I bought a Subaru, and don’t own a flat brim hat (Subaru forester xt build)

[finboy]

Okay, just went through all the receipts, and my parts pile, and I think this should be a pretty accurate picture of the current state of the car.

Mods to date:
-invidia g200 catback
-invidia v3 divorced downpipe
-Perrin uppipe
-Andros spec d wheels 18x8
-Cobb sf intake
-Cobb access port v3
-tomei adjustable cam gears
-Rebuilt OEM block with arp headstuds and tomei headgaskets - install done by caliber automotive in edmonton
-Moroso oil pickup
-Unknown “race” clutch as denoted on the workform

Mods not yet installed:
-Cobb sf airbox
-sti intercooler
-walbro 255
-Grimmspeed turbo heat shield

Future plans:
-vf turbo
-Grimmspeed ebcs
-protune

Sold and bought an Element, build thread below:
https://forums.beyond.ca/threads/414...peed?p=5158311

[HiSpec]

Any reason to remove those mods?

I'll say it again, the XT looks really good!

[D'z Nutz]

Since I know nothing about these Foresters, was there any particular reason why you went all the way out to Vancouver Island to get this? Are these particularly hard to find or was it just a really good deal?

[finboy]

Those mods are not yet installed, they will be when I get the other items I haven’t purchased and will get added all at one time so I can get tuned once instead of every time I add something. The sports models are actually a bit hard to find, and I was super picky about finding the right Subaru as they are so prone to abuse and neglect by previous owners. The price point is getting low enough on these that there are many first time owners doing more without the research, and making some very expensive “whoops” decisions to cut corners.

[dirtsniffer]

I did not know you could get an 08 XT with a 5mt. Saweeeet

[finboy]

08 was the last year for North America, Australia still got the manual

[googe]

IIRC those will hit boost cut if you replace the downpipe and don't port the wastegate outlet. The stock one with cats is restrictive enough that it chokes airflow, but if you open it up then it moves so much more air that the stock outlet can't dump it fast enough and pressure creeps up. I'm surprised the original owner left it like that, because it kind of defeats the purpose if you can't go WOT without throwing CELs.

[finboy]

I’m not overly surprised, the car feels like someone went through a top ten list of “what mods do I need for stage 2” without deep diving into supporting mod requirements to make things work well.

[vengie]

Man that is gorgeous! I have always wanted to pick one up, but man are they hard to find.

[redevil]

Very nice XT! I had a 2008 XT as well and loved it. Make sure you checkout Airboy to have that thing custom tuned.

[finboy]

Definitely hitting him up when I get a turbo installed, then not spending money for a while because it is a $ubaru and I need to just enjoy it once it runs right, lol

[finboy]

While waiting for some key parts, I decided to tackle a few smaller jobs. I put in the Grimmspeed hood struts because I want a lot of room when I work, and then decided since I was on a roll, I would work on the fuel system.

For the record, I hate working on fuel, the smell, the dry skin, the mess, etc. But since it has been a while since I had to wrench on anything, I figure I would save myself the money I would have paid to someone else. The upside of a forester is that no seat removal is needed, the downside is the entirety of the truck content has to be pulled.

Everything went relatively smooth with the help of some YouTube videos, the only hitch was the walbro being about 5mm longer than the OEM unit, making the pump basically feed directly into the inlet, the hose is pretty much there as a splash guard now. After ample cursing, and some interesting use of a trim removal tool, the assembly went back together and the car was running again.

Next weekend is hopefully the start of the tear down, I scored a garage and picked up a Milwaukee power ratchet and impact gun, and some 2 foot long ratchet wrenches to help deal with some of the tighter spots. Things to do for next weekend, let me know if I missed anything...

-grab injectors and install without removing the manifold (this could require patience)
-adjust the ac lines to fit the new sti intercooler
-reassemble the intercooler y pipes
-swap the turbo and hope like hell I don’t break too many exhaust studs or bolts (spares should arrive this week)
-install the cold air box
-oil change
-remove air pump and block off with vex plates
-replace turbo feed / avcs feed line and get rid of the banjo filter
-put on the new soft turbo inlet when the original tears to bits
-Grimmspeed ebcs installed but not plumbed until it’s on the dyno

The motor was out about 25,000 km ago, so I am hoping nothing should be drastically seized. I wasn’t going to do plugs as they were done before I got the car, worth leaving them in there?

With all this done, I will likely get it towed down to vex/airboy or call them about a baseline tune.

Am I missing anything?

[finboy]

Time for an update, after gathering parts for months, and scoring a garage to work in for a weekend, I finally got some time to work on the car. Unfortunately the day before I was supposed to start, I picked up an awesome fever, which made the entire install a pretty fun experience. Let me start this off by saying, I am not a mechanic, but I thought it best to at least attempt the install and get to know my car, and understand the quality of work performed from the previous owners.

To round up, I got the turbo on (68HTA from a Westernsubaruclub member), installed a samco turbo inlet (the internet is right, this job sucks), and attempted to get some injectors in (850cc bosch injectors from performance fuel injection in high river). I say attempted to get the injectors installed because while I got them in position, I never heard the “click” to hear them engage. From what I have heard so far from Vex, this assumption checked out as it spilled some fuel in their lot already.

Rather than trying to force something beyond my skill set and assume I got everything right, I opted to have VEX performance go over the car before the dyno day with airboy tuning. Based of feedback from a few subie owners, it sounds like this is a good choice. This step is something that I think will be worthwhile as I don’t want to waste anyones time on the dyno day, and would rather know that the car will be in good working order after being inspected by people who work on subarus every day.

Lets begin:

No more turbo, thankfully the engine being out 25K ago meant that I didn’t hit a single seized bolt. I made sure that any exhaust bolt going back on had high heat anti-seize. Surprisingly even the turbo feed line came apart fine, so I have a spare braided line for the future if I need it. Wisely, the previous shop that worked on this motor removed the banjo filter.



Old Vs. New



New turbo in





“Green brakets of death” actually weren’t too bad, the previous shop did not reuse the harder to reach bolts on the back of the head. I will likely modify these slightly to make them easier to reinstall, but I left them off to give Vex easier access to the injectors (along with the short ram intake and air box). This is another area where things differed from various threads, as many said the AC lines were welded to the brackets, in my case they were bolted on.



The injectors, while the stock injectors could likely do what I need for the short term, I wanted to future proof the build a bit, especially as the injectors would be easier to reach when half the motor was apart. A friend of mine with an LS1 240 told me about performance fuel injection, and so far I have been pretty happy with the customer service.



It was at this point below where I really started to question the logic subary had in snaking the inlet through the intake manifold. The stocker did not survive removal, probably for the best that I replaced it. Curiously every soft inlet had a glut of information on “this brand collapses, only buy XXXXXXX brand” which meant that every brand apparently sucks. More on that glut of information later in this post.



And many hours later, with arms looking like they were chewed by small woodland creatures, it is back together for the most part.



Needless to say, after doing the above, I am happy that the car is getting finalized and will hopefully be in good shape after Airboy tunes it.

One thing I did struggle with wasn’t the lack of information, but rather, information overload. I read countless 60+ page threads, all with contradictory information from product types, to ways in which jobs should be done, to year specific issues. While everyone says subarus are like lego, I found my car specifically (07+ forester) had all kinds of “it might be this way” answers. As an example, I was looking at deleting the air pump, but late on Sunday, reading another 60+ page thread from Nasioc, there didn’t seem to be a straight answer on what had to be left in an 07+ car, and was even less detail on foresters specifically (which have small differences from both WRX’s and STi’s). Instead I opted to look at the airpump at a future state, as it was working at the time and I didn’t want to introduce another variable.

This is a clear case where I need to get more involved in the local Subaru community, as a phone a friend option for someone who had done the job before could have helped sift through the noise of online articles and threads.

More updates to come as I hear back from Vex and Airboy, I am looking forward to working with both to get the car back on the road, better than ever.

[The Cosworth]

Oh man, love a FXT. Would love to build one. Looks really clean.

[g-m]

I've found there's a ton of threads and articles for Subaru's written by people who have suspect knowledge and background and often no way to know. YMMV but it's not good

[finboy]

Let’s talk today about the story of success and failure.

Vex give me a call yesterday, letting me know that a spot had opened up early to dyno, success! I had made a few rookie mistakes while swapping the turbo, a few fails but easily corrected and the injectors were in. The numbers from the tune were great (301 whp and about 325 tq), success! When I got in, they had completed the tune, but were still hearing an exhaust rattle coming from the downpipe area....

While they are going to investigate, the pesimist in me believes that the turbo I bought might be the source of the issue. Hopefully we will find out tomorrow, but if that is the case, it is going to mean no car for me while I rip it apart. I suspect this will be a sleepless night.

Anyways, details on the noise, it’s coming from the dp/turbo area, increases with rpm and is not the heat shield. #thoughtsandprayers appreciated.

[zipdoa]

Lol 300whp in a 3250lbs wagon, I bet it’s a 12 second grocery getter. That car will get you into trouble . I’m jelly and now miss my stage 3 allroad.

Can you upload the dyno printout?

[finboy]

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Lol 300whp in a 3250lbs wagon, I bet it’s a 12 second grocery getter. That car will get you into trouble . I’m jelly and now miss my stage 3 allroad.

Can you upload the dyno printout?

Left it at the shop but will grab it tomorrow. Mixture of joy and anxiety today, transmission blast plates are on my radar

[dirtsniffer]

dibs when you want to sell this in the future.

[finboy]

Sound was a loose wastegate arm, turbo is good!

Vex had to retune and they are fixing a leak from the turbo drain, but otherwise...

Run before the wastewater was fixed



And after...