ev0014

Well.. I know it's been a while since I've been here, but there's a good reason for it. The 1600 isnt running anymore, well it does, but doesnt. So one of the other owners decided he wanted to go cruise in the dunes with it, which is fine, that's what we bought it for anyway, but the problem is... he doesnt know how to drive in the dunes. I watched him drive in just a small section and I almost cried. Basically he'll keep it in first(maybe second) and just hold it to the floor, redlining it the whole time he's driving. Needless to say the motor overheated(the fan wasnt working, but I dont think it would've made much diference) and it's been running very poorly ever since. it was badly overheated too. we had a video of it, but it has since been deleted(too painful) basically now it'll usually start(barely) then run ok until it gets to what use to be normal operated temp. then it would lose a lot of power, smoke really bad, and eventually would just quit.... oh also he took a power saw to the roof.. made the other owner and I nearly cry as well. so now it's a basically non-running 1600 wagon... convertable, getting rained on... it's sad..... so basically what I'm wondering now(because it basically cant be repaired) is where can I get an engine rebuild kit for it? I know it'd be a lot of work, but I just love that engine, regardless of what shape it's in. A friend of mine was thinkin of tossing the body, maybe pull the motor, and throw it in some sort of buggy. Sad I know, but at least it would be put to use. I dont tihnk I'm ever going to co-buy a car with this friend again.. good guy, but just doesnt respect automobiles like I and the other owner do.... RIP Sue-B!

All I did was use the factory roof rack that mine already had on it, cut it to size, drilled a couple holes and mounted it on the front of the roof. I got a couple $10 walmart lights(they work well!) I cant remember how many watts they were. I bought some wire and a cheap flip switch(everything that I needed was within arms reach of the lights I think). and I think it looks pretty good, as well as being functional! Oh by the way, I hooked it up to a fuse that was constantly hot. Total cost... roughly 30 bucks! not bad I dont think..... then again, you may not be as cheap as I am;) I could elaborate on the process a little more if anyone was interested... but it wasnt that hard. a little creativity and imagination(as well as using what you have) will go a long way!

hmm... well what about just wider tires? or maybe a little bit bigger by cutting the front fenders and hammering the crap outta the rear wheel well's? would I be able to fit much of a bigger tire in there? I think my tires now are 155/60/13 or around there. They're really skinny and only like 20-21 inches tall... I dont even really need the height I just need the width. any ideas? thanks!! Ev0014

ok, I'll check it out when I get the time(next weekend probably) I'm very excited that she's runnin like a top now! (tubes were so clogged with gunk you couldnt see through them at all) cleaned those out and the PCV valve and viola! new car! well kind of haha... except now the fan seems to have gone out, and there's no sense in driving it if it doesnt cool down as efficiently. I like the dual fan idea! seems to me it needs to havea bigger fan(s) anyway:P I love this subaru!!

first of all.. it's too small, granted it's a small engine, but still, it's tiny. Anyway, the problem I have is it doesnt want to turn on. Does the engine have to get REALLY hot in order for it to turn on? or is it suppose to be running all the time or once it's at "running temperature"? Mine doesnt seem to turn on at all. After warming up the car it wasnt on.. got it hotter than normal op. temp. and it still wasnt on. It's getting power to it because it was checked, and supposedly the fan itself works because it was taken to schucks and they hooked it up to a battery and it supposedly spun(though I didnt see it) so I just dont know what it could be now. Any ideas? Also, if I get a new fan is there a brand or type of fan that would fit better than others? work better than others? should and shouldnt be used? any and all information would be great! thanks! ev0014

More pics! we installed a lightbar with a couple of $10 walmart light on it. Doesnt look too bad, I dont think, especially since the bar was made out of the roof rack!:cool: (that seat cover is going to come off when I get something to replace it.. it's actually got 2 seat covers on it, I have no idea why, but the seat is badly torn up)

for other people it makes it look like it's faster when I drive by:P ok maybe not..... yellow flames out of the vent could be pretty sweet. the ble/yellow color combo isnt one that's seen that often so it'll definitly stand out!

here are a couple pics of my car, well actually we were just getting the flames that were sprayed on by a co-owner(a friend of mine). Dont worry they're only temporary, and werent intended on looking fantastic, just kind of sprayed on with the "eh, what the hell" mentality. we plan on actually painting it this summer!

*edit* scratched out this reply so I didnt get off topic!

anyone? thanks! ev0014

does/has/can you lift a 79 1600? I mean, by themselves they're pretty dang capable offroad(well, in the sand anyway, anything else and there would be some clearence issues... hence the lift) so I'm curious if anyone has lifted one, or if it can be done with the suspension? or even a body lift?(except that body roll would be terrible... but that's ok I guess) cuz I need to get some bigger tires under this thing! any info is much appreciated! thanks!! Ev0014

hmm, well according to napaautoparts.com there seems to 4 "different" carb kits, but they have the same item number.. does that mean it's just a universal kit? or am I missing something? thanks again everyone! Ev0014

actually one last question.. how do I know what kit I need? is there a part number on the carb I need to find? and if so where about it is located? or does it depend on whether it's a wagon or whatever? I dont know the codes(if that's what they are) that subaru uses.. I'm a very very new person to subaru's, but everyone has been very very helpful and it's greatly appreciated! thanks again! Ev0014

thanks! the price was what I figured I'd be spending, and your right PCV's arent that expensive, but I hear of dealer marking things up by huge margins... so I've never really checked it out. I'll get this started as soon as I get the time, which will be probably next weekend. thanks again! ev0014

thanks general, that's what I needed to hear... where's a good place to get a rebuild kit for the carb? or is there some all purpose ones or something? also, where do I get the PCV valve? should I just go to schucks and pick one up or do I actually have to get one from a subaru dealer? yeah, thanks mike, that was kind of a run on paragraph, I'll keep that key in mind next time I type up a long story:P ev0014

wow.. I apologize for it being so long, it didnt seem that long when I was typing it! dang... I hope that doesnt deter people from reading it though! I need help!! ev0014

a couple of friends of mine and myself bought a '79 1600 last night, and though it's not pretty(and the interior reeks of dog) it ran pretty well once it got warmed up(the previous owner said it burned oil and the clutch needs ot be adjusted). well we get it, cruise it around for a bit, everything was fine, until it started running strangely.. so we check the engine mroe thoroughly than we did when we bought it(doh!) and check the air filter.. and it's got a lot of oil in the whole assembly. well it was too late to get a new filter(walmart didnt have the right size) so we just cleaned it up and called it a day, drove everyone home and parked it. This morning my friend tried to start it and it wouldnt start. after taking off the whole cleaner assembly and checking the carb out, it appears that a seal on the front(radiator) side where the throttle hooks up to.. it looks kind of like a shifter boot, but really small, seems to leak a little gas, and there's not enough gas getting into the carb. well he put his hand over the carb where it would intake the air, and tried to start the car, and it started. as long as he was pushing the gas it'd stay running, until it got warm, then it ran fine. Well we figured that was good enough, and we needed tog et a new air filter. so we got get it, put it in, and it ran well enough, so we decided to test out the 4wd. we headed out to the dunes and ran it for about half an hour to 45 minutes, and when we were finished it didnt want to idle that much, nor did it rev when we pushed on the gas. this is kind of hard to explain, but if we pumped the gas, then the initial push revved it slightly, but it'd immediately start dropping rpm's and it'd do that each time we pushed the gas. well we pulled over and let it sit for a bit(it was only a little warm) and popped the hood and checked the air filter.... and it was all clean, though it looked like there was some oil that had shot out from somewhere on the back of the engine(like it shot out of the dipstick hole). well we didnt have any other way of getting in to town so we had to give it a shot. we started and it ran, and idled for a little while, but still sputtered a little and jolted every once in a while, but when it wanted to it would run almost like normal(it would top out at about 4k rpm) to we drove it into town hoping it would die, and parked it at a friends house. popped the hood and there was more oil everywhere(it was tough to tell where it was fresh and where it was just gunk because the bay was pretty dirty) but there was enough to tell that it had shot out from somewhere(seemed like it was or was near the dipstick, it shot up and an angle at the spare tire from behind the engine) so we let it cool down some more and checked the oil, which read 3/4-4/5 full..(btw, we had checked it the night before and it looked about 1/4 so we added some.. I think a quart or so, and it was up to what appeared a half, so we added another half of a quart and then it was about 3/4.. this was when the car was warmed up too.. but when we checked it today it looked full and a half or so, so it might've been overflow from the dipstick that just shot up..but the dipstick is really tough to read, like the oil wont stick well enough to get an accurate reading. also, that wouldnt explain the running problem would it?) anyway, so we then just started it, and it ran but wouldnt hold and idle very well.. would hold about 500 for a few seconds.. parked it at his house, and there it sits. My questions are where could the oil be coming from? could it just be overflow or could I have a leak? what carb do I have? and do they have a rebuild kit for it? is the carb even the problem?(I'm pretty sure it has something to do with it though) do they have a rebuild kit for the engine? this is my first subaru and I dont want to go tearing into it without some knowledge of the engine first(which, by the way, is really.. really small, but I like it;) I dont know what it is, it looks like an ea-71(if that was the code, I looked at one online a little while ago but dont remember the code)I checked quickly in the owners manual but couldnt find anything to help me on the engine or the carb... then again I only did a very quick check and didnt look very well, just a quick scan to see if anything jumped out at me.. but now the car's at my friends house and I cant go look at it just yet, I might be able to later though.. I looked at the carb but couldnt find any numbers or letters or anything on it.. but it was pretty gunked up, I wiped up what I could see and get to, but couldnt find anything.... well pretty much I need all the help I can get, if anyone has any information that may help me out, feel free to share:D thanks!! also, regardless of the problems, I love this car! ev0014