Decap

Easiest thing to do would be to use a short piece of vac hose with a plug on the side of the T-connector in the engine bay that normally has your boost gauge vac hose. This would be easier than working under the dash for testing.

I've basically got a horrible hack job on the exhaust system for my Legacy GT Wagon (BP 2003) that I bought last year and I'm finally at the point where I'm going to replace it from turbo to tip - most likely with a full 3" custom setup because I can't find any decent turbo to tip systems that don't cost stupid amounts of money and I can't find any full 3" systems. While I'm at it, I've decided I miss my top end boost and my WRX rumble. For some reason even though my TD04 is the 19T variant, it won't hold more than 12PSI boost at top end and I've seen a pretty sweet deal on a set of V7 STi headers + up pipe + VF30 turbo to go with that. Firstly, will the headers bolt straight onto the EJ20X/EJ20Y engine? Secondly, will the turbo be clear of other parts in the engine bay? Lastly, aside from already having an AVO TMIC, is there anything else that I need to think of for this conversion?

Get it out of limp mode by resetting the ECU. I've got a Tactrix cable and a laptop personally and I use that with Romraider Logger to reset my ECU. FreeSSM with most cheap ODB2 cables should work too. Other than this you may be able to do it by disconnecting your battery, but not 100% sure on this. There should also be a manual reset you can google. I also recently spent $200 tracking down a boost leak I COULDN'T find after stripping the whole intake up the intake manifold out! In the end I gave up and took it to Pitstop for a smoke test and they found the leak under the dash. Still kicking myself for not trying to cut the Boost Gauge out of the loop!!! It never occurred to me that a tiny little hose split could leak so much boost! I was only boosting 4PSI and the car stalled in the middle of the f'n motorway! After this was all fixed up I'm back to 15psi.

I put a $60 2.5" resonator from Redline in place of the flat muffler (which does nothing as it's just a straight pipe with nothing in it if you look inside it - I'll put a pic up at some point) after taking the downpipe cat out of my Legacy GT and bashing the core out of the second muffler after the downpipe and it sounds only just a bit louder than stock without any tinniness. I do like the idea of putting a straight pipe inside each cat though... need to check if Pitstop actually did that on mine. Can't remember

The intercooler on my 2003 Legacy GT BP looks a little on the too small side and those plastic header tanks worry me. I'm getting a turbo beanie and will be heat wrapping my downpipe, but I still feel like this intercooler's not going to help me get the most out of the TD04HLA 19T that's on the car as I want to run 18PSI to redline with better timing. Thanks to Suby changing the intake system on the Legacy GT versus the WRX, it's not as straightforward as putting a top mount STi intercooler in without changing the the intake manifold as well and who knows what else I'll need to change on top of that This has lead me to looking for aftermarket solutions and these are VERY expensive and most of them won't fit as they're designed to work with the USDM 2.5GT which has a different intercooler design to the JDM 2.0GT I've looked on Trademe and at various websites in NZ and I can't find anything at all. Does anyone know where I can find one locally or does anyone have any other ideas on how I can solve this problem?

1. Upgrade the headers 2. Knock out all the cats in the system --> This one is a bit tricky because of the new laws around catalytic converters, which states that any car registered in NZ after 2010 that was manufactured after 1990 has to have a catalytic converter in the system. If you legacy was NZ new in 2006 then you can take all the cats out and still get a WOF. If it was imported after 2010, then you'll have to do the less legal thing of finding someone to knock the guts out of all of your catalytic converters and leaving the empty cats in place so that it still looks like you've got them in the system to get your WOF. Best to cut them open, remove all the filling, then weld them shut again as opposed to knocking the guts out with a metal pole. If you're not keen on doing this, then 1 high flow cat will suffice ($150 from Redline) I found an image of the stock exhaust system that shows where all of the cats are below. 3. Remove the mid system muffler (labelled number 24 in the image) and replace it with a resonator (you can get a 2.5" one from Redline for $60) as this muffler does NOTHING and removing the cats will increase the exhaust noise a little and putting this resonator in will deaden the sound again. If you prefer to use a high flow cat, use this instead of the resonator. 4. Leave the stock mufflers in place. They do restrict flow a little bit, but not much and they kill a hell of a lot of noise. Pic below Headers + all other work should cost you less than $1,500 to do. Then you can get onto the Romraider forums and research tuning unless you want to shell out another $1,000+ to have it dyno tuned or find someone to reflash your ECU for less This should help with another 20 - 30kw and make the car feel a fair bit more torquey (I had a tuned 30R with exhaust done at one stage and my wife had an untuned one and the difference was quite noticeable).

Check for vacuum leaks. I installed an SSQV BPV the other day and forgot to reattach one of the vacuum hoses and the car was doing exactly what you've described to me. http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/intake-vacuum-leaks-and-you-pics-inside-235626.html This will definitely be an easier first place to check before looking at the AVCS solenoids

Will a single muffler system from cat back for a BH Legacy fit a BP Legacy assuming I can get a single turbo down pipe to bolt on to the rest of the system?