Racerfab

My brother and I went through this very thing on his '84 GL-10. Then he blew the motor and scrapped the car, but that's a different story... OK, here's what I know: The change over is very straight forward. Just take off the air-struts. Replace with standard units and springs. Done. -OR- Use a coil-over conversion kit on the normal struts (not air). This method gives adjustability and is really inexpensive. Do a search on ebay and you'll see kits for various cars. It is just a sleeve that slips over the strut (where the standard spring goes), clamps into place, and gives an adjustable base for a coil spring to perch. I suppose you could use these on the air struts, also. I think they're around $350 from Ground Control. Check out what the off-road boys from Australia are doing... On my bro's car we took off all the air related systems (compressor, etc.) and saved about 20-ish pounds, I think. I found lots of info on USMB in the XT stuff. Others have definitely done this and posted... Good luck!

The fact that it gets worse with electrical stuff on makes me think that it's the waterpump or loose belts. Aternator sees load=hotter temps. I've had many old cars w/ bad impellers. Common problem in my book.

Oil pressure goes down if the idle speed is too low. Sometimes this happens during warm up. Just watch it the next few times you warm it up. If you want to, put an oil pressure guage on it. Cheap enough...Good luck!

That's about the same as my 04 STi!

Well, less than $20 in brass we got air into the struts. Deleted the compressor and air tank. 14lbs off the front of the car. It needs limiting cables, though. The front has positive camber as it is. We also built an 2.5" exhaust from pcs bought at Autozone. The car is much faster now. Next we're building a header and uppipe. The old stock exhaust without the muffler 37lbs. New exhaust is maybe 15.

Compression checks don't really have much to do with compression ratio. It does a little, but compression ratio is a static measurement. Cylinder compression is a dynamic measurement. When your checking with a guage, your looking for consistency. The cylinders should all be within 10% of one another. Valve wear, ring wear, cam specs, cam timing, all have an impact on the cylinder compression but the compression ratio is still the same. As an engine gets worn the compression will decrease, but the ratio is the same. Look for the numbers to be similar, any dramatic difference is a sign of a problem. But 140 sounds good. Good luck.

I found a 92 Legacy wgn at the local JY. Think it'll work? I don't mind doing some mods to make things fit. I have a racecar fab shop, and been building cars for years. No big deal, really. We dragged this car out of the woods, but it runs and drives for $350. But man, driving this thing to the shop was like riding a skateboard! It looks cool sitting all the way down, though. Tappermanor, I'll run it by my brother tonight. Thanks!

yeah, I saw this. But money is the problemo right now--hence the JY run. My bro is saving up for school, so the good stuff is down the road a bit. Thanks!

Hello everyone. I have been looking for info on the air-to-standard strut conversion for my brothers 86 XT GL-10 turbo. I've searched all over, and can't seem to find a concise "this will fit" list of bolt on swap info. We're trying to go from air ride to standard w/ junkyard stuff. No XT's at local junkyards, but Legacys etc. are available. Also, since we're doing this, is it reasonable to just do the five lug conversion? Does that give bigger brakes? I don't want to ask for too much, but a comprehensive list would be great. I am under the impression that any ea82 chassis can donate, true? What about later models w/ej22? By the way, I drive an '04 STi. My bro gets the intercooler when we get around to the ej22T swap...after my frontmount, of course! Thanks!