On my Mk7 GTI I went from 18x7.5" to 17x8", with better tires, lost a ton of rotational mass, and now I'm going to upsize to 225/50R17 so I can actually head out on dirt/gravel paths without trouble. Undercarriage protection is essential too, guys.
Digging your take on modifying cars. Do what makes sense for your lifestyle and don’t just copy paste parts list from what people on the internet say. For my 99’ forester just added lift springs and refreshed the suspension soo it’s more reliable for my outdoor adventures! Cheers!
HI ya SubieDude - When I received my 24' BRZ tS, I immediately replaced the exhaust with a Corsa Sport and the air intake with a K&N (within 100 miles). I knew before I even bought the car that these were the mods I was going to do. I also added all the 'STI' cosmetic accessories when I ordered the car. I intended to replace the headers but if the headers require a tune, I don't want to invalidate my warranty - so I haven't done that yet. This generation BRZ doesn't need a turbo (IMO) it is a lot of fun as it is. Have a great 2025 and ... stay safe and health!
Solid video, articulate points. Hopefully it benefits someone new or old. Your words benefited me, gave me a slight smirk to listen to someone who has a head on their shoulders talk about cars. That is worth a lot now a days. Goodjob Youtbue algorithm, a great suggestion.
What a beautiful area. Good video. People obsess over the dumbest things like horse power numbers and if you don't drive a 80,000 dollar car your not cool. Just get a car and drive it, mod it, do whatever makes you happy.
Have fun in Durango, I'm guessing you're gonna go riding in Purgatory or Hesperus. It's pretty much a cruise the whole way there from Sedona I think. I've never really attempted driving Colorado mountain passes in anything but AWD cars. You might be required to have chains as a 2wd if it snows just FYI. You're right that you don't have to drop ridiculous amounts of money to enjoy cars. I have a couple of simple mods on my '24 Forester and it's been way more fun that blowing up 2 turbos on my old Ford Escape, especially since I am way more into off-road rally type stuff than fast in straight line tarmac.
agreed about enjoying a car no matter what it is. I loved driving my 87 mazda 626 manual econo box in high school. and my 87 Mercedes 300d turbo diesel after college. I have a 2017 forester XT now when the CVT grenades' I'm sti manual swapping it. The RTV is covered under warranty anyway provided you don't over tune and throw a rod or twist a bearing first.
Great Video!!! You shouldn't use cinematic mode or whatever mode that you were using where it add that fake bokeh, especially with that beautiful background.
With regards to the RTV issue: it could still become an issue. If you run the car hot enough, and those things fray or stretch enough to get past the pickup filter, they could go into your pump and potentially clog stuff there, or one of the tiny oil galleries and they could clog up some variable valve timing mechanism that's reliant on oil pressure. It definitely is better to take care of it than not. That being said, engines are exploding because they probably got the car new and followed the manufacturer instructions to the letter, and then tracked the car. 0W20 isn't a good track oil. At least raise it up to 5W30, and overfill by a quart. Also, some of them may have not bothered to break the car in. 1000 miles of variable RPM driving between 2K-6K should be good, then change the oil. I have done 7 track days within 2 years, and I've owned my BRZ for 3 years. It was used as a delivery vehicle for a European automotive parts distributor for 2 years, and for medical hospital and home deliveries for the remaining year. it's got over 48K miles. I am always using 5W30 oil, and I'm overfilled to 6 quarts (6.1 if you want to be specific as I use a 5.1 quart jug with a quart extra), and the car feels fine. Running extra oil without a baffle will provide your pickup with oil in places like Big Willow's turn 2, which is a wide 4th gear sweeper that keeps the oil up in the left head of the engine, or in Chuckwalla CCW turn 5, that for me is a 3rd gear banked left hander, which will accumulate oil up in the right head. Numerous people have warned us about these 2 places because they like to keep the oil up and away from the pickup, and blow engines(not potentially, there's history of it). Baffles and overfills help, along with thicker oil for high heat duty cycles. What's still the safest thing to do? Spend the extra money to pull that oil pan, and extract that gunk off the pickup filter. Then overfill to 5-6 quarts of oil, depending on harshness of vehicle use. Try having a baffle, it could help. Other than that, dude use your cars man. Got small kids? great, you don't have to cut their legs off to fit in the back yet. I've done deliveries of oil cases, DEF, distilled water, and IVs in this thing, a Costco run doesn't faze it.
Long story short, if you don't plan to track your car and only cruise around and occasionally have some spirited driving on some backroads: Your fine doing nothing to the car and driving it as-is with the standard recommended oil too. The rtv is caught in the filters, doesnt clog anything, and is a non-issue basically. But if you want to be harder on it by using it as a midnight backroad Initial-D street racer for long periods of time and/or tracking it: Then drop the pan and clean it out to be on the safe side, use a higher temp oil, overfill and youll be fine.
@@SHiFTDI3S3L no no. Your fine 😀 I actually read the whole thing and I like comments like these. Effort is always a good thing. I just shortened it for those who probably would skip through it. Need to keep spreading awareness that RTV is basically a non-issue because of the new 5-sided pickup tube filter. It takes a whole lot to clog it up but people like that mechanic guy on YT who keeps blowing up the RTV issue on these cars for views makes it seem like a little strip, even a few strips, is a major issue that makes the engine bad when in reality, the pickup tube was designed to account for the modern way RTV is applied by allow the oil to flow around it. RTV still isnt an ideal gasket, but the new pickup tube essentially solved the issue making it nothing worth worrying about now. Only the oil starvation on high G turns is an issue but an overfill somewhat solves it and the aftermarket is already on better solutions.
1 more for looks are only for you. Dont spend money for others to look at your car. Most people won’t ever notice. 2. Unless you track your car often realize you can’t go 10/10th with most sports cars or super cars so you are buying performance you won’t use. So again don’t spend money so people can look at it
7:39 what’s sad is that Toyota won’t put the v6 where that pos boxer is, that’s what stopped me from buying one because the rest of the car is absolutely perfect.
@ why would it cost $50000 to put an engine they already have that’s in a camry they sell for $32000? you think it’s cheaper to develop 2 different boxer engines and pay for the recalls that came with? they didn’t have to worry about Supra sales before 2019 so maybe you can speculate an excuse for before the Supra.
The gr86 hasn’t had any engine recalls, the whole system would have to be souped up for more power and the center gravity would be raised up quite a bit if it wasn’t a boxer.
@ the center of gravity myth has been debunked as marketing and i still don’t see how they were selling a Camry for 30k if it would cost 50k to beef up a transmission & differential to handle another 60hp
I spent thousands getting my old wrx to full bolt on and tune. It was great, but at the end of the day I had a car that would never be driven to its potential because I don't frequent the track and don't street race. Plus I spent a lot of time worrying I'd blow the motor at that level. Besides a little highway fun and some bragging rights, that was not worth throwing so much money at it. With my vb wrx I've taken the oem plus stance. Subaru has a pretty good selection of factory upgrades (besides the sti mufflers, blech) that don't jack with your warranty and add spice to the car. And when you go to sell then it won't harm resale. If anything, factory upgrades would make it more desirable.
thx for watching guys :) check out our BRZ snowboard trip! - ua-cam.com/video/9QSo1BhcNcQ/v-deo.htmlsi=2EBD3XUJpnf2JRPM
On my Mk7 GTI I went from 18x7.5" to 17x8", with better tires, lost a ton of rotational mass, and now I'm going to upsize to 225/50R17 so I can actually head out on dirt/gravel paths without trouble. Undercarriage protection is essential too, guys.
I have 225/50/17 winter tires on my mk7
The algae of rhythm suggested your video for me this morning. This is good stuff man thank you I subscribed
best mod for this car: not hitting a light pole
right?! tired of seeing this on reddit lol
Digging your take on modifying cars. Do what makes sense for your lifestyle and don’t just copy paste parts list from what people on the internet say. For my 99’ forester just added lift springs and refreshed the suspension soo it’s more reliable for my outdoor adventures! Cheers!
hey dude thanks for the positive comment, sick you got a forester and its working for you!
HI ya SubieDude - When I received my 24' BRZ tS, I immediately replaced the exhaust with a Corsa Sport and the air intake with a K&N (within 100 miles). I knew before I even bought the car that these were the mods I was going to do. I also added all the 'STI' cosmetic accessories when I ordered the car. I intended to replace the headers but if the headers require a tune, I don't want to invalidate my warranty - so I haven't done that yet. This generation BRZ doesn't need a turbo (IMO) it is a lot of fun as it is. Have a great 2025 and ... stay safe and health!
Solid video, articulate points. Hopefully it benefits someone new or old. Your words benefited me, gave me a slight smirk to listen to someone who has a head on their shoulders talk about cars. That is worth a lot now a days.
Goodjob Youtbue algorithm, a great suggestion.
What a beautiful area. Good video. People obsess over the dumbest things like horse power numbers and if you don't drive a 80,000 dollar car your not cool. Just get a car and drive it, mod it, do whatever makes you happy.
Have fun in Durango, I'm guessing you're gonna go riding in Purgatory or Hesperus. It's pretty much a cruise the whole way there from Sedona I think. I've never really attempted driving Colorado mountain passes in anything but AWD cars. You might be required to have chains as a 2wd if it snows just FYI. You're right that you don't have to drop ridiculous amounts of money to enjoy cars. I have a couple of simple mods on my '24 Forester and it's been way more fun that blowing up 2 turbos on my old Ford Escape, especially since I am way more into off-road rally type stuff than fast in straight line tarmac.
Another fellow Arizona Subaru enthusiast! If you see my pink STI rolling around say hello 💜
agreed about enjoying a car no matter what it is. I loved driving my 87 mazda 626 manual econo box in high school. and my 87 Mercedes 300d turbo diesel after college. I have a 2017 forester XT now when the CVT grenades' I'm sti manual swapping it. The RTV is covered under warranty anyway provided you don't over tune and throw a rod or twist a bearing first.
Great Video!!! You shouldn't use cinematic mode or whatever mode that you were using where it add that fake bokeh, especially with that beautiful background.
The latest mod for my 2013 86 will be a new engine, after it blew up out of all proportions last May. Exhaust and ECUtek tune was all I had.
im looking into a scion frs because its little cheaper. but im so close to buying one. and ur videos have helped me so much. thank you!!
You're absolutely right! Spot on (again)! And you're right about Kevin Vo also. They have great products and great service. It's the good stuff!
Another inexpensive mod that I did and love is: Driven media had exhaust tip extensions that make the exhaust look much better.
With regards to the RTV issue: it could still become an issue. If you run the car hot enough, and those things fray or stretch enough to get past the pickup filter, they could go into your pump and potentially clog stuff there, or one of the tiny oil galleries and they could clog up some variable valve timing mechanism that's reliant on oil pressure. It definitely is better to take care of it than not. That being said, engines are exploding because they probably got the car new and followed the manufacturer instructions to the letter, and then tracked the car. 0W20 isn't a good track oil. At least raise it up to 5W30, and overfill by a quart. Also, some of them may have not bothered to break the car in. 1000 miles of variable RPM driving between 2K-6K should be good, then change the oil. I have done 7 track days within 2 years, and I've owned my BRZ for 3 years. It was used as a delivery vehicle for a European automotive parts distributor for 2 years, and for medical hospital and home deliveries for the remaining year. it's got over 48K miles. I am always using 5W30 oil, and I'm overfilled to 6 quarts (6.1 if you want to be specific as I use a 5.1 quart jug with a quart extra), and the car feels fine. Running extra oil without a baffle will provide your pickup with oil in places like Big Willow's turn 2, which is a wide 4th gear sweeper that keeps the oil up in the left head of the engine, or in Chuckwalla CCW turn 5, that for me is a 3rd gear banked left hander, which will accumulate oil up in the right head. Numerous people have warned us about these 2 places because they like to keep the oil up and away from the pickup, and blow engines(not potentially, there's history of it). Baffles and overfills help, along with thicker oil for high heat duty cycles. What's still the safest thing to do? Spend the extra money to pull that oil pan, and extract that gunk off the pickup filter. Then overfill to 5-6 quarts of oil, depending on harshness of vehicle use. Try having a baffle, it could help. Other than that, dude use your cars man. Got small kids? great, you don't have to cut their legs off to fit in the back yet. I've done deliveries of oil cases, DEF, distilled water, and IVs in this thing, a Costco run doesn't faze it.
Long story short, if you don't plan to track your car and only cruise around and occasionally have some spirited driving on some backroads:
Your fine doing nothing to the car and driving it as-is with the standard recommended oil too. The rtv is caught in the filters, doesnt clog anything, and is a non-issue basically.
But if you want to be harder on it by using it as a midnight backroad Initial-D street racer for long periods of time and/or tracking it:
Then drop the pan and clean it out to be on the safe side, use a higher temp oil, overfill and youll be fine.
@@JupiterxBlues I apologize, I have a new keyboard. It felt so good, I wrote a book on accident.
@@SHiFTDI3S3L no no. Your fine 😀 I actually read the whole thing and I like comments like these. Effort is always a good thing. I just shortened it for those who probably would skip through it. Need to keep spreading awareness that RTV is basically a non-issue because of the new 5-sided pickup tube filter. It takes a whole lot to clog it up but people like that mechanic guy on YT who keeps blowing up the RTV issue on these cars for views makes it seem like a little strip, even a few strips, is a major issue that makes the engine bad when in reality, the pickup tube was designed to account for the modern way RTV is applied by allow the oil to flow around it. RTV still isnt an ideal gasket, but the new pickup tube essentially solved the issue making it nothing worth worrying about now. Only the oil starvation on high G turns is an issue but an overfill somewhat solves it and the aftermarket is already on better solutions.
I’ve wanted once since the new gen. I’m just not at a point in my life where I can finance a car.
Nice BRZ.
Do you do the oil changes or take to dealer ?
Beautiful mountains and scenery. 👍
Are these vehicles really difficult to do an oil change on?
The scenery makes me think of that old Sergio Leone movie Once Upon a Time in the West :).
Interesting take on this topic. I’ve never owned anything like that but have dreamt a little.
I really like that Toyota GR86.
New sub
1 more for looks are only for you. Dont spend money for others to look at your car. Most people won’t ever notice.
2. Unless you track your car often realize you can’t go 10/10th with most sports cars or super cars so you are buying performance you won’t use. So again don’t spend money so people can look at it
I see subaru a lot like nissan
Its about as good as its gonna get without wanting to explode, so maybe dont crank your horsepower out the gate
What roof racks are those?
7:39 what’s sad is that Toyota won’t put the v6 where that pos boxer is, that’s what stopped me from buying one because the rest of the car is absolutely perfect.
which would make it $50000 and cut into supra sales
@ why would it cost $50000 to put an engine they already have that’s in a camry they sell for $32000? you think it’s cheaper to develop 2 different boxer engines and pay for the recalls that came with? they didn’t have to worry about Supra sales before 2019 so maybe you can speculate an excuse for before the Supra.
The gr86 hasn’t had any engine recalls, the whole system would have to be souped up for more power and the center gravity would be raised up quite a bit if it wasn’t a boxer.
@ the center of gravity myth has been debunked as marketing and i still don’t see how they were selling a Camry for 30k if it would cost 50k to beef up a transmission & differential to handle another 60hp
even a subaru boxer 6 would be better tbh
I want a golf r
I spent thousands getting my old wrx to full bolt on and tune. It was great, but at the end of the day I had a car that would never be driven to its potential because I don't frequent the track and don't street race. Plus I spent a lot of time worrying I'd blow the motor at that level. Besides a little highway fun and some bragging rights, that was not worth throwing so much money at it. With my vb wrx I've taken the oem plus stance. Subaru has a pretty good selection of factory upgrades (besides the sti mufflers, blech) that don't jack with your warranty and add spice to the car. And when you go to sell then it won't harm resale. If anything, factory upgrades would make it more desirable.