GeneralDisorder

They do actually. If it's a feedback carb, the duty solenoids can make it not run at all in some circumstances. My 84 would die when warm till I replaced the O2 sensor. But it would restart and run if you gave it throttle. But know that you *could* have a computer. Some did. Being that you looked under the dash, you almost certainly do not. But it's more likely to be the coil or the ignition module. Start with the coil. Check it with a DMM, and then check it again after the car dies. GD

I agree that's not a bad price - but remember you are going to *most likely* be buying a jetting kit, the manifold adaptor, and quite a bit of your time to install and tune such a beast. With basically no help from the board - there's plenty of us that have experience with the DGV, but because of the unkowns that I menioned previously there won't be any good guidelines around here that you can rely on as to jetting sizes, etc. It could take a lot of tinkering. Even at $80 shipped you are looking at another $120 in the manifold adaptor, the jetting kit, and an electric choke module. For $200 you could get everything you need at a junk yard to install SPFI.... about the same number of hours you'll likely spend tinkering with that 5200 to make it run properly. So where do you want to put your money? GD

That should work just fine. Get the more expensive exposed tip-junction TC for it as it won't leak air. The cheap ones are not air/water-tight and are only good for surface temp measurements like cylinder head temp, etc. I'm currently useing a cheap one on the exhaust of the Hatch, but I don't really care if it leaks a bit. You'll use the alarm contacts in the unit to power another relay for the sprayer - it can't switch enough amps for a sprayer pump I wouldn't think. GD

As I said there are many variations. Some years were external, some were not. Likely one of the "vacuum ports" you blocked off is a vent line. That's the problem - they don't know exactly. Sure - Mavrick, Pinto, Vega - that's as good a guess as any. But which one? And what year? It matters I assure you. They were common on many, many Ford 4 cylinders of many sizes for a number of years. I've ran all of the above, and the SPFI is easily as good with a stock EA81. The DGV could potentially support more mods, but so could the SPFI with proper fuel pressure and management. It's about what you want, and what you need. If you value excelent off-angle running, then the SPFI is worth the work. GD

The Holley/Weber 5200 is a copy of the Weber 32/36 DFV. It's not a look-alike anything - it's a straight licensed copy of it with some changes made for the US market, and engine sizes. The Weber most of us use is the Weber 32/36 DGV. It's mostly a mirror image, but the air horns are different as well. Jetting *can* be the same. But not all 5200's are the same - depending on the engine they came from they could have smaller venturi's than a standard DVF or DGV - yeilding less torque. The problem is that no one who's selling them understands any of the differences so this information is never listed - buying 5200's site-unseen is a crapshoot at best. It's a cheap alternative if you don't mind the differences, but it is NOT a look-alike, nor is it as simple as the DGV - it has US market emissions ports that need to be understood, and properly routed. The DGV has an internal float chamber vent, while the 5200 routes through a vent solenoid that needs ignition power, and proper hose routing (ideally through a charcoal canister) ect... GD

Not much really. Struts and perhaps the knuckles in the front - *if* you do a 5 lug. Rear is different. That's a great engine for a swap though - the 96 and up 2.2's have 142 HP instead of 130 due to design refinements. But swapping that OBS to a manual would be better, cheaper, faster, nicer, and more reliable. Your call, but the EA82T will nickle and dime you to death if you keep running it for rallyx. Not to mention you will lose to everyone including people with stock EA81 powered Brat's. The EA82 wagon body is a heavy beast for the power it puts down. Unruly suspension too. I've never seen an EA82T powered wagon that could compete even a little bit in rally-x. You'll learn. GD

Hhhmmm - well that makes things a bit more salty doesn't it? Well.... I would appreciate anyone who could assist with pictures of different styles of heads. Obviously I will have a real hard time accomplishing this myself. GD

I'm going to go against the grain and say do it yourself. My reasons.... you may dissagree: 1. You'll save a couple bucks. You'll save time waiting on the service people, and you'll save gas driving there. Buy your filters in bulk from the dealer, or WIX filters from Napa ect. Buy Chevron oil from Costco (I'll address my brand choice in a minute). This reduces your time and gas spent aquireing the materials, and having the stuff on hand saves time when the job comes around. Disposing of the oil isn't really that big of a deal if you use a drain pan with a pour spout and save your milk jugs. 2. You'll be more familair with your car. You'll notice the oil consumption (or lack of), you'll notice leaks developing, and you'll see things like torn axle boots, and other impending failure items. 3. The dealer has no intrest in you OLD car (this is the old gen forum). They lose money on this proposition, and would much rather make a sale of a new car. They can, and will point out every little problem they can find, and I wouldn't put it past them to create a few themselves. Not all dealers or lube tech's would do this of course, but you always run the risk. No one cares for your car as much as YOU do. I use Chevron oil. Standard Oil owns most of the patents, and manufactures most of the equipment used to produce modern oil - including the synthetics on the market. A long (I mean REALLY long) discussion a few years back (EZBoard days) incuded very useful input from a board member that had a lot of intimate knowledge of the oil industry. He sugested the Chevron oil as being of very high quality for a regular dino oil - almost as high as some of the synthetics on the market. I used to use Castrol, but after they tried to trick everyone with their used of synthetic labeling on super refined dino oil (IE: NOT synthetic), I can't in good concience support their brand. GD

I haven't had luck with filing the cone washers - the problem with that is you will have a hard time making sure it stays round, and evenly sloped without a lathe. For the price of new ones.... if you need it NOW, by all means either pick up a used one or file it carefully if you have to, but order NEW ones and replace it before it becomes a problem again. If it were me, I would replace the hub with a used one, as well as the cone washer. The splines inside the hub wear, and the movement of the hub on the axle splines is what causes the cone washer to wear in the first place. These are NOT wear items. If properly cared for and torqued each time they should easily last the life of the car and then some. GD

That depends on the pump. SPFI pumps are less pressure than Turbo pumps or MPFI pumps. They aren't all the same, although many will *work* in a pinch due to all of them putting out more pressure than the system requires - the SPFI pump puts out 50 psi, but only 21 psi is required by the SPFI pressure regulator. It's not a good idea to just throw things in that *might* work. Better to find the applicable specs and at least make an educated guess at it. Take Jerry's offer - he's a good guy and will make sure you get what you need. You're lucky he saw this and has one for you. GD

Not so much actually - FI pumps are 50 psi. Carbed pumps are 2.5 - 3 psi. Not only that, but you might start a fire as the carb pump wiring may not do the job for the FI pump. If you are really hard-up, then an EA82 carb pump will work. Anything besides direct replacement will require changes in the mounting to make it fit. Possibly differences in hose sizes too. I wouldn't touch anything from the 70's. It would work, but a pump that old is asking for trouble. They are under the hood if you are wondering. GD

Carter 6050 is what you want. They are excelent pumps. There is no reason to use the stock pump. It's just a pump - anything that matches the volume and pressure required by your carburetor of choice will work just fine. Modify the mounting to accept a normal centrifugal pump. Here's the Carter at summitracing: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=CRT%2DP60504&N=700+300309+4294836965+4294891680+4294907499+4294899824+4294907273+115&autoview=sku GD

Sadly, that's indicative of the feedback carbs. Something is on the fritz, but the computer doesn't know what. That's not a good sign. Personally I would AT LEAST pull that sucker off and install a non-feedback version. Vapor lock doesn't occur on vehicles with electric fuel pumps. Peices of something in the carb don't just up and dissapear. Stuff can get in the carb - I've even seen it happen. But if that's the problem, then it's going to come back. GD

For the reccord, I have yet to see a bad accelerator pump on these Hitachi carbs. They have their problems, but that doesn't seem to be one of them. It's possible though - look down the throat and you should see fuel squirt into the primary barrel if you actuate the throttle linkage by hand. Hold the choke plate open if you need to in order to see. GD

You can't find all vacuum leaks with carb cleaner. That will only find the most obvious ones. Your problem is related to the transision between the idle circuit and the main circuit it sounds like. This is either a poorly adjusted idle mixture, clogged transition ports, clogged main circuit/air bleeds, or vacuum leaks. Or a combination of those. Start disabling vacuum supply lines like those that actuate the EGR and the choke pull-off systems. It could be a leaky hose, but it could also be a leaky vacuum device. I noticed a big improvement in disabling both the vacuum choke pull-off and the thermo-vacuum valve that supplies the air to the vacuum valves for the air mixture metering ports. You don' need either - just route vacuum to the metering port vacuum valve irregardless of the state of the thermo-valve. Or you could eliminate the vacuum valve entirely and just run the metering ports open to filtered air - make sure you T them together and run them to the air cleaner though or you run the risk of something being sucked into the carb. GD

It's gear oil - 75w90 will do. Although many of us prefer Redline, or one of the various other cocktails that are common. Do a search on nasioc for Scotty's Cocktail - I run it in all of mine. GD

I cleaned the seals of all mold and such (glass to), and adjusted the latches so they put a bit more pressure on the glass when closed. That seems to have worked for mine. Both the latches were broken when I got it, and the windows were ajar for several years. Even so - the seals seemed alright. GD

It's not just the bearings - it's the front differential gear backlash that is set by those adjustment rings. If one side seems loose, you cannot just adjust the one side. You have to adjust both sides - they move the gears, and they set the bearing load. If you move one side, you'll cause the gears to mesh poorly - the contact patch will be reduced and this causes excessive heat, wear, and eventual failure. You NEVER touch the backlash adjusters. If the bearings fail behind the adjusters then you need a new transmission or it needs to be rebuilt. At the very least the bearings must be replaced, and the backlash reset. The procedure requires splitting the transmission though. GD

Hhhmmm - yeah that's a good point. I'll see what I can do. GD

For all of you wondering how to tell apart the different EA81 heads without pulling them off and measureing the valves - I've taken pictures of a few from my collection to illustrate the differences. For all these pictures, the large valve is on the left, and the small valve is on the right. First - a shot of the valves. The intake valves on the small valve head (the outer valves on both heads) are 2mm smaller in diameter: At the bottom of the heads you can see that the large valve head has no holes for the two extra 10mm bolts that the small valve head has. In the picture below you can see that these are very obvious when you are looking at the head from the bottom: Now - another popular misconception surrounds the shape of the valve covers. Here is a shot of the valve side of the heads, along with an EA71 head to show that the valve covers for ALL EA81 heads are the same. The EA71 valve covers are rounded on both bottom corners, and the EA81 valve covers are less rounded on the left corner, and angled on the other: In the above picture you will notice that the size/shape of the cross peice in front of the plugs (between the top stud locations) is different. This is NOT an indicator of head type or valve size. I have seen many different sizes of this portion of the casting regardless of valve size or year. I beleive this is related to the actual casting process as it seems to differ on every set of heads. The ends of the heads are also slightly different in their castings, but this is difficult to rely on as these things changed based on what accesories were availible for that engine: Hope this clears up some of the confusion on the subject. GD

All turbo's were 25 spline axle. Regardless of tranmission type. Even the push-button and 3AT's. And being it's a "turbo-traction", not an RX - it's probably NOT a 1.2:1 transmission. But it's impossible to tell without testing the tranny. GD

There was, about two weeks ago, an EA81 digi-dash at my local yard (likely still there). I have a 12v jump-box. If you can figure out where I need to power it up at, I could give it a shot. I really haven't much use for the thing myself, but I'll pull it, and it's harness and test it for the cause if you like. Do you want it if it's good? Bad? Just a thought. GD

Poop's decals are exclent - I have some myself, and I've seen some of their other work. Cool stuff. GD

Well - if you want, you could rotate the cam gear by hand till each cylinder's set of valves is closed. That would allow you to check compression on that cylinder using the normal method of cranking with a pressure gauge in the plug hole. Do it with all the other plugs removed, and with BOTH timing belts removed so that all cylinders are tested the same. Readings will be high as the exhaust valves won't be opening. But it should still indicate a head gasket or valve faiure by comparing each cylinder to all the others. Ideally you don't want more tha 10 to 15% difference in any of them. That would at least give you an idea of the condition of the head gaskets. No guarantees, but if you show substantially less in one cylinder or on one whole bank then you can rest a lot easier with a decision to give up on the thing. Also - since you are leaving the covers off - water pump replacement is much easier. You could forgo that job if you are confident in the pump once you get in there to look at it. They aren't expensive though. GD

It was used for the EA81T's as well, but this discussion wasn't really about that so I didn't mention it. Also the EA81T didn't come in a sedan - Brat's, Coupe's, and Wagon's only. No hatch's and no sedan's. GD