GeneralDisorder

Frankly those repairs are typical of all vehicles. It's 8 years old and for a turbo that sounds like an excelent repair history. No major mechanical failures, and no problems with the turbo or it's associated multitude or components. I would be very happy if I were you. If you don't like making little repairs such as those, then you should get a new vehicle with a warrantee. Seriously - you'll be dissapointed if you think an 8 year old Subaru is going to be any better. People own Subaru's because of their capabilities, relatively simple design, and reliability. But there are always going to be minor things with any vehicle. If you are looking for a completely 100% reliable vehicle you aren't likely to find it anywhere. There are, of course, going to be folks that chime in here and say they haven't had a single problem, but it's anecdotal. At the end of the day it's a machine - they all break - just be happy if the repairs are minor. GD

DUDE. This thread is two YEARS old. Not relevant anymore. GD

Well - if it goes to inspection and they are inspecting it as if the engine was an SPFI then they won't be looking for it at all as the SPFI never had it. Blocking the ports... The thread is large, and metric. Good luck finding a bolt. What I do is cut the end off the pipe - threaded portion and the flared pipe end itself. Then I weld the threaded plug solid on the backside using an approrpraitely sized washer as filler. Grind it smooth and then screw it in with the flared pipe end to seal it. Paint it to avoid rust to the welds. Looks just like a bolt but has the flare to seal it properly. GD

Nothing. You would have to fab your own. Stainless steel or aluminium is nice for interior. Exterior would have to be fiberglass most likely. But it's up to you to make the stuff if you want it. Some of these things WERE availible either to the Japanese market or even here, but they have long since been discontinued, and are extremely rare and expensive should you locate one (ebay, etc). Neon is universal mostly. Buy a kit and figure it out. There's nothing really for the headlights. You could smoke the tailights with some transparent smoke spray. But no - there's nothing you can just "buy" for any of the lighting. If you want to take apart the gauge cluster you might be able to swap the bulbs inside it for some LED's or even just a different colored bulb. Cruise kits are fairly universal, or you could just get the whole cruise assembly from an older GL or GL-10 and bolt it on. Junk yard or around the wanted forum for parts like that. Steering wheels are an excelent example of what I'm talking about. Momo did once make an adaptor for these cars but it's out of production. Sometimes they come up on ebay. They command a price usually - $50 to $100 for JUST the adaptors for the EA's. The engine is a single point injected, 8 valve 1.8 with poorly designed heads. There's lots you *could* do to it from a custom standpoint, but there's a big wall of performance right around 120 HP that takes HUGE money to get over. If you don't want to be looking for another engine soon, I sugest you leave it be. The EA82 is not suited to high performance modifications. Many have tried, nearly all have failed. The ones that succede rarely get to the performance levels of even a stock EJ22 turbo, and spend enormouse amounts of money getting there. It's just not worth it. GD

Close to the floor AND slippage eh? Being that it engages right at the floor it has run out of adjustment - I would say the disc is probably worn away. The tighter you make the cable, the higher they will engage. But if the cable *was* ultra loose resulting in a very low engagement then there would be as much grip on the pressure plate as possible when the cable goes slack.... thus the pressure plate or the disc are not performing adequately I would say. Buy no worries - Subaru clutches are very easy to do. You don't even have to pull the engine. Just remove the radiator and pull it forward enough to slip the new set in. GD

Yep. At least you used the jacking bolts - most people don't have the sense to know what those holes are for GD

There's nothing low maintenance about drums. They require adjustment, or if they have auto-adjusters they will still eventually require replacement. Which takes 50x longer than replaceing pads in a rear disc. Disc's are lower maintenace by far. When you have to replace a set of drums that are completely frozen from brake dust holding water and causing severe corrosion you'll understand. GD

That info might have been useful to the OP.... several YEARS ago. GD

You try another one because they are a dime a dozen at the junk yard, and rarely fail (but it does happen). GD

90 to 94 Legacy. EJ22 (2.2 liter), AWD 5 speed. Wagon or sedan - doesn't matter. Excelent vehicles, and nearly bulletproof. Brat's are always a good investment as their prices have been on the rise for the past several years. But unless you want to maintain a vehicle that's likely been abused for nearly 30 years.... probably a poor choice. GD

Ok.... 1. The SPFI doesn't use AIS. It was only on carbed EA82's. You should not require it as the SPFI is not setup for it anyway. 2. The type of catalytic converter makes a difference here. The SPFI's cat was a different type than that used on the carbs and does not reuire the additional oxygen. Didn't you say you already added a new cat? 3. I have passed OR emissions with the AIS disabled. I've run the same engine through with it working, and with it disabled. The emissions did go up, but by so small a percentage that it wasn't even worth having it. 4. Most of the flunkies looking for smog "pumps" or AIS type systems are looking for an auxilllery input to the cat. Most have a seperate hose that feeds the O2 into the cat from the smog pump, etc. I have actually had the morons at the testing station mark N/A next to the check-off item pertaining to the air injection system because they didn't understand that the EA81 injects right under the heads. So chances are they will think it never had one anyway - even if you leave it on. The ways of older Subaru's are seldom understood by the layperson. 5. You can leave it in place and block the reed valves at the pipe with a quarter. On the vehicles that I haven't welded the bung's up for the pipe that's what I have done. GD

Mechanical - it's a cable clutch. What proplems are you having specifically? If it's releasing closer and closer to the floor the cable may be stretching and could fail soon. If you install a new one (easy), then you should route the cable UNDER both the steering shaft and the heater core lines. It's a common mistake to route them above and end up with a cable that lasts 100 miles. GD

Well - that's heavier bar than it needs to be... or if that's tubing then it's not nearly heavy enough. All the joints are failure points that will allow it to flex. And the gusseting you did isn't needed as the bar is not weak in the vertical plane. Only the horizontal plane. I'm just saying I wouldn't have done it that way is all. This is what I did (as described above): Others have done it before I did, and the results are awesome. And no - I would not hard mount it. GD

The distributor does not receive any signals. The ECU doesn't send it any. So their statement makes no sense. The distributor is nothing more than a sensor - like the MAF, or the TPS, or any of those. It tells the ECU the location of the crank. It cannot receive anything. The ignition amplifier on the other hand has been known to fail as Skip pointed out. Those do receive a signal from the ECU. GD

But at the end of the day it's still a 75 HP engine. Not worth the effort when the stock ECM is nearly free by comparison. I understand the desire - I was a software engineer. But the effort is mis-directed. Drop the stock stuff on the SPFI system and use the MS for something it can really play with. EJ22T for example. Something that HAS the potential that MS offers. The potential of the EA81 is maybe a few HP. All the work will be for naught when it's really not any fun to tune it. You know how the adage goes - "polish that turd too much and it will melt" If you want to do it, get some EA81T heads, a turbo, and run MPFI. At least that would have some potential with forced induction. Also - without seperate cam and crank signals, or at least code to understand the CAS distributor used by the stock SPFI ECM (which I've considered writing, but again with the effort thing...) the tuning abilities of MS are severely hampered. The CAS distributor has a weird slot pattern that is not understood by MS - at least not as of the last time I looked into it. GD

$500.... wouldn't cover your time. Selling it for $1800 would be a chore given it's age. It's a wagon - not sporty or otherwise desireable. Not an Outback, not particularly good on mileage. Other than a Soob-head who's going to buy it? (right now) I like cars that are good on mileage - lots of folks looking to pickup and older second car that is better on mileage than their excursion or truck or whatever. Corrola's, Civic's, Tercel's.... Maybe an Imp. Outbacks of course are always popular. But a regular wagon won't command much attention in the market. The object is to get it gone as soon as possible. GD

Sound like one of two things. Either you have some igntion timing issues, and what you are experienceing is pre-detonation, or "ping". Usually a problem in hot weather, etc. The SPFI engine is fairly high-compression so that's definately possible. You might try one notch better grade of gasoline. Could be carbon build-up in the cylinders, or just improper timing. Should be se to 20 degrees BTDC with the test mode connectors (green) connected to disable ECU advance. Or..... Typical EA series rod knock. One day you'll be doing 65 and the rod will come out and say hello. Generally it's a softball sized hole under the intake manifold accompanied by large quantities of smoke, oil, and coolant. As well as a dissapointing loss of power.... "Hello.....AAA?.... got a problem here...." And no, I'm not kidding. What you described is boxer rod knock to a disturbing exactness. Only usually heard under load, and that's generally at WOT, and up hills, etc. GD

There's almost no aftermarket for Loyales. What few things can be done to them are mostly hacks or straight using parts from newer Subaru's. What types of things are you looking for? The Loyale was the red-headed little sister to the Legacy. It was renamed the Loyale in 90 when the Legacy became the flagship Subaru model. It's the same as any of the 85 to 89 GL's, which are also known as the Leone series. GL's and Loyale are both members of the Leone chassis series. As such, the Loyale is a stripped down version of the 89 GL wagon. Stripped of the goodies the GL's and GL-10's got so as not to compete with the Legacy lineup. So you have to understand - you are dealing with what amounts to a 23 year old chassis design, and by the time the Loyales came along in 90 to 94 they were entry level, low end vehicles who's days were already numbered. Any aftermarket suppliers knew this and discontinued anything they once made for these many years ago in favor of supporting the newer Legacy chassis. So while it may not seem all that old from it's model year, in actuality it's much older with respect to the aftermarket. Nearly all of the pitiful quantity of aftermarket parts for these that were ever made have been out of production since the early 90's. GD

If it's got spark to the cap, but not to the plugs then you need a cap, rotor, and new plugs/wires AT THE MOST. The distributor itself has nothing to do with the transmission of spark from the coil to the plugs - only in that it turns the rotor and directs spark at the appropriate tower on the cap. GD

Of course there is . You burn the old one's out with a torch and either bake new one's in with urethane, or you find some bushings that are similar and make them work. Last resort would be to redesign the entire bar using something more "off the shelf". Reinforcing the bar is easy - you run a 1" wide x 1/4" thick peice of mild-steel flat bar along the bar - bent to the shape of the bar. Welded in place it makes the bar into a half-I beam, and will be easily stronger than the mounts that hold the bar to the rails. I know because I've had mine supporting the whole rig - slammed it down onto a fallen tree stump once. Didn't flex a mm. GD

Most of them have failed by now. There's a check ball that's held in by a pin - the pins rust through. And the diaphraghms in them are 20 years old as well. GD

Replace the oil pressure sender. If that doesn't cure it, then it's time for a new oil pump and seals, and probably new cam tower o-rings. GD

All 87+ FI, and 86 SPFI distributors are the same. Some have different plugs but they are all 100% interchangable. GD

That makes no sense. The distributor doesn't receive anything - it's an optical crank angle sensor. It tells the ECU what posistion the cam is in. The ECU then sends a signal to the transistorized ignitor, which fires the coil, sending spark through the coil lead, through the distributor cap, through the rotor, and down the proper lead to the proper spark plug. Chances are they have no idea what's wrong with your car if that's the explanation you got from them. GD

Huh - here you only pay the fines. None of this surcharge or court fees. That's pretty silly. Revenue generator I suppose. Here they rarely write the BS tickets like that. I've been pulled over a half a dozen times at least in several vehicles for cracked winsheilds - never have they actually written it. Generally it's just a friendly warning. The GF's '07 OBS has 15% on everything but the windsheild. They have never said anything here in OR or in NV. GD