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Exhaust for my '97 Legacy GT??

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Hello everyone. I drive a 1997 legacy GT with a DOHC EJ25. I am interested in upgrading my exhaust, but I absolutely cannot find an aftermarket system for sale? So I am considering just having one built custom. I have been looking at the limited selection of headers available for the car and am only finding Borla. I also found a header and uppipe combo that is for the Impreza 2.5 liter made by Topspeed Pro 1 in Taiwan. Would this fit my car and has anyone ever heard of this company and are there products any good? Form looking under the car it looks like (and correct me if I'm wrong) I will need a header, uppipe, and cat back? Any advice will be much appreciated because i have no idea where to start.

thanks!

A header for any 2.5 DOHC will fit, you don't need an up pipe, as they are for turbo cars only. You will need header, high flow cat, and then cat back. I have a Greddy system on my RS and like it. I would think someone would make one for a Legacy

And you should be MUCH more concerned with head gaskets than with the exhaust. Trust me on this one. If they haven't been done then you are looking at doing them or having them done real soon.

 

GD

Edited by Qman

  • Author

I have already replaced the head gaskets my friend...

I have already replaced the head gaskets my friend...

 

Excelent - so what are you looking for in an exhaust then? There isn't any real performance to be gained being it's a non-turbo..... so are you looking for a different sound?

 

GD

Excelent - so what are you looking for in an exhaust then? There isn't any real performance to be gained being it's a non-turbo..... so are you looking for a different sound?

 

GD

 

I have to disagree with you on this GD. I saw a very noticeable difference with my headers and cat back on my 2000 RS. It's much quicker than a stock RS

I have to disagree with you on this GD. I saw a very noticeable difference with my headers and cat back on my 2000 RS. It's much quicker than a stock RS

 

+1, one of the first performance mods on a N/A Subie should be the exhaust system.

Hello everyone. I drive a 1997 legacy GT with a DOHC EJ25. I am interested in upgrading my exhaust, but I absolutely cannot find an aftermarket system for sale? So I am considering just having one built custom. I have been looking at the limited selection of headers available for the car and am only finding Borla. I also found a header and uppipe combo that is for the Impreza 2.5 liter made by Topspeed Pro 1 in Taiwan. Would this fit my car and has anyone ever heard of this company and are there products any good? Form looking under the car it looks like (and correct me if I'm wrong) I will need a header, uppipe, and cat back? Any advice will be much appreciated because i have no idea where to start.

thanks!

 

Personally I put straight pipes on My 96 Legacy and I love it...Inexpensive and honestly I swear I can feel a little more pick up....However You could always go out and buy an STI...:grin:

Interesting - I wouldn't have though the stock system to be so restrictive on the newer cars. I suppose it ties in with the emissions and noise requirements.

 

GD

  • Author

I would buy an STI if I could afford one (I'm a poor college student). I am looking for a different sound. NO FART SOUND. I want that deep Boxer growl...Also I have these annoying heat shields on my stock exhaust and every time I am low in gear or letting the clutch out in first all they do is rattle.

I would buy an STI if I could afford one (I'm a poor college student). I am looking for a different sound. NO FART SOUND. I want that deep Boxer growl....

 

You actually would have a hard time getting rid of the lumpy boxer sound. It has to do with the manifolds not having equal length headers and thus the exhaust pulses are leaving the tail-pipe in a non-uniform pattern. Thus the wacky sound they make. It's not a problem on the non-turbo engines but actually does reduce performance by a slight percentage on the turbo's as the exhaust turbine doesn't receive evenly spaced pressure waves and thus doesn't spin up as fast. There are some headers out there that fix this *problem* on the turbo's and they sounds just like.... a Honda!

 

GD

Okay, my 94 Legacy had a later EJ22 from 98 subaru, so it had the single port exhaust heads. I had a Borla header, stock cats from a 97 legacy, 2" catback and a magnaflow flow through muffler. My intake was stock with a K&N panel filter. On PIA's Dyno It was putting down 113hp and 118ft-lb at the wheels. The horsepower peak was around 5800rpm and the torque pear was around 4300rpm. The down side to my exhaust was that it was loud. Since my legacy was a wagon, the noise did echo quite a bit, in the passenger compartment. One thing you should do is go on to nasioc www.nasioc.com and read through the Normally Aspirated Powertrain section. There are some good posts on N/A exhaust that discuss exhaust velocity and choosing the size of pipe to use. But watch out, there is a lot of BS on nasioc too.

What you need to do is buy a set of replica borla unequal length headers. I would have went this route but I elected to have an 04 STi catback but on just so mine would be quieter.

 

 

  • Author
What you need to do is buy a set of replica borla unequal length headers. I would have went this route but I elected to have an 04 STi catback but on just so mine would be quieter.

 

 

 

Where do you buy the replica borla unequal length headers? That sounds really good. That is the sound that I'm going for... What kind of exhaust system are you using?

Edited by anwieczo

  • Author

So an STI catback would fit on my 1997 LGT? Did you have to modify the catback in any way for it to fit?

It SHOULD fit your car, it will have to be modified though. When I had mine put on, I had to have it lengthened so it would mate up with all the exhaust hangers and have the factory look. Of course I went with it cause it was given to me and I hated the aftermarket fart can exhaust that was on it when I bought the car.

I've got a '97 Legacy OBW. I put on the Borla headers and the Stromung single cat pipe. I've got the Stromung center pipe on order, and then I need to decide what to do about a muffler. I've had the headers and cat pipe for about 5 years and haven't had any prroblems. Nice sound and a little bit more top end without a loss at the bottom.

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