GeneralDisorder

You may or may not have the PCV "fix" for long, sweeping, right hand turns causing clouds of oil smoke..... At any rate there should be a restriction somewhere on the line from the driver's side valve cover. Either the line will neck down to 1/4" ID, or there will be an oddball T fitting with an orifice drilled into it. On the carb models this is obvious as the line necks down with an "F" fitting going to the PCV and to the air-filter housing. With the SPFI's it looks different but the effect is similar. GD

It's likely this one: SOA Part #737065251 $13.25 from subaruparts.com That might be the EA81 part though - there seems to be some superceeded part numbers thrown into the mix. I've done SPFI conversions to EA81's and the EA81 throttle cable works just fine. I think they are more-or-less interchangable. GD

I guarantee the dealer can get them. My parts guy will give me the number with no trouble at all. I'll get it for you when I'm there in the next few days to pickup some stuff I ordered. GD

All the boot kits I've done say to use the entire pouch. They say to pack the grease into joint and use the rest to in the boot. Never had an issue doing it this way. It is important to get the bands on REALLY tight. If you don't they will slip off the joint. Speaking economically, I doubt the bean-counters would allow them to include *more* grease than you needed to do the job. And they wouldn't sell many boots if they shorted you on grease. I think it's in their best intrest to at least try to include about the right amount. Also - you NEVER want to "fill" the housing. There has to be room for expansion. 1/3 full is industry standard for bearing cavities. GD

'83 was the first year for ignition controlled lighting. It's normal for your '82 to have manual lights. GD

I would steer clear of the Holley Weber. It's a DFV clone but they have extraneous stuff on them like bowl vent solenoids, etc. They also have smaller venturi's than normal DGV's making them of dubious upgrade potential. Then you would have to rejet it - not with the same jets as a DGV because of the smaller venturi's....Get yourself a DGV, peen a dent in the power steering reservior to clear the choke housing and call it a day. GD

I beleive they are specific to the manifold. It should be a 19mm. A flare-nut wrench would be helpful. Take a small propane torch and heat up the area around the threads. Alternatively, that's the EGR line not the coolant line - you could just eliminate the EGR and then plug the hole in the head. GD

No one sells kits for them. I checked into it a few years back. Subaru never made a kit either. You'll have to tear it down, make a list of the parts you need, and order them through the dealer. Some of them like the seals and bearings will probably be off-the-shelf parts at any bearing house. You are in for a real treat if you really plan to rebuild a 4 speed. There's a reason no one ever does.... that and 5 speed's are so plentiful and cheap that there's just no reason to mess with the 4's. There's so many ways that the 5's are better that it's worth the little bit of fab work to install them. The price for the parts to rebuild a 4 will be twice the price of a good used 5. GD

I just go to the dealer for all my cable needs. They are better quality and not that expensive. I think the last EA81 throttle cable I ordered with like $12 or $15 GD

Your Hitachi is a DCP-306-7xx. Probably a 721. Irregardless, all of the DCP's use the same rebuild kit. The EA82's use the DCZ carbs. As for mileage - the 4WD's get worse mileage because of the gearing, the tire size, and the weight. Mostly it's the gearing though - the 2WD's had 3.7 final drive ratio and smaller tires, while the 4WD's have 3.9 and larger tires. The carbs *are* jetted differently, and most of the 2WD's also had the feedback computer controlled versions. But the difference is like 1 or 2 MPG between the 4WD non-feedback and the 4WD CA spec models. It's not at all worth the hassle of that system. I routinely get 26 with my Weber in mixed driving. On my last trip to the beach I got 31.5 on my 4WD hatch with the Weber. I just drive normally - I don't try to get amazing mileage or anything. And my engine burns a lot of oil and has one cylinder with low compression. I tuned it with a wideband O2 sensor though. It's getting an EJ22 very soon so I haven't bothered to put any work into the engine. Be glad you get high 20's. I get 16 in my turbo legacy GD

Other than having done it "many, many times" (anecdotal evidence at best without *at least* usage information both pre and post replacement), do you have any good reason to be repacking sealed bearings? What evidence can you show that proves they wouldn't have lasted just as long or longer had you not repacked them? Do you still have or keep track of all these bearings you have replaced? Lets not forget that most EA wheel bearings have already lasted more than half the life of the car before needing replacement - ONE replacement is most often all that is needed for the remaining life of the automobile and that lifetime is often considerably shorter than the factory set..... My reasoning is backed up by industry standards and tons of research into the subject by the nuclear power industry, NLGI, and others. Not to mention my own experience. And lets not even go into the damage you can cause to the seals by removing and installing them with a pick. Don't screw with sealed bearings unless you plan on leaving the seals out - often bearing houses will only carry 2RS bearings and tell you to pull the seals if you want an open, greaseable bearing for your application so that's not uncommon to pull them. But you don't put them back in - that's a no-no for a number of reasons. GD

I just installed an OBD-I 5 speed into a '96 OBD-II. The biggest difference was the exhaust bracket for the mid-pipe. The bosses on the tranmission for the mount simply didn't exist. I fabed up a mount and welded it to part of the transmission cross-member. The wireing is different but I just swapped the reverse and neutral switches with the one's from the blown tranny. Otherwise it bolted right up. They were both cable clutch's and both 3.9's. YMMV with a 2000 though. GD

The problems are: 1. It's a 3600 RPM motor. It's running those little pistons REALLY fast (probably @3600 RPM - which is totally insane). 2. It's an oil-free recip - it's totally open (exposed crank) and needs to be in order to properly cool it. 3. Being a tiny-piston, oil free, high RPM, aluminium/plastic machine - it makes a TON of heat and has to reject it somehow. Air compressors double as excelent heaters and anything you do has to keep in mind that your machine (especially) needs proper airflow or it's going to melt. What you can do: 1. Slow it down. Change the belt shivs if that's possible with your machine's design. This will reduce the speed of the air-end and of course also reduce the noise. You will lose CFM. 2. Enclose the machine. Basically build an insulated enclosure for it to sit inside of - you will need to provide a fan (attic vent fan perhaps?) to circulate air through the enclosure. DO NOT underestimate how hot that thing will get. All that plastic shrouding hides the fact that at 100 psi the discharge temp of that little machine is easily 250-300* F. 3. Put it outside with a shed roof over it and plumb some copper through the wall for your air supply. Provide a quick disconnect for the machine so it's still portable. Chain it up or wheel it inside at night though. 4. Get a bigger, oil lubed recip. I know that's probably not an option for you but I just wanted to point out that larger machines that are oil-lubed, typically run at 1800 RPM and as such make less noise. They are also heavier and the noise they do make is usually devoid of the annoying "buzzing" of the smaller, lighter machines. It's more of a thump, thump, thump noise and not at all annoying (IMO). I have a little machine that is my portable with a 30 gallon tank - it's an oil-lubed recip. The machine was made by Coleman and it's a few years old (I beleive they don't make them anymore). But the air-end was made by Briggs and Stratton (the engine manufacturer) and although it does have a 3600 RPM motor the air-end runs at about 1200 RPM. It's not bad at all for what it is. Puts out about 5 or 6 CFM.... I got it for $84 from work when a customer never came to pick it up after I fixed the thing. I would reccomend something like that (it was probably a $300 or $400 machine new) over an oil-free machine. Especially if you are just running air tools as the oil won't hurt them. If you are painting a coalescing filter and a drier would be needed anyway so I'm not sure what the draw is for the tiny oil-free recips. They don't fill any niche that I can think of although it does mean you never have to worry about changing the oil. GD

DO NOT repack sealed bearings. They do take *very* little grease. This is by design as they do not exchange grease with a larger bearing cavity. The grease needs airspace to expand as it warms to it's dropping point. If you pack them solid the grease will simply overheat, cook itself, and fail - contaminating the bearing and causing premature failure. Also - unless you first flush them very well with solvent, wash them with soap and water, and regrease them you have no idea if the grease used by the manufacturere is compatible with the grease you are packing them with. The result could be anything from the grease losing it's lubrication properties, never dropping at all, to just turning to plastic. Greenly - YES - apply grease to the outside of the bearings and the lip seals. If the lip seals do not have lubrication they will fail in short order. I put the normal amount of grease between the bearings as well. This just serves to trap particulates and moisture that gets past the seals and also keeps the bearing pockets from corroding. GD

That sounds like a pretty normal low-reading gauge/sending unit. At idle and cruise you are at lower RPM than at other times. Oil pressure is purely a function of RPM. As the RPM's climb the oil pressure does also to a point. That point is where the bypass valve opens and allows the pump to return extra oil pressure back to it's own inlet. Tell me - did the "mechanic" test your oil pressure with a known-good shop gauge? Do you have test readings from said gauge at various RPM's - taken cold, warm, and hot with temp gun readings to match? If not your mechanic is a hack. GD

I'm telling you - it's a mistake to remove those spacers. But if you do it remember there's a gasket between them and the head - it's a narrow ring that fits in a groove in the spacer and I'm guessing the only reliable source for them is the dealer. Seriously - the heli-coil approach is WAY more work than just running the tap through both the spacer and the head and calling it day. It will be 10x stronger and if you wanted to heli-coil it back to metric later that's easily done as the 7/16 x 20 tap does not require any drilling - the hole is already the correct size for it. GD

Your bearings are likely fine. The ticking is the valve adjusters. Replace the oil pump, seals, cam carrier o-rings and if the ticking doesn't stop replace or rebuild the lifters. If/when you lose a rod bearing you'll know it. They give very little warning and will end up shooting out the case under the intake manifold. The telltale sign is NOT low oil pressure but a metallic knocking while under load - it's actually not as loud or annoying as the lifter ticking you have now. In any case EA82's are not worth the trouble to replace the main/rod bearings as it requires a complete engine tear-down and rebuild. It is not a simple thing. You would be better off getting a used engine. I can count the number of times I've seen or heard of rod/main bearing failure on an EA series engine on ONE HAND. I've been on this forum for 7 years and I've got 12,000+ posts. I'll bet your mechanic $10 your bearings are just fine. Your low oil pressure is probably due to a fualty pump, sending unit, or electrical issue. On these engines the pressure reading is taken directly off the pump and even if the rod/main bearings are totally wasted it will only make a small difference in your oil pressure reading. They also don't wear much before they just grenade - not enough to notice a big difference in oil pressure. GD

If you tap the holes over to 7/16 x 20 you will be tapping threads into the spacers as well as the head. Just make sure you use a bottoming tap to get the last few threads in the head. Install 7/16 studs and be done with it. They fit just fine and will be extra strong as you will have threads in the cast iron spacers. You also don't have to remove them to do the job. I've done this on half a dozen EA81's now and it's never failed me yet. No expensive heli-coil needed either. GD

The nylon donut's are usually gone, yes. But 95% of the time the slop is due primarily to the sleeve/rod interface. I haven't seen one yet that wasn't worn out. GD

An excelent reminder for the folks with 5 speeds. Sadly the fork slides on the 4 speed's are steel. I'm not sure what the effective difference is in functionality with the nylon vs. steel slides but I've never seen any wear on the 4 speed slides I've taken apart. Haven't pulled down a 5 speed with worn slides either but then I've only done a handful of 5's. GD

The main problems with the Hitachi (as I've noted many times), is that they used a complicated system of vacuum valves and thermo-valves to regulate airflow to the air correctors. This was done to accomidate the feedback models with the ECU. The non-feedback are the same though - just jetted differently. Also the vacuum operated secondary is not very sporty to drive. The Webers are simpler, more fun to drive, and easier to rebuild/get parts for. Yes the Hitachi's are reliable when properly rebuilt but they will never have what the Weber's offer. GD

Sheilded (ZZ or 2Z) will exchange grease with the bearing pocket over time. There isn't much grease in them to begin with and the pocket on the knuckles is quite large. I would not trust the ZZ's. Also the major contributing factor to bearing failure is moisture in the bearings - the 2RS sealed bearings are going to help keep water out of the bearings when the outer seals fail as they always do. There is just too much grit, dirt, grease, and water for the outer seals to last. They are the cause of ALL the front wheel bearing failures I've ever come across. GD

I've heard (but never seen in person) of a few torsion bar's failing to rust as well. If you suspect a rust situation then it's worth pulling it apart to inspect and possibly coating some stuff in anti-seize, etc. But as Mick noted there is nothing in there that would benefit from grease. GD

I've installed tons of WIX/NAPA filters on EA81's, EA82's, and EJ22's. Never had an issue unscrewing them by hand. I don't know what would be any different about your car. GD

If you get your bearings from a bearing house, they are $12 each. I use the 6207-2RS-C3's (sealed) so no greese needed. The seals are $6 each at my favorite parts house. That's $72 total for both front's. GD