A bit more grunt for my forester

[sicmic]

Recently bought an 04 Forester X. I love the car but wouldn't mind a bit more power. Are there any things I can do to make it go a bit better that won't cost the earth? Like a chip retune or whatever?

[elpimpo]

there is little you can do unless you go forced induction. The only thing you can do is bolts ons. Put a large free flowing exhaust, and make up a nice cold air duct to the air box. You won't need to remap the ECU for that.

If you want power without spending, you're wasting your time... (saying that in a nice way)

Second hand Subaru turbos are pretty cheap as well. Dont know how the standard ecu will hold up though.

[sicmic]

Hmm, ok. I sort of suspected this might be the case. Oh well, it goes pretty well now. One day I'll get a WRX or an XT (dreams). Thanks for the advice.

[elpimpo]

yeah. Its always best to do up a car that isn't your daily driver, then once it's finished you can make it your daily driver. If i were you. I'd strongly look into seeing what parts you can source from a forester GT. Buy everything piece by piece and talk to the right people on some subaru forums (i'm sure there are heaps of people that have done turbo conversions on foresters).

Your are at an advantage, as the engine came in turbocharged form, it is MUCH easier to do a conversion as opposed to a car that didn't come in a turbocharged variant.

Things you will need are:
2nd hand IHI or td0_ turbo. (can be sourced from any subaru turbo)
Exhaust manifold to suit turbo (can be sourced from GT)
Intercooler and piping to suit. (can be sourced from GT)
02 housing and down pipe (can be sourced from GT)
Coolant and oil lines (can be sourced from GT)
New intake tract (sourced from GT)

I wouldn't boost higher than the standard wastegate setting allows. (dont know what PSI they are rated at. If it's higher, change to a lower PSI wastegate). This is because your compression is a bit higher because it is NA. I'm sure you can run with 7 PSI without knock, provided you use 98+ octane, have a decent intercooler and have a cold air duct going to to an airbox/pod. Keep underbonnet temps low.

If you can do most the work yourself, you can get all this one for a BARGAIN!!

[ImpulseWRX]

I still have quite a lot of stuff sitting in my garage that I need gone

twin turbo exhaust manifold
WRX single turbo exhaust manifold
WRX dump pipe
WRX TD04L
WRX Intercooler & bracket
WRX KYB damper controlled suspension that would work wonders iin GT
WRX Aur conditioning system
MY98 WRX Throttle Body
MY04 WRX Throttle Body
380 CC Side Feed Injectors
330mm Brembo Front Brakes off Ferrari 550
3 Bar positive map Microtech ECU with EJ20/25 map
WRX Fuel Pump
STi stock springs
800cc Hi Flowed WRX Blue top feed injectors

Heck there is more but I forget, I should ebay it all when I get back to Melbourne