GeneralDisorder

Stock you should get 27 to 30 depending on driving. I've owned a LOT of EA81's (yes - several Brat's too and have daily driven them) and the only time I haven't been able to get to 26 or 27 with in-town driving is when something is not tuned properly, the cat is clogged up, or with poor tire inflation. Even my '83 hatch that has one low comp. cylinder (110 while the other's are around 140 - 150) get's 25 to 26 in town and the last trip I took to the beach and back I got 30.5 That goes for stock carbs and Weber's. I've run both for 10's of thousands of miles and the differences are negligible if tuned properly. My hatch has a 1960's Weber DGV-5A (manual choke) on it and as noted above it can reach low 30's with me driving it like I stole it. I imagine if I drove like grandma it would do closer to 35 - I have reliable sources that claim mid to high 30's from a 4WD hatch driven by a little old lady. GD

Ok - so it's a replacement but still the OEM style carb. Check. Thought maybe you had a Weber . Check for vacuum leaks - the best way is to spray around with carb cleaner till you hear the engine change pitch. If that happens you have found a leak. Check for a stuck-open EGR valve, missing/broken vacuum connections, and check over the anti-afterburn valve and it's hoses for rust and cracked hoses. It's the valve at the end of the 5/8" diameter hose from the top of the EGR valve. The idle circuit could be plugged on the carb - to access it you will basically have to remove the carb from the car. The idle mixture adjustment needle is behind a roll-pin on the front, bottom of the carb and that roll pin needs to be removed in order to access the mixture needle. I would start by pulling the top of the carb off while it's still on the car and blowing out all the passages with compressed air - making sure not to lose the accelerator pump sping and check ball. If that doesn't work pull the carb off, remove the throttle base and blow everything out from both ends of the idle circuit. The best solution by far for these carbs is to just dump them in favor of the Weber 32/36 DGV. They come up for sale every so often on here and on ebay for pretty cheap. A used bare carb with good throttle shafts should run about $100 and then you'll want to figure a rebuild kit ($25), adaptor plate ($35), and maybe a few jets. Typically I've done Weber conversions for around $200 give or a take. Money well spent I can tell you. GD

Well - 80/81, 82, and 83+ are the variations in connector's. The '82's are compatible with the 83+ though if you just swap the circuit board. They are otherwise the same. 80/81 is a lot different. I had to not only rewire the whole thing, but I also had to add some diode's between some of the circuits and the cluster to make things work right. Sure - no problem if you need to. GD

The governor is on the passenger side of the transmission behind a cup-shaped cover. It's held on by three bolts IIRC. The governor has a spring-loaded piston that needs to slide smoothly in it's bore or it will stick and the transmission will not upshift on it's own. They also have a bad tendancy to "apple core" the driven gear on the governor and that is an indication of wear on the matching drive gear inside the transmision - typically that's a bad sign as even replaceing the governor will not make the transmission work for long. When you are looking at a replacement transmission make sure you pull the govenor and check the gear for apple-coreing. If you see much wear on it walk away since that almost always means the drive gear on the inside is bad as well. Many people have replaced a governor due to a 'cored gear like that and only had the transmission work for a week or two before destroying the replacement. As for the transmission swap - the 4 speed would go right in without any mods. Just mount up the flywheel and clutch and mount the transmission - same amount of work as replacing the automatic. The driveline is already the right length - this 4 speed came from a Brat, etc. The pedal assembly is 6 bolts - takes about 10 minutes to swap. It's the same amount of work - you are swapping a transmission either way. The big job is dropping the old one and putting in the new one. If you swap to the 4 speed you are halfway to a 5 speed swap in the future since all that requires is a different cross-member and driveline. GD

Yes - all the 3AT's for EA81 and EA82 are the same - compatible transmissions can come from any '80 to '89 GL (excluding 4EAT Turbo automatic's), and from 90 to 94 Loyale's. There may be slight differences in wireing but nothing that can't be swapped over easily. But - have you checked the governor? It might be a simple fix to clean and dress the governor piston. Also - if I were pulling a tranny out - I surely wouldn't put the auto back in. Get a pedal assembly, flywheel/clutch and a manual and convert it. In fact my friend is doing an EJ22/5 speed conversion to his '85 Brat here in my garage and has a good 4 speed and driveline that is ready to go. Already has my shifter linkage-slop mod done to it. I'm in West Linn if you are interested. I know I have a brand new pressure plate and probably a flywheel around here too. Could make you a great deal and all you would need is a pedal assembly and clutch cable. GD

You say the carb doesn't look original - can you take a picture? Sounds like a plugged idle circuit to me. Fixing it will depend on what carb it ultimately is - I'll be able to help more if I know what you are dealing with. GD

If the motor is otherwise sound, yes it will easily make another 100k with ticking lifters. But...... Here's my concern's: 1. Why did it need to be "rebuilt" at less than 150k? Only a serious lack of maintenance or just plain stupidity could lead to it needing that level of repair. 2. What level of "rebuild" was performed? I mean - was it down to the rings and rod bearings for this "rebuild" or is it simply a gasket-slap job that they are calling a "rebuild". There are many levels in-between, but often people will say they "rebuilt" something when really all they did was replace some popped head gaskets and maybe lap the valves/mill the heads. That's not a rebuild in my opinion. 3. If it truely was "rebuilt" down to the level of splitting the case, etc - why were the lifters not checked carefully and/or replaced out of general principle? And if that's the case that it was torn down to the crank, what else was overlooked and how good of job was done on what *was* fixed? If it was poorly done, the lifters are the least of your worries as something else will surely claim the engine long before valve lash becomes a serious problem. So anyway - that's my take on your situation. If it were me I would at least remove the oil pump and check for wear - replace if worn and reseal if not - pull the cam towers and see if the o-rings were replaced and if they were did they use the correct OEM o-ring that has metal reinforcing? Then I would replace the lifters - I think it's "Mitzpah" that does EA82 lifters really cheap on exchange - do a search. As for how much work is involved - it's a complete timing belt job. Typically 4 to 6 hours if you have done one before - give it a weekend if you haven't. GD

Excelent - you should do fine then. Carbs are a whole different world though - lots of black magic and voodoo. It's not anything like bolting a bunch of parts together. Things don't play well with each other unlike the digital world of fuel injection, and you can't simply test something with a multi-meter or an o-scope. Sometimes you have to slaughter a chicken and read the entrails. GD

I have seen hessitation from loose timing belts on EA82's. Had one that just wouldn't stop hessitating at stop lights, etc. Sometimes it would even stall out (automatic). The driver's side belt snapped on the freeway and after replacement the hessitation never returned. Just another possibility for you . It's hard to find help on the older turbo's - mostly because those folks that ran them and had a lot of knowledge about their intricacies have left them in favor of the EJ's - less expensive to build, more power from the outset, and big reliability increase. Getting really cheap these days too. If you really want to make it right - I sugest you consider something like MegaSquirt. The aging components of the stock MPFI system are one of the biggest problems you are going to run into - many of them can be done away with or converted to newer, more reliable, and easier to obtain parts if you just do away with the stock computer and run a stand-alone system. MS is relatively cheap and when you scrap the car you can move it to the next one. GD

I don't beleive I have had the pleasure - I don't recognize the user name but then I'm terrible with names in general . Different is good - maybe it will work. Ultimately it depends on the venturi size/design and how sensitive it is on that carb. It could indeed turn out to work better than I expect. I mentioned the Quadrajet (and probably the Dualjet as well) for example as it's tiny mains and double-venturi's make it very sensitive to progression vacuum signals and thus it rarely has a problem with off-idle bog like other design's. I will say that if you don't have much experience tuning carbs - especially since this is likely going to require jetting changes that can get expensive if you don't know which way to go with your changes and all you have is your butt and your ear to tune with....... get or borrow a wide-band O2 sensor. It will make tuning ANY carb easier. GD

Point taken - not trying to beat the guy up. I just don't want to see him throw money and especially his time to adapt it away on a bill of goods that won't do what he wants or needs. GD

'82 and up are all the same - the difference is only the color of the '82's - they are orange instead of white. I have an '82 cluster in my '83 hatch for example - and it's got the '83's tach inside it since the '82 tach was dead. The 80/81 cluster's I beleive also have the VSS - it's used for cruise control so they all have it (at least I thought - could be wrong though). But the wireing/connectors to the '80/'81 cluster is entirely different and not compatible unless you do a lot of wireing. The '82-'84 cluster's may not have the ECS light if they didn't come with a feedback carb. '85 and up all have them regardless of carb style it seems. I have complete diagrams and manuals for all years of EA81's including the '85 to '89 wireing diagram book. Let me know what you need and I'll scan it. I did put an '80 cluster (like the look) in my lifted wagon - replacing the '84 digi-dash. It was a HUGE mess. I had to make an adaptor harness to do the job. GD

The problem is that with "mild off-roading" and camping, etc - you want to go SLOW. A carb that doesn't progress from idle to main properly will be a huge pain in the butt to drive like that. If you are getting rowdy in the mud-pit at 3,000 to 5,000 RPM it will be fine. But slow crawling in 1st and 2nd..... not a chance. Personally - I've done a LOT of carb work and read a ton on theory of operation. I've also fitted more Weber's to EA81's/EA82's than most other members on this board. I've even jetted them using a wide-band O2, blown through them with turbo-chargers, etc. From my experience, that 318 Holley is just too big for the EA81. It can neither use the flow that such a carb is capable of, nor will it be easy to setup as all it's vacuum signal passages and such are designed to work around the airflow capabilities of a much larger (over 2x) engine. For the budget minded, the carb to use is the Holley/Weber 5200 series. It was a factory carb on Ford Pinto's among other things. It's a licensed copy of the Weber DFV which is a very similar carb to the DGV that is commonly used. As such it uses the same adaptor plate's that the DGV uses and can be bought from any Redline dealer for less than $40. They are cheap used, cheap to rebuild, use the same Weber jets as the DGV, and the same adaptor plate. Typically one can be bought, rebuilt, rejetted, and installed for around $150 to $200 if you are careful. GD

If you replace the lifters, the oil pump/seals, and the cam tower o-rings it shouldn't come back. I've owned EA82's with 250k+ that never ticked a day in their life. It's all about proper maintenance and care. If it's repaired properly and maintained it should not return. GD

Airplane engines run at mostly a constant speed so the acceleration characteristics of the carb are not as important. If you can jet it small enough it will idle - and you may be able to jet it for constant speed on both the mains. I just have a feeling it won't progress from idle to main very easily as the vacuum signal required by a large carb is generally expected to be similarly large. It relates to airflow across the venturi's - until enough airflow is present the main venturi's simply will not pull fuel. This causes you to have to open the primary throttle plate farther with a smaller engine and you now have a problem - the idle jet that you downsized to get a decent idle now can't cover up the dead spot just off idle and the primary can't pull fuel - what you get is a huge bog when you floor it from an idle - something airplane's never do since they just slowely increase the throttle speed via a lever. If I were going to try a very large carb I would probably try something like the Quadrajet - since the mains are very small it would progress easily. Don't know if you could get the manholes to run right, but maybe..... GD

That's a LOT of carb for a 1.8. It's designed to fuel a 5.1 - can you even jet it small enough for the EA81? I would think the flow charactaristics of the massive venturi's would require more CFM to operate properly. I should think it will have problem with progression from idle to mains. It will be interesting to see if that works - do you have much experience with that model carb? What made you choose it over something more appropriately sized like the 5200 series Holley (Weber DFV copy)?. GD

Well - without pics of the port in question - I can't tell you for sure. Probably ok to disconnect it and cap it - only one way to know for sure though - try it or post a picture (start a new thread though) and we can try to ID it for you. GD

It could be any number of things. First thing is to run a full D-Check to see what the computer can tell you. Beyond that - the last EA82 SPFI I had that did this - nothing fixed it. Eventually the timing belt broke on the freeway and replacing it fixed the problem. I imagine that the belt was loose/stretched and the valve timing was fluttering around enough to cause the occasional stall/bog that I could never trace. GD

It's the lifters. Very common. They bleed down and have air bubbles in them when you start it. GD

Watch out with "blown HG's" on the EJ22T's. The one I own was sold to a fellow member here with "blown HG's". Turned out the whole engine was shot - melted part of one of the cylinder liners, destroyed the bottom end, blew the heater core and the radiator. He paid $1500 for the car then spent another $1200 for a good engine, and about another $1000 on various parts to fix everything that was broken. He got so frustrated that he traded the car to me for a good running non-turbo wagon and I finished the work it needed. Frankly it wasn't worth what he paid nor the work the car needed - he lost money on the deal (I made out like a theif, but that's beside the point). So just watch what you buy. These engines rarely blow HG's and when they do it's often because things went REALLY wrong. Check for serious overheating - melted plastic like timing belt covers, knock sensor, etc. GD

Check for bad stereo wiring - more than one person has found their problem with the #5 fuse to be a poorly wired aftermarket stereo. The crank circuit issue will be solved either by addressing each component of the crank circuit (battery, cables, starter/solenoid contacts, ignition switch, connections, etc) or it will just get worse no matter what you do and you'll have to install a relay to power the solenoid. GD

Glad you got it fixed - sometimes, when it's not possible to do it the "right" way with the tools you have - it's best to pay a pro. Hope it wasn't too expensive. GD

Last one I did - bearing locked up but the belt was strong enough to spin the inner race - it used the bolt as it's bearing and squeeled like a stuck pig for 150 miles. Destroyed the bearing, the bolt, and the water pump. GD

There should only be a single wire. If you ground said wire the gauge will wrap over to max. It's typical of these sending units to read low and to leak as they age. Look for breaks in the wire also as the wire runs down near accesory belts, etc. GD

6207-2RS-C3 About $5 to $10 at most any bearing house. GD