NorthWet

The EA82 Rockers (also called cam followers in other Makes) are a free-floating piece that rests on the valve-stem tip on one end and the ball-shaped end of the HLA (pivot point) on the other end, and the cam lobe rides against a pad on the top surface inbetween. Without the cam-carrier in place, there is nothing to hold the rocker in place, except for a little friction. (Or gravity, if the engine is out and on an engine stand with the cylinder facing upwards.) A good glob of grease or Vasoline on the ball-end (uppermost contact point of the rocker) will help to stick in in place... but still, be prepared for them to fall. Also, due to wear patterns the rockers (and HLAs) should be kept in sets with the cylinders that they are currently with. This may be hard to do when you remove the cam-carrier as there, again, is nothing to hold the rockers in place except a little stiction from the oil. The Earth will not split open and swallow you if you fail to do this, but it is still a good practice.

Impatient, yes. But I understand and sympathize. I only had a couple of minutes to look around, but I knew that this was discussed recently. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40961

"Looks" can be deceiving. Just the act of removing and replacing the wire on the plug can damage an old or marginal wire. I would suggest going ahead and replacing the wires to make sure that you know that they are not the problem. Regarding Bosch Platinums, I have tried them off and on since around their introducion, and have been very disappointed with them. After only about 1000-1500 miles in my Datsun the center electrode would be eroded down to the insulator. I believe that I have tried them once in my 82 Subaru, and the same thing happened. I try them again every couple of years to see if they have changed or if I was doing something wrong through earlier ignorance, but the results have always been the same. This is in contrast to NGKs, which I have used since the mid-1970s in all manners of car and motorcycle, and have never had a problem with them.

I don't think that the 3AT tranny is as bad as others make it sound. Most people here just have no use for an utomatic transmission. I have brought a couple "back from the dead" with just some fresh fluid, a cleaned governor assembly, and maybe a cleaned valve body. Don't worry too much about it, unless you are seeing a mixing of ATF and gear oil. (ATF in the diff, or diff oil in the tranny.)

Yee HA!!! I love stuff like this. All_talk is essentially correct, but... this is assuming stock cam timing. the engine has a higher potential VE than the 65-70% if tuned to do so. BTW, VE at idle is horrible, lower than the 65-70%. So everything is relative to how the engine is set up.

The above formula looks reasonable, but normally a "volumetric efficiency" value is added to compensate for the ability to actually fill the cylinder. A VE of around 0.85 (85%) should be about right.

If engine is not running right, always go back to the basics of making sure that your ignition tune-up stuff is in order, especially sparkplugs and wires. Yes, if the wires are not acting right, then you can get radio interference (mostly on AM stations); static would most likely be an indication that the wires are "leaking", arcing to ground somewheres other than the sparkplugs.

I am a New Mexican... but not in the last 47 years. In general, States without large population centers (metro areas with total population in the millions) and/or geographical features that tend to "collect" pollutants do not have much, if any, emissions testing. If you live around Albuquerque or Santa Fe, there MIGHT be testing. My suggestion is that if you don't know, then ask your vehicle licensing agency if you have to get an emissions test before you can register your car.

Hi, Jack! The ECU while in closed-loop mode should continue to produce a proper mixture up to the limits of its injector(s) and its fuel mapping. The ECU in the turbo models uses a pressure switch to tell it that there is positive boost, at which time it goes open-loop and uses a fairly rich portion of the fuel map. I very much like the idea of boosting a NA engine. Not so much to produce monster mid-range torque, but to extend the torque curve beyond where it would normally fall off. Bye, Jack!

If it were an automatic, something would need to be done. And that something is to take a couple 12mm wrenches (IIRC) and remove the 4 bolt/washer/nuts at the differential flange and the same stuff from the flange at the center bearing, and just remove the rear section of driveshaft altogether.

The "pretty crosshatch" is a product of the honing process... so what did his honing job leave for markings? The hone marks are intended to help the compression rings "seat", and are more important for chrome-faced rings than moly-filed rings. It might be an idea to find out what type of rings were installed, and whether the type of hone job matches the ring type. I see no reason to go after the cylinder walls with sandpaper. Either the hone job was done right or it wasn't.

Well, TECHNICALLY, it is a 180degree v-angle V6. Sounds to me like GM badge-engineering.

Welcome! I think... :-\ You are not likely to get a lot of people rushing to your assistance by calling your car a POS. Anyways, the Repair Manaul is down due to security issues brought up during a recent site upgrade, and I believe that the Staff is working on it. In the interim they have resurrected an older version; please see: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40472&highlight=USRM

I would check a little further into using the ATF cooler for high pressure oil. Subaru uses the cooler on the drainback side of the tranny, so little or no pressure is present at the cooler. I do not know how common/universal this is, so I do not know to what pressure specs the ATF coolers are built.

I've been following your travails, but even I can't remember which car this is on (90-ish Loyale???), so ... Car info, please...

I understood that. I was offering up rebuilts as a very viable option.

Why don't you just check the tooth engagement and make sure??? Go down to NAPA/where-ever get some Prussian Blue, put it on the ring teeth, and turn the gears. Nothing beats second-guessing like actually checking.

They were having hydro races in our area this last weekend, and some competitors displayed their smaller boats in the local shopping mall. For safety reasons, they had their engines removed... ... looked like about enough room for a 4 or v6 cylinder engine and not much more.... so I was thinking... ...they could use a Subaru engine!

Yes.

Stupid question from a simple person: You DO know to check the fluid level with the engine running and after it has been shifted through each gear, right? And you did add the ATF to the tranny and not the differential, right??? (Ok, that was 2 questions... I said that I was simple. :-p )

Sorry Paul, not trying to beat you up for information not in evidence... just trying to provide a little more background to the first person from whom I heard about Timeserts. He had talked about the stripped stud hole in another thread. I figured that you would know for sure if the right Timesert kit was available.

In general (non-soob specific) wiper return is controlled by the wiper gearbox/contact plate. As suggested, a better ground might help.

I had thought that the SPFI distributor signal was also used to run the TB fuel injector... If the only purpose is to get the fuel pump to pump, why not just make an electronic box that will spoof the pump control circuitry? As far as the gear goes, I had heard that the dist-drives are incompatible at the gear level, so you need to put the matching gear onto the distributor shaft, and that it is not aligned the same way as the SPFI's gear, requiring a new pin hole to be drilled. (IIRC, this info was recently posted in a similar thread, and either edrach or Qman was discussing what needed to be done.)

I would verify that it is a 2-row and then buy it.

BTW, you might want to consider getting rebuilt heads. CCR is an option, as is at least one place in the Seattle/Tacoma area and at least one in Portland, Oregon. The semi-quote that I heard a year ago for turbo heads from a local rebuilder was around US$230-250 a pair. (Don't know about SPFI, but should be nearly the same price.) By the time you pay to pressure-test, surface the head, and do a valve-job, you are probably looking at more than that cost.