Upgrades for a JDM GT wagon

[Bagheera85]

The car is a 1991 Legacy GT Wagon, 2.0 turbo 4EAT.

So far I've got 17x7 wheels on it. And that's it. I plan on getting a pulley set from MRT, and probably a Stromung exhaust. I'd like to upgrade the shocks and struts after that. Not really sure what all I can get for the BF EJ20T engine though. Anyone have any suggestions? And for shocks/struts, I take it a AGX/Whitline combo would serve me pretty well? Don't know if I want to lower it any, but if I did it'd be no more than 1". How well does upgrading brakelines serve you? And a new intake?

The car only cost me $2500 USD with 90,000km on it. I'm willing to spend $2-3000 on upgrades for performance. Pretty much just street driving.

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[HIHO]

Sound good. Evryone says the SS brakelines make a huge difference. I haven't done it yet mine improved alot with KVR X-drilled rotors and KVR CF pads. As far as engine performance there are only a couple of guys here with the factory boosted Legacy. Here is a list of guys who would know more than me. Just type their name in the search engine and PM or email them with questions.

turbowagon - '92 Turbo wagon
whiteRex - '93 Turbo "estate"
94 TurboLegacy - '94 Turbo Wagon
gtcrispy - '93 Turbo Wagon
Sir Yacho - '93 Turbo ?
TOMMY B - '91 Turbo Sedan
Mr Cheese - '93 Turbo ?
Ben - '92 Turbo Sedan
AZ-GT - '91 Turbo Sedan
Good luck.

[anotherB4]

m8, you're in Japan - get the real local stuff (when it makes sense ).

Fujitsubo exhaust - beautiful stuff and excellent quality (note: this is not the cheapo stuff). They have a full Legalis R set-up that will give you about 7ps more, better response and won't make the car horribly noisey. It is a full stainless centre and muffler kit. Grab a good panel filter while you are at it. When you do this (no matter what muffler/exhaust you end up choosing), be sure to invest in a reasonable boost gauge with peak memory and warning functions - you don't want your new add-ons to blow something up

An ECU upgrade like Prova's will give you some extra power and response at the same time - to keep it all under control a nice blow off valve helps too.

Before you go swapping out the big money suspension bits, get some swaybar endlinks - the Whitelines are available on the net and are very cheap - do all 4 corners for best resultss. See: www.whiteline.com.au The results will likely be pleasantly surprising.

Your car is a little older, so the brakes are quite an old set-up. Better hoses will help feel and transmit energy to the calipers better, but some good pads will make a significant difference too - if you do not push the car too hard, some of the good sports pads from Project Myu will serve you well. IMHO the pads should be your first stop. If you decide to do the hoses, get them sent from the US because the Goodridge hoses are good, and generally far cheaper in the US - grab some DOT 4 or Super DOT 4 fluid when you do the hoses (IMHO DOT 5 is a little tricky because it soaks up moisture too well and that may be an issue in an older car).

Since your car is of the generation which is very closely related to the GC8 Impreza, you may find that some used parts stores will have some bits and pieces that will translplant easily and give you a bit more zip, zig or woh. If there are any stores in your area, it may be well worth going for a dig about.

One thing you did not mention was tower bars - perhaps you may want to take a look at a rear first (if you afford to have it sitting there that is - although you can whip the bar off in a few minutes if you need to). Cusco also makes an under body frame support that can take some shimmy out of the car (they make ones for front and rear, but I hear the rear is particularly effective).

That should just about blow your budget

Cheers

[Bagheera85]

Wow.. thanx..

What's the difference between the Legalis R, Evolution, and Super R? I know they only have the R listed for my car, but my understanding is the BG5 exhaust is almost identical to mine, and slight modification is possible if necessary. Does the Evo and Super give you better performance, or just louder?

And ahh yes, the tower bar. I have no problem with a bar back there, though I figure I'm gonna have to do some custom fiberglassing to make it look good. Don't have speakers back there, so I'll just copy the existing caps and not have the mesh. Can I get a tower bar locally for the car, like Autobacs or Stark's? Or do I have to order it online?

Wow, now is the time to buy the Fujitsubo.. the yen is at 132!! Sometimes I really love being in another country.. I get paid the USD, and it's like christmas everytime the yen get weak.

[anotherB4]

I guess it is up to what you are after as a result.

Your engine's output is lower than the TT series engines (note all BGs are TTs - and therefore are different from your car's engine, which is basically a WRX jobby), so there is the question of whether there is going to be a net performance drop due to having too much flow (ie. you may get more power up top, but less torque, which makes for sluggish acceleration until you hit high revs). On the other hand, the Legalis for your model is a full system, whereas the R Evo and Super R are just mufflers, so the effects may be less dramatic (could also be read: not worth it).

Having not tried to whack a pipe like that on an older car I can't say what the result will be. Personally, I would think that a full system would give better all around results. Also, Fujitsubo is highly regarded for tuning individual systems for each model - and doing a particularly good job on Subarus (which is not to say that the R Evo won't work, but the one they did for the car maybe better). If your decision is based on looks, that is a totally different issue.

On the lufflers themselves, I have had the R Evo on my car, and it is tuned more for response low down, whereas the Super R is a high rpm tune. The Legalis is a light tune based series, for a balance of more resposne and power - there are more aggresive set-ups available, but the effect on reliability is unpredictable on older models. I'll repeat what I said first time out - while you are here, why not go with the best available - and as you correctly mention your dollar is going further right now, too.

There is also some "snake oil" type stuff on the market you may want to try called SEV (available at Autobacs, at least up here on Honshu). The stuff is not cheap, and I was really suspicious, but I was offered a 2 week no questions asked refund for trying it, so gave it a try (at the time I was having issues with the slow response of my car after changing to the Super R). My reaction driving the car in the parking lot after that was an immediate WOW - better response! Leaving Autobacs, the good response and more torque across the rev range had me really grinning There were quite a few cars being fitted that day - a whole gaggle of Lotus Elises, some GTRs, a Ferrari, a Maserati, lots of WRXs and Legacys and many other cars too while I was there. More than a few drivers were scratching their heads, wondering why this stuff works (me included ).

Feel free to mail me off-line if you want to.

Cheers

[froggert]

what is SEV, some piece of magical hardware or gas add-in?

Bagheera85 - anotherb4 knows a lot of stuff about our cars and especially jdm goodies.

[anotherB4]

Talk about the proverbial "snake oil"! :lildevil:

It is one of those dark secrets that no one wants to claim knowledge of...that most cannot explain (incl me )...and most won't admit owning (me=too beyond it to care - or should that be enjoying the results too much ).

I am sure the stuff is available elsewhere, but take a look at: http://www.sev.co.jp and I hope the translation programmes can get it somewhat right.

Cheers

[HIHO]

I can't tell what the hell it is. I have a guess, some kind of magnets?

[froggert]

um, nice technical explanations on the website. as far as i can tell, it's a magical-juju producing product that improves every aspect of a car (engine, brakes, tires, shocks) by aligning and ionizing molecules. here's a quote on how sev improves handling:

"The SEV ionizes the air inside the tire, makes the air style inside the tire smooth. Because of this because the pressure difference which happens to the part where it converts flat decreases, it becomes help of the restoration action which it tries the flat section probably will return to the origin. And, standing wave phenomenon and the occurrence of tire bursting, the increase of noise and the increase of the air resistance by the turbulent air controling it is possible. In addition, as for the air which is ionized because flexibility increases, there are no times when flatness conversion of the tire happens extremely, wear decreases in order excessive friction decrease (micro rub) to make, stability increases vis-a-vis the flank wind. Because also the rubber which forms the tire activates water repellency action occurs, it is possible the water which flows to flow in a laminar fashion, preventing the prevention of the hydroplane, the efficiency improvement of the stud less tire and the deterioration of the tire to maintain pattern flexibility over long term."

there was a product in the states a few years back - i think it was called inset - that used magnets to "align" gas molecules to improve efficiency and therefore gas mileage.

the explanation is kind of sketchy, but i'm glad it works for you..

[anotherB4]

I warned that this stuff was/is waaaaay out there - had the nose too close to the exhaust I guess



I think I'll try it on a certain Skyline to see if I really am dreaming

[legacyb4]

Something like that... still waiting for anotherB4's car to blow up before I think about trying it out...

Cheers.

Originally posted by HIHO
I can't tell what the hell it is. I have a guess, some kind of magnets?

[anotherB4]

@ legacyb4 - the only reason mine would go first is because you don't drive your car anymore

Anyway, being a gentleman, I must say "after you Sir"

For everyone's info, he's just jealous because his car is getting left behind in the tweek stakes, and mine is now seriously faster than it was before - on the track of course

And by the time he stops thinking about it he will likely be too old to notice the difference

Cheers