GeneralDisorder

EA81 head gaskets are the simplest things around. Can easily be changed in an afternoon. Get yourself a set of the Fel-Pro perma-torques from Autozone - should be about $30 for the pair. Get a set of intake and exhaust manifold gaskets at the dealership and borrow or rent a 1/2" torque wrench. Pull the heads, have them milled flat ($35 - $40 per head) and reinstall them. Torque them to a final torque of 65 Ft/Lbs and you will never have to do them again. GD

Typically you are left-foot brakeing to transfer the weight of the car to the front wheels (or off the rear wheels) for improved handling or controlled sliding. It's a racing technique. GD

'94 GT (EJ22E/ 5 speed AWD) got about 25 on the commute - just about 30 on freeway trips. '83 Hatch (EA81/4 speed 4WD) is about 26/31 '91 SS (EJ22T/ 5 speed AWD) is 16/22 on Supreme..... :-\ And of course I drive them like I stole them so I prefer the '91 GD

'86 and earlier had a mechanical/vacuum advance distributor (and flapper door MAF, etc). It wasn't till '87 ('86 for SPFI) that the CAS distributor's showed up along with the faster/more complex ECU that can handle the ignition timing. They also switched to hot-wire MAF's. GD

Wow - if only that thing could talk to you eh? My top box is a 1960's Snap-On complete with matching vintage sticker collection. The guy never really worked out of it from what I was told so it's basically mint. I'll have to snap a pic when I get a chance. GD

'81 explains it - they didn't offer power steering till '82 and that valve and it's associated vacuum lines would interfere with the EA81 power steering belt. That valve was probably moved to the manifold. GD

'87 was the last year for carbed EA82's - the non-feedback (or "49 states") models were made right up till the end. The EA81 hatch was still made till '89 in both feedback and non. GD

Which pushrod engine is this and what year? I've never seen a thermo-vacuum valve in that location before.... GD

No and it would kill the performance anyway. GD

91Loyale is correct - I never thought to ask if this was brought on by some sort of service that was performed on the car - you do realize that there are TWO dipsticks for the automatic's yes? GD

There is no hard and fast rule on that. Some were equiped with feedback carbs (with O2) and some were not. The ones that don't will be non-feedback carbed models - which is the majority of 4WD's. Nearly all the 2WD's got the feedback's but most 4WD's did not. There are exceptions though as CA required all vehicles to use them and CA models were sold outside of CA. So there's no way to tell except to look under the hood. GD

My GF's '07 6 disc changer (clarion I was told) did the same thing. Dealer replaced it under warantee. Seems like it's a common failure on these. GD

Pretty much all of them except possibly the coupe's. I know there were D/R's on all the manual GL's from 81 till the hatch was disco'd in '89. The coupe's I don't think came as D/R and only the '83/'84 turbo's were 4WD. So you are looking for manual transmission GL's in the Brat, Hatch, Sedan, or Wagon body from '81 to '89 (Brat till '87 and Hatch till '89 - all other's disco'd after '84). That said, the 5 speed D/R is a much better option - those came in all manual, GL, Non-Turbo's from '85 to '89. The "EA82" bodys which were Wagon's, Sedan's, and 3-Door Coupe's. GD

Is your auto a 2WD or 4WD? I might be pulling out a 2WD Auto from an '87 soon. If anything I'm going to convert the car to 4WD although I might just part it out completely as well. At any rate the tranny will be up for sale cheap as I have no use for it other than a boat anchor. Make me a reasonable offer considering it was recently flushed/new fluid and only has 120k on it. If it's reasonable enough I'll even give you a hand installing it. GD

Put the fuel pressure gauge after the filter - right before it connects to the manifold. You should see a pretty constant 21 psi. If it's low try pinching off the return line (after the regulator) - you should see it spike up to around 50 psi (only do this momentarily to get a reading). Run the engine up to 4 or 5k and see what the pressure does when you do. You also might check the TPS for smooth operation up in the 4/5k range where you are experienceing problems. It could have a dead spot in it resulting in a bad reading to the ECU at the RPM you are having trouble with. It may seem like a "fuel cut" but it probably isn't. GD

Typically in the US it's either plain old PSI(G) or inHg (Inches of Mercury Column). For smaller vacuum measurement it's inH20 (Inches of Water Column). And for even smaller measurement it's Torr and Micron..... but there are a LOT of vacuum measurement scales and different industries and applications neccesarily use different scales But for a gasoline, 4 stroke engine, you would be looking for around 20 to 25 inHG GD

The tranny is shot. There is just no point in fixing those 3AT's - get yourself together the parts for the 5 speed swap and be on your way again. I've dealt with my share of bad 3AT's and if a new governor and/or modulator doesn't fix them it's time to throw them in the scrap heap. They are touchy transmissions as it is so there's not much point in fixing them. GD

It's messy, but I remove the bleeder screw completely and they often thread in easily that way. The reason they are difficult to thread in is because you are trying to force the fluid back into the reservoir - even loosening the bleeder screw is usually only a small help. Remove it though, and you can just thread the piston in by hand. I use a pair of needle nose pliers and stick the nose's of the pliers in the notches of the piston and turn them in. Never had one I couldn't turn in yet. Although the tool is nice as well, I find I do fewer and fewer EA calipers with the integrated parking brake - EJ's went to a drum parking brake in the rear - on the ID of the disc so both front and rear calipers don't require threading. GD

Lack of fuel due to the unbaffled tank can cause problems but my experience is that as soon as the SPFI pump sucks air the engine sputters and dies. It's not so much a lack of power as it is a total shutdown till the fuel sloshes back to the pickup in the tank. I've had to pull over and let it settle down as the car just dies. I think you should change the FI fuel filter if you haven't already, and check that cat to see if it's clogged. Either of those could cause some issues. It wouldn't be a bad idea to invest $15 or $20 in a fuel pressure gauge so you can check that you are at 21 psi. I would start there assuming you have no check engine light showing any codes. Also have you checked compression on this engine recently? Always good to know the engine is mechanically sound before you start troublshooing fuel and ignition as the cause of a low-power situation. GD

Best way, by far, is with a wide-band O2 sensor. If you mean how do you tune the thing without that level of sophistication - then you are limited to adjusting the idle speed, idle mixture, and timing. If you problem isn't at idle or transitioning from idle - then no amount of "tuning" will correct it - if that's the case then there is a problem and it needs to be "fixed" not tuned. GD

Subaru put out a technical service bulletin many years ago saying that cracks between the valves will not affect operation and are to be ignored. Further, a warped head can be milled flat again for $35. You were totally hosed by a shop that knows nothing about your engine but knows a lot about your wallet. GD

Taking a close look at it, and looking at the pressure plate friction surface as well - I conclude that the step on this one is from wear alone. It was definitely a 100% flat flywheel to begin with. I see a sharp ridge on the ID edge of the PP friction surface and a similar step to the flywheel on the OD. Also there is not just a single step on the flywheel - there are several smaller steps where the edges of the rivet holes are located in the disc (less wear from less friction disc surface). All this together with the testimony of all who have posted to this thread leads me to beleive it was not a stepped flywheel..... I'm going to have it machined as the cost is 1/2 that of a new one it looks like. Thanks for all the info guys. GD

Great that you fixed it. I have had similar issues with the actual gauges like the voltage and temp, etc. They are attached to the circuit board with small brass nuts and the copper on the board will corrode (especially as the car's get older and the window/door seals don't seal well) and you will get intermittant or poor operation of the gauges as well. GD

You may have to knock out the shift rod roll pin and thread the hole then replace the pin with a nut/bolt combo. This happens more to the 4 speed's but the 5's still have a similar roll pin setup - it's just not as prone to wearing out quickly like the 4's. GD

Tags are often not present on newer gen EJ diffs. I don't know if they stopped using them or if they more easily fall off due to inferior adhesives or what. And you can't gaurantee that every car in a wrecking yard will have a diff tag. Besides that - he has as much as said he isn't willing to track that info down without payment for his "time". I DO want to nit-pick as you call it. I want to know what is being sold. That is only fair considering the price he is asking for them. $200+ US just for the cost of the tranny's is high by US wrecking yard standards for used transmissions in unknown condition and I would get all the information I could want about those. I see no reason it should be different just because they are on another continent. I never slandered the man. I said I "am not conviced" that he isn't a scammer. HE claims he took it personally - which is his problem. These days you can't be too careful about such things and I'm not one to be scammed - even if it means I wait and see if the "first batch" of "customers" gets the rug pulled out from under them. GD