GeneralDisorder

Need pictures. Flat spots aren't neccesarily carb related. Ignition timing, idle speed/mixture, and vacuum leaks all can contribute. 9 out of 10 times replaceing the carb will get you nowhere. GD

You are probably fine in the short term, yes. If you don't have any grinding then you likely aren't shifting hard/fast enough to have a problem with the sythetic you are using. There's nothing about the synthetics that are going to damage the transmission other than their tendancy to cause more grinding. They are expensive and uneccesary and often provide worse performance than the non-sythetics is our point. You'll get much better performance and transmission life from using regular quality gear oil along with a flush/change maintenance schedule. GD

I too have had this happen. Probably due to the orientation of the exhaust - everything wants to flow toward the lowest point with a Subaru engine. I try to stick rags in the y-pipe before I pull the heads or just remove the pipe completely - helps stop fluids (and sockets, tools, etc ) running in there as you dissasemble. GD

My experience has been that it won't make enough of a difference to mean you won't pass. If the cat is working, the AIS gives it about a 10 to 20% boost in efficiency - or so it would seem from my emperical observations. When I went through with my Brat several years ago it wouldn't pass till I replaced the cat - with the AIS working vs. not the numbers only went down maybe 10% at cruise with no change at idle. Once I installed another y-pipe with a better cat the numbers came WAY down. Like half what they were with the old cat. AIS didn't seem to make much difference. Also - if you are installing an aftermarket cat such as from ebay, etc - the newer 3-way catalyst's in them don't require the AIS at all. Since the early 90's smog pumps and AIS systems have not been needed due to better catalyst designs. In fact I would be willing to bet that a y-pipe from an SPFI EA82 would eliminate the need for the AIS on the EA81 as post-carb models have no such system or smog pump of any kind. GD

I always make a bottoming tap by cutting the tapered section off of an inexpensive tap to get at the last few threads in the hole. Not entirely neccesary but every thread you can get adds strength. GD

Yeah - 14 TPI will work as well. GD

GM has a lot of gasket issues in general on their newer stuff. My boss's S-10 blew a head gasket not long ago at around 150k. Not that Subaru seems a whole lot better with some of their engines though GD

You want NGK's - BPRES-6's IIRC. Gap is like .045" - In that neighborhood anyway. GD

Yep - if only we didn't have a differential inside the tranny! The hypoid gear ruins it for us. Otherwise we could all just run ATF And be happy as a clam like every other RWD race car out there. GD

Mine too! Hey - did that carb work out ok for you? GD

EA71 pistons are not better than the EA82 SPFI pistons. They would lower the compression and thus be worse for performance. Besides the ring sizes the EA71 pistons are only about .005" taller than the EA81 pistons makeing for about 9:1 comp. ratio using the EA81/EA82 stroke..... The EA82 SPFI is already 9.5:1. GD

If they syncro's fail to work then you grind the shift dogs on the gears to pulp and all that metal goes into the bearings...... GD

Some of the fittings are BSPT, and some are metric.... depends on EA81/EA82 so I can't recall at the moment which is which. I sometimes cut the threaded end off the stock sender and drill/tap it to 1/8" NPT so I don't have to fiddle with adapters. Plus it's free! GD

You need to install an ammeter so you can see the draw on the alt. And run through the charging circuits and check for abnormal resistances, etc. Resistance in the sensing line for the alt can overwork them and cause premature failure. Sounds like you may be overheating them due to wiring issues. One thing you can do if you need the car right away is to install a 90A maxima alt. It will probably handle the higher draw of your crapped out wireing better than the stock unit's simply because it's designed for higher output. Make SURE your battery is charged fully though as the Maxima alt can push more than the stock wireing can handle if the battery is drained and starts drawing more amps than the 50A charge circuit was designed for. NEVER install an alternator in a car with a dead battery then jump it and let the alt charge it up. You will overheat the alternator (which is not a battery charger) and halve it's life or worse. Charge the battery first if you can. If you can't - leave the jump vehicle attached to the car for 15 or 20 minutes to help charge the dead battery before you disconnect it (or have it hooked up for 15 or 20 minutes before you start it). I know this isn't always possible, and circumstances beyond our control often dictate that you don't have the time, but if you can help it don't do it. And please - put the electrical tape down and walk slowely away from it. e-tape is not the way you repair freyed and damaged wires. Brush up on your soldering skills. Solder and heat shrink is the only type of connection you should be using - and occasionally a crimp connector for a spade terminal or something - NO butt-splices. Do you hear me? NONE! GD

All EA series (except XT6) = 36mm. All EJ series = 32mm. GD

Speaking of tubing - Most of the "kits" don't include a long enough (or good quality) tube in the kit. 6 feet is what you are likely to get which is barely adequate for a Subaru. If you have any decent hot-rod or VW parts shops around that carry VDO gauges you should be able to get a 12' section of higher quality tubing and fittings for like $12 or so. That is THE way to go. The tubing is thicker and you have enough length to run it anywhere you like (VW's with the engine in the rear need the long-rump roast tube - thus why VDO sells them I suppose). Also - it's just 1/8" tubing. You can use copper (or steel) as well. A bit harder to source and more expensive but has it's benefits. When you cut the copper be careful that you don't pinch off the ID of the tubing. And also make sure that you leave a small coil of tubing near the pump for vibration and expansion control. GD

The top-mount starter EA71 is a very poor platform to start with. Not that it's a bad engine per-se, but it's very dated and entirely unsupported. You can't even buy head gaskets for it from Subaru anymore. CCR doesn't rebuild them, and most parts are becomming scarce and/or are out of production. It can't be mated to a transmission that can handle much more power, and additionally the single-range 4 speed that's in there is a worthless POS of a transmission - no low range, very poor gearing for performance, and they suffer from syncro and reverse gear failure - especially if driven hard - even with the stock engine. You are starting out with a 64 HP engine and your expectations are wildly out of line with the platform. The 1980 body will take a lot of modifications to turn into anything decent. They have a bad wireing setup to start from - external VR, and they have an engine bay mounted fuel pump so there is no return line to the tank which makes fitting any form of fuel injection a real nightmare. If you want something decent to start with you need to find an '82 to '84 EA81 powered hatch. Pull the engine and do an EJ22 swap. Instantly doubled performance, availible transmissions to meet any demand you could want. The only way to get the EA71 to a decent power range would be to completely rebuild it with performance components and then turbo it. Even then you *might* not make stock EJ22 power though. I can get an EJ22 - the whole donor car with wireing, etc. for around $250 if you give me about a month to search one out. That might buy a used Weber carb in decent condition for the EA71 . It's just not economically viable. And yes - you can't put EA81 or EA82 heads on the EA71. They aren't even close. Like Bill - I've built and rebuilt my share of EA's. About the only thing that swaps between the 71/81/82 is the pistons and the distributors (some with modification). GD

Correct - you remove the sender, and plumb the line to the gauge in it's place. You can T it if you want and still run the factory gauge as well. Personally I like to put in a 90* brass elbow and run braided stainless line to the fenderwall area and plumb the smaller line or aftermarket sending unit to the gauge from there. Otherwise the vinyl tubing is not well protected hanging under the car like it does. GD

Depends on the tranny in question. If it's half shot already then no amount of designer lube will help it. Best thing is to open it up and change the naughty bits out. If it's brand new..... maybe but why? Subaru manual transaxles tend to last a good long time anyway and frankly are simple to rebuild. Most never have the gear oil changed once and last 200k+ without incident even. If it were me - I would use a quality name brand gear lube (not Amsoil) and change it every 30k. You are going to get more benefit from changing the oil and running a few hundered miles with ATF to flush it between changes than you would ever get from dumping in Amsoil and leaving it for the life of the trans. There is no substitute for regular maintenance, and anyone representing a bottle of fluid that purports to be the last oil you will ever buy is selling you a bill of goods. I beleive in synthetics - for the right application. A Subaru passenger car transaxle isn't the right application. Unless you are towing or severely abusing the thing in some other way that will apply great amounts of heat or shearing forces to the lube you don't need them. The fact of the matter is that 95% of these transmissions will outlast the engine by a good stretch. GD

When a head gasket fails - where the coolant goes depends on where and how the failure has occured. This is true of all engines. Some have "typical" failure modes that always do the same thing - a "weak spot" if you will. Even with Subaru's there are typical failure modes for specific engines - EA81's and older pushrod engines tend to blow the gaskets into the oil passages and you get that mixing effect. EA82's seem to like to burn the coolant or leak it into the exhaust. EJ25 Ph. 1 pressurize the coolant and EJ25 Ph. 2 leak on the ground. There are many, many possiblitilies - I'm not in any way familar with that 4.3 Chev motor, but it's entirely possible that it could be leaking coolant into the exhaust port of the head though a crack to a coolant jacket. I would think that it would be a crack rather than a head gasket as otherwise in order to get from the head gasket to the exhaust it would have to first enter the combustion chamber and go through a burn cycle - that would likely flash it off to steam rather than expel liquid coolant through the exhaust valve. But that's just a guess. At any rate it doesn't sound like a good sign to me and I would be scheduling some serious down-time for that unit ASAP. Check some Blazer forums if you can find some good one's - I bet it's not an uncommon issue and someone will have posted about it already. Amazing what you can find with a search or two. GD

Probably not unless the tach is jumping without the RPM changing. Your hessitation and rough idle is a vacuum leak/tuning issue most likely. GD

Buy a turbo car first. A lot less work that way. Start by stripping the car to the chassis and seam welding/gusseting it. That should take you a while. Remove and discard the entire interior except parts of the dash. Weld the rear doors shut, pull the glass/regulators and install plexi. Install a full cage and either a single bucket seat for the driver or a pair for driver and co-driver. Replace every rubber drivetrain mount with hard mounts or urethane, and replace the suspension with aftermarket adjustable. Install a 2.0 turbo built for about 300 to 320 HP along with a dog-box transmission to handle the abuse. That should leave you pretty close. GD

The hole was drilled too far and is peircing the water jacket. You can likely epoxy that and save the head. Either that or it's got a major crack - though I've never seen one crack like that. I have seen pictures of similar problems with other Subaru engines though - it's not unheard of for a water jacket to get too close to a bolt hole and get missed durring inspection. Something may have shifted when it was cast and they just didn't catch it when they machined the head. GD

There are no length differences in any Subaru axles across the EA81 line. All axles are the same and all are interchangeable. The 2WD axles have smaller diameter joints but it does not affect their installation or operation. GD

It's probably just used to sense engine temp - maybe a high temp cut-out for the AC. I don't know enough about the first gen AC systems to tell you for sure what it is but I bet it's related. GD