Subarian

Experience is a hard teacher. Of course, getting my son to understand that is another topic... That happened to me in an Olds 455 conversion I did in a car I built. The saddest part was that I did it in the middle of winter, and I had no garage, so I built the engine in my kitchen. It was a sad day. Good luck to you.

Do you hear a gurgling sound coming from the area by the heater core? It sounds to me like you have air in your cooling system. Removing it isn't too hard, though. It's best if you can park with the nose of the car uphill, the steeper the better. Remove the radiator cap, and squeeze the top radiator hose to burp the air out. Top off the coolant and repeat until you don't get any more air coming out. Start the car with the cap still off and check again to make sure there wasn't any air trapped in the sytem.I think this will take care of your problem.

I know, the vacuum lines are a pain. But on the passenger side, mounted on the inner fender well and in front of the wheel well, there's a device with a couple of vacuum lines running to it. I can't remember exactly how it's supposed to work, since I replaced my stock carb a long time ago, but its purpose is to prevent backfiring when you shift. The AIR system introduces fresh air into the exhaust ahead of the catalytic convertor to help it burn off hydrocarbons. On each head, next to the exhaust port, there is a tube that's about an inch in diameter. These run up to reed valves fed through the air cleaner. Sometimes those reed valves go bad. On mine, I just blocked those ports off. I used a nickel (maybe it was a quarter) under the flange and bolted it tight. I cut off the tubing, because there was no where for it to go with my aftermarket carb, but you could try blocking it off that way and see if it fixes the problem. If not, just unbolt it and remove the coin. Oh, and the canister is your evaporative canister. It takes vapors from the fuel system and recycles them into the intake. That's not going to have anything to do with backfiring.

I can't give you a specific link, but I know there's a lot of info on the Subaru Retrofitting board. Also, there are some board members who sell adapter plates. They might be able to give you more info as well.

Yeah, the only way to know if a plastic float is bad is to weigh it. Back in the old days we used to put our Quadrajet plastic floats in the over for a couple of hours to dry them out, but it tends to stink up the house and it's only a temporary fix. Brass floats almost never leak. About the only way to get them to leak is to mishandle them when they're out of the car. I agree that you shouldn't be seeing any fuel leaking around the throttle plate shafts. If they're loose, you might have some idle problems, but there definitely shouldn't be any fuel. One other piece of free advice: If you've been trying for a long time to start this car, check to see if your oil smells like gas. I had a problem with an engine starting after a rebuild (it was a leaking carb), and when I finally got it running, it ran for about 100 miles before I spun a bearing.

262.88 for the water pump kit and 159.00 for the controller at www.spatechnique.com. It seems like a lot of money to me. I guess if you want to squeeze every last ounce of power out of the motor, it might be worth the money. But remember the testing they report on in the linked article is on a Ford V8. You might not experience the same kind of horsepower and economy advantages on a 1.8. The installation does look pretty simple, though. And if the claim of a 2,000 hour life is good, you should be good for 100,000 miles or so, depending on your driving style.

A stronger spring would help with return, and if you make it heavy enough, you might save a lot of gas. You might want to use carb cleaner or brake parts cleaner rather than WD-40, because if the throttle plate is sticking it's likely to be varnish buildup on the throttle shaft. Also, as RallyRuss has said, check the other things like your pedal to make sure it's not something simple.

Out of curiosity, how's the rotor thickness? And are both sides the same thickness?

I use permatex aviation on most gaskets that are going to be in contact with water or oil, like water pump and oil pan gaskets. I always install HG dry, though.

What's the reason for replacing the main bearings? If you've got any knocking, I would at least plastigage all of the bearings, mains and rods. As long as you're going that far, you might want to pull the pistons just to check the condition of the pistons and rings. Just my opinion. I'd rather open it up once than go back.

Exhaust valve, maybe. I had a Chevy with bad valves that did the same thing. These engines are very tough, so unless it becomes a problem with power or driveability, I don't think I'd worry about it too much.

I run 4 degrees additional initial advance (12 BTDC) and I haven't had any backfiring issues. I agree that it's probably not related to timing.I have removed the AIR from my engine. You also should have an anti-backfire valve. Make sure the vacuum to it is connected. It's probably located on the passenger side in front of the wheel well.

Resealing will probably help bring it up a little bit- 5 psi at idle on mine. You need three pieces: the mickey mouse gasket (it kind of looks like it has mouse ears), the o-ring, and the seal. Nothing to it but cleaning it up and putting the new parts in. That's resealing it. If you've got low oil pressure, you might want to replace the relief spring as well.

Couldn't you also put the WRX engine in with an adapter plate and use the stock drive train, especially if it's a d/r 5 speed?

I've heard the claim before, but I've never tried it. It sounds like an experiment is in order. I'll get back with you in a few weeks...

I always install carb gaskets dry. Same for EGR.

It's healthier than crack, but I think it's more addictive.

If you're getting equal tension at both sides, the only thing I can think of is internal. There's a loose, semi-ratcheting arrangement inside the piston. I say semi-ratcheting because I don't know how else to describe it. It doesn't actually have a ratchet pawl, but it adjusts by turning within the piston. If contamination and gunk have fouled those threads, it might not be adjusting itself. The only way to fix that is to rebuild the caliper, which isn't terribly difficult or expensive. The rebuild kit includes a new seal and boot (for the piston) and you just clean it out really well with brake parts cleaner and reassemble.

So did that fix your problem?

You'll pick up a little performance going from a stock carb to a Weber, but I can't say you would going from FI to a Weber. They're good carbs, but they're not magic. I agree with zyewdall, a manual trans would probably be a better upgrade. Your engine is a SOHC, and I don't know for sure, but I kind of doubt a cam from an EJ would fit.

I don't think it would be too hard. You would probably need to swap out the distributor for one from a carbed model, and the fuel pump on the injected model puts out more pressure, so if you didn't want to change that you would need a fuel pressure regulator, but the rest of it would just be fabricating any pieces you need to get the carb working, like the bellcrank and return spring.

I've only seen it once. I think it was below the radio and had some buttons for the different functions.

I thought of something else that might be helpful. I used the stock carb's bellcrank and trimmed some metal off of it so it would work on the Weber. It was a lot easier than fabricating a new one.

Another option is using a EA82T motor and upgrading. Some people on the board are reporting WRX performance with upgrades to the turbo, exhaust, installing an intercooler, etc.

I used to have a truck that ran on LPG. The problem is vaporizing the fuel correctly. There's a convertor that's warmed by water from the cooling system to make sure the fuel vaporizes before it enters the engine.