GeneralDisorder

Break the thing off with reckless abandon. The capture nut is spinning - likely because the cover is cracked anyway. They usually crack when the capture nut spins anyway. A lot of us don't run the EA82 belt covers. The belts are a 20 minute job without the covers and a 2 hour job with. Your call.... I'll trade having a simple, 20 minute job and having to carry a spare set for the aggravation of the covers and the 2 hour job any day. But that's a trade off you have to make for yourself. If mine blow either because it was time or because of road debris.... makes little difference to me as long as the job is easy and takes only 20 minutes. And in tens of thousands of miles I have yet to have an uncovered belt break except when I dropped a shop rag in them with the engine running GD

Take the thing off and remove the broken bolts so you can bolt it back up? Cobbling things together with hose clamps like that is just going to cause more problems in the long run. Better to invest in some drill bits and taps to fix it right - then you have the tools to fix the next similar problem the right way as well. GD

CV joints have some properties that must be respected if they are to work properly in a non-stock application. 1. The amount of torque a CV can handle is more or less inversely proportional to the angle it has to run at multiplied by the speed it is rotating. That is to say that the higher the angle and the greater the speed, the less torque it can transmit without catastrophic failure. 2. Failures of CV's fall into three categories for the purposes of this discussion. Thermal failures due to friction and heat, mechanical damage due to angles beyond the capabilities of the joint implementation, and axial loading causing the joint to physically separate. Now - unless the geometry of the suspension has been modified (unlikely unless you have made custom control arms, knuckles, or strut's), then mechanical damage due to improper angles is nearly impossible. In fact a close inspection of the front axles shows they will not mechanically interfere with themselves till angles quite a bit outside the range of the stock suspension are involved. For the same reasons axial loads are not an issue either. What it comes down to, if you study this problem in detail (believe me, I have), is that the stock axles fail in lifted applications due to the stock transmission gearing. The low range provided in the stock transaxle is not low enough to allow slow speed crawling with large tires over arduous terrain. This results in high-speed wheel spin (taking "runs" at obstacles) - often with the wheel completely off the ground and the suspension at full downward articulation. This causes rapid heat buildup due to friction - the moly grease quickly breaks down and the joint simply fails. There are some things that can be done. 1. Replace the grease with a synthetic, high quality grease the will not break down as easily. 2. Repack the joints and inspect for wear after every trail run. 3. Be mindful of the limitations of the axles and avoid high speed wheel spin with wheels off the ground. Especially avoid having wheels spinning in the air and suddenly stopping when they come back to earth. 4. Stop periodically and let them cool down. You can also lower your gearing so you don't have to drive the axles so hard. But you have to watch breaking other components. The stub axles are hollow and can be twisted off readily with too much torque. Similarly the diff gears would be next to take the brunt of the damage. And so forth back to the transmission. Personally I'm most likely going with a bunch of nissan truck parts to overcome these problems. Nissan transmission, transfer case, and diffs. Modified Subaru axles run at flatter neutral angles so travel is split between upward and downward articulation. GD

You are idling off the primary circuit rather than the idle circuit if the mixture screw is all the way in. You'll get terrible fuel economy at idle that way, but if you can live with that and like it that way then who am I to argue? GD

There are no adjustments other than the float setting (have to remove the top of the carb for that), the idle speed screw (throttle stop), and the idle mixture screw (which, contrary to popular belief adjusts the mixture VOLUME not the actual mixture ratio) which is blocked by a roll pin. To adjust the idle speed and mixture you want the throttle plate nearly closed, and you adjust the mixture till you get the lean best idle. Basically that means it idles smooth at 700 to 800 RPM. You adjust them both in a balancing act. It's really simple - just play with them. Other than that, there aren't any adjustments on a Hitachi. Everything is jetted and if it's working correctly it should need no adjustment. You can make the choke adjustable by pulling the pin from the housing, but that shouldn't be necessary unless you live in some weird arctic region. GD

RX springs would be lower and probably a bit stiffer. Other than that you are going to have to look aftermarket. Why do you want it stiffer? What are you trying to do with your vehicle? GD

Stiffness has more to do with the springs than the struts. Struts are just dampeners for the springs. If you want the suspension to be stiffer, lower, higher, etc you need to change the spring rate. Unless of course your struts are just leaking and you are looking to get rid of a bouncy suspension - then by all means replace the struts. KYB's are good. GD

I run Scotty's in all mine and it works just as well on the EA81 4 speed as it does on the rest of them. The redline shockproof is awesome stuff. If it's really dirty and shifts hard, fill it with ATF and change it after 1,000 miles.... or just leave it in there. Run it till the front diff frags and install a 5 speed. GD

Nope - the only turbo hatches made were built for the movie Cannonball Run. EA81T's only came stock in wagons, coupe's, and Brat's. And all of them were automatics. There's telltale signs of EA81T occupancy though - is your battery on the drivers side? Perhaps your vin is from a turbo wagon or 2 door coupe? Non-sequitur, but the EA81T was only 98 HP. The JDM dual-carb EA81's were 108 HP, and racing versions (dual carb as well) were higher still. GD

I would run it. Twice on Sundays even. I have yet to meet the non-turbo head that has cracked badly enough to be a problem. As long as I don't suspect coolant leakage I will run them. Generally you can tell - carbonized coolant, green gook, etc. I would put it back together and run it. Might want to lap the valves just because you already have one out. Probably not necessary though. GD

The 96 and up EJ22's were a redesign pushing more HP (147 IIRC) with solid lifters as part of a larger performance upgrade - the valve train was redesigned for the solid lifters as hydro's cause drag on the cam lobes and thus decrease performance . The EJ22 was phased a few short years later. When people around here talk of the bulletproof EJ22 they are mostly refering to the 90 - 94 EJ22e and EJ22g (turbo). I get what you are saying, but you have to remember that this post is about the EA82 and the EJ22 is a completely different animal altogether. EJ's are to EA's what small-blocks are to big-blocks. Funny you should mention that. I use vacuum gauges everday. Digital ones even! A lot of the pumps I work on are rated in Torr. I work on some that can pull 0.5 Torr. And I have a 1940's combi gauge that reads 24 inches of vacuum clockwise and 12 psi (fuel) pressure counter-clockwise. It's got a special hook for hanging it under the hood. Pretty neato actually. GD

Only way is to either remove the valves and visually inspect it, or have them pressure tested. Pressure testing and then surfaceing if they pass might be the way to go in leiu of removing otherwise properly functioning low-mileage valves. Absolutely. But in practice this is a very tiny hole for it to leak through. Even at idle RPM's this size leak is negligable. And as the engine revs to higher RPM it becomes even less of an issue. Engines all leak some compression - past the rings, past the valve seats, etc. One of the reasons you compare compression test numbers to each other and not to other engines (even of the same model) is that, within reason, the differences you see on a gauge aren't going to make a whole lot of difference in the way it will run. Given two engines of the same model with one testing at 125 psi on all cylinders, and the other testing at 175 psi on all cylinder.... you wouldn't be able to tell which was which with them idling. Because at the speeds the engine runs at the differences become almost non-existant. Cylinder pressures are high for such a short time that the a hole of that size doesn't have the flow capacity to adversely affect the runability. GD

Never heard of it. EJ22's are absolutely bulletproof engines. All the dealer tech's I've talked with have said they don't see EJ22's with mechanical failures of any kind before 300k. And there hasn't been any talk of that on this board that I'm aware of. The EJ22, along with the EA81, are considered the most reliable engines Subaru has made to date. The EA82T, and the EJ25 phase I are the least reliable. Neither are particularly bad save for some specific defects that are quite common. GD

I don't know the purpose of the hose, but I suspect it's a road draft tube or a condesate drain.... or a road draft condensate drain EA82's have the battery on the drivers side and the can on the passenger side. EA81's are opposite. In either case though the can is opposite the battery in all stock configurations that I can recall. I would get a printout of the parts breakdown for the SPFI evap system to show the guy. Functionally the different ports are just additional vapor inlets - only one of the ports on any can is going to be the vapor discharge. Perhaps reason with the man - multiple inlets for multiple fuel reserviors makes sense - you just don't have the fuel reservoir that's inside a carb. GD

And that's exactly what we keep telling people but some folks won't listen. On the EA82T's though, the cracks can extend down to the cooling jackets in extreme cases resulting in coolant leaking from the exhaust port. The service bulletin is only a CYA on Subaru's part for *stock* engines. When you start to modify things (as in the case of some of the heavily built EA82T's that have come and gone in the past) you quickly find that these cracks become a problem. Subaru redesigned the heads twice in an attempt to overcome this problem but never did solve it. GD

Yeah - the crack's are usually pretty deep like that. As long as they don't extend into the water jacket you are fine. The cracking has little to do with mileage - it's a design fault. It only takes a few heating/cooling cycles for them to crack down through there. That, and being they are deep as you see is the primary reason all attempts to fix the cracks by peening them shut or stiching them with pins invariably fails. It's also one of the big reasons the stock EA82T heads will never make big power. GD

Looks good - one less thing to worry about failing. Cleans up the bay a bit as well. Everything is going acording to plan eh? GD

I coat both sides of the gasket and let them fully cure before installing them. GD

That's just silly. Engines come in many flavors, shapes, and sizes. It's just as easy to design an engine where the flywheel should be moved when installing the belts as it is to design one where it should be stationary. In the case of the EA82, the engine is non-interference and cannot be harmed from incorrect timing belt installation. The worst that will happen is you will have to redo the timing. The reason the flywheel is rotated 360 degrees after the drivers side cam is installed is because the cams are at their unloaded (all valves more or less closed) state when the timing mark is straight up so it's easier to position them there. Moving the flywheel with the belts off is not going to do any harm to any engine unless you time it improperly. All engines have methods by which they can be timed if the position of the flywheel is unknown. GD

1. Phantom Grip makes an LSD for the FRONT diff. Rear is no problem as LSD's were offered as stock items, and most folks that want massive grip in the rear weld their diffs anyway as LSD's generally suck with large tires. 2. A vacuum air locker or manual locker for the rear diff would be a cool thing..... unfortunately unless you also build chromoly stubs the effort is largely wasted. The whole rear end setup is one giant fuse - each component that you make stronger will just break other things till you reach the tranny and blow the gears out of it. They weren't designed for the load some of us are putting on it. GD

Depends on how you build the lift. Personally I leave them down as that allows the front springs to be softer and allows for more travel. If you want them cranked up you could easily build a lift that would correct the camber with them that way - just add about 1" to the engine cross-member/control arm lift blocks. GD

Not the EA81's I own. If you coat the cork gaskets for the valve covers and oil pan in RTV and let it set up they don't absorb oil and become hard. RTV resists the heat and oil so doesn't stop sealing like the cork does. Really once you address those two problem gaskets the rest of the engine is generally leak free. I haven't owned a leaky EA81 in years. GD

Yeah - if you can't I'm sure we can come up with some and send you half a dozen. I'm sure I have a few from the SPFI harnesses I've stripped out. GD

You can remove the rear section but not the front. The front section holds all the tranny fluid in. But if you get all 4 wheels up in the air you should be able to detect any play in the joints. They are, unfortunately, staked in place and according to official documentation "not repairable", however they can be removed (with some effort) if you are careful and there are joints (for a toyota I beleive) that can be fitted. It's generally better to find a good used one unless you think you'll need to do it again in the life of the vehicle. The "solution" is the same as for the driveline - remove each one and see if it makes a difference. I'll tell you right now your rear axles aren't the cause though - I have never seen one fail on a non-lifted Subaru of the 4WD vintage. Your description sounds like either a bad u-joint or, quite possibily, a bad front inner DOJ. The inner axle joints are a type of CV known as a Double Offset Joint - when they fail, or lose their grease protection, they vibrate to an obscene degree. GD

I was always warned in the military never to ride a blackhawk or chinook if there wasn't hydraulic fluid leaking from everywhere....... no leaks means it's got no fluid That's cool that you have in-shop calibration though. We just had a fiasco at work because of a broken Snap-On torque wrench - had to track down equipment that was already out the door and tear it partially down to check torque on some critical fasteners. GD