GeneralDisorder

Couple months ago I got a free '93 legacy with a bad alternator. Clean, straight, automatic. Gave it to my mom. Last EA82 I bought was an 86 4WD D/R sedan. I drove it home for $100 - it had a few mechanical issues but nothing that prevented it from being driven long distances in the hot sun - I drove it from Portland to Yakima and back in the summer. Just to give you an idea. I'm cheap though and I'll just wait for a deal that suits me. Problem is - people like us are your only market. With overheating problems like that you aren't going to attract buyers that are looking for reliable transportation and are willing to pay a little bit to get it. If you want a few dimes to rub together for this thing you need to fix it first. GD

I have never noticed a difference in spline length - it may simply be a manufactureing issue and not a difference that matters. The shorter axles are very likely EA81 units. Obviously being shorter they will not fit your car. Take them back. GD

The West Coast Subaru Show is every year around August. There will be threads about it all over this forum soon I'm sure. GD

Livin the dream ya know. I work on industrial machinery - working on the millwright skills that I always valued your assitance with. Still in Portland yeah. Got a house and a lawn now so that's pretty cool. I got an '83 hatch that's going to go BIG as soon as I get settled in the house and setup my metal working area. Need to get a bigger welder - I have a sweet compressor and bandsaw setup so far. Doing research and looking for deals on a Miller. Also thinking of building my own TIG setup. If you are ever up this way hit me up on here. Still have the wagon - keeping it as a backup and loaner wheeling rig. GD

"at rest" is not a meaningful measurement. You would have to measure them fully compressed. Other than compressed length, you can't easily tell the EA81 and EA82 axles apart. If you compress them you might find you actually have the same axles. Otherwise follow Twitch's guidelines - he is correct on the EA81's having shorter axles. GD

T into the fuel line with a 0 to 5 psi gauge. Put it where you can see it while driving. GD

There may be differen't offsets for pug rims out there. I would ask someone at a tire/wheel place or on a pug forum or something. GD

Put a dial indicator on the rotor and find out for sure. GD

Yep - that's correct. Just got home from work and checked on my Hatch. How's your hatch comming? GD

Depends on the engine you are putting it on - what are you planning to do with it? This system is designed for an MPFI application using a TPS voltage trigger. The fuel pressure can be adjusted via an aftermarket regulator if the stock unit isn't compatible. There is nothing wrong with nitrous if it's used properly. Unfortunately it often is not. GD

This is becoming intollerable that we can't get it figured out. I'm not on the scene so I'm at a disadvantage. Ok - lets assume for the moment that your issue IS fuel and not ignition. I propose that you add some new gauges. First though have you performed a comp. test? It would be nice to know that all your cylinders are similar at least. I would like to see manifold vacuum and fuel pressure. More to the point though I would like to see if there is any changes in either one as you approach the "problem" area of the power band. As for the coil resistance - if you have swapped the coil to an MSD then any numbers I could give you wouldn't match your coil anyway. But the idea is that you test the resistance of the primary and secondary windings to insure that your coil isn't shorted internally. It's usually less than 10 ohms on one side, and around 10,000 to 15,000 on the other. You test between the two posts (postitive and negative), and between either post and the coil tower. GD

Cross-member's might indeed be the same. I can't remember. I converted an EA81 to 4WD and another from 4WD to 2WD using the parts - basically I swapped the entire drive trains on 2 wagons except for the engine. That was probably 6 or 7 years ago though. GD

Spray everything you can find down with WD-40, put a big fan on the engine bay and wait. Something is wet. It will dry and all will be right. Sometimes we have to wait several days for open-frame electric motors to dry out after pressure washing at work. Airflow is your friend. It will take weeks to dry out if you don't get a fan on it. GD

Lets see here..... Have you checked: 1. Fuel pressure? 2. Ran it with/without the return line? 3. Plug gap? 4. Replaced the plug wires? 5. Any play (side to side) in the disty shaft? 6. Primary and secondary coil winding resistance? It does sound, from your description, that it's either super lean, or you have an ignition issue causeing it to not fire under load. I've seen similar problems from poorly gapped plugs but you say they are ok. I'm wondering if you have a weak spark.... GD

They are totally easy. Half any hour no problem. EA82's use a plastic block mounted to the cable sheath with two bolts that secure it to the pedal assembly. GD

It's only somewhat accurate, and only for the front axles. To unhook the axles from the tranmission, you drive out the roll pin, pull the inner control arm bolts and unbolt the sway bar from the control arm GD

My wite up for EA81's: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/clutch.html EA82's are easier. GD

Having had more of them apart than you have likely ever seen, I am "pretty sure" (damn positive in fact) that the tollerances are VERY tight. An order of magnitude tighter than you'll find in similar vintage american engines. They are rated in hudredths of millimeters. They may be old, but they are of german design. The manual calls for 30 weight for good reason. Unless you *need* multi-viscocity oil (probably not this time of year), you shouldn't be running it. Furthermore - 10/40 has WAY too much viscocity modifier in it. A spread that high is only going to cause more wear. And oil that thick will ultimately not lubricate as well. You are going to lose a rod doing stuff like that. So you band-aid a temp problem by trying to get an overly taxed radiator to keep it even cooler? The engine is designed to operate at 190 degrees - so is the oil. Not reaching operating temp will cause a lot of issues - 160 is not enough to effectively eliminate condensation from the oil - you need to get it hot enough to flash the water off as vapor. There's good reasons for what the manual sugests. Change it up at your own risk. Many have come before you and found out the hard way. GD

Yeah - cross-member and mounts. Should work without issue. The 4WD shift boot (and the hole in the floor pan) are significantly larger than the boot and hole for the 2WD so it should work without issue. There will be a hole in the boot where the 4WD shift linkage was - just tie it shut with some cord. The cover panel will snap right in. The center console peice is the same for 2WD's so the panel is interchangable. For the sake of the Brat being easily convertible back to 4WD I wouldn't bother changeing the radio console out - the floor-pan won't allow it to be installed without major modifications. It isn't neccesary either. GD

Install a pre-'96 2WD transmission and rear end or replace the transmission. Without making custom parts you won't be able to transfer power to only the front wheels. The center differential (before the VC) will just turn if it isn't connected to anything and the car will not move. GD

The distributor could have an intermittant ignitor failure. Try swapping it out. GD

EA82 2WD 5 speed's are the exact same transmission as the EA81 2WD 5 speed's. Across the board they are identical. Additionally, since the EA82 continued right on using the EA81 2WD tranny, the 4 speed clutch disc you already have will slide right onto the 2WD's input shaft. No changes needed. You will need an EA81 2WD transmission cross-member. The stud for the 2WD 5 speed shift linkage is already present. They made 2WD Brat's in europe and what you are doing is entirely bolt-in. It can be reversed and you aren't hurting the body of the car. I don't see an issue here. GD

190 F is the stock thermostat. You need to watch how you treat this thing. Seriously you are cruising for major destruction - high viscocity oil and now a 30 degree drop in the thermostat? Do you have any idea what the tollerances are on these engines? :-\ GD

Forester's weren't made in the "early 90's". And if you are talking about the first generation 2.5 liter - it's not so much that I can't answer your question as it is a problem with the question itself.... It's like when a child asks if they can be an Astronaut when they grow up. "You can do anything you want to if you put your mind to it" Doesn't mean it will be smart. GD

To answer to your question about the fuel delivery system - it's a feedback loop controlled primarily through the O2 sensor, AND the coolant temp sensor. When the engine is cold (before the O2 begins reporting), the fuel delivery is controlled based on engine temp, and tends to be rich - thus no pinging. I would put my money on the O2 being bad - once it switches over to closed-loop operation the O2's data is telling the engine that it's running too rich. Either that or you have a bad cylinder/valve or ignition system that is causing large amounts of unburned fuel out the exhaust - that would give the false rich signal and cause the ECU to try and lean out the mixture. Ignition problems would be more likely than mechanical problems though I would think as the mechanical inneficiencies of a single cylinder would tend to be self-correcting in matters of fueling - if it's low on compression it's not going to draw in as much mixture as the other three. Anyway a compression test is in order, as well as an ignition check and probably an O2 sensor replacement. All of which are cheap and will help to narrow down the possibilities. GD