carfreak85

It's not a matter of diff strength, the RWD transfer gears will strip out before anything else fails (besides the rear wheel bearings).

In 2008 I converted my EA81T wagon to RWD. It already had the stronger EA82 5-speed transmission swapped in. I also have a clutch type rear LSD and 205/60/13 Yokohama A048 tires. I knew the risks going into the conversion and so I generally only did "RWD" activities in the wet/snow/dirt or other low traction situations. By babying the car I was able to get the RWD conversion to last about four years. But the whole point of the RWD conversion is to have fun, right? Burnouts, doughnuts, drifting, etc. The rear wheel drive system on these cars was only ever meant to hold 40 horsepower or so. Once you direct the engine's full torque to the rear, the RWD transfer gears become a weak link and will shear teeth like its going out of style. You'll end up stranded with a ruined transmission, a non-op Subaru, worn out rear wheel bearings (because they're the wrong style for sliding sideways) and an empty pocket. (But it is fun while it lasts!)

Yes, it will work. No, it won't last very long and that poor transmission will be dead when you're finished with it. (Ask me how I know...)

What year is your brat? I might have an EA81 cowl panel.

I disagree with this wholeheartedly. Dino oil is a thing of the past unless your engine is bleeding oil. While many modern synthetic oils are not going to play nice in an older engine, a properly formulated synthetic will run circles around any dino oil.

ZDDP baby, and yes, they need it. I wouldn't add it separately from the oil, you introduce risk of your additives not playing nice with the oil's additive package... Just use a quality oil with high ZDDP: Redline/Amsoil/Euro Castrol/etc.

@GeneralDisorder is going to chime in here at any moment that an EJ-swap is superior to the SPFI conversion because parts are still available, or something like that.

If anyone else needs an EA81 oil pump, I've got a spare one.

You can machine the 08+ trans cases for the old school VSS...

A 4WD tank WILL slightly reduce the fuel capacity, its around a couple gallons IIRC.

Talk to me about the passing lamp!

The carpet looks great! Tell us more about your window glass reinstallation experience.

Bump stops can't account for a lack of mechanical empathy, GD...

Was this a thing? Were the '99 speedo/odos failure prone?

Agreed, don't touch, wipe, poke or prod the sensors. Just spray them (the MAF is up inside the little tube) and let them air dry. I was a little quick to reinstall mine and while it did end up running fine, it stumbled and misfired enough to concern me when I first started the engine, but the idle quickly smoothed out.

Oh, I'd love to see their design! I've got a 304SS BoostedBalls one-off and a "rotated" TWE header/DP arrangement. Got any photos?

Clean the MAF using CRC Airflow Meter Cleaner. Be sure to clean the temp sensor AND the MAF sensor, they are both in the air flow meter.

Necro-bump of a 13 year old thread!

That's fine, not all of us can be right ALL of the time GD . The fact of the matter is this: If your suspension coil binds before the body/chassis hits the ground, you'll be in for a WILD ride. The bump stops are there (on damn near every style of "modern" suspension) specifically because a harsh bottoming or binding event can instantly upset a vehicle's chassis. Also, these little foam guys CAN and DO take all sorts of compression, that's why they get so beat up (hint, it's not due to UV degradation...) None of them take 3,000 lbs. because your car would have to pancake flat for that to happen (and the body should touch down first anyway). They act like bumpers at a bowling ally, they don't control suspension movement, they gradually absorb compression and prevent bottoming out. It's not a half-assed attempt on some engineer's part, this has been an accepted solution for suspension tuning for decades. Imagine you dive into a corner hard and are near the limit of adhesion. You hit a BIG bump. Without a bump stop (or with insufficient suspension travel in compression) either the strut will bottom out or the spring coils will bind. When this happens you no longer have a bouncy, absorbent suspension; you now have a solid rod connecting the wheel to your chassis. This is essentially an infinite spring rate. In our imaginary scenario, you will instantly lose traction, understeering right off the road or into a guard rail. Now, lets assume there is a bump stop. Same scenario. Hit the BIG bump, but instead of an instant, infinite spring rate, we have a gentle ramping up of the spring rate, then that absorbed energy helps to push the strut back, away from the bottom of its travel. Instead of completely losing traction in a split second, you have a gradual loss of traction that is smaller, and controllable. I'll say it again though: You do not NEED bump stops to drive down the road. But they are so damn cheap and serve such an important enough purpose, why not just replace them?

That would depend on the design of the aftermarket strut, Subaru put it there to keep the OE strut from bottoming out. If coil bind happened before that, there would be no need for the "added cost" of the bump stop. I'm not saying they're necessary, by any means, but if you do the types of things that Subarus are good at, the bump stops should be installed to prevent damage to the struts and to smooth out the transition to instantaneous understeer that occurs when front struts bottom out as the spring rate then goes to infinity.

That's not a wiper, the foam spring is a bump stop that keeps your suspension from bottoming out during a large compression. If you drive like a grandma, you'll never know its missing. If you rally around, drive off-road (unlikely, since your car is 2WD) or live on an awful road, you may notice they're missing if not replaced. These are tuned specifically for your car, but you can always use universal bump stops, most auto parts stores should have at least one style to choose from. If they are too long, you can trim one of the segments off, but this will raise the spring rate of the bump stop.

Your kid just put a car into a ditch and so you buy them a NEW Forester? I'd start with something you won't miss if it gets wrecked...

The general consensus is that it will not do anything to prevent good head gaskets from going bad. Besides that, the thermostat is already REALLY easy to get at on EJ engines, you don't even have to raise the car to get at it on our 1999 Forester. What are your end goals for this engine?

Hmmm, I like the ice cube idea, is that just to get some abrasive in there to clean out shmutz? Also interested in the 45* cut on the tube. What's the reasoning behind that?

I'll say it again, for those in the back: Generally speaking, there are no Subaru engines that have an inherent weakness or Achilles heel regarding the cooling system. The radiators are large enough (for any non-racecar engine), the water pumps move enough fluid (even for 800+ hp race engines), the blocks flow well enough to keep things from melting. The only reasons you hear about Subarus overheating is 100% related to either: head gasket failures, using non-OEM thermostats, old cracked/plugged radiators or electrolysis due to lack of maintenance. I will say this, however. It has recently come to my attention that factory turbocharged EJ engines can benefit from installing a coolant tee between the driver's side head and the HVAC heater (GDT Cylinder 4 Chamber Cooling Kit). This modification doesn't have anything to do with overheating engines, but everything to do with balancing thermal loads between the cylinders.