GeneralDisorder

All the tanks are the same except the Hatchback. It has a shorter wheelbase and as such it also has a shorter tank. Wagon, Coupe, Sedan and Brat tanks are identical. But all the one's on that site are for EA82's, not EA81's so they won't work anyway. GD

I will definitely look into that. I'll be doing her's in the near future. They are making that humming at freeway speeds. GD

I seriously doubt that. Who knows where it originated, but people have been doing this since shortly after OBD-II came out. I first learned about it while searching for an easy fix for a bad cat code on a Hyundia. It's not a Subaru specific mod and works on many OBD-II vehicles - they all have a #2 O2 sensor to check the efficiency of the cat and they are all subject to cat failure and most of them will respond to this mod. GD

Yeah I rebuild them all the time - usually cost's about $200 US for the carb, rebuild kit, jets, adaptor plate, etc if you find one used. Something is all wrong with your price. GD

Depends on how you look at it - I rarely get rid of the carbs - I just transfer them to the next vehicle. GD

Any of the Weber DGV's are a good choice. The DGV-5A is the manual choke, the DGEV is the electric choke, and the DGAV is the water choke. Here in the US we generally buy the Redline carb adaptors - they are the US distributor for Weber's and parts. GD

If you get a '99 and up they have the phase II SOHC engine. Much better. My Mom's has 234k on it and runs like a champ. They suffer from short-term-rear-wheel-bearing-failure-syndrome. Just know that you will be replaceing them every 50k. GD

Yeah - I get it now. I don't always see things that are so simple and obvious to others. In my mind the ratio was determined by the TWO gears and counting both their teeth. Counting only one infer's that you know all the common ratio's and that you have seen all the possible pinion gear tooth counts. If you are aren't 100% sure that it "has to be one or the other" then there's still some ambiguity..... especially with oversea's products. If you count 39 teeth you might conclude that it has a 3.9 ratio - but might it not also have a 3.54 ratio? or a 4.33 ratio? In the US we can say no but *I* don't have any freakin clue what AUS and NZ got ya know? Damn I love my Avatar...... GD

Confirm - found my docs on the EJ's - the EJ20 non-turbo was 155 HP and has a redline of 7500 RPM. 20 HP increase over the 2.2 and 1000 RPM higher redline. Thus the beefy construction. GD

IIRC, from some docs I've read the JDM EJ20's were quite bit more powerful than the EJ22's we got in the states. Something on the order of 150 to 160 HP. Head design, cam profile, higher RPM, etc. GD

Well - here in the states they sell manual choke conversion kits for about $10 or so. It's just a plastic cover that replaces the choke spring housing. It's got a hole in it that a lever goes through and then you attach a cable to the lever and away you go. I did one to an EA81 Hitachi - wasn't hard at all really. The problem you run into is that the "throw" of the tiny lever is so short that there's not a lot of feel to the choke control. The pull knob in the cabin only moves about 3/4" from full open to full close. I never corrected this but you could if you made the lever longer..... I pulled the carb off and went with a used Weber DGV-5A that I rebuilt. It was designed for a manual choke and has a lot longer throw to the choke control. The knob moves about 2" from full open to full close. Just pickup one of those kits from like summitracing, or wherever you shop in NZ..... should have instructions that you can mostly follow. I think I made a few small improvements to the kit I bought as it was cheesy and cheap and I tightened up it's action with a few modifications. I still have the carb but I don't use it - don't use the Hitachi's for anything anymore. GD

Don't worry about the purge code - won't affect how it runs in the least. You can get rid of it by replaceing the purge solenoid with a 33 Ohm, 5 watt resistor - that will get rid of the light. The original Knock sensors were flawed and crack with age. There is an updated part from the dealer - it's $65 or so and has a white plug instead of the original grey. Takes about 10 minutes to replace that sensor. It's behind and slightly under the intake manifold on the driver's side rear of the engine block. I have never had a replacement knock sensor still pull a code. Even on my Turbo where the last 10" of the harness to it was melted on a failed engine block - I replaced the wire and it runs fine to this day without the sheilding even. GD

You have been directed to read this then I take it? http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/DiagTroubSum04.pdf Sounds like you are a walking, talking example of this intermittant neutral switch in action. The neutral switch is reporting that the tranny is in neutral when it is not - thus the engine tries to idle back, fails because it's under a load, dies and sets the code. The idle air controller is working but the ECU thinks it isn't - because it refuses to do what the ECU wants it to - when in fact the ECU is doing the wrong thing due to poor data collection. Sounds like they are describing your problem to me. Am I not understanding correctly? Oh and the neutral switch is on the side of the tranny - doesn't have anything to do with the clutch being pushed or not. GD

Outback tranny should be a 4.11. It's the non-outback's that are 3.9... but double check for sure. Actually you just made me see clearly that you in fact *can* tell the ratio from this method. I hadn't thought about just infering how many pinion teeth it has but that does work and you are correct - 39 = 3.9 and 37 = 4.11. I suspect you will count 37 on the outback tranny but if it's 39 then you'll need the matching diff. Yes - you may now proceed with the beer. The ratio difference is so very small - I don't think you will have an issue with it. I put a 4.11 tranny into a 3.9 car and I couldn't tell the difference and as far as I know the new owner can't either. But I still think the tranny is the same 4.11 you have now..... GD

Perhaps the jammed rotor was strong enough to cause a loose t-belt to jump a tooth. I've seen t-belts jump time. The EA82 belts are especially prone if the tensioner isn't tight enough - being mechanically tensioned and thin I could easily see that happening. Though I would think it would break the distributor first. But I don't know - that's my best guess. GD

Yeah I try to deal with... um.... the name escapes me - the one in the back right corner. Julie never gives me the good prices and she's not very personable. Paul and the other woman that's been there forever always do. They sold me the blanks with the LED light in them maybe a year ago and said they couldn't cut them for my '91 Sport Sedan..... maybe it was that their machine was broken at the time or something. I know for sure they couldn't cut one for my Brat. They don't have that tool anymore apparently. GD

Yes - disconnect the fuel pump, run it till it stops and then crank till it's not trying to start anymore - pump the throttle to expel fuel from the accelerator pump. Fuel being pulled into the cylinder can wash down the oil from the rings. You test it with the throttle wide open (choke pulled off), all plugs out. Then start cranking - it should come up to it's max reading in about 5 compressions strokes - which is about 20 revolutions (4 stroke engine - only one in 4 is a comp. stroke). If you see any wide variation after doing that, then you need to do a leak-down test on each cylinder to determine the reason for it. I like to roll the engine over on the comp. stroke as I'm doing the leak-down to see if there are any bad spots in the cylinder as well as listening for intake and exhaust valve's not seating. EA81T's will have lower comp. numbers but still not typically that low. Around 120 psi or so give or take. They are also hydro lifter engines so it's probably not a T block. Valve adjust takes like 15 minutes - get that done - it's easy. GD

Get the bolt out and heli-coil it. Should go back together. These engines are reliable enough on the bottom end that I would just fix it. GD

I am questioning your test results and test procedure - those are REALLY low numbers. EA81's in good condition should push around 150 to 175 psi compression. I have one that pushed 220 psi last time I checked it. What's your test procedure? Those numbers are on the low-end of what should even run at all - let alone hold a proper idle. GD

Have you changed the plugs or at least gapped them recently? The higher cylinder pressure's while under boost can cause a poorly functioning plug to not fire. I had the same problem with my Turbo Legacy and new plugs/wires solved every ounce of it. GD

Yes - unlike the name, it will NEVER result in destruction of the engine but could signal bigger problems - low oil pressure or NO OIL . Typically it means leaking seals, dirty lifters, or poor pressure - or a combination of these. GD

The bearing size difference on the inside of the idler pulley's is a change made by Subaru at some point along the line. IIRC, the original Subaru design used a single row ball bearing on the top idler and a double-row on the bottom. I *think* they got rid of the single row one's completely or maybe it's the other way around. At any rate I've installed a number of the single-row aftermarket's on both top and bottom and never had a problem with them. I don't remember why Subaru did this..... GD

It's a spacer designed to keep a spark plug from being oil-contaminated by an engine that has very bad oil consumption. It just so happens that O2 sensors and spark plugs share the same thread. They are about $5 to $10 at most auto-parts stores. Look in the "HELP!" section as they are generally carried there. They can also be found on ebay. GD

Might be a bit of a trip for just a rack. But I'll give it some thought. I have so many other projects right now that it's pretty far down on my list. Appreciate the offer though! GD

There's a couple ways you can do it Gary... 1. If you have a powerful enough welder, it CAN penetrate to the core of the rod. Most people don't have something large enough to push 1/2" penetration.... not in their garage anyway. 2. When you don't have the power to do it in a single pass - you do it in several passes. You just bevel the ends where the weld will be - like the tip of a drill bit or "sharpened like a pencil" but not as steep. Then when you make your first pass you *are* welding on the core of the rod. Subsequent passes will just fill in and build the material back up. Then you grind it smooth and slap on some paint or send it for zinc coating. 3. If you can't do either of the above, or you need it uber-strong, then you sleeve the joint and plug weld it. Basically you take a tight fitting tube of say.... 3/16" wall thickness, and drill holes in the outside of it through which you "plug weld" the holes to the sleeve and the tie-rod. Then you run a bead around the ends of the tube to lock it to the shaft. If you get really fancy you can turn the OD of the shaft till it's an interference fit into the tube then heat the tube and shrink it in place. There's as many options as your imagination can come up with really. The Mercedes clamp thing that Bugaru used is a good option too - no welding required it looked like. GD