the_bard

Too bad you're not in the NE. Take NY for example... if the chassis isn't rusted out, it's worth repairing the head gaskets or slapping new engine in there. 'Course, nearly everybody out here has got that "cars are meant to be replaced, not repaired" attitude. , so you'd probably have to find another Subie freak .

<--------- 80's wagon. Could'a told you that much, though. I'm definitely a high tech redneck... or countryboy at least.

I so want to stick mine through the hood. Definitely adds character. PK lifted wagon... custom bumpers, brushguard, & rack via soobme... 28" tires... and an air intake sticking out the hood. Think we can drum up some of those decals that are on the side of jet aircraft intakes? "Warning: Air Intake" Miles: Would it be possible to get a pic of under the hood? I assume that's a carbed model... I gotta figure out how to rig that up with a SPFI...

When my tranny's cold, I can't shift into first above 5 mph. When it's warm, it'll shift into first up to about 15 mph. It goes in kinda funky, though... I'll line the shifter handle up, and press gently (pushing harder doesn't make it quicker, and I'd rather not force it)... give it a few seconds, and it'll just pop right into first. *shrug*

I wouldn't be surprised if my wagon ends up qualifying for a Trashwagon a ways down the road (year or two), but I'm not sure I want to name it a Trashwagon. I'm thinking more like "Bardmobile" . J/K.

My '92 Loyale has some pretty good rust on the frame rails, just behind the engine. The rear of the vehicle isn't in great shape either... it's really starting to go. I don't have a mig welder (though an accessible arc welder is a three hour drive away... and I might have a friend who's father has a mig welder), so a major cutting and welding operation is out of the question. I hopefully will be solving this by picking up a chassis that has some rust on the fenders and behind the rear wheels, and that's it. I can replace the fenders, and hopefully catch up to the rust behind the rear wheels, and keep up with the rest of the underbody, preventing rust as much as possible. That's not the perfect solution, but from what I've heard, getting someone to cut & weld it for me would be expensive. A mig welder & some practice would be my optimum solution, but I don't have the cash nor the storage space for one right now.

I love that bumper/brushguard...

You do have a point here... ought to see the Albany New Yorkers after the second major snow storm of the season... everybody's going about 15 mph if there's a slight dusting of snow across the highway. (After the first major snow storm, everybody's still in "leadfoot" mode, and wonder why they end up in the ditch.)

Can't help you much on the value... besides that if there's much rust on it, I wouldn't pay much for it (more than $500 if it's running well, myself). Hard to say more than that... depends on where you are. Here in NY, if there's not all that much rust on it, it's worth gold, far as I'm concerned (hence, I'm seriously considering hauling a chassis up from VA that I should be able to slow the rust down). Out in the Pacific NW, however, Subie's tend to be relatively rust free, and their worth depends on how well they're running. *pathetic sigh*.

The mount is a little utilitarian... think it could be cleaned up a bit. I like the look of the fire extinguisher, myself. Has a purpose, and it's close to hand. I especially love the look of Brat's lifted. I want one .

Used to say this about rednecks, but... "Never tell a Subie freak that there's something he can't do to his Subaru, 'cause he'll find someway to do it. Especially if he's got power tools." Betcha it's gonna fly...

They're rare around here . I haven't seen a Brat in person yet... heck, every time I see an El Camino, I have to look twice, just to make sure. *helpless shrug*. It's like giving an alcoholic a teaspoon of vodka once a week... pure torture.

Nah... NY. Lemme put it this way... saw a Justy the other day down at the mall, making a turn to head down into Albany Proper. At twenty feet, I couldn't see any rust. Darn near took off after it, just so I could drool a bit. A Justy, keep in mind. *pathetic sigh* Been seeing a few wagons around, though... mostly Loyale's, though I did see a GL over on Fourth Street a week ago. For every 10 I see, though, 9 are rusted out, just as bad as my Loyale. Darn NY salt. Lots of new Sube's around, though. I've become rather adept at recognizing Foresters from various angles.

When you see a rust free Subie, and are tempted to follow it 'cross town to see how much the driver would take for it... ... and have done exactly that in the past.

Sounds like a candidate for the USRM to me...

Um... granted, I haven't had the opportunity to play with D/R yet, but I seriously doubt you can just slap it into 4LO at highway speeds *grimaces at the thought*. 'Course, after someone buys it, I doubt he'll care whether someone tries or not... On the bright side, I've only seen one Justy up here that wasn't encrusted with rust, and it didn't look this good. It's sad... I'm starting to rate vehicles by their "rust life", i.e.: How far the body & frame have succumbed to rust. I really need to get out of NY...

While I'm planning stuff for this swap, I'd figure I'd throw this out, too. Put it on my list of things to do, at least. I've been following all the different threads on idling, surging, throttle problems, etc., on these SPFI EA82's. Mine seems to be a bit unique, and I've got a list of things I'm going to replace/inspect/repair while I'm doing the swap, but I figured I'd dangle it out anyhow. Seems to be two problems, separate, but possibly related. First: On initial start, the engine will start to hit approx. 2,500 RPM's. Blip the throttle, and she drops down to about 1,750. Once it warms up, it'll idle anywhere from 600 to 1,100 RPM's, apparently randomly. I've noticed that it takes a few seconds for the idle to settle, too... come up to a stop sign, and it'll drop to about 1,200, then start to settle down to 600 to 1,100 after a few seconds. Second: Every now and then, roughly about once every two weeks, I'll come up to a complete stop, wait about five to ten seconds at an idle, then the idle will start surging and dropping. Down to 500, up to 1,250, back down again. Blip the throttle above 1,500, and no problem. Let off the throttle, and she may start the surging again, may not. Not a large pressing issue (I figure it's gotta be the reason for my bad mileage, but it's not horrible), but I figured I'd take care of it while I was doing the swap. At this point, I'm figuring it's gotta be one of a few things... 1. FI coolant temp sensor, reporting an invalid engine temp back to the ECU. (Fix: replace) 2. Gummed up idle air control valve. (Fix: Clean first, then replace) 3. Throttle Position Sensor (Fix: Replace) 4. Vacuum leak. (Fix: Find it first.) Whatchy'all think?

That would be awesome . Assuming shipping isn't too bad, at least. Figure a 48" x 36" x 12" box... 25 lbs total weight... Yep, UPS wants $111. Falls under the OverSize category 3, so they get to bill it as a 100 lbs. item. Shipping from Richland, WA 99352. Hmmm... say you took a hacksaw (or sawzall ) to it, so it'd fit in a 48" x 18" x 18" box. That drops it down to $50. Then 36" x 18" x 18" box... now it's $30. Looks like anything smaller than that runs $26. Fedex Ground looks like it's cheaper... 36"x18"x18" at 25 lbs. is $22. 36" x 12" x 12" is $19. Gonna take a closer look underneath the car tomorrow, and see how small it could be if the 'y' sections were cut off from the cat. Might even be able to use my old cat. Depends on how much trouble it'd be to get all the pieces welded back together.

Me talking to Wife: "Hey hunny... mind if I borrow the toaster oven for a few hours? For what? Um..."

Every heater core I've had to deal with consisted of a radiator type deal with metal pipes leading through the firewall to be connected to the hoses outside the firewall... hence nothing to be connected on the passenger compartment side of the firewall (awful hard to get in there to replace the heater core, much less tightening hose clamps). I imagine Sube's are the same, so I'd guess the heater core's deep sixed.

Man... the places you guys take Sube's. I've gotten a farm tractor stuck in places better than that (ok, so I had to spear the tire with a chunk of wood to get it stuck there, but still...)

When I do my engine & tranny swap from the '92 Loyale into the '90 Loyale, the entire exhaust system is going to have to follow. Problem is, the exhaust system is a pretty large mess right now. There are two big gaps in the stock pipe that I've jerry-rigged with that flexible exhaust tube and various types of exhaust repair tape. One's just in front of the rear cat leading to where the exhaust pipe attaches to the support. The second chunk leads from behind the rear cat to the flange that bolts onto the flange leading to the muffler. Both sections would need to be replaced with bent piping. I have no mig welder, no pipe bender, so it's rather ridiculous & impossible for me to do this on my own. Supposedly there's a guy about a half hour away that'll do a bang-up exhaust job for cheap (guy who I heard it from said "$20 if he doesn't hurt himself, $50 if he does" ). As long as it just involves pipes, that is. I haven't talked to him yet, but I figured it's a thought. Other problem is, the flange that mounts to the headers is pretty rusted out, along with the studs. So if this guy needs to pull the exhaust system in order to weld on it, I'd need to replace the studs (going to need to anyhow, once I do the swap). That flange looks pretty weak where it joins onto the pipe... don't imagine it'll last all that long, if it even holds after the swap. I imagine it might be possible to build that joint back up with a welder, but with all the other work that the current piping needs, I can't imagine it being worth it. From what I've seen in my searches on the web, replacing the exhaust with new y-pipes, cats, and piping is gonna be expensive. So what I'm thinking I'll do is hunt around the junkyards in the area, and find a set of y-pipes that's relatively untouched by rust, with the heat shielding intact. I could pick up the cats and piping, too, but then I don't know the condition of the cats (or I could just hollow out the cats... NY inspection is still visual only, I believe). Or I could take my cats, and have somebody weld in the replacement piping. Just looking for the cheapest route that'll pass inspection, at this point. I'll worry about replacing/upgrading it properly later. Anybody have any suggestions?

Boots looked fine in mine, too... but it sure made a difference when I swapped it. Bad shaft had a remanufactured sticker on it... makes me wish they had had the reman's name on it, so I could avoid them in the future

I just swapped out my right front halfshaft... before the swap, I had clicks when I was turning sharply and when I accelerated moderate to hard. After the swap, no clicks. I've heard before on the USMB that if it's clicking in a turn, it's the outer CV joint. When it clicks going straight, it's the inner CV joint (DOE). I've also heard that wheel bearings can sound like a bad CV joint... but you can test it by jacking that wheel up, and see if you can get any motion by pushing on the wheel (other than rotational). If you do get horizontal or vertical motion, then it's your bearings.

I know the feeling, concerning the grime. I won't have much time to clean off the engine when I do the swap this time around, but I've been thinking about down the road, when I put the lift in and what not... might be fun to pick up a spare EA82 (if I can find the storage space), rebuild it, and get it cleaned up while I was at it.