carfreak85

DO you have any of the optional front seat center arm rests? Also looking for straight, rust free front sheet metal and maybe a wagon hatch.

Just wanted to check back in and provide a follow up on our experience. Things are going great after the repair, no more oil leaks, burning oil smell or other unexpected issues. I had originally thought we still had an oil leak because the car still smelled of oil once it was hot, but a good round of brake-clean seems to have removed the remaining oil from the exhaust/block/etc. Our upper radiator hose had one of the clamps tightened while slightly askew (thanks Dad) which caused a coolant smell when hot. Took care of that and no more smell. The jury is still out on loosing coolant, but if the overflow tank doesn't lose any water this week while the wife drives around, we'll call that one done too. The biggest difference I've noticed is on cold starts. The car used to have some pretty noticeable piston slap that would take a minute or two of driving to get warm enough to make it go away. After replacing all the PCV hoses/valve/plastic tee as well as the oil separator plate, the slapping noise is almost gone on cold starts. Instead of sounding like a diesel, our car sounds like a Subaru again! The car does still use some oil (not enough to see out the tail pipe) but even the oil consumption seems to have let up a little over the last 1,500-2,000 miles. I think I'll be changing over to the H6 oil filters during the next oil change, just to gain that little bit of extra oil capacity. Since these engines are so hard on the oil, I figure every little bit will help and once this car is retired from DD duty for the wife, it will get an STI oil pan and start doing some offroading.

Give SuperPro USA a phone call, they'll sort you out.

Nope, I haven't heard from him in a long while.

It's not so much a brand that you can point to, but it takes some research. Basically you need to look at oil analysis for a variety of oils and determine which oil has the best additive package for your engine needs. Flat tappet and older style "high" friction valvetrains are going to want a lot of anti-wear additives, ZDDP, molybdenum, etc. www.bobistheoilguy.com has a fantastic amount of knowledge and recourses. For me personally, in my EJ-turbo engines I run Rotella T6 (because its cheap and sold everywhere). I haven't been driving my old school Subarus enough to require an oil change, thus, I do not yet have a preferred brand of oil for them.

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.