44 replies to this topic

[RBrennan25]

G'day all, I'm new to the Subaru world but I'm loving it so far and I thought I'd chuck a build thread up as I plan on doing a few nice things to this car as well as a bit of track time.

 

So to start, I'm a Nissan man through and through. But my partner and I had our daughter on the 31st of March this year and a 320rwkw skyline isn't exactly family friendly so it had to go. I've always liked Subaru's but mainly liberty's (especially the Tuned by STi ones *drool*) but the missus wanted a Forester so here we are. So far I absolutely love it, so quick in traffic to and from work, and can do all the baby stuff.

 

So I have a few updates coming starting tomorrow, so I thought I'd get this up early and update as I go.

 

I will post lots of photos and track results as I go so if you like that sort of thing, check in often. Also please feel free to leave comments and advice cos I literally only know about skylines, so all of the assumed knowledge that you all have about Foresters and Subaru's in general, I don't have so almost anything you say will help me. I will be at lots of cruises and events as well, so I would love to pick peoples brains about their cars.

 

Anyway here are a couple of pics of the skyline, and the Foz on day one

 

Cheers

Brennan

 

 

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[bigboyscottyb]

Welcome to the dark side! Nice looking car, they don't need much to be thoroughly enjoyable

[Morgan]

Welcome to Subyclub. This could get awkward... My wife and I had a daughter on March 14 and she also drives a red XT (my wife, not the baby)

We've had ours for four years though and still absolutely love it!

[RBrennan25]

Welcome to the dark side! Nice looking car, they don't need much to be thoroughly enjoyable

Haha thanks mate! I'm hoping you're right, it feels really nice standard so hopefully a few well executed additions make it even better!

Welcome to Subyclub. This could get awkward... My wife and I had a daughter on March 14 and she also drives a red XT (my wife, not the baby)

We've had ours for four years though and still absolutely love it!

Haha glad to know its not just me! I can see why you love it, I know I definitely do. Gunna be very hard to hand this over to the missus next year if I'm honest haha

[Barbbachello]

320rwkw skyline isn't exactly family friendly 

Just get the baby a HANS device to avoid neck snapping and it would have been fine hahaha. Wouldnt mind seeing some more pics or any vids you have of said skyline too, I do love the sound of an RB

Also welcome to subyclub 

[RBrennan25]

Just get the baby a HANS device to avoid neck snapping and it would have been fine hahaha. Wouldnt mind seeing some more pics or any vids you have of said skyline too, I do love the sound of an RB

Also welcome to subyclub 

Haha don't think I didn't consider it!! I will post a short clip of the car at one of the hairpins on Maquarie pass. The spool sound off the cliff face alone does it for me haha

[RBrennan25]

Now for my first Forester update, my new wheels got delivered this morning so I went and got some tyres sorted to get them on. Not great quality photos from an iPhone but the wheels have been on a million subarus anyway, not breaking new ground just like the look. Went with 18x8 wheels with 235 45 tyres so the speedo is spot on. Another update tomorrow and one or two next week

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[RBrennan25]

So time for the big update, got the car back from Pulse Racing this afternoon after a full 3 inch turbo back exhaust install and a retune. Wow, massive difference. The car got put on the dyno first thing and made only 92.6kw, so much for me thinking it was quick haha. We think it was so terrible because we dropped the ATF and it was putrid, could have been sapping a fair bit of power. Did a full service of all the fluids and then retuned and made a tidy 143.3kw, but more importantly it feels incredibly fast and responsive down low. The guys were right when they said it will feel like a totally different car! I've only driven it from the shop to work where I am now (working hard obviously) but it was so impressive.

I did have plans to do a few more things in the coming weeks, but we found out on Sunday night that my missus' debit card had been skimmed and she's lost her money, so funds are a little tight until that gets sorted unfortunately. But anyway here's a dyno graph to illustrate just how much better it is now

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[mr-smithers]

Nice one man! Great results!

[comport3]

Great to hear mate!! My XT is at Pulse this week for something similar - hoping my results are like yours. What's the seat of the pants difference in driving it around?


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[RBrennan25]

Great to hear mate!! My XT is at Pulse this week for something similar - hoping my results are like yours. What's the seat of the pants difference in driving it around?

There is a MASSIVE difference in the way it drives now. Obviously mine was well down on power to begin with but now, especially low in the rev range, it feels really fast. Normal driving just to and from work or whatever it feels a little quicker, but as soon as you put your foot down, even a little, it just takes off. Also being auto when you put in sport shift it shifts much faster than I ever expected haha. Going to have trouble handing this over to the missus next year haha

[RBrennan25]

Ok so a small update this time, had another package come in. I feel like a kid at christmas, man I've missed the excited feeling of modding a completely standard car haha. anywho heres what rocked up   Forester.JPG   114.64KB   11 downloads

 

Somehow I only got 2 out of the 4 I ordered and no one could explain why, but long story short they're expected to arrive next week. Normally would be no big deal but I wanted to get these in by next week as my missus and my daughter and I are all heading up to Bathurst next weekend and I wanted them in before we left. May still happen but I will be cutting it close. But anyway these plus some lower springs should fix the bum sagging issue that has started to rear its ugly head, and a little bit of low never went astray haha.

 

Will post pictures when they're all in, and probably a photo or 2 when I get to my dad's place in Bathurst, but seeing as it will be a pretty busy weekend with the race and the drinking and all I may forget haha.

 

I have 2 small things left to do this year and then it will be ready to see some track time. Missed out on SAU's texi day as I have a bucks day the same day, which is a real shame. So its looking like the track debut for the car will probably be Wakefield early next year or SMSP when it starts to cool down a bit.

[R-Y]

Where did you get the KYB's and how much? Are they forester specific ones?

I need to replace my rears as they are shagged too.

I'm heading to Bathurst as well. I always stay in the Max Cameron camp ground. Do you stay on the mountain as well?

[RBrennan25]

I got them from car mods australia but I bought them through their ebay store because eBay had a 15% off all sales special so I thought I'd save some cash I think it was around $500 for a full set of 4 and yeah they are forester specific. I got the part numbers off ozfoz if you need to find them.

I stay at my dads place in Bathurst he has a farm about 10 minutes from town so his missus drives us in each day so we can get on the cans haha

[R-Y]

Nice. Wish I had family that lived there. Hope you have a good one anyway.

[RBrennan25]

Ok so my original plan was to buy some pedders springs and get them to install the lot before heading up to Bathurst. Well I just got quoted $870 for 4 springs plus install. So that won't be happening because that's ridiculous. If I can find someone with a rattle gun I might get my brother to help me have a crack at it but if not ill just get pulse to do it next month when I go back for a new pink slip anyway.

Out of interest has anyone had a crack at installing suspension on an SG? Easy or hard? I used to work on my skyline a lot so I'm not too bad on the tools I just know less than nothing about subarus haha

[Morgan]

Had the suspension out of mine about 8 times.

 

Easy.

[SAV84C]

Pretty simple and straight forward just make sure you undo the brake hose clamps on struts and be careful when doing the fronts, the hubs/brakes tend to pop the cv joints out because the weight of them... Dont let them fall outwards pulling on the driveshaft.

 

Also download this to help if you dont already have one

 

GenMarket Forester FSM 2007 HTML.zip
 

[RBrennan25]

Thanks heaps for the service manual mate! That was awesome. I had a crack at the suspension today, and well, it has not gone well unfortunately. I bought a rattle gun because I thought it would make everything easier, and got the wheel and brake line off ok, but went to undo the bottom bolts on the strut and it just wouldn't go. Used a shitload of WD40 and still no good. So I assumed the rattle gun was rubbish and broke out the hand tools instead. Attached a home made breaker bar onto the socket and gave it hell and finally I felt it start to loosen. Gave it just a little more and thought I cracked it and looked down to see I'd actually snapped straight through the extension bar attached to the socket.

So now I've gotta wait a week for a mate to come back from Fiji and he's offered up his workshop and tools for the day and we'll get it done. Such a shame, I was really looking forward to a day on the tools

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[nickknack]

My rattle gun didn't undo the bottom bolts either at first, but I kept it and it got there eventually. How much torque does it have?