Tom63050

Hi Bobby, Best thing to do is use the Search function at the top of the page. Any question you have will be answered in some previous thread. Even checking out the first few pages of the "Older Generation" forum will answer a lot of questions. Welcome to the Board!

The adaptor is needed and is purchased separately. Definitely find an EA82 intake manifold, and order the Weber adaptor for it. Go to www.webercarburetor.com (Pierce Manifolds) to order the adaptor, and the carb if you're buying new. The information about Subaru kits is a little misleading. I think you would need the K733 kit. Look under "Manifolds and Conversion Kits", then under Subaru. They seem to have redone their EA82 manifold adaptor; I believe the one you would need is the 99004.300, but confirm this with them. If you get a used carb off of a non-Subaru, there is jetting info available on the board. Do an advanced search on "weber jetting", for example. Especially see my posting on "Weber jetting at high altitudes". I think I finally went with a 135 main jet, for gas mileage, but all the other jetting is the same as listed there. This jetting will get you very close or spot-on. Also, if you buy a new Weber, pull out all the jets and write down what they are, and post them on the board for others' benefit.

I think you meant to say you need the EA82 manifold for a EA82 carb.

He'd be better off getting hold of an EA82 manifold to use. It will bolt onto the EA81 motor. The EA82 manifold has a larger opening at the carb base; more air flow/less restriction = more power. Besides, we're talking about three different carbs here, and all three have manifolds that are unique to their carb: EA81 single-barrel Carter-Weber, EA81 two-barrel Hitachi, and EA82 two-barrel Hitachi. All these manifolds will bolt onto EA81s and EA82s, but each has a different bolt pattern for mounting the carb on top of the manifold. I might be wrong about the two two-barrel carbs not interchanging, but I know for a fact that the EA82 manifold has a larger opening at the carb base; I eyeballed them side-by-side once.

To slow down the oil leak, change to 20W50 weight oil if you're using a lighter weight. It's probably the camshaft seal. You can do this stuff yourself, perhaps with a little coaching. I have a Loyale too and have reasonable skills (I know which end of the socket wrench to hold), and have done these seals and the timing belts. If the mechanic is saying "timing belt cover gasket", he'll try to sell you metric muffler bearings too. You can do the camshaft seals without taking off the center belt cover, but it will be necessary to remove this cover to do the belts and crankshaft seal--and you should do these too, while you're in there. Once you get it off, either don't put it back on or cut it into three pieces so you can get it off in the future without removing the crankshaft bolt. The need to remove that bolt complicates the job. Also, pulling the radiator is easy, and greatly helps with access and visibility. Here's a thought--as you're doing the job, you can call me for advice and I can talk you through the step you're on. Long distance, but not $600 worth. Plus you'll gain important maintenance knowledge about your car.

See my other post under your post, called "Loyale engine and exhaust", about the timing belts. With 25K miles, possibly the belts were never adjusted or at least could use it. Also, one way to get free power above 3500 RPM from the Loyales is to drill a bunch of small holes, or cut one bigger hole, into the underside of the airbox. The biggest power restriction in these engine systems is the air intake. When you have the filter box off, look at the difference in where the air comes in (from the frame), which is a little oval hole, and compare it to the other side, after it has been filtered and goes into the intake manifold. Big difference. I did this free conversion and noticed a substantial difference over 3500 RPM.

One reason it might seem like it has no power (other than the fact that at its best it IS low-powered) is that the timing belt on the driver side might be a bit stretched. That belt drives the camshaft which also drives the distributor. When I adjusted my timing belts with only 10,000 miles on it, I noticed a little more power and easier starting and shutting off. The usual recommendation is to adjust them every 20K miles, but I believe 10K is better, based on my experience. I never noticed the gradual loss of power until I re-tensioned the belt. This is an easy job, by the way, if you can do even simple things like change spark plugs and such. And also, it WILL carry a load, even with that motor. I pulled a trailer from Oregon to Virginia with my Loyale over the Rockies, including the real steep part at Vail on I-70. Total trailer and car payload was 2000 pounds.

There's a free and easy fix to get it to rev better over 3000 RPM. Take off the airbox. Cut a hole (or drill a bunch of small holes) into the bottom of the airbox. This lets it breathe a lot better, and still looks stock. The big restriction for these motors is the small airbox intake. Try breathing through a straw while running, and you'll get the idea. I've done this mod and noticed a good increase in revving over 3K. I later put on a lower-restriction muffler, with little/no noticeable improvement.

Great to know! Thanks for the info.

Yesterday the fuel line on my 91 Loyale, the clamp-on hose that connects the gas tank to the fuel pump, started leaking where it connects to the fuel pump. Went to the parts store to get a replacement. The largest they had was 3/8". That didn't fit. Looks like 7/16", or some metric size like 11mm or 12mm. This car is fuel injected, so it needs fuel line rated for higher pressure than carbed fuel line. Parts guy says 7/16 only comes in carbed rating, so I should try Sube dealer. Tried dealer, he's clueless. Any thoughts?

You will get good results by taking off the air filter housing and cutting a hole or drilling a lotof small holes in it. Lets it breathe a lot better than just having the small stock intake hole. It'll rev much better over 4000 rpm.

First thumbnail is about brakes; the second one is about tires (pressure, etc.). My Japanese is very rusty but I can tell that much. Nothing particularly useful here. Owner's manual and shop manuals will tell you a lot more on these subjects.

A slight random vibration could also be slush building up inside the wheels and freezing. Had this happen on a car I had (sorry, is was a Honda CRX). Parked it in a heated garage, ice melted, balance problem gone. But yeah, of course get new tires and balance 'em. That's what's probably wrong.

Romcat, Are you sure it isn't leaking coolant from one of those little connector hoses on the intake manifold? They will leak when they get old and brittle. That would be a lot easier and cheaper to fix than pulling the intake manifold off (and possibly/probably breaking one or more of the six bolts holding it on).

Probably the engine internals are sufficiently the same between carb and FI motors. I would recommend either (1) install the whole carbed long block, but use the MPFI equipment and pitch the carb stuff: or (2) if the carbed head is not compatible with the MPFI intake manifold, then use the MPFI head on the carbed short block. Man-hours should be one day at most for the two of you. Line up all parts beforehand (like head gasket if swapping heads), and do whatever you can by yourself before your friend gets there to speed things up: drain oil and coolant, disconnect battery, lots of little stuff you can take off beforehand. The night before, spray PB Blaster on all bolts you will be loosening. When you reassemble, use anti-seize paste on the threads. Keep spare motor, or at least the head if it's compatible, for spare parts or rebuilding.

There's a good coil writeup done yesterday (2/17) about 1 PM. Check out page 3 of the post.

Thanks for the info, Craven! Great to have in insider give us the lowdown. I have had both the Accel Superstock and the Pertronix coils go south on me. I will follow your recommendations.

More energy from the coil means you should gap your plugs bigger (about 15%). This will give a larger spark for more efficient combustion. Should improve gas mileage, maybe more power.

Look a little farther down, to the post called "Advice: taller strut for OBS?". Probably the same answer.

For normal street driving in snow, there is no need for the D/R manual 5-speed. The pushbutton 4WD on the Loyales works fine and is the equivalent of the high range on the D/R. The low range would be useful in certain offroad situations, or if you are pulling a load on the street and can be in 4WD. Or if you just want to piss off the guys in expensive sports cars by accelerating off the line in low range in the snow. That said, I will still be converting my Loyale to the D/R 5-speed at the earliest opportunity, if only for the coolness factor! Also LSD. We don't often get any interesting amounts of snow down here in VA, so next winter I'm heading for Vermont or New Hampshire for some fun.

By all means do it yourself. Just keep putting oil in it until it warms up enough that you feel like doing it. So it costs you a couple of quarts, so what? I'm reasonably mechanically skilled, a little more than oil changes, and have done oil pump seals, cam seals, the front crank seal, and belts. Also put on my lift kit. It's all very doable and there is plenty of expertise here to get you through it, either archived or you can ask questions and get responses. The hardest part is getting up the courage to try something new, like that first jump off the high dive. I wimped out on chucking the timing belt covers. Did a compromise and cut the center cover in two so I could get it off easily. Removing my covers adds about 3 minutes to the job. If you keep them on, use anti-seize on the bolts. About the water pump appearing to be leaking: there is a metal pipe between the top radiator hose and the oil pump. The leak might just be the o-ring that seals the metal pipe where it connnects to the water pump. Get a new o-ring, lube it with oil/grease (antifreeze hasn't worked for me there as a lubricant), and slip the pipe back onto the water pump. Cheap, simple, easy fix that just might be all you need.

Tim, I used to have a Weber book (but gave it away with the car I sold that had a Weber in it). I remember that main jet changes were needed every 5,000 feet in elevation. You should go down one size, say from 140 to 135. At 10,000 feet you would then go down to 130. Otherwise they run too rich in the thinner air at elevation. So 1400 feet is not an issue.

The "best choice" of tire depends on what you intend to use it for, of course, such as street only, 4-season tire, off road tire, etc. If the car isn't lifted, don't get a tire more than about 1" larger than stock, which is about 23" diameter on the stock 13" rims. At 24" you will have no speedo error that matters; speedos tend to be a little optimistic anyway. On 15" rims these might be 50-series tires, and probably there will be only pure street, either 3-season or 4-season. With a lift, you can get into taller tires and have more choices in the 60 and 70-series tires. You would need at least 70-series to find off-road tires, IMHO.

Bear in mind that larger rims are heavier, therefore more rolling momentum, therefore brakes are slightly less effective. If you are going to do the 6-lug conversion, consider getting aluminum rims to keep the weight down.