edrach

EJ series much easier to work on for many repairs. One timing belt instead of two; front axle replacement much easier; engine removal easier. I'll second GD's comments on handling and power. I loved my '94 Impreza 4 door; the EJ18 engine just loved to rev and it was a joy to drive. I've had manual transmissions all my life and prefer them so I can't address the comments favoring the automatic.

I'm with the 180 degree out camp. I've done my share of these and occasionally with have it 1/2 rotation out. You can still sight through the hole, but if you look closely enough it's only half a hole! Bailing wire works, a nail, the right size machince screw will work......leaving it out will work UNTIL the first time you stretch the suspension and then the DOJ will fall off the stub axle on the transmission. Very embarassing.

I forgot to mention a Peugeot with one 14" steelie left on the front right of the car. Located in the most southern row.

Lynnwood, WA A '94 Impreza wagon, automatic, with a smashed in front end and 180K on the odometer is in the yard. Transmission still there and motor is gone. Still some salvageable body parts and interior pieces. Someone really tore apart the dash. Smokey Point, WA Apparently open. Somewhere off exit 206 of I-5.

Lynnwood, WA. Nice looking '85 2WD Hatch (white with blue trim) with 130K on the odometer showed up recently. Good body pieces, good bumpers front and rear, engine is mostly intact along with 5 speed transmission. A couple of EA82's also in the yard. Smokey Point, WA Apparently open. Somewhere off exit 206 of I-5.

Great pictures Austin. 216 of them; I've got to get a life!

I'm glad you could make it. Thanks for your service to our country and I'm pleased you are back safe and sound.

Well, Seattle doesn't often get snow; mostly rain. But the mountains are within an hour's drive. Remember, some of these pics were taken at 4000 and 5000 feet above sea level. When we started out at McD's it was raining; ten miles later (and 1000 feet higher), it turned to snow. Plus this is my 6th year of doing this, and this is the most snow I've seen; usually it's not quite this deep until we get much higher than we could go this year.

Patience guys. I got home at 7pm, had to warm up and have some supper. Here's the few shots I took today. Parking lot at McDonald's in Enumclaw. View from my Impreza with Jrach driving. Still about 10 miles from the turn into the forest. View out my side window; still 8 miles for so from entering the forest. Finally entering the forest; waiting for traffic to clear. A portion of the staging area. A place to play in the snow or prepare to go out and fetch a tree. View from the road where we stopped to pick up a few trees. Jrach on the side of the hill cutting down the first of two trees. Hard to tell but he's up the side of the hill about 100 feet. This shot taken with my telephoto on 40X. Ratty2Austin and his mini snowboard. Austin generates his own heat; note the cooler person to his right. Most of the group who were present today. You can see the rest of my pics at http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/photos/showgallery.php?cat=1093

We experienced the icing problem with the Weber first hand today. Jrach was driving my weberized Brat and I was driving our Impreza on the way to the Xmas tree run today. Ten miles from Enumclaw Jrach pulled over since the car was running like crap. We got it started again and "limped" on to E with me following. I could see the black smoke from the exhaust whenever it started to run too rich; I could smell it too! Jrach pulled into a minimart about two miles from E and popped the hood. The left side of the weber's primary barrel was completely white with frost!. Drove the rest of the way to E and left the Brat at McD's and used the Impreza for our tree run. No problem on the way home since the temperature was just a few degrees warmer (rain instead of snow:mad: ). Anyway, I'll have to scour the PAP yards to find that plastic air deflector that will keep our weber from freezing over again.l

Thanks Ken for a great time. A pleasure following Zap up the hill and having you as backup behind. For those of you who missed it, this has been the best run in the 6 years I've done it. The most people, the most snow on the ground, and the most fun. Jrach scored two nice trees for his home and mine. Kind of scary for his old man seeing how high he climbed up the side of a mountain to get them. I'll post pics as soon as I can get them out of the camera.

A nice write-up; you should submit it to the USRM if you haven't already. Also, a good application of never-seeze compound on the bolts when mounting the shocks will go a long toward future problems with removing the bolts to replace the shocks.

Good to see you back.

I vote for the Redline 75W-90NS. I have 203K on our '91 Legacy daily driver and the gearbox is still going strong. I started the Redline when I bought the car at 93K because of a slight crunch going into 2nd. I installed Lucas gearoil at 196K and the car would crunch almost all shifts. Drained out the Lucas stuff and installed Redline again and the transmission (and I) is happy again. The '97 Impreza is currently on Castrol 75W-90 synthetic. Car is my wife's daily driver and my occasional rallycross car. Car seems to like the Castrol and is currently approaching 135K.

No it's not VLSD. I have a VLSD diff and when I spin the input both output shafts turn in the same direction. Turning one output shaft while holding the input shaft will cause the other output shaft to turn in the same direction. Look on the VIN plate mounted in the engine compartment (driver's side top of the fender well) and write down the transmission number. Google that number and hope something comes up; it should tell you the transmission type, ratios, and rear ratio. There's a link in the USRM that gives that type of information for manual gearboxes. With luck you can find similar info on automatic transmissions.

I found it on ebay by accident. Great piece of luck too. It's basically a 3/16" drift with a one foot shank. I don't need the extra length for the EA81/82 cars but it's real useful on my Legacy since there's stuff in the way of my hammer using a standard drift tool.

Bring it home and pull the timing cover ends off. This will tell you if a timing belt broke. If that's the case, you'll likely need significant repair costs since your EJ22 is an interference engine. At 125K on the car, timing belt should have been replaced as routine maintenance. Good luck with it and let us know what you find.

Glad to hear you got it home. Have a happy thanksgiving and let us know what you find.

Seats are pretty interchangeable. I just installed a '03 WRX front driver's seat in our '91 Legacy wagon. It bolted right in. I also use a WRX seat in our '97 Impreza; only thing is I had to move the seat belt receptable over to it since the belts are not compatible. I see WRX front seats in good condition for around $200 on nasioc all the time. Really nice ones go for a bit more. I bought one set for $50 since the bolster had a two inch tear in it. My sweet wife did a great job sewing a patch in place after I stuffed more foam into the bolster. You can't even see the patch if you don't look closely. Just a clarification: I didn't mean switch left and right seats; I put WRX seats into both my Legacy wagon and Impreza wagon.

Another thought is the ignitor if you have a Hitachi distributor. A failing ignitor has all the symptoms of a bad coil since it's intimately involved with making spark. Over the years I've had three of them fail on various EA81 cars we've owned. As a matter of fact I carried a spare (from PAP and tested at B& in all the old wagons and our Brat. Our Brat still has the spare in the glovebox.

I have an Accell coil also and NEVER had problems with it in the 7+ years its been on the car. It's the yellow one; my understanding is the silver ones are the crappy ones.

I second the fuel filter thing; change them both. Also, add some "dry gas" to the tank. It's that time of year again.

Sorry to hear your Brat died. I have to ask, do you have tow coverage in your insurance? With all the beaters I've owned, I have that as well as AAA. Insurance takes care of the under 10 mile tows and AAA takes me home if it's under 100 miles. Good luck getting it home and fixed.

You're in luck since you run ORG most likely. ORG is already discussing how to minimize your entry costs (by absorbing some of the fee) and it's not likely that you'll be paying $45 for a day's worth of fun. Just an aside; my comment is personal opinion, not fact. ORG hasn't announced how they will handle this as yet.

Typical non-member price for ORG and PRG events was $30. "Local" membership dropped the entry to $25. No one has announced how they're going to handle the extra $15.