Myxalplyx

On the 'refreshing' note, do you think a shop that specializes in air suspensions could do a full refresher job? You know, those shops for the low riders and such.

*Bump*........tracking.

Ronald Reagon drove a Brat! Aha....so the Republicans are behind Subaru eh? J/K

Excellent picture! Yeah, it seems it would look just like this Rampage here. Also, I thought there was an XT6 wagon that was built similar to this El Camino like Brat we are talking about. Only thing is that the wagon had a 'back' section on it instead of the back being removed for this project.

What he said! You'll probably get close too or hit 150hp (engine hp) with the above modifications. A custom lightweight pulley (Not underdriven) will help free up some hp to the ground as well. Nevermind turning up the boost. The extra airflow with freeing up the exhaust (and perhaps another turbo) is more than enough to max out your fuel injectors.

One word: SWEET!

:(I know this is totally premature and probably unwarranted but you never know where life will take you and the decisions you will make in the future.. So here it goes.... If when you finish (or not) your project or perhaps you tire of it and is looking for something new, may I have first dibs on this ride? For the record.....this same question is how I acquired my SVX and XT6. I actually was eyeing my SVX for a couple of years.....waiting. I think THIS Rx is something............well...nevermind. Just keep this in mind if/when you decide to sell it. Thank you sir...and happy modding. OH..and that rebuild was 5 years ago. Be careful! Check, check, check and be sure things are COOL! I miss my RX!

Ouch! Sorry to read of your troubles. Poor XT6! :-\

No expert but my advice! 1) Complete tune-up if you don't know if one was already done. 2) Be sure the cooling system is functioning adequately. 3) Put an intercooler on it. It REALLY should have one from reading old posts on inlet temperatures, 4) Get your fuel injectors cleaned. Send them out to RC engineering or someone else. My theory is that many, many people have had blown headgaskets due to fuel injectors #1 and/or #3 going bad over time, causing those cylinders to overheat. Send your injectors out to be cleaned so you'll be 'cool' in this respect, 5) Change out all the rubber hoses you can get your hands on. Vacuum hoses that are hard and brittle or restricted/plugged is a pain to be working with. Change as many of them out as you can so you KNOW that they aren't the problem if one arises, 6) Ground wires......add new ones. Do earth grounding and add your own grown wires if you can. Sand down rusted spots where ground wires are already attached and make sure you have good contact. Now that you've taken care of the electrical, fueling and water cooling.......... 1) Add a free flowing exhaust to the car, 2) Get a custom made undersized pulley, 3) Change out the stock intake filter for a freer flowing one (K&N I have always likes). The stock box could be changed out for a cone filter but around town driving may suck a bit with it being exposed to heat in the engine bay. Important!! You haven't turned up the boost yet. You are still on the stock turbo but should be pushing out more power now........ 4) Get an exhaust gas temperature [EGT] gauge, air/fuel ratio gauge and boost gauge. Monitor these religiously. Shoot for an EGT temperature to what you have with stock boost. That's all I can think of for now. I honestly don't think you can get away with turning up the boost since you may already be running lean with the exhaust/intake modifications. If not, crank up boost in 1psi increments and look at your gauges like your life depended on it. Higher flowing injectors are needed if you plan on turning up from stock and a way to control them. This was the route I was going and everything was great. I already knew I needed new injectors as they were aleady starting to go lean. The turbo was upgraded with a GT17 from a Saab. All was good but the car rusted to death. Even with no cranking up the boost, it was a 35whp gain. Wish I could start on this again. And again, the most important things I can think of that you should look for in all of this is keeping the engine COOL from all your fluids perspective. Keep the EGT close to stock temps and monitor like your life depended on it. Make sure your electrical systems are grounded well. Good luck!

Just reading this for the first time. Sorry to read of your loss but glad you are ok. As you have read many many times already, this sucks. Kinda disturbing actually. I'm going to check outside to make sure my Subbies are ok. I understand your feeling. Just put me in the mental ward afterwards..hehe.

Where is your location?

I will chime in! It is easy to see how this thread started to derail. Can you post any pics of your car? Engine bay pics would be nice. Is anyone here near the poster? Could you perhaps try to give him some face-to-face guidance or get some input from him face-to-face? You never know what you can find from a fresh mind and face that is doing the same things some of us have already done. I still like the EA82T ONLY because I have had positive experience with gaining hp/torque from it. Never got a chance to raise the boost on it but it ran great until the suspension rusted itself to death. Without turning up the boost, power gains were about 35whp if I remember correctly, or damn close. AWD Turbo.....all I can recommend for now is to IMMEDIATELY turn down your boost to stock psi. Invest in some gauges to monitor your exhaust gas temperature and air/fuel ratio (Mainly the temperature). Be sure things are 'cool' and slowly turn up your boost in increments of 1-2psi, while monitoring exhaust gas temperature.

General Disorder, I have to respectfully disagree with you here on a couple of points. Point #1: More rumble does not mean less power (than stock I believe we are talking here). An unequal length Borla header on a Subaru was dyno proven to make more horsepower and torque than stock and at the same time make the 'Boxer rumble' more pronounced or noticable. I have a set on my Outback Sport and love the sound. I have no dyno before and after though. The power that is made on an unequal length header may not be significant but it is not an actual loss. The small gain with the 'boxer' rumble may be the ticket for some people instead of a larger gain without the rumble. Some References: http://www.rs25.com/forums/f5/t24257-headers-borla-vs-techworks-twe.html#post405524 "I have a story for you guys... We have a customer that built an n/a car.(AWDSub) He bought TechWorks cylinder heads: Stage2 SOHC cams, Ti valve spring/retainers, Stage1 port/polish, 5 angle valve job w/ new valves. After the new heads, the car had awesome torque. The seat of the pants feel was great. Matt was satisfied. He went to the drag races and found he had improved by only .2 sec! The car felt strong, but the 1/4 mile time said no improvement. We swapped out the Borla header for a TechWorks header. No other mods. 1/4 mile times went from 15.2 to 14 flat!!! The TechWorks header is equal length. That is the main difference. Keith from TechWorks described the Borla 'Blub' sound as "the sound of slow"!! The VW sound is great for low end, but the flow at the top end is terrible. Ever heard a Porsche make the VW 'blub' noise??? NO!! Bottom line: Borla makes 6.5lb ft of torque@ the wheels(we dyno tested), and 2whp.on an otherwise stock car. The TechWorks header makes top end power(as yet not officially dyno tested on a stock car by RalliTEK Subaru). We found 22whp by changing the header (no re-tuning) on Matt's modded RS. Borla - sounds cool, makes low end torque, hold back power on the top end TechWorks(TWE) - smooth equal length sound, lots of power gain mid/top end." http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=675868&highlight=borla+cobb+dyno "For comparison purposes we dyno tested the latest generation Borla header with the Random Tech cat using their newest high-flowing Metallic Substrate cat. Measured between 2000 RPM to 6000 RPM, sampling every 100 RPM, the COBB header setup produced +9.4 HP on average and +12.7 ft-lbs of torque on average. The Borla/Random combo produced only +5.5HP on average and +6.9 ft-lbs of torque on average. This represents a 71% higher average HP gain and an 84% higher average torque gain with the COBB header compared to the Borla/Random combo. The highest gains recorded with our header were +14.7 HP and +17.5 ft-lbs torque. Nowhere in the power band did we find a reduction in performance. In fact, low-end torque was significantly improved. At 2000 RPM, our header is making +16 ft-lbs of torque compared to stock. FWIW, the Borla/Random combo produces +1.9 ft-lbs at 2000 RPM. In fact, from 2000-4000 RPM, our header showed an average torque increase of +13.5 ft-lbs whereas the Borla/Random combo showed an average torque increase of +6.5 ft-lbs. This represents a 107% higher average torque with our header compared to the Borla/Random combo in the portion of the powerband we use the most."

I love how you guys came together to help the owner of this XT. Awesome! I hate dealing with anything electrical period. You all have inspired me to tackle some electrically related issues with my XT6 and OBS. It all seemed simple how you described it. I have never used an Ohm meter (Voltmeter yes) but now I know how to. Thanks from afar.......U never know how u can influence some people. I am glad this all turned out well for you LoonySalmon. Happy driving!

Go to thread--> http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=35326&highlight=injector+flow

I'm impressed Connie! Good luck! (Goes back into the shadows).

I am by no means a mechanic and I am nowhere near as knowledgable as these guys. I have always been a propoenent of keeping things simple. Have you checked your throttle cable? My theory is that it is not snug/tight and that your throttle body is not opening up enough. Why you say? I have been looking all over the internet for people having similar symptoms as you. Here is one of the links I found that may be helpful... http://www.vw-resource.com/more_power.html " Someone wrote - I am not getting the fourth gear speed after I get on highway. It runs fine starting, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, gear but when I get into 4th gear, it will only run maybe 40 mph. Any advice? Rob responded - To check if the throttle is opening up all the way, get a friend to press the pedal all the way down (or maybe put a brick on it if you don't have a friend available at the moment) and look at the linkage on the carburetor. The throttle arm should be pulled up to the stop. Another easy test - floor it in 3rd and you should get up close to 60mph in that gear. The engine is noisy at that speed but it's revving at less than 5000rpm so perfectly safe. If you are getting only about 30mph then yes - the throttle must be limited or there is some other problem. Are you sure it's firing on all cylinders? Smooth idle? Dave also had some input - Check for any interference that may be causing the accelerator cable to hang up so that it will not open the throttle fully – like between the accelerator pump linkage and the generator – or have you replaced the generator with an alternator? If so, the interference is even more likely. Some judicious grinding on the alternator body may be necessary. Check to make sure the accelerator cable isn’t too loose so that it will not pull the throttle arm down all the way. You can adjust the accelerator cable length with the barrel clamp at the base of the throttle arm. Either too loose or too tight can cause problems." There were other solutions but this seemed relatively simple. Perhaps when you were working on the hood linkage, the throttle cable was 'loosened'. Good luck!

It looks great! Keep up the good work.

Intercool your car by all means. Read this old thread on inlet temperature comparison with and without an intercooler. It changed my life--> http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=15554&highlight=inlet+temp

Really nice numbers on the dyno graph. Congrats on a great ride and build. Yeah....one of my pipe dreams. And old GL-10 wagon that kicks butt. Way to go!

Too bad they are not still available. They worked great, especially coupled with an aftermarket turbo. I figure even used ones are worth their price in gold to the right person who wants them.

U lucky bastid! Nice ride! The body looks solid. I would like a wagon like that. Talk to Sell To me via PM! Murphy (Law) is hovering around your house. U know you Give me the Car will really enjoy that ride.

Trust him! I've only owned one for just over a year now. I haven't even driven it 3k yet and multiple issues reared its head. The car was purchased in great condition. Maybe it's just me. Beware of the tranny and wheel bearings.