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Hi everyone! Im a new member here. I have never been into Subarus, didn't know much about them (except that they are hard to get parts for where i am from) so i have stayed away from them. My wife has always been joking around that when she gets her license she would want a Subaru (she has seen those WRX STIs somewhere and every time someone says Subaru that car comes up on her mind). So few years ago i bought her "a Subaru" as a gag for her birthday. It was a rusted out Subaru Leone 1982 Hatchback. That car has been sitting since then to have a proper rebuild. So two years ago i found this 86 Loyale for 200 Euros for a parts car (Wifes Leone is 2WD so this Loyale was supposed to be a donor for 4WD). As soon as i bought the Loyale we decided to trash that car a little and we had so much fun - so much that i destroyed the clutch. I got some other car projects going and due to lack of time and money to "properly" do those projects i decided to hop up my motivation to change the clutch on the Loyale and do some winter beating, so i dragged Loyale home from my country side place. To change the clutch i decided to take the engine out (didn't even use a cherry picker, just pulled it out with my buddy and our raw strength). Clutch was pretty much gone. So changing the clutch became so much more Engine was gunky so i decided to re-seal it with new gaskets. So i took it to pressure washer first. Also found out that previous owner had messed up ALL threads on headers. I had my friend drill and tap new 8 holes. (I don't have the pic of new holes) but i decided to build new headers. When i opened up the oil pan i noticed that a lot of junk came out. The car also had crazy lifter noise so i decided to replace cam case O rings that were pain to order. Im not so sure about lifters being sealed in their place it silicone, anyways on of the lifters had came a part so i ordered all 8 new lifters and put it all back together. So i got new exedy clutch for Subaru XT 2.7l, i got my flywheel machined 1.6mm. New water pump, new pulleys, new timing belts and tensioners, new cam seals, new crank seals (front and back), new valve cover gaskets, new cam case O rings, new oil pump gaskets. This car is a parts car for my wifes Leone (which im not going to restore least not before 5 years) and THIS Loyale im building is pretty much trashes. Every part of this old Subaru keeps fighting me and more i disassemble the more needs replacing. I am not going to restore this car, its just for having fun (maybe do some ice racing) and crawl offroad around in my country side forest. So why build so much? I don't know! My friends keep giving me a crap about sinking so much time and money into this old Subaru. I got to admit i became huge fan of Subaru engineering and these old cars are awesome. There will be more to come, currently messing around with brakes (brakes are completely shot - front calipers don't move in any directions, caliper pistons are destroyed and couldn't find new ones, rear drum brakes were braking off everywhere i touched them) i got new brakes ordered from Rockauto and it will take some time for them to arrive. Also im missing those clips that hold clutch release bearing to the clutch fork (been waiting 2 months on those clips) so then the engine can go in.

And if the seal or gasket wants to slip out you can use a little Vaseline or dab of grease depending on what you’re doing. Nothing is best if you can achieve. The infamous O ring for the EA82 Mickey Mouse was always one of those.

I’ve never seen Tightening the valve cover bolts slow down a leak. The gasket is too brittle and hard, tightening doesn’t mitigate that on Subarus. Subaru valve cover gaskets are easy. There’s two bolts that are hard to get at - the lower rear corner bolts on each side - this has been true for many generations of subarus back to the 80s and probably 70s. They’ve all basically been identical in approach. A quality ratcheting 10mm wrench makes all the difference in the world on the rear lower cover bolts. they can be insanely difficult to remove without that tool and easy with it. plan on it taking a little longer than you think and you’ll be golden. It’s not bad at all, actually they’re easy. one of those retractable mirrors might be mildly helpful if this is the first time familiarizing yourself with that area just to get a feel for the area and seeing more clearly what it looks like before you dive in. A side picture of your engine might help too if you can google one just for perspective. Definitely not needed, I’ve never done that for VCs but just depends how much experience you have and how you learn, if you’re visual, etc. If youre rust free and have excellent work space and tools at the ready to lift the engine without taking any set up time then sure do that. most average DIY will spend 30 additional minutes set up, maybe rounding off a rusty 14mm engine mount nut, crawling under and back out multiple times and wash rinse repeat for the other side, all to save 30 minutes for a net gain of 0 minutes. Not worth it unless you have some very compelling set up or reason otherwise.

Thanks for the input and don’t worry, I wont’t really be wheeling this thing. Like I said earlier, my highest priority is building a daily driver that is super reliable and maintains a stock look and feel aside from lift, wheels, and tires. Trust me, it has taken me a very long time to come to a point of divergence from a completely stock refresh. I fully realize how rare it is to come across a wagon this clean, I drove all the way to Arkansas from Florida to purchase it from the original owner more than ten years ago. My move to California from Florida presented some SMOG issues, hence the repower. I don’t plan on modifying body or interior in any way, just upgrading to 5spd from 4spd with a more robust smogable power plant. I see that a 4” lift and A/T’s might be a bit much but then again, why not!

Looking at some of those pics you have one very clean and tidy MY wagon! I’m kind of wishing you had something a bit more ratty to off-road in! For the EJ conversion, if not running AC, remove the wiring associated with the AC system. Otherwise it all stays where it is. You can either run wires from the EA81 engine loom plug to the likes of the oil pressure sender/oil warning light switch or cut down the small wiring loom to retain these two wires. To keep your factory temp gauge accurate as it is now, it’s a good time to have the coolant crossover pipe modified to fit the EA temp sensor in it. The EJ one is smaller and reads very low on the factory temp gauge when used. Alternatively run an aftermarket gauge plumber into the heater hoses on the outlet one. Cut down your EJ loom and lay it out over the factory wiring where possible. Parts of the wiring will naturally lay out in other areas. Some thought will need to go into this! Cheers Bennie

Look for loose connections?

My cousin visited me and complained what an eyesore one rust spot is (there are tons of rust spots but this stood out real bad) So he grabbed a welder and fixed it for me while i was working on some wiring. Ive been messing with brakes, every piece of brake system has been fighting me and i ended up getting everything new, some parts have already arrived from Rockauto but most of them are missing so ive been working on other brake stuff that i couldnt get online. Was hoping to do a cheap fix on brake calipers but these pistons are not salvageable. Couldnt find any new pistons online so i ordered new calipers. Rear brakes cylinder broke in half when i tried to connect brake line to it. I got drums and backing plates sand blasted. Backing plates needed new lip so i made them from scratch. They are not very accurate but turned okay i guess. Also any suggestions for rear diff lock? Does parts from newer subarus fit? Should i just cheap out and weld the diff? I was thinking about fabricating something like phantom grip. Would some valve springs work strong enough for phantom grip?

I was in "stupid mode" one night(about 10 yrs ago)and was going down the highway in my 1981 Subaru station wagon 2wd--my first Subaru ever-- all it had for an exhaust was the y- pipe to the resignator and if I got on it and shifted into the next gear--a big ol' glow would come out from under it(backfire that is!)and what I didn't notice the last time I did it--that there was a State Trooper passing me going the opposite direction. Soon as he had seen that, he turned around and had come after me--I went into "stupid mode" and off we went!! We went about 2 miles and come to a 90 degree turn which I took at about 85 miles per hour. And then I kept going for about another 15 miles, by this time now there is 5 State Troopers behind me and finally they ran me off the road. After they had cuffed and stuffed me, they took me back to the station and were asking me why I did it and they told me that they were amazed at how fast I was going in a Subaru station wagon. They said my top speed clocked out at 110 mph! They said I was going so fast that they were setting up a road block that I had passed BEFORE they had even had it set up! They said that a week before that-they were chasing a Dodge Daytona and it only topped out at 102 mph. Now 4 tickets later I got bailed out then a month and a half later went to court for the tickets there were supposed to be four(as just stated) 1) for doing 85mph in a 35mph 2) passing on the right 3) driving to endanger 4) trying to elude State Police Something was on my side that day because only one ticket came up---passing on the right--the other three were lost! Cost me $50.00 for that ticket and $550.00 for the damage that I had done to the police cruiser Fun ride huh!?!?