daeron

Gee, I should've read your post a little more thoroughly, you said you had no time to go "shopping" as I suggested. Never wouldve thought a blower motor would be available so cheaply from autozone!! thats nice! (now lets just hope they order you the right one :-p)

just a thought, from someone who has never seen the inside of a hatch even... but is there a possibility that you could retrofit a motor out of a different vehicle?? how difficult would it be to take your housing, or your motor, in to a JY and compare?? I ask, because we see SO many vehicles utterly torn apart in the junkyard anyhow, that accessing the JY units shouldnt be hard. There should be plenty in plain sight. Even if you cant use the whole blower unit from another vehicle, there is a chance you could retrofit the actual motor.. isn't there? I dunno, just brainstorming. You never know when it might be helpful to throw a random wild idea out

My dad calls them "pickle forks" and they make life O so much easier. a bent control arms is NOTHING to replace, if you have the spare part. the window, yah, have fun with that.. sorry, but I am no help there. Not charging... do you have an indication while running that its not charging? IE CHARGE light on, warning light, horrible idle, or something that would come and go as your issue comes and goes?? I ask because if the XT6 is anything like the ea82s, all the power used in the car is fed through an alternator charging wire into the fusible link block. Try wiggling the wires between the alt and the fusible link block while running to see if you find a bad spot. MY GL10 once in a while does this trick where I turn the key to on, just like normal, then click to start and I get total failure, as if my battery had been disconnected. I just pop the hood and wiggle the 3rd fusible link back from the front of the car and the fan spins up, my radar detector turns back on, and I sit down and crank her right up. Search for alternator swap threads for older cars (your XT6 already has the 90 amp alt, so i dont think anyone has ever bothered upgrading that one) and find one that discusses replacing the charging wire.. its one of the wires on the plug you had to replace, so thats why it is my first thought. It *really* sounds like thats about the only place left for a problem, and if I am right all you need is inexpensive wire an maybe an hour of work to fix it... diagnostic time, might be longer :-p

I am probably going up to the third and final JY in my area on monday, looking for cylinder heads just in case I need them... rest assured that I am looking for what you need, and if I find it i will inform you immediately. I do not have cash to pick it up for you, but I can certainly meet you and help you get to the place and get it.. as I said, to get to my house, all you have to do is get on SR-80 (you call it palm beach road, we call it southern blvd) and drive across the state, and about a mile east of the turnpike, turn left (north) and drive half a mile and you are at my house. I don't BELIEVE there aren't any ea82s in the two yards right near me! this is the first time since I got the soob 2 1/2 years ago that I havent been able to find ONE out there.... any chance of getting photos of whats left of the stock Y-pipe flanges, and the cat? honestly, what you may think is beyond repair MIGHT not be. some of us have hobbled together exhaust systems on many many cars, in various states of disrepair... what I am saying is, you might be under estimating what can be done with scraps from the parts store and I was trying to compliment your drawing. it was rough, but it was beyond adequate, and a rough sketch like that takes little time and makes it easier for us to help you. We all should do more of this kind of "teknikal drawling"

Okay, so I cleaned my car out really thoroughly tonight.. and started organizing my glovebox. Later on, I was following through and picking through a box full of car parts, and came across some little tiny dashboard lightbulbs i pulled out of another ea82 in the past.. While cleaning my glovebox, I had been thinking about what was involved in pulling the trip computer display, because its almost totally illegible. The plastic front piece has gotten sort of pitted, and its hard enough to see through, and on top of that, the LCD display itself is getting darkened. All of that aside, though, I wanted to simply replace the bulb (bulbs actually, theres two in the trip computer) so I could see it at least with the lights on... This is a photo of the bulbs I had to install (or so I thought) The actual glass bulb is a unit that slides into the black plastic housing. The bulb resembles a christmas tree spare lightbulb; below the cylindrical "bulb" it flattens down and has one wire bent up on either side of it. It fits all the way down into the length of that black socket. I do not have a photo of the bulbs that were in the trip computer; they were similar but not swappable. The bulbs that were there fit into a small black housing, but this black housing was flush with the surface it mounted into. The bulb was like a shortened version of the other, without the flattened solid glass part at the base. The glass part of the trip computer bulb looked more like a mini mag lite bulb, just a cigar tube shaped piece of glass, flat on one end with two wires coming out. I went to the parts store, and they had nothing like what I needed; there were two or three bulb numbers similar in size and shape to the spares I already had but none like the ones I needed to replace. Has anyone ever found these in the store? they werent listed in the sylvania lighting guide, either.. If no one has found them in a store, I might need to beg a recruit to source some for me from a boneyard with more subarus in it than mine.. I do not think I have seen a trip computer on another soob yet. For that matter, since these bulbs were simply fitted into a plastic base, might it be possible to obtain a couple of 12V LEDs and get a seriously bright display out of it??? If so, what color LEDs would be best to display the black-on-green screen? I might have to remove the factory molded clear plastic screen in front of it and replace it with a scrap of plexiglass, too.. I started taking pictures to show everyone how easy this would be, but then I totally failed to produce results, so no write-up. Thanks for the help.

search youtube for some videos, if you just want to know what the motor sounds like with a little less restriction on it. If you are more looking for details on the exhaust system in question, alongside your audio clip, there are people here who may be able to provide what youre looking for.. but i know looking for youtube videos is probably going to yield quicker results. these motors sound awesome unhinged... not your typical four banger

All joking aside, a quick paintbrush doodle like this one REALLY does help save some words sometimes... to you, NewDriverOlderRide, for thinking the simpler way. as sketchy as your drawing might have been (no pun intended ) it certainly made your points and your questions abundantly clear.

it would be much much better to join both pipes together. your engine might run OK like that, but it wouldn't run as well as it should. You need the Y-pipe to produce the right scavenging effect. As each combustion pulse travels down the exhaust pipe, it helps pull the next pulse out behind it. When you split the pipes up like that (that is called "twice pipes", by the way) you lose half of your scavenging effect, since each pipe only sees two combustion pulses per cycle. I checked the junkyard near me, the one without online vehicle inventory, and they had no EA-82s. there is one north that might, but I don't anticipate being by there to swing through.. but I may be forced to. I am doing headgaskets on my motor next week, and it may be that I need cylinder heads.. either way I am actually actively looking for a Y-pipe for you. Since you seem to have the initiative to scrap SOMEthing together, let me suggest to you this. Many people have come before you in the last 90 years or so, and used soup cans to patch together old exhaust pipes... Do you have any photos of whats left of your original Y-pipe? with some angle pieces bought at a parts store, and some soup cans and some exhaust clamps, we might be able to design something using the fragments of your original exhaust.. it would be ghetto, but it would work. Is this vehicle fuel injected? if the car has an O2 sensor (FI or feedback carb only) then some provision needs to be made for that, since the car will not run properly without it. Otherwise, if this car is carbureted you could just fab up something like what you have pictured, but join the two pipes together somewhere and then go into a muffler. Seriously, though. soupcans. Just cut both ends off of them, and use a pair of tin snips to cut along the cylinder, then slip it over the crack/gaping hole you are trying to patch.. and Pep Boys and Advance Auto Parts often have a decent stock of exhaust pipe angles, adaptors, and couplers that you can clamp on.

skip please connect the dots for me, and help enlighten me further.. why does the given data indicate a need for a leakdown test? poor valve seals leading to blown intake gasket? I am missing something in this equation.. I realize you mentioned it as a rule-out as much as anything else, but it would not have occurred to me.

I'll even throw in a warning.. there is an old school "home" alternator test that involves cranking the car, and while the engine is running, removing the positive battery cable.. do NOT do this with a fuel injected soob!! doing this is one of the only ways to kill the ECU (the best way to kill the ECU is to hook the cables up backwards, from what I hear...)

It is likely not to be a ground issue, but rather an indication that your alternator is going bad. If you have a multimeter, switch it on to AC voltage and check across the battery terminals for AC voltage (not DC like you expect it to put out) If your multimeter is showing more than say, 0.25-0.5 volts AC, then you have one ore more blown rectifier diodes in your alternator. In other words, its blown and needs to be replaced. The parts stores should be able to test the alternator for you, if you have no multimeter and want to try just pulling it and bringing it in. There ARE other things that can cause the warning lamps to come on like this, but this is the most common.

Never been there, never done that, BUT it sounds like a great idea... if you can get a piece of steel that would fit "inside" the channel that forms the rim of the oil pan, and its wider than the bolt holes, flattening it out could only help, from what I can see... As I said though, I've never been there, anyone who has care to sound off on the idea? My user title just changed over to "Subaru Master" because of my post count, and I TOTALLY don't feel up to the title, so I'm full of disclaimers lately EDIT In reading your other threads, it sounds like you are doing a total engine front reseal anyhow..... AND resealing your oil pump. Outside of what you are taking care of (oil seals, oil pump seals, pan gasket, t-belts**, water pump, etc) the two weakest points of this engine are the intake manifold gaskets, and especially the head gaskets.. once one of these engines hits 100K all they need is one serious overheat and it can cause a headgasket to blow. **[dont forget the t-belt tensioner bearings, you can source the bearings yourself and get them cheaper than at a parts store...search or ask for more info] Since you are getting all this preventative maintenance done right now, I would suggest considering just pulling the engine, and doing the headgaskets preemptively as well. While you are at it, you may as well give the radiator a good thorough flush and replace your thermostat.. that should guarantee you at LEAST another 100K of worry free driving.. and if your radiator is clean, and you keep it that way, probably more like 300K. (the intake manifold gaskets are kinda part of the headgasket job since they gotta come off and cant really be re used.)

Thank you, even if you do not post the photos elsewhere, I would appreciate an email with them... I have wondered this much, and if it works it also greatly simplifies the elimination of the digidash, because you could also simply install "real" gauges in place of the stock ones for everything but the speedo, the tach, and the fuel gauge...

Thats an interesting point, simply install a small gauge pod IN FRONT of the two offensive stock gauges... I kinda overthunk that one, although full integration into the factory pod might still be doable, and would definitely look cleaner. Now if someone else winds up going and doing this, I am gonna want nice pretty high res pictures.. but its gonna make me uber-jealous...

Not incredibly difficult to adjust to factory specs, and not increidlby difficult to change.. although changing to a new unit DOES involve disassembling the alternator/AC compressor from the engine (D'oh!) PM me your email addy for a one page PDF from the FSM to adjust your TPS to factory specs. All you need to adjust it is a stubby phillips head, a multimeter (preferably with alligator clips on the leads,) some feeler gauges, and maybe an assistant. read it and check it out.

Looks nice!! minor threadjack.. I am SERIOUSLY not a fan of gauge pods (but that looks great) so my big question has always been, would it be possible to butcher the original gauge cluster, and jam aftermarket oil pressure and water temp gauges in there??? I ask because, seriously.. wouldnt you REALLY like to put an air/fuel ratio gauge (I call 'em stoichiometers) and maybe, oh say an oil temp gauge there? or fuel pressure? I've always wondered this (always == the last year or so) so I figured I would take the opportunity to ask. I agree with the desire to have good gauges in there for all this, so I am not trying to dis your functional bling.. I just personally would rather avoid the bling, since my car is like, anti-bling.... (rust!)

Hmph.. You are talking to someone who often ignores the clutch entirely while shifting up.. and sometimes even while shifting down... I cant for the life of me see the purpose in doing so, other than for dealing with issues like this. Honestly, I dont know if i have ever driven a vehicle that double clutching would benefit.. as I said, sometimes it was hard to get my Z into reverse, but I just popped it into second and then usually right into reverse.. with the clutch pedal fully depressed the whole time. occasionally one time wasnt enough, and I had to go back to second and feather the clutch while in gear, and THEN push the clutch all the way out and go back into reverse.... God, that took alot of words to describe. anyhow, that is as close to "double clutching" as I have ever gotten. strange how you can stay TOTALLY ignorant of these things for so long, sometimes.. thanks!

Yah, I kinda felt like a putz, because I kept on posting and posting trying to con you into it, KNOWING it was probably a bad cable.. but this thread had hit all the bases to come up in a search, and I thought it would be nice to go through it all for posterity's sake. Good luck, the cables are the first problem point, most likely to go wrong.

See?? This is why I often make such long posts......

The pressure that the fuel pump puts out, is largely irrelevant. it needs to be a specific percentage higher than the car wants.. The pressure regulator uses intake vacuum to ensure a steady pressure of XX PSI in the fuel rail (i dont have a turbo, so listen to Roger unless someone says he is wrong) The pressure regulator then sends back to the tank any excess fuel, in order to maintain that pressure in the fuel rail. As long as your fuel pressure in the rail is staying consistent, you should be OK. This scenario may well be one that might lead to failure of the pressur regulator quicker than ordinary, but I have never heard any info on what people's fuel pressure readings are BEFORE the regulator.. so who knows. As far as I know, it may be perfectly normal for your 50PSI fuel pump to put out pressure varying with voltage/current being received.... Try your pressure gauge on the fuel rail, AFTER the regulator, and see what you get. That number is much more important to the running of the engine.

Hey, I do alot of posting on the timing belt cover threads to disclaim possible damage done to the vehicle... Everyone always says that theres the distinct possibility of physical intrusion into the timing belts, but the process of diagnosis and repair is made much much simpler without the covers. Yes, you are more likey to damage your timing belts.. but it will take less time to discover, and at least two hours less time to repair, than it would had you left your covers on. I wish we had chains, or better yet, gears.... although I suppose pushrods are always an options,

okay... can you push your car? roll it around??? my first thought was binding brakes.......and since that masnt been mentioned, (and i didnt notice anything to prove me wrong) i figured I would throw it out there. does the engine sound like its dying, or like its running into a brick wall?? (IE trying to move a car that is immobilized)

I agree; but I question exactly what "ignorance" you speak of.... If I am not mistaken, 90% of the "data" in this thread is only worth about 10% of its face value. The fact of the matter is, these readings off of 15-30 year old low-quality electronic oil gauges are FAR from accurate. So, many of us are partially "ignorant" as to the actual status of our engines... I know for a fact that when GD says "I have x PSI at this state of engine running" it is accurate. He has mechanical oil gauges installed in his vehicles, because he has thrown rods due to lacking good oil pressure readings. (in a car with a digidash, how ironic!! see my first post in this thread) Just about ANY japcar forum on the 'net is RIFE with threads about "Zero oil pressure at idle????" that follow the same theme.. pressure "fine" while running, drops to zero at idle... The gauges suck, the pressure sending units all deserved to be banished to the tenth level of Hell, and even if both are SPOT on all you need is one chunk of mud on your wire terminal and in two months, you've got an awful connection giving you added resistance in the circuit, and TOTALLY throwing your "reading" out of whack. The bottom line is, Lets not ANY of us get our shorts in a twist over what we may think is "fine." State your disagreement, qualify your reasons for disagreeing, and lets not make it personal, or about ignorance, or anything like that. Oh, and BTW.. seriously. Just install a real oil pressure gauge. However you may look at the data supplied by knowing your oil pressure, whether it is a straight indication of your lubrication system, or merely a second degree indicator.. it IS important to be able to trust your equipment, and none of the stock units are worth a damn anymore. *Shiny Happy People Holding Hands.........*

Yes, try testing each of your wires for continuity with ground.. one of them should be a ground wire, so one of them should get continuity.. you can also see which wire is fed through the resistor block. I am ASSUMING you have a multimeter... if not, stop, and go buy one. harbor freight carries cheapos for like, ten bucks.. home depot has the same cheapos for like, fifteen. sears should have decent ones for like, forty.

tha alternator is a 90 amp unit as opposed to the EA82s 60 amp... but the different style belt/pulley keeps it from quite being "plug and play." Easily remedied if you have any "alternator" or "auto electric" shops left in your area.. but sadly, the craft of rebuilding starters and alternators has fallen out of popularity.. thanks China!! another option for the pulley set up is time spent in a junkyard with some large wrneches, tearing apart other alternators, installing pulleys/spacers, and test fitting into an EA82 car in the boneyard..... just make sure they see you walk in with your alternator!