GeneralDisorder

If you think it's lost power over the year..... has it had a valve adjustment? They are required every 105k miles. If one is missed you can count on a burnt exhaust before you hit the next one. GD

The mark is on the protrusion that interacts with the crankshaft angle sensor - look all the way to the back of the timing belt sprocket. It is not on the accesory belt pulley. The matching alignment mark is on the end of the crank sensor holder on the oil pump. Then the cam marks must also align - the marks are at the top of the intake cam, and to the right/left on the exhaust cams respectively. These align with notches in the rear belt covers. They also have two hash marks that align with each other (intake sprocket hash marks point to exhaust sprocket hash marks). GD

Yep - backfireing out the intake is a sure sign of valve timing problems. You put the belt on wrong. GD

You have blown head gaskets - I noticed you are in my area and I replace these often - if you would like some help with your problem I would be happy to take a look at it and give you an estimate, etc . Basically - the engine has to come out of the car - and there are some other services (valve adjustment, etc) that should be done at the same time. It's also an opportune time to replace leaking oil seperator plates and bad clutch's, etc. It is not a stuck air bubble if you are using the bleeder screw when filling it and the car is level or nose-up. With the bleeder out you just fill till it comes out the bleeder and you are done. If it overheats after that it's not due to an air bubble. 99.5% of the time - the symptoms you outlined are indicators of head gasket failure on that engine. It's very, very ,very common - so much so that these engines rarely make it past 150k (somtimes not past 50k) without blowing them. The good news is that the replacement gaskets from Subaru are excelent and the problem will never return. If you have not done so - you need to change the oil. When the engine is overheated the oil breaks down - this will contribute to rod bearing failure down the line. Then you will be looking for a new engine and you will be very sad Contact me - I can save you a lot of money and frustration. And if it turns out that you just have a more simple cooling system problem then it will be a simpler, cheaper fix - though I doubt that's the case from your description. My email: cropper(at)gmail(dot)com. GD

That has happened on an EA or two that's I've owned - seems that if you get water in the flasher unit (leaking windhsheild, etc), they will just stay on all the time. Annoying but easily fixed. GD

You aren't running it long enough - takes 15 to 20 minutes for the fans to come on at idle with the hood open. The vapor from the engine is from the work performed - pretty common with a head gasket job. Nothing to worry about. Watch the gauge - if it climbs *above* half shut it down. They will run at 1/2 on the guage all the time since it's a dummy gauge. Fans don't come on till you reach the set-point in the ECU for that to happen and first the engine has to reach operating temp, then the thermostat opens, and only after the engine drinks up all the cold coolant from the radiator and can't get anymore cooling from it..... only THEN will the temp rise above the setpoint of the ECU and kick the fans on. As I said - 15 minutes is not uncommon. GD

PS pump leak is more common on the EJ's - that's been my experience. The oil pressure idiot switch is not that common of a leak. GD

Some have seen it - few have lived to tell the tale . Marshal got to clean and organize it - after signing a gag order of course. He went home with several items to insure his compliance. A good dog never bites the hand that feeds . GD

I can talk on the phone, eat, smoke a cigar, AND drive a stick. I have not mastered smoking my pipe while driving a stick - that's still a few years off I would imagine. Either that or I need to start driving my "old codger" truck with the 4 speed w/granny - 35 MPH and you are in 4th from then on so it might as well be an auto. I think that's how all the old pipe-smokers do it . GD

Could have been replaced with an '86 unit, etc. Should still work fine. GD

Do you know what years the engines are? An '85 FSM would only cover the older (85/86) engine that uses a standard hall-effect distributor in conjuncion with a stand-alone ignition module that incorporated knock control (the "knock control unit"), which the '87+ EA82T's uses an optical pickup distributor that is the same part as the the SPFI/MPFI distributor but with a different connector. Does one have a vacuum advance and the other have nothing? That would be my guess. Basically that engine ran from '85 to '90 and there were changes over the years so the distributors had to change. There were only two types though and interchangeability within those types is fine regardless of part number if you make sure the pinout of the connector is the same, etc. GD

Yes - as Numchux says they are very simple. Obviously you will also need the EJ22T ECU as well as the changes he outlined. The turbo only added the boost control stuff and changed a few wireing pins. Also I will mention that the few wires which need to be swapped can be done at the ECU pins with much less drama than out at the actual sensors since many of those wires are sheilded, etc. GD

I completely understand - if you can rebuild them and have no problem with the maintenance needs of them then they are *ok* transmissions - in the scheme of things they are a lot better than most american and a lot of other Japanese transmissions. 200k is not unusual to see on one. I just think that putting in a used one (especially into a Brat which will devalue it) is a mistake. A Brat that is already a manual should be left a manual. What people do to the other body styles is not as much of a concern because they are (basically) worthless except as transportation. With excelent condtion gen 2 Brat's commanding up near $10k now it seems an unwise move. GD

Yep - that's a far better machine than the Infinity. The EJ22T is an awesome engine - known to handle upwards of 800 HP in the right hands . GD

Ah yes - I've seen that Brat. It's a nice little unit. Bring it by sometime and we can have a look at things. Send me a PM, etc GD

I don't think the wheelbase difference of a gen 1 is enough different from a gen 2 to counter the difference in the lenght of the 4 speed vs. 5 speed - that's quite a bit of difference..... GD

Yes - just have it shortened - you need a 3.9 rear end for the D/R 5 speed - just make sure that the pinion flange on the rear diff matches the flange on the u-joint yoke of the drive shaft - should bolt right up once you have a new section of tube welded in and balanced. Strange that it's too long..... if it's the original 4 speed shaft it should be too short.... that's the usual situation - unless you are talking about the 5 speed's two-peice unit? Don't use that one - use the Brat's drive shaft and have it lengthened. GD

They are self-diagnostic for "codes" via the test connectors in the harness - but there is also a software program that can interface with the ECU via the Subaru Select Monitor port on the OBD-I cars - check over on www.legacycentral.org for a current address to the download page for it. You need to make a special serial port adaptor cable (using a Metra radio harness adaptor of all things ), and then run the software on a laptop, etc to read the real-time report data from the ECU. GD

Qman has a good point - you might want to at least get premium when you are at the pump next time if you plan to put it off for a while. That will at least make it a bit harder for you to get into a serious detonation scenario. GD

That is very nice! So what's the plan with it? Straight restore with a lift? GD

Subaru automatic transmissions of the vintage being discussed here were made by JATCO which is now a subsidiary of Nissan. The 4EAT was built by Subaru but based on a JATCO design. I highly doubt that anything used by Nissan was actually built by Subaru - most likely it was a Jatco transmission and the Subaru one's just look similar since they were all based on similar designs.... *edit* - as found on Wikipedia: "The Ford Motor Company also uses a transmission on some Ford, Kia Motors, Mercury, and Mazda products called the F-4EAT, which shares some similarities with the Subaru, since they are both manufactured by Jatco. The Nissan Pathfinder has also used this transmission in the past with an external transfer case attached." Made by Jatco - and not in any way compatible with a Subaru - most especially it would not share a compatible bell-housing. GD

You don't need it - just pitch it. Cap the lines on the EJ. GD

Yes - those are EA82 check connectors. Just leave them. Might come in handy for tracing wiring one day. I never remove the check connectors on my FI installs. I did that a few times back on some of my early installs and it was a bad move. The giveaway is that they are right next to the test and read connectors and are the same length. That is the hallmark of the check connectors. That and I recognize them..... GD

Turned out pretty good! Amazing those were just chilling in my shed of wonders eh? Glad they found a worthy home. GD

It's not the functionality that's the problem - when they *work* they are fine. It's when they *stop* working that the problems start. And this tends to be somewhere before 200k miles - often quite a bit before. They have a bad tendacy to lose all their forward gears (only work in reverse) or to develop a problem where the governor drive gear eats the governor driven gear - resulting it repeated destruction of governors. This was so common a few years back (before they were all crushed ) that we had a special term for this behavior - we called it "apple cored governor syndrome". :-\ These days the 3AT 4WD trannys are getting scarce because they have simply all failed and been crushed..... but even though it's a Subaru part you won't see me losing much sleep over the loss of the 3AT . The 4EAT is an awesome transmission by comparison but as I mentioned it is not suited to an install in anything that's not also fuel injected. GD