NorthWet

Frankly, your combustion chambers looked pretty good to me EXCEPT for that hot exhaust valve. As far as deposits, I have seen far worse in carb'd engines that were perfectly fine except for needing a head gasket due to age. Clean up the chambers and check the valves and their seats... especially the white or ashen exhaust valves.

"And now the rest of the story..." Forgot something that should help you: Just pull the back half of the driveshaft and you should be OK. The back half has flanges at both ends, and is usually pretty easy to remove.

I'm told that I should stick to plastic glasses and should really consider bifocals. My current glasses look like Coke bottles. :-p

It is an automatic. IIRC, the transfer function is accomplished by a clutch-pack, which is normally engaged. It requires fluid pressure to disengage, AND being in FWD mode. Since the Subaru 3AT does not have a rear pump, there is no fluid pressure with the engine off. I have towed a 3AT on a dolly twice. It now has a new transmission.

You might be able to carry a full-size, same-size tire/wheel if you keep it deflated. A can of air or a portable compressor competes the setup.

The viscosity recommendations mostly have to do with oil pressure; they expect that the turbo engine or hot weather/heavy load driving will run the oil temperature hotter and thus reduce oil pressure under load. Any thinning will be relative to the higher visc number in the multi-visc rating (i.e. the -30 part of 5-30, 10-30, whatever). The lower number (i.e. 5- 10-) is relatively irrelevant at operating temperatures, as it is the viscosity index at low/ambient temperatures. So, as long as oil pressure is good at operating temperatures then the viscosity is satisfactory. Running an oil cooler (as I believe WJM ALWAYS does) mitigates most of the situations that the manual warns about. A small variation in viscosity should make little or no difference in oil getting past oil rings/valve seals.

The torque converter is probably just stuck against the flexplate and the pilot-bearing equivalent. It is only fastened to the flexplate by the bolts around the edge of the flexplate. WARNING/CAUTION/ALERT: The torque converter MUST be correctly mounted onto the transmission shafts when you reattach engine to transmission. "Correctly" means in a specific way; I do not happen to remember EXACTLY how to do it (it involves rotating and pushing and listening/feeling for clicks) you might want to check out this thread (which IIRC includes links to the procedure). http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=25381

I don't know... if you offroad, who's going to want to go with "The Turtle"? They will either think that you are slow, hide at the first hint of trouble, or roll over and not be able to right yourself! Actually, I am just jealous as none of my soobs have names.

In the spirit of the original post, there is a thread about rear ebrakes in the Old Gen Forum. Basically talks about Nissan calipers that can be swapped onto the back (assuming rear disks ) that allow rear emergency brakes. IIRC, using the rear ebrake gives you a bootleg turn, power gives you powerslides. Power induced oversteer is much easier with RWD.

... and you can't stop if you don't out-mass what you are towing (unless your trailer has brakes). There is an 85 Turbo wagon down here in the States for $200...

*mini hijack* (I thought of putting a joking "we never talk anymore" line or two in here, but figured someone/somewhere would not think that it was meant to be funny.) I have some thoughts about exhaust port temps that would require EGT sensors, and also thought that while I was at it I would stick in EGOs for each cylinder. (This latter for those in the "lean cylinder" camp.) Also a pressure transducer in each exhaust port. So, each exhaust port would be a very busy place with sensors: 2 EGTs, 2 EGOs, and a pressure transducer/port. I would also like a temp sensor (in each head?) for drainback oil... the turbo dumps its spent oil right into the head, draining back not that far from the crack point. Consider the temp of it, especially if low on coolant... Just some thoughts on how to track down the culprit(s). *End mini hijack*

It being a right-side EA82T head. There seems to be 2 types of right-side EA82T heads: Those that have cracked and those that haven't cracked yet. There are a lot of opinions and conjectures as to why they crack; most that I have heard don't make much sense to me, and I have my own opinions. A proper repair job should be reliable. Yes, it is in the exhaust port but there is water just on the other side constraining the temperature rise. (Sort of like boiling water in a paper cup over an open flame.) An improper repair job will likely fail, just as any improper repair.

BTW, tempered glass has an annoying habit of self-destructing, usually during a temperature fluctuation. Sometimes a small chip or scratch will be the stress riser. Sometimes it seems like bad kharma, sometimes it just seems like FM... My brother had TWO windows break virtually simultaneously while driving down the road. Unless you found a rock, brick, or whatever, it might have just been bad luck and not vandalism. Me, if I broke the window I would have grabbed some of the tools...

NEW head would be very expensive. A rebuilt head can be had in my region for around US$150 (with rebuildable core). Repair cost depends on who does it. At least for US-spec (and I believe JDM) there is no difference in CR or any other significant feature between MPFI and turbo heads. The CR difference is in the pistons. The turbo heads have fittings on the right-side (driver's perspective) head for turbo oil; these fittings are cast into MPFI heads but not drilled/etc.

When it 'sputtered back to life" was it full life, or like it was running on 2 cylinders? Could easily have broken a non-disty-side timing belt. (You said that you had spark, so I assume that the disty-side isn't broken, though it could have skipped/be skipping a tooth. Loose belts after a replacement is not unheard of.) "Almost new" doesn't mean still good... a belt with less than 1000 miles shredded on me, and took part of the oil-pump pulley with it.

Lots of things can cause a vibration. One often overlooked problem is old bushings on the leading arm (aka brake reaction rod, tension/compression rod). In what way are the axles loose? Are you grabbing the thin axles shaft and moving towards hub/away from hub, or maybe up and down? Or are you grabbing the DOJ cup and moving it either towards/waway from hub or up and down?

How early Saturday do you want me there?

Is it fixable? Yes, if you find the right shop and they are willing to do it. Is it reliable? It should be, as long as you find the right shop. There are a couple rebuilders in my region that do this. However, most people around here don't bother with repair and just find another head.

From My '85 FSM, 49-state and Canada Carb emiisions diagram. Not exactly a vacuum diagram, but better than nothing. *edit Delete -I have a larger version if you need it. Just don't know how to put it up on the board. (Photo gallery, I guess??) PM me with an email address and I will email it to you. (Dialup is marginal for this large of a file.) - end Delete end edit * http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/photos/showphoto.php?photo=5234&sort=1&cat=500&page=1

Remember when the engine was not in the donor car and not yet in your car??? That would have been the perfect time to make sure you knew when the t-belts were last changed. Live and learn. T-belts are not that hard to replace, especially if car is sitting outside of the car. They are a real pain on the side of the freeway. (Guess how I know?!)

Accuracy is relative. When testing 5% resistors almost anything will do. When checking coil restistance, almost anything will do. Measuring transconductance and capacitance and such, well, then you are talking about a totally different class of meter. I am pretty sure that even the cheap meters have a decent ADC and timebase. And I will have to check into Flukes repair policy. I was told at the time that I was SOL. :-\

The SPFI manifold, engine harness, fuel pump, and ECU are small enough to be shippable... Price for MegaSquirt depends on how much effort you wish to put into it. (The following prices are from my swiss-cheese memory, so please check the MS site for their actual pricing.) You can buy a build-it-yourself kit with diagnostic box for around US$250; without diags and some other fancy stuff it drops to around US$150-175. Or you can buy a ready to install kit from value-added resellers for US$500+.

Harbor Freight sells a small one, on sale for less than $3; I think reg price is like $5-7. For what you have in mind you don't really need much. I have both this one, and a $15 fancy DMM. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=90899 http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=37772 I also have a $350 Fluke 8060A DMM that worked for about a month... that was a worthwhile purchase. Tomorrow afternoon I am going past Harbor Freight on the way to SeaTac Airport and on to Ellensburg. If you want I can see what they have and bring it near you. I ought to look at these solenoids and see how hard it would be to make replacements. Can't imagine that these cheap things cost $100-200!!! TTFN! Pat

With enough money... I would think that you would be better off with the SPFI manifold, and maybe complete setup. Makes me a bit of a hypocrit, as I want to play with MS.

Please don't expect any miracles from flushing your radiator. Usually, most of the plugging comes from material that has accreted onto the tubes rather than just casually floating into the tubes. In the old days of copper-and-brass radiators (I am assuming that yours is original equipment plastic tank) a radiator shop would take off a tank and "rod" the core. Now days we just toss it and buy a new one. Also, in the old days radiator flushes were made with oxalic acid which could dissolve some of the mineral deposits, but at least in the USA these are no longer available, with their replacements just being a detergent. If you are getting oil smoke just on startup, and not getting excessive oil consumption (1L/1300Km???), I would not worry much about it. It might just be a PCV system that could use some cleaning/replacing. Good to hear that the electric fan is working better.