Snowman

No matter what you do with the Hitachi, it's still not a weber. The bores are still smaller.

YES. Mine did the exact same thing after it had a new clutch put in about 20,000 miles ago. It's the throwout bearing just barely making contact and turning a little bit. I screwed with this for a really long time before finally fixing it (well, making the noise stop at least, I suspect the root cause is still there and is probably improper lubrication). I ended up running the clutch cable tension quite loose and putting a stronger return spring on the clutch fork. That brings the TO bearing completely out of contact and stops the noise.

If it works for us to meet up this weekend, I can fill you in on the details of getting a new one. And you can take a look at my setup. The only difference between ours would be a different adapter plate.

Optima all the way. No maintenance, nothing to spill if you roll over, much better performance.

Whoops, I already replied in the "Alaska meet and greet" thread. Just set the time and place and I'll be there. Kelly 86 4wd wagon (modded) in Anchorage 88 4wd wagon (fix-up to sell) in Haines 89 4wd wagon (parts car) in Haines 91 4wd wagon (fix-up to sell) in Anchorage

I'm constantly on the lookout for more subaphiles in my area. A lot of students at UAA drive EA82s, but so far none have shown any signs of subaru addiction. There's gotta be more out there. Also, I'm gonna check out an Anchorage-based offroading club called the Alaska Extreme Fourwheelers or something like that. I'll let you know what I think of them. From looking at their website, they sound like good people who would be receptive to people with "cars".

Hi guys. Northguy P.M.-ed me about the possibility of saturday around noon, though still no place dedided upon at this time. I'm flexible and don't mind driving somewhere as long as its not more than an hour or so away.

Noah, could you define "a lot of trimming"? Don't mean to hijack, but I'm going to put larger tires on my non-lifted car next spring and I'm trying to figure out what tire size to go with.

I was thinking about just jabbing at the innards of the cat with a rod until I'm able to stick it all the way through and have a hole that is about the size of the exhaust pipe or maybe just a bit smaller. That way it would still have enough backpressure but be able to flow a lot more when required.

Does it already have one thermatically controlled fan? That would make it a heck of a lot easier because then you could just put on another that is wired to a switch. Probably the ideal setup and what I may do in the future if I decide to ditch my belt-driven fan plus one thermatic fan setup is to wire it so that one fan comes on at like five or ten degrees above thermostatic temperature and the other comes on at like 30 degrees above thermostatic temperature. Also, there would be a separate manual switch for each fan. If you are starting from scratch, then you can probably get an adjustable temp sensor switch that just clamps around a radiator hose to control one fan. Just put a switch-controlled relay on the other fan. In stock form, the switch is on the ground side of the fan motor, so you should probably wire it that way.

bump Could the fuel filter be another possiblity for the lame high-speed performance and fuel economy? It hasn't been changed for at least 20,000 miles.

Prerunner trucks usually use white or grey because it doesn't show scratches as much. Probably a light blue would do the same thing.

Hmmm... My only experience with a subaru dealer was buying timing belts from Continental Subaru here in Anchorage. The prices were reasonable ($65 for the pair), and the service was ok. Schucks didn't even HAVE timing belts for an ea82. Northguy or Battle_Wagon_Medic, have you guys dealt with Continental before?

I am now considering punching out the cats for two reasons. Any feedback would be great. 1.) The laws of physics. Now that more air is going in, more exhaust has to go out. 2.) I think that at least one of the cats is plugged, which was caused by the rich condition created by my hitachi as it went to its grave. I have heard that running rich will tend to melt the cat guts together, especially when running at really high speed for hours one end, which I was doing at the time. Simultaneously about two months ago, my fuel economy went down, and for no apparent reason my top speed and general highway performance decreased significantly. The weber has helped this a lot, but the car still seems overly burdened by something, and I think the cats are causing it.

Isn't it a great feature? To my knowledge, all subarus EA82 and after have it.

I just got finished installing a weber on Roxanne, and I am more excited than I have been in quite some time. The difference in performance is nothing short of amazing, and the sound alone is worth it. I do have a couple of questions: The throttle cable is currently operating at an angle because the mount is a few millimeters off from the carb. This causes it to not want to return to idle, and I have a suspicion that it reduces the total movement as well. How should I deal with this? Should I put a couple of washers on the throttle shaft to move the cable attachment point out and bring it into alignment, or should I fab a new cable mount, which would be difficult right now because I don't have a drill at this time. Also, I have plugged and/or removed all of the hitachi vacuum crap, but I am wondering what to do with one line. It comes from the firewall and used to go into the air cleaner. Should I plug it, attach a piece of foam to the end to act as a filter, or just let it sit there? Finally, I have seen pictures of some board members' subarus with snorkels attached, and I think that just looks sweet. It also would be a very effective cold air intake, which would help the performance even more. What kind of pipe has proven to be the best to make one out of, and what else should I either attach to the snorkel or seal in some other way?

Since I got my subaru, I've been using one of those cup holders that rests on the lip on the top of the door. It works great when I'm on paved roads. The setup that you made definitely looks cool and functional, and I probably try it if I had an auto.

Awesome!

I have made a ghetto cold-air intake for my car, and it works great. Currently, it is not hooked up, and I can tell the difference in performance, which is great for a mod that cost me about a dollar. Mine is not set up as a "true" cold air intake, in that it just dumps lots of outside air onto a foam filter connected to the intake. I did that because I don't want to suck any water while offroading. Materials I used: 2 heater air duct hoses from a '78 subaru wagon (you can use any flexible plastic pipe, those just have the right curves and each section about a foot long) 1 section of pvc pipe about 10 inches long a crapload of duct tape and plastic zip-ties How to hook it up: Attach one of the flexible tubes to the bottom of the bumper in the corner of the radiator air inlet on the passenger side using the zip-ties so that it is facing forward and can take in a lot of air. Route this hose so that it goes into the inner fenderwell (you have to at least loosen the big plastic piece inside the fender in order to get to everything). There is just enough room to fit it through a large gap, although it's kinda tight. Using duct tape, attach the pvc pipe to the flexible tube and attach the other flexible tube to the pipe and run the tube up into the engine bay so that it shoots air out onto your intake. I am assuming you have an SPFI ea82. In your case, I would recommend just duct-taping the tube onto the air inlet that is already in your inner fenderwell. Either that or if you want to cut holes in your air box for better flow, run the tube into the engine bay and point it toward the holes. Another alternative is to create a snorkel in the same fashion, which would serve the same purpose, but would look really neat and would virtually eliminate the issue of sucking in water.

90 to 100 is definitely safe for that engine. A friend ran his EJ25 legacy from Fairbanks to Haines, which is about 650 miles, at 105 most of the way without any problems. I've ran my 86 wagon with 160000 miles on the car and about 50000 on the engine at 90-95 for durations of four to six hours without the the temp rising or the oil pressure going down a bit, and that is the absolute top speed of that car. Subarus are TOUGH. They are designed to be run hard.

My favorite passenger expression while grabbing handles is, "WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Which is often preceeded by my second favorite, "Don't you think you're going a little too fast?"

Hmmm..... The road conditions could present a problem. Not so much in getting there, but in the amount of time it would take to get there. I think I'll probably just drive the car down and either fly back or catch a ride from my brother, who is also going down and back (from Fairbanks). I have never driven this road in the winter, and it's probably not the smartest thing to do it for the first time while towing another car of equal weight.

How did you route the light wiring into the car? Mine kind of sucks, in that I just slit the window gasket to put the wires through and then sealed it with silicone, and it leaks.

It would appear that I will be towing "Alice" about 800 miles from Anchorage to Haines in November. This car has the 3 speed slushy tranny. My questions are: Is it okay to flat-tow this car, or will it destroy the tranny? Can I just install a small pump in one of the trans-cooler lines to circulate the ATF and provide lubrication? Or will I have to rent a tow dolley to get the front wheels off the ground? Also, is there any advice that I should hear before towing a subaru with another subaru for 800 miles? The first thing that comes to mind is will I have the power and the brakes for going over the three mountain passes that I have to go through? The other thing that I can think of is how have people connected the brake lights/tail lights/turn signals before?

I totally agree with getting the legacy limited or whatever instead of the outback. If you need the ground clearance, just put on larger tires. My parents own a 97 legacy outback and a friend of mine has a regular legacy, and I am relatively impressed with both cars. Neither of them has received what they should in the way of routine maintenance, and neither have had any major problems to date, even under hard use. Neither the manual or automatic transmissions in these cars have issues with breaking under normal conditions. My mom hasn't had any trouble with the MT in her legacy, and she's HARD on transmissions and clutches.