Brettm57

This is first time I've been on this site in quite a few years, I like the new look! I just picked up an '05 Impreza RS with the 2.5 engine. It seems to be leaking oil around the valve covers/heads, and I'm thinking about pulling the engine out and re-sealing them. I'm assuming that it would be easier to pull the engine out rather than try to do it in the car? Can you give me some advice on what I'm getting into? Thanks!

I'm looking for ideas about hauling my snomobiles to the races this winter. I've currently got a '95 Legacy wagon with an auto tranny and about 140,000 miles on it. I figure a trailer with two sleds on it will weight about 1000# (We're talking vintage sleds, not that heavy.). I'm wondering as to whether my high-mileage auto tranny will take the 150 to 200 mile one-way runs over several weekends this winter or not. The other option I'm considering is looking for a used Outback wagon with a standard tranny, and either sell or swap my Legacy. Personally, I'd feel more comfortable with a standard tranny. I like being able to pick my own gears when towing a trailer. Obviously, the AWD is a definite plus towing a trailer in the winter time. So I'm looking for opinions from people that have towed trailers with a similiar weight with their Subes. Will my current Legacy do the job, or should a go shopping for an Outback? Thanks in advance for your advice.

I repaired mine the same way. It's held for about a year now. And I threw the "protective shield" away!

I had a similiar problem with my '95 Legacy. It turned out to be the fuel filler pipe going to the gas tank. It had a few tiny holes rusted through it due to the pastic shield that "protects" it was packed full of road salt. Apparently it only leaked when the car was going down the road and slopping fuel around enough to make some spill out, because I could only smell gas when it was going down the road. I see you're from Vermont, so the road salt could very well be doing the same thing. Maybe this isn't it, but it's probably worth taking a look at. Good luck.

We're putting the engine back in our '85 hatch, and I've ran into a little glitch. It seems I took what I believe was the AI control valve off of this car at one time and used it on another one. Rather than find another valve, can I just hook the vacuum lines directly to a vacuum source so the AI is working all the time, or would I be better off just leaving the AI unhooked? Is it better to have the AI working all the time, or not at all? That is the question. Thanks. PS: Emissions testing isn't done on a car this old in NYS.

We're getting an '85 GL hatch back on the road. I twisted the bolts off that hold the fuel pump mounting plate. Rather than try to drill out the broken bolts, I was thinking about relocating the pump. It's in kind of a vulnerable location anyhow. Has anyone relocated the fuel pump on their car? If so, where did you put it and how did you go about it? Mostly I want to know if it will pick up the fuel OK if I move it from the current location. Thanks.

I'm about to start putting my EA-81 engine back together today. Are there any tricks or wierd stuff about this engine I should know before starting?

Here's one I've ran into here in the NYS rust belt: Have you checked your rear automatic brake adjusters? And no, I'm not on crack. I had a Subaru mechanic tell me this, and I thought he was nuts, too. What happened was the adjusters had rusted solid and wouldn't adjust out. Without them adjusting out, there wasn't enough travel in the wheel cylinders to make the brakes work. If you replace the front pads without doing anything with the rear brakes, this is when this problem will show up. The brake pedal will drop to the floor with no brakes. I know, it doesn't make sense, but I've ran into this a couple of times on old Subarus. Just free up the rear auto adjusters and voila, working brakes! It might be worth taking a look.

What NAPA are you going to? I just ordered a gasket set from NAPA for $87.00. In fact, I'm getting gaskets, rings, and bearings from my local NAPA for a little over $200.00. I drained a similiar goo out the engine we're working on now. In my case (pun intended), the engine had water instead of anti-freeze in it and froze up. Luckily, all it did was push one freeze plug out of each head and make one small crack on the outside of the case, which I had welded up. The amazing part is, I know this engine was driven like this, and it has 100,000 miles on it. There is still some crosshatch showing in the cylinder bores and the crank is fine. Just one more reason why I'm a Subey man!

Dave, you've got to give me more of a hint, I don't recognize the nicknames. We might have had this conversation once before. Are they Subie people?

Thanks CHIM! I figured somebody on here must have tried unplugging the ECM. This car I'm working on now may become "for off-road use only" in the future, and I don't want to have to paw through all of those hoses every time I want to experiment with something under the hood.

So are you saying that I can just unplug the ECM from under the dash and throw it away? I'm actually hoping this is true, but the betting man in me is thinking that this can't be done. I'm guessing that the ECM is tied in with enough other stuff that you have to at least keep it plugged in so the car will run. This is the confusing part for me. If I install a Weber, what do I do with all of that "stuff" connected to the carb now? I'd actually like to remove the air system as well if I can. In my search, I found a picture of an EA-81 with a bare engine and a Weber setting on top. That's my goal. I want to make the engine room so clean that it doesn't look like it ever had any vaccuum hoses running all over the place. Maybe I'm working on a lost cause, but I'd like to try to pull it off. Thanks again.

I know mine has an O2 sensor. I'll look for the ECM tomorrow. Please discuss further. Thank you.

OK, now I'm confused. I thought that there is an ECM in all of the EA-81's just to run all of the crap that is connected to all of those hoses. Apparently not, though. How do I know if my car is ECM equipped or not? My car has a bunch of solenoid valves connected to all of those hoses, hence my assumption of having an ECM somewhere. Can someone please explain all of this to me? Thanks.

New York State plugs into the computer through the OBDII port, so they don't check anything built before 1996. Therefore, I can be a little more creative with an older vehicle. My concern is, if I convert this car to a Weber, what do I do with all of those hoses? Question, are there any problems with keeping one of these running OK as you eliminate this stuff?

I've searched through the posts and have it pretty well figured out that I can eliminate most of those annoying hoses on my EA-81 engine. What I couldn't find is what to do with the ECM and what it controls. Can I just unplug the ECM and throw it away? It seems unlikely. How do I get around that obstacle? Thanks for the info.

I'm getting ready to do an overhaul of an EA-81 and need to clean the carbon from the ports. I'm looking for suggestions to do that without damaging the aluminum. My first thought is to soak them in carburetor cleaner. Is there a better way? I'm thinking a standard hot tank will damage the aluminum, but maybe not? Thanks.

I have a Haynes and Chiltons manual, and they both say that the piston-to-cylinder clearance should be .0006" to .0014" (I might have the 6 and the 4 backwards). Is this right? The old rule of thumb is .001" per inch of bore. That would mean about .0035" of clearance would be right. Their numbers just sound awfully tight to me. Thanks for your help.

I'm rebuilding the EA-81 in a '85 GL. IMHO, the worst part of the job is dealing with ALL of those hoses! I would really like to discard about 95% of them. I see there are a bunch that are hooked to a series of control valves on the passenger-side inner fender. What do these do? Can any be eliminated? How much can I get away with removing overall and still have the car run alright? Thanks for your help.

Noah, you wouldn't happen to have any pictures comparing the EA-82 and EA-81 pistons, would you? And, how oversize did you go on the valves and did you replace the seats? And, if you did mill the heads more, could you slot the bolt holes and grind the ports in the manifold to make them match up to the heads? I'm at a real disadvantage here, I've never seen one of these engines torn apart. Thanks for your help.

The guy at Ram Performance tells me that there is no compression gain using EA-71 pistons in an EA-81. I was pretty impressed with our phone conversation, I think he knows what he's talking about. But the EA-82 pistons sounds like something worth looking into. I've done several searches looking for the info on EA-71 heads, but haven't turned up anything. I remember reading something about these heads having a smaller chamber, but the ports and valves were smaller also, cancelling out any gain from the higher compression. Oh well, I'll keep looking.

Not trying to be rude here, but no I was thinking 1600 heads. I'm guessing that the chamber in the 1600 heads must be smaller than on the 1800 heads. This pretty much holds true on domestic (Chevy, Ford, etc.) engines. But I don't know for sure about the Sube engines, I've never seen either one apart. Can you tell me the difference between EA-81 and EA-82 pistons that lets them increase compression? Thanks for your help.

From my research in the service manuals, I see two relatively low-cost possibilities. One would be to mill the heads and/or deck the block. The other would be to use 1600 heads on an 1800. I seem to remember reading on here somewhere that the valves are smaller in the 1600 heads. Can anyone verify that for me? And will 1600 heads bolt up to an 1800 block? Or, if the 1800 does have bigger valves, can they be installed in the 1600 heads? If that won't work, then how much can be milled from either the 1800 heads and the block deck and still maintain some sort of reliability? I have access to the machine tools necessary to do anything listed above, making machining cheap (Free!). Thanks in advance for your help.

Apparently the problem with my car is the electric lock isn't always releasing. I've got the key lock freed up now so I can unlock it that way if necessary, plus I oiled everything up while I had the interior panel off. It seems to be working OK now. Thanks again for your advice.

Thanks guys. I'll give it a try.