General Questions About the Car
 

Hey everyone, I'm buying a 92 SVX in White and Black (130k). The owner is an adult who has the service records for oil changes and fixes. He has a new auto tranny installed by Subaru (@ 98kmiles), valve cover gaskets replaced, new starter, alt, and steering rack, along with new OEM rotors and pads in the front and rear. The only things that need to be replaced are the cam seals, timing belt, and the tires, so for $3k it seems a pretty good buy..

I'm just asking your thoughts on this:

I'm going to assume nobody makes a decent CAI or cat-back for the car, I was going to custom fab a cold air box w/ hood scoop and buy a quality cone filter to stick in there. What are you guys and girls running for air induction?

Forgot to mention, the car has all new cat + straight pipe in leui of resonator, but everything behind that is rusted. I was going to run 2.5 inch piping into a single aftermarket muffler (not a ricey one) , which would delete the dual pipes... any recomendations on what muffler fits/looks/sounds good?

The interior is excellent, leather, all the options, not a hint of abuse. I have an MP3 CD player from my previous car I would like to put in. Im not a (total) idiot and can install a CD player, but is there any trick to getting the factory unit out of the dash??

Are there any good companies that make a chip for this car? Not a $20 ebay resistor.. a real one? I'm not trying to turn the car into a drag queen, just add a little more bottom-end and mid-range power. I'd like to lighten it up too, I'm going to assume there arent any carbon fibre parts in production, any suggestions?

I know I'm posting a mouthful, but any thoughts/insights on this car would be much appreciated

check dayle's site for more parts (motorsport warehouse)
But for the most part, everything is custom or adapted from other Subies.

For an ECU, Ecutune makes a great product and has had good results.

Welcome to the forum.
The car you are buying sounds like a good deal...especially with alot of items replaced..such as the steering rack ($$$$) tranny ($$$$$$), etc. Tires we usually have tons of threads on these...I prefer Tirerack.com and you can get some nice tires for 100/ea. and under.
Take a look at the Mods folder...or How-to documents in this forum..all very helpful. There are mods such as alternator, starter bypass relay, ecu bead crush, shift kit, headlight, airbox, throttle....the list goes on....LOL

New pre cats did you say? and straight pipe :)

Open the radio cover door and you'll see three screws on the edges of the cage...remove them and pull the whole cage out.....but use the shift lock feature on the gear selector to put the transmission in "1" so you have clearance....(this means pop the little plastic piece off the center consel gear selector..use a phillips screwdriver, remove screw, slide open metal cover and stick a screw driver in the hole to move the gear to "1")

Most of us on here buy the svx wiring harness for the radio....(custom made) to fit on the existing harness of the car.

You can get a single in/dual out muffler and keep the dual pipes. Ya gotta keep the dual pipes.:D Then put a small resonator or Dynomax Bullet between the muffler and cat to smooth it out. Not much in the way of gains for the intake. Cheapest, easiest and best things for performance are ECUtune and an Outback trans and rear with 4.44 final drive ratio.

Your in the right state. Theres probly more SVX owners in jersey than there is anywhere else on earth (Subaru Of America being located in Cherry Hill, and of course the people living there at the time having enough money to spend...)
The good thing is there's plenty of enthusiests nearby to lend you a hand in person. You seem to have your head in the right place as far as your proformance goals.

For the stereo, It's pretty straight forward to uninstall. I have taken my dash board completely out 3 times now, so Im pretty well aquainted with the process. First, put your shifter into d1 (all the way back) and pull out the ash tray. Open the cd door and pry out the black plastic trim peice. Behind that theres a few screws to unscrew. Afterword, it should "Slide right out"...bit itll probly give you a fight. the factory svx radio has a plug that goes into the back that is not the same as aftermarket radios. Somewhere in the how-to documents theres a wiring guide so you can hook up the aftermarket stereo

As far as a custom exhaust, youll see probly 200 threads on it. Ill summarize:
The car tends to buzz at about 2700-3500 rpm with aftermarket exhausts. to rpevent this irritating honda-like ****box rattle, the exhaust should have the stock pre-cats (Or two resonators in their place) and either a resonator and a muffler or one really decent muffler. Many members have used magnaflow components. Flows better, but buzzes. you may want to console SVXFiles or Mychalo about exhaust work, or better yet, do a search for them threads

As for a cai, some members have good, actual proformance benifitting set ups. Many other though, just stuck a motorsport warehouse cone filter in the engine bay and called it faster. Obviously, thus isnt the case because its sucking up hot engine bay air. For the most part, youll be fabricating your own setup. If you plan on using a scoop, youll either have to track down an aftermarket hood with a scoop (theres only a few out there, and from what I hear they arent the best quality) or youll end up making your own. Once again, a search will yeild some insight

I must say, one thing you should incest in before anything else...A tranny cooler. Simple 50$ pep-boys thing thatll save your transmission. Theese car's trannies suffer from overheating primarily. The original design had poor fluid movement, not to mention the high final drive added extra stress when trying to move the hefty load of svx

Anyhow, hopefully I've got you pointed the right direction, and welcome to the SVX network, btw. :cool:

Wow, thanks for the responses guys. If I went to a audio shop and wanted them to hook up the CD player, would they just order a harness from somewhere, or will this always be a complete custom fab?

How would you feel about completely removing the exhaust and cats from the headers back and putting in a custom, mandrel bent pipe from the header to the muffler? Yeah, I know its illegal in NJ but would the benefits in better exhaust flow be worth it?

I'm definitly going to pick up the tranny cooler, is it possible to add a transmission temp sensor and gauge to the car without much work?

Last thing, the car throws a CEL after hitting 50mph, the owner took it to a subie dealer, they scanned the code, and said it was a faulty Powertrain Control Module, which is $700+ but you can just live with the lite being on. Does this sound right? Also, if you accelerate the car slow (reeeally slow) it won't shift from second to third in automatic mode, any ideas?

Sorry for asking questions and not searching, but I gotta learn somehow

Check the codes yourself.

Instructions are on http://svx-iw.com in the SVXipedia. Just look in the codes section. Chances are the fix is not going to cost $700.

If you remove the pre-cats then you should replace them with something other than straight pipe or you will get an annoying resonance.

I would order the radio harness from svxdc...he makes them and he provides a nice chart for wire color and function. This will plug into the existing SVX connector, but someone will still need to solder or crimp those wires to the aftermarket radio. I wouldn't trust aftermarket guys to cut off the old connector and dig into the svx harness. Svxdc did a nice job of preparing the wires for this part of it.

Yeah what he said! SVXDC is the bomb! When I hooked up my stereo it was a breeze to do with his color coded chart! ;)

Okay, cool. thats good someone makes them. saves me a lotta trouble. :)

Lasst question. The only repair I'll have to do is replace the cam seals and timing belt (oil has leaked onto it). He has reciepts that say he did the repair a year and a half ago, but the problem is back and they're leaking again. Should I steer clear of this car if leaking seals are a recurring problem? or maybe his mechanic was just a jackoff... opinions... Also, can I put the repairs off for a little while, or is this something really important to do ASAP?

P.S. He claims the car will take only Premium gas... (93+). I havent read anything backing this up, can it run on regular (87-89) or mid-grade (91+) without damage or will I end up fouling up my injectors? Premium is $$$ but Im prepared to use it if need be

91+ is recommended.

As for the oil leaking, it may be leaking from areas that weren't inspected at the last servicing.

My center taillight section says: "Alcyone SVX" on it, isnt is supposed to say Subaru? Just something I noticed that didnt match up with the ones I've seen everywhere else. Its a 92 btw

Someone either opened it up and changed it or else installed the JDM version.

Straight pipes would be annoyingly loud..I dont think the proformance benifits (If any at all) would be worth the hedache youll get everytime you drive the car. If the front half is new. midaswell just leave it be and do something with the cat-back..mabey a more free flowing muffler or somthing.

The alcyone tailbar is the JDM bar. Theres an intresting bit of history there:
The constalation on the subaru emblem is Palades. The biggest (brightest) star is the star Alcyone. The SVX was supposed to be Subaru's flagship, so to speak. It was their most forward thinking, fresh, and innovative car,and supposed to be leading the way for all it's future endevors, henced badged as the brightest star. In a way it has done just that, as many of its features and design concepts were carried over to some of the newer subies. It failed miseraby in sales, which is a double sided bade on it's heritage. It never was a popular car, and it had it's fair share of problems,but it's rarity makes it all the more special in the end.

So, to cut storytime short...if you'd rather have a subaru tailbar, I'm sure someone will gladly trade you and throw in some cash as well.
The premium gas, youll need to run the car on 91 octane (Or more, if you feel the need). If you really need to, you can run on regular, but it isnt reccomended for extended periods of driving. The higher octane will prevent knock..Id imagine besides possibly clogging injectors it would eventually take a toll on the knock sensors

Recurring leaking seals might be caused by a clogged PCV valve. My guess is, those seals weren't properly seated. If oil is getting onto the timing belt then, yes, that should be corrected ASAP.

Running regular won't harm anything except overall performance and fuel economy, assuming the knock sensors are doing their job. It's a myth that premium fuel is somehow "better"... it's has a higher octane rating to prevent knock in high-compression engines, that's all. Some top-off a tank of premium with a splash of regular from time, as there's nothing to be gained from buying more octane than you need.

Good luck with your new SVX.

dcb