GeneralDisorder

Sounds like the carb has an intermittant sticking float or something. I had a Hitachi that did that. Unfortunately it could be so many things that you'll have to diagnose further before we can help you over the internet. Shotgunning parts at the thing is just a waste of money. Find a problem before you replace stuff. GD

First - SPFI's don't have air injection - never did, and the ref will correct that for you. EGR does nothing at idle - so don't worry about that. Your problem sounds like a classic "miss" at idle. Lots and lots of unburned fuel is getting through because you have a cylinder or cylinders that are simply not firing at idle. This is almost always a vacuum leak - remember that on SPFI's the crankcase IS part of the manifold vacuum. You make sure that the dipstick tube is sealing? EA82's have an o-ring but EA81's do not - you may need a new stick or to add an o-ring, etc. The engine has to be TIGHT or you WILL have idle misses. Valve cover gaskets, oil pan gasket, oil fill tube, oil dipstick tube, etc, etc. These are all places for potential vacuum leaks that will cause a lean condition and a corresponding random cylinder misfire. *edit* - I missed the 1800 RPM "15 MPH" part - we don't do that up here. It could be partially EGR related but I also think you may still have a miss even at part throttle. GD

"Vapor lock" happens (as the name sugests) when fuel lines going TO the fuel pump overheat. This vaporizes the fuel and the pump can't operate (liquid fuel pumps don't pump fuel vapor). This CANNOT happen on a Subaru. Period. The pumps are electric (IE - not mounted on the engine), and the are under the car by the fuel tank. Vapor lock is a literal impossiblity on a Subaru. The pump will ALWAYS have liquid in it and even if a line ahead of the pump in the engine bay should have some vapor in it, the pump will push it out regardless because the pump is primed with cold liquid fuel from the tank. Vapor lock is a thing of the (distant) past. It went the way of the dodo when mechanical fuel pumps did. GD

Turn/cut down a regular socket till it fits. Pictures really aren't helpful since you'll have to test fit it anyway. GD

That's a good question - have you tested your's to be sure it's not working correctly? The only way to tell would be to buy the cheaper one and test it then return it if it's not what you needed. The resistance ranges might be different - you'll have to test the resistance of your's as well as the cheaper new CTS against the book specs and see. They probably are the same, but there's no telling without the specs. GD

They will - and 50 lbs is probably right on the edge where it may still be fireing off and on. 50 lbs at a few hundred RPM turns into a LOT more at actual running/idling speeds. Try pulling a plug wire off a good running engine - it will still run - just idles rough. If one cylinder had very low compression it would actually run better than pulling a single plug on an otherwise good engine - less compression means less resistance for the other three cylinders to overcome. GD

EA81 head gaskets are the easiest head gaskets out there. Really. You can do it. It is, after all, just a gasket. With the EA81 there's no timing belts, no cams, ect. It couldn't be easier. The parts are less than $100 for everything you could potentially need. You can do both, and have it back together in a weekend (I could easily do both in 4 to 5 hours). Ask yourself - what scares you about this job so much? Is it the vacuum lines and the potential to get things hooked up wrong? No problem - spend $30 and get 3M wire number tapes. Label everything, and take digital pictures as you go. Put bolts into ziplock bags labled accordingly. Is it that you are afraid of breaking something or not having the right tool? No problem there either - first this isn't your primary transportation, and second if you need a tool or break something it will still be a lot cheaper than a CCR motor (which you don't need), and you'll learn something, or have a tool you might need another day. So... what is it exactly that makes a simple head gasket replacement so frightful? Is it just the unknown, and that it's been hyped-up so massively by the general public? I mean - at least read through the procedure (I can scan it for you - I think the HTKYSA PDF has an excelent section on it too), and give it an honest assesment. Really there is nothing to be afraid of - and there is almost no potential for you to screw anything up - no engine internals are dealt with besides the rockers and push-rods. It's a LOT easier and less frustrating than the digi-to-analog swap I can tell you that. You are 10 years my senior - you deserve to teach yourself this - it will put your mechanical ability at a whole new level and open doors for you to be comfortable doing much, much more with your cars. Soon you'll be contemplating the SPFI swap.... no joke. You are already comfortable with wireing.... GD

Have you tested your compression? I think you may have low compression and thus it want's the choke on even when warm/hot. IE - not enough vacuum at low RPM to get the fuel in with the choke plates open. Have you thought about installing a manual choke kit? They are about $8 at my local parts store. It's a thought anyway. Glad to hear you didn't have to swap the radius plates. GD

You need the belts and bracket parts from a non-AC GL, DL, or Loyale..... yes they made them. GD

We're just keeping it organized - people do a lot of searching on here - the answers you get may help someone else but they need to be filed correctly. GD

Legacy's are new gen (EJ series). Old gen is from 1980 to 1989 (EA & ER series, and the Justy) - except the Justy and the Loyale which ran till 94 - they are old gen. And the '80/'81 Brat which is "Historic" gen. If you look at the captions below the forums you'll see what each forum covers....... *edit* I guess the captions are gone. Anyway - rejoice! For you have a new gen. :-\ Here's the captions: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=61 GD

Bearings can fail at any time. Low mileage has no effect on the guy that dropped them or got dirt in them at the factory. Bearings are sensitive and aren't always treated the way they should be. GD

You swapped the engine out? It could be anything from mis-connected fuel lines to wireing, to vacuum lines.... etc. GD

You should ask the new gen. forum guys. GD

You ARE going to have to change the front axles - and actually you will have to build custom axles as there aren't any 25 spline front EA81 axles - they never made them. The inner DOJ cup will have to be swapped out for one with a 25 spline cup that is also compatible with the EA81 axles you have (2WD or 4WD). I can't recall just now which one's swap around - early Impreza or Legacy turbo or something like that.... They aren't good for off-road. Both the low range is too high, and the diff is 3.7 - basically giving you no low range at all as compared to a regular 5spd D/R. The 1.19:1 just gives you back what you lose with the 3.7 so you might as well have no low range at all. GD

Well - the short answer is no... at least not to any extent that would be worth the effort. The long answer is that the narrowband O2 sensors that almost all vehicles use were specifically designed to operate accurately only at 14.7:1 fuel/air ratio. Their accuracy is pretty good between 14.5 and 15.1 or so usually. They were designed this way because 14.7:1 is where the three major exhaust pollutants are at their combined lowest points. Thus they didn't care about any other ratio. The O2 is only important at idle and at cruise where it is used to acheive the lowest emissions scores. At WOT all you will see on a narrowband sensor is "rich". Now - for our friend tuning is Weber this his fine - he can play with it till it's in the 14.7 range and get decent mileage at cruise and idle. That's all he needs it for. It wouldn't work if he wanted to tune max power at WOT though. There are wideband sensors and monitors that can emulate a narrowband (for stock ECU input needs), and I think some of them can do scaleing and shifting of the curve - so you could probably do it that way. But you are looking at probably $500 or more for a sensor like that. There is mileage to be gained - you could lean it out at cruise to 15.5 or maybe even 16.0.... you will increase engine temps, but not drastically so. I couldn't tell you how much you'll gain, or even if it would be economically viable. There's too many variables. GD

The venturi's are not always the same size. There's about three sizes. The DFV's were used on many OEM vehicles and usually have a lot of extra stuff on them. GD

There's 3 lines from the tank - fuel supply, fuel return, and vent. None of them should be capped off. The vent and the return can be left open if you wish. GD

1. Line up flywheel at center line of the 3 valve timing marks. 2. Drivers side cam mark straight up. 3. Passenger side cam mark straight down. 4. Install both belts. 5. Line up flywheel at desired timing (8 degrees for carbs, 20 degrees for SPFI, etc). 6. Install distributor with rotor pointing at whichever plug tower you wish to be #1. 7. Install plug wires counter-clockwise starting at your selected #1 in the order 1,3,2,4. 8. Start engine and verify exact timing with a light. Done. Before you install the belts, verify that the inner-most crank sprocket is the one with the groove (chamfer) on the backside to clear the lip seal. GD

Yeah - drilling spring steel is pretty futile. At this point you probably have a real mess on your hands. You'll just have to knock it out - try to work it back and forth and get a proper pin punch - the pin is 6mm. 3/16" pin punches work ok, but a 5/32" is better and a proper 6mm is even better yet (hard to find). GD

If you are going to shoot for leaning it out for best mileage you will also probably want to monitor exhaust gas temps. They will increase as you lean it out - can burn valve seats and stuff if you go too far. GD

Any pressure gauge will work - most have 1/4" NPT fittings so you just need an adaptor from the metric pump side (you can make one from an old stock sender - cut off the threaded section and leave some of the hex nut portion then tap it out for NPT), some nylon tubing (get the quality stuff), and some compression fittings. I have one made up with a 48" section of 1/4" tubing that I can use to test oil pressure on vehicles that I don't have a reliable dash gauge installed on. 0 to 60 psi gauges are a good choice. I get thrown-away used one's from my work every so often. They come as part of some equipment annual service kits so they get pulled and replaced even if they are good. On my off-road setup I use a stainless braided flex line with a 90 off the pump. Run that to the fenderwall and mount my sender or tubing up there where it's protected. GD

I just mentioned that because it just so happens that they share the same thread size and pitch . I actually have used them to bock uneeded O2 bungs. Not pretty, but they certainly do the job and aren't dangerous or anything. They are designed to hold back cylinder head temps and pressures after all..... That depends on a lot of factors, but for reference my Brat routinely got 27 with a baseline jetted Weber DGV, as well as my '86 EA82 sedan. My 84 wagon, when it was 2WD, once got nearly 32 on a long freeway run of about 400 miles. All three were running Weber DGV's - one new one, and one I rebuilt myself. Same baseline jetting. However.... if you have a "lumber rack", you will severely cut into your mileage. I would expect to see around a 2 to 3 MPG loss just with a big ol' rack on top like that. Now - my 84 wagon, once converted to 4WD ('82 4 speed), lifted 5 inches, and sporting 28" mud tires (but no rack on top), took a huge hit in mileage. On long freeway trips I would average just over 20 MPG. I wouldn't think quite so much. The lumber rack will cut into the freeway mileage, but doesn't affect it much around town at slower speeds. I would guess 24 or 25 MPG should be seen with mostly in-town driving only. But probably not much more on the freeway when the rack comes into play. All-in-all, I think you aren't far off from figureing it out. If the engine efficiency is down a bit, a little rejetting and tuneing with some choke adjustments should get you back up to around 25 at least I would think. GD

Put a regular mechanical gauge on it. The oiling system is self-priming so there's no way to bleed it. If the pump is working then air will be forced out. Did you dissasemble and inspect the pump? There's specifications on the clearances inside them. I generally opt for a new oil pump every 100 to 150 thousand miles. They get really chewed up inside - especially if people let the oil filters go for too long and the oil starts to bypass it through the pressure relief inside the filter. GD