jim

My old 89 with the automatic got 28, my 84 BRAT gets 32 and my old 84 GL got 30, so I was expecting something better with the EFI. Maybe the old 89 car was the exception. The truck only gets about 13mpg around town so the suby wins in that area, but I could still haul the suby plus another 2 tons of hay on the trailer and get 18mpg out of the truck on the highway.

Put new plugs, wires, cap, rotor, filters and oil when I got it. Also, the automatic was swapped out with the one from the 89 since the original was locked up. It passed California smog with the check engine light. The smog guy could not decode the light based on his data. At first he said he could not pass because of the light but he got it to shut off for the start of the test and the readings were fine. I was thinking that maybe there was some feedback to the EFI that was out of wack and that may be related to the check engine light? I'm sure Subaru (like every one else) changed to the EFI to pass the newer smog rules so maybe there is something amiss telling the EFI it needs more fuel than it really needs resulting in the poor mpg.The 22mpg is driving at 60mph. My wife is not impressed since her big 97 4x4 Dodge diesel gets 22mpg. What is Seafoam?

My son bought a stock 92 Justy with 5spd, 4wd and MPFI. We put a new Cat on it and it seems to run fine. We are only getting 31mpg at 55-60mph. We though it should get more in the range of 38-40mpg. Any ideas?

I bought a 91 EA82 with EFI and automatic for my wife and I'm only getting 22mpg. The check engine light comes on after a few miles but runs fine. This mpg seems low. I had an 89 with carb and auto that got 28mpg. I was expecting as good or better with the EFI. Any ideas?

Thanks for the ideas. It sounds like I need to dig it out of the snow and check a few more things. I tried the marvel mystery oil, half down the spark hole and half in the crank case, no luck. I had thought about the cat but because it just passed smog I figured it was OK. I live in a small town and I now have reason to believe there may have been some monkey business going on with that. Is there an easy way to check out the cat? It always seemed to have a lack of power even when it was running OK. This is my first suby and with a small engine and auto in a wgn, I thought that's just the way it is. I now have an 84 4-spd wgn and it has more power than the 87 automatic ever did, but I think it's lighter too. I want to get this thing going. My wife is driving a Durango at 10mpg in 4wd and my 84 Suby can get down our driveway while the Durango gets stuck. ---Jim

Thanks... It will ba awhile before I can recheck the compression since it's under 2-ft of snow and a long way from the shop. I guessed piston rings and tried some magic stuff down the spark holes with no luck. I have another EA82 with blown HG. I was just starting to fix that engine when someone said I should join this site and ask first. This replacement engine is out of a manual shift. Is there any issue using it in an auto car? ---Jim

High crank case blow-by.---I have 87, EA82, 4wd, auto, wgn, 90k miles on clock. The guy I got it from said it had set for 4-yrs. He replaced the leaky water pump, got it smoged and sold it to me. The guy was a little flaky but it ran fine so I bought it anyway. Ran fine for 3-mo. It then started losing power after 5-miles drive. Got so bad it would just stop. I discovered a great amount of blow-by and oil from the PCV line. I replaced the PCV valve and found no change. The compression looks OK to me (120-125 on all 4). Any ideas? Thanks…Jim