GeneralDisorder

Absolutely! The low-end torque increase is the biggest difference. Since both barrels of the Weber snap open when you go to WOT instead of the secondary lazily catching up as the engine begins to rev you get more air at lower RPM and that increases torque. Which is what's it's all about off-road. SPFI does the same thing since it's just one big butterfly. The other reason for the Weber is that it eliminates the additional metering ports of the Hitachi system. The Hitachi's have about twice as many "systems" on them that are supposed to help with driveability and with economy. Unfortunately many of them are not working by this age and the cost to repair them and the complexity of interfacing them with intake mods you may consider in the future (snorkel, etc) makes them a bear to work with. They don't respond well to modifications and you can't just rejet them as they are designed to be fed by the metering ports which require engine demand driven vacuum valves that are external to the carb. GD

Probably not as common in CO as they are here in OR but that reminds me of the '85 sedan I got out of a guy's yard for $100. Silver but otherwise identical to that - down to the totally mashed up windsheild, airbox full of oil, crappy exhaust, torn up back seat, and 5 speed D/R. I Weber'ed it and drove it for about 30k miles and then traded it for my '83 hatch - the chick got rear ended in it a week later and I got my Weber back and put it on the hatch Kinda sad though - I had done a lot of work to it including pulling out the dash for a heater core replacement, head gaskets, timing belt, ect, ect. Keep it - the sedan's are somewhat rare with the D/R. I see very few of them. If I were you though - if you plan on lifting it I would put in either an EA81 or an EJ22. When you are in the woods you don't want the EA82 giving you the trouble they are renown for. GD

As someone that works on german stuff most days of the week - I can say that their tendancy to overcomplicate everything, and change things at their factories on a weekly basis makes them poor choices to put into anything you intend to rely on. Audi makes a very mean AWD sports car these days - just make sure you have your AAA membership payed up and the title to you domicile ready to sign over when you need parts - god forbid if they have to come from Germany because they are out of stock or simply not stocked here at all. I can have two seemingly identical machines sitting on my bench - both bought at the same time by the same customer. But if I tear them down they likely won't be the same inside . Then trying to get the *right* parts, and the correct drawings.... I have had to have emails from Germany sent out for translation so I could figure out what kind of loctite I needed GD

I can see the confusion, yes. Main bearings and rod bearings are not of the type which I was speaking. They are actually not really bearings at all - they are bushings in the strictest sense of how they are designed. But they do "bear" the load of the rotating mass so I suppose it depends on how you define it all.... but I digress. Yes it's a relatively easy fix - but be aware that if it's a tensioner or idler bearing and it fails before you get it fixed you will likely be looking at internal engine damage. All incarnations of the 2.5 are interferance. GD

I won't argue the point of this "square" thing you are speaking of as I haven't seen it, but aren't most of the new Subaru's with the exception of the STi's made in Indiana now? GD

Yep - you just have to look till you find them I guess - and know that they are the same of course. In depth knowledge of the entire Subaru line is helpful when looking for parts in general. Their database is silly though. And they list the one's Hatchsub posted in that ebay auction - I have parted out and worked on DOZENS of EA81's and EA82's and that weird looking thing was never in any of them. I don't know what that's for but it's not a Subaru. GD

Since none of the aftermarket manual's seem to match those deck's, I made a cheat sheet for them when I put one in last. I have a few for extra rigs.... which I always seem to aquire with no stereo and the wires cut back to where there's .05mm left poking out from behind the nether regions of the dash Blue - Switched 12v Red - Constant 12v Black - Radio Ground Yellow - Illumination Ground Orange - Illumination 12v (dash dimmer) Grey - Right Front Pos. Grey/Red - Right Rear Pos. Grey/Black - Right Neg. Green - Left Front Pos. Green/Red - Left Rear Pos. Green/Black - Left Neg. White - Power Antenna GD

That's true, but I use them as a gauge telling that I am being sold the correct part for a 4WD application. I leave them all the way down because jacking the height up blows the camber away and makes the front end stiffer - which you don't want off-road. You want the wheels to articulate so softer and slower is better. Extra shocks are the ticket to prevent bending the piss out of the strut tubes - don't ask how I know this GD

Not adjustable Rob. Agreed they are nice, but they are the same as the one's KYB sells for 2WD applications. They will lower the front a bit and aren't adjustable. I had a set a long time ago and found this out the hard way. GD

1984->Brat GL->Engine->Motor Mount Beck-Arnley - "wholesaler closeout" - $18.50 each. Do a google search for rockauto discount codes - they email you one after each order and it's good for a few percent off for like 30 days. Lots of people post them online as RA tells you to share the code with friends. GD

www.rockauto.com. The Beck-Arnley one's are repackaged OEM mounts. I know because I just installed a set on my hatch. Decent price too. GD

I don't know why but the EA81 Wagon's tend to be that way. My '83 hatch is stiff and I think the springs are the same across all models for 4WD. Must be the weight difference. GD

Why would you replace the springs? Are they broken or rusty or something? They generally are not something you replace unless they are damaged. They are not wear items and their spring rate doesn't change over time in appreiciable degree. As far as the adjustable struts - Monroe makes them and Autozone carries a house brand that has adjustable lower perch. There's no need to buy the dealer items on that account. I'm all for dealer parts of course, but in the specific case of struts I would take a new Monroe over a Subaru stock item that's been on a shelf for 20 years. GD

Calm down - I'm sure it's nothing you, or your mother did. Those are really one in the same question. The idler/tensioner pulleys basically *are* bearings. And more importantly than that, they are JUST bearings - nothing special about them. Almost certainly a 6k series 2RS-C3 of some sort. As to how common bearing failure is I can say with great confidence that no one really knows. Being in the field of industrial machinery I have been over, under, around, and through that topic more times than I care to remember. I can tell you in general what the biggest causes of bearing failure are (in this order): 1. Over greasing (obviously not your problem) 2. Contamination or breakdown of the grease. 3. Mis-handling before or durring installation. The bearings in the idlers and tensioners are sealed (the 2RS part) and come pre-greased. If the seal fails then the grease leaks out and what remains overheats and breaks down. That's fairly uncommon though so we can probably also rule out contamination or grease breakdown as with the low mileage the car has these are likely to be high quality and factory instaled. If it indeed is a bearing failure I would put my money on #3. A simple drop from 24" to a hard surface will cause "brinnelling" of the bearing race and will cause premature failure. It's something that happens more than you think. The monkey's that package and warehouse bearings are just that - monkeys. They can and do drop things without telling anyone. And of course it could have nothing whatsoever to do with your timing belt arrangement. That has yet to be determined. Pull off those accesory belts and do a test. Good idea! GD

The heads can be resurfaced for about $35 each. The parts to do a head gasket job shouldn't run more than about $250. Figure about $350 with fluids and such for unavoidable costs. After that it's just labor. That's just complete hogwash. Any Phase-I 2.5 will work just fine. You simply reuse any of the manual transmission components from your old engine that you need - it's the heads and head gaskets that are in question, not the transmission or the components that interface it with the engine. This statement alone tells me the man is clearly either not well-informed or knowledgable about Subaru's in general or he's trying to pull something over on you. Really? On a 9 year old car.... that's not entirely far-fetched in parts of this country. I've seen it before. Why don't you take a look for yourself though and get us some pictures of this "death rot" that he claims is going to kill the car. Wow - RUN, don't walk, away from that guy. What's his game? He going to use your engine as a training aid for some new shop monkey?..... "Let's have the kid tear it down and we'll tell the owner it's trash - that way it never has to go back together AND we can charge for the labor!!". The $650 doesn't including putting it back together and from the knowledge this gentleman demostrates you don't want him near your car with anything resmbling a tool or sharp insturment. Trust me. Go somewhere else. There is no reason at all to suspect the bottom end is worn out of the engine. Why he would offer to split the case of an engine that merely shows symptoms of a HG failure is beyond me. Your oil smell is likely the HG leaks, or valve stem seals, or something leaking onto the exhaust system. Subaru engine's really don't have a lot of bottom-end failures - ring wear is almost unheard of and past 300k miles you generally see them die of rod bearing failure. GD

Which screw did you adjust? The butterfly stop screw with the white paint on it or the actual idle adjustment screw? The former should never be adjusted unless it was already done by someone else and you have no choice. GD

What about it? It's a trade-off either way. Are you saying he should get a 2WD? The VC's are VERY reliable. I've heard of a LOT more cases of duty C and clutch pack failure. Anything *can* break - it's just that in the vast preponderance of cases they don't. GD

No problem. I've owned a few (currently three) so the knowledge is necessary to be able to order parts and to find what I need at the junk yards. If you haven't looked at them the brochures in the "Subaru's of the 80's" section on the home-page are very useful. GD

Sounds like a classic MAF problem to me. It's the only thing I know of that can cause those kinds of problems yet not set a code. If it were a bad CTS the ECU would surely complain. O2 is ignored when cold. You can try cleaning it with some brake cleaner. If you are using an oiled air filter the oil can cause problems with the MAF. Also check the coil resistances and check the color of the spark. GD

FT4WD (not to be confused with AWD, which is different for Subaru), was a Turbo and XT6 model thing and only from 87 through 90. The EA81's, including the hatchback were never offered with FT4WD. They are FWD or PT4WD only. And PT4WD has NO center diff of any kind. On hard surfaces you must run in 2WD or you will bind in tight turns just like a 4WD truck. GD

Various: STD models: EA71 (1.6 liter), 4 speed FWD or 4 speed single range (S/R) 4WD (no low gear). DL models: EA81 (1.8 liter), 5 speed FWD, or 4 speed S/R 4WD. GL models: EA81 (1.8 liter), 5 speed FWD, 4 speed dual range (D/R) 4WD. (high and low gear), 3AT FWD, or 3AT S/R push-button 4WD. All models (STD, GL, DL) were made from 1981 to 1989. The 1980 hatch's would have been very simlar but they didn't have the EA81 yet. Works exactly like it does on a newer Subaru, just doesn't have a center diff or VC. It's locked 50/50 power split just like a 4WD truck. There is no seperate transfer case - it's a transaxle just like you are used to. FWD. There are many upgrade paths you can take with the EA81 body's. EJ22's are getting popular. 5 speed D/R from the EA82 body is also popular. The EA81 is a pushrod engine - no overhead cams, no timing belts. They came carbed with 73 HP for all hatchback models. MPFI turbo versions were made but not in the hatchback body and they are both extremely rare and difficult to source parts for. For off-road it's the EA81 or the EJ22 that you want. Other options are not as reliable or suitable to the conditions. GD

These could be related - you may have a timing belt tensioner bearing going out or something similar. Bad bearing have a way of making knocking noises and then making nasty squealing noises as the RPM's increase. If the belt goes because a tensioner locks up, or strips the teeth off because the cogged idler, there's about an 80% chance you'll do serious damage to the valve train at least. GD

That's just incorrect. They are not load bearing components or wear items. As such you inspect and replace only as necessary. That is basic mechanic knowledge. These are not specific to Brat's. They are plain metric roll-pins. They are used on all Subaru's from the mid-70's to the 90's and they are all the same pin. Gauranteed you could walk into any Subaru dealer and they would have drawers full of them. GD

I just installed two brand new EMPI axles on my hatch. I'm pleased with their quality. Any EMPI dealer (VW aftermarket shops) can order them. They have a whole line of CV's now. They were $58 each from Discount Import Parts in Beaverton Oregon. Unlike the GCK's, the EMPI joints aren't so tight out of the box. They also include both the axle nut and the roll-pin which is nice. GCK didn't include one of them IIRC. http://www.empius.com/2008_driveaxles/drive_axles.html I really don't know what happened with the GCK stuff. I bought four of them when they first showed up on the market and all of them are still going strong. Two are in my lifted wagon and have been off-road half a dozen times before it got parked two years ago. Drove all the way back from hood river to portland with bent struts and nary a problem. GD

Sounds like the idle switch inside the TPS is either malfunctioning or improperly adjusted. Try adjusting the sensor and if that doesn't work get another one from the junk yard. You'll need one from an EA82 Turbo car - probably an '87-'90 with the hot-wire MAF. I don't know if the '85/'86 TPS is the same but probably not. GD