First Car, First Tuner, First Suby

[Eliminator]

I just passed my driving test last week and now own 50% of a 2000 Subaru Legacy GL Wagon 2L, 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.

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.

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?

 

[old-git]

Hi and welcome

Just a short list of questions to start off with, eh?

Acceleration. Yes more power will increase performance. However, this increase has to be in the order of 10% before you actually notice it. Below that and you compensate by unconsiously pushing the loud pedal a little harder

Intake mods add noise but no usable power unless other mods are done in tandem.

A properly designed exhaust, from manifold to rear box will allow the engine
to reach its exsisting potential (replacing a restrictive intake will help here). This wouldn't be cheap and you still won't gain much, despite what the sellers of intake and exhaust systems tell you.

As you are short of cash you would see more gains for less money with a simple remap. The rule of thumb for remaps is up to 10% gain for N/A engines, 25% for turbo lumps and 40% for turbo diesels without any other changes.

Handling. Strut braces don't do any damage and may help depending on the stiffness of the standard chassis.

If the brakes are good, simply change the fluid and pads.

Diffs. Don't know what is fitted to these cars. If it is an LSD, then leave it unless you want to change the ratio to increase low speed acceleration or top speed cruising.

If it isn't fitted with an LSD do some research to see if an LSD from a different model will fit. Fitting a bespoke LSD from someone like Quaife will cost £500-1000 for parts.

Engine tuning. Now you are getting into the expensive side of increasing performance. Any modifications to the internal components of an engine that are worthwhile will be expensive but it is the only way to increase power over and above a remap.

Again, I don't know these engines, but changing from a SOHC head to a DOHC head won't be easy, IMO. Probably simpler, and cheaper, to fit a DOHC engine complete.

I know nothing about EU and EUL exhausts, someone else will have to answer that question.

No point in changing pistons unless they are unable to cope with the power increase proposed (unlikely) or you are looking to alter the compression ratio or increase the engine capacity.

With regard to intake mods, you will not notice a 1-2% increase so these mods, on their own, are a waste of money, IMO.

With regard to ECU tuners, I only know about Celtic Tunnig, as my son is a local agent for them in Essex. They do a good job as they modify your existing map rather than simply supplying a generic map for your model.

Best bang per buck? No contest, remap. However, some Japanese cars have their ECUs locked so they can't be remapped insitu.