Snowman

Be advised that the gear ratio on the lsd unit is probably 3.7:1, whereas the gear ratio in your car is probably 3.9:1, meaning that you have to use the gears from your diff.

Brian, I can't remember if I included my board name with my check. It should dedinitely be there by now, as I sent it at least a week ago it I remember correctly. The name on the check is Kelly Huff.

I think I'm in the same boat as you, Subafreak. When I was like four or five, I had to bring it to my mom's attention that she was driving with the parking brake on in my dad's old ford. I have no idea how many times over the years I've told my dad about problems with our four-wheelers, cars, boats, snowmachines and such and explained with pretty good accuracy just what was wrong and what to do about it, only to be told that "it's fine". Lo and behold, it would break down 40 miles from the highway the next month.

Thanks rallyruss, I was kind of waiting for your reply to that. I too am rather skeptical of being able to pass w/o a cat, but I'm going to test it out on the IM machine we have at UAA to just to see if that rumor is true. It just might work, especially with a few bottles of alcohol in the tank.

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about the "Subaru feel." At least for me, I just feel natural driving a soob. It doesn't matter what kind, although the newer ones aren't quite the same. Maybe it's because I learned to drive in my mom's 87 wagon when I was 10. Whenever I'm driving a subaru, especially really hard, it feels less like a car than an extension of my own body. No other car or truck feels like that. My snowmachine is close, but still not the same.

I don't remember the specs from the FSM, but the turbo exhaust valves are thicker in order to better handle the higher temperatures of the turbo motor.

Akira: That's basically what I'm going to do if they make me get an I.M. sticker here (it's kinda shady since I don't claim my residence or register my car in Anchorage, but they could make me do it). I just saved the hitachi and everything that goes with it when I put the weber on, and I gutted the stock cat for now, but I have a spare y-pipe to put on. I have also heard that if everything is tuned up real good you can pass the tailpipe test without a cat at all, and it at least looks like I've got a cat there. Depending on how anal the inspection is in your area, they may require you to have an exact replacement of the stock cat on there. You might check before putting on an aftermarket one. It's really stupid because that would probably do a better job than the stock one, but that's our government for ya.

1. They're just cool, in a strange, quirky sort of way. Also the shock value of offroading with a CAR fits under this one. 2. None of mine have EVER let me down. They always get me home from the stupid places I take them, even if they have problems that would be considered fatal in most cases. Sure, I've gotten stuck and stuff, but that was because of my stupidity, and most times I made it a heck of a lot farther than most other vehicles would. 3. They are sinfully fun in snow. I live in alaska. Need I say more? 4. Even though compared to most soobs mine has been expensive, it's still way cheaper than anything else that could come close to doing all the stuff that it does. There are sooooo many more reasons, I just don't have time...

One question. If we did a picture like Brian suggested and maybe tweaked it with photoshop or what-have-you, would that easily be printed up on a sticker? I like the idea. Two suggestions would be to do it in black and white so it's simple and classy (well, at least the pic, maybe the lettering could be colored), and try to get ahold of as many different kinds of soobs as we can. I think for sure Matt's brat is a shoe-in, and Roxanne would proudly represent the ea82s but she would welcome another one or two like her, and we should definitely try to get a legacy or impreza in there too. Maybe we could find an ea71 by then as well, just to get more than one or two generations covered.

SCARE I like it!

It's probably just my personal preference saying this, but I would't recommend living in Anchorage, and I would avoid tiny villages that you can't drive to like the plague. There's just something about Anchorage itself that I don't like. I think living out in the valley like Matt or over in Fairbanks like Torxxx would be alright though. You definitely want to stay away from tiny villages though, because the cost of living is ABSURD since just about everything has to be flown in, and there are very weird politics (like most of AK, but often worse), and unless you are the hermit type, it's just not very much fun. I really like most of the towns in southeast though. Not as much snow but lots of rain, although not as cold, and most of them are big enough that cost of living is reasonable without being a big city.

Hear ye hear ye, we are here to discuss the potential formation of some sort of Alaskan subaru glub, group, or whatever, since there isn't one that I know of, and Alaska really is where subarus are at home. Three issues come to mind immediately: Who would be interested? Anybody from Alaska who might want to become a member, or at least have a sticker on your car, please show yourself. We would need a name: I like Brian's old ORSA (Off Road Subarus of Alaska), but since we shouldn't necessarily limit the organization to offroad stuff, we can probably think of a different name. Throw anything out there. If we get enough potential names, we can vote on it. We should definitely get some stickers once we have a name: This is what got me started on the idea. Heartless has indicated some interest in drawing a design, and Northguy said that he could get stickers printed up. I would hate to just copy the designs used by the Hatch Patrol, Oregon Offroad Subaru Club, or West Coast Stompers. I think that one sort of similar to the design Heartless made for WCS, except having the soob covered in ice and frozen would be neat and replace the mountain backround with a stylized state of Alaska. Also maybe make it an ea82 for this one, since that gen seems to be the most prevalent among the AK-based board members right now. And, once this stuff is taken care of, it would be a lot easier to find other soob nuts, as I know our state is full of them.

Since it looks like there could be some interest in this AK thing, I'm gonna start a thread in the Meet and Greet forum for this.

1. I need to replace all my valve springs, as they are about 15 thousandths short. What is the cheapest place to get good quality springs from? 2. My oil pump is in good shape, but the shaft has the little groove from the seal, as well as a bunch of other imperfections that I think will prevent it from sealing, even with the special seal that moves the sealing point. Is there somewhere that just sells the oil pump shaft? All I have found is whole pumps for like $150. I was also told about something called a "speed sleeve" that fits onto the shaft, sort of like a bushing, that provides a new sealing surface. Has anybody used one of these before? Thanks

Don't wanna jack the thread. If there is interist in this, let's start another one, I just wanted to post the question here first. Heartless (or others, I just particularly liked your drawing), if everbody in Alaska would be interested, would you wanna draw up a logo for us? I think it would be a cool idea to have the "insert cool name of alaskan subaru club here" stickers on our rides, since most of the other geographic regions have theirs. I know I would buy a few if we could get stickers printed up for a reasonable price and such. What do you others from the frozen north say to this?

What about using something like safety wire?

That would seriously work? Holy crap, I'd better get to work designing a chassis. Just think... tube frame slightly larger than a go-cart, 90hp motor, and make it street legal. I have to go clean myself now...

I'll try to post a pic of my "custom puller" too. I talked to another professor who has resealed a bunch of subaru motors in his day, and he recommended the same stuff that my other professor did. I can't remember exactly what it's called, but this stuff is red. He says after using that stuff the motors never leaked. So I think I'll use that.

How do YOU remove piston pins when taking apart ea82s? I know subaru has a special tool that looks a lot like a slide hammer, but I couldn't find one, so a friend and I made a tool for it. We just took a large bolt about 5 inches long and ground down the head so that it could reach in and grab onto the pin from the other side. I then pryed up on the bolt and yanked the pins out. I am wondering if I should be worried about damaging the piston or pin by removing it in this fashion? How can I tell if it is damaged (i.e: what sort of scratches or marks should I look for?) Also, I read in the FSM that you need a product called ThreeBond 1215 to seal between the block halves and between the heads and cam cases. So far, I haven't been able to find this stuff. Subaru sells their special silicone sealer for this, but it's $40 for a little tube that would probably seal one or two engines if you're lucky. Where can I get ThreeBond? Is it even sold anymore? What else have people had good luck with as a substitute? My diesel professor suggested anaerobic silicone sealant, as it is used in the same way on Detroit Diesels. Anybody know if this stuff would work?

I finally got my heads mostly cleaned up yesterday. Each head has one combustion chamber with the "okay" crack in it. There are several questions that come to mind here. What would cause this and why only in one cylinder per side? Can this possibly cause problems down the road, especially since this engine is going to be modified and see some hard use? What can I do to prevent any further cracking? Thanks

http://usmb.net/gallery/album118/wcss5_45 I saw this in the image gallery and it piqued my curiosity. Whose is this and where might I get a sticker with that design?

OHC engines have fewer moving parts. Fewer moving parts=fewer problems The reason ea81s don't normally experience the typical problems that can result with pushrod motors is that subaru did such a good job designing and building them. They had two generations (I think) of pushrod flat fours before making the ea81, so they had worked out all the kinks. The ea82 was the first OHC motor that subaru made, so it was really sort of an experiment. A better comparison in the interist of fairness would be between the ea81 and the EJ18 because in both cases, the design had been refined a great deal by then.

"Dog sled trails aren't wide enough for a subaru." Hee hee, I actually stumbled upon that place this summer looking for an offroad spot. Nice pics.

To get more performance/better mileage, think of it this way: At high altitude, there is less air, right? Duh. To counteract this, you should perform mods to get more air both in and out of your engine. Try cutting out the bottom of your airbox and putting on a better muffler. That increased flow might make up for the altitude difference. I know that my car does pretty crappy at high altitudes most of the time (a lot of that is because it's carbed and can't compensate), but with the mods I have, it still has about the same power at high altitude as it did before at sea level.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, any change that is left over in my order will be a donation to fund the board. I was gonna donate a few bucks anyway, but this is simpler.