zyewdall

Haha. I saw an '89 legacy advertised at a used car dealer once... Hmmmmmm

The people swimming their subies put the electric fans on a switch, and take the belt driven fan off. I've seen pictures from the '60's of people taking the belts and fan off old pickups in order to ford creeks, then put them back on on the other side.

On my '82 with leprosy I would (and did all the time). Also old galvanized commercial ductwork sections pulled out of the dumpster, attached with roofing screws. But this is a new car. If you have a wirefeed welder, I'd weld a small sheet metal plate over it, then bondo over it to smooth the whole thing out. If not, fill the hole with great stuff spray foam, use a sharp knife to shape back to how to want it, then fiberglass over the top. Make sure you primer any exposed metal inside before adding bondo on the outside, or it could rust from the inside out. See if you can pop out the dent in the top above the hole before patching the hole too.

Well, on the clutch, I've heard that it's easier by far to get it lined up again if you pull the engine. I've only done it by pulling the engine (had to do other engine stuff anyway). I think it's faster on the way out to pull the tranny from underneath though. Especially since you don't even had a rear driveshaft to hook up. Someone makes a carbureator that makes the 80's subaru's look easy???? I've always thought they were a complete PITA, and way too complicated. But then again, I was used to '60's carbureators without any pollution control stuff on them.

I'm amazed at what people can ignore on gauges. Of course, I'm used to old cars that I assume are about to die, and am usually pleasantly suprised every day that nothing bad happens. And to be fair it takes a while to get used to what a temp guage is supposed to read. My '87 GL always sat halfway up the guage, which freaked me out to begin with after driving the '89 GL, because on it, anything over 1/4 of the guage meant something was wrong.

Hmmmmmm. Have you checked to see if the power to the ignition and solenoid is really cut when you turn the key off. If there was a large capacitor in the system, it could keep enough voltage on there for a while to keep it from thinking it was turned off. I can't really think where such a capacitor might be though... It'd have to be about the size of a 1liter bottle to do that I think, and that certainly isn't a stock thing...

I'm not sure I understand either of the issues? A mounting screw fell into the engine? Huh? Was this an error due to someone dropping something in there, and what had to be replaced? And I've never had an overheating car melt the timing belt. Blow head gaskets yes, but you have to get it pretty hot to melt a timing belt. Were they paying attention to the temperature gauge at all? (I admit, there are times when you can't just pull over and stop when you see the gauge spike -- like when I blew my head gasket...). If stuff this weird is happening, it sort of sounds like it's got a hex on it or something. A friend of mine just got a good used '97 2.2 engine for $500, so perhaps the way to go would be to get a used engine, if they like the rest of the car. I would have done this before the previous two repairs though.

I think they're really easy to work on. Once you get used to them. People used to 70's V-8's don't seem to like em much. But if you've ever worked on a transverse engine car, you'll like the subaru much better. Other than the oil leaks subarian mentioned, don't overheat it (tends to blow the head gasket, sort of like any car), and change the timing belt, because it's probalby about to break if you don't know the history of the car (if it's an EA82 engine). No one seems to change them till after it breaks. If its the EA81 engine, it doesn't have a timing belt, so don't worry. I don't know which the coupe came with in '86. I like your username.

I think even a VW four cylinder block may outweigh the suby. A complete VW 1.6D engine is 320 lbs, and a complete EA82 is what, 220lbs or so?

But you said it cranks fine, right? Normal speed? I was going to say stripped timing belt, but apparently you already checked that too. Usually these will throw a code if anything in the electronic ignition is dead, but perhaps the CEL is dead. Did the CEL usually come on like it should when you first turn the key to run? If your battery voltage is good, the relays clicking could be a red herring -- they might normally do that, but you just don't hear it because the engine starts???

That does sound odd that it shuts completely off. But, why do you need AWD at that speed anyway? (after you get the axle fixed, that is). If the road surface is so slippery that you need awd to get to faster than 50mph, you probalby don't want to be going over 50mph anyway, do you?

I doubt it, especially if you count your labor. I thought you wanted it to use yourself. Most people who buy old subaru's just want a cheap old car and don't even know what the difference between a subaru and a toyota and a chevy cavalier is (except for nuts like us who might actually want a dual range legacy and know exactly why we'd want it too...) And most of us would rather do it ourselves than buy one that someone has already modded. In my experience. On the other hand, $375 is a pretty good price for a EJ22 engine in good condition....

Well, I went into a ditch at about 35 degree angle when I slid off a snow bank. Put out a cloud of blue smoke from the oil leaking past the rings when I started it up afterwards, but no other ill effects. I've got pic somewhere of me and the dodge hemi who got stuck trying to tow me out (he had highway tires, and not the most experienced driver) -- maybe I'll find it and post tonight.

I think the manuals were different than the autos, turbos, or 2wd's (different # of splines), and I can't remember if the EA81's are the same as the EA82's. But even if its just the 4wd manual EA82's, that's still 9 years of cars to choose from. Anyone else have better recollection on this than I do? I know I've seen it in posts about swapping transmissions, so you might search there.

Yeah. Funny how the suby just charges through and the 4 runner looks like it's sweating a little.... I had my 4wd mitsubishi pickup on a steep dirt road to a friends house this weekend, about 2" of snow on the road. I could tell it wasn't gripping as well as my suby does. Had to put it in 4wd, and I think the suby would have made it in 2wd fine (there was a 1980 honda civic at the top too....)

Sounds like about the right mileage for the o2 sensor to fail. Usually they don't have any effects except lowered gas mileage, but maybe it's causing the poor running too? Dunno. IIRC, the '94 CEL code can be read by hooking two wires together under the dash and looking for a blinking light? I know that's the way it is on my '89 GL. The USRM should have the details for the legacies. In '95 or so, they all went to the computer readers, which autozone/checker/etc will usually read for free (in order to sell you the part you need....) If it is just the O2 sensor, it shouldn't be too bad. I got a generic replacement sensor for mine for $22

O2 sensor is a common one as they get older, and the engine will usually run fine still. I've heard you can increase gas mileage a bit by replacing the O2 sensor though.

Sounds well toasted. You could put the EJ engine in the old EA81 car. Or, I think someone else suggested putting a regular 5spd from another legacy, or an old 5spd dual range from a EA82 in.

So where do you get JB80? Is there a particular auto store that carries it, as I don't think I've ever seen anything except liquid wrench and WD40. I want to give it a try. My procedure for taking apart exhaust systems is to sawzall the pipes. Once it's off, I use the angle grinder to remove all the bolts from the flanges, then weld the pipe back together and buy new bolts for the flanges so I can reassemble it.... sort of rediculous huh?

Are we all using US gallons here, are are some people using imperial gallons? I've run into that before when talking about mpg. An imperial gallon is 1.2 US gallons. I've gotten 36mpg highest ever in my '82 GL. That was on a 160 mile one way highway trip that ended up 3,000 feet lower elevation than it started. 27-32 is more normal for my highway mileage in the '89 GL. Even if the old suby could get the same mileage as the jetta TDI, the performance is sort of lacking -- after driving a TDI on a road trip for a few days, I got back into my GL, and wondered why it could barely get out of it's own way.... turns out nothing was wrong with the car, just my expectations. Something to do with the not having 180 ft lbs of torque at 1800rpm. Too bad the TDI's have just lousy ground clearance, and are rather expensive to maintain.

Have you checked the vacuum lines to the solenoid on the top of the transmission that put's it into 4wd? Might be not getting vaccum there?

What code did the check engine light give?

Only the 2.2/2.5's leak eh? :-p I think subaru is just reluctant to give up the tradition they established with the EA series...

EA82? Sounds about normal to me, depending on exactly what viscosity oil you're running. Z

Didn't think of steering, but I was in a situation once where I couldn't steer in 4wd because the back wheels had enough traction to just skid the whole car in the straight line, but in front wheel drive, the front wheels could steer just enough to get out of the rut that they were in. Once back over the offending rut under the snow, I put it back in 4wd though. Trenching acutally can be one use for chains, but only if you are in pretty hard or crusted snow, which is dangerous to try in subarus because you'll high center. And you have to be spinning them pretty good to trench anyway.