GeneralDisorder

One simple thing - since it's related to temp - check that the choke is closed when it's cold and that there is power to it, it's openeing as the engine runs, fully open when at running temp, etc. Pull out the secondary idle jet and inspect the hole in the tip of it - you may not have a secondary idle jet but often the Weber's do. It is used to assist in progression from primary to secondary - which could be part of your problem at mid-throttle. It's a quick check. After that all the ignition components should be checked for sure. Cap, rotor, plugs and wires. Clean and regap the plugs and see how it runs if you can't replace them all right now. GD

Front main is in the oil pump housing - that's a not-uncommon leak area. Same with the cam seals - those are the biggest source of oil leaks on EJ's. GD

Yep - Generally the mesh "sock" actually touches the bottom of the tank or is very close. Plus you have the saddle pump on the legacy's constantly transfering fuel over the differential hump to the pickup tube side which sucks crap from one side and stirs it in with the fuel on the other side..... it's a mess in there and frankly if the tank is dirty enough to clog the pickup tube sock it's time for a new tank or time to have it boiled out/coated. GD

I let the light come on all the time on all my rigs. Hasn't seemed to bother any of them. But here on the west coast we don't get any real rust so unless the car has been sitting or something..... I've never experienced a problem with a Subaru due to sucking up crap from the tank. That probably applies to some other brands but Subaru's have their pickup tube at the bottom of the tank anyway so I'm not convinced it makes any difference. Additionally - the electric fuel pumps they use are pretty much impervious to small foreign objects - and if the filters are changed none of that stuff really makes it through to the injection system (or carb). Anyway - just my experience - I've never had an issue with running them right down to fumes. Never had a clogged tank and no filter that I've replaced has needed replacment again durring my ownership. My '69 GMC being the exception - tank, pickup tube, float, etc are all a rusted up mess inside due to sitting for decades - it was a camper truck and apparently sat without fuel in it for long periods. I've got multiple filters in there - before the pump, after the pump, and a new pickup tube/float with new sock on it. I'm still cleaning the filters out of crap and I had to put in a regulator because the mechanical fuel pumps keep clogging their internal relief valves an want to put out over 10 lbs. . I'll probably end up changing the tank or coating the inside of it. GD

When you release the tensioner it will pull the right side cam into alighnment. Ultimately they are never perfect - just as close as you can get to the marks. If it's off by a tooth it will be WAY off - look at the distance the pulley has to travel to be off a whole tooth. Ususally they are within half a tooth or less of lining up with the rear cover - that will be correct. GD

Lucas is crap - it foams at high speed. Don't put additives in your oil's. Only thing that should be in oil is OIL. If the manufacturer thought it would do any good over the long term they would have added it at the refinery. GD

A lot of factory EJ's used solid pulley's. I'm not sure what the criteria was for which one's got harmonic's and which one's did not - but I've seen both. In fact the non-harmonic seems to be more common. Most of the EJ22's in the 90 to 94 Legacy's have solid pulley's. They are not keyed to the shaft - just held in place by bolt tension. GD

EA71 or older by the looks of it. Nothing newer than the EA81 uses anything close to the design of the pushrod engines. Being you got it from the dealer I would say EA71 because I doubt they even have any pumps for EA63's or older left in inventory. They may have got it confused with a STD model part number or if the car is very early (80/81) then it may have referenced an EA71 if they aren't very familair with the old stuff. GD

5k RPM is a lot of air-flow. Engine's are just air pumps. Where is the air comming from if the throttle is closed? The throttle opens one way and one way only on the SPFI - with the accelerator cable. It's all well to consider other possibilities like the idle air control valve - but I've never had one rev up that hard. 1500 - sure. 2500...... *maybe*. 5000 - no es beuno. I would have to experiment with it to see if it's even possible but my gut reaction is that it's not - at least within the bounds of how much air the IAC can provide through it's little hole under the throttle body. I've had them malfunction and the idle does get higher but not by 4 grand. It just can't suck that much through it's 1/2" ID drinking straw of an air supply line. GD

Check the rotor to make sure the screw hasn't fallen out, etc. GD

I put EA82 seats in my hatch - found a nice set at the junk yard for $30 and just made some adaptor brackets and welded them to the seat for proper mounting. I moved both rails inward the same amount to keep the seats centered. GD

Rip it out and cap the lines - you don't need it. GD

I don't run EA82T's.... . Are you saying you have blown one up due to preignition from bad plug wires? Turbo's have problems with detonation anyway - it's because of cylinder pressure's and fuel mixture issues. That's just something you have to watch out for with forced induction. GD

Ignition and detonation *are* two different things - the former happens when the plug ignites the mixture - the latter when something hot, or shear cylinder pressure causes the mixture to spontaneously ignite (no spark). You would have to see the EJ plug wire routing to understand - the wires are not real close to each other and it would take some really bad wires to induce a spark in an adjacent cylinder. In practice this just isn't a concern. GD

Why? ATF is used in transmissions is it not? What do you suppose is inside the Subaru automatic's? Unicorns and rainbows? The only thing the ATF isn't rated for is the hypoid gears in the front diff. 100 (easy) miles won't hurt them though. Hell - people put 100's of thousands of miles through them with broke-down, sheered-off, dirty gear oil that should have been changed in a previous decade. GD

My speculation is that it would help mostly when the engine is cold - the cold cylinder walls tend to collect droplets of fuel like a cold soda can in a warm room - the fuel is then vaporized but not burnt durring the combustion cycle and the extra spark durring the exhaust stroke lights it off. It may also help at WOT conditions where the fuel is at a much higher ratio than at idle or criuse. WOT mixtures can be as saturated as 12:1 or more with turbo-charging. Especially with turbo's as more fuel is added to cool the combustion - some of that rich mixture just isn't going to burn and so the extra spark has a chance to take some of it out before it gets to the cat - takes some of the load off the cat under the right circumstances. GD

Just about 0. LOL. That's a 9.5:1 compression block in an engine that's got all the same problems (too numerous to discuss here) that the 7.7:1 comp. turbo block's have. You'll pop the headgaskets or worse (think holes where they shouldn't be) if you turbo it. On the bright side you can rest assured that cracking the block will probably not be a problem - that never happens. Big, gaping cracks in the heads, sure. But the block will take it. You should do some searches on the EA82T and what it's failings are before you decide you want to turbo that heap. The EA82 with SPFI in it's non-turbo form (your engine) is an *ok* engine. They will last a long time if maintained and if you can stand the timing belts and the quirkyness of them - turbo it and you'll be crying in your cheerios. GD

Synthetic is not fake - it comes from the same crude oil (yes - from the earth) that the dino does. It's just in how it's refined that it differs. Dino oil is filtered, seperated, chemicals are added, etc. Sythetics are done in a couple ways - one of the most common - invented by Standard Oil (Chevron) is to vaporize the oil (vacuum boiling typically) - at which point all the contaminates don't vaporize and thus are removed. Then the oil is brough down to normal pressure again after some other processes remove the sizes of carbon chains that are not wanted for the final product. But it's still oil - from the ground. And it has it's uses for sure. It's just not often justified for consumer products like automobiles IMO. The cost and the added complexity needed to use it properly (analysis, etc) is beyond what most consumers are willing to take on. GD

No - that would cost too much money. That poor man can't even afford a shirt. It's sad when the only person that stops to help someone in the ditch is a shirtless guy in a crapped out Subaru loaded down with wood till the suspension is sacked. :-\ GD

AA doesn't build lifts anymore, but the guy that worked *for* them and did some of the design still does stuff on the side I beleive. I think Albie is his name . You are better off building your own blocks and repairs - the AA lift block style had some real design flaws - they were just thick walled tubing with washers welded to each end to center the bolts . The camber on the front wheels wasn't done well either. The wheels were not made by AA - they were made FOR AA from like Stockton wheel or another of the manufacturers that will take blank's if your desired offset and diameter and punch out whatever lug pattern you want. They may have bought a minimum quantity to bring the price down or something but it's not as if you couldn't call up the same supplier and ask them to make you a set. They weren't particularly cheap - over $100 per rim IIRC. Personally I get the chevy 6 lug trailer rims in 15" for $30 each and convert to 6 lug. Stronger that way and if I bend one I'm not up a poo creek - anywhere and everywhere you can find 6 lug wheels. Those rims are probably marked somewhere - but it may be on the inside and/or it may have been obscured by the powder-coating process. When it comes to off-roading it's all about reliability first and replaceability a close second. It may be the greatest thing since sliced bread but if there's a possibility it may break and I'll never find another one - you won't see me relying on it to get me home. GD

It's rare that I have the time. I make a few posts on here, check my email and craigslist, etc - back to the garage Sometimes if I'm watching TV with the woman and I have the laptop out.... rare. GD

Ok - at least this time the grave-digging produced a laugh-worthy image. Seeing that again...... it's still pretty funny . He's not wearing a shirt is he? GD

Wow - you don't usually get vibration from outer joint's, but that's not typical to have them catastophically fail like that. I've had one that did that but there was no warning at all - no vibration, etc. Typically vibration that doesn't come with REALLY LOUD clicking around turns is an inner joint that's worn or without grease. Can you tell if the axle was a reman or not? Sometimes the reman people weld on the bearing surfaces and regrind them to save bad cup's and race's, etc. Frankly, if the axle were *really* rebuilt the only thing you would be able to save (that isn't a wear item) would be the shaft. Obviously that wouldn't be cost effective so they have short-cuts. Glad you got it fixed. GD

The synthetics don't tend to work well in the Subaru 5 speed's - they have a tendancy to flow too well and cause syncro issues and grinding. A good quality non-synthetic, changed on a regular basis, is the most cost effective way to ensure reliable transmission service for the life of your car. Maintained properly, the Subaru 5 speed transaxle design can easily compete with the life of the engine. The biggest mistake people make is not changing the gear oil enough. A lot of folks NEVER change the gear oil. If it's done regularly - every 30k is a good schedule - then problems don't arise as easily. An occasional flush with a full load of ATF for 100 miles or so helps to keep them cleaned up inside. The plain non-turbo 5 speed's suffer most from syncro problems and input shaft bearing failure. Both of these typically related to a lack of gear oil service. I would be much more concerned with head gaskets on your engine than your transmission though - the phase-II EJ25 is well known for external coolant/oil leakage. GD

I'm sure they have their uses - I'm just pointing out the other side of the argument. Are there any ignition upgrades that might require a larger wire set? I really haven't looked into it with EJ's. GD