Don_Quixpunch

I blew it off cause it sounded like you were interested in that other car. I've got some errands to run later, I swing by and look at it.

Sounds like you've got a winner on your hands. I won't even go into the laundry list of problems my Brat has. For some reason many of these old Soobies seem to have gone through assclown ownership before we get them.

Update? Are you still looking?

I don't think 10.5:1 is too high for premium pump gas. Sounds like you have more knowledge there than I have.

Were you on pavement when you put the 89 in 4WD? Subies really don't like that. I'm not really knowledgeable on this, so ask around, but a locking diff in an EA is pretty unique and might just be worth getting the car for. I personally have never heard of a posi EA diff, but that doesn't mean there's no such thing. Most guys who off road heavily weld the rear diff and pull a half shaft when they're on the street. I'm only slightly less a noob than yourself, so feel free to get more input. There are some incredibly knowledgeable people here on the board.

Good luck with that GL. You do have to pull the engine to replace the clutch, but it's really easy in a Subaru. I'm projecting my own values here, but I'd steer clear of the single range. In my mind, if I'm going with single range 4wd, I might as well just go AWD with a Legacy or Impreza. And definitely avoid a car that you feel is sketchy. They aren't that hard to find. Dunno if you noticed, but the 87 GL I linked you has 81k miles. I know it's a bit further to drive, but if it's as solid as it looks in the pictures, it's well worth the effort. Like I said, I'll get a closer look at it and report back.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=0&nid=443&tab=list/view&ad=2391418 It's advertised as an 87 GL. Hopefully somebody will correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that means EA82 with a 5 speed dual range transaxle. If you're not in an enormous rush, I could give it a look the next time I'm in the area.

So one set of Honda B20 pistons I found are 85 mm, and have a 21 mm wrist pin. Your wrist pins are 22 mm according to Wikipedia. If you could find a set at the right height, they would need to be bored out and have the retention ring grooves cut deeper by a machine shop. It looks like the pin end of the Honda connecting rods is 23.75 MM, I'm drawing a blank on the EA63 pin end width. I know there needs to be side clearance, but I don't know exactly how much. You will probably need to have a rod and piston from each engine in hand to really be sure they can interchange. I'm pretty good at finding things out online, and I think your FF is incredibly cool. I'm not close enough to help hands on, but I can help look stuff up.

As I look at the Honda pistons, they're made for a variety of compression ratios. I'm going to keep looking for the Honda wrist pin size. Because you're not looking at using them in a Honda, you can't rely on them actually giving you the stated compression ratio. The height of your current pistons is needed in order to find new pistons that are around 2 mm shorter.

Just for giggles, I looked up the EA63 on Wikipedia which says your bores are 85 mm. So I Googled 85 mm pistons and some of the engines using that bore are Honda B series, Hyabusa, Mazda MX6, Lotus, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, VW VR6, Rotax 738 CC, BMW 1800, and so on. I don't know your wrist pin diameter or the height of the EA63 pistons, so I can't narrow it down any further, but I'm willing to bet that you could find a piston that either works or could be easily modified to work.

Hey Biff. I'm curious if you got any resolution with your headlight problem.

Perhaps I'm paranoid, but at that price, I'd make sure my test drive included at least 20 miles of freeway driving just to be sure it doesn't overheat. Bad head gaskets wouldn't prevent me buying a particular Soobie, but would definitely affect the price I'd be willing to pay. Seems that around here, lots of old Subarus get sold because of overheating issues, and not everybody is honest about it.

Just spitballing here. I could be completely off base, but if you're not interested in the machining idea the GD shared, I've read about people bumping the compression of their EA81s by swapping in EA71 pistons. If your engine has the same bore(92 mm?), could you go the other way and put EA81 pistons in it to drop the compression and make up for some or all of the CR gain from milling the heads and/or crankcase? Or, if you have a different bore size, perhaps you could share your bore size and the height of your pistons so that other board members looking to kill some time could help you search for a piston from another engine that would fit the bill.

First off, I'd pull the plugs on the bulbs and make sure they have three prongs. If they do, your best option is to use a test light and make sure there's power to low beam prong, if so, you need new bulbs. Failing that, it's a matter of working your way through the wiring back to the switch until you find the broken wire or connection. Good luck.

The Maxima alternator is a cool swap, but you will probably cook it pretty fast. I had less audio gear in my Legacy wagon and I was burning up 90 amp alternators. I say stick with the 140 amp.

If you're going for an EA81 and a transaxle swap anyway, why not go for the d/r 5 speed instead of the 4 speed. I've got the d/r 4 speed and I'm counting the days until I get a real trans.

Silly question, but why not just replace the head gaskets in the 2.5. I've done it and I'm no rocket scientist. If the 2.2 isn't plug and play, you'll quickly spend a lot more money making it work than you would have spent replacing the HGs.

I don't have the off roading or Soobie mechanics expertise that GD has, but I am a bit of a stereo geek. So I'll throw my 2 cents in. First off. EA alternators are notoriously weak, even without all that gear, you'll need an upgrade. There's a Nissan Maxima 90 amp alternator that's very easy to put in. Or, with a little more work, you can install a 100 amp or bigger GM alternator. If I were going with everything you've got collected, I'd shoot for at least 150 amps. Here's the thread. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=100559&highlight=alternator+upgrade You'll notice GD posting in there also. He's one of the most knowledgeable Subaru guys you'll ever talk to. As for the stereo stuff specifically, you're going to lose at least half of your cargo space. At best, you can fit the cap and the four channel amp under your front seats. You'll need an amp rack someplace. And that JBL woofer needs a pretty large box. I personally would step up to decent 6.5" seperates in all four doors, lose the cap, big amp, and the big woofer, put the low profile Pioneers in custom boxes on each side behind the wheel wells, upgrade the alternator and battery, then feed the amps with 0 gauge wire. You can always turn the volume down when you're off road, but the only way to get back your cargo space is to leave some stuff at home. If you just can't live without the deep bass, you could always put Pro Bass Shakers under the seats, but you'll still have to find someplace for the amp. It's not a winning SQ setup, but then EA Soobs are pretty low on the list for cars you'd use for that sort of build. Also, with all that audio gear, water crossings will always be terrifying. From what I've seen, if you go wheeling with people from the board, you can expect water crossings. Even if you don't plan on driving in water, these old cars get pretty leaky floors. You'll probably want to inspect the floor very closely while you've got the carpet out. Keep up the good work, you've got one of the nicer looking off road wagons I've seen.

You probably meant to say longblock, but I like sounding important and knowledgeable, so I'm here saying that the heads don't interchange.

I'm no expert, but I am trying to build up my thread count. Since you've already checked the fuses, my next step would be to pull the light housings off and really look over all the connections. I'd clean them all and maybe use a dab of dielectric grease as I put them together. Since everything back there is dead, I'd be suspicious of them all being grounded at the same point and it's loose or fell off. If that doesn't fix it, you'll probably be starting at the fuse box and working your way through the circuit with a test light. I say check all the connections at the back first, cause if you start with the test light and find the problem up front, you'll never bother to clean the connections at the back.

I asked Beast about it last night and his answer was very similar to what you wrote. He didn't mention the pressure build up, but one of my gen 1 Legacy's had to warm up before the valve clatter would go away. So it sounds reasonable.

Don't talk like that! What issues? That's what I've got in my Brat.

Just a thought here, mainly I'm raising my post count so people won't think I'm such a noob. But, the EA81 was available in a hydraulic lifter version that doesn't require valve adjustments. They aren't as common. I believe they were only put in later model auto trans EA81 cars. If you're that hung up on low maintenance, you might want to consider finding one. It's not my intent to pit my Subaru knowledge against GDs. I assume he didn't mention that engine because they aren't very easy to find. Also, I saw mention of the EA63 and I know of a board member in Reno who has one he might like to be rid of.

Maybe this will be of interest. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=110439

They list them as 81 to 87. I've discovered that lots of parts companies think all 81 models were second gen, so if I don't compare against other 1st gen part numbers, I get second gen parts that do not fit my 81 Brat.