mountaingoatgruff

i have a couple friends that did their tacomas at the same time. one did his bed in line-x, the other used a diy (i can't remember which but he sandblasted then primed it so i know his prep was legit). the line-x truck is still beautifull almost 2 years later. the diy job was coming off in chunks after a year and has been line-x'ed since then. they had their line-x done in manteca, was a real good price and worth the drive from merced.

yeah, i talked to one of my mopar buddies and he strongly suggested using the p-valve. he says it may be unsafe at high speeds without the "proper" distribution of force to front/rear wheels. apples and oranges to his experience, but i think the principle carries over. i'll put a second 3-way block in there to delete the hill holder then i'm thinking i'll add the p-valve mounted to the frame rail under the booster, right before the lines separate. i'd have to cut the metal lines to add it in that way. i can grab some of those brake line nuts, but is there a way to make the ends look like they do at the other fittings after cutting them? would that be a tube flaring tool?

i've heard folks say both ways about the need for the pro valve. i haven't actually heard of anyone who's had problems without it. guess i just need a second 3-way block then.

i'd like to see subaru engines in an older vw transporters. ideally, an EA81 in a 78 bus. i have a buddy that was just given a 78 bus and he's getting ready to go through it to see what it needs. body's straight, interior's okay, underside looks good, engine's tired. so i'm trying to get him to stuff my SPFI EA81 in there and i need visual reference. any pics of any sube engines in transporters of that body style would be appreciated!

well, i'm taking the hill holder out and i just thought it'd be nice to fit the proportioning valve in there where the hh was. gettin it bolted in is no prob...i just need to figure out the routing of the lines to do that.

i powder coat whenever i have time. i can get it done for the cost of powder so the time it takes is my limiting factor. i hope to do some more before i'm done. this car is gonna be my daily driver. i long-term plan is an RX full-time 3.70 setup. the brat's gonna be the wheeler.

and here's how i'm hoping to get around the temp gauge incompatability...it's an EA81 temp sensor in a bung mounted on the coolant crossover:

its not a crate engine, its from my wife's wrecked old legacy wagon. this whole thing hasn't cost me much at all - i already had the paint, my dad did the powdercoating (both crossmembers, control arms, radius rods and clutch fork), and i've been slowly buying suspension parts for months. i have spent lots of time cleaning crap...probably too much.... i'm trying to decide how i should install the proportioning valve for my rear discs. i'm deleteing the hill-holder and i kinda think i should bolt it in there. any ideas/pics?

i finally got some time to work on it. i should have the motor in tonight then it'll sit for the weeks to come before i get another bit of time. i put disc's on the rear, rebuilt the suspension with new control arm and sway bushings, d/r 5 speed is in place and here's the engine:

i pulled the dash on my 97 legacy rather than hack it, start cutting with any speed and you're risking setting yourself up for a nightmare down the road. i wanted the entire vehicle harness from the doors forward without cutting any wires so i stripped everything. dash and all came out fine, pita was rushing through the evaporator and heater core without accidentally popping a/c lines.

i had to adjust both of mine, too. mine just needed the bump stops at the front corners lowered.

i read up on this one since i have two 97 EJ22's... 97+ EJ22's are interference engines because the pistons are taller. this produces a higher compression ratio, hence more hp. 97's also have solid valve lash adjusters - so adjust those valves, too!

i won't touch the "better plugs" arguement, but i'll suggest a wire-style gapping tool. the tapered gauge type can damage your plugs, especially if you have little experience and/or insist on wasting money on exotic electrodes... and NEVER twist or wedge the gapping tool in the gap to open it, use the slot provided on wire-style gappers.

i can't speak for my hatch in it's carb'ed days - i only had it a week before injecting it. it's carb was shot and missing parts from an earlier "rebuild." my average mileage with about 40% city & 60% highway driving and the d/r 4speed was up to 34mpg per tank (i did the math for every tank and it depended entirely on my driving style - i got as low as 22mpg once). it had plenty of pep and ran like a champ. only problem i ever had with it was with the egr solenoid. if you go injected, use newer nippon denso solenoids - the hitachi ones are poo. you can get the nd ones from newer subes. some folks remove those solenoids but i'm in cali and violating smog laws is not cool.

you'd be amazed what bad harness grounds did to my 93 imp. it'd throw codes on brand new sensors, run funny, shift crappy - and it cranked fine. definitely would not hurt to check the harness grounds.

sorry for your luck, man. is this the brat that's gonna get injected? if so, maybe you could keep an ea82 rad in there so its easier to get upper rad hoses that fit (i don't know if that's true, just a suggestion).

i saw something about this looking at t-belts at parts stores (aftermarket parts). the parts dept of my subaru dealership says there's only one oem belt for both ca and fed cars - anyone heard different?

hmmm, its gotta be one of those. not important - i was just wondering cuz the 93 L has a rear defroster and rear wiper also but doesn't have a relay right there. thanks for the replies.

97 Impreza OBS i'm wondering what the baby blue relay in the cargo area under the right tail light is for. pics for reference: i thought it might be for the rear 12V outlet but that's not switched, just wondering.

the reason i say that i'll only use mmo in my crankcases now is that it works so much better for me. i had a 95 EJ22 sitting in my garage for months after sitting in another board member's garage for literally years. last weekend i put it in my new-to-me 97 OBS (had bad hg's). the thing ticked so loud you could hear it in the house! i put fresh oil in there during install, drained a bit and added seafom after hearing it but it had no affect. changed oil and used a qt of mmo, had it quiet 30 seconds after startup. running fresh 10-30 with no additives and its still quiet. i also used mmo in a 93 honda accord 2.2? on tuesday (stubborn, lingering tap - tried seafom before with no affect). its quiet now, too - i doubt he's changed the oil/mmo blend yet though.

did you have a carb'ed model? i was planning on feeding the ej with the spfi pump i already retrofitted into my hatch and i've been wondering if it'll work well.

i used to use seafoam in crankcases til i tried marvel mystery oil, its all i'll add to oil now. i still use seafoam as an upper cylinder cleaner though.

sorry dude, but china makes crap. that's all there is to it. i wouldn't think ONCE about putting chinese alloys on my car! the japanese are a different people with different goals, as evidenced by their drastically different markets/governments/societies. what the japanese have done is irrelevant to what the chinese are doing. i have never bought a chinese product and found myself satisfied with it's quality. never once. can you say "planned obsolescence?" i strongly advocate a boycott of chinese goods (where possible/reasonable, as sad as that is to have to make such a qualification) because of what their mgf'ing is doing to the environment, our bodies, our economy/job market (see qualifying remark above) and int'l commerce by and large.

i always have trouble with air getting trapped in the system if i don't fill the engine itself with coolant through the upper hose first. if there's just enough air in there it can look like its overheating while idling sometimes when its probably not. also, if there's that much gunk in your overflow then there's at least that much gunk in the rest of the system. i just replaced a motor with bad hg's in one of my subes - grey/black gunk all over. i'm running straight water (fill with water, drive for a day, drain and repeat) to rinse it, then i'll use a coolant system cleaner, then i'll actually put good antifreeze ($) in there. only thing is, if it freezes where you live - drain it as soon as it cools off so you don't forget and wake up to a cracked block...

i've got a harbor freight multi-bit set with security torx, snapped the tip of the one that fits those srs computer screws on a 97 legacy... i ended up cutting a groove with a pneumatic cut-off and used my huge craftsman flathead with a wrench on the square shank. i'll be taking the srs computer out of my new-to-me 97 OBS to clean up the soda sludge in that area and i definitely plan on replacing those screws with hex head bolts.