BLMPKN's LOWERED 05 OBXT! **UPDATED 1/8/13**
- Thread starter blmpkn
- Start date
I plan on getting a fullsize spare to leave up there. As the donut wont do me ANY good with those honkin tires.
And no more putting my new car in the same conversation as deer!
Updates! Well, not really.. But close enough.
Took her to e.g for her first oil change since ive owned it a week ago, and really got to stretch its legs on the way to the annual meet. I love boost! Today im replacing an axle and hopin for enough daylight to get a lil muddy after. Well see!
Took her to e.g for her first oil change since ive owned it a week ago, and really got to stretch its legs on the way to the annual meet. I love boost! Today im replacing an axle and hopin for enough daylight to get a lil muddy after. Well see!
No real updates besides giving her another extremely thorough vac and armoralling. Found a hotwheels jeep with scoobie.and shaggy on the side that I didnt find last time. Seems fitting
The next few weeks shall bring a driveshaft change due to a spent center bearing (japs are too cheap to balance driveahafts apparently..) And a custom 2.5" single axleback with an ebay fart can, and trying to find a 4" downturn or whatever you wanna call it since o.b's dont have the bumper cutouts. Might replace the resonator with a glasspack, not sure yet.
The next few weeks shall bring a driveshaft change due to a spent center bearing (japs are too cheap to balance driveahafts apparently..) And a custom 2.5" single axleback with an ebay fart can, and trying to find a 4" downturn or whatever you wanna call it since o.b's dont have the bumper cutouts. Might replace the resonator with a glasspack, not sure yet.
Alright, after much procrastination, and inevidable speed bumps... Finally got around to changing my driveshaft, what a peice of cake! Aanndd iafter 2 weeks of driving around with an exhaust lopped off before the rear diff.. Finally got to finish my single exit exhaust.
It hangs a little low, its not mandrel bent or stainless or 3" the can isn't a "designer brand" and the welds aren't the prettiest... But I made it myself. I think it sounds good, and theres no more restrictive turbulant y-pipe. Im rather proud of myself tbh. And the butt dyno says a pony or two might have been unleashed? The turbo does spool a lil quicker for sure. Im more than happy.
Ill try to upload pics latet
It hangs a little low, its not mandrel bent or stainless or 3" the can isn't a "designer brand" and the welds aren't the prettiest... But I made it myself. I think it sounds good, and theres no more restrictive turbulant y-pipe. Im rather proud of myself tbh. And the butt dyno says a pony or two might have been unleashed? The turbo does spool a lil quicker for sure. Im more than happy.
Ill try to upload pics latet
Alright, found some free time to upload pics and update the journal.
After driving around a silent car (apart from teh dank turbo whistle) for a few months, I got tired of it. Especially since I knew how much more awesome the obxt would sound than my legacy thanks to the unequal length header. I decided to make my own single exit axleback. What I did was chop my catback off right before the y-pipe
hacked off the section I was ditching, then took the remainder to Lifetime in gray to have them replicate the peice in 2.5''.
After much thought about what sort of muffler to slap on the end of my masterpiece, I went the ebay route and bought a cheapo china melonshooter. After a weekend of fitting, cutting, tweaking, hammering, and swearing... I got it all welded together and fitting as best as I could.
Trying to stay as "stealthy" as possible I scuffed the cans nice shiny "stainless" finish up with some sandpaper and sprayed the new section of exhaust with 2 cans of black bbq paint I just bought at Advance.
Like I said before: this isn't stainless, isn't mandrel bent, isn't 3", the can cost as much as a case of beer, the welds aren't the cleanest (first time welding in.. 3 years, and all my prior welding was stick, not mig) and it does hang a little too low for my taste. BUT!!! I made this myself and im damn proud of it. So id prefer if you kept whatever flaming you have to yourself.
This summer (if it goes anything like it will in my head) will bring upon a "re-birth" if you will, for my OBXT. Some of what ill be doing to this will be "forum knowledge" for those who care, and some of it I will do my best to keep secret from the boards untill shes finished. Im excited.
Oh and heres some newish pics
After driving around a silent car (apart from teh dank turbo whistle) for a few months, I got tired of it. Especially since I knew how much more awesome the obxt would sound than my legacy thanks to the unequal length header. I decided to make my own single exit axleback. What I did was chop my catback off right before the y-pipe
hacked off the section I was ditching, then took the remainder to Lifetime in gray to have them replicate the peice in 2.5''.
After much thought about what sort of muffler to slap on the end of my masterpiece, I went the ebay route and bought a cheapo china melonshooter. After a weekend of fitting, cutting, tweaking, hammering, and swearing... I got it all welded together and fitting as best as I could.
Trying to stay as "stealthy" as possible I scuffed the cans nice shiny "stainless" finish up with some sandpaper and sprayed the new section of exhaust with 2 cans of black bbq paint I just bought at Advance.
Like I said before: this isn't stainless, isn't mandrel bent, isn't 3", the can cost as much as a case of beer, the welds aren't the cleanest (first time welding in.. 3 years, and all my prior welding was stick, not mig) and it does hang a little too low for my taste. BUT!!! I made this myself and im damn proud of it. So id prefer if you kept whatever flaming you have to yourself.
This summer (if it goes anything like it will in my head) will bring upon a "re-birth" if you will, for my OBXT. Some of what ill be doing to this will be "forum knowledge" for those who care, and some of it I will do my best to keep secret from the boards untill shes finished. Im excited.
Oh and heres some newish pics
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drvsdwz
DRiVe SiDeWayZ
you should add another hanger to the exhaust to keep it up and out of the way. That way when you are offroading like in the above pictures....you will have no chance of ripping it off!
go to napa or carquest and get a u-bolt clamp and exhaust hangar strap and that should do the trick for the cheap...may not look the prettiest but at least it will be out of the way!
go to napa or carquest and get a u-bolt clamp and exhaust hangar strap and that should do the trick for the cheap...may not look the prettiest but at least it will be out of the way!
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ive since welded another hanger onto the opposite side. Pulled a tardbox and welded it to the can too high, so it really didnt lift the can any closer to the bumper which is what I was going for. Ill get around to heating that other hanger up and bending it so it fits better/snugger to the bumper when my driveway doesn't resemble grand lake matagamon
Updates!!
-Bought some winter wheels and tires from Gabe, 16" 7 spoke ASA'S with some Dunlop something-or-others wrapped around them.
-Factory radiator finally crapped out (240k aint bad!) Leaking everywhere. Looking into replacing with a mishimoto radiator and mishimoto hoses either as soon as financially possible.
-In the middle of replacing the tired struts and springs right now, its been one of those typical "weekend" projects that ends up taking way too long.. For stupid reasons. Optimistically speaking, I should have my car all back together and out of my buddys garage tomorrow after I get home from work.
-Plasti dipped my grille. Planned on doing the winter wheels, but even with the heater going in the garage its too cold and ends up all orange peel-ey in texture.
Ill get some pictures uploaded, and go into further detail about my mini-mission replacing struts whenever the cars back together and I have some daylight.
-Bought some winter wheels and tires from Gabe, 16" 7 spoke ASA'S with some Dunlop something-or-others wrapped around them.
-Factory radiator finally crapped out (240k aint bad!) Leaking everywhere. Looking into replacing with a mishimoto radiator and mishimoto hoses either as soon as financially possible.
-In the middle of replacing the tired struts and springs right now, its been one of those typical "weekend" projects that ends up taking way too long.. For stupid reasons. Optimistically speaking, I should have my car all back together and out of my buddys garage tomorrow after I get home from work.
-Plasti dipped my grille. Planned on doing the winter wheels, but even with the heater going in the garage its too cold and ends up all orange peel-ey in texture.
Ill get some pictures uploaded, and go into further detail about my mini-mission replacing struts whenever the cars back together and I have some daylight.
Alright, a few weeks late but hey... better late than never I suppose.
Well start with a little backstory:
Once I realized that you could buy a lift kit for a subaru, my views on what I wanted my car to be changed. Very quickly. I lifted my 05 legacy sedan as fast as I possibly could, and LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT! Car was constantly caked in mud, and squeeled like hell with a rock always hiding between the dust cover and rotor. I certainly had my fun with the car, and then I totalled it
oh well.
The search was on for another subaru, and I found one... a lifted one!! Booyah! This one would be the red OBXT I bought from Gabe (SUBARUDE) Being naturally higher than a legacy, this wagon was absolutely MONSTEROUS with the 1" lift and 225-60-17 tires it had on it. This car got a bunch of the same treatment as my legacy did.. mud, some trails, field bombing adventures.. so on and so forth. Well I guess I finally came to my senses.. a unibody vehicle with almost a quarter million miles on it does NOT need the stress of being bounced around in the woods and smashing through baby-raisin mudholes (as fun as it is) and treating your daily driver like such is just asking for a trip to the garage.. and rides from ma back and forth to work for a week (not ideal).
Enter now my "re-born" monsterwagon!!
To take the temptation of offroading away... I simply made the wagon unable to offroad!
First things first, I needed smaller tires. Bought whats pictured (16" 7-spoke asa wheels with 215-55 brigdestone winters from gabe) and put them on. The next weekend me and my buddy took the lift out and put the car on kyb gr-2's and Tien s-tech lowering springs, both fitted for a LGT. The result is an outback that sits a little over 4" closer to the ground than what it previously did; and about 3" lower than stock. My eyeballs and simple math skills tell me she sits ABOUT what a stock legacy does.
The handling is night and day. Before I lowered it, a ford ranger with no sway bars and 31" all terrains out handled this car.NO JOKE. Now im NOT going to say my car handles like a ferrari, nor am I going to say anything about how it rides like a dream and is as comfy as an aston martin... But seriously. It is a 100% improvement imo. More responsive, quicker turn in, doesn't float all over the road, substantially less feelable body roll... night and day.
the only downsides: STIFF!! and the rear is kinda bouncy. A quick sawzall to the rear bumpstops should aleiviate some of that.
Overall, Im more than happy. Did all the work with a friend, and other than some axle changes.. this was the most in depth project ive dared take on myself.. so needless to say my ego got a lil inflated
Learned a bunch, swore a bunch, took a plethora of safety breaks, and the outcome was a car that has a totally different attitude than it did when It got parked in the garage.
that's gonna be it for now, in a few weeks Ill be putting in a new radiator and hoses. More pics shall be uploaded then!
Like our mothers used to say, IF YOU DONT HAVE ANYTHING GOOD TO SAY, DONT SAY ANYTHING AT ALL! Thanks.
Well start with a little backstory:
Once I realized that you could buy a lift kit for a subaru, my views on what I wanted my car to be changed. Very quickly. I lifted my 05 legacy sedan as fast as I possibly could, and LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT! Car was constantly caked in mud, and squeeled like hell with a rock always hiding between the dust cover and rotor. I certainly had my fun with the car, and then I totalled it
The search was on for another subaru, and I found one... a lifted one!! Booyah! This one would be the red OBXT I bought from Gabe (SUBARUDE) Being naturally higher than a legacy, this wagon was absolutely MONSTEROUS with the 1" lift and 225-60-17 tires it had on it. This car got a bunch of the same treatment as my legacy did.. mud, some trails, field bombing adventures.. so on and so forth. Well I guess I finally came to my senses.. a unibody vehicle with almost a quarter million miles on it does NOT need the stress of being bounced around in the woods and smashing through baby-raisin mudholes (as fun as it is) and treating your daily driver like such is just asking for a trip to the garage.. and rides from ma back and forth to work for a week (not ideal).
Enter now my "re-born" monsterwagon!!
To take the temptation of offroading away... I simply made the wagon unable to offroad!
First things first, I needed smaller tires. Bought whats pictured (16" 7-spoke asa wheels with 215-55 brigdestone winters from gabe) and put them on. The next weekend me and my buddy took the lift out and put the car on kyb gr-2's and Tien s-tech lowering springs, both fitted for a LGT. The result is an outback that sits a little over 4" closer to the ground than what it previously did; and about 3" lower than stock. My eyeballs and simple math skills tell me she sits ABOUT what a stock legacy does.
The handling is night and day. Before I lowered it, a ford ranger with no sway bars and 31" all terrains out handled this car.NO JOKE. Now im NOT going to say my car handles like a ferrari, nor am I going to say anything about how it rides like a dream and is as comfy as an aston martin... But seriously. It is a 100% improvement imo. More responsive, quicker turn in, doesn't float all over the road, substantially less feelable body roll... night and day.
the only downsides: STIFF!! and the rear is kinda bouncy. A quick sawzall to the rear bumpstops should aleiviate some of that.
Overall, Im more than happy. Did all the work with a friend, and other than some axle changes.. this was the most in depth project ive dared take on myself.. so needless to say my ego got a lil inflated
that's gonna be it for now, in a few weeks Ill be putting in a new radiator and hoses. More pics shall be uploaded then!
Like our mothers used to say, IF YOU DONT HAVE ANYTHING GOOD TO SAY, DONT SAY ANYTHING AT ALL! Thanks.
