gmcfan Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 Hi all, I just became the owner of a 1984 Subaru GL Sedan with a ea81 engine. The engine was "supposedly" rebuilt before I got it, but hard to tell. It is very greasy. I thought they usually steam clean an engine before they install it. Anyway, When I first got it, it would not idle below 2000 RPM. I let it warm up, thinking engine computer would kick the idle down. Nothing. I then picked up a Chilton manual, and it said there is an idle mixture screw. Looked at the screw, preset at factory, no way to change. this is a Carter-weber single barrel with Electric choke. I am suspecting a vaccum leak? Some of the hoses have been removed that plug into the air filter housing, and have been plugged. Is there any other way to adjust Idle speed? Next thing: I will be driving along at 60 MPH. The temp gauge will rise steadily to red zone, and the gas gets sucked down. Also, when the car is warming up, or I am driving, the ECM light will come on and stay on. Is this indicating a problem with the Cat Converter? Could it be plugged up? This car was owned by pot heads, so it wasn't taken care of. The front end on the drivers side is smashed in from a car wreck, and it shoved the whole front end over to the passenger side. Luckily it didnt mess up the strut towers, but headlights are off, so is bumper. Can this be fixed? Is unibody fixable? The car has a lot of pep, and has good excelleration. I would really like to keep it, I plan on doing some performance things to it, if I can iron out the problems. Sorry for the long winded tale, any help will be greatly appreciated. :santa: Merry Christmas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meeky Moose Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 welcome to the board :wave: as far as the carb goes, if you want to do performance things to it anyways, i would ditch that carb and get a real weber.. can find one here for not too much.. it will make a huge difference and you'll be able to tune it properly.. as far as the temperature goes, you need to get this one fixed before anything else, these engines don't handle heat well at all.. i would replace the thermostat, flush the cooling system, and make sure the electric fan(s) are working properly. i'm sure someone here can help with the vacuum leaks.. my EA-81 hatchback has an aftermarket weber, so alot of the vacuum stuff changes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted December 12, 2003 Share Posted December 12, 2003 First thing - the ECM light is controlled by the feedback carb computer, and you'll need to check the codes comming off that. Likely it's a bad O2 sensor, or something along those lines. The computer has no way to check the cat, so even if it were plugged, it couldn't possibly know. It's under the dash on the drivers side - there should be a gold or black box under the steering column with a flashing light..... your chiltons manual should be able to tell you the codes. The carter carbs are known the be real peices of ****e, so putting on a 32/36 DGEV Weber would be adviseble - they aren't real cheap new, so you might find a used one and rebuild it. Also - if you do, since you have the carter and not the Hitachi, you'll have to switch to the Hitachi manifold, as the Weber will not fit on your current manifold. Actually - these engines hold heat alright - my Brat had almost NO coolant in it for probably a good 50 miles, and the gauge got right to the bottom of the red - never hurt the thing tho. It's the EA82's and especially the EA82T's that don't hold the heat. Check your cooling system - there's only a few parts to it, and basically if changing the thermostat and a flush doesn't clear it up, then it's time for a new radiator. The Front end damage can be pulled straight again by a frame shop - probably not a cheap repair tho - could get another whole car for the cost of that operation alone. The body panels up there can be replaced with any panel from an EA81 car - the hood and fenders are all the same for every model. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geck512 Posted April 19, 2004 Share Posted April 19, 2004 Ah thanks for the info GD I was looking for how to check my "computer" on my ea81. Joshua Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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