GeneralDisorder

Ok - lets get some things straight. A lot of what has been posted could be applicable or not depending on the information you give. 1. Do you have a Carb, or Fuel injection? Carbs will have a large, black, kidney bean shaped air cleaner housing on the top of the engine. Fuel injection will have a shop-vac looking hose on the top. Which one do you have? 2. We have already established that you have an O2 sensor. This is VERY important to either of the systems. I'll go into more detail when I know what you have. 3. This whole "bad cat" thing is speculation at best. They rarely fail, and when they do they usually aren't plugged. It's not common so it shouldn't be your first concern. 4. Unless the car is over or under heating, don't touch the thermostat. If it's running ok, that's something you should deal with later. Fix the pressing problems like your mileage issues. Deal with the thermostat when you have those fixed, or if it becomes a problem. We NEED to know more about your vehicle. Pictures of your engine bay would be great. I have a feeling you have a feedback carburetor model by the terrible mileage, disconnected O2, and the model year/transmission type you have. But pics would be best if you are totally clueless from my description. GD

One is for EA81's, and one is for EA82's. You want the "wagon, sedan, or 3-door coupe" version. Not the "Hatchback, Brat" version. Which should be the only listings availible for an 86. But with 260k on it - do you really want to dump any cash into it? That's a butt-load of miles for an 86. Chances are just about everything that is a wear item on that car is totally shot - bearings, bushings, shocks, carb, ect. And the EA82's run for a long time, but 300k is getting close to the limits. There's just not a lot of realistic life left in that chassis is all I'm saying. If you love the car that's one thing - but if not then you really should be looking for something newer and more reliable unless you enjoy wrenching every weekend like me and a few others. Older EA's are not right for most people. Especially not with Gen 1 Legacy's so cheap anymore. GD

That is photo-shop job, and a quick, or poor one at that. It would be VERY difficult to do something like that, and without many thousands of $$ to pay someone who can weld properly, this isn't something you are going to make happen unless you do it yourself. For example - where's the front of the engine going to go? The radiator? How about the fuel tank? Hard lines for tank venting, fuel supply and brakes? Wireing? A "tiny" arc welder is going to be worse than pop-riveting it together. It's a highly skilled welder than can do sheet metal with stick. You need a small MIG with gas or better a MIG/TIG setup with gas, a little instruction, and a LOT of practice. Trust me. It's not just sticking metal together - things change shape and size when they are heated to welding temperature - there's a lot of technique involved in jigging and tacking thing properly so you don't end up with a car that crabwalks down the road. The project you are contemplating is GIGANTIC. You probably won't believe me till you have a pile of peices that you can't put back together again. The uni-body construction makes a job like this very difficult. The whole thing will have to be carefully reinforced to prevent it from just tearing apart. I sugest you go buy the car you want. Building one such as in that fantasy image posted above is ridiculously complicated and annoying. Especially as a first venture into fabrication. If you try this as a learning experience, you'll ultimately have NO car. BTW - an EA82 is worth about $50 in raw scrap steel. I've cut a few up and hauled them off. GD

What makes you think that? I'll lay odds you haven't bled all the air from the system. It's overheating and you don't know why so you assume since the pump is new you must need a radiator right? You need to burp the air from it. GD

You need an EA82 4WD clutch kit. You don't need to worry about spline counts, ect if you order from a decent retailer or the dealer. All the EA82 5 speed 4WD's use the same clutch. The job is easy and requires only basic hand tools and the will to get the job done. Remove the radiator, disconnect the exhaust, engine mounts, and all the other lines/accesories attaching the engine then pull it up and forward into where the radiator was. You don't need a hoist as pulling the engine out, or the tranny out is not neccesary. Adjust the cable first, but it's likely not the cable as they don't usually get tighter on their own. GD

If it's done right, either one will *work*. MPFI is superior. Driveability, economy, off-angle running, maintenance, reliability, self-diagnostics, ect. That's why everyone dumped carbs at the end of the 80's. Once you take a carb to the level's neccesary to compete with even throttle body injection it's far too complex and fragile to be of any use. It just makes more sense to tell the fuel what you want it to do rather than trying to trick the engine vacuum into doing it for you. GD

I don't see a problem with running one for a 350. Especially a Delco unit. The problem one's are the aftermarket units made specifically for Subaru engines. And also cheap aftermarket units that have a high failure rate. Whatever you use, make sure it's for at least as large of a cooling system as you have, and that it's a QUALITY unit. Look it over carefully. I personally run the Subaru OEM thermostats - for several reasons: 1. Built like tanks. 2. Comes with a WAY better gasket. 3. Inexpensive ($13). 4. Unquestionably the right part. 5. I've never had one fail. GD

What's that? The Pollok rim welding method? Cut out the center and weld it to a proper 15" rim if you want to do it right. Still would be a major b1tch to get the center to line up properly. You would need a serious jig to make it not pull all over the place when you welded it. It's far, far easier to just get some toyota or mazda steel rims, punch out two new holes, and fill-weld the two you don't need. No cutting, jigging, or other tom-foolery required. Grind the welds, sand blast, and have them powder coated. No one is the wiser. GD

Yep - that's what I was talking about. Very dangerous to hardcore trail ride them. I suppose if you lived somewhere that didn't get inclimate weather and all you did was drive on pavement they would be ok, but then why own an older Subaru at all if that the case? GD

They aren't actually that skinny - it's the thickness of the metal that's the problem. They are like 5.5" wide. But yes - most tire shops won't touch them. GD

Many have done it - do a search. GD

Wire a 33 Ohm, 5 watt resistor (ceramic, flame-proof) into the solenoid wires and forget about the solenoids. Do that for both the EGR and the Purge solenoid. If you still get the code, wire them directly to the ECU with a 12v fused supply under the dash. Actually it might be good to do that and leave the dead solenoids under the hood for show. When you go to have it tested, warm up the rig then connect the EGR vacuum line. Disconnect it when you have passed. EGR only opens under load, at about 1500 RPM and higher. Purge is uneccesary - it will not affect their tests. GD

Duh! If people only listened more to the advice they came here seeking - posts wouldn't be very long usually. GD

I have a set of those exact same seats in my Hatch - they too came from a coupe. I got them from Rob No vinyl on the covers except the sides that you don't touch. Very choice - on mine the foam is pretty far gone - I would reccomend you consider having new foam put in at least the drivers seat before the metal starts rubbing on the material. It happens to all the EA81 seats on the drivers side unfortunately. That's a nice coupe - some rare bits on it too. But it's not at all unusual to find EA81's in that overall condition here. Just don't see many coupes, and I've never personally seen a set of louvers. Even here those are rare. I have no rust to speak of on any of my 3 EA81's, nor have I ever had one with considerable rust. I have seen a few on the coast that were horribly rotten from the salt air - but they are beach locals. Hope you get to see the pacific ocean before you leave. GD

There is nothing in the crank circuit to speak of. A few wires, starter switch, and the fusible link. It is one of these: 1. Battery. 2. Battery terminals. 3. Ground cable from the negative post to the engine. 4. Positive cable to the starter. 5. Starter switch. 6. Crank circuit wiring. What you have is a problem with the CRANK CIRCUIT. Start with the battery - load test it. Replace the positive and negative terminals and wires on general principle - welding cable works well and is inexpensive. With those replaced and a known good, load tested battery, jumper the positive terminal on the starter to the solenoid spade terminal using a 12 AWG wire. If you have done everything correcty, the engine will turn over. If the starter switch and vehicle wireing are still not making the starter turn, then the switch or harness is not allowing sufficient current to reach the solenoid. Use the existing wireing to run a relay and supply the solenoid with fused, full battery voltage through a 12 AWG from the relay. Troubleshooting this stuff isn't difficult, but you can't do it by shotgunning parts at it or reading tea leaves. Nor can us board members look into some crystal ball and tell you what's wrong with it. Telling us that "you are sure" things are good is frustrating - test what we ask you to, bring us the results, and learn from our knowledge. GD

Buttons didn't become vogue till the late 80's. Basically it started as a marketing ploy towards women. Anything made before that will have a lever, and you might have to get out and lock in the hubs. And a lot of newer stuff still does. I know the last Nissan (pathy) I was in still had a lever and it was an automatic. More exotic, or larger vehicles often had ways of engaging stuff without levers prior to that, but it was done because a lever would be too difficult to operate - many of the 2-1/2 Ton Military trucks for instance had a switch that would air-engage the front wheels after you had shifted it to 4WD. Otherwise only the tandems would have power. GD

Which trim? There's about 3 different styles and it varies according to year. A picture would be most helpful. '85 and later has nothing to do with your 83. GD

The EA81 intake doesn't flow as well as the EA82, and the carb base is different. GD

Extreme vibration is often a result of bad DOJ's. The outer CV's either click, or just explode. They don't cause much vibration. GD

One tight turn in 4 high is usually enough to learn most folks that this practice isn't fun to drive anyway. You would have to be about as smart as a bag of hammers to keep driving it in 4WD after a single attempt to park it in an ordinary lot space.... my point is only that warning him of potential damage is really uneccesary as he's only going to try it once, and a single time is not going to hurt it. If it were we would be seeing tons and tons of old Subaru's for sale with bad 4WD related components. That just isn't happening, thus I say it's a non issue. No need to scare the man - some things are best learned by experience. GD

Not from the dealer. You will have to use an aftermarket unit for anything cooler than the stock 192. I can't fathom why you would want a cooler thermostat though. If you are running hot, it's either a problem with your cooling system, or your guage is reading wrong. Fix it right - don't band-aid it with cooler thermostat's and cause even more problems for yourself. GD

Well - first we need to know what type of transmission you have. Then we can figure out why things don't "spone" or "transfore". Perhaps a lack of vowels? GD

The XT6 clutch will work if you use a Nissan truck TO bearing. It will fit onto the 4 speed TO bearing holder, and will match the XT6 pressure plate fingers. Then you use an EA82 flywheel, and a stock EA81 disc. At least that's what the word is from a couple people that have done it. You are far, far better off going with the 5 speed for all the trouble of the job though. GD