GeneralDisorder

Bearings are a very, very tricky business. I deal with some very expensive bearings in the vacuum pumps I work on as well - SKF, made in Austria type stuff. It's amazing what I see come into the shop - there's still lots of customers that will overgrease anything with a zerk attached to it. Baldor motors for a time removed all the zerks from their motors larger than 100 HP and opted for sealed, non-greaseable bearings. They had so many calls to their customer service hot-line they put the zerks back in just to shut people up. Over-greasing, and contamination are the two biggest causes of failure. Just .002% water contamination will reduce bearing life by around 50%. 6% will reduce it by over 80%. Over-greasing is much more sinister because people always think they are helping. It causes more friction, and the added heat decreases the viscosity of the grease, causeing even more heat as it loses it's ability to support the load. It starts to form a varnish and then begins to "coke". This destroys the ability of the grease to lubricate the bearing and also introduces solid particles into the lubricant. Would you just keep adding oil to your engine without draining some? Same goes for bearings. The ones designed to be greased also have a drain plug - you are supposed to add grease and run the bearing till the old grease drips out and it reaches equilibrium at operating temp. Of course the zerk is on the top, and the drain hole is always on the bottom where people can't see it. GD

Really, that's a bad idea. The ones without the zerks are best as they really shouldn't be greased at all unless you dissasemble them and regrease them. You'll overheat the bearings and cause them to fail much quicker if you keep forcing grease in like that. By FAR the biggest cause of bearing failure is over-greasing. A 10 year study of bearing life was done by a major industrial manufacturer and they found on average, the most life was had from bearings that were never greased at all. A thin film of grease is all that is required and continually forcing grease into them will stretch and pop the seals, and allows no air-space for expansion. Remember - most bearings run around 175 to 250 degrees durring operation. More grease means more friction = more heat. GD

You would need a donor car. Engine alone is maybe 1/2 of the stuff you need for a swap like that. The EA82T is not a good engine choice - only 115 HP, and not much room for improvement. Do a search. GD

The fuel filter is under the car next to the pump. They are both on a shelf forward of the fuel tank. Sounds like you should change it on general principle. I haven't had the surging like you sugest, but I have run out of fuel at WOT with a partially clogged filter. Do the cheap stuff like that first before worrying about the altitude compensation. GD

All of the carburated models had something availible for altitude compensation. You will want to ask a dealer directly. As for the surging - it's possible that it could be related but I couldn't tell you for sure. I live at sea level and all my experience with the Hitachi carbs is at lower altitudes. GD

You might check at the dealer and see if they can still get you a "high altitude" kit for it. They made them when these were sold new. It will probably just reroute some hoses - they may even be able to tell you how to accomplish the same thing with off-the-shelf components if you ask them to look it up in the factory service literature. GD

Yes - always replace the water pump at every other timing belt interval. All parts are inferior to the OEM. Dealership = most reliable. Probably wise to dedicate some time, but you won't need to resurface the flywheel. Just thow in a new disc and plate and it will be fine. For what you are doing - pull the engine. It will save time. When you reseal it do the oil pump seals and check the oil pump internals are within spec. Replace the front main, cam seals, and cam o-rings. Replace the valve cover gaskets with new ones, and replace the oil pan gasket with a new one coated in RTV. Replace the entire timing belt set - both belts, both tensioners, and the cogged idler. Many of us run without belt covers - you can make your own judgement, and you can search out the debate in other forum topics if you like. Suffice to say the timing belt job is 3 hours with the covers on, and 20 minutes with them off. GD

Just noticed it's an 85. If the engine is original, then the valves are hydraulic and don't require adjustment. So disreguard my former advice. GD

You are better off keeping a Brat stock. Any mods you do will likely hurt the value more than anything. They are collectors cars now, and by far the most valuable of the EA series. They aren't fast, but the EA81 is an excelent engine. Do a valve adjustment. Other than that love it for what it is - don't hack up a good Brat for some crackpot EJ swap till you have done several swaps to other, less valuable, less rare vehicles. Your swap will benefit from the knowledge you gain screwing up something cheap. Expect to do a lot of tinkering - the EA81's were meant to be worked on and they require someone to care for them. They can leak a substantial amount of oil due to the old-school cork gaskets so watch your fluid levels. The rear drums brakes must be manually adjusted every few thousand, and the valves must be adjusted every 15,000. You would be wise to do the front main seal and throw on a new oil pump first thing. The pumps get chewed up by debris on it's way to the oil filter. Looks like this one already has a Weber on it. Look things over carefully - sometimes previous owners do weird stuff. That coil looks suspect to me for one - the stock ignition modules are sensitive, and aftermarket coils are prone to killing them. GD

Under the "depression", on the manifold, you will find the coolant passage. The coolant is in the manifold, not the carb. It's designed to heat the base of the carb to prevent iceing. Often the gaskets under the carb do not have a hole for the coolant (they don't need to), and removing the carb will not always remove the gasket. My guess is that you removed the carb and the gasket came off clean and stayed on the manifold side? If that's the case, while you were busy rebuilding that carb a bunch of coolant could have leaked out from under that gasket and down the manifold into the engine. You may not have noticed a small stream comming from under the gasket like that. GD

Did a bunch of coolant go down the intake when you removed the carb? GD

I know exactly how much is involved. I've had both vehicles (EA and EJ) torn completely apart, and I understand all their respective systems. Q: How much? A: WAY too much. There is no EA turbo that will give you what you want, so you can just forget about them entirely. That leaves only one option without stepping up to the WRX's and newer engines - the EJ22T. GD

Sure - but running ANYTHING beyond stock components requires a ton of work before you can do it reliably. Expect to spend $2000 to $3000 at a minimum to add proper guages, controllers, added cooling, ect before you can increase even a few HP over stock. Anything less is asking for major engine damage. Just a single injector that's not performing correctly or a glitch in one sensor can cause massive engine failure when you begin increaseing boost, or even increaseing the CFM at stock boost levels (larger turbo's). And you still don't seem to understand that the car you are working with is going to fall apart under any power levels reachable by the EJ turbo's. The EA transmission isn't going to handle it. Even the gen 1 legacy tranny can't handle it - people are always stripping gears in them just running up around 200 HP - that's only 40 HP over stock on those tranny's. Can you imagine what 200 HP will do to a tranny designed to handle 90? GD

Not with a turbo you won't. Turbo's run rich - it's the nature of forced induction and neccesary to prevent detonation and severe engine damage. Expect no more than 25 MPG with a very small turbo and driving it like a very old, mostly blind man. 20 MPG is much more realistic for a turbo of 1.8 or 2.2 size. Surely you jest right? That 93 legacy has 130 HP. A 2.2 turbo would put out 160 stock. Modded they can easily push 200 or lots more if you are willing to do the work. But installing one (after you search one down - they are rare) would be a lot of work, and even at stock HP you'll demolish the EA transmission. There's few EA turbo's that would outrun a well-maintained bone-stock 93 legacy with a manual trans. Trust me. It can be done of course. Here's the formual: Performance, Cost, Reliability. Pick two - the other one goes out the window. You're drunk, or stupid, or both. That's just plain dumb. You can get an Impreza for that. Ah - then you want an EJ, not an EA - see above comment. EJ22/EJ22T. By far the best engine subaru has made to date. Get the body to go alone with it as they are superior as well. Gulp! Ok - lets say. That depends - would you like it to last more than 10,000 miles or just make it down the street? $500 would probably buy enough parts to make it run. It wouldn't be safe, nor would it last long enough to get to 7 Eleven. Not really. You are asking for something that is not made. There is no "turbo kit". You buy a turbo CAR, or a non-turbo car. To convert between the two is a huge pain in the rump roast. Even the engine cross-member is different to allow for the major changes in exhaust routing. What you are talking about would require parts from at least 3 or 4 different cars, and you would want at least one entire donor car - such as a wrecked or otherwise wasted 91-94 turbo legacy. Then you would need a bunch of parts from an 87 to 90 EA82 turbo car to get the mechanicals to fit, and then you would have to create your own wiring harness. If you go with a non-turbo EJ22 and try to add a turbo to it - that's even more work. Completely the wrong direction with the wrong car. You want an Impreza. Pick up a 93 or 94 Imp wagon with the 1.8 and drop in a WRX front clip. That's the price range you are looking at, it's worth doing, and it will be fun, fast, and handle like a go-cart. An EA82 will be slow, unreliable, messy to modify, and even if you get those worked out it's going to handle like a bowl of oatmeal, it's got no suspension or brake options without dumping in even more cash, and what do you have then? A WRX without the WRX body that's worth no more than it was when you bought it. Bad investment. GD

You have a picture of the "butchered" unit? I might be able to make use of it depending. I don't have a parts manual for the years that had those, sorry I am no help there. GD

Speculation of that nature is frivolous and nothing more than lawn chair mechanicing. You haven't even pulled the thing apart to verify the failure, which I HIGHLY doubt is a spun bearing insert. I've seen internals with NO lubrication - so hot they melted the nylon out of the nylock rod cap nut's and seized the engine... still didn't spin. It would likely throw the rod right out the block before it spun the insert inside the aluminium rod. They are notched and compressed in such a way that they almost become one with the rod when installed. It might not even be internal - you might have a timing belt tensioner or idler that's gone south..... Yank it out, pull it down. THEN speculate. GD

Yep - waste of time and money. Buy a legacy. I got one that needed a water pump for $750 last summer from a middle aged lady - only 135k on it. The deals are out there every week. $1000 for an EA82 that's anything short of an RX or touring wagon or other rare animal is silly. I would much rather pay $1000 for a very nice EA81 hatch or Brat. GD

How did he do that? Improper installation? GD

Even if the heads are new, the o-ring doesn't come with them. It's actually more associated with the cam tower than the head itself. Make sure they are metal-reinforced o-rings and not just regular rubber. GD

Distributor is ignition timing. Belts are VALVE timing. Different animals. Different marks. You use the ignition timing marks for the disty - the ones with the numbers. You use the ||| marks with the valves. No numbers. GD

Most likely not an RX. RX's were not condusive to lifting drivetrain wise, so it was probably just a standard 3dr. They also only ever came in white and black (rare), so if it had RX stickers they were put over it's new paint job. The body kit's come off pretty easily and could have been obtained from a number of folks on here or elsewhere or from a wreck. GD

That's correct Bob - you have the right area in mind. The groove is to prevent external leakage from that joint between the head and the tower. The O-ring is on the bottom corner just to the side of that groove. It prevents pressurized oil from leaking at that joint in the galley that supply's the cam bearings, rockers, and lifters with fresh oil. It's not an external seal against simply leaking oil out on the ground - it's a high-pressure seal that keeps the oil inside the galley till it reaches it's destination. The temp of the oil, and the pressure of it's flow will collapse a standard o-ring so Subaru switched to using a metal-reinforced o-ring for that location. I use a bit of non-hardening silicone valve sealant to keep the o-ring from falling out durring installation. Make sure to keep RTV away from it as it could harden and clog a component if a small peice were to drift away. GD

All EA82's have the cam tower o-ring. But it's on between the cam tower and the head. Not in the same area as the head gasket but you do have to replace them to get at the head gasket. I'm not a tech for Subaru. I'm a tech for an industrial machinery manufacturer/distributor. Mostly I work on vacuum pumps for high-vac and ultra-vac systems used in high-tech and chemical applications. Very, very complex german made stuff that's the size of a kitchen sink and costs as much as two STi's. GD

NGK plugs and wires. Cap and rotor really don't matter. Unless you have a problem with the engine missing, you probably aren't doing much good replaceing all that stuff. Cap and rotor are cheap though. Plugs you can generally gap, clean, and put back. Wires.... it's pretty odd to see them fail on an EA series carb engine. The spark isn't very hot so they don't really degrade much. I would be spending more of my initial time and money doing the cooling system, timing belts, carb rebuild, etc. Unless I had good reason to suspect the ignition components. GD

Yep - both the voltage, and fuel gauges on my hatch were inoperative/extremely sporatic after sitting for a couple years in a driveway. The rear pop-out windows were cracked due to broken latches and that allowed moisture to get inside. Only takes a bit of condensation on the connections - a cold spell will shrink the nut/bolt assembly away from the circuit board and allow corrosion to form. There was no grease or any protective substance used on them from the factory. I found that a good cleaning and a bit of dielectric grease cleared my problem right up. I spent a while cleaning grounds, and then did a systematic voltage drop trace of the entire voltmeter circuit only to find the biggest drop was across the cluster itself. I knew it was in the voltmeter circuit because the alternator was putting out consistent 14.5 volts. GD