Jump to content

New Subaru Owner - Looking for Help


Henry M
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hello all, 

In a couple of weeks I will be picking up an imported 2001 Legacy B4 Twin turbo with a stick shift. The car is in very good nick but I will of course be after immediately servicing the usual items, air & oil filters, motor oil, spark plugs, brake pads and a coolant flush as the reservoir tank looks a tad manky. Any advice you could offer on the purchasing of these parts would be greatly appreciated. 

Also I understand being a JDM car the engine is tuned for 100 Ron fuel, am I alright filling up with 99 Ron? The car will not be hammered. 

Cheers!

Henry...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi n welcome,  most of us use import car parts and Opie Oils for genuine subaru bits and fluids . As far as the header tank is concerned , icp will probably have them new and I'm unsure if they're the same as any impreza ones. maybe one of the leggy owners can confirm if they are , as it might make it easy to find a second hand replacement. 

Far as fuel is concerned,  as long as it doesn't have any "breathing mods" it will be fine if you just use 99 ron .

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Blueprint do all basic service items and pads for a b4, so that could be had online or local factors ...

ICP is good too but be careful on non oem with them as they stock some junkier stuff these days in bid compete on pricing .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many thanks Savage Bulldogs and Mr B. There is a local small Subaru parts shop not far from me, worth giving that a go as well or are Legacy parts harder to come by? I'll certainly look into Blueprint and ICP. The header tank itself does not look damaged, I only took the cap off and shone a flashlight in and saw some manky bits floating around. It may in fact be the original stuff in there. 

The car is stock to my eye, aside from some aftermarket wheels and a couple of gauges. So I should be fine filling up with 99. Thanks for that, I don't even know where to get 100 Ron around here. 

Is the right oil a specific brand of 5w-30 or? I believe the engine structurally is the same EJ20 in the same gen Impreza WRX/STI, but it does have the 2 stage twin turbo system. Not sure if that changes the answer. 

Cheers, 

Henry... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oil grade is an interesting thing here.

My son had a highly tuned RA Imp running stupid hp, the engine was built and fitted by a chap who rallied Subarus, he recommended Millers 10w60 full synthetic as the best oil for these hot running engines, and to be fair that engine never gave a moments trouble despite being driven as hard as any vehicle i've seen.

For what its worth i'm really not sure about 5W30 in these cars, we are running 5w40 in the Foz XT, but that's only my humble opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Juddian. I only assumed 5w-30 really, in truth its an area I'm not well versed in, hence the question. I will have a look at Millers oil in that case, especially if it comes from a credible source like that. I've already seen their oils on the ICP website. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oil grades do tend to be a can of worms , so many different grades available now.

People do tend to agree that millers is a good quality brand ,though .

As a general rule of thumb...

Think most tend to use 5w 30 standard and 10w 40 modded (or high mileage) in bug (2001) onwards imprezas .

10w 40 in earlier standard,10w 50 for high mileage (or piston slap) and 10w 60 for forged or track use .

If you've got any history with it see if it lists the oil grade used ,as engines will wear in to the clearance made by the oil and you'd probably be best sticking to the grade its used to (if possible).

 

As for the header tank ,does yours have bolts on the top or is it plastic ? If its The one with bolts, you can remove the top ,clean out and reseal . If not maybe a aftermarket one would be cheaper .  

If it's just the crud inside your worried about, try a coolant flush before dropping the coolant . Just search on here for the refill process,  as the can get airlocks fairly easily. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, savage bulldogs said:

Oil grades do tend to be a can of worms , so many different grades available now.

People do tend to agree that millers is a good quality brand ,though .

As a general rule of thumb...

Think most tend to use 5w 30 standard and 10w 40 modded (or high mileage) in bug (2001) onwards imprezas .

10w 40 in earlier standard,10w 50 for high mileage (or piston slap) and 10w 60 for forged or track use .

If you've got any history with it see if it lists the oil grade used ,as engines will wear in to the clearance made by the oil and you'd probably be best sticking to the grade its used to (if possible).

 

As for the header tank ,does yours have bolts on the top or is it plastic ? If its The one with bolts, you can remove the top ,clean out and reseal . If not maybe a aftermarket one would be cheaper .  

If it's just the crud inside your worried about, try a coolant flush before dropping the coolant . Just search on here for the refill process,  as the can get airlocks fairly easily. 

The car is on 65k miles, roughly converted from km, so not too high mileage. I'd be confident buying the Millers 10w60 oil earlier mentioned if not for it sounding like a pretty competition focused oil and my car will most likely not see a track in the rest of its life haha. The previous owners history has conveniently been lost in transit unfortunately, so I will have to put an oil in and feel the car in. Can't remember the header tank design off the top of my head, but believe its plastic. I intend to do a flush first and foremost, I know a handy garage that builds some pretty heavy duty drag cars, shouldn't be a problem for them. I could do it myself but being completely uneducated with Subaru's in this instance I will leave it to someone more qualified. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/19/2018 at 4:56 PM, Henry M said:

Bought some Millers 5w40 oil from a subie specialist who said its good for general use. 

Good choice, that what we use most followed by 10w40 ..

Millers is good and British :-)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/18/2018 at 3:35 PM, savage bulldogs said:

Hi n welcome,  most of us use import car parts and opie oils for genuine subaru bits and fluids . As far as the header tank is concerned , icp will probably have them new and I'm unsure if they're the same as any impreza ones. maybe one of the leggy owners can confirm if they are , as it might make it easy to find a second hand replacement. 

Far as fuel is concerned,  as long as it doesn't have any "breathing mods" it will be fine if you just use 99 ron .

 

Does an aftermarket air filter class as a breathing mod? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wouldn't worry too much if it's just a aftermarket panel filter in the standard air box?

but if its a induction kit or cone filter they tend to be less restrictive and can suck in heat soaked hot air from under the bonnet (if it's not got a cold feed or heat shield)

Once you've done your service you could always get a dyno health check (about £50) at a local 4wd dyno . They will check ,air fuel ratio ,knock , give you a power printout and piece of mind it's running safe 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, savage bulldogs said:

I wouldn't worry too much if it's just a aftermarket panel filter in the standard air box?

but if its a induction kit or cone filter they tend to be less restrictive and can suck in heat soaked hot air from under the bonnet (if it's not got a cold feed or heat shield)

Once you've done your service you could always get a dyno health check (about £50) at a local 4wd dyno . They will check ,air fuel ratio ,knock , give you a power printout and piece of mind it's running safe 😉

No, standard air box as far as I can tell. The filter is just a Cosworth filter I bought off ICP when I got the other items. I will get it dyno'd though afterwards, good idea. There's one quite close to my chosen garage who tuned a certain 800HP 4WD Polo drag car so I bet its also a 4WD rolling road! Haha.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/28/2018 at 4:07 PM, Mr B said:

Lot of these are HID from japan .

Left and Right is fused separate so for fuses it need 2 gone .

HID can be PITA, bulbs and ballasts play up and bad wiring either from tampering or corrosion in terminals/earths .

My research came up the same. Going to try and replace the bulbs, if that fails look at the fuses. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, Henry M said:

Yes, EJ20. Why? 

no I meant H4 bulb type 😋, but you will be able to tell very quickly by looking at connector at back of light - If I remember rightly H4 bulbs have a horizontal connection so pull straight off towards engine but the HID's have a 90º facing down

But the additional ballast gubbins is also a big give away

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/30/2018 at 1:48 PM, Jay762 said:

no I meant H4 bulb type 😋, but you will be able to tell very quickly by looking at connector at back of light - If I remember rightly H4 bulbs have a horizontal connection so pull straight off towards engine but the HID's have a 90º facing down

But the additional ballast gubbins is also a big give away

My mistake! Thank you for the tip!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share




×
×
  • Create New...




Forums


News


Membership