Snowman

I also would be a bit leery of a curved piece. Why not just move the spare tire and make a straight one, kinda like this.

You can get all kinds of heaters to put on your car. The stock subaru heater screws into the block near the head I think. Maybe your car has a place to put one and you could get a heater from a junkyard and put it in. Another popular one is the "heat tape" kind that sticks onto the oil pan, but that really only heats the oil, which is good but not the best. What I think is probably the best heater setup is the kind that splices into the lower radiator (it could be the upper, but I think it's the lower) hose. Those heat the coolant, causing it to circulate and warm the entire engine. As an added bonus, your heater will be hot as soon as you start it up. For most uses, a stock block heater will be fine. With the heater, mine starts up at 15 below better than 35 without the heater.

I couldn't post last night because my connection was down for some reason. We made it just fine, but it was a pretty lame trip. First we had an hour delay waiting for plows to remove a foot and a half of snow in the Haines pass (that was B.S.). It wasn't too cold, although I set my coffee on the roof, and after it fell off there was a huge coffee-sicle down most of that side of the car. My fuel economy wasn't too abominable, considering the circumstances, and I think I probably ended up using another two quarts of oil. I also now have a tire that leaks around the bead and had to be aired-up in tok and glenallen, and now again in anchorage. From eureka all the way to palmer, we couldn't see more than 10 or 20 feet in front of the car most of the time. One of the scariest experiences in my life, since they don't have reflective snow-poles there. One of those, "Where's the road and where's that guy that was coming up behind pretty fast?" things, for about two hours. The entire trip took a dismal seventeen hours to complete, but Roxanne is here and ready for her rebuild.

MDD: WHOAH! WAIT! STOP! Putting orange coolant in your subaru at this point is NOT a good idea. Unless the manufacturer specifies a certain coolant, just use the green stuff. And definitely don't switch from green to orange at this point unless you get absolutely all of the green stuff out first. ANY mixing is really bad. Orange or red coolants are specially formulated for specific types of metals, or systems that use two dissimilar metals, or whatever. The best coolant for your subaru is green.

Yet again I'm putting my faith in my little 'roo. In about seven and a half hours, I'm taking off for Anchorage, 700-some miles away. The weather doesn't look too bad, as it's most likely just snowing and blowing in the chilkat pass, and it's forecasted to be 20-40 below from Haines Junction through Glenallen, which should give pretty good traction. Just giving a heads-up to Matt so he knows I'm coming, and doing a bit of praying to the internal-combustion gods.

PK: I would definitely like to get one of those skidplate spacers with my lift if at all possible. I would even be willing to pay extra for one, rather than spending the time myself, especially if it can help increase your profit any as a means of saying thank you. Fellow Alaskans: Another thing that all of us might want to start pondering, or if anybody who has lifted their car already has suggestions, is what to do with the shifter, 4wd lever, and exhaust so that they can remain close to their respective places. It looks like the shifter would be fine but may require some trimming of the surrounding plastic panel to avoid interference during spirited driving, the 4wd lever will need to be bent upward, and I will probably cut my exhaust right after the first cat and either re-weld or use a flex-pipe to hook that section up to the rest, which will remain where it is.

That's kinda funky. I dunno what caused it, but for some reason my car used to like to "creep" just a little in neutral. It doesn't do it anymore though. As for the two cables, the bottom one is for the hill-holder function. I'm not sure what the "proper" adjustment procedure is for the clutch cable, but I just screwed with mine until it was in a place that would totally disengage the clutch, without putting any pressure on the TO bearing with the pedal out.

My car: 86 GL wagon 164,000 Parts car: 89 GL wagon, still ran fine before parted at 202,000 For sale car #1: 88 GL wagon 133,000 For sale car#2: 91 loyale wagon 120,000

Hey, your car is just as full of stuff as mine is most of the time!

5200 is where the horsepower peaks, but you have to look at torque as well, which peaks at 2800. I've found that, at least in my car, which has the 5MT tranny and is carbureted, the usable or actual power of the engine starts to drop off around 4500 rpm.

On the torque figures: I've got Haynes and Chiltons, and will have the FSM by then. I was just wondering if anybody knew if there were even torque specs at all, or if like most chassis stuff you just get it really freakin' tight.

I've seen the bed of northguy's brat and I think it looks pretty good, especially considering how much it cost to do. I also Herculinered the floor pan of my car, and it's quite easy to do, even for somebody like me who is a complete klutz with paint.

THAT'S A COOL WHEEL!!!!!!!!!!! That beats the crap out of all those 22's, 24's 26's, and "spinners" that all those new "ridz" are "sportin"

XSNRG: I haven't looked up any torquing procedures in the FSM yet, but about the oil on the threads. Unless is specifically calls for oil on the threads, DON'T put oil there when you are torquing bolts. It will result in an incorrect torque spec because it is easier to turn the bolt, so it will be tighter than w/o oil.

Oh, I didn't think about a torque wrench. Does anybody know what the bolts need to be torqued to? The reason I ask is that I've already got a small one, but if we need a big one (I know I will sometime...) then I could go ahead and buy it with my student discount from Snap-On, Mac, Napa, or Craftsman.

That sounds good. Now, does somebody want to step up and contact PK Davis about getting the lifts and seeing if we can get them shipped here cheap? I would do it if nobody else wants to, but I don't really know anything about shipping companies, etc. due to my lack of experience (hey, I'm only 17;) ). As for tools, I don't think any specialy tools are needed. I have a pretty complete set in my car already, but I can bring my gear wrenches, hammers, saws, tap and die set in case of stripped holes, prybars, and what-have-you as well. If it would be helpful, I've also been considering buying a floor jack, and I would go ahead and do it if it would be helpful.

MDD: About the rear preload adjustment. Somebody said that it only came on the first couple years of ea82 cars, so it may not be there on yours. What you are looking for is a collar that supports the bottom of the rear springs. This collar sits on two or three little bumps that protrude from the strut. The collar has three little depressions that these bumps fit into, and the preload is adjusted by compressing the spring and rotating the collar so that it sits in whatever position you desire. As far as I know, they come from the factory in the lowest position, so as the springs wear or if you are carrying big loads, you can crank them up.

My automotive professor told me about the water cleaning thing. Apparently, it blows built-up carbon out of your engine when you pour water into the intake while it's running. Usually, you have to run it around 2000 rpm to keep it from dying when you pour the water in.

I'm for sure going to do the lift this spring, and I think it would go a lot smoother doing three cars in a row and having more people there. We should REALLY get ahold of an impact wrench to do this job, because those ea82 rear strut top bolts don't like to come off without a lot of persuasion.

WCSS6 is the sixth annual West Coast Subaru Show. As far as I know, it happens every year on or near the fourth of july and is run by the Pacific Northwest Subaru Enthusiasts Club.

Hmm.... That sounds like a heck of a fun trip! I've been kicking that basic idea around for quite some time (maybe go down for WCSS6). I'd also thought about trying to enter an actual rally down there, but that's probably too expensive, and it would suck to screw up my car 2500 miles from home. I think I'm gonna go with the PK Davis lift kit after talking to Jon about his experiences with it. Sounds like it's pretty easy to install and basically bulletproof. We seriously should see if this trip idea could work. I haven't driven to the lower 48 since I was seven. Maybe we could get together with the whole Alaska bunch and make a mass-pilgrimage down there or something. That would rule. (Hey Matt (northguy), I bet your Brat would rank pretty high at WCSS6... wink wink nudge nudge...)

Jon, how did you get your's shipped up here? $100 for shipping sounds, well, absurd. I'm gonna lift Roxanne for sure this spring, so I want to find out how to get the kit here as cheap as possible.

Torxxx, If you want it, I've got a low-mileage hitachi carb that you could have pretty cheaply. The only catch is that I'm not sure it would pass I.M. because it's off of a JDM engine and some connections are either different or not there (at least compared to my 1986 engine). About four months ago I fully cleaned it and put in a new accelerator pump and gasket. It works great, I just took it off to put on the Weber. PM me if you're interested.

Ouch, that's some pretty lame fuel economy.

If you haven't already, check out the "EA performance page by Subiemech" on http://www.ultimatesubaru.org. What I would strongly advise is a section detailing procedures and such that relate to the following subject: These cars are old. Those 100,000 or 200,000 miles on your car have taken their toll on everything, and the best thing you can do to increase your performance is to first get everything performing like new. Here are some things that I can think of and I'm sure there are more. -on carb models, disassemble and clean the carb thoroghly, and reassemble with a new gasket and accelerator pump -put on a new coil (preferably high-voltage), cap and rotor, wires (preferably large-diameter), and plugs (stick with original NGK) -run a bottle of Chevron fuel injector/carb cleaner in your gas for a couple of tankfuls and at every oil change thereafter. I know I've been talking this stuff up for some time, but it truly works wonders -flush and refill cooling system, replace rad. if it's nasty. A cool engine is a happy engine, and a happy engine makes more power. -change the fuel filter -change the air filter and PCV filter (I'm not sure if fuel injected cars have this) -change the PCV valve and clean out the hoses -clean the EGR valve -clean the AIS valve (procedure in USRM for replacement if necessary) -change all gear lubes/ATF -check things like compression and vacuum readings to make sure that all is well with things that you can't readily look at Starting out with a car in which everything is clean, properly lubricated, and running right makes such a difference. Your car will be happier (I'm a firm believer in the spiritual aspect of car care) and it will want to go faster when it's not choked by dirty filters, contacts, or lubes.