GeneralDisorder

It's not that bad - you wrap the sharp bits in cardboard and ship it bare. Don't need a box. But if your's is not rusted and you can get a good deal on having the flanges done then I don't see any problem with that either - just depends on what you want. GD

I could probably get one for you shortly. My lifted wagon is equipped with one just to move it around. GD

Just leave the pressure plate bolts loose and tighten them through the starter hole. Oldest trick on the USMB. Works every time. GD

I had a follow up post to this one - do a search it should come up. Basically just cap off the metering ports. That seems to work the best as opposed to leaving them open or trying to use all the thermo-valves and vacuum valves to control them. GD

I wouldn't go that far - they are useful if you plow through deep snow, or go crossing river's, etc. They keep errant fingers and dropped shop rags from getting mixed up in the running belts. It just depends on what the plan is for the car. If it's just a street car and you don't plan to drive in 1+ foot of snow then loose the covers. GD

Just to fix all that stuff? Not much - you just have to spend some time at the junk yards to find decent used parts. Good door panels aren't hard to find - a temp selector will be a bit of a challenge as most of them have one issue or another. To make a proper one you have to combine parts from various years as they fixed one issue but introduced others with the changes. The clock is easy - just needs the solder joints remelted on the back. The TOD could be several things - anything from seals to needing a new oil pump or lifters. You can try some ATF in the oil for a while and see if that helps clean them up. GD

I don't think shipping would be as expensive as you think. Not as expensive as having it rewelded anyway. They are bulky but not really that heavy. I sent an EJ22 short block on a pallet to the east coast for like $86. That was heavier and had an extra charge for the pallet. I guess it comes down to how rusty your's is and if you can find someone to do the flange welding cheaply. If you can then I can find some flanges - the junk yards here cut the cat out but leave the runners to the heads. *edit* - did a quick check on UPS and I estimated 40 lbs for the pipe (it's probably less) - ground shipping would be about $45 it looks like. GD

Yeah I don't think they do that anymore - rather, I got college credit for basic and AIT. If they did have a program like that it wouldn't have fit my skill set back then as there is no MOS in the Army for software engineering. GD

I'm almost positive I have a nice, rust free NW EA82 y-pipe in my shed. If you cover shipping I'll spin the flanges and reweld them and it's yours. I don't have any use for it anyhow. GD

Time for a trip to the hardware store - Even a severely oversized hole *can* be fixed. If that means going to a large set-screw or hex drive plug and then drilling/tapping the set screw for the stud then so be it. You may need carbide to remove the heli-coil now that it's been chewed up by a drill bit. I would even consider making adaptor flanges at this point. Basically a flange that bolts to the head in the unused holes and has studs in it for the stock pipe. Some 3/8" or 1/2" plate would do the job. A band-saw and a drill press and a simple layout would produce a couple plates in an hour or so...... don't know if you know anyone with skills like that or not - better than making a one-off exhaust manifold in my opinion though. GD

Pull it back out and if it's not damaged retry the operation. It needs to go in more-or-less evenly all the way around. A seal driver would be best but obviously everyone doesn't have one. I use a small ball-peen hammer to work slowely around the seal and drive it in evenly with shallow movement's. GD

Leave em off. More trouble than they are worth. Just watch where you set your shop rag when it's running. 20 minutes to change both without the cover's. Saves about 2 hours and gives easy access to adjust the tension. GD

It already had a heli-coil in it? So did that strip out?!?! Holy Cow dude! Sorry for your trouble - I mean..... I would totally help you out if you were close. There's always unexpected problems that crop up but it sounds like someone has been down there messing around before you got the car. No telling what they did then. Try to get some pictures and I'll think up a way out for you. I can cobble stuff together with the best of them if there's a need. Field expediency we called it in the Army. Bubble gum and bailing wire. Get me some pics so I can clearly see what you are dealing with here. GD

I'm not really sure what any of that has to do with gasket's....... but ok. I've never said anything for or against your qualifications. You seem to know your stuff as well as any 63B I've met (52D myself). I did my share of "wheeled vehicle's" in the service - did more of them than I would have liked in fact. Probably one of the reasons I left after my 8 year obligation. I had the highest test scores they had ever seen at AIT (and ever will see - since I scored 100% on every test). Army exams are pathetic IMO - open book is no challenge at all if you can actually read (surprisingly challenging for a lot of the folks that enlist though ). GD

It will still run the fuel pump on "key-on" to pressurize the fuel rail. Maybe it's fireing the injector intermittantly as well due to abnormal CAS output - thus the code. But that would tend to point toward the amp or coil. I would get a complete set used and swap things out one at a time - probably starting with the distributor just to rule out those phantom codes. Carry the other spares and your tools with you..... GD

Sounds like you have a vacuum leak or a timing problem to me. Don't mess with the jetting. Check your fuel pressure to insure you aren't flooding the carb due to it being too high for some reason. You do have a new fuel filter before the carb right? The jetting between the two is very similar. I took the carb I had jetted perfectly for my EA81 hatch (verified with a wide-band O2) and installed it on an '86 EA82 sedan. Runs just fine - only change I had to make was upsize the idle jet from a 50 to a 60 because it wouldn't respond to rapid changes from idle to WOT (called poor "progression"). But if you don't drive it like a drag car you would never even know. GD

The weber adaptor isn't the greatest design, but the Weber is more often installed on these little engines for simplicity and reliability - to replace an ageing and complex Hitachi that is both worn out, misunderstood, and not very sporty with it's vacuum secondary. If you were looking for extra performance then the adator would fail to get a passing grade for sure. But just having a working, new carb is enough for most of the people using them. It's not that big of a deal to make a custom two-peice adaptor or TIG weld an SPFI manifold into submission for mounting a Weber if performance was the real objective. I do usually make my own gasket for them and sometimes I use anaerobic flange sealant instead of a gasket. Seems to work well for me - did an EA82 two-peice adaptor with it about 6 months ago. Working great. GD

Check to see if the capture nuts are present - likely they are and all you have to do is get a set from a Loyale and install them. They are probably there because place like NZ and AUS had to have rear shoulder belts. I've even seen them on AUS EA81 models. GD

That's not entirely the case. Let me explain. First - you are 100% correct that often aftermarket parts are just repackaged OEM. I've opened Beck-Arnley parts to find the part stuffed in the box still has the Subaru OEM plastic wrap and label around it. Actually I bought two EA engine mounts from Rockauto and both came in the same box - one was not wrapped and the other was inside the Subaru plastic. Both were identical parts and both were obviously OEM. Now - the grey area comes in when you start talking about component quality. If it's a rubber engine mount then obviously there isn't many ways in which the manufacturer can cost-cut, but on more complex items - say a water pump for instance - there are a range of component's that could be used in it's construction. The same assembly plant could use top shelf bearings and seals in the production run that goes to the Subaru factory parts warehouse - then they could switch to a lower tier bearing/seal combination for a VISUALLY IDENTICAL PART to be boxed up for an aftermarket supplier. The buyer of the parts always dictates what quality parts they want used, how many they wish to buy, etc. All of that plays big into profit margins and retail price points - that is the world of business and the "customer is always right" - customer in this case refering to the buyer of the parts - Subaru, AC/Delco, etc, etc. If you think they only supply a single tier of component quality you are sadly mistaken. Where there's a market for it, there will be a supplier and if you are already tooled up to make a part it's a simple matter to scale the product quality and offer a range - if they didn't someone else would. My point is simply that just because the part *looks* the same AND came from the same supplier, doesn't mean it is. Also if you buy from the dealer you are gauranteed to get OEM - if you buy aftermarket you may or may not get an OEM part and having to open each box, look at each part, reject it or ask for another brand, go to another store, wait for them to special order, etc is time consuming and troublesome. For those who have more time than money that's fine - but a lot of us just want the RIGHT part, the FIRST time and don't want any hassles with quality, etc. That often means going straight to THE experts - which is the dealer. As for EA engines - thermostat gaskets, manifold gaskets (intake/exhaust), cam tower o-rings on the EA82's, oil pump seals, and cam seals I get at the dealer - the extra cost for these small parts far outweighs the frustration of the Fel-Pro and other aftermarket seals. I have NEVER seen an aftermarket intake manifold gasket like the one from the dealer - they are like a head gasket - graphite impregnated metal. Aftermarket are all cardboard and they are all crap. They can't handle the coolant cross-over passage. GD

Yeah - the AC relay's bypass the thermo-switch and power up both fans. Sounds like you need a new thermo-switch and probably a new mechanic - if he couldn't figure that out then he needs to go back to first-year principles of water cooled internal combustion. And lets face it - this is very nearly a 70's vintage car - it's not like it's a terribly complex machine. GD

I know - I need to get on it. Dang these "responsibilities" anyway Never enough time in the day. GD

The MPFI won't work without a set of turbo heads and the system is quite complex - not to mention dated and very difficult to source parts for. The SPFI system doesn't have the injector overhead to accomidate a turbo and in any case the ECU goes all funny when the manifold crosses over from vacuum to pressure. Again - complex if you are going to turbo it - you would need at least a mega-squirt setup and an enrichment injector plus all the tuning aids to make sure you don't blow the heads off or punch holes in the pistons. Your best bet (all joking aside) is to swap over to a carb that handles forced induction. I've done it with a Weber 32/36 but something that's not progressive would be a better choice - like a 38/38 DGAS for example. Then just get some EA82 turbo manifold bits and run the turbo right into the carb. Properly jetted and tuned it will run like a demon. Far easier given the stock configuration of the EA81 than any kind of fuel injection will be. As I said I was involved with such a swap using a 32/36 but it was on a Suzuki Samurai. We used a VF7 from an EA82T and built a custom exhaust manifold to bolt up the VF7 to. The carb was basically stock - it was modified with o-rings on the throttle shafts, and a sealed box was fabricated for the pipe from the turbo to blow into the carb. The only thing that you will have to source (and I can get the supplier's info if you like - they offer them online) is a rising rate fuel pressure regulator as the fuel pressure inside the float bowl has to climb as you add boost so the boost pressure doesn't slam the inlet needle shut. It wasn't terribly expensive (less than $100) and they come out of Italy somewhere. You don't want to run more than 4 or 5 psi into a stock EA81 block - you'll cause big issues if you go higher than that. That should be enough though - 5 pounds into a stock EA81 should push it well over 100 HP. Anyway - that's my sugestion. If you really want to do it you can. Although an EJ22 swap would be better (135 HP) and likely simpler if you aren't into custom fabrication. GD

Very common with Fords. I've had to do tie-rod ends on several mid to late 90's vintage Fords. For some reason some years had really bad tie-rod ends while other's seem to never fail. Poor quality parts from overseas suppliers I suppose. GD

Thanks for the links Steve - I'll check those out. I beleive the float is part of the problem. I have a brand new float and needle/seat comming (as well as an electric choke for it ). What I did find though - after I sorted out most of it's problems, was the fuel pressure from the mechanical fuel pump I put in is just WAY too high (or the float is weak). The pump was new - I figured maybe it was bad (over 10 psi on my cheap guage) so I replaced it. Same problem - I thought there was a slight possibility of the fuel pump having sucked in some rust and corrosion from the tank so I replaced it a second time. Same problem. Three pumps and the pressure is still high enough to blow the needle off the seat at idle or after shutdown and fuel would overflow the bowl and drip out the primary throttle shaft bore. This third pump was installed with brand new clean fuel line and a brand new paper element filter (clear - so I can check for blockage) before it from the supply line. After the third pump showed the same symptoms I installed a fuel pressure regulator set to 4 psi and the problem has not returned. I guess I'll install the new float and needle/seat when I get them as well as the choke. But I'm leaving the pressure regulator in place. Can't hurt and definitely seems to curb all the nasty symptoms I was having. So - problem solved for now. GD

1/8" deflection on the EA82 timing belts is pretty normal. They are not hydraulically tensioned so they stretch as they age. Some people tighten them and other's do not - it does not seem to make a great deal of difference in their overall life. Either way they tend to last about 50 to 60k. As for your issue - if the plugs are wet with fuel then you have an intermittant no-spark issue I would say. Sounds like the CAS is a good place to start. I've never heard of anyone having luck cleaning them but being that the ECU threw out a code it can't hurt to swap in a good used one or one from a JY car that was obviously running (look for one that was wrecked if you can find one). The other places for failure is the ingition amplifier and the coil - the amp being located on the coil bracket itself. They can and do fail - it's not all that common but it's the most common failure in the SPFI ignition component list. Distributor's and coil's (OEM, not aftermarket) are very reliable. Also the coil bracket has to be grounded as the ignition amp requires the bracket ground to complete it's circuit. GD