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carfreak85

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Everything posted by carfreak85

  1. There are likely no "direct swap" lamps on the market. Find something close and modify to suit your needs. I'd stick with a name brand, for quality design and long-term product support.
  2. This. This invalidates the EA81 manual, and should be your starting point. Use the owner's manual as a very rough guide (at this age) and use critical thinking skills to apply new knowledge to the 35-year-old maintenance specs you found. I don't have an EA81 manual in front of me, but I promise you "Option 1" is NOT 20W-50 (I'll wager it's 10W-30, or there abouts). I'll check it the minute I get home today. If you want SoA's opinion on this subject, by all means, please contact them: Subaru Customer Service - 1 (800) 782-2783
  3. EA63s are equal in reliability and can't make power to save themselves. Plus my '75 doesn't have an engine installed, sooooo….
  4. Dang, you're older than me and still don't care about ride quality!? Baking springs changes the temper of the metal, making them softer and more prone to sagging over time. Rubber coil spacers are dumb, dangerous and the wrong way to lower (or lift) a car. You don't want the arms to be parallel with the ground, you want them to have a downward rake from the subframe to the ball joint. Things get silly when you go that low without compensating in other ways. I.e. horrific bump steer, funny camber curves, etc. I have no idea what the BCs cost new, they came on my RX-RA, and I'll be swapping them out for a set of Ohlins coilovers.
  5. @naru2 If you can't read between the lines, I'm not going to spell it out for you. Both the EA81T and the EJ205 are flat tappet engines, in that sense, they are directly comparable, because modern, off the shelf, commonly available, inexpensive engine oil is no longer suitable for older designs of flat tappet engines. Your average engine oil in 1984 had loads more anti-wear additives in it than oil does today. You can dither on about viscosity all day kiddo, but the oil thickness doesn't mean jack if the pressure of the cam on the tappet is enough to scar those parts due to a lack of molybdenum, ZDDP and other anti-wear additives. The fact that the 1984 and 2002 owner's manuals no longer agree on viscosity/temperature should tell you that things have changed in the 18 years between the two engines... But ya know what, do whatever you 1984 owner's manual tells you to do. I'm sure lubrication technology has been stagnant for the last 35 years, because as they say, "Viscosity is viscosity!"
  6. HA! This is coming from a kid who thinks engine oil 100 years ago is the same as oil being used today. You gave me a chuckle, that's for sure! Subaru of America also recommends that you run a 0W-20 oil in their current engine lineup, but in other parts of the world specs a much thicker oil. (PSSST, I have an industry insider secret for you. Not all decisions are made in the best interest of the product. Sometimes, for example, a company will spec a super thin oil to improve their CAFE score, when the folks who designed the engine really intended it to run a thicker oil.) The owner's manual is a CYA by Subaru of America so that they have something to fall back on when some idiot runs 20W-50 engine oil in B.C. year round. They can point to their manual and say, "See, we never said to run that oil in those conditions!" Alright, let's do some oil fun! Just pulled up a 1984 EA81T BRAT on www.Redlinelineoil.com, can you guess what they recommend for your engine?...…. 10W-30. Just to make sure I didn't read that wrong, I pulled up the same info again, this time I asked AMSOIL about the EA81T engine. Holy balls, would you look at that, they also recommend 10W-30! Conspiracy! They do go a bit further, stating that in temps above 90*F, you should run straight 40 weight engine oil. OK, one more place to check, just to make sure there isn't any collusion going on with these boutique oil companies... Motul. Now, their "Oil Selector" tool didn't go back far enough to cover an EA81T engine, so I picked out a 2002 WRX. Guess what they recommend for "Normal" duty? SAE 5W-30. What do you suppose they recommend for "Severe duty" (i.e. Death Valley in the middle of summer)? Right again! 15W-50! For fun, I pulled up the owner's manual for my 2002 WRX. Page 11-13. Option 1 is 5w-30, which Subaru of America says is good from 100*F on down to -20*F. Option 2 is 10w-30 or 10W-40, which SoA says is good from 0*F up well past 100*F. As you can read in the graphic below: "IF THE VEHICLE IS USED IN DESERT AREAS, IN AREAS WITH VERY HIGH TEMPERATURES... USE OIL WITH THE FOLLOWING GRADE AND VISOCISITES: SAE 30, 40, 10W-50, 20w-40, 20w-50." So in effect, 20W-50 IS WAY TOO THICK for anything except towing and driving in Death Valley in the middle of the summer. The only time you should consider using that viscosity when ambient temps are "normal" would be if you're towing in the mountains, and even then, I'd probably recommend a 10W-50 for someone towing in B.C., where the hottest recorded temperature EVER RECORDED was 111*F in Lytton, B.C. on July 16, 1941. Face it @naru2, I blurted out something ACCURATE and subsequently had to defend it, with source material and data (something you failed to provide us).
  7. If the grill is for a center lamp, it is for the earlier, two-lamp arrangement. 83+ got the quad lamps, unless it was a DL or STD model.
  8. Oh sweet Jesus, please don't do that. Just buy some cheap BC Racing coilovers and dump it safely. Hell, I'll sell you my BC coilovers that have been converted to work on an EA82, just to keep you from baking your springs or excessively trimming them (I've cut the springs on my EA81T wagon, but only one coil and it is nowhere near low.)
  9. You want the opinion of a Vehicle Design Engineer on what engine oil to run in your 35-year-old engine? Hey, good news! You're already talking to one... But then again, free advice is worth only what you paid for it.
  10. The human eye can't even really detect 60Hz, things start to blur into smooth motion around 24Hz.
  11. Giles, You can learn more about the 5-lug conversion on this site, basically use Impreza/legacy front knuckles & hubs with XT6/custom rear hubs to convert form 4x140 to 5x100 pcd. I wish I could tell you more about the air suspension systems, but they are incredibly popular in the states these days. Here is an example of what I'm talking about:
  12. Can't say I have that problem. It sure is nice in this cold weather to have LEDs versus the failing fluorescent lamps that get grouchy in the cold, rarely even lighting all the way.
  13. I had a discussion about this a couple of WCSS's ago. If it were me, I would be giving a long, hard look at the air suspension systems the aftermarket is churning out for the EJ-powered platforms. With the 5-lug conversion becoming so popular, it only makes sense to use these new, modern air systems to replace the obsolete, NLA XT/XT6/early Legacy air suspension systems. Yes, they are expensive, but you could probably forgo a management system and tank, since the XTs already have those components, saving some money there.
  14. Your EA81 doesn't have fuel injection, so a FI-rated pump is going to flood your carb from the get-go.
  15. What's the reason for going catless? It's not like modern cat converters really hurt power on a road car, plus you're not gassing yourself at every stop light. Your car, your money though.
  16. 20w50 is a stupid thick oil for a Subaru, IMHO. Even the track day guys on NASIOC run 5w40, or there about. @GeneralDisorder what say you?
  17. What I'm saying is the additives they put in oils 30+ years ago are bad for emissions and are no longer present in modern oils, unless you're using NOS oil from back in the day.
  18. Is this the 1984 owners manual? The oils they're referencing do not exist anymore (sure the weights are available, but those aren't the same oils that were being manufactured in the 80's). I think 30+ years on, you should be looking at the oils out on the market to make a choice, not the vehicle owner's manual (as someone who writes automotive owner's and service manuals for a living).
  19. I would look for an oil that already has the ZDDP in it vs. adding a supplement to your oil. I'm also not a fan of running ATF in an engine. If your EA81 is not turbocharged, 20w50 is WAY too thick, unless you live in Death Valley during the summer only. 10w30 is fine, but look for something with more anti-wear additives in it than GTX.
  20. Is your BRAT lifted? That'll make a difference equivalent to the amount of lift!
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