Venom: Project XT Forester

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Wed Jul 15, 2015 7:39 pm

So I picked up a SG5 XT Luxury a few weeks ago as a replacement for my H6 Liberty. It was a 1 very pedantic owner vehicle, low km's (128,000km) and with impeccable service history. Longest between services was about 12,400km. Timing belt was done early at 88,000km with water pump.

First mod, ECU relocated to the glovebox.

New and old.

Plans for the short term are to just enjoy it. It's such a nice car. Could do with some decent seats, I'm used to the body hugging GT-B seats of the Liberty. The leather XT seats are very slidey.

It should have all the power an offroader needs out of the box and I have no plans to change it. Love the quiet exhaust. Key to any future mods will be to maintain the stock gearing as much as possible so I don't feel the need to mess around with the engine mods.

I've been overall quite satisfied with the clearances and approach angles of the Liberty. Considering the Foz nearly beats it from the factory the plan is for only a modest suspension lift with a set of custom long travel coil overs. No body lift. Definitely a Subaxtreme bar when one comes up at the right price. The current Coopers on the Liberty may go on but I think they're too big, a 27" tyre is planned as my limit and will probably go on in the future as a 215/65R16.

Sitting on various garage floors is still my KAAZ, Cusco and DCCD which will all be going behind the 2.5 turbo.

The 3rd (or 4th?) attempt at a dual range gearbox will be SG based, 4.44, 1.447 l/r and running the low range oil feeds.

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Wed Jul 15, 2015 7:44 pm

Russ over on OzFoz has started making 4 port catch cans, I grabbed one of the first bunch and installed it in a few hours with a little fussing over the hose length and routing. Apparently a proper turbo catch can install should have 2 catch systems, one between the vavle covers intake, and another between the PCV and intake. This saves having 2 seperate cans.

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Wed Jul 15, 2015 7:44 pm

Genuine goodies in the mail.

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Wed Jul 15, 2015 7:45 pm

3 - reserved

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Jul 15, 2015 9:12 pm

Yeah baby!!!

It will be sad to see the liberty off... Up side is this looks like it'll be a pot load of fun too. Can't wait to get out there with you to really check it out

I'd push you for a full body lift but I shouldn't bother since you can add it later AND we've pretty much got an in house lift kit builder!

Cheers

Bennie

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Thu Jul 16, 2015 6:40 pm

No body lift Bennie because it's not legal with airbags!

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 4:49 pm

Catch can install pics added to second post.

In other news I picked up a SF GT 5MT gearbox for $50 a few months ago, cheap 4.44 C/W.
Last week I picked up a Late SG (06) 5MT dual range for $150. Depending on how the gearbox looks once pulled apart it should form the basis of the next dual range gearbox build. It also takes a male/male driveshaft, so hoping to keep that setup with the Cusco and eliminate having the axle stubs in the gearbox.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Sep 14, 2015 9:30 pm

Damn I wish we lived closer together - I consider myself to be pretty proficient with gearbox builds these days!

Also with the body lift, I thought a 2 inch lift was legal even with airbags? Anyway, I'm sure you'll get plenty of ride height out of it with your plans.

Cheers

Bennie

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Tue Oct 13, 2015 11:05 am

Ebay bargain, I'd probably be waiting years to get something like this for the Liberty.

I'd actually made inquiries with Subaxtreme for a bar with only the centre hoop, and was pleased to see they actually just bolt on/off.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 8:54 pm

Very nice score mate! Looks mint. Will you be ordering a centre hoop only from subaextreme or will you make up your own?

Cheers

Bennie

thunder039 · Post by **thunder039** » Mon Oct 19, 2015 6:54 pm

nice build, what happened to the liberty?

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Fri Feb 05, 2016 6:51 pm

El_Freddo wrote:Very nice score mate! Looks mint. Will you be ordering a centre hoop only from subaextreme or will you make up your own?

Cheers

Bennie

The bar will just stay on it's own. If i win lottery I'd probably have the holes from the hoop delete filled and maybe colour code it.

thunder039 wrote:nice build, what happened to the liberty?

The Liberty is sitting in the carport gathering dust. Over the next few months the plan is to return it to pretty much how I bought it, lowered, single range 5MT, RWC and sell it. That money will go to a gearbox for the Forester.

Progress on the Foz is slow but steady. 4/2 pot setup installed this week and the audi wheels and Cooper AT3s swapped over from the Liberty.

And Koyo aluminium radiator with silicone hoses.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Feb 05, 2016 10:27 pm

Nice. The Audi rims are growing on me... Slowly, again!

Cheers

Bennie