Fraser Posted April 1, 2005 Share Posted April 1, 2005 Hi all! I acquired an '85 fwd xt turbo for free a month or so ago and have some questions. 1. What is necessary to get the exhaust manifold all the way out? Mine has cracked a few of the welds and needs to be fixed! I have a feeling I'm losing a lot of power and a few friends around the neighborhood due to the noise. At one point I had it completely unbolted from the heads and turbo, but it seems like a squeeze to get it all the way out of the car without unbolting a couple motor mounts and moving the engine around. Any quick fix for this? 2. Any overtly necessary maintenance items? This car has ~140k on it and I've replaced the coolant lines to the turbo already to get the thing on the road. Any other stuff I should check out before I drive the snot out of it? It seems to run a bit hot- I threw a new thermo and coolant in it, but didn't seem to do much. Time for a new radiator and h20 pump? 3. Any quick power tweaks on these? I've never had a turbo car before and I would love to have some fun with this one. Are there any cheap/easy mods to do to this thing to get some extra juice? The car will probably end up being auto-x'ed and rally-x'ed a fair bit, and it's lacking in the power department. I've got plenty more questions, but I'll address them later- better not wear out my welcome too quickly... thanks guys! Fraser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted April 1, 2005 Share Posted April 1, 2005 Wilkommen. Dunno about your other q's, but you do want to get that engine cooling prob sorted. If your radiator looks ok, i would have it cleaned (they take the tanks off and run pipe cleaner things down it). If that doesn't fix it, you could try the pump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calebz Posted April 1, 2005 Share Posted April 1, 2005 If you don't know the maintenance history on the car, do yourself a favor, at least get the radiator flush, replace the water pump and the timing belts while your at it. Doing that could save you a whole lot of heartache in the future. Performance.. Do a search on the board to see what others are doing.. there are motor mods, suspension mods, exhaust mods.. all sorts of neat stuff.. and being individuals with almost zero aftermarket, we are all going about it a little differently. you can get into the game as cheaply as $10 with an ebay manual boost controller..but I wouldn't do that without at least a boost gauge to monitor boost levels... Or you can go whole hog with big turbo, intercooler, custom exhaust, copper head gaskets.. all sorts of stuff. Exhaust - crossover pipe.. Those things are a down right pain in the rump roast to get out with the motor in the car.. I have never done it without jacking up the motor a little.. Others have had some success with doing it without moving the motor.. I'll let them explain how. Oh, and welcome to the board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted April 1, 2005 Share Posted April 1, 2005 are you sure the exhaust manifold gaskets aren't just leaking? they can be really loud if leaking. fix your cooling right now or your car won't last very long. take note to see if you have any coolant loss or any bubbles in your overflow tank. pull the oil filller cap and see if it has any white residue underneath it. if you can rule out the head gaskets, it's a good idea to replace the radiator. being a non-interference engine you can just wait until the timing belt breaks on the side of the road somewhere or replace it now and know that it's good. (replace water pump at the same time). i always replace them right away since who knows how old the one is in there, i assume they're old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fraser Posted April 1, 2005 Author Share Posted April 1, 2005 Thanks for the welcome guys! Sounds like cooling needs to be my first priority. I'm pretty sure the headgaskets are alright at the moment- no mixed oil/coolant anywhere. I'll do a compression check in the next few days. Is it necessary to pull the motor to do the headgaskets? I can't imagine getting those heads off as it sits in the car... Do you guys recommend a good manual for this car? I've got the Chiltons "every Subie ever" manual and it's pretty useless. I'll hit you guys up for some more answers as they come along- Thanks! Fraser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted April 1, 2005 Share Posted April 1, 2005 subaru OEM FSM (factory service manual) is what you want though they are pricey, but excellent resources. heads should be done with the motor in the car. my time is too valuable to pull the motor. it is nice, easy and fine if you got lots of extra time and want to pull the motor or need to for something else (like clutch). but i routinely pull heads in the 6 cylinder XT6's which have much less room and more parts. the 4 cylinder i did last summer was easy, plenty of room though i've never done a turbo head gasket job. but otherwise the 4 cylinder head gaskets are straight forward and easy to do in the car. only sucky part, which doesn't bother me is that there are two heads, two head gaskets and two timing belts. twice as much as most cars. but they aren't that hard. the trickiest part half the time is dealing with seized or rusted or worse yet, sheared bolts. keep track of everything (bolts and parts) if it's your first time. it's very nice to have extra heads already milled, checked and with valve jobs so you can install them right away as opposed to taking your heads to the shop and waiting to finish the job. take your time, clean up all head bolts, holes and the head/block mating surface and do it right. not something you want to do incorrectly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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