el_freddo

I’d be pulling the power from the accessories wire that comes from the ignition switch, add an appropriate fuse between the factory wire and the gang switch setup. This way a factory fuse doesn’t have to do the load of what ever its task is plus what ever load you add to it. There are also a product where the fuse is replaced by a block that adds two fuses and a power wire - one fuse operates the factory wiring and the second fuse is for the added power wire. Easy to use but not the neatest looking when you pop open the fuse panel’s cover. If there’s one it’ll look better than having two or more in there I reckon. I hope this helps. Cheers Bennie

You need to remove the amplifier. I dare say it’s toast. They don’t take too well to water ingress, and there will still be water in there even though your carpets are dry. Cheers Bennie

Or used heads if you wanted to keep the bottom end of your current engine (and the associated engine number). There’s no easy fix for this one I’m sorry. Cheers Bennie

And the odd thing here is that this would re-align the timing correctly if it’s back on the crank mark. Checking compression with all valves closed will give very inaccurate readings and potentially different readings across all cylinders as no air is entering or leaving the cylinders. Unless there is something being done wrong with both compression testers and they’re both good (strange things like two dead compression testers can happen), this is a bit of a weird one. There would need to be a pretty significant blockage of the intake, or more likely the exhaust (collapsed cat could do it) to hamper the results of the compression test if the block and valves are all doing what they should be doing. Cheers Bennie

The series 2 starter motors used to become unresponsive due to a lack of power to energise the starter solenoid. The work around here was to setup a horn relay that’s triggered by the factory starter wire to give a better 12v hit to the starter solenoid via better and shorter wires from the battery (and appropriately fused). Hopefully it’s something as simple as this. Those cam and crank angle sensors will need to be sorted out but they won’t stop the engine from being turned over by the starter motor. The engine just won’t start as the ECU won’t see the crank or cam signals - which means a code or a check engine light won’t be thrown. Cheers Bennie

Good idea to me. Keeping anything out of the intake/cylinders that shouldn’t be there is always a good idea for engine health!! You could remove the cam belt and allow the cam to rotate to its free-spinning zone. This is when all valves are closed in both cylinders on that bank. Cheers Bennie

Rear EJ CV shafts won’t fit the EA gear. The outer stub axle is a completely different design. Inner cups MAY fit the original EA rear shafts but that’s a big gamble to make for two inner cups. Best bet would be to contact places outside of Europe. Subarino could be a good source, I can’t say if he’s got exactly what you want but he might be able to source and ship the parts you need. Otherwise second hand is your best bet. Cheers Bennie

Make sure your CTS isn’t installed with Teflon tape. It may need the earth/ground of the coolant passage that it’s screwed into. I’m unfamiliar with whether this needs an earth connection. I mentioned this as the brumby/brat used a temp switch in the radiator to trigger the thermo fan. Put Teflon tape on this and it doesn’t work as it requires the earth/ground provided by the radiator (that also has its own earth wire from it to the body). Other than that I’m out of ideas. Cheers Bennie

You can take the AWD manual box from the Impreza. Bits that will need mods to fit it: - gearbox crossmember - tailshaft modded to fit (can’t remember if longer or shorter needed) - possible gear shift linkages need modification - match rear diff - front drive shafts - swap for MPFI/turbo units and they’ll slot straight on. The hardest part is the EJ conversion itself for many ppl. The wiring is what gets ppl stuck. It’s worth the effort! Also an advantage of the AWD box is you retain the factory EJ flywheel and clutch. And on that, if it’s a hydraulic clutch you can swap it to a cable operated clutch by swapping the clutch pivot ball location and the clutch fork for the cable fork. You’ll also need the clutch cable bracket that mounts on the gearbox. If the gearbox is a cable clutch setup you’re all good to go! Cheers Bennie

This won’t give accurate readings as the cylinder is not able to suck air in freely to compress as it would in operation. It would only show that cylinders don’t have leaking valves, even then, depending on how the engine stopped with piston positions in each cylinder, some cylinders might not show up anything. To be as accurate as possible you’d need to ensure the cylinder being tested is at bottom dead centre. This would give the best possible compression test with both valve sets closed. Cheers Bennie

I can understand a race vehicle copping stuff like this, but a slightly modified passenger vehicle that does some mild offroading is another thing (oh, and for those that didn’t pick up on it, ^ insert sarcasm here). Well going by Meatloaf’s theory, you’re doing better than two out of three, so that ain’t bad - if you’re game! Cheers Bennie

There are many ppl that go down the Weber route and have loads of troubles with them - or just chew a whole lot of juice running with one. Give the hitachi a good service with a new kit (keep the old bowl float valve - the ones in the kit are never correct) and go again. You’ll find there are two camps in the Weber world - those that continue to run them and manage them to keep them going and those that revert back to the hitachi carb. Personally a rebuild kit was far cheaper than a Weber so I went that way with my Brumby and I have no regrets. It runs awesome now! Cheers Bennie

Nope. Disagree! Before first oil change or not, they’re squashed and had a heat cycle. You *might* get away with reusing them if you have to pull the head again during reassembly, realistically though, for all that work would you really want to risk reusing a head gasket only to have it fail prematurely? Some might have a crack at it. I won’t be though. Cheers Bennie

Just looking at the cam covers that’ll be a phase two engine. Dunno if that helps! What seals and gaskets are you chasing? Not too much is different between the phase1 and phase2 with the heads and blocks. The intake manifold gaskets are different between the p1 & p2. Waterpump gasket and oil pump O ring are all the same. Timing belt is different but that’s about it. Cheers Bennie

Geez, you guys know how to break stuff good. I’m glad you found that now. I’m surprised the tyre joint didn’t contact you about it as they did the work or alert you about it when they handed the completed work back to you! Cheers Bennie

What I did for my EJ conversion a looong time ago was trace the wiring board on the back of the instrument cluster and intersect that wire for the EJ CEL wire. Or trace it all the way back to the RX’s ECU. Hope this helps. Cheers Bennie

That’s nuts! You’d never hear away with that over here!! Not having any provision to utilise the towed vehicle’s brakes is the major issue - I couldn’t imaging two or three towed vehicles being much fun at all, regardless of how oversized your “utes” are over there (we're seeing more and more of them on our roads down here and they suck unless actually used for their towing capacity). We do have road trains though, and down in Victoria where I’m located we’re finally seeing them on our roads - only two trailers or B-triple configurations, much like NSW does. I believe QLD, NT, SA and WA all do three trailers with WA having a five trailer combo in the mining areas! Awesome bit of engineering and I wouldn’t mind driving one myself sometime… I digress. Cheers Bennie

Don’t go the Weber, not worth the trouble! If you have an auto choke it should work on initial start up. Try double pumping the throttle before turning the ignition on and starting. Don’t touch the throttle pedal. If all is working well it’ll start and have high idle until you tap the throttle again, then it’ll drop the idle speed down and open the choke a bit more. Cheers Bennie

You’ll need L series front struts. 2wd might be the go as the 4wd units are a tad higher I believe. This is certainly the case for the rear end. Cheers Bennie

Man epic trips again, awesome to see some forum members jumping in on the action too! I didn’t realise travelvw was that close to you guys! I’m a bit jealous you guys can tow a vehicle like that using a hitch. I saw this as the laws over here in our nanny country (when it comes to vehicles) require the tow vehicle be 1.5 times the weight of the vehicle being towed from memory. So I can’t tow the brumby behind the family bus because the family bus isn’t heavy enough. But put it on a trailer and it’s all good. Must have something to do with no braking on the tow vehicle and steering becomes a bit more difficult I’d say. I digress… Shame about the cam belt! When was it done last? It’ll be interesting to see if the cogged idler was the culprit. Cheers Bennie

I reckon you got off light - and your insurance company is being lazy. To me that’s not a difficult fix unless the engine crossmember or strut towers have moved, if it drove fine afterwards I’d say it’s fine. Buy the replacement parts and go to town on it. You’ve got nothing to lose from what I can see from those pics. I thought you’d have more carnage than hitting a kangaroo but apparently not. Cheers Bennie

Hmmm… I’ll have to look into that further as it was well over a decade ago that I played with one of these in this manner! I feel like it’s the rolled brass ones but I’m really not sure. Cheers Bennie

Fast running out of lunch break atm! From memory on the back of the TPS there are two black tabs that are kind of melted. Drill these out and the black cover should now come off to expose the fingers and their tracks they follow. Can’t reply about values you got. I do know there’s a switch or two that go to Open once it’s off idle. No check light with the self diagnosis mode with the CEL. It goes straight into throwing the codes then repeats. So if all you’re getting is code 31 over and over that’s the only code you have. Cheers Bennie

Yeah we can’t do anything compared to you guys state side!! Nanny country The guy that had those rims made was told this was the only way to do it and I believe they said it was better than the originals. The originals are HEAVY! 5mm steel on those spokes - yet my off-roader’s ones have “flex fractures” in the paint on them. You can see these in the pic above on the left before they were refurbed. Never had a crack though! Cheers Bennie

Wow that crack is nuts! And those are the copies. Here’s a close up of mine - you’ll notice the design difference! ^ that’s my before and after shots of the freshen up these copped about three months ago for Subinats. I can keep an eye out for a couple of rims over here if you want. The biggest issue is getting them to you without breaking the bank. I’d follow cnzy’s advice with the repair job. That crack surprises me and I wonder how it was created. The rusting tells you it was there for quite some time as cnzy said. Good thing you found it! Cheers Bennie