GeneralDisorder

If you want to keep it, you'll have to do the work yourself I would say. You already have a welder that will do the trick. Remember - it's not about the size of the welder - it's how many passes you make, and the prep work you do. You can weld 1/2" plate with a 110 box if you build the joints correctly and make the right passes cleaning as you go. If you don't already have it, get a gas bottle with 70/30 for mild steel. It will allow your little welded better penetration and easily give you the ability to weld the sheet metal of the unibody. For your first welder project, build a small sheet metal break - here's a simple plan: http://www.ch601.org/tools/bendbrake/brakeplans.pdf Invest in a small compressor - it will come in handy for sooooo many things. Air tools are cheap, and make fast work of cutting, grinding, etc. This will also allow you to get a sandblaster setup to take that rust off and really see what you are working with. With a bit of investment, you can up your level of autorepair to a whole new level. We all know you can do it - you just need a push to take the leap. GD

Check for vacuum leaks again too. Something may have come loose on your drive. You should be using just a plain old timing light. Set it to zero if you have one with the dial and shoot for 8 on the flywheel marks. GD

Could still be the ignition switch as well. Sometimes they have a "sweet spot" that if you go past voltage will stop flowing. Also could be ignition related - if you aren't getting spark, then there will be no tach signal, and the FPCU will not power the pump. GD

On auto's the idle should be around 850. You adjust the idle by adjusting the IAC flow control screw. GD

You can't - no one can. You can test the particulate sizes of various filter mediums and take your chances. It's not worth it to me when for very little more I can just go with a BIGGER paper element. The premium on K&N's has you halfway there already in cost. I rebuild stuff every day where I see the effects of particulate abrasion to cylinder walls. It WILL wear out the rings faster, but if that increase in wear is important to you, or to the overall life of the engine is probably questionable. It's really just a matter of being better safe than sorry. Do as you like - it's your money. For me, the potential drawbacks outweigh the gains. Especially when it's avoidable by just going with a known safe option like paper and using one big enough to give the flow I desire. GD

You watch the valves while turning the engine over. You have to know when things are supposed to open, valve overlap, etc. Compression check will tell you right away usually just as it would with an EA82. Valve timing is gear driven - if it's off then you have BIG problems. I have never seen one that was incorrect. The timing marks on the gears are pretty obvious. They are behind the bell-housing. GD

They are quite a bit larger, and custom brackets would need to be made. It could probably be done though. It's not a bolt-on, that's for sure. GD

I would put on new boots as well. They are like $15 each from rockauto.com...... made by spicer IIRC. After spending $150 on the inner tie rods, I wouldn't be wanting any grit getting in there. Otherwise they are simple - just bend back the washer with a screwdriver and spin them off. Take the whole thing off with the end and all. Carefully measure the distance to the ends and make the new one's the same length. GD

I would bet you are going to have an intake gasket leak after doing that. The gaskets get nasty after 20 years. Replace with OEM only, and wire wheel the mating surfaces. 12 ft/lbs is all they require. Otherwise - looks good. You could do a valve adjustment (yes - there's a procedure for the hydro's too). It's not called out on the maintenance, but after 20 years and high mileage I would do it anyway. GD

TDC on #1 with flywheel at 0 (both valves closed). Turn flywheel BACK to 8 BTDC. Insert distributor so rotor is pointing at a plug wire tower on the cap - this will be your #1 plug wire tower. Install plug wires 1-3-2-4 in a counter-clockwise orientation starting at the tower you chose for #1. Verify the timeing with a light. Should be about 8 degrees without vacuum advance at 750 RPM. GD

Process of elimination is the easy way. If it's not the fuseible link, fuse, pump, relay, ignition switch, or wireing, then it's probably the FPCU. Being that you can't easily generate an artificial tach signal on the bench without some electronics knowledge.... they aren't condusive to "testing". Verifying the other components and the wiring will get you there without the need for bench testing. GD

That depends on how they fail. It's very often the brushes that go - they arc and pop and blow the rectifier circuits. Then you are at the mercy of the electrical gods. Maybe it just dies, or maybe it goes over voltage, or maybe it produces a ton of AC voltage and blows stuff up. Without the VR, an alt can easily push 120 volts of AC. Try that with 12v components. The dealership's prices (for Subaru anyway) are often well worth the extra quality. GD

Yeah - sadly the OEM stuff is metric, so you'll not easily be finding spools of it around the US. As G says above - fuel line is the ticket. Generally 1/4" or 5/16". It will take the heat ok as it's designed for mechanical fuel pumps attached to the block. Don't skimp on the clamps or on the sanding cloth to clean up the nipples. Aluminium Oxide "mechanics cloth" is awesome for that type of work. Or a media blast cabinet GD

I get the nice German hose clamps from my local VW speed shop (Discount Import Parts). They have rolled edges so they won't cut into the hose, and their mehcanism is much more rugged and will not go "off track" like the cheapies. Marine supply places are good too - they usually sell a variety of heavy duty stainless hose clamps that are of superior quality. Home Cheapo has some of these too in the plumbing department. And actually, the tiny wire hose clamps originally installed by Subaru are quite good. They are difficult to work with but if you clean up the threads and are careful about how you install them they actually can put down some serious clamping force without causing damage to the hose. They will start to distort if you get them too tight which is not a problem for the German one's I use. You can't easily make them tight enough to break. I need to find a bulk supplier of them so I can stock up my garage. GD

At the cost of filtering ability. For a given suface area, the flow is proportional to the particulate size of the filter medium. Sure K&N filters flow better - but they filter worse. That causes all number of problems ultimately shortening the life of many components dowstream of the filter. There's a reason manufacturers choose paper elements over oiled cloth. The reason is particulate filtration sizes. Paper can be produced with much more accuracy and consistency than the oiled cloth mesh, is more durrable, requires less maintanance (you throw them away), and is less expensive. It also has no chemical effects on any potentially sensitive electronics as the oil can when it gets sucked out of the filter (which it most certainly will as oil vapor). Personally I would rather just use a larger paper element if I need better flow. GD

+1 for the NGK wires. Gauranteed for life too (so I'm told by my local dealer) so even though you may have to replace them as long as you keep the receipt you still only have to buy one set. They are numbered for easy identification and installation and they are exact fit for each make/model, not universal as some other brands. The terminals are stainless steel too. Best of all, they are inexpensive. http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/products/cars_trucks_suvs/wiresets.asp?nav=11600&country=US GD

You can't test an O2 sensor with a DVM (unless you have one of those Fluke portable O-Scope ones ). The CTS is really just an RTD (resistive temperature device - probably a thermistor), and will give a resistance based on the temp it sees. As long as it changes from low resistance to high resistance as the engine warms up, it's likely ok. I also vote for valve timing. It's very easy to accidentally get the cam sprockets off by a tooth. GD

What exactly are you trying to clamp? Vacuum is messy thing to work with. Remember you are not trying to keep vacuum in, you are trying to keep the atmosphere OUT. Any place you have a leak, atmosphere is leaking INTO the system. You can trace those leaks using carb cleaner, brake cleaner, or other evaporating, flammable, aerosol product. Spray around and when the engine changes pitch you will have found a leak. Shaking at idle could be many things. Bad valve timing, faulty ignition components, poor idle mixture settings.... etc. Vacuum leaks may have nothing to do with it. Start at the beginning. Put a vacuum gauge on the manifold and see what the needle does (both it's motions, and it's readings are important). Pull each plug wire one at a time and check that each cylinder is firing - it will run worse when you pull a wire for a cylinder that is working. If you replaced any of the vacuum hoses, make sure you chop the old ones into 1/4" pieces to verify that you didn't miss any "orifice" plugs. GD

Not easily. You need silver solder IIRC, and special flux to solder Nichrome resistance wiere. Plus the old stuff is brittle. You can buy new Nichrome wire, wrap it around a pencil, and then using the special flux and silver solder you could make your own new windings. A bead of RTV across the top should keep the coils from shorting and withstand the heat assuming the blower motor keeps cooling them. GD

Maybe. But most of your scavenging comes from the headers (y-pipe) itself. It's usually not a problem to go with larger pipe or no pipe after the first cat. At least it's never really affected any of the one's I've run that way. Perhaps your y-pipe is leaky. Do you get backfireing at times? That's indicative of a working AIS and a leaky y-pipe. Too much fresh oxygen combines with unburnt fuel and often ignites in the muffler. GD

To my knowledge Subaru never used that style cat with the air injection tube running into the side of it. That was mostly used on cars equipped with smog pumps. Subaru's system was to inject air into ports built into the heads right above the exhaust flange (on EA82's). I would say you have someone's attempt at plumbing in an aftermarket 2nd cat to pass some inspection when they found it expensive and difficult to replace the built-in cat contained in the y-pipe. Their solution (a valid one) was to add a second "universal" cat. They just used one that had the AIS port and figured a way to hook it in I suppose. Sounds ghetto - I would yank it out if it were me. Chances are good that if it wasn't done right it could cause more problems than it's worth. GD

Paper filters better and doesn't harm MAF's. The stock filter is larger than the engine needs by quite a bit, so there is nothing to gain but a lighter pocket-book. GD

The coolant line in question is 1/4". It's there only to heat the bottom of the carb for emissions puposes. Warm air mixes more readily with fuel and so more vapor is formed, and fewer droplets go unburned. This reduces tailpipe emissions GREATLY in a carb. That line has a device in it that can regulate coolant flow to the bottom of the carb base - it's a bolt looking "T" shaped business. This allows pressure directly off the water pump's heater core bypass to circulate coolant through the manifold. You can block it if you wish, but realize that your emissions will increase as more unburned fuel will escape out the tailpipe. It will also affect your mileage to a degree. It also heats the carb to prevent iceing. Although that is only a problem in cold climates. Subaru generally knew what they were doing with this stuff - you would be wise to leave as much of the stock equipment working as possible with the Weber. GD

Depends on the carb. Hitachi feedbacks ARE closed loop systems - all of them. The non-feedbacks are simply carbs - there's no feedback loop at all - closed or otherwise. Hhhhmmm - well I wouldn't have done it that way. At least not without some serious analysis of the function of all those items, and a wideband to tune it with. But if it works for you - great. The time investment of tuneing a carb by seat-of-the-pants is far too great for anything less than a track only car IMO. The vac can's can be rebuilt for about $25. There's nothing wrong with carbs. The only thing really "wrong" with them at this point is they are all old and worn out, and the rebuild parts availible are of poor quality and come in highly generic "kits" that often do more harm than good. They are also very complicated for the home mechanic to work on and they contain a lot of miniturized mechanical parts that are sometimes difficult to put back the way they came out. The SPFI is not without it's issues - for an FI system it is primitive. It has very little self-diagnostic abilities, and unless a full understanding of it's systems and theory of operation is grasped, it can be difficult to adapt. The wireing is also a pretty large project for most people. GD

Again - use the search. I've covered it before and I'm not willing to cover it again.... so unless you get ahold of one of the other half-dozen or so folks that have actually done this swap I sugest you learn to use the search. GD