mountaingoatgruff

i've been planning a move out of ca for a year now but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen with all these unexpected changes to my financial situation. i originally planned on moving to northern idaho (my brother lived outside of moscow, i've never felt the same about my current corner of the world since spending a week there.) but my wife and i changed the plan to co for some important reasons. right now i'd count myself lucky just to take a road-trip out of this cesspool of social dysfuntion.

that's right, spfi guys. no carb or vac advance, just a rebuilt throttle body and optical cas dist with ecu advance and timing is on the money @ 20deg btdc. my front cat is probably toast. i just looked at parstamerica.com, autozone.com and rockauto.com for a replacement. anyone know where i can get the whole shebang (y-pipe with front cat) for less that the black market price of a human soul? i have a second cat under the pass seat area that's only months old, but it sure doesn't seem to be helping that NOx much does it...

took the hatch in this morning, here's the readout: 15mph @ 1846rpm CO2 - 14.3% 02 - 0.7% HC - measured 243ppm, max allowable 127ppm CO - measured 0.51%, max 0.79% NO - measured 3139ppm, max 825ppm 25mph @ 2947rpm (a$$hole$ should be shifting into third here but test in second) CO2 - 15.2% 02 - 0.0% HC - measured 43ppm, max allowable 101ppm CO - measured 0.12%, max 0.68% NO - measured 979ppm, max 764ppm all my visual inspection stuff has passed so my fuel injection conversion is kosher as soon as i can pass a tailpipe test. i made sure my egr was opening just last night... i don't know what the hell to do with this thing anymore. i've dumped waaaaay too much money into it already - especially considering my wife lost her job a few weeks ago, my work is way slow, my landlord is hanging an eviction over our heads, i haven't made the bills in two months now and i'm damn near ready to give up on this piece of $H!+.

i'd beg to differ. i think that's a sad commentary of the modern auto industry and the gov't entities that are allowing - no, helping! - them to screw consumers...

that's right, i remember that now. a half dozen oughtta be enough to find at least one good one! thanks man:)

i hope i'm not lambasted for posting this one here instead of the wanted area, but i also hope to get better info here. i'm going to pick-n-pull in sac on sat to find a d/r 5 speed to swap into my hatch. i'll hit up the yard in sac first, then i'll go to ranch cordova if i have to. i have looked elsewhere, i found one on cl but plans fell through and i think he sold it to someone else. most of the yards around here laugh when you say subaru. question is, does anybody know (as in visited quite recently) whether either of these yards have what i'm looking for, especially sac? i've been to the modesto and stockton yards with no luck, i was told there's nothing in merced and sac is quite a fuel investment... any leads are appreciated:)

i don't question the worth of the effort, i was just wondering what the dollar price difference would be between draining/filling 4 times and taking it in for a full flush/refill. nipper's local price prompted me to see how expensive it is around here. i called three places: small local shop - $180 (almost crapped my pants hearing that! ) local aamco - $100-$130 for drain and refill only, tech said they don't flush subarus cuz its not good for them big local trans/clutch only shop - won't touch subaru tannies, they'll only do subaru clutches. i asked why and he stuttered then said its the cost of parts. don't shops pass that on to the customer? so why would aamco say a flush is bad for a subaru auto? i gotta call the dealership again after their lunch is over.

he mentioned the pan was off so if he got much atf out it got a lot more than just draining. i personally don't like the idea of letting the car run till there's no atf in my tranny, your idea with a couple buckets is much better. not to be mean, but this is a guy that runs his 79 camaro with no air cleaner whatsoever because he noticed he gets better throttle response that way. he's replaced his oil pan gasket twice in the last year because he doesn't get the engine up enough to clean things then he overtorques the bolts to "compensate for the filth." nice guy but i wouldn't let him touch my car with a kleenex! purple ice is a coolant addiditve made by royal purple that increases the coolant's ability to transfer heat. one bottle cooled my '01 ram's 318 noticeably. it didn't have cooling problems, i just wanted to make sure it didn't develop any. with a brand new oem t-stat and rad cap, new water pump, and fresh coolant i shouldn't need the additive. i guess i'll just save it.

i wonder what the honduran government's reason for this is, or at least what they say it is. if the u.s. ever tried to pass a law like that they'd likely say it was to protect us from loosing our cars...

4 times still seems like a lot to me. wonder what the price difference is between draining/filling 4 times and taking it in to have it flushed and filled. is it obvious i never take my cars to the "pros." how's this for a laugh - i talked to a guy at work that makes the average shadetree mechanic look like an ase expert and he said that once he just took the atf hoses off the rad and started the car, letting the tranny pump itself almost dry. then he shut it off and refilled. i got a laugh out of it at least, some of you guys will probably just shake your heads in disgust... that's like changing your oil with a zzz! so no opinions of purple ice then?

i put a fel-pro head set on my ea81. i used their perma-torque head gaskets, valve cover gaskets, valve guide seals, exhaust gaskets and bought fel-pro crank seals. i used a beck arnley oil pump seal kit. the oil pump leaks just a bit but i think its cuz one of the bolt holes was stripped. i also replaced my water pump with a new cardone one, i used the gasket that came with it and a light smearing of water pump/t-stat sealant - no leaks there. i did go with oem gaskets for the intake manifold, t-stat housing (and oem t-stat) and tb base though. the felpro intake manifold gaskets and t-stat housing gaskets are just lame diecut paper while oem's are not simply paper and they have metal reinforcement in the middle. i used GD's rvt trick (coat the cork gasket with a thin layer of rtv silicone and allow it to fully cure before installation) on the valve cover gaskets and i was able to reuse them after readjusting my valves with no leaks so far.

to the rest, thanks for all the advice. i didn't think of the separator but the valve cover gaskets, brake pads/fluid and cam cap o-rings are on the list. tires are a couple months old, i'll rotate before departure and i'll also replace gear oil in both diffs. thanks for the concern for my family, too. she'll be travelling with AAA, a complete roadside/first aid kit, some food & water, and means for self defence for sure.

a quick check shows no external filter and no evidence of anyone ever being in there, let alone a tranny swap.

i'm getting ready to do a pant-load of work on my wife's 97 legacy (l wagon, 183k). we just bought it not that long ago but i knew it needed a lot of this stuff then and we've got a lot of miles coming up... probably doesn't help knowing its an interference engine. anyhow, i'll be doing the t-belt & tensioner, water pump & t-stat, removing & cleaning the iacv, pcv, cam/crank seals, valve adjustment, etc, etc and i'm just gonna pull the engine so i can clean it and the bay straight tweeker status. question #1: i plan on changing my atf filter and cleaning out the pan real well, so i ordered an oem filter ($2more than kragen's) and got the external spin-on type. i thought a 97 should have an internal filter - am i mistaken or does it have both? also, do these transmissions take well to silicone on the pan or should it have a gasket after cracking the factory seal? i want to clean the pan out either way. question #2: anyone ever tried royal purple's purple ice in their cooling system? worked great in my dodge pickup. i've got a couple bottles of it collecting dust and i'm trying to use up all those things i don't want to pack up and move cross-country here in the next few months. my wife will be driving the car from california to colorado, then on to arkansas, then back to colorado a few months later and its just gonna be her and our 9 month old son from colorado to arkansas and back. i figure helping the cooling system a bit can't hurt, someone please tell me if i'm wrong! any other service recommendations are appreciated, too.

the abominable snowmen.

got teflon tape and/or a copper washer/o-ring on there?

my brother in law air brushes stuff semi-professionally and i've talked him into doing camo on my hatch in exchange for me fixing stuff around his house. he uses tree branches, leaves, etc. as stencils and creates a realistic camo pattern in multiple layers with anywhere from 10-20 colors. i also have a blue interior so i was thinking snow camo would match it best but i haven't made up my mind yet. i might still go with a realtree type camo like he usually does on fishing boats and stuff. i won't be putting a base color across the bottom and i'm even considering collecting another set of grill/trim parts to paint with the camo and keep my good parts in the garage. that way i can do the grill, stainless trim, rims, bumpers - everything but the lights and the glass! go for the camo:headbang:

yeah, i thought it was a good point, too. so, i was going to use the slot in my fuse box labeled (ECM) since my spfi ecu is obviously powered by other sources and there wouldn't be anything else pulling on that fuse. multimeter shows this one isn't switched though, its got a constant 12V. i guess i need to pull from the "accessory" section of the fuse box, not the "battery" section. i'm thinking the cigar/mirror one since i don't use the lighter/socket and i don't have power mirrors (i didn't even know those were available on ea81's).

can i supply my switch and the fan from the battery with the same fuse? it would be something like this: i like how i have things under my dash right now and i don't want to have to start cutting zip ties to redo things under there yet again... but if its not safe this way, i'll venture into that bird's nest again. thanks

regular somg techs don't. they just look for the stuff their computer tells them to and the level of their inspection depends on who you go to. as far as the bar ref i'm sent to, he sure does! i had to point out where each component on my spfi schematic was located, where each vac hose was routed and where my ecu was mounted. i stood there and watched him pull off vac hoses and feel for vac. next time i go in i have to bring a complete ea82 airbox to prove there's no lines hooked into it so my k&n will be approved. the ref even told me at first there was no way no how that he would be able to help me and i would be forced to put the carb back on. i showed him a printout from autozone showing the hitachi carb at $520 (yeah, i picked an expensive one on purpose ) and my receipt for my spfi parts at $300 and he said "that's irrelevant." i explained to him that i'm moving to co in a matter of months and this is literally the only time i'll be smogging the hatch in ca, no dice. it was only after i mentioned that i conformed to 92 emissions specs that he was even willing to look at the car since he could put it down as an engine swap - i shoulda said that first! the part that gets me is that according to ca's database, my vin says my hatch should have a turbo. the ref showed me the page in his book that says my vin shows an mpfi ea81t! did they even make turbo hatches?

that's how i originally hooked it up since that's how it was before i tore it all apart. my pass side port has no vac at idle and only gets a few inches at 3k rpm. the one on my driver's side has no vac at idle and gets about 15 inches at 3k rpm. my egr only works when the vac line is hooked onto the driver's side port. apparently there's gotta be some blockage or something on my pass side despite the fact that i blew compressed air through there and it seemed fine.

thanks, i knew there would be something. i already finished and it works but i'll move the fuse to the relay's main power line as suggested and verify that there's already a fuse in the power supply to the switch.

uhhh, mine's the opposite.

from what i've read, 97 was the first year for solid "lifters" so 95 would be hla's. i'd bet it just needs some oil pressure. i put a 92 ej22 in a car after the engine had sat for a few months in my garage and the valves tapped so bad i thought i'd have to tear into it to replace the hla's. took about 15 minutes of idling after warmup to recharge them and the guy's had no tapping/problems since.

i was sure of that and i'd hope the ref knows that's how it should be. all the vapor canisters i've seen are vented on the bottom. works well now after switching the vac hoses on the tb. i'll know for sure when i take it in, i've been postponing doing this work cuz i don't particularly enjoy being in the garage when its 110* outside. i guess it didn't hurt anything to replace the egr but the old one is probably still good, i'll hold onto it as a spare - you never know how long kragen's parts will last. and another thing, i've been running the black ecu ever since i swaped it in for the silver one and the car runs much better cold. i don't know why there would be a difference but it idles better and doesn't miss under heavy acceleration nearly as much so i'm keeping the black ecu in - screw that silver one.