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Kermy: clsmooth's '06 Green/Silver L.L. Bean

('06-'08) 
4K views 28 replies 5 participants last post by  Metalmania82 
#1 · (Edited)



(How he looked before I bought him...)

UPDATED MOD LIST:

Outside
Frog license plate frames
JDM logo/green galaxy front/rear emblem overlays
OEM hood deflector
Autolumination white LED front parking lights
Paint-matched front/rear washer nozzles
Green anodized valve caps
Green logo centre caps
Green calipers
OEM wheel locks
Paint-matched driver's door lock cylinder
Silver pin stripping
OEM roof rack
Autolumination green LED license plate lights
Blacked-out rear diff cover
OEM rear bumper cover
Curt 1.25" trailer hitch w/ green OEM embossed cap/cover
Blacked-out muffler
Chrome exhaust tip

Inside
DIY green intake pipe w/ cone filter
NGK spark plugs & wires
6 AWG engine grounds
K&N valve cover vents
Vibrant secondary O2 spacer
OEM magnetic oil drain plug
Castrol GTX
Engine undertray & front 'mudflap' delete
Engine bay/hood rear seal delete
Green engine bits
Camo silicone keyless remote case
OEM carpet & rubber floor mats
Passive arming disabled
Auto A/C defrost delete
JDM logo/green galaxy steering wheel emblem overlay
Green pin-stripped steering wheel channel
Clarion NX602 head unit w/ video-handbrake bypass
Autolumination green LED dome lights
Redline drivetrain fluids
OEM cargo cover
OEM trunk liner

 
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#2 · (Edited)
Although I'm new to the forum, I'm not new to Subaru's. I've had an Impreza for the past 11 years now, but she's getting louder, stiffer and turning too much into a project car.

I've been shopping around for a good deal for a daily driver/road trip car and came across this guy!

My g/f just bought a new car from a dealership and I mentioned in passing to the salesman that I'm looking for a 2nd car. Few weeks later this came in on a trade:

2006 Green/Silver L.L. Bean Edition, 5-speed, 149 500 kms. No service history but only 1 previous owner. As it was at a dealership, a full point inspection and check was done and all it needed was a pair of front rotors. Took ownership last Saturday, went to the parts store and rotors were changed that night. While I was at it, painted all the calipers green! Never had a green car before, so It's a nice change working with a different and funky colour.

Sunday I did a full detail on the inside. The previous owners had a kid, so the rear, passenger-side of the bench seat & area needed the most scrubbing. Managed to get the sitting-for-a-while smell out too.

Here's a link to my Impreza that I'll be taking off the road. I may take her for a spin the odd weekend, but the long term plan is an eventual resto-mod:

http://www.rs25.com/forums/f145/t60844-vicky-clsmooths-00-brp-rs-coupe.html
 
#5 ·
Some parts came in at the dealership today.

Replace the turn signal in my driver's mirror. It was orange on the inside when I bought it; looks like the LED's all popped on the inside. Parts guy said he never saw that before. It was a tight squeeze getting in there but managed not to break anything.



It's also official a Bean! In the records I was given the previous owners got rear-ended while they had their bike rack on. Nothing structural, but new hatch & glass, tail lights and bumper. The previous owners or the body shop either forgot to order, or didn't want to wait, for a new L.L. Bean badge...

 
#8 ·
Some more green came in today...


Changing these ones were more of a pain in the *** then they really should've been...

Not exactly kosher around these parts, but you gotta have something anti-establishment about yourself :rock: and this is my outlet. Did the same on my Impreza with blue ones...

Also installed my green, JDM Forester logo/galaxy background emblem overlays for front, back and steering wheel...





 
#9 ·
A bloody thumb and 3 hours later, the longest stereo installation I've ever tackled is done. It was not easy in this Forester...

But, he now has navigation, hands-free calling, iPhone connection and video playback by way of a Clarion NX602!



I went with this head unit, despite being a bit older now, as it's the same one that I have in my Impreza. I bought it new for that car, it does everything I need it to do and I'm already completely familiar with it; I don't have to learn another deck. I managed to find one of the last few new ones still left. I think I got the colour matched pretty well...



What added to the time and difficulty is that I also pre-wired it for a back up camera and subwoofer down the road. He's now starting to feel a lot more like 'my car'...
 
#13 ·
Touched up the centre caps by painting the logo within them green...



And one thing I noticed shortly after I brought him home the first time, was that only the driver's door had a lock cylinder in it for the key. I understand why it needs to be there, but don't understand Subaru's decision regarding its placement. Seems out of place to me and is kind of a target to other saying 'It's over here'. Should've been integrated into the door handle. I had a light-bulb moment walking around the car and decided to colour-match it with the touch up paint I picked up! Looks a little less obvious to me...



My g/f also surprised me with a good luck charm as well to hang from the mirror :p

 
#17 · (Edited)
Did my own tune-up today as I'm not sure when anything was done last.

- Castrol GTX with OEM filter
- NGK spark plugs & wires
- OEM rad cap, PCV and magnetic drain plug (these were cheapest straight from the dealership :icon_confused: )
- 6 awg cable for engine grounds



It was a good thing I did this cause I'm quite confident the plugs and wires were original and had never been changed when I went to remove them. I drained the oil while I did everything else before I filled it back up, which was good cause when I went to empty the drain pan the oil was kinda sludgy, so no idea how long it wasn't changed for, at least a year. Had to get the airbox out of the way to change the right side plugs, and the air filter's OK; which is good as I eventually want to find a used short ram intake or build my own.

Before I started on anything though, I painted the belt covers so they'd be dry by the time I'm done. Green, of course. Though only one shade of green to choose from off the shelf for engine paint...


I also went out of my way to paint some stuff silver under the hood that needed to be silver, like the vacuum, 'balancer'? Looks more integrated with the intake manifold now. I also went out of my way to paint some stuff black that needed to be black, like the annoyingly white PCV, 'sensor'? that goes to the intake. I think the subtlety of doing these really cleans up the look.

I also did an 'upgrade' that my Impreza really liked which was bigger engine ground cables. Found 6 gauge ones at Walmart :tongue: . They're cheap, Michael Schumacher's brand (made quite well actually) and already has the connectors pre-crimped on them. Replaced the spindly OEM ones at the factory locations.

The end result...


I'm looking forward to getting some gas mileage back now...
 
#18 ·
Yesterday as part of the tune up, I also changed the transmission and diff fluids. They were 'OK' when first looked at but still wanted to the change anyway cause I don't know if/when they were last done. I went with Redline MTL and 75W90. I happened to find the 'special' version of the diff fluid made specifically for Subaru! A bit overkill for a daily driver/this setup, but I've put this in my 2 previous cars to this one and love the stuff! Shifting has gotten noticeably a bit smoother...

 
#20 ·
Painted a few more engine bits green...





It's a good thing I did some of these cause it turns out the battery was loose this entire time! I'm starting to think the "inspection" that was done at the dealer wasn't the most thorough...
 
#21 ·
I did something to my Forester that my Impreza really liked: vented the valve covers.

It significantly reduced oil consumption in Vicky and I'm hoping for the same for Kermy. Before on my Impreza, about 3L of oil would come out, before putting 4L back in, between oil changed. Venting the engine block cut this down to about a 200ml loss between oil changes.

I used a pair of K&N p/n RU-3230, they're a perfect fit on the outlets and clear everything (and capped the outlets on the airbox).







I've only done one oil change so far about a month ago now, but I noticed I'm a few mm's below the full on the dip stick. Looking forward to virtually no loss. I've only fired up the engine and ran it but I immediately noticed a smoother idle already...
 
#22 ·
Found the US p/n for the OEM embossed trailer hitch cover/cap and my local dealer was able to bring it in. What's makes this a bit significant in my case is that I found this part's otherwise not available in Canada. Added my touch to it of course...

 
#23 ·
I noticed on this past road trip that it looked like some of the paint had peeled off the muffler (or it was dirty). Found a leftover can of black car paint from my g/f's previous car and blacked-out the underside of the rear end.



No more rusty looking exhaust pipe, flaking muffler and marked up rear diff. Covered up all those markings from the assembly line on stuff too. Gives the effect that the exhaust tip's 'floating'...
 
#24 · (Edited)
So I've been slowly putting together this little DIY intake project since I bought Kermy; casually ordering and collecting parts one at a time to make sure they all fit together. These photos were taken over a period of 2-ish months.

Kermy's a daily driver, but I still wanted an intake partially cause I just wanted to, partial to try and get a few more mpg's (theoretically), and mostly just for fun :p I also love to casually tinker, I find it very relaxing. Also wanted a re-usable air filter too (but more so then just a drop-in panel filter). BUT, I also didn't want to go broke doing so. I didn't feel like spending $200 - $300 on, again, just a daily driver, for what's essentially a curved pipe with a filter on it.

I wanted to do one myself as after looking into an aftermarket intake, the cheapest I could find was from Cosmo Racing. Even though they're in Montreal and were quite helpful, they're asking $125 for an intake, and in USD? At the time I looked into it it would've worked out to $200 CAD out of my pocket; no thanks

I started looking to the raw ingredients to put one together, and the priciest one of all was the pipe itself. Even though this was a DIY setup, I didn't want to go down the route of PVC or plastic plumbing piping, I still wanted one out of metal. The raw piping with the right curves and bends were also at a price-point where I'd end up breaking even buying an aftermarket intake as well, so I set out to find a used intake pipe. I figured there had to be someone whose done an STI swap or something and doesn't need they're old intake pipe anymore. I was willing to take one intended for pretty much any Subaru too, as looking online, they're all roughly bent/shaped the same way and figure I'd make it work. I also didn't need to be concerned about where the vacuum outlets were located as my valve covers are vented anyway I just needed that one 'centre' outlet for the PCV in roughly the same spot.

Special thanks to @Metalmania82 for the hookup on a "used" intake intended for a 00-04 Impreza for $20! And I mean "used" as it showed up in mint shape!


Comparing it to the one Cosmo Racing has for my Forester, it looked like I could make it work.


After holding the intake pipe up in the engine bay, it looked like I would've had to trim that last curve in this pipe's case. Had I left it on, it would've only just barely cleared the, proportioning valve? its lines and the front face of the strut tower in general, leaving maybe 5mm of clearance and no room for a filter. I cut the pipe just as it started to bend. I'd rather cut off more later if I needed to then cut off too much off the bat. Again, I didn't need that vacuum outlet underneath at this end




I then scuffed it up...


And gave it the green touch!


So, next part down the line was a coupling from the green pipe to the MAF pipe. Found this one online for cheap, and some brand I never heard of. A bit of a gamble, but figured it's just a piece of hose that's gonna sit in an intake, so I gauged the risk as low. Only $6 and took nearly the entire 2 months of the project to arrive, but, it's also green...


Next in line was the MAF-pipe-to-filter-bracket/adapter. $10 and gave it my personal touch as well...


And then a green cone filter to top things off. $18 from Speed Daddy (from my experience they don't really sell junk) and Softie approved.


Everything came in for a total of $54 shipped! A much more DIY price range! And tonight I tackled the project of removing the stock piping and installing the setup.

Took out the stock MAF pipe and gave it and the sensor 'the touch' as well. Mounted the air-filter-MAF-adapter re-using the OEM bolts and brackets out of the airbox. I decided to re-use the OEM MAF pipe as I found the cheapest aftermarket one to still be $40 and didn't think it was worth it when I already had something. I, ironically, later found out that an aftermarket pipe/tube at this section causes voltage and therefore rich fueling issue between 1000 and 1800 rpm as they're usually not the OEM diameter, which is also hard to find in OEM diameter apparently.


This is the one part where cheapness caused of a bit of problem with this project. Despite being advertised to fit all Subarus and Mitsubishi's, the bolt holes didn't quite line up. Well, they did, but it would've staggered this bracket off-centre to where air would've ended up hitting wall. I had to drill my own holes in the bracket so that the centre hole lined up with the MAF pipe's tube. I could've gone with Vibrant's $33 bracket that was also "guaranteed" to fit? Or drill holes.


I placed everything in the engine bay and started tightening up the hose clamps, and everything landed where it should have without any extra cutting of anything. The coupler gave me a bit of adjustibility as there's space between the pipe and MAF tube. Being that the stock MAF tube's also 'angled', rotating it gave me some adjustibility there too.

Oiled up the filter and the final setup is complete!


The only "quirks" I had encountered was the hose coming from the PCV was much larger then the outlet on the pipe, but managed to cinch it tight with the right size hose clamp. This outlet also sits a bit more vertically higher then the stock airbox, but the PCV hose is hardly out of place at all.

The pipe itself runs vertically lower overall compared to where the stock pipe had run (going under and clearing the, proportioning valve?), allowing me to anchor the pipe to the power steering and A/C line area, above the rear injector. The angled OEM MAF tube also allowed me to arrange the filter itself lower, tucking it away nicely.

Engine bay's now complete. I have no further nor distant plans to do anything else to the engine.


I went for a quick, late night spin, and the gas pedal is noticeably more sensitive, so I achieved my main goal. The stock air boxes and piping were also noticeably heavier then this setup. I also noticed I can climb hills WAAYYY better! As though I've awakened the torque curve! Before I'd had to keep the pedal floored just to maintain and eventually loose speed up hills in 5th. Now I can hold speed climbing hills at 1/2 - 3/4 throttle.

A nice bonus: when I do give him gas now, I get a nice, low and throaty WOO sound that's not too loud! :)
 
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