thealleyboy

Sounds like a plan to me. The RX is a cool car, and it would be hard for me to part with if it were in good condition. As far as "total vs partial" overhauls, I have only encountered one motor that would have required a complete rebuild to be serviceble again. The car it came out of was completely beat to hell. Most EA82's can be revived with a partial overhaul, but may lose some oil at the rings if worn. I had a conversation a Master Tech (Sube Dealership) about the short blocks on the EA82 series. He told me they held up well (200k+) with nothing more than oil changes at 7500 miles. He assured me that a typical meltdon would not cause any permanant damage (of course, you should never drive a car with water in the crankcase).He said the dealer just replaced the head gasket in most cases. The exception is when the motor was driven for long periods without any coolant. I think you'll be fine with partial overhaul, from what you describe. Don't forget to deal with whatever caused it to overheat in the first place. good luck, John

Miles, Danny's old RX was the one I was referring to. Coulda swore it was non-turbo when I checked it out. Must be old age...or maybe we were getting into the "Mach 1 hubcap" too much that day!! Snowie: I think the fact that you are getting some compression is a good sign. I would be surprised if you couldn't recondition and reuse those heads. Never tried "staking" as Miles suggests on any of mine, but it does make sense. good luck, John

Thanks for clarifying. The only RX I have seen in person was non-turbo, but it must have been retrofitted if they originally came only with turbos. That makes finding a replacement a bit more of a challenge. Because of the cost and hassle of finding a replacement EA82T in Alaska, I would probably take a stab at working with what you have first. Even if you don't intend to do the overhaul yourself, you can save some labor costs by doing the initial teardown. If you are lucky, you may be able to save one/both of the heads. Again, I wouldn't worry about bottom end damage unless you have reason to believe the previous owner dogged the sh*t out of the car. Since the motor still runs, it is possible to evaluate it for excessive oil burning before pulling the heads. good luck, John

Snowie: If it's the EA82 (non-turbo), you should be able to land a pair of nice used heads that will work fine for you. The cost of the heads should be reasonable, but shipping might be a little high. I always have my favorite machine shop look at anything I use. From my experience, run-of-the-mill used EA82 heads usually "pass" inspection. The opposite is true for EA82T's. (he's very picky). Damage to your SB should be minimal if all you did was run it hot. In fact, your PSI reading isn't bad, and suggests a blown HG without further damage to the cylinder heads. If you don't want to tackle this job yourself, and you can't find a used one locally, you might want to consider an "import from Japan" motor. This will give you the most bang for the buck, especially when you consider shipping costs. Not dissing CCR at all. They are excellent to deal with. I have one of their motors in my 86 GL wagon, and I would recommend them highly if you can afford the higher cost. good luck, John

That's correct. You can rule out a bad modulator as causing white smoke if you have a manual trans. Bad news is that it's probably H20. (blown head gasket, cracked head etc) John

The ATF fluid could be leaking into the exhaust thru the A/T. A bad modulator can cause this. The power steering system is totally unrelated. John

Alex, you beat me to the punch...A bad A/T modulator will give you the white plumes of smoke too. However, you can't read too much into these symptoms if the car has sat so long with old fluids. I would change the oil out, and run the car in idle for long periods of time, while observing the guages, and checking fluids. Since white smoke is the main symptom, pay special attention to radiator and overflow tank levels, as well as ATF. If the fluids seem to be holding up, and the car is not overheating, take it out on the highway and give it a good workout. Sometimes this is all it takes to blow out the cobwebs. good luck, John

I'm running 195/55/15's on my 93 Loy. This is a bit smaller tire than alot of people are using, but it works well for me. It's also an oddball size, which makes them harder to find and more expensive. I do a lot of long distance highway, and "around town" type driving. The 15's have some advantages, but they are not superior in every category. They are not as quick or get the MPG's that the 13's do. Personally, I wouln't go any bigger than 205/55/15 (or a comporable size). This will give you some natural "lift", and still give decent performance. good luck, John

Stocker: I would continue to be methodical in trying to nail this down. The fact that the problem seems intermittant is a good sign. Coolant you can see is much better than coolant dissapearing in your combustion chamber. My wild guess at this point is the bypass hose off the h20 pump. It is hard to reach, and you may have not tightened the clamp enough when you replaced the pump. The car would have to be pretty hot to build up enough pressure to lose coolant here, and when it does, the hot engine would burn off most of what comes out. It would take a good workout before anything is visible. good luck, John

I'd pull the big skid plate, and the two small ones on the side off, and observe for awhile. If the engine is very dirty, and you can't pinpoint the leak, you might want to use engine degreaser. Having a clean engine will help you find oil leaks too. As I said before, overheating as a result of a coolant leak is a whole different thing, and the cause could be very minor - or very major. Again, don't jump to conclusions until you identify the source of the leak. good luck, John

Stocker: I'm assuming that you are not losing coolant. That is a whole different issue than just running hot. The rad is a good guess, but don't jump to conclusions just yet. You've already begun to overhaul your cooling system, so you may as well keep going. If it's like most 14 year old Subes, it was probably due for a partial, if not, complete do-over when you bought it. I would cut in a couple flushing tees at the heater hoses next (replace HH hoses too if you havent done so already), and attempt to clean out both the rad, and heater core. Make sure you flush in both directions. You may be able to reach a conclusion on the rad based on this procedure. If the rad checks out, I would move on to the electric fan circuit. You want to establish that the fan does come on when the car begins to heat up. If it does, I would conclude that it is a bad radiator. You may take it to a shop to check it before replacing it. But a replacement rad is always a good investment for any car you intend to keep. Also, I would be suspect of prior damage due to overheating. Even though you did the right thing by keeping the temp out of the red zone, you cannot assume the prior owner did the same. good luck, John

I agree that tubing would be best for fabbing something, but there are other readily available materials that can be used for this purpose. Heavy duty galvanized steel piping (as used in fenceposts) would seem to be the right diameter and strength, IMO. You don't want something too stiff - else the full impact of a collision will transfer into the passenger compartment (you might end up under your dash in a head on collision!!). The OEM bumpers that came on these cars were rather flimsy. They were desinged to "give" after absorbing the initial blow. good luck, John

Pete: There are many types of materials you can use for this type of project. You might want to check out some places that make customized playground equipment. They can get some very nice looking round and square tubing that's already painted. I've even considered fabricating something out of threaded iron pipe (the king used for plumbing!!). The most important thing is to use something strong enough to take a serious smack. Whatever material you decide on, I would recommend you figure out a way to retrofit the mountings that slide into the frame rail. This will help maintain the structural integrity of your car. It is tempting to attach the new bumper across the front. You could easily bolt or weld it onto the header panel, and it would pass the "look test". However, you'll soon regret it - especially if you are serious about pulling people out of the snow, mud etc. good luck, John

1. The horn(s) are located on the front header panel, below the headlights. I don't think thats your problem, however. Most likely, it is a problem with the horn button in your steering wheel. 2. Probably a disconnected vacuum hose. Check the vacuum connections in area near the firewall/shock tower on the passenger side. good luck, John

Well, I wrote to Subaru of America, and this was their response: Thank you for visiting the Subaru Web site and for your support of Subaru products! We appreciate you taking the time to contact us. Unfortunately our production figures for that model year include all Leone/Loyale models combined, and the information you are requesting is not available to us. We're sorry that we cannot provide the requested information, but thanks for the opportunity to be of service. Best Wishes, Natalie Cox Subaru of America, Inc. Customer Dealer Services E-Contact Group Kinda surprised they don't have this information readily available. So I guess the debate on whether the GL-10 Turbo T-Wags are truly "rare" or not, will have to continue... John

That's interesting. My T-Wag does not have the sun roof. Didn't have the alloys either, but has all of the other usual GL-10 goodies. Wonder if those extra items were standard equip on the Turbo AWD models? (Mine was originally a 2wd A/T model). John

Thats true. The rubberized stuff sometimes causes a chemical reaction when applied over painted surfaces. Seems to work best on bare metal, or places previously undercoated. The truck bed paint is epoxy-based, I believe. John

I like it!! You could also use rubberized (not asphalt) undercoating for these types of applications. This will give you a very durable finish, but will probably not look quite as good. What type of paint did you use on the upper portion? John

Arch: The only thing I can think of that would make those more plentiful on the west coast is that you are in closer proximity to Japan and Austrelia (the markets they were apparently intended for). Mine came from Colorado originally, and that probably explains the lack of rust. I had never seen one in person before I bought it, nor seen one since. I have not ran the VIN #, or researched production figures, and I have no idea how many were sold. But most of the Sube derelicts I've talked to (on this Board, Sube dealer etc) seem to think its a rare car. Maybe it's the GL-10 trim line that makes it rare. You've got me curious now. I'll have to dig a little further... John

Good stuff Corky... I'm going to shoot for the "Motion" or "Rally" style for my car. I do own a set of the "Premiers", but I don't like them as much. They are painted (vs polished) aluminum. GD: They're pretty rare in the midwest - in any condition. Mine is in VGC with little rust, and is easily the best Sube in my collection. Consider yourself lucky to be in an area where they are abundant and inexpensive. Thanks guys, John

Arch: I'm certainly no expert, but I'm told there were only a handful of T-Wags sold in the US . The GL-10 models are especially rare. Too bad about the H-styles. I have a set, and would like to have used them on this car. I don't want to get too anal about this, but I would like to run an alloy style used in 89. John

Anyone happen to know what alloy style(s) originally came on the 89 GL10's? Mine happens to be a Turbo Touring Wagon. I don't know if it had alloys originally. It came with hubcaps from prior owner. I want to keep it as close to stock as possible since it is such a rare car. The only thing not original is the 4wd D/R 5speed (originally 2wd AT). Can't hardly blame me for doing that upgrade... thanks, John

Yeah, exactly. Problem is {as explained above} cranking for a few seconds, even with a fully charged batt, is not equivalent to normal operating conditions. Not trying to start an argument here. If you feel comfortable with your method, good luck. I'm just sharing my own experiences, and recommending only what I would do on my own car. John

Sorry, but I have to disagree about getting an accurate compression reading on the bench. In practice, you'll need the engine running at normal operating temp to assess its true ability to build and "hold" pressure. This is the true test of whether the motor is solid in terms of compression. Sure it's possible to pressurize a motor on a bench (or in the car for that matter) but this is not a very reliable method. The readings will not be very useful, unless you want to establish a "no pressure" condition. Even something like a weak battery can throw your results off in a major way. You can try it, but don't draw any firm conlusions from your readings. I will say that consistantly high readings would probably be a good sign, though low compression is not necessarily bad. good luck, John

I don't think it will be possible to spin the motor fast enough to get an accurate compression reading. However, I do believe the heads can be pressure tested off the block, if necessary. If you have done a complete teardown, and replaced the cam with an aftermarket, your compression could very well change, but I wouldn't expect it to be significant. Unless other internals were replaced/modified, you will not benefit greatly from running a "hot" cam. good luck, John