MilesFox

it actually wold be less wiring than earlier if you are swapping the harness and ecu. aside from that, its pretty much bolt on the same either motor. i would go with the 87 and up, more commonm, subaru worked more bugs out by then, a little more hp

if anything put a film of anti seize or bearing grease on the stubs to keep them from getting surface rust(for when you put axles back on)

if you took the time to tear out the suspensin, the mod will not be hard to do it would be most economical to find an ea82 donor car, for allits suspension parts if you take out both suspensions, and compare, you will see the mount i speak of, you can see where to cut, or just simply make your own the 5lugs have a bigger ball jointhole, but the 5lugs trailing arm is the same length, and will bolt in if you do the mod first the rear ea82s are bolt in, if you ream a hole and trim a bushing. but the brakes themselves for ea82s and 5lugs are direct bolt on this project would cost you little more than the what you paid for the parts themselves, you can do most of the work yourself as far as putting it together. suppose i can stop by and lend a hand, i will be MUCH cheaper than any mechanic( like almost free) . like i said, i will be rolling thru the missoula area in march, i would be glad to stop over and show you a WORKING EXAMPLE, something i built for having no more into than what i paid for my $420.00 car. i would say start with the suspension mods, knock them out, because that will open the door to more options, to use better and later STOCK parts for the strut capsm ther eis a half-moon hole for the center of the cap, i just hollowed it out to fit the ea82 strut shaft, using the ea81 strut cap so it bolts into the strut tower. i used the ea82 springs with the ea81 cap. i want to 5 lug my setup, so i would do the same thing but ti a legacy/impreza/xt6 strut try to source yourself an ea82 car for parts, or at least an ENTIRE font suspension to start with. if you have the capacity to to take the suspension apart, you rfabrivator has little work to do, if you must pay someone to do the heavy work creativity and resourcefulness will carry you a lot farther than having money or spanking new parts................................. i am just telling you from my experience, something i have done for being perpetually broke, with my 20hr a week job you are welcome to ask any more about your setup, i will be glad to share all the little details from my conversions

the 85-86 have the mechanical disty and external knock control unit. the 87+ have the optical disty, and the knock control is in the ecu the 87+ would probably be simpler when it comes to wiring up a harness and ecu

there are some 720 deg crank rotation for the procedure line up the first cam, rotate 360 deg, line up the other cam, rotate 360. then rotate again to bring the first cam back to the peginning step, them rotate till you get 0degBTDC to do the distributor the belt alignment marks will line up when ALL the pistons are in the middle of their stroke, NOT the ignition timing its common for a mechanic to line up both belts up, to odeg tdc, when the cams should be pointing opposite, with the 3 marks in line

sounds to me that if the car runs bad AFTER BEL SERVICE, they were installed wrong you can check the belt timing by removing the outer belt covers, and the bellhousing window rubber plug read this if tou would like to check the belt timing yourself, or show this to your mechanic http://www.warpthree.com/milesfox/subaru/service/timingbelt.htm

caleb, you are "overinforming" this guy, tont get him jumbled. no, there are NO BODY OR FRAME MODS to fit an er27, at least none to fit an ea82, and the er27 is the same width. you mat have to be crative for the radiator, but i have not done the swap myself, but i have installed ea82's caleb, the xt5lug on an ea81 can be done fairly easy with LITTLE MODIFICATION. the rx trans will fit normally like the general 5-spd swap that so many have done. the ea82 suspension will allow you to use the xt6 axle, and the ONLY FABRICATION will be the OTHER SIDE OF THE LOWER CONTROL ARM MOUNT, you are basically cutting off the rear flange of the mount from an ea82, and welding it behind the mount on ea81, so the lower control arm mounts one width behind, cause the ea82's curve forward. once that is accomplished, the strut and axle will fit. on my setup, i used EA81 strut cap, and ea82 strut and springs. i had to modify the hole on the cap tp fit on the shaft of the strut, easy dremel work. of the ea81 is power steering, simply swap out inner and outer tierods with ea82's. mine was manual rack, so i had to cut and lengthen mine the dual range rx trans can be found in 85-89, with the full time units from 87-89. ask DR. RX for his expertise on rx models and what they had Tomrhere is goung to put the er27 and 5spd in his 82 brat, ask him for his expertise, as his brat already has an ea82 motor and ea82 radiator ea82 turbos ate 115 hp, spfi ea82 is 95 hp, and carbs are like 85-90 hp, stock and all if you do swap whatever engine, the y pipes or turbo downpipes will still meet the rest of the exhaust at the same location. dual exhaust is easy to make yourself on a subaru\ this is what i know, i have mixed a lot of parts, so feel free to ask me any time about how i fit them together. i will be rolling through missoula mid march when i go to get my car from idaho, so if you like i would stop by and show you my example, TRASHWAGON 5, the ea82 conversion wonder, you can see it first hand and its really didnt take much at all to convert it like so.

let me go to trogdors this weekend and swap his motor and do a auto to 5spd conversion this weekend, then im off to get my car back from idaho. then after the midwest meet, the east coast meet, and the SUBARU ALLIANCE meet, wcss6, i think we can plan for an ALASKA journey! as far as birth of trashwagons, i think it would be NEAT-O if someone bult the next TRASHWAGON 7

the ea81 2-door you mention is the HATCHBACK, not to be confused with the ea82 3-DOOR, the hatch came as gl and dl, they generelly had the ea71 1600 cc, but later 4wd's had ea81's from 85 up they were called the STD (standard) and the "hatchback" listings for 85-94 is actually the ea82 3-door, 3-door coupe. in canada they are called "chaser" if you check my site, there are parts references links on the top, it has scans from the subaru 85-94 parts guide, all models the "2-door" that i mention is a 83 ea81 turbo wagon with hatch doors and side skins, 5spd conversion and 3 in lift. its in my website too the front mod is easy if you can weld(i used a flux core 110 v welder) and cut off the ea82 mount in the right spot try searching yahoo or msn, RGUYVER has a msn group, he has a hatch withthe mod i speak of, it has ea81, with ea82 spfi and a turbo, nice mixup. he has a brat with 5lugs, but stick suspension and shortened axles. you should find a diagram of a strut adaptper fpr ea style struts to fit the xt6/legacy/impreza knuckle, with the 5 lug suspension setup there is also a diagram of the mount mod, but i cant find it. be thorough with your search and you should find the hatch, blue with yellow caution stripe. his mod used the ea81 strut.knuckle, drilled out fopr ball joints and tuerod, wheras i used the ea82's no reaming of the holes the er27 will bolt up to both ea81 and ea82 trannies, its just the right mix of flywheel and clutch parts, all stock bits. the rx full time is like the dual range, but taller reduction, it has 25 splinds(all are turbo) and the diff lock(for true 4wd)

i would say measure the specs, and if they check out, reassemble. as long as you didnt get coolant in the oil, and you didnt get so hot that the timing belts melted, you are good to go. have the heads inspected for cracks in the EXHAUST PORTS, the cracks between the valves are NORMAL, its common for them to go down to the valve guides. have the valve seats staked in if you recondition them if all the bolts came out without trouble, and didnt take any threads out with them, the block is still good i would say the motor is worth rebuilding if measured for spec correctly, and it checks out the most cost effective measure would be to swap in a known running motor

i believe the turnout will be better this year, having more exposure now

the SECOND ANNUAL subaru alliance meet is now scheduled for may 29-30 2004

memorial day it is, from fri nite thru sunday it will be at the carbola, anyone who wants to come early friday and stay over, help set up is welcome the meet itself will be saturday, and if anyone camps out, sunday may have some BAJA'n may 29-30 saturday being the emphasis. but 2 days for anyone who cant make it the first day

it has been done to a brat, and i know someone who is doing the swap into a brat. with the suspension mods i mentioned, you can go with the xt6 5 lug wheels on an ea81. search RGUYVER for another example of 5 lug wheels in a brat with rx full time tranny xt6 axles and turbo MT's and full time 4spd autos have 25 spline axle stubs, so you would have to go with ea82 suspension and turbo axles to use these trannies but yes, the er27 will fit, you will want the radiator to go with(its like an ea82's but bigger hoses, and ea82 will fit in an ea81, ask tomrhere's brat

you could save the mechanic work/price by keeping the existing tensioners, if the car runs right and doesnt have noises a subaru is a good car to learn how to work on cars, they are different than what most mechanics are used to, but thay are simple in their own design, a straight forward functional car. my first hands on job in auto class was a subaru alternator, a 3,door 5spd, maybe an RX. and back then i had no preoccupation with subaru, didnt know about them, funny how fate turns out!

we busted it out, routine practice, motor in a 5 gal bucket! the heads and everything ere mounted and the motor was ready to drop in. we put on new studs for the exhaust, and painted a few things. and we went OPEN BELT, new belts. the previous owner took things off out of order, was going to take the whole fuel rails and wires off the intak, but at least all the electrical and fuel rail was intact. it had the outboard hitachi ac, but that was removed from the bracket, so its just the alt. a dual pulley alt and another belt will work, or the ac can go back in. we had to use odd bolts and spacers on some of the intake, and the alt bracket, as those were missing from the car we had it all put together before we left sunday nite, but it would not start. we discovered it had no FUEL PUMP AFTER we tried to start it. so a quick to auto zone for the aftermarket pump and we tried again. we get spark and fuel, but the timing seems off, as the motor wants to catch the wrong direction. all of the timing is spit on. if we had more time or another day, we could have figured it out, or borrowed a few select parts from johns other cars. we have a new ecu ttemp sensor also John, try swapping the disty with the other one and see if that helps. since its together you can refer to the HAYNES book to see of you can get it going not bad for a car that was otherwise useless, having a dead motor with a broken rod and a blown head gasket, and missing parts. its like TRAHWAGON in a sense, taking an otherwise deadbeat car and making something special of it, a hands on heart and soul into it effort

all of the suspension and engine parts will change out with other models of the same styling there are ea81, and ea71 motors of the era, and a n older version of the ea71 in 80-82, the 80-82 had external voltage regulator and different coil, so try 83 and up for a good match of most parts

who is taking the head off/ you or the mechanic? if you have the head off yourself, you may want to invest in a valve spring tool, it will pay for itself if you do valve seals on your own work, the tool is cheaper than the mechanic but if you have the head off, the mechanic wouldnt cost as much, buit he will still charge you an hour at rate

the ea81 is from 80-84. the ea82 came out in 85, and the BRAT and STD hatch wer produced 85-89 when looking for parts, any listings for 80-84, and 85-89 dont confuse ea82's with 85-94. knowing this will generalize what pars will fit what, as far as getting the RIGHT part but some ea82 parts are swappable into ea81. some with mods some without. an ea82 motor fits nicely, with just the right combination of STOCK parts suspensiond can be swapped over, rear disc brakes(no mod) rear trailing arm (slight mod, simple) and front lower control arm, axle, and strut, bigger brakes(welding a bracket for STOCK ea82 parts) and with the right combinations of mods, you can have some of the most current subaru parts in the ea81 without EXTENSIVE modification i myself have an 83 wagon, it was ea81 2wd 5spd now it is ea82 motor, 5spd dual range trans, rear diff and trailing arms(no axle of driveshaft yet) the front has ea82 lower control, strut/brake/tie rod, from cutting the mount off the ea82 and welding it to the ea81 crossmember i had an ea81 and a 5spd dual range in an 86 ea82 that was automatic sedan 2wd auto to 4wd 5spd conversion "2-door wagon" search for "trashwagon" and check the links on my sig, for peeps on my setups depending on your automotive skills and knowledge, you can do just about any mix and match with a soob

the ej20 and ej22 have the same bellhousing, but has a different bellhousing than the xt turbo. so whichever motor is used, either one will require a different adaptor, or one that would acommodate both "Please excuse me for asking but Donald you say" this is what i mean. skip knows what i mean. read the other posts too, how many more parking spots in skip's backyard?

if you can find the turbo heat shield for the t-belt covers, that would work nicely for the bottom half, stock replacement for whatever reason

save the mechanic some work, pull the fan, if its not far to drive maybe take off the outer covers, and have him re quote you the cam covers you can fix yourself, you might as well start with that getting your hands dirty, and learning the SOOB. buy the belts, as shops tend to charge rate on parts, a 10 dollar part would cost 15 dollars i would say get all your seals separate, and offer 300 cash for the work, if you take it somewhare

are you talking about the xt 5spd full time? does it have a diff lock? the rx has the axles removed from the REAR, its running FWD, with the diff locked on its FT4WD 5spd dr. with the diff unlocked, it will not moved if you are talking about running off just the rear axles, you can engage 4wd n a pushbutton, wd hi/lo on the dr, or lock the diff on full time as far as reliability, i got 3000 miles of cross state driving and winter donuting on my 4wd wagon, front broken axle, and a rigged 25spline doj on 2wd axle. the rx went to columbus and back, 400 miles tound trip. and we are going to WV this weekend. if you run off the front or the rear only, the other stubs will rotate the same speed as the live axle. but if a wheel spins on the live axle, the stub will increase rpm in proportion to speed, to match the wheel spin we could roll around all day and up to Skip's driveway with either configuration

how far is indiana?

dam skip, you have no relent. obviously a typo, you seem to call these things out as if i didnt know better. my point is, if he designs his ride around the xt motro EA82, he will have to go with a different configuration to go with the ej motor, different bellhousing and ecu