el_freddo

Oil pressure increase seen after the filter is a good thing. Between the filter and pump, any increase in oil pressure wouldn’t be seen on a gauge. So if there’s an increase in oil pressure on a physical gauge, that’s got to be a good thing. Cheers Bennie

Conduit and wire loom tape is about as good as it gets with these things. Keep it tidy from the start and it will look good. Trying to conceal it all will bring up other issues and will no doubt require extensions to the loom. This could spell trouble as GD eludes to. Cheers Bennie

Are you sure you’ve got your Before and after TDC the right way around? The Hotwire AFM MPFI needs 20deg BTDC static (green test plugs connected under the dash), this could be different for the flapper and vac advanced MPFI engine management. You might also need to connect some test connectors for dizzy timing changes. A new catalytic converter would be a good investment for smog, as would a new O2 sensor too. O2 sensors go bad and don’t always throw a code or show a CEL. Cheers Bennie

I tested this out in my sister’s Gen3 RX 2.5 manual. Pulling 1500rpm in 5th is ~50km/h, which from memory is near 40m/h. Her car pulled up from1500rpm without hesitation. It did it slowly though and I didn’t bury the foot into the floor either. You may have an issue with your legacy - any stored codes? Check your engine mounts and the pitch stopper rod for wear too. Cheers Bennie

That’s what I’d recommend. These engines don’t like high loads at low revs. 2000 rpm is the lowest you want to load the engine at. Cheers Bennie

“Lugging” the engine. It will coast at those revs ok, but it won’t really like to pull speed from those revs in a high gear. Try changing down a gear at that speed to increase revs and see if that changes anything. If it persists I’d be looking at spark plugs, then leads, then the coil pack - one at a time to hopefully save money and identify the actual problem. Cheers Bennie

Fair enough. I didn’t think it would hurt to ask. Cheers Bennie

If you’ve got the EA82 FT4wd box, it would have the locking centre diff and 3.7 or 3.9 diff ratio. What Ellie-Ray needs is the centre diff with matching housing, the ring gear and pinion shaft - that’s essentially what Ellie-Ray is chasing for this build. The rest can be sourced locally. And I’m not his agent, just thinking out loud - I haven’t spoken to Ellie about gathering parts. Cheers Bennie

@Numbchux: Sell the R&P gears plus the locking centre diff with housing to @ellie-ray? Cheers Bennie

Avoid. Now the EJ20 turbo would be well worth it, but the chassis rails need to be widened, or apparently run without timing covers - and change the spark plugs before install! Or EJ22 - no chassis rail mods needed, peak power is about the same as the EA82t and is more reliable. @Step-a-toe - any rail mods needed for the EA82 in the brumby? In my book EA82 anything in the Brumby/brat’s engine bay is a fail. Keep the EA81 or go EJ. There’s no other reliable option! Cheers Bennie

It’s possibly the idle mechanism’s slow reaction to a change in vacuum. Otherwise to me, it points to a secondary vacuum leak that the SPFI system is able to deal with, and a brake booster issue. My initial thought was brake booster. Best to get a vacuum pump and give it a thorough test. Cheers Bennie

No worries Ellie-ray. Low range oil feeders on this page. Pics will tell you more with way less words! https://ausubaru.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=11733&start=555 The EA AWD pinion shaft is LONG, probably close to 60cm from memory. The EJ pinion shaft is closer to the 40cm mark. So you need to “cut” the gear off both shafts and weld the gear ratio you want on to the EA’s pinion shaft. I say “cut” as it’s much more involved than that. When I snapped my first pinion shaft weld job (someone did a massive dodgy on it, less than 2mm penetration around the circumference), I was “lucky” enough to be in the company of a good mate in WA that had a network of mates that knew someone that could do something I couldn’t do. So I got to watch the process of the cut and shut which is much more involved than is sounds. Basically each piece was shaved at the point determined as the strongest and not at a bearing position - from memory about 70mm from the back of the pinion gear head. One piece was made with a make stub and the other with as a female, both mating edges were beveled. These were then pressed together and the now beveled valley welded in. Once this was checked out on the large and was generally “true” (the shaft had a twist in it and the lathe a 0.004mm movement), a capping weld was done and this was shaved flat in the lathe. If the weld colour was the same, you would need an X-ray to know what was done. As for who to go through, I don’t know, you’ll have to investigate that. The tube that I shaved down is the spacer tube that the centre diff sits over. Because of a slight change in length of the pinion shaft, when the pinion shaft end nut was torqued up to spec I could not freely rotate the lower gear sets, or the pinion shaft independently of these. Shaving that tube down allowed this to occur as the lateral bearing(s) were no longer squashed. Best of luck with getting the parts together and the build in general! And I hope your health continues to improve and strengthen! Cheers Bennie

They’re certainly different! Personally the factory silver is where I’m at, but it’s your vehicle and you’ve got to be the one that loves looking at it, driving it and being seen driving it! Keep the glamour shots coming, something up close, looking down the side of the vehicle in full sun would bring out the blue in the rims I reckon. Cheers Bennie

Could the issue be a replacement valve that is slightly different to the other remaining (possibly factory) units? Thus sitting lower or higher than the others? Cheers Bennie

LEDs for headlights can go jump. They’re far too blue. And before you get on the it’s a better light bandwagon, it’s a very unstable wave variety of light. This means glare to incoming vehicles and less light returned to the driver to see what’s ahead of them. HIDs fall into this same category. I don’t care about current usage, I just want good reliable lighting that’s inexpensive to replace globes in. Cheers Bennie

Are these fully sealed units or semi sealed? I’m after a pair of low/hi and the dedicated hi beam lights that are semi sealed. And I’d like the dedicated hi beams to be a spot light lense - clear without any ripples or patterns in the glass lens. Cheers Bennie

Unless the seating of the spring at either end is not flush, I don’t see how this is an issue. It will still put pressure on the valve and act properly like a spring should! My 5c on the matter. Cheers Bennie

Hehehe... thanks Dean! I don’t see it like that, I’ve have my gearbox opened up and played with more than I’d like to admit. For those playing in the northern hemisphere, this info involving dual range EJ gearboxes is specific to the Australian market - we didn’t get cool models like the RXII coupe, but we did get the EJ dual range AWD box for many years across the EJ range (minus turbo models as they’re all single range). Now, pack a lunch - you were warned @ellie-ray - I too was started with help from Phinzina’s information. Those gearboxes do exist in Australia - but they’ll be tucked under a bench or in a forgotten L series/Vortex that someone doesn’t want to or doesn’t care to sell on to someone like yourself. And you need to be careful not to get one with a flogged out centre diff - they’re rarer than finding rocking horse shite AND hen’s teeth!! You have to find them in a complete gearbox. You don’t need to cut the best low range gears possible, but that would be fun to do for a lower low range. Just use the L series NA low range gear set that gives you 1.59:1 low range. The next issue is diff ratio as this is commonly over looked in the earlier Subaru’s due to lack of factory options and the complexity of this mod. The L series AWD locking centre diff box came in 3.9 and 3.7 diff ratios with dual range and single range, the dual range had the crappest low range of 1.19:1 (at least it was an option!), but you can still build a dual range locking box from a single range AWD locking unit with a phase 1 dual range EJ AWD box - and use it behind an EA or an EJ engine. How you go about this swings off what engine you’ll be running - the EA82 or an EJ engine. This will determine which gearbox front cases you’ll be running with. If going EA, you need to ensure you have the spring and dedent ball setup for the low range selector fork, this requires mods on the selector fork to mimic that of the EJ selector fork (at least I think you do as I’ve not done this setup before), and the EA cases will need to be modified for this as well. The low range swap is basically the same as the one swapping the L series 1.59:1 into the EJ case - again, how closely you follow this depends on what you build it into - the EA cases or the EJ cases (early EJ dual range cases uses same input bearing and housing as the EA82 dual range). The low range hub will need to be machined for the EJ gear set mounting regardless: https://ausubaru.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=13511 The EJ phase 1 dual range gear sets are important only if you’re converting a single range AWD locking box to dual range in the EA front cases. You use the EJ dual range gear sets with the locking centre diff, matching housing and the matching ring and pinion gears in the dual range EA front cases. You’ll want the L series 1.59:1 low range too - NA PT4wd is where to find this. Also choose your diff stub spline count - 23 (EA82 carb) or 25 (EA82 MPFI, turbo and EJ AWD). The L series has front shafts for both output stub axles from the factory. If you’re going for an EJ engine, I’d recommend the above but with a phase 2 EJ AWD dual range - first gear is stronger, the cases are stronger and *generally* they’ll have less kms than the earlier phase 1 boxes. Look for one from a 2002 onwards as I’ve come across two ‘99/‘00 gearboxes with phase 2 beefier cases but still retaining the smaller first gear with the lower strength. Both of these phase 2 gearboxes had diff output stubs from factory - I’m yet to confirm if this is the indicator of the difference. Also use the EJ flywheel and clutch. The phase 2 boxes use a hydraulic clutch setup, swap the fork for a cable operated fork (you’ll need the clutch cable stay bracket too) from the phase 1 box, and use a solid flywheel from the same - it all bolts up and works easy. You just have to swap the pivot bolt for the clutch fork to the lower mounting position. With that said about the beefier first gear, I blew second gear in my original AWD locking box build (EA AWD gearsets) - before I got it someone mated a single range lower gear set with a dual range upper gear set for the low range. This is a no-no with mix and matching gear sets and things can eventually go bang as an end result. I didn’t overload the gear, it became difficult to select on my way out bush, I didn’t think anything of it and rev matching made it all work fine. Down shifting as I was slowing and going uphill saw it let go, no over revving or anything, an easy load and it unleashed 1000 leprechauns with hammers inside my gearbox! Diff ratios: only way to swap unless you have the matching set is a cut and shut job from a reputable company that is willing to do the job (or you’re a really good machinist and welder). The pinion shaft in the locking box is unique in that it’s the longest produced by subaru, and thus IS NOT interchangeable with other EJ AWD pinion shafts. There’s a spacer tube in the pinion shaft system that’s critical to get the pinion shaft length bang on the same as the original pinion shaft before mods. I spent 4 hours hand filing that hardened sucker down to allow proper preload on the lateral bearing(s), I cant remember if there was one or two of these bearings in there. If you want 4.111:1 or 4.44:1 you will need the cut and shut method, and if running the 1.59:1 low range, the ring gear on the diff needs to be shaved to clear the low range gears. It gets out of hand quickly! While you’ve got the whole thing open, drop a front LSD in there. I used an OBX helical unit from the states. If you go this way, use the rebuild kit before installing it for best performance and longevity - this is something I hope to do with my front LSD at some point as it’s not working as effectively as it did when new. The bolt heads on the LSD needed to be shaved to clear the low range too! All works well though. So here’s my setup: phase 2 EJ dual range front cases and matching gear sets from an SG forester, L series 1.59:1 low range with auxiliary oil feeders over the low range gears, OBX front LSD, 4.111:1 diff ratio using a custom pinion shaft with the L series AWD locking centre diff, running 27 inch diametre tyres. An EJ22 does all the work out front. I’d go 4.44:1 diff ratio (and the lowest 5th gear ratio) if I had my time again with the custom pinion shaft. If I break that centre diff, this gearbox build is essentially toast as replacement centre diffs are none existent. The whole point of this build for me was to have awesome daily driving manners and off-road ability. AWD in the L series is mint to say the least. Fuel usage does go up a little though, it’s now hard to pull under 10L/100km but that could be due to other mods too - lift, tyres, dual battery, fridge, recovery gear and roof racks, engine age and wear (I’ve put it through quite a bit). It all adds up! The other good thing about this mod is that your tail shaft, gear selector linkages and gearbox crossmember all remain factory in the L series. After reading that and you still have questions, fire away! Cheers Bennie PS: this is probably my longest post on this forum!

Over here in Oz they used a vacuum switch - only operates when the AC compressor is engaged. There is a vacuum line from the manifold to this switch device, then another one from the switch to the diaphragm to up the idle revs. It’s that simple. There will be two ports on the vacuum switch device, I’m not 100% sure if they’re specific to which side needing to go to which part. Cheers Bennie

I can’t wait to see what these look like on the foz! Cheers Bennie

Rope trick works mint. Just be sure to tie the end to something or a massive knot in its end so it can’t fall into the cylinder. Hope it all checks out ok. You’re certainly more dedicated to this than I am! Cheers Bennie edit: I should say “would be”, not am...

Possible. Might need to drop the gearbox crossmember and drop the back of the gearbox down as far as possible. From there leverage space becomes the issue for removal. Cheers Bennie

What colour and trace colour are those wires? They could be temp gauge or oil warning lights. Dunno why it would be shielded though. Cheers Bennie

EA81 = great engine. EA82 = EA81 with overhead cam abomination which = not such a good engine. As for big end bearing issues, usually low oil in any engine. It could be low enough that the engine oil starves. Or the low oil allows more heat retention further reducing the viscosity of the oil and reducing its lubricating ability. Cheers Bennie

Yeah mate, something like that! I was not impressed! Cheers Bennie