scrap487

yeah lockers all the way, only practical ability gained, if you had lockers, from the dual/quad handbrake would be the ability to sort of skid-steer, when the diffs arent locked. On a street rig a quad handbrake setup would be loads of fun...

definately ea81 core. I should know, i just had the entire dash completely torn apart a few months ago cause of that.

except, ea81 is by far hands down waay more durable... :-p sorry I wont start that again

well at least the manual cable idea is somewhat doable... I need to pick up a set of rear disks anyways for the hatch, plan on turning that into a street machine rather than going the 4wd route... so I might as well pick up 2 or 3 sets next time I'm at the junkyard. As far as adapting brakes from a differant vehicle, it isnt that hard to put an adjustable proportioning valve in to adjust the bias to the rear brakes; so as far as I'm concerned it would be more a matter of ease of fitment than having the right bias... thats adjustable, although it wont be near as perfect you can get it pretty close with a little bit of work

ok I got things confused a little bit after doing some reading... essentially what I want to do is retrofit some kind of electronic traction control, and have the option to manual control the brake distribution when wheels start spinning. It would take a lot of work to do to an older subaru I think due to lack of hardware and parts. anyways pics would be awesome, as with as much as I've thought about all these options, I have yet to actually do any of it. Oh one more idea, get manual cable brakes on all 4 wheels, and anchor them around a lever and attach them to it and have it operate somewhat like a joystick, pull back and to the right to apply pressure to the front left wheel, etc.... would be hard to use in a vehicle with a manual transmission however unless you made some electronic device that controls 4 electric motors connected to the cables and had the controller on the shifter or steering wheel. hmmm... I'm thinking now.

yup, really gets usefull if you have actual foot pedals for the breaks. If you've ever driven a tractor you know what I'm talking about. I want to get a proportioning valve for my beast and hook that up to the brakes so I can just use a little toggle with my thumb on the steering wheel and the break pedal and keep my other hand free for the shifter/parking brake.

yeah really, 145 minimum... I tighten them as tight as I can get them(impact wrench and then cheater bar and a hammer). MAKE SURE you have the washers on right, the "flat" looking one is a spring washer with one side of it bowed out a little bit, that side needs to be facing out towards the nut... also dont forget about a good cotter pin. I've had wheels fall off on me on the freeway for screwing stuff up/forgetting/being lazy; true story... car drug to a stopped and watch a 31" tire roll by me going about 70, for about half a mile down and across the median.

http://www.crazedlist.org/, search all of craigslist much more efficiently

yey finally... honestly seeing pics of that is what helped me come to the subaru crowd. Just do a search for deathhatch and you should be able to find pics, they arent too hard to find, at least last time I looked(many many months ago)

I wonder how much that cost him. Its quite a good idea as long as the shaft itself doesnt shear... I saw a subaru the other day in a junkyard down in albany where the shaft had completely sheared in 2.. nothing else wrong with that car. It would really help reduce the shock considerably, which is what seems to kill a lot of drivetrain components quickly.

I admit seeing the other 2 subarus in the backround didnt come up first on the list either, it was more like I saw the 4runner and thought "wouldnt have happened in my subaru..."

well you might find this next bit hard to believe... but I was heading out to a lake(I think beaver lake? or something it was awhile ago), long, pretty rocky rough road going out there, last summer in my stock wagon and I was passed up at one point when I was taking a break by a red scirocco from I think arizona... it had over 400k miles on it and the guy said it was the original motor. Anyways I got six months to mess around with this project, I still need to get a TB cause apparently the one my friend brought me was fubarb. I also need to get some more ssb fuel lines, the ones I have were cut.

whatever... I'm not gonna mess with the heads I'm just gonna build my own intake to work w/ the VW CIS... honestly, this system is NOT VERY COMPLICATED, at all, and seems to me in harsher conditions it may stand up better to abuse and/or be more easily serviced than EFI if I'm out in the middle of nowhere. It doesnt need a computer to run, or much at all in the way of electronics really, its more efficient than a carb Jeez, I create a thread, and most of the responses I get are just telling me not to do it, and even then I dont get any specific reasoning why its so horrible to use this system. My mind is set on making an engine run with this setup, regardless, that cant be changed at this point, so if it isnt constructive please dont post it.

yeah, that ea81 of yours looks clean, not much rust, not major body damage. part out the loyale or drop an ej into it, the ea81 will run a very long time even if you dont do any of the proper maintenance on it, you can overheat it till you dont have enough power to even move 5mph and you wont blow headgaskets on it. The only real important part of the engine to replace and make sure is in good condition is the oilpump, otherwise you'll probably lose your rod bearings anywhere between 175k-250k+. Especially if the ea81 already has the 5speed, the 83-84 4 speed was the real weak link of the ea81s.

yeah, that ea81 of yours looks clean, not much rust, not major body damage. part out the loyale or drop an ej into it, the ea81 will run a very long time even if you dont do any of the proper maintenance on it, you can overheat it till you dont have enough power to even move 5mph and you wont blow headgaskets on it. The only real important part of the engine to replace and make sure is in good condition is the oilpump, otherwise you'll probably lose your rod bearings anywhere between 175k-250k+. Especially if the ea81 already has the 5speed, the 83-84 4 speed was the real weak link of the ea81s.

get an ea81 if you want indestructable. Even with badly needed repairs I've taken 2 wagons(1981 and '84) so far several thousands of miles without either failing completely. But might as well drive what ya got till it fails and you cant fix it. I had a jeep cherokee w/ the 4.0L, it wasnt that hard to work on but everything kept breaking, and a nissan 720 which also was fairly easy to work on other than the engine(the z24 is a POS)

it also looks really really cool :-D

I dont think I'd use turbo heads, I'd modify the original heads and the cost of that would probably offset the cost of having to go to the junkyard and pulling out the intake, wiring harness, and dealing with all the electrical crap for the ea82 spfi. I mean, I got EVERYTHING I need to do this, and I know a machine shop that can do what i need and do it cheap... and I've also always wanted to build my own intake manifold. Anyways, dont post saying this is better than that, please just post anything useful as to what I've considered? Anything else doesnt help me.

maybe I just want to do something my own way? I'm going to be doing the spfi swap on another subaru too, but it just so happens I have all the parts I need for CIS right here in my lap. maybe I just want to be differant :-p

I'm getting parts to build a motor, and my friend who has a lot of VW scirocco parts has all the stuff i'd need to convert it to CIS, minus the right heads and intake(which i will most likely have to modify/fabricate myself). I heard someone did this to an ea82 and did a write up? I'm having trouble trying to find it. Could someone point me in the right direction? Thanks, Trevor

ok may be a long shot, I dont know crap about ea82s or turbos... but do you let the car cool down before you shut it off? ie let it idle for a minute or two at least before you shut it off after driving it? next time you drive it try letting it idle for a while before shutting it off and see if it still does it as bad if at all?

most bearings arent even shipped packed with any grease, the grease thats on them is to prevent corrosion while shipping/sitting on a shelf

I'm wanting to rebuild a 4spd d/r out of my lifted wagon... I know a lot of people are going to say its not worth it and just get a 5 spd, I'm considering that also and I may do that too but I want to rebuild this. If for nothing else, just for the sake of getting inside one of these transmissions and having something most people wont care about if I mess it up. I'm trying to track down parts but no luck, I can get the seals but cant get bearings. I can also get a rebuilt transmission but cant find out where the rebuilders get their parts from. Anyone have any ideas?

If I remember right I'm pretty sure parkrose hardware carried bolts that size... they also have plenty of metric drill bits last I checked. They are a pretty large hardware store. The only thing weird about their bolts and nuts are the heads are either SAE or 1-2mm larger than any other bolt of the same size.

Odd... which toy where the keys for? I have 2 keys one for an 85 2wd pickup and 1 for an 80 4x4 and they are both too big... A nicely worn nissan truck key works perfect in older ea81 locks however. I use my nissan key in all 3 of my subarus, yet I cant use the subaru keys themselves in a differant subaru which is kinda weird lol. I like you're wagon, its pretty sharp.