97 Legacy GTB

[LosMan603]

Hello all,

I have just purchased my 4th Subaru, but this is my first twin turbo... and I am in love.

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This super clean BG5 was just dropped off in my driveway about 2 weeks ago. As you can see from the pictures it was well maintained during it's time back home in Japan. Now that she is on the rough roads of New England, I will be babying this old lady and making sure I can preserve her nearly perfect & rust free chassis.

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Name of the game for me will be keeping the car as close to OEM as possible, while upgrading tastefully when it makes sense. I have already been bothering Reuben with LOTS of questions, so thanks again to him for his help.

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As these twin turbos start to become more available here in the USA, I imagine there will be some increase in questions or general interest in this platform. Please help point me in the right direction of any reading/resources you think may be helpful. I have already tried scouring this site (among others) for info, but please help educate me if possible. I have every intention of keeping this 53k mile chassis rust free and reliable, thanks to all who are willing to help me achieve that!

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I have already replaced a few things... I added a Grimmspeed stainless shift knob (suuuper heavy!) and Bride shift boot. Original bits were very worn and dry. The previous owner installed a Blitz bov and HKS panel filter (the green 3 layer one)

I am really interested in upholstering the interior in Bride gradient fabric, I found a bunch on Amazon for super cheap.

Any way fire away with your opinions and thoughts!

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[LosMan603]

Taking a first pass at making some floor mats... I have a bunch of dollar store carpet material I am using to make a first draft. Also I eat a lot of pizza so I finally found a way to re-use the box haha.

I'll post a few more pics once I work out this first pass...

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[LosMan603]

Hhmmm... I spent about 45 minutes and slapped this together... it's better than nothing but I am already thinking about all the little errors I made.

Stay tuned for rev 2 :)


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[LosMan603]

I played around with the door cards today, reupholstered the passenger door. Overall I feel like it came out good aside from a few small mistakes. I probably should have practiced on someone else's car first :)

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Also finished the driver door :)

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[LosMan603]

I was able to find an oem air filter! Look at how cool the old box is haha!

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Very excited to swap out the old HKS super hybrid, it was completely dried out on the first layers, and worn down to the third layer in some spots.

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I can reuse the plastic case from the HKS element, I just need to find some genuine element material to fit in there.

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[thenines']

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[thenines']

Where in New Hampshire are you? I'm in mass-just outside of worcester

[LosMan603]

Where in New Hampshire are you? I'm in mass-just outside of worcester

Hey a fellow New Englander! I am 20 minutes west of Nashua.

[LosMan603]

Another shout out to Reuben for the advice on testing my coolant ph. He sent me a great email and YouTube video of the dangers of acidic coolant, and the best methods to service.

I used some Wix test strips from my local parts store, the coolant was neutral. Time to drain & fill!
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Since this stuff wasn't acidic yet, and visually looked good, I only drained and filled instead of a full on system flush. As always my trusty Harbor Freight funnel and radiator cap adapters worked 100%. The petcock on this 97 GTB was at the driver side lower corner of the radiator. Thankfully the 25 year old plastic was easily loosened with just my hand.

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I made sure to burp the system by squeezing the upper and lower hoses while the engine idled after it was filled with the new stuff.

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I also took the time to clean up the upper radiator brackets, they were beginning to show their age...

Before:

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After:

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Next up... I have my Blackstone Labs oil analysis kit to sort out. Hopefully I can fill and send that this week. Also, my oem grille just arrived from Tokyo earlier today. Ill be fitting that asap!

[thenines']

You must go to WBM on Sunday June 5 ;) Your bi turbo leggy will be a hit, as we get no respect from the sti/wrx crowds. And, rkrenicki (Rob) should be there-the wicked cool SLI moderator from Connecticut-check out his sambar build thread

[LosMan603]

You must go to WBM on Sunday June 5 ;) Your bi turbo leggy will be a hit, as we get no respect from the sti/wrx crowds. And, rkrenicki (Rob) should be there-the wicked cool SLI moderator from Connecticut-check out his sambar build thread

Yeah I'll show the impreza crowd what a 280ps wagon can do lol.

I just checked the wbm site, that looks awesome. I'll let you know if I am going to be able to attend as I would love to say hi and check out the Sambar! Love those things.

[thenines']

:blob5:

[LosMan603]

Wow I looked more closely! this seems like an awesome time, do you participate in the show or autocross stuff? Man i would love to try the legacy out there but I dont want to beat on her too much!

I'll be buying my ticket soon.

[thenines']

The only show I participate in is the parking lot-I never had anything that would be worthy for the car show inside the gate, or the setup requirements for the autocross, though, I did take a few laps around the track with one of the drivers- a real blast! back when they first had the show at its current location. Hope you can make it!

[LosMan603]

I've been having fun playing around with the GTB this week.

Yesterday I took a sample of the oil and mailed it to Blackstone labs. Hoping for some good news once I hear back (fingers crossed) Overall the condition of the oil looked ok. It only has about 1,700 Km on it so it was still fairly amber colored, and I didn't find any visible metal shavings or debris. Time will tell what is going on inside the walls of that beautiful EJ20 :)

I decided to ditch the oem drain plug in favor of a Fumoto quick valve. These have always worked out great for me, makes the job so much easier and cleaner too.

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Today I wanted to fix the radio, since it wasn't functioning at all. I took out the Alpine head unit and started trying to make sense of the crazy VICS system. This thing has some type of hardwired Alpine controller, a DVD rom & hard drive system that is under the passenger seat, navigation beacons, antennae... yikes.

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The wiring was pretty intense for my limited skills, but I will say it was relatively tidy and well labeled. Even though some of the labes were in Kanji :) Thankfully, after some probing and messing about I discovered one of the junctions into the 12v accessory circuit was disconnected. Now the radio and power antennae are functioning 100%

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I also installed an fm band expander, since this is a Japanese Alipne head, and only gets stations below 90fm. For some reason, the eBay band expander I installed isnt working... (maybe because it is from eBay lol?)

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Although I confirmed it is getting good 12v and ground, and was properly connected inline with the cars antennae, it had no impact on the FM band. The radio still only reaches 89.9 fm... I'll do some more research, maybe there is some type of reset needed on the head unit itself?

[ryu_haneda]

Welcome, hope you've gotten lots of use from any tech help in the forums.