GeneralDisorder

It is unlikely to be the valve itself - they rarely fail. Most likely it is all the hoses, connectors, and the valve covers that are plugged up with carbon and causing the system to flow incorrectly. Don't forget to replace the small PCV filter inside the airbox - it's a tiny white filter element that's about 1" by 2" and is located on the side in front of one of the PCV hose ports. GD

And how do you know? You been testing your oil for blow-by contamination? If you don't know the hose sizes then you obviously gave no thought to how this should be done so I'm doubting it. Could just be you got lucky and the PCV lines are so plugged up that they can't flow enough to pull oil from the valve covers. GD

The air supplies for the catalytic converter? As in the Air Injection System??!?! I have to ask: 1. Why would you think these should get crankcase air when they were hooked up to the air filter box orginally? 2. If you don't have to pass emisssions, why are you running the AIS anyway? Pull that crap off and route your PCV as in the picture above. This is the proper way to run it and mimicks the factory setup RE: hose sizes and routing to acheive the dual purposes of properly evacuating the crankcase blow-by gasses and not sucking oil from the valve cover into the intake. Do it the wrong way and you risk damage to the engine. Crankcase gasses are nothing to mess with - they will foul your oil and etch the metal in your engine leading to bearing failure. GD

Sounds like a classic vacuum leak - maybe something came loose while you were doing plugs and wires? Spray around with a can of carb cleaner and see if you find something? GD

That's not how it's done - the temp switch is a ground control - there is ALWAYS power to the fan (through fuse #15 apparently [Gary - have you checked for power on both sides of this fuse?]). The other lead to the fan goes to the temp switch and then the temp switch closes and shorts it's fan lead to ground. That completes the circuit and starts the fan. There is another path to ground though the AC relay's but if you have no power at either of the fan leads - none of that "downstream" stuff will work. They build stuff this way so that power leads that can short to ground are as short as possible and if a component fails internally, it's on the downstream side of the load and doesn't blow fuses. So if the temp switch were to fail and short itself to ground - all that would happen is the fan would come on and not go off - instead of blowing a fuse, overheating, etc. Sounds to me like you have a bad power lead to the fan (or the fan fuse) - if that's the case then you only need to run a new wire from fuse #15 to the fan lead (whichever one doesn't have continuity with the temp switch). Gary - do you have a multi-meter? DO NOT put voltage to the temp swich connector. You will create a direct short to ground and burn something up. It is not located on the supply side of the load (fan). Bypassing the stock wireing is the LAST resort here. And replacing as little of it as possible is the goal. First we need voltage to the fan. Solve that problem and see where you are at. GD

Could be a pinhole leak in a hose - there's been quite a bit of cooking going on in your engine bay so it could be one of the hoses under the manifold, etc that carries coolant to the bottom of the carb... If it was still steaming and hissing when you parked it then that's a good sign - means there was still some coolant in the engine . As long as the gauge didn't climb and the engine kept running - you are fine. They will lose power and basically stop running right if they truely run out of coolant and an extreem overheat results. I wouldn't worry about it other than to note that you probably have a coolant leak and you should try and find it and certainly keep it filled and keep extra coolant with you in the car. GD

You can run the line to the idiot lamp switch port instead, which is off to the side and better protected than the bottom port. Also it's a more common size - it's either 1/8" BSPT or NPT - can't recall which at the moment. You'll lose your idiot lamp but it sounds like that's already not working. Or you can do what I did once - didn't want to bother finding an adaptor so I cut the threaded portion of an old pressure sender off (leaving as much of the hex portion as possible), then drilled and tapped it to 1/8" NPT and came off there with a right angle tubing fitting directly to the nylon tube for the mechanical gauge. Cheap and effective. If you are going to be off-roading it - I suggest you go with stainless braided hose up to at least the fenderwall area to give it some strength. The nylon tubing that most gauges come with is pretty flimsy and the cheaper the gauge the thinner the tubing. For decent nylon tubing (street driven, etc), find a place that sells VDO gauge kits. Their tubing kit is like $12 and comes with a high quality, LONG section of tubing as it is designed for the older VW's with the engine in the back of the car. GD

4WD is ok on dry pavement if you know what you are doing and have matching tires . With matching tires there is NO STRESS in the drivetrain from using 4WD in a straight line. When it gets sticky is turning corners and you have to take it out before you get bound up real bad. I've been using 4WD Low range 4th gear on my 4 speed for years in place of a blown 3rd that pops out, etc. You just have to remember to go back to 2nd gear 2WD for turning. Which isn't a problem in practice. I've driven like this with many Subaru transaxles and never once had a problem as long as you don't break the golden rule's of tire size/inflation and sharp turns. GD

SPFI Loyale's have the clutch switch as well for the newer SPFI computer's that wanted both clutch and neutral. GD

Yeah - I think it may have something to do with the 2.2's ECU not being totally able to handle the 2.5's fueling requirements from it's idle maps. That's the current hypothesis. It throws no codes, and the IAC is working. Something about the change made an existing slight stumble at idle (which I had figured was the IAC/old injectors, etc) into a nasty loping idle.... the cams have more overlap and we are asking for more fuel of course..... could be a bunch of things all rolled into it. The fact that the ECU isn't complaining even a little bit about this is frustrating to say the least. The whole point of a self-diagnostic computer is that you don't have to break out the O-Scope every time you need to look at the sensor data. I think it's finally time to build a select monitor adaptor cable and run the OBD-I realtime monitor software on a laptop. Might tell us something. GD

Hehehe - funny man Gary above me already knows what my response will be..... RUN! The EA82 Turbo is just a mess - if you want to buy it, here's what you need to do: 1. Have it taken to a shop with a sniffer and the oil and coolant checked for exhaust gasses. These engines blow head gaskets frequently if you even look at them cross-eyed without burbing the cooling system and offering some kind of animal sacrifice. 2. Assuming that checks out (maybe - but equal chance that it won't), you are still going to need to replace the head gaskets eventually as all the EA82's "chafe" on the head side of the gasket and end up with big gouges into the heads - usually in a semi-circle at the bottom of the fire rings. This eventually leads to failure. Usually somewhere around 200k to 250k in my experience. 3. The first thing you have to do if you decide to buy it is replace EVERY SINGLE coolant hose in the car and replace the radiator with a dual-core. There's quite a few hoses and some are hard to get to - this is a MUST with this engine as blowing a hose (which is likely with the age and mileage) is likely going to cost you the engine. Figure on spending about $200 at the dealer for the hoses and another $150 or so on a dual-core radiator for it. 4. New or rebuilt injectors and new fuel filter. The biggest source of pre-det on a turbo is a lean injector. This will kill it and quick - drives the EGT's up through the ceiling, burns valves, and will blow holes in pistons. I consider this a must on anything turbo-charged. Injectors should be swapped out at least every 100k to 150k just to be totally safe. I have seen injector problems burn valves on non-turbo engines - on a turbo it's the end of the line if that happens. At the point at which you have replaced the head gaskets (heads resurfaced), all the hoses, the radiator, and of course the timing belt, tensioners and idler, front seals, pan gasket and valve cover gaskets, injectors, filters, etc.... you could be pretty safe to drive it daily (IMO). If all that sounds good to you then by all means - personally I think this engine is a total waste of time given that all that work nets you an extra ~20 HP. You could easily get all that with some cams and a Weber on the non-turbo engines. It's my opinion that EA82T's are a good purchase only if the body is something really nice and exactly what you want AND you plan on doing an EJ22 swap either before the thing blows or when it does. They are time bombs and unless you do a LOT of work to insure everything is top-notch - they will get you in the end. GD

Find out which fuse supplies power to the fan and check that you *have* power on both sides of it. Then find out for sure if it has a relay or not and which one it is. Then you can check for power at the relay, and if the relay is closing or not with the ignition switch. You can easily check the relays with some jumper wires and the battery - just touch the coil terminals to the battery and see that it closes and has continuity between the contact terminals. GD

No - that's the 4WD indicator switch. The neutral switch is on the side of the tranny - driver's side. Where the gear shifter rod enters the back - it pulls in and out to go from the 1,3,5 to the 2,4,R and the switch changes state when a notch in the side of the rod passes the switch body. GD

Measure the timing marks already on the wheel. They are the same size just in the wrong location. GD

85 to 87 have no neutral switch at all. It's on the driver's side rear of the trans, directly inline with the shift rod entering the back of the tranny. GD

You will have to find TDC of the comp. stroke on the #1 cylinder. Pull the plug and use a drinking straw and flashlight. Once you have that you can mark the flywheel and then make measured hash marks for 5, 10, 15, and 20 DBTDC. Then set it at 20 with a timing light and the green check connectors plugged in. GD

It's probably not the motor - it's likely the linkage ball joints, etc under the cowling. The grease dries up and they get stiff. GD

Not a common failure. Easy to access from the bottom of you pull the wheel off and remove the splash gaurd. Or you can pull the fender off. Check the fuses first. GD

Use the EJ's FP Relay - when the harness is stripped that should pretty much be left alone. Just the power wire to the pump has to be run back to the pump. For the temp and oil pressure on a carbed car - I reccomend using the car's existing wireing for that. The oil pressure has to be run from a hose or tube and run to the fenderwall, etc as the EJ's don't have oil pressure - only idiot lamps. The coolant temp will not be correct unless you switch over to the EA sending unit - which takes TIG welding and rethreading the coolant cross-over for it to fit properly. The start signal wire doesn't exist on the carbed harness. You have to add the pin to the harness connector for the ignition switch but the switch does support the start signal. GD

Have you bothered to wire the fan up directly to a 12v source to see if the fan even works? You might be hunting a problem in the wireing that doesn't exist..... Basically - the fan should always have 12v - it's a ground controlled circuit. If you have voltage to the fan then you need to check the ground side and see where the circuit is broken. If you don't have voltage to the fan then you need to find out why..... You can just short across the connector to the thermoswitch and the fan should fire up - it just completes the circuit across it (to ground I beleive) when it hits it's trigger temp. GD

Personally I would use aluminium diamond plate - it's lighter. Yes - anything you want for a bumper, etc is going to have to be custom. There is no aftermarket for these cars. Worth it? Well - depends on what you are doing with it. Personally to me a brush gaurd and winch mount are worth it off-road. Skid plate too - definitely want to protect the exhaust, oil pan, etc. GD

No....well it will look factory anyway if you do it right. You will use the 5 speed gear shifter but you can just use the 4 speed EA81 knob so it looks identical. And the 4WD shifter is easily modified to work with the 5 speed. Just add 1" to the rod and attach it to the 5 speed. '85 to '89 wagon/sedan/coupe non-turbo GL 4WD 5 speed D/R. GD

Hhhmmm - the coil should at least run the engine in the short-term. I wouldn't worry about that just yet but eventually you should get the correct coil for the distributor you are using. On the carb there is an anti-diesling solenoid that cuts off the idle circuit fuel supply. Make sure you have power to that. Other than that - plug in an inline spark tester and see if you are losing spark - if you are, verify that you are getting +12v to the coil when the spark dies and if you are then the distributor module is probably shot. GD

Google shows lots of steel yards in and around your area..... http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-CA&wrapid=tlif12664409935222&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=Albuquerque,+New+Mexico+metal+tubing&fb=1&gl=us&hq=metal+tubing&hnear=Albuquerque,+NM&view=text&ei=nAKATMKXC4S8sAPP6OT0Cg&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=more-results&resnum=1&ved=0CDYQtQMwAA I am quite sure that more than one of those places carries tubing, channel, and sheet goods in a mind boggliing array of sizes and shapes. Just call around. Cutting up old bed frames..... that's ghetto and frankly more trouble than it's worth most days. Steel is CHEAP and you might as well start with straight, flat sections and do what you like with it. As for rims - if you can pickup some cheap Pugs then they aren't a bad way to go - but go for the steel's if you are wheeling. Otherwise the 6 lug conversion makes more sense for a wheeler and is easy. GD

It was a mid-year change so late 83's are vented and early are solid. There's unforutunately no way to tell without measureing them. They pretty much look alike and the difference in size is only about 1/4" so it's hard to tell from pictures. 80 to 83.5 are solid (my '83 hatch with a production date of 05/83 was solid before I switched it over) and 83.5 to 89 are vented. If you need a set of solid rotor caliper brackets I have some - and you can just buy new solid rotors and make it work with the calipers you bought if they were a screaming deal or something.... Otherwise the vented are better as they don't warp as easily. But if you aren't hard on brakes then either is fine. They both stop equally well. Mine were warped and I had a set of vented hardware and calipers laying around so I just rebuilt the calipers and bought a new set of vented rotors for $25 a peice. Works like a champ. GD