5 replies to this topic

[scoobydoosubaru]

Currently have a 98 liberty GX, and am thinking about turbocharging it, but i have a few questions

whats the most realiable turbo kit avaliable?
is it a DIY job, or will i need a mechanic?
whats the overall cost roughly?
is there a cheaper/better alternative?

[Morgan]

The cheaper alternative would be to buy one that has already been converted, or buy a factory turbo car. The GC/GF WRX's, early GD/GG WRX's, GT Foresters and even some XT Foresters are sub $10k these days!

 

However, I'm going to answer your questions with more questions...

 

What is your budget?

Do you have much mechanical knowledge yourself?

What are you wanting out of the car? Ie, Dyno king? Track warrior? Street cred? Fast daily?

 

The swap has been done many, many times before ...and on various budgets.

 

If you're starting with nothing apart from your existing shell, you'd probably spend the better part of $10k with mostly DIY work. Add labour to that if you don't want to do it yourself and I imagine you wouldn't get much change from $15k - depending how many issues you run into along the way.

 

There are stacks of threads in the Builds and Projects section which would be well worth checking out!

 

All the best with it all. We're here to help you through it!

[scoobydoosubaru]

i've seen some nice cheap factory turbo wrxs on carsales etc, it does seem a bit easier as i have little to none mechanical knowledge myself, but they have a tonne of kms on the clock and therefore seem unreliable to me

i would be working on a budget of roughly $250-$300 a week, so 15k would take a tonne to save for.

[WillC]

i've seen some nice cheap factory turbo wrxs on carsales etc, it does seem a bit easier as i have little to none mechanical knowledge myself, but they have a tonne of kms on the clock and therefore seem unreliable to me

i would be working on a budget of roughly $250-$300 a week, so 15k would take a tonne to save for.

Hi Mate,

 

Instead of budget, I'd start with what do you want to get. Do alot of research on what Torque, response and Killerwasps means and how it will affect your ride.

 

Then after all that start coming to the various monthly meets. There should be one around your area, we're a friendly enough lot to give you a ride in our car or let you go for a drive and test what the actual power / torque and response means to your guts pulling into the seat. Enough of us have done all kinds of builds with different power specs so just ask someone if you can test.

 

Most importantly take your time. If you're dumping about 300 a week you'd have about 12000 after 10 months of research you'd have a pretty decent build.

 

I'd stay away from Kits most of them aren't really worth it.

[scoobydoosubaru]

thanks guys, probably will just look at getting a wrx MY02 or something similiar, seems easier and still within my price range, appreciatte the replies

[aekOne]

If your paying someone to do it and go for a no frills conversion using a cheaper cut like a legacy gt or early WRX (non-sti) you can probably get it done for around the 8k mark. 

 

as others have mentioned though, you can pick up a bug wrx / Liberty B4 / Forester GT for around the same money or less so unless you have your heart set 100% on converting your can then i'd be considering the later