more growly, snorty intake, but I actually take my vehicle off-roading a bit, and the stock intake is better for that kind of thing. * Get a blanket on that turbo, dude. An unshielded turbo leaves power on the table in two ways that feed on each other. First, it heats up the engine bay, which, in your case, causes the car to take in hotter air. Second, a turbine is a device for converting heat energy into kinetic energy, and it works a lot better if you contain that heat. * The hose from the intercooler outlet to the throttle body is absolutely necessary. The stock throttle body inlet hose wouldn't reach the intercooler outlet. * You mentioned it was hard to get the intercooler to meet up with the intercooler support arm. One thing you can do to make this a lot better is to clock the compressor housing of the turbo a degree or two to the left. You have to pull the coolant intake and outlet hoses off the turbo to do this (and while you're at it, cut off the tab that holds them together, it's only there to reduce manufacturing cost), and loosen five of the six screws that hold the compressor housing to the cartridge. Don't loosen them so that they spin freely, just enough that they aren't torqued down hard. Then mount the intercooler to the turbo, and very gently tap the right side of the intercooler with a plastic or dead-blow mallet until the housing has rotated a degree or two to the left. It really doesn't need much. Then tighten the screws up (in a star pattern, remember!) and put everything back together. This sounds like a lot of work for something you rarely do, but you have to take the intercooler off for a lot of intake and exhaust work, and anything that makes maintenance easier is going to be good for your car in the long run. * At some point, it's good to replace ALL the vacuum and PCV hoses on the engine. They get hard, crack, and leak, and in many cases, those are boost leaks. You should also replace the PCV valve, too. It gets old and sticks, and you end up blowing pressurized air into the crankcase, which makes minor oil leaks WAY worse. Other than those things, sweet build, man. Reminds me a lot of my own.
@@Mike_44 -- The hoses and vacuum lines are *critical.* I also recommend getting the cylinder 4 coolant mod. If your time and budget allow, pull the engine and replace the stock pistons with ones made of 4032 pistons. I recommend Mahle part #930285017. The reason is that these cars' engines die of piston ring land failure.
@@JohnnyWishbone85 Yes, that is my plan eventually, to rebuild the engine, replacing all seals, gaskets, grommets, etc.. Mine has 212K miles! I wonder if Mahle makes stock sized pistons.. I know how important ring gap is too.. but the most important question I have: Do I need to split the block or just change the pistons/rings? I only have a slight overheating when the car is driven hard..but then again my car has a bunch of issues I need to address first, like a leaking heater core(will probably just bypassed it), rusty fuel lines and old/dry vacuum hoses, then I’ll tackle the engine build. I plan to keep it pretty stock. Car came with an aftermarket I/C, DP and a Grimmspeed ebcs. Thanks for your input.
@@Mike_44 @Mike -- The ones I listed are 99.5, which is stock. I highly recommend doing it as soon as you practically can, because if you do it before the ring lands fail, you can probably get away with not splitting the block. If they do fail, they'll probably score the sleeves, which means you'll definitely have to split the block and fork over for several hundred dollars machine work, *at least.* I found that out the hard way.
@@BenDover-pw5lu lol. Me too. I've been playing wack-a-mole with oil leaks ever since I went "stage 2", but she keeps going. Still pulls hard for 234,000 miles, haha! Just never never NEVER forget to check the oil!
Nice car I have an 05 wagon gt with same mods, except I'm running stock intercooler and dual exhaust. Im running Cobb intake it sounds really good, but honestly it runs a little better with stock air box and the air dam on it has to be because intake temps I need a box around my aftermarket intake also.
Did you have to tune for full atmosphere blow off valve i have a 2005 legacy gt and im thinking on a hks blow off valve but im unsure if i should get the recirculating kit
Can anyone make suggestions to upgrade engine/ tranny on a 4 cylinder outback. 175 GO is not a lot of power considering that u want to be able to merge and climb uphill roads
just get an outback XT or go out and find a donor at a pick n pull and get its engine or the engine from the legacy gt and a 5 speed trans and youll be good but honestly taking price into account youd be better off just buying a new legacy gt wagon or outback XT that come turbo from factory.
ThatWasherNerd , no way dude that just happened to my car too! Not my fault tho the engine kept leaking engine oil somehow even after full replacement of seals , spark plugs, and cleaned head gaskets.
I have the same one and it's been on the car for 20k miles. It's a good unit, as it holds more boost in full recirculate than stock and you can open it as much as you want to get that BOV noise. I added the whistle trumpet to mine and it really shrieks at full VTA. I usually run full Recirculate because your engine performs better with it, but sometimes you just feel like rice!
