GeneralDisorder

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

I haven't checked any of the other's, but Lithia doesn't have the tool anymore for the older stuff. They couldn't even cut the blank for my '91 Legacy (I bought the blanks from them). They are very good with older parts though - just apparently lost the tool or something. GD

Interesting that this would have affected a "US" product because of foreign made steel but not a foreign made product . Probably an accident or a fluke of some kind. These things happen. At least they made it right for you. One also has to consider the convience factor - it's somewhat inconvient to take the rotors off and then to a shop to have them turned - even the shop I go to which has about a 15 minute turn-around on most days.... I can buy the new rotors at the same place I buy the pads (a different place does my machine work), and have the job done without any real downtime for the car. The cost difference is pretty negligable when you consider the extra gas and time for the machine and downtime of the car. I pay $31 for my rotors (I don't buy the cheapest around - I get them from a parts place I trust), and machining them off the car is probably comparable - maybe a bit less. I have on my Turbo, but not on the N/A's I was discussing in this thread. My '91 turbo has similar brakes to the late 90's LGT's, etc. They work excelent for that car. GD

Yeah - that might account for those two. I also recently had the experience of working on a '90 MT sedan with 4.11, and also just did a tranny swap into a '96 sedan where I installed a '93 tranny and rear diff making it also a 4.11 car. Both EJ22's though the '96 had single port heads. The '90 was much sportier feeling where the '96 was pretty much a slug. Both ran very well and in fact the '90 had 255k on it (mobile 1 synth most of it's life), and the '96 only had 113k on it. I suppose the '96 must be slightly heavier - they apparently are a couple inches longer. GD

There's a pivot and associated bushing at the very bottom of the shifter - easier to access from the under the car. Just pull the shelf down and replace the bushing, etc. GD

It was 25 for the *first* key because it was cut by code. $8 for each copy. Yes there are cheaper - but I don't like the way the morons at Home Depot cut keys. Half the time they don't work for crap. GD

They did that as it's the only way to properly run the EA81T power steering setup. Ultimately that's what they were after and running everything from a single belt is too much - the single belt can't transfer that much power without being super tight and that leads to bearing failure in the accesories. It was done the right way - that's basically the way the EA82's are setup and it's as it should be. Just pickup an EA81T water pump - no problem. Those bolts should be fine. Can you snap them off with the steering wheel? Didn't think so..... GD

That's an EA81 Turbo water pump (and crank pulley I might add). The pulley is removable from the pump but you will need the EA81T pump to bolt your pulley to obviously. *edit* - Rockauto has em for $38. Obviously you have a good deal of EA81T parts there - is the engine not a turbo? If not then someone stripped a turbo and added them to a another hydro block.... I have a collection of those very same parts for modding an EA81 when I get the chance. Steering looks fine - it works right? As long as it works that's all that counts. GD

Yeah - the one I received only had a single white line on it. So not very useful - I think the belt pictured may be different. The seals in the bearings were black instead of the orange in the pic - souldn't make any difference though. I just ordered two more kits for the '91 and the '95 currently in my garage. We shall see but I doubt it will have the lines. They aren't neccesary anyhow. Just as long as all three marks are straight up you are good. GD

You really can't do that with EJ axles due to the punch-down ring on the nut. They don't have a cotter pin either. If they are stuck (not typical), then you can drive them out with a punch or you can use a large 3 jaw puller to push them out - only needed if the splines are rusted into the hub. Also if you hit it hard enough with the axle nut on then you won't be able to get the nut off - I've done it. GD

Looks like the front main seal to me... which is in the oil pump housing so you might want to just pull the pump off and reseal the whole thing. GD

The tie rod ends? Probably, yeah. I think those all pretty much fit the same - or at least good enough to do the job. Or just tell me how long the EJ rods need to be, send me a set and I'll cut/weld them for you. That's like a 15 minute job with setup. I would definitely like to see where you come out on this. I would like to do the same thing with my Hatch - especially with the EJ22 swap on the horizon. GD

1 quart per 3k miles is not excessive according to Subaru. Sounds like you probably have leaky valve cover's. Just pull them off, clean up the cover and the rubber gasket - degrease them with some brake cleaner and then re-install with RTV on both sides of the rubber. Don't forget to RTV the rubber bolt washers too. Reaplacing them with new one's only lasts a short time and they begin weeping again. RTV will be permanent till you take the cover's off. GD

Well - new front rotors seems to have fixed it. No more pulsation on the off-ramps. I did the wheel bearing on one side and it looks like the other needs it too . Fun fun. GD

Hhhhhmmmm - questionable. If you keep track of all your parts and baggie all your nuts bolts then you can probably get it to peices ok. Changing the bearing will have to be done by a machine shop - just take them the bearing and the input shaft and ask them to swap them out. Know that reassembly is going to be the hardest part and take a lot of cleaning and careful application of sealant, etc. If you have a nice big, clean work surface I don't see why you couldn't do it. Less than $600 I'm sure. I would bet that bearing is probably around $40 to $60 or a little more. A bearing house would be cheaper than the dealer. Any of the 5 speed's from about '95 up should work. Most of the non-forester/outback one's are going to be 3.9. The neutral/reverse switches from your existing tranny will thread right in to any replacement tranny. If you are willing to fab a new 2nd cat exhaust hanger or swap the center diff housing from your existing tranny then a '90 to '94 will work also - nice thing there is that all '90 to '94 tranny's are 4.11 already. In addition to the exhaust bracket you would need to swap over the linkage adaptor - but that's just two roll pins. I just put a '93 tranny into a '96 - swapped the switches over, swapped the linkage rod adaptor, and fabbed a new exhaust bracket. Swapped in the rear diff at the same time to make the car 4.11. No - likely not. Once you open the tranny - peice of cake. You can do the same with the rear diff by removeing the back cover. Their 5 speed's are no different - suffer from the same failure eventually. It's all in how they are driven. I have a friend with a '90 Legacy that he bought new in '90 and it has 255k on the original tranny. No play in the shaft at all. Oh and if it's a hydro clutch car then you may have to swap the forks and such as well. GD

Just cut a section from the EJ inner tie rods and reweld them shorter. It's not as if inner tie-rods fail often enough that you need to be able to buy bolt-in replacements. Check out this post - there's plenty of ways you can do it: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showpost.php?p=849578&postcount=4 GD

It's the same here - odometer disclosure is not required on 10+ year old vehicles. And frankly who's to say you would even know if it had been swapped prior to you owning it..... BUT - carfax can still catch it if the car was sold when it was less than 10 years old and you lower the mileage to a point where it's less than what was on it back when it was sold. Sometimes it's unavoidable - my GF's '86 lost 18k when I swapped the cluster - that was the closest I could find in the same style cluster. GD

New front pads/rotors on both sides along with new passenger front wheel bearing (pressed in myself ), and newish axle with new grease/boots. It's almost together. We shall see in a bit..... GD