Frank B

I took my 86 3-door to a 4x4 driveline shop, the type that installs lift kits and such to trucks.

Hatchback and the brat share the same u-joints. Look for 2-door hatchback, or the listing for hatchback with ohv engine, or as mentioned above, 84 Hatchback.

Some brands will say on the box, do not use sealer. Just clean the holy crap out of the gasket surfaces, use paint thinner, or rubbing alcohol to wipe them clean afterwards and you should be good. Also make sure the oil and coolant passages are clear so that won't drip or run onto the new gaskets during assembly. But if you decide to use it, use thick copper head gasket sealer.

For the past few weeks my hatch has had a hard time starting, just a click from the solenoid but the starter would not spin. After a few more tries it would start. I removed the starter and disassembled it to find a bunch of dust from the brushes coating everything, and both contacts worn down to near nothing. I cleaned it up, greased the bearings, and removed the worst of the two contacts from the solenoid and soldered a piece of copper on to it to build it up to match the other contact, which worked for a about a week. I just bought a new Denso set off of ebay to try for $8.99. I've seen all this mentioned in the New Generation forums, but not here. Here's a site that shows, and explains it a bit more, it's a honda site, but it's the same starter. Honda, Mitsubishi, Toyota, and who knows how many more have the same ND starter. When I went around town to the different parts stores looking for the contacts, one man told me that he's seen them in skid loaders!? http://www.team-integra.net/forum/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=15&TopicID=123037 Here's a list of what ebay has to offer. A lot cheaper than a new starter. http://motors.shop.ebay.com/items/nippondenso-contacts_W0QQ_nkwZnippondensoQ20contacts A quick funny story about this, I went to start my old Ford truck to go into town looking for the contacts and guess what, it wouldn't start either! I replaced the solenoid with a spare used one, not it. Replaced the starter with a spare used one, not it. So I took the family sedan, a Chevy, down to the parts store and bought a new starter, new solenoid, and new cables, and that took care of it!

Is it getting spark? Is the choke closed? Did you flood it? (install new plugs, or dry the old ones) That hose to nowhere you mentioned, is it the one on the air cleaner? That one looks like it goes to the valve cover.

A good way to see how the cooling system is working, or if it's working, is to use an infrared thermometer at various points of the system. You may be suprised to see how hot parts of the engine can get. The radiator should be cooler on the side of the lower radiator hose where the coolant enters the engine. But if you find that the bottom of the rad or just a few rows of the rad are cooler than the rest, then that area is clogged. http://www.maxtool.com/index/Digital_Infrared_Non-Contact_Thermometers.asp

Radiator. Try to find one that is a thicker core, or two row. I think they are listed as Loyale turbo automatic, or automatic with AC.

The Restore has a powder in it, that's why you shake it up. The powder, whatever it is, gets in those scratches in the cylinder walls, and I guess the heat of combustion melts it?? The problem is that the powder gets everywhere else the oil takes it. The Rislone is a cleaner, praised here on the board, and should be on your shop shelf right between the Seafoam and Marvels Mystery Oil.

It may not even be a true two row anyway. Most of them just have a thicker core. Look for that spec.. I can't remember the thickness of the subaru radiators at the moment, but one part number may be 1 inch core thickness and the other part 1 1/2 inch core thickness. The thicker core, or row, takes place of the true two row to cut production costs.

As with any additive, it works great for some people, and not at all for others. My brother used Restore in an old dodge truck, the next week it threw a rod out of the oil pan! I used it in an old nissan car, and it didn't burn oil as much afterwards. No additive will fix mechanical failure or wear, just cover it up or slow down the symptoms or results of that failure. If your worried about oil consumption, just use STP oil treatment.

Small scale hydro, and diverting a part of the water flow to the turbine via piping instead of a big dam. You don't need a Hoover sized dam to do the job. People have built ones with car alternators that use about the same amount of flow that your garden hose puts out!

That's the point I was trying to make before, but I suck at explaining sometimes. They don't change the pump sticker when they add the ethanol. They take the same gas, 85 let's say, and then add ethanol which will raise the octane, but that 10% of the mix is cheaper then gas so it brings the overall price down. It isn't part of the recipe just yet as it is with the reformulated, RFG, gas. The sticker is to tell you what the minimum octane is, not the actual octane. That's pretty close to imposible anymore. If they put 87 on the pump, if that's what it is now with ethanol in it, they couldn't put 85 in that tank. It has to be at least what the sticker says. They need to keep that option open, 85 conv may be cheaper tomorrow. For a while, RFG was the cheapest, so my employer cleaned and removed all the water from all the stations tanks so they could use RFG in all the stations. That lasted a few weeks. Now it goes back and forth. And yes, all the tanks in the ground have water in them. Some companies keep up on pumping it out, some don't. We have put 89 octane in 87 octane tanks before because the terminals were out of 87, just to keep the station open. We've had to mix 87 and 93 to get 89 because the terminals were out of 89. It's really surprising to what lengths they will go to keep the stations open. For a while the company I work for was selling at cost just to stay competitve, with Sheetz mostly. I just heard on MRN the other day that there is no proof that a gas shortage is responsible for the increase in price, nor is it demand since it can not be acurately forcasted(demand), just an overflow of investors. I don't understand investments well enough to know how or why.

The perfect fuel, or the one we should be using is electric. Solar, wind, and hydro. all low impact or no impact. But all are too expensive, which is the only reason we use petroleum anyway, it's cheap energy. Well it was anyway....... The only reason it's high now is because of investors. They screwed up the housing and mortgage market, now they're tearing into the oil market. The next is our food by jumping on the ethanol wagon. When we use methanol form beef crap, they'll screw that up. American greed is the problem. Sure it's easy for a low-class, blue collar man to say that, but it's true. The only way this country, or world for that matter will switch to better(cleaner) energy is if there's money in it. If I had the money, my home and my trasportation would be operating on solar, wind or hydro-electic power. Sounds wierd coming from a guy that drives a gas tanker ... but it's a pay check, for now. The way I see it, I'm learning just how messed up the oil industry is, even at the lower, or lowest level.

They don't change the stickers on the pumps, only because they would have to change it every time they drop fuel in the tanks. The RFG, or what used to be called oxygenated fuel, also has 10% ethanol, and they do use a lower octane fuel to get the end result at, 87, 89, or 91, 92, 93. The CONV is 87, 89, 91, 92 or 93 in the tanks, so they can't start with a lower octane. I'm sure that will change soon. I think it all starts as 85 octane and the addatives raise the octane, but I can't get an answer on that yet. Here, in VA, it's only 87, 89, and 93. We have the RFG, CONV, and CONV with ethanol. I haven't seen the E85 yet. But I suspect sheetz will be the first to offer it. I only know this becasue I've been driving a gas tanker since October, and I load, haul, and deliver this stuff 4 days a week. For a while, we were putting 87 conv with eth in the mid grade tanks(89) at the generic stations so the company can turn a higher profit, but that stopped. I don't know why, but I suspect that someone complained and they stopped to avoid a lawsuit or other crap. They get whatever is cheapest that day, RFG, CONV or CONV with Ethanol. And the generic stations usually get whatever brand is cheapest. it could be BP, Exxon, Chevron, Citgo, etc to go in the generic stations. Unless the transport company is not authorized to deliver a branded product to any station but that brand. The branded gas stations, Exxon, Chevron, BP, Texaco gets that brand only. So going to a branded station is your best bet for quality fuel, and I would recommend Exxon or Chevron, they offer the best product, really. We have Exxon, Chevron, BP, Pure, Liberty, Dixie, and Texaco(Chevron) and even rack gas, which is the cheapest addative package you could imagine supplied by the company that owns the terminal, but that only goes in the generic stations. And we deliver whatever is cheapest that day. There is only one station that we have that is CONV only, and that's the station at the business headquarters, were I go to work, and I buy my gas. I have used the CONV with ETH in my hatch, and it does run better, but the RFG runs like crap! I think they shoul have little flip signs at the pumps to tell the customers just what type of gas they're buying, but I think it would hurt sales. I hear the Governor wants RFG only in VA, and plans to start that sometime this year. Good for emissions. The Diesel is all ultra low sulfer(15 ppm sulfer) now, at the pumps. Commercial accounts can still get low sulfer(500 ppm sulfer). The heating oil which used to 2500 ppm or higher, is going to be 15 ppm this year. and all the off road diesel is changing over to ulsd, 15 ppm. The off road diesel is just diesel with a red dye, since you don't pay the highway tax.

It would be easier to run a carbed vehicle on it. After you replace all seals and gaskets with ethanol compatable ones. Just as mentioned before, it takes a richer mix than gas. You would have to re-jet the carb, and most likely be able to remove most of the emissions hardware. Most gas you buy has 10% ethanol in it anyway, and most states are talking about going to RFG gas only. Both of which result in less MPG, but less emissions as well. If there is a sticker on the pump that says the gas could contain 10% ethanol, it could be one of three types, or obviously a mix of the three, RFG, conventional, or conv. with 10% ethanol. It just depends on what's cheaper thet day. The conv. with ethanol is my favorite, the 10% ethanol raises the octane, 87 is 89, 89 is 92, and 93 is 95.

This is what I had to do, it takes a while, and you will get tired, but it does work. I was going to cut the bolts shorter before I put them back in but I realized that the may never be removed in the rest of the life of the car. I was amazed at how big of a bolt they used for shocks!!

I just realized you have a lifted hatch, with a lift you can use rear EA82 struts with the coil springs by modifying the top mount, or making one. The EA82's are longer so installing on a lifted car would easier than a stock one. You'll have super stiff rear suspension, unless you turn down or disconnect the torsion bars.

I went with the better Gabriels on the rear of my Hatch, 'cause they were cheap on ebay. and they're great.

OEM or not, I always look up every part number available for the part I need, then search the net, ebay, and even craigslist to find it. I must have saved thousands doing that over the past 6 years or so. Kind of like the GCK axles from amazon.com , $48 shipped, but Autozone wanted $130.

The tranny fluid is just for cleaning, the Rislone will clean it up too, but it stays in there for the duration. Sometimes the tranny fluid and/or Rislone, or synthetic oils, just get into the synchros and bearings a bit better and clean them up, or just lubricate them better. Either way, it works. I've done the tranny fluid deal, I've just ran synthetic gear oil, Rislone and gear oil, even synthetic motor oil in manual trannys before and they all gave the same results, smoother shifting. Just go with changing the gear oil with 80W90 and 1 quart of Rislone to keep it simple for now ( put the rislone in first, then top off with the oil). The clutch may be not fully disengaged, you won't know unless you adjust the cable.

Or drain the tranny, fill with Auto tranny fluid, drive for 200 miles, drain, replace with gear oil and 1 quart of Rislone(yellow bottle in the additive isle at wal-mart). Works great. Also, adjust your clutch cable. Theres two nuts on the end, break the two loose from each other, then back them off untill there is slack in the cable, then tighten up the nut untill there is just a touch of slack in the cable, just enough to wiggle the cable. Then lock the nuts together again. Then you'll have to adjust your hill-holder cable to match.

Anything you do for more power, substantial power that is, will decrease your mileage. Memebers that have installed a Weber carb, properly, and drive reasonably, have seen better MPG. But as soon as you lay into the throttle to take advantage of the bigger carb, you lose that mileage increase. "One other thing to consider... if your car has the stock 13" steel wheels, maybe look for a set of lighter alluminum rims. You'd be surprised how much sportier a car can feel with less rotating mass on each corner." I picked up some Subaru alloys for my ol' GL-10 from a board member to take advantage of that less weight. When I picked them up, I noticed that they had the same size and brand tires on it as I had on my stock steel wheels, so I weighed them to see what the difference would be. Each alloy wheel and tire combo was 1 pound lighter. Not much really. Not enough to notice any improvements anyway. Tune up the car, NGK plugs and wires, good cap and rotor with brass terminals not the aluminum, tune the carb correctly, get the timing right, check the emissions to make sure they're operating properly, and install a free-flowing muffler.

Most likely the radiator. Get one for a turbo model, with the thicker core. there really isn't a two row available, just the core thickness is different. With the thicker core, and working fans, you will never be able to over heat that engine.

I saw both of those forester comercials last night for the first time. I like how these marketing guys think that a 300K, multi colored car is ready to be junk! And they drove it there, how bad can the car be? It is a good comercial, but it really missed the die-hard Subaru freaks, like us!!

Most of the smoke is the seafoam itself, remember it's more like oil. Think of tranny fluid or kerosene going into a gas engine in liquid form, it does not burn easily. Which is probably why it desolves the carbon so well. In a liquid state it can saturate and desolve the deposits. As far as your tick, most likely a lifter not pumping up. Most likely from the seafoam thinning the oil and from the engine sitting a while. When was the last time you changed the oil? Change it now, after warming the engine as mentioned earlier, using a quality filter, Wix, NAPA (Wix), Hastings, Bosch, Subaru OEM. Pour in another 1/3 to 1/2 pint of Seafoam or Marvels Mystery Oil, and let it go until the next oil change. If you want to get serious, pour in an entire bottle of seafoam, or 1 quart of kerosene, or 1 quart of tranny fluid, and let the engine idle for 10 minutes or so before you drain the oil. That will clean it out. Just remember, if there are any heavy deposits, there's a chance that they will clog the lifters, oil pickup screen, or oil passages.