Hello all

E

Eliminator

New member
Points
16
Location
Ireland
Car
Subaru Legacy Wagon
Ok, I just passed my driving test last week and now own 50% of a 2000 Subaru Legacy GL Estate/Wagon 2L AWD, which I share with my father. I'll pay it off fully over the next year or so. It's got 165,000 km and is in fantastic condition.

My father's owned this car for 5 years, and I've driven it for the last 12 months, but he has allowed me to buy it off him over the next year as long as he gets to use it while I'm at Uni.

I'm just happy I can start call it mine, and begin to do things to the car. The car is as stock (just with replaced clutch/flywheel etc...) and the only thing I've done is add a CD player (came with a cassette player!) and new floor mats :grin:


I'm happy atm with the car, however I know that as I get more experienced as a driver, I'll want to start modding to get more performance out of here. That's why I joined here, to research about upgrades/tuning, to look for ideas, gain some useful knowledge and to just generally hang out with

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The best mods for a car engine are as follows.
Internal work yields the biggest gains, head work like porting polishing and 3 angle valve jobs will maximise the airflow and raise the power.

If you want to go to the max then cryo treat the block, get it rebored and look into blueprinting and balancing as well. You'll also need stronger internal parts if you are looking at a big power hike so forged rods etc.. are the order of the day.
Bigger valves are an obvious add on but not all engines are suitable as it depends how close together the OEM valves are.

A fast road cam will yield good power gains, especially in the top end of the rev range. Don't go mad though a profile of up to 270 degrees will give the best gains without the engine becoming cammy (lumpy tickover at low RPM).

The most popular power mods are induction kits (which are questionable as power mods but they can sound nice if that is your sort of thing) and sports exhausts with sports catalysts or decats.
To keep the car legal I'd recommend a sports catalyst rather than a decat.
The last mod should always be a remap as this will allow you to fully realise the power gains on offer from your mods.

It's worth having a read of the articles on www.torquecars.com/tuning/ for more information on these mods and what the terms mean.
 
In terms of upgrades and modding, I've no experience and very little knowledge, although I've been trying to change that fact. I'm reading as much on this site and others as I possibly can, but I could still use a bit of help from those much more experienced. As the saying goes, a smart man learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.


My end goal is to have a stealthy daily driver, suited to both start-stop journeys in and around the city, as well as letting rip on the country roads here in Donegal (rally country) and the odd track day.

I'm looking to improve acceleration, handling, responsiveness, top speed, ICE and exterior, in that order. However, I've got little funds, so I'll have to do this one step at a time.

Acceleration

Because of the weight of the car, it's quite poor off the line, so an increase in power should help this. Correct?

Handling

The handling isn't bad, however I'd like to improve it so that's it able to handle the planned power increases.

Strut Braces - are they worth it on the Legacy Wagon?
Brake Upgrades - The brakes are very good
Diffs - I don't know fully what a diff upgrade would do, could someone explain it to me?

Responsiveness & Top Speed

Engine Tuning should help with this, correct?

Intake - From what I understand/have seen on dynos, POD filters only give an increase of about 1.5%, CAI's again have an increase of about 2%, so are they worth it?

Throttle Body Spacer - a small hp gain, but appear to give a fuel economy increase.

Exhaust - I vaguely understand the difference between EL and UEL exhausts. UEL bolt on and exaggerate the boxer rumble, but EL will give better power gains, correct?

Cams - I have a SOHC, is it worth converting to a DOHC? What will this do in terms of performance?

Pistons - This would be a long way down the line in terms of mods, as they're not cheap.

ECU Tuning - Any plug and play ECU tuners?



Anything I'm missing/overlooking? What order should I go through the upgrades in? What gives me best bang for buck upgrades?
 
You've missed off weight reduction, this is essentially a free mod and there are lots of things you can strip out.

Induction kits will not really make a noticeable difference.

Have you thought about doing and engine swap? This is quite a good power upgrade for the cost of a used engine and your time.

I'd go with a fast road cam first and then get the mapping and breathing mods sorted.

For big power gains go with a supercharger or turbo but these cost a lot and are fiddly to set up properly - we have a few articles on doing this dotted around the forums and on the main site.
 
waynne said:
Have you thought about doing and engine swap? This is quite a good power upgrade for the cost of a used engine and your time.

I'd go with a fast road cam first and then get the mapping and breathing mods sorted.
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I have, however, this being my only car I can't afford to lose it for more than a day at a time. As well as that, taxing and insuring a 2L in Ireland for a 19 year old is expensive enough, however the tax and insurance of a larger engine (eg ej25) or a turbo'd engine would be astronomical.


I think for my first set of upgrades, I'm going to install a

Tein S Tech performance spring kit (lower by approx 25mm)
Whiteline Rear Anti Roll bar and poly bushes
Whiteline Front Anti Roll bar and poly bushes
Whiteline Anti Lift Kit

Then I'll look at power gains

I think
 
Greetings and a Warm Welcome to our TorqueCars Forum my Friend!

Good to have you along with us :)
 
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