A Quest for 35mpg (Subaru Outback Limited Sedan 2.5L auto)

[cosmic_kid]

In my experience it is much easier to see oncoming traffic if their lights are on, so I leave mine on as well.

[Zerohour]

Paint will officially be one week old today. Checked on it yesterday, still has an odor about it. Cooler temps and the rain hitting the north east this week has slowed the curing process. Hopefully I'll get some nice weather this weekend and I'll spray the clear coat.

Also I've rummaged up a new warm intake idea. Working out the details.

I'm currently tracking down a p420 code on my brother's subaru. Thus far it has been like pissing into the wind. I hoping that I didn't get a bum rear 02 replacement from RockAuto :-(

[Zerohour]

[Zerohour]

All Cleaned up:

Terrible bolts...


Vacuum Guage LED conversion:







Unfortunately it's not bright enough...

[cosmic_kid]

why isn't the muffler horizontal?

[Zerohour]

Cause the bottom of my Subaru's Bumper is ~15" from the ground. It did not fit vertically, as the factory muffler is tucked up into the quarterpanel/rear bumper. It did not look right with the muffler horizontal as it placed the exhaust ~8" off the ground. So now its ~3-4" below the bumper. Also I would have need an exhaust hanger that was 10" long as the factory hanger is up there above the bottom of the bumper. lol I actually wanted to run it vertically, but without access to a pipe bender, I couldn't get the position using off the shelf tubing.

Total Cost of the exhaust:
6 clamps............$14
Glass Pack.........$20
Muffler..............$38
Pipe..................$7
Adaptor.............$4
New Gasket........$16 (god damn Subaru's...)
Muffler putty.......$5 (to seal the stupid gasket anyway)
"Chrome" Tip.......$8
Misc. Hardware....$5
---------------------
Total.................$117

I had to change the exhaust do to the after market sway bar. It was $35 to ship, and it would have cost $35 to ship back to get a refund. So I would have been out $70 just to put the old sway bar back on. Had I know getting the after market sway bar was going to cost almost $300, I wouldn't have done it in the first place. But now I have less body roll, better traction, and a louder exhaust. lol

[Zerohour]

More wonderful cell phone pictures:

Had to add a bracket on the driver's side. It persists with fitment issues

[Zerohour]

Wheel skirts made it an entire day! I think the passenger side may have a slight rub. I'm gonna look into it tonight.

Edit:

Also ordered a sets of brighter LEDs for the gauge. Hopefully those will be here by the weekend!

As per gas mileage can't tell you a difference yet. On-the-road testing is going to be tough because the temperature right now has been getting colder in the morning. Last year around this time I was getting 22-23 making a different run to and from school. Last tank was 25.4mpg but that was after swapping out the exhaust and before wheel skirts. So its hard to tell. But If I'm beating out 22-23mpg thats still improvement over last year!

[Sparkchaser]

Hey folks!
I do that "let off throttle to upshift technique with my Dodge Cummins too. And the truck seems to like it. Gets the engine back down in the torque curve!
Sparkchaser

[Zerohour]

Wheel skirts are still attached to the car after day two! Going to need to make the mount for the other side eventually, most likely this weekend, or Thursday when I have the day off.

I'm kind of second guessing the need for the bottom bar. It only seems to be causing issues. I'm almost wondering it if would be worth while to take the bar off and just trying to rig up different bracketing. Although this would leave my wheel skirts with several holes at bottom. i'll have to see how the next few days/next week goes before I make any more changes.

LEDs shipped today, and so did my new vise for my re-conditioned drill press I salvaged from a shed. :-) Quite excited to get that all straightened out.

Also have a goal for the weekend, not sure if I'll get there or not. I'll keep you posted.