GeneralDisorder

Book knowledge and theory built the car you are fabricating on and modifying. They must go hand-in-hand. There are things you will only learn from books and there are others that you will only learn by doing. GD

There was a man.... Ed Dahl IIRC that made them and sold them on eBay although it's been several years since I looked into his offerings. You should contact a member here first - Pooparu can and has made them for folks and he does REALLY nice vinyl work - runs a decal business with a friend of his. His prices are extreemely reasonable - I can't say what he charges now but I know it was 1/3 the cost of the one's Ed produced for ebay when I talked to him a while back. He's local to me but does stuff for members here all the time - he's done entire car wraps so he very much knows what he's doing. I beleive he has a post in the vendor section too. GD

No - just the two outer timing belt covers. The marks are right on the cam sprockets - 1/4" below where the belt rides. GD

I will further investigate. I spent an hour or so looking last night and unfortunately there is so much garbage being sold to people (Vortex, Helix, Tornado.... etc) that it's difficult to find anything that isn't trying to sell you something, debunk one of these craptastic wallet lightener's, or isn't replete with testing errors and unscientific conclusions. I would be willing to guess it might improve laminar flow after the TB butterfly but I can't find any real data on that either. GD

The marks are actually small holes on the outside diameter of the cam sprockets. like 1/16" holes. GD

But if the design or implementation can be improved through understanding the underlying principles of operation - would that not be important? My point is simply - if it works, great. Now lets understand why so we can make a better one...... GD

I know - I was only joking. GD

I'm not dissagreeing with what you are saying - I agree that increased velocity in the manifold would be a desireable thing - Just wondering what the mechanism is that causes the spacer to increase the air velocity. Is it a venturi? Are they specially shaped on the inside diameter? I've never seen one of the commercially available ones..... *how* does it work? In trying to understand a new concept it is often useful to consider boundery cases. If it is desireable to move the TB away from the manifold then what would happen if you put the TB right next to the MAF and then had all that pipeing from the TB to the manifold as your spacer (mandrel bent SS tubing perhaps)? With only atmospheric pressure to work with, how is the posistion of the TB relative to the manifold going to affect velocity? And by what mechanism? The TB butterfly affects laminar flow by causing turbulence - are you saying that the spacer helps to counter-act the turbulence of the TB at the critical phase change from TB to individual intake runners? Allowing the air to "straighten out" before it enters the runners? GD

You could remove the solenoid and associated hoses, and replace it with a 33Ohm, 5 watt resistor as well. GD

Maybe - but if it's the screw-down style then it's probably right. Most of the other's that they made were not screwed on. AFAIK, there is only one type of optical pickup distributor for the later EA82's - they used the same disty from '87 to '94 on SPFI, MPFI, and Turbo cars. They changed some plugs and pin-out's but otherwise they are all idetical in consruction that I've seen. Try the whole procedure and see if that sets you back on track. GD

The non-fouler pulls the sensor out of the exhaust stream by more than a few mm's. It's more like 1" or so really. The probe is completely inside the non-fouler. Yes it's going to sniff *something* but that something will be much leaner than it was before. I have read that this will work with NO cat, not just a bad one. Haven't tried that myself but this "trick" is used by people who install "race" exhaust's on cars that don't see the street and thus require no cat(s). If you have just welded an O2 bung on the pipe that adds a few mm's I don't think you would affect the operation of the O2 as long as the sensor is still in the exhaust stream. I've installed plenty of mixture control O2's for FI swaps into pipe's in that same way and they work fine. GD

You are 100% correct Ken. I am in no way promoting that anyone here break the law. That said, I don't think it's illegal if there's no inspection or testing where you live - that applies to some members here. There has to be a fine and someone to enforce said fine before something is *actually* illegal. Though it's probably illegal on paper in some places that don't test/inspect..... but I digress. As for where I live - I haven't run across an inspector smart or thorough enough to catch such a thing. And if I suspected there were such a person I would obscure the O2 sensor with a "heat sheild" of my own fabrication. Such are my mad skillz. . I'm a very, very bad man and a reprehensible example to my peers. I hereby instruct all readers of this thread to shun me..... no really - you should definitely shun me. But again - NO ONE should do this - Everyone got that? (I think it's pretty clear that this is not a "by the book" repair - I didn't intent to sugest that with my prior posts. It's in the same vien as replacing the EGR and Purge solenoid's with resistors and pulling EGR's off and blocking them......). Also - if you wanted to retain a working cat then this could still be very useful. You could add a $50 ebay cat to the mid-pipe and then the spark plug nonfouler would only serve to eliminate the pesky CEL. GD

Why does everyone always hate on the skeptic? Cmon fellas - hit me with some science. I can take it. GD

The test wouldn't be a valid comparison to an EJ. You might actually see some gains on the dyno with an SPFI rig as the added length could cause an increase in atomization. That's pure speculation of course. Additionally - I don't have the time or money to dyno such a thing. GD

I understand perfectly where the types of spacers go and I am not argueing at all that intake spacers reduce temps. That's a no-brainer. I am talking about throttle body spacers - which V engines can easily use just as we can. How exactly does a TB spacer increase velocity? By what mechanism? And as for the "ramcharging" comments and pictures - that's a completely different concept involving tuning the intake runners to reflect the pressure wave caused by the closing of the intake valve. It can't be accomplished with a TB spacer as the spacer does not act on the individual runners but on the TB as whole. So that's out the window and shows a clear lack of understanding of either concept on the part of whoever brought that into the discussion..... also lengthening the intake runner will increase the RPM at which ramcharging takes place unless you move to a higher multiple of reflections.... which I doubt anyone with a spacer on an EJ has even bothered to calculate - not that it would do any good. And I'm arguing because I *still* haven't been given a reason to beleive any of these claims Ken. Please - teach me something new. Thus far there has been no attempt to explain or even link to an attempt to explain this velocity increasing TB spacer...... There *must* be an explanation if people are really seeing gains from this - and that knowledge can only help to expoit the concept further. If there's a gain to be had I want to know how to get it and how to maximize it. The only way to do that is to understand it. It's clear that no one here really does - if there is anything to understand. GD

How does it lower intake temps? The air comming into the intake at the point of the spacer (throttle body) is going to depend on where you get the air.... there's no intercooler. Phenolic intake spacers i can see - that isolates the intake from the hot cylinder head. No objection there except on EA's that's pretty wasted being the intake flows coolant as well. I looked into it - most of what I've seen says they do nothing at all. Most dyno runs show zilch as well. The folks on forums discussing cars with decent sized engines (V6 trucks, Mustang's, etc) all agree they are, in large measure, bunk. Define "small gain by itself". What are we talking here? And what other mods make them useful and why? I'm looking for a *reason* why these work. So far I haven't found a good theory nor any real proof that they do anything more than lighten your wallet. As I said on a true throttle body application or on a carb application where there is fuel/air mix going through the spacer there might be some validity but if you are just pumping air through the thing - how is a spacer any different than attaching say....... a hose from a shop vac and sticking it in the trunk? GD

What kind of gains are we talking about for say an EJ22? I would like to see this 1" spacer make enough of a difference that it's worth the time to install it. Anyone seen this on a dyno and can provide some idea of what it would do to the HP or torque curves? Anyone got links to dyno charts showing before/after? On a 90 HP EA82 what's this good for then? It just seems like 1" couldn't help enough to warrant the work of creating and installing it. Also - if anything, it's not gong to work for EJ's as they are port injected. The spacer isn't going to work on air alone - this is a carb or throtte body inejction type of mod as there has to be fuel/air mix going through the spacer to cool the charge and increase the atomization..... GD

Gary - seriously try the non-fouler. It might just save you some coin. What do you really have to lose? I don't know what Ken's objection is but I've done it and seen it work - plus the theory is sound. GD

There's a rig out in front of my house that had the cat burned out of it because of a naughty ignition coil (it's not a Subaru - it's a 2000 model OBD-II car though). I put a non-fouler on it 50k miles back. Still no code. All it does is move the 2nd O2 out of the exhaust stream. The ECU is simply looking for a percentage difference between the 2 sensors - it can't use the 2nd sensor for anything but checking the cat because *after* the cat there is no useful information to be gathered by checking the mixture (the cat just destroyed the information). You give the #2 O2 sensor the drop it's looking for and all is right with the world again. I don't see how this is a band-aid as it's a permanent fix.... if you mean it's bypassing the emissions controls well then yes it is but I don't consider gutting a cat to be a band-aid..... that's FIXED IMO. Not everyone has the extra mojo in their piggy bank for a new header..... GD

Nope. But seriously it's like 5 minutes to get that tumbler out. GD

Spark plug non-fouler between the 2nd O2 and the cat. No more cat code. Yes I have done it. GD

Easy enough to check - loosen the clutch cable and push the fork forward to disengage the TO from the PP fingers. If the noise goes away then you have found the problem! GD

Front diff is part of the tranny - doesn't come off seperate like the autos. Probably take a couple hours to tear down the tranny and inspect. Assuming it's just that one bearing you would want to probably have it pressed off the shaft and the new one pressed on. Figure 3 or 4 hours to clean and prep for assembly - get all the metal out of the rest of the bearings, gears, and syncro's - get the mating surfaces degreased, etc. Another couple hours for reassembly I would say. You would want to replace at least the axle stub seals, the input shaft seal, and the rear output seal. If it were me probably the 1st/2nd syncro's as well.... There are some paper gaskets but I would just replace them with flange sealant. GD

Now that I'm really giving it some thought and all - I wonder if this tendancy to warp rotors plays into the overall lack of bearing life on the EJ's - the wheel bearings would be pulsating with the rotors..... What a mess. GD

Yeah - I just tore one down with a bad input shaft bearing - you could move the input shaft like 1/8" in either direction and the bearing itself was completely chewed - 1/4" of play and a cracked bearing cage. If that's the case - the fluid might be really saturated with metal. On the one I just did it was so bad that the gear oil was actually a metallic grey - looked like poorly mixed silver paint. Yours may not be as bad but the gear oil drain plug is magnetic so it should have picked up something - it's pretty normal for them to have a small lump of metal dust on them but the oil will not be completely saturated like that if there's only minor wear. The good news, if you are into crazy stuff like rebuilding tranny's, is that they come apart really easily with basic hand tools and the bearings can be replaced fairly easily. Although typically a good used tranny will run less than the parts to rebuild one properly. I just did one in a '96 and got a tranny and matching rear diff for $200. Don't forget that tranny jack Gary - the $80 one from HF works great if you don't have a lift. If the fluid comes out like silver paint..... don't bother changing it. Just dump the old stuff back in an top off with motor oil or ATF - whatever you have on hand. GD