markman34

too bad you're so far away. I'm still looking for a good EA-82T

I have installed the peanut butter jar condenser in the pcv system and have done some highway testing. On my last trip, I went 805 km on 51.5 L of good gas. That worked out to 6.4 L/100 km. in metric. Or, 15.5 km/L ish. My low gas light came on at about 760 km but I knew that there's still a hundred km in the tank at that point! I have never had milage this good in an EA-82 car and I think it may owe something to the condenser. I'm going to install a new pcv valve from subaru as my car is getting kinda stinky and we'll see if it gets any better! As you can all see my rear door ajar sensor is buggered. Any ideas? Marko

ATF worked for me. 1 litre in the oil and change when the tick goes away! I never thought mine would go away but the ATF worked. I was worried about using it until my friend the heavy duty mechanic told me it would not harm anything. Good luck

I had major problems with my front bearings on an old sub I had. My mechanic at the time failed to replace a tapered washer with all 4 sets of bearings that he put in there! The bearings would last 2 tanks of gas before I could hear them begin to fail. When I took the car to a sub specialist, he showed me the $0.25 washer and grinned. I put 25000 km on those bearings before the body fell off the car. Maybe replace the tapered washers with new washers from subaru. Good luck

Thanks for the reply! Everything sounded great with the struts for about the first 1000 km. Then I had the car down by the river and bounced it around a bit. under normal driving the struts sound good and tight. Only when the strut is required to travel very quickly do I get the noise. Like I had mentioned, it sounds like a noise from fluid/air moving through an orifice. Kinda like a vibration but very quick. But definetly not a rattle like I think a loose fastener or missing bushings would cause. Thanks again!

a good mechanic is priceless!

OMG!!! that's some funny stuff!! Personally, I never put more than 10 sheets of 3/4 ply on my roof rack! I really like that green wagon though. On here the color is sharp! And, I have never seen it before.

Thanks for the reply! Everything looks ok under the car. All the linkage is good and tight. I'm wondering what components within the strut may fail and cause noise during travel..... It just sounds like that to me Thanks for all the help!

Hi everyone.... I'm wondering if anyone can help me out with a strut problem i'm having.. I just put in new monroe struts in the front of my 88 GL d/r wagon and I'm getting a little noise in the bumps. If I run over a speed bump with a little speed I get a 'clunk/thud' kinda sound coming from the passenger side. All of the fasteners are tight. the strut job went flawlessly. I did have the car bouncing a bit on a trip recently. does anyone know if this is a fit problem or does it mean i need to replace the strut? Could there be a problem with the fluid passage within the strut? It kinda sounds like that to me! thanks for any help you have to offer!

Well my peanut butter jar is at about 1000 km now and I think I'll be keeping it in there! I have not noticed any fluids or crud in the collector but the car does run better. Around town I can feel the difference but I'm eager to take the car on a long road trip. (this would give a better indication on fuel economy too) Also, it makes a great conversation piece when the hood is up. That and the spare tire. Everyone just loves it. Including me.

Here are the pics of my pb jar. It hasn't collected any grime yet but I get good flow. The filter feeds both the pcv valve and the intake boot. It all looks pretty slick for a peanut butter jar. Does anyone think there are fire hazards because of the plastic jar? Flammable gasses in the pcv system?

interesting that there is a flow from one side to the other with the pcv system. I have hooked up a catch can that accepts both pcv nipples off of the valve covers. Is this bad? Do I need to have the one side connected to the air cleaner boot? Does this side (passenger side) provide fresh air to the pcv system? very interesting........ Is there a hazzard to not having the air supply to the pcv system? When does the pcv valve open? Does it fail open? Does it operate on vacume or fluid level? And...... what is a normal amount of pcv gas coming out of the engine. My oil filler cap huffs pretty hard when I take the cap off. So many questions

I've read somewhere that with the 4 low option you would have the lsd rear end? is this correct? 'Cause that'd help with the intentional drifting! I have a d\r 5 spd and I wonder about driving the car in 4x4 on dry roads/tight spaces. Does the drive train suffer much in 4x4? I understand that there is a viscous coupling in the AWD tranny to relieve stresses caused by different wheel speeds. Does the D/r tranny have this benefit? Is it just front to back that causes problems or side to side as well? Confused in Calgary

I'm going to do an oil change today. I'm wondering if I should maybe use a heavier oil. I have seen guys here talk about 20w50, is that too heavy? What do you guys recommend? 10w30, 10w40, 20w50? I always used the 10w30 before but this engine is burning some. Maybe I should go a little heavy? Comments?

I'm wondering if the part time d/r 5 spd tranny is a good chioce. It would be easy. I find it has served me quite well and I always had the notion that a car in 2wd gets better milage. I like having the option to shut of the 4x4. The power and clearence have always been my problem. I'd like to have the EA82T but don't wanat to do a swap. I'm just going to find a mint turbowagon. As far as clearence goes, I have seen many lift kits here. Maybe a lift and some big tires would go a long way

I've just hooked my new canister made from a peanut butter jar up to the car. Maybe it'll help with sperattic oil burning problems that I have. I need a tee for the hose to collect all crankcase gasses to go through the filter but this is a start! I'll take a picture and post it when I break it in a bit!

Hi there Everyone! My 88 Subaru just returned from a great trip through the mountains. After doing the struts and an alignment, I grabbed my fishing pole and took the car though the mountains on a test drive and it performed as well as I could have hoped. After 1000 km I was temped by a series of large mud holes 'down by the river' and was soon buried in muck. I had the car in 4 low and could not believe the traction. I have had trucks that would have been stuck there! Getting out of the mud I knew I had broken something. The ds front cv shaft had busted at the outboard joint. It was 10 pm, we were in the woods, and I had 400 km to my hotel for the night. Hoping that the shaft leftovers would stay where they belong and not tear up my car, I hit the road with the back diff hooked up. At highway speed I heard a noise momentarily like the shaft was coming out. ( But, it didn't! I drove to the hotel and the next day had the car in the shop for a new shaft. 225$ later I was back on the road. 1500 km of steep highway driving, some 4x4 action, painless trip to the shop. These cars amaze me all the time! BUT!!!!! I'm wondering if anyone can help me with a little oil burning issue I'm having. I have an EA-82 SPFI '88 wagon running 10-30. The engine has good compression (155-165) and runs like a top. On the highway it uses very little oil (like none) and gets great mileage (running at 3500 rpm) but in town I use a quart of oil per tank of gas! I see a rare puff of smoke out of the exhaust shifting or leaving a light/stopsign but don't see that much oil going anywhere! As well, when I shut the car off it stinks like oil/pcv a bit around the car. I wonder what is normal blowby to be coming out of the oil filler tube when the cap is off. Mine huffs pretty good I thought for such good compression numbers. I hear of the trouble with subaru pcv systems and wonder about this is what I need to look at or maybe another direction? Thanks for any ideas! Ya know replace the PCV valve is a good idea. I do have a question for you though... First this is an EA82? and have you tried going straight uphill (with no turns on a steep grade) to see if it is still smoking? Do you smell oil burning when you get out of the car or notice any smoke from under the hood? Oil dripping on the Y connector can cause that.

Fixed So, weeks later and the problem has been fixed. I added some ATF when the oil got a little low and within 1/2 hour driving the tick was gone. I dropped the oil and filter and replaced with castrol 10w30 and all sounds well. The valves are opening all the way now and the compression has come up in two cylinders. Thanks for all the help everyone!

So I have been able to get all the valves working properly and have seen the compression in the low cylinders come up. All cylinders are 170 - 160 PSI I think maybe the restriction caused by the not fully open valves limited the compression

very sweet setup!

As far as checking the rings with some oil. I've always wondered how well that will work due to the fact that the piston is lying on it's side. I wonder if the majority of the ring will not get covered with the oil and the air will still get out. I have squirted some oil in there and did see a slight increase in the compression but this could be do to a small amount of fluid (that will not compress) left in the cylinder. Any comments on this possibility? It sure is a lot easier on a inline motor with a vertical throw as a small amount of oil will seal the ring far better. Another trick I've thought of is to pressurize the cylinder with compressed air and listen to where the air goes.(through the valves or into the crankcase) I have used this trick before to do valve maintenance on a v-8 with the heads attached. I could hear exactly where the air went. What is the consensus on the driving of the unbalanced engine? Will the vibration shake the engine to death? Should I not be driving it? I have the parts to re-fresh my other engine on order. I would be happy to run this engine until the other engine is built and ready to go.

I think we may have a winner! THat's one messed up wagon!

So I just did a compression test all the way around the engine and have noticed that two of the cylinders have far lower values than they should. The passenger side cylinders have 160 and 168 psi and at this point I was thrilled. When I got over to the drivers side, I ended up with one cylinder at 110 and one at 130 psi. Now I'm trying to figure out the problem. The car uses very little oil, and has ample power for a little guy. There is an obvious power balance vibration under heavy load. Other than these problems everything looks fine. Being that the problems are located on one side of the engine one might think that there was a HG issue but I just put the heads on this engine and everything looks and sounds fine.(as far a HG problems) No coolant use, no bubbles. Now, I'm wondering if there is a possibility that I have a cracked head that I did not notice when I put the heads on. Or, perhaps I missed the cam timing by one tooth on the belt. Or, maybe both cylinders on that side have worn piston rings. (the cylinders looked fine during assembly) Will I kill the engine driving it with such a power balance problem? I wonder because on my way home today the car died on the road. I pulled over and looked around and turned it over a couple times with no luck. After scratching my head for a few mins and continued attempts at starting it, the car fired up and ran fine for the remainder of the drive. Now I'm confused and concerned because I'm going to work in a couple days and I really ned reliability out of this car. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated Thanks

hmmm, good point. I never thought of the ac factor. I've never had a subaru with ac. Living here in calgary you'd only need it a couple days per year. Can these little engines still get you around when driving an AC compressor? Minimal use, added weight, loss of power == no AC for me

Why is the gas draing away from the carb overnight? The fuel pump must be working somewhwat to make the car run. There is fuel in the carb when you shut it off. Correct? But, the fuel must drain back to the tank/pump due to gravity. Perhaps a leak in the carb/fuel line allows air into the fuel system. Without a way for air to get into the fuel line to replace the gas, the fuel cannot drain back to the tank/pump. (vacume locked) I have found that a very slight leak in the fuel line or carb will allow the air in, and the gas to drain back to the tank! Though, isn't the fuel pump on the subaru located above the carb? Just my two bits