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*This is all just musing, I have no intentions on doing this... For now* I'm in a bit of a lull waiting on my EA82 getting rebuilt and that's given me time to think. I remember seeing an old rally video showing a race spec EA82. The dual-carb setup they had going got me thinking. What if you did a dual setup using two SPFI throttle bodies rather than carbs? From what I remember the carbs on the rally engine were basically set directly on top of the intake ports either side of the engine. I don't have extensive experience with engines and I only have limited experience to base my ideas off of. Regardless, here's what I'm thinking. An N/A EA82 with MPFI heads (for better flow) with dual SPFI throttle bodies. Setup a quad exhaust (would take some tinkering with the internally split single exhaust ports). Most likely setup with a custom ECU (megasquirt or something similar). The power gains wouldn't be what I'd be going after, rather just an experiment using an outdated engine for the fun of the challenge. Any thoughts? Ideas? Book recommendations to help me better understand the math of engine design? I don't remember reading of anyone doing this but I think it'd be interesting to see it done. Obviously there's a lot that'd have to be considered. Injector CC's, how to plumb the cooling system into the throttle bodies and engine block, sensor locations, etc, etc. I'm just thinking out loud here. :]

B and I worked on all three of my Subarus and his blue Forester a few weeks ago. Bunch of relatively minor stuff but I went through the front struts on the white Outback. They've been making some clunking/spring shifting noises when turning tight at low speeds so I suspected the steering bearings needed a cleanup. I replaced one and regreased the other, haven't noticed those noises since. While I had them apart I noticed the bump stops were split. Haven't seen this on our other cars but this is the only set where we made the bottom of the body bigger to allow the bumpstop to expand to give it more travel. Perhaps now they can expand too much. Regardless, I replaced them. We got the Ford van heater core and electric fan installed on the Impreza. Tried to figure out which front wheel bearing (I assume) on my 2001 H6 OB is making noise but even using B's multi microphone noise identifying system we still can't tell. Neither side is loose or seems to get hot but at least one of them is making a lot of noise. Definitely louder or quieter when cornering so I assume wheel bearing. We replaced one of the rotors we thought was pulsating figuring it'd be an easy try and it maybe pulsates less but did nothing for the noise. The next weekend we went to the UP with some in laws/friends and went trail riding one day in the Impreza and Outback. Stopped at a gas station after some trail riding and I noticed the temps on the Impreza were creeping up so we pulled over, fuse and relay seemed good but driver's side fans were not running. Without the AC on temps didn't creep up too much even in the sand. I made the mistake of letting a novice drive the white Outback without me in it. Then I noticed the Outback was pulled over with steam coming out of the front end. Driver claims the brakes weren't working. It has some serious lower front end damage after going off the trail a bit and hitting a log. Lower radiator support and skid plate and bottom of engine very smashed. I think the front fenders, lights, crossmember, and possibly hood are still all in the right spots. In the long run probably the biggest downside is I’ll have to replace the head gaskets on my spare ez30. As we were pulling the car back on to the trail, I realized that we’d lost the rear bumper cover somewhere. Hooked the tow bar, lights, and safety chains up and started towing it north on the trail. Not too far down the trail we got to a big steep drop but it didn't look terrible so we went down that. Kept it under 20mph, looked it up later and that's apparently the safe flat towing threshhold for the 4EAT for a max of 30 miles. Still curious what exactly fails if you flat tow it too fast for too long. The rest of the trails weren't much of a problem and we eventually got back to pavement and aired back up the tires on the Impreza to 40psi. Flat towed white Outback to the closest town and asked the guy at the grocery store if it'd be OK to park it there overnight. He said one night would be fine. I couldn't convince others to retrace our steps and retrieve the rear bumper cover mainly since it was going to be dark soon. Most of the rental, almost all Uhaul, places were only open a few hours on Saturday so I either had to wait for them to open or by the time they were open I wouldn't have been able to get to them before they closed, had to talk to one guy for a bit to figure out how to get them to rent me a tow dolly. I did a test drive of my dad’s 1987 full size 3/4 ton Dodge van, seemed to be running rough but not terrible. None of my primitive engine tuning skills seemed to help. After a lot of calling around I drove the van an hour to U haul to pick up a tow dolly. On the way there the engine starting making noise and I looked at the oil pressure gauge (blocked by my hand in a normal 10-2 driving position) and it was reading nothing. Pulled over, after a bit of looking around figured out one of the oil pressure sensors had started leaking badly. We've had this happen on a different full size Dodge van probably 20 years ago. Fortunately there are two sensors on this one going into a tee so I was able to take that apart and just put in one sensor. Dumped some engine oil in and proceeded. At the rental place the lights on the tow dolly didn't work. Wasn't getting power at the four pin connector but had power at the six pin connector (both on van). They of course had just run out of adapters. So I drove to the local Ace and picked one up, drove back, plugged it in, right side light on tow dolly not working. Hooked up to another tow dolly with functional lights. Drove about two hours back up to where we'd left the Outback. During this driving I'd realized I didn't have the keys to the white Outback. But I did have a coat hanger and a screwdriver so I was able to get in. Fortunately for whatever reason in that car you can shift it into neutral without turning the ignition on. Lined the tow dolly up with the car and backed the van up to it. Pulled the car onto the tow dolly with a come along (hand winch). Strapped it down, looped safety chains around the control arms. Then I realized I should have unbolted the rear driveshaft sooner but I was able to just get all four bolts. Was able to strap the driveshaft away from the rear diff so it didn't rub (I assume). Towed it about 1.5 hours back to the cabin. Chocked the rear wheels with some chunks of 4x4 and set the parking brake and drove the tow dolly out from under the car. Sunday morning I drove the tow dolly back and left it at the rental place, a two hour round trip. We drove the van back in addition to the two other cars we drove up there that still ran. Impreza temp gauge was right in the middle even with AC on in 95F weather on the highway. After returning home and tracing the fan wires from the fuse box to the fan I found that one of the pins for the main driver's side fan had pulled out and the connector looked melted. It would still occasionally run when I was pushing or pulling on the wires so I think it was just loose in the connector. Replaced the stock connector with spade terminals and heat shrunk/taped/zip tied everything back up, they all seem to run now. Drove Impreza to the cabin the following Friday morning. Strapped RF of bumper to engine. Removed front CV axles and replaced with loose OB Cvs I found in the basement. Unloaded flat towing equipment and put in Outback. Saturday morning I drove to the end point of our trail riding, filled up with gas, and retraced our steps backwards in search of the rear bumper cover. I figured I now had most of the rest of the day to kill so I'd do some mild trail riding/exploration on the way back. Impreza seems to spin the tires with less forward traction with the tires at 45psi as I had them that day than the 25psi I'd normally drop them to if I'd known I'd be trail riding as long as I did that day. I tried to do a big loop south of where I found the bumper cover. At the start it seemed a bit narrow/overgrown but there was a Forest Service trail open sign so I decided to go for it. Parts of it were very overgrown. Eventually there was a large tree that had fallen blocking it. I drove around the other half of the loop and got back to the fallen tree. There was no way I was going to do anything about it without a chainsaw, which I did not have. Checked out a stunt area I'd found on the satellite that had one big hillclimb and drove a side trail near the top of it. No intention of trying something like that solo so I moved on. Went to the end of a road on the map, figuring I might as well see where it went, turned out it kept going for miles with various side trails, none of them on my map at all. Went by a few old cabins along a river that looked like they hadn't been used in years but in decent shape. Drove down some roads that definitely seemed like they were just for logging, some of the steeper ones were even pretty nicely graveled. Eventually I was heading south on a nice wide dirt/gravel road and getting closer to a paved road we've been on many times. There were a couple of large boulders in the road but they could easily be driven around. Didn't see any signs on either side but decided not to drive past them. Also I think where this road comes out to pavement there might be a large berm. There was also a wide smooth road heading north from the “blocked” road but it had tall grass growing in it so I decided to skip that for the day and head back the way I came. On the way back north as I was heading by the old cabins I caught up to some locals driving UTVs. Each one had a guy in his 70s and one in his 20s. The younger guys were pretty entertained by the Subaru and they all kept asking how it did. I told them the trails around there were no problem for it. I asked about the cabins and they said the one we just passed by used to be theirs, they had a year by year lease with the forest service. Then it was declared a scenic river and hundreds of people lost the use of their cabins. Where we stopped was another one with a similar story. I asked about the logging roads and the big rocks and they said the logging company that has the contract for that section of forest tries to keep people out from tearing up their gravel(!) logging roads. They pulled over to let me by and I kept driving north until I eventually found a different way out. I got back on the highway and found a waterfall I'd seen on a 40 year old Michigan county map. The “trailhead” is a gravel spot big enough for one car along a gravel road with a rope tied around a few trees heading into the woods. No sign or anything. Hiked into the woods, trail was easy to follow, found the waterfall, pretty cool. Near there I went down a dead end forest road and encountered this turtle. When I got back to the cabin I set up the flat towing hardware and did a test drive. Seemed to do OK but tire was still rubbing on the tape I'd put on the end of the front bumper so I cut that off with the recip saw. Had some dinner and went to bed. Got up Sunday morning, packed up the car, checked fluids, aired up the tires in the Outback, and headed south. Flat towing went as smoothly as possible. Impreza has good power and bigger brakes than stock which helps. Temp gauge was right in the middle all weekend, even when towing, climbing sandy hills, AC on, etc. Left tow bar connected, drove Impreza in garage, disconnected tow bar, slid rear of Impreza sideways with a floor jack, drove Impreza out, pushed Outback in garage with Impreza.

Bad memory on this one, I can’t say for sure I’ve run it without the sensor connected. I did swap the sensor for a new one after the swap from wagon to brat, and no difference. I’ve been doing more reading in the forum about replacing knock sensor with resistor, so I ordered a pack of 560K’s this morning. The car is away at a mechanic’s yard so I’ll be reporting back to answer this later. There seems to be differing opinions in the reading about the safety of running the engine with resistor or mounting the sensor off-block. But a trial would maybe tell me if that sensor is giving ecu reason to pull the timing. It feels like a more drastic kill then kick, to me. We’ll see, next week. What about ‘up-dating’ the ecu? Anybody have a resource for that? I also came across this opinion in one of these threads: that changing the intake complete could be a sure solution, which I’ve thought about, maybe with another year, complete with its ecu. I’d like to avoid cutting down another wire harness, tho, and don’t have knowledge about which intakes will cross over to my 2000 obd2, Californicated. It’d be nice to have something a bit simpler, if that could work. thanks.

Next on the agenda is replacing the axle stub seal on the driver side. I was able to get the seals from a dealer and they showed up yesterday along with a new alternator mount bolt.

Yes than that would be poor design. I've never seen one without the retaining circle clip about an 1/8" inside the CV joint. Subaru or aftermarket? I always stay with the Green Subaru halfshafts.

Same question, different sensor. Does the bucking go away if you unplug the knock sensor?

No, the problem continues when the purge valve is disconnected. I got the car to a mechanic yesterday, and after reviewing the data with his scanner, and doing some research, he thinks the knock signal may be too sensitive. If the knock is sending a false signal to the ECM, it will pull the timing 10 degrees. I had also seen with my reader, with the live data, that the timing would advance 10 or more degrees when throttled up, but considered it normal, and couldn’t see that it corresponded with the misbehavior of the engine. Anyway, he says the service bulletin says to replace the ECM with an updated one and that people in the forums have been placing a resistor before the knock sensor. Anyone heard of this treatment? Or does it sound reasonable?

Current trend is "almost nothing is available, and what is available is usually garbage", alas...

You've all misunderstood the question. The clip at the end of the shaft that gets stuffed into the diff is not the issue. The clip is there and there's nothing to ask about. The question was about the clip that isn't inside the inner CV joint itself to prevent it from coming apart. I just looked at another couple of that type of shaft at a buddy's house, and there's nothing on them either. So I'm just calling it a $h!++y CV design that relies on the boot to keep it together without any positive retention mechanism for the greezy rollers contained within.

I really appreciate the insight. Thank you. I been out of the EA game for a long time and I been trying to get back up to speed on current part-trends.

I've been searching pretty hard over the last few years for a good radiator, and the only option in the US seems to be roughly four varieties of chinese all-aluminum models. There's a company in .au that supposedly still makes a copper-brass one, but they explicitly state they will not ship overseas, and did not respond to an email asking if they'd consider changing that policy. You can get the aluminum ones on ebay, or at o'reilly if you want a warranty. Quality... varies. The o'reilly one isn't terrible. The $90 ebay special is pretty ugly. I haven't tried the "Fenix" one for a higher price. There's a couple middle-priced ebay options. When searching, look for "leone" and "brumby" radiators, since that's what the rest of the word labels them as. If you do find a copper-brass one that's actually available in the US, let me know!

Well, I stand corrected. I swear last time I checked it, it was available in stock. Ding-dang.

"most available".... I haven't seen one of those available in many years.

scooby2 have you determined if it is your fuel pump that needs replacing? There is a way to put your ECU into "learn" (improper nomenclature) mode and when you turn the key to ON, the fuel pump will turn on in pulses. You'll be able to hear the pump, if you don't hear any pulsed buzzing then you know the pump isn't functioning. In my opinion this is the easiest way to test your pump as you don't have to remove anything other than some plastic panels below the steering column. If this vehicle is a single-point fuel injected model, fuel pumps are basically extinct. There are multiple forum posts on others using different non-OEM pumps so there's always a way to MacGyver something. :]

Looks like the most available and cheapest model is the one from RockAuto: https://shorturl.at/IpZnH The one that's installed isn't terrible but it's definitely got a drip from the endtank. Radiator shops don't exist anymore around here or I would have it repaired. I'm sure a splash of stopleak would be great if someone was wanting to half-rump roast it and sell it.

Yep, just pop it back in. It can take a good wack from the end of the axle. If you have the lower ball joint out so it's free, you can use the weight of the brake/hub to give you some weight.

So you don’t have the shaft all the way out, it’s just popped out to be loose? If that’s the case, it’ll have a c clip in there. Shove it back in and it’ll re-engage, it should hold enough that it doesn’t just slip out easily. Cheers Bennie

I completely replaced all of the grounds (wire and ends) for all of the grounds I could find in the engine bay. So far, so good. The windows seem to be moving a little quicker as well.

I have those plastic rings and several old school folks have them. Last I knew just a few years back you could still get them using a west coast dealer through their distributor.

Threw the Brat wheels on last night and cleaned out the massive buildup for road grime on the fuel filler neck. I had this same problem on an 95 Outback and it rusted it out. I also found some wiper pins online so I could replace the originals that said Made in Japan. I assume people just kept doing the refills but I hate those things.

I could not tell you the part number as the sales history is gone now but it is the same type as listed by several eBay drop shippers that pretend to be legitimate parts houses. The radiator had plastic end tanks. Just be sure the radiator cap and filler neck pair together correctly. If the spring in the radiator cap can move a 1/2" when you push on it manually, then make sure when you install it that it isn't being pushed in any further than maybe 1/4". The relief spring needs room to move after the cap is in place and when pushing down and turning to install my cap, I didn't notice that the spring was fully compressed and therefore had no pressure relief at all. I had burped the system really well so with no air trapped in the system, the hydraulic pressure built quickly as the engine heated. If I'd had some big air bubbles in the system, I probably would have been fine.

How long ago did you do that? If recently, there may still be prayer in your future. Depending on the severity and frequency of overheating, you may have compromised the main bearings - they're what goes if you overheat badly enough, often enough. So if you get the death rattle of spun bearings, STOP IMMEDIATELY and overhaul the engine. If this is caught quickly, it can still be salvaged. If not, permanent crank and/or block damage will result.

VERY late response, but yeah, it was a blown head gasket. Got the engine out and swapped them for fresh ones in my bedroom lol. Not bad for a first timer!

Does the bucking go away if you leave the valve unplugged?

Monthly update? Sweet Build!