NorthWet

It isn't likely to be anything devastatingly mechanical (i.e.- overheating, oil loss, internal breakage.) All of the warning lights coming on was just a sign that the alternator was not generating output: Perfectly normal if the engine speed dropped below a certain point below idle. Since the steering became heavy (indicating the power steering pump wasn't being driven very well), This again points to engine speed... or, at least, drive belt speed. I imagine that the crank pulley may have loosened up enough to spin on the crankshaft's nose, and it might have gripped again later on: You might want to ensure that the crank pulley is still keyed to the crank nose, and its bolt is tight. As far as pulling codes, I think that is what normally happens. BUT, I am not that familiar with OBD2 vehicles.

First thing that I would think of is checking the fuel filter. In general, a car that will run at low power demands but has trouble at higher demands might have a plugged fuel filter. However, since this has been a single occurrence (rather than having more "history" of it happening), it could be something totally different. Did the engine ever completely die? The dash lights and heavy steering kind of point to that, but on rereading it sounds like you have a manual transmission (I was thinking auto for some reason), so compression braking would keep things turning. Any obvious "check engine" light after you got it running on surface streets?

I can't remember seeing any Subarus around here that showed worn intake valve seals, and if any of the hundreds around here had that problem I would have noticed. I also don't recall anyone on the board mentioning seal issues in the past. The engine design tends to have the oil flow away from the seals instead of onto them like most engines, so even if they were worn you might not notice. But regardless, they are only oil seals. If someone tells you to do a compression test to check them, you might want to discount their advice. Have you removed your spark plugs and looked at them yet? Ingesting oil will make the plugs look oily and usually you will have deposits caked around the electrode. If, instead, you see a flat black soot, then you probably have too rich of a fuel mixture. Even if you do have oily plugs, look to the PCV system first. MUCH more likely to pull oil through that. Regarding the need to change to a Weber: this is coming from a flatlander, but in concept the stock ECU-controlled carb (or FI) will be better able to handle changes in elevation than will a non-ECU-controlled carb like a Weber. The Weber has no ability to compensate for elevation changes. You can certainly get it jetted properly for an elevation, but it will only be optimized for that elevation. Good luck sorting things out.

I agree with nipper and naru on this. A lot of the folklore about PCV and EGR are from the early implementations ('60s and '70's), and many have clung to early problems to support views. If you are driving this in town, you want the PCV for no other reason that vented crankcase fumes STINK. I mean, they really reek and get into your car interior and your clothes and your hair. They are oily, so it is almost impossible to get the stink out. (I used to own a car with a road-draft tube.) This is a good reason to keep the PCV, even if keeping your engine clean and ventilated, plus that whole ecology thing, doesn't matter. EGR (typically) works at part-throttle only. It is used to lower peak combustion temperatures. If you eliminate it without any other modifications, you are likely to get detonation in the part-throttle regime. Other than engine clutter, there is no advantage to removing it. Different cars have different engine system designs, so some have EGRs and some don't. Similar results can be achieved by valve timing and intake and exhaust design. The EA82 engine system was designed with an EGR, and should have mods to this design if you remove the EGR.

The front suspension has modified MacPherson struts, and the back uses coil-over-shocks. Very little in common.

My Opinion (free of charge today, and worth about that) is that no single change will net you a noticeable improvement. (With the exception of forced induction.) The engine is a system, and changing one item in a relatively balanced system to remove a perceived bottleneck just tends to shift the bottleneck somewhere else. In the end, you are dealing with an engine with siamesed ports, and that (quickly) becomes the ultimate bottleneck.

This one? http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/123124-any-interest-oem-ea-radio-ponderings/?hl=%22aux+input%22

To find TDC on compression stroke, from http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/136371-distributor-timing-problems-on-ea82/?hl=complicated&do=findComment&comment=1146706 , Post#6 by MilesFox: "Lineup your marks so that the distributor side cam dot is up. then continue to rotate the flywheel til you see the 0 deg mark, then drop in the disty." To align distributor, from http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/118830-subaru-xt-timing/?hl=%2Bcompression+%2Bdistributor&do=findComment&comment=1001518 Post#2 by MilesFox: "The rotor will be pointing at the master cylinder. The rotation is clockwise 1-3-2-4. #1 cylinder is on the left front if you are looking at the engine. #3 behind it, #2 at the right front, and #4 near the distributor. If you have pulled the disty, you may feel 'in between' notches for the gear to get the rotor just right. The rotor points at the master cylinder just past the screw/clip for the cap. Some times an aftermarket cap may be marked wrong for the cylinder numbers, since they cross-reference with isuzus and other 80's oddities."

The regular clocks and trip computers are different beasts. As you found out, the trip computer has bulbs that burn out. They are commonly available (someone posted info on my clock repair thread, IIRC).

I did SEARCH with quotes around a longer search term (I.E - "NPR rings") and found a couple entries. One that might be significant is: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/136040-zero-mile-engines/?hl=%26quot%3Bnpr+rings%26quot%3B&do=findComment&comment=1144034

I understand; I have annoyed Rick and others at various times. Regardless of what is correct, incorrect, perspective, or whatever, it is hard to properly convey a point of view in a series of posts. I truly was not trying to criticize, nor change your view; especially since it is the popular and accepted view. Sometimes, though, it helps to try looking at things from a different perspective. If I have brought a little laughter into your life, then I am OK with that.

The problem is that the O2 sensor does one thing: It measures oxygen content relative to an external sample. It has no idea if proper combustion has taken place, or, indeed, if any combustion has taken place. To it, there is no difference between an exhaust composed solely of atmospheric gasses during fuel-cut overrun and exhaust lousy with unburned fuel due to a misfire. There could be a river of unburned fuel flowing down the exhaust pipe, and as long as the zirconium sensor doesn't get contaminated, it could still see a "lean" environment. A device that can not tell you if combustion took place does not tell you anything about combustion. We only infer, and tell ourselves that we "know". We assume that the norm is proper ignition, reasonable combustion, and the composition of the exhaust gasses will be within a narrow range. And boundaries are generally not considered, although out-of-bounds, beyond-limit situations occur all around us.

My local Dealer would install the filter under TSB for free, but if the TSB work had already been performed wanted over $30 for replacement inline filter. Kind of expensive for a non-filter.

A couple anecdotals regarding the early 4EATs and the TSB for inline filters. To the best of my knowledge, this was widespread across the early 4EATs: My 90 Loyale Turbo has a TSB on it and the filter, as does my wife's 90 Legacy. IIRC, the problem was the lock-up clutch sheds friction material, and this material passes out into the in-radiator cooler and can obstruct flow. Also, according to the Subaru rep I spoke with several years ago, the filters are just screens, and are meant to be last "for the life of the vehicle". Edit: lazy fingers kept typing TSM instead of TSB. Edit is to correct that. :endEdit

Helps to pretend that you have an 84 if it is an EA81, and an 88 (or is it 89?) if it is an EA82. And I think it is cute when they ask me if it is the 1800cc engine...

Guess what? It really doesn't matter. Even if you give them the right number, their listings aren't likely to use it to any effect, and most of the time you need to make sure that you get parts for the right "style": They often give EA81 parts to those who were looking for EA82, and vice versa. Welcome, and good luck!

OMG, there is so much not right that I am going to just leave it... almost. Anyone who does not understand the perils of measuring something by indirect means should expect invalid conclusions. Peace and love.

What are your intended uses? (As in, how likely are you to handgrenade any particular tranny, and what kind of driveability do you need.) Street, trail, DD? Time to put on my Nomex suit and take one for my team: Put in a 4EAT. (Maybe a 5EAT, but they are outside my experience.) "What?", I hear you say... Am I MAD! Well ,yes, but that isn't relevant here. Unless you are doing technical trail riding that requires precise power control, a properly set-up 4EAT is likely to have the best chance of surviving the EZ30. No clutch to ever burn out or break, smooth power, torque multiplication, low shock loads on other drivetrain components. Do a paddle shifter conversion and it might even be fun. OK, manual trannies: Probably nothing from a first gen Legacy (90-91s seem to have major issues). Maybe second-gen and/or WRX. Let the new-gen people tell you what's good.

Spray pattern affects effective mixture, through puddling, poor atomization, poor mixing. The effective mixture is what produces the quality of idle, acceleration and power. The O2-sensor reads the results of this effective mixture and trims the mixture richer. (The O2 sensor senses oxygen concentration, not A/F ratio or unburned fuel.) Point is, spray pattern affects the quality of the air/fuel mixture, and the system is likely to react by increasing fuel flow to compensate.

They hang a gear off the end of the back of the pinion shaft, use it to drive a clutch pack in the extension housing, and there ya go! I just checked an 86 FSM (sorry, no 85 FSM) and an 80 FSM, and both say ATF for the tranny, gear oil for the final drive. I went out to 2 85 GLs with 3ATs, and both had "DIFF OIL" labled on the final drive dipstick. Pictures/scans available later, if needed. (I need to start making bread pretty soon.) The labels on the dip sticks are aluminum decals. I suspect that either a mistake was made, or (more likely) somebody was screwing around. Hypoid gears (like the hypoid-bevel ring-and-pinion gears) have extreme pressure put at small contact patches on their gears. They need hypoid gear lube to survive.

I am pretty sure that I have an FSM at home for this year. I will check when I get home.

Do you just crank the engine? Does this mixture combust, or do you have the concern of cylinder washing?

Nothing magical here, folks. The automatic transmission section takes ATF (Dextron), and the final drive takes hypoid gear oil. Doesn't matter if 3AT (M41A, really), or 4EAT (R4AX-EL or EC8), FWD or 4WD/AWD. I have half a dozen (at least) 4WD 3ATs, at least 3 FWD 3ATs, over half a dozen AWD 4EATs and one FWD 4EAT. They all exist, and they all follow the rules. From what I understand the "5EAT" takes a different spec of ATF, but it still is ATF in the tranny section and hypoid gear oil in the final drive section. Only 2 reasons for ATF in a final drive section: Human contamination, and mechanical contamination.

I MIGHT be possible to substitute your diff-lock for the later VLSD. Some have had experience swapping parts between Legacy and pre-Legacy trannies. Is there a particular reason that you prefer the lock over a VLSD?

Refresh my memory... Year, and carb or SPFI.