GeneralDisorder

Sounds like once the ECU enters closed loop operation it's not getting proper information from the sensors. Coolant temp, and O2 sensors come to mind. Both can fail in ways that will result in the symptoms such as you describe. GD

Speaking only of EA81's, as I haven't messed with the EA82 versions.... There is a warning tone in the dash. I assume it's there to warn of over-voltage. They usually die from some form of alternator malady. In my case it was over-voltage. The dash complained with it's warning tone (a feeble noise really), and promptly gave up. It took maybe 30 seconds. Not enough time for me to figure out what was wrong, and by the time I realized that the dash was even the source of the noise - it was too late. Not to mention the dash has no voltage gauge Since they are electroluminescent I believe they require a large voltage so there's a power supply that steps the voltage up inside the cluster. The voltage range of this type of use is in the 200 to 250 volts range IIRC , so the transformer is like 1:15 or so (a guess). It wouldn't take much of a rise in the alternator output to be quite a large increase in the transformer output. Just a few volts and soon you are 50 to 75 volts overdriving the regulator for the EL panels.... I have the sense that the voltage regulator can't cope with a poor supply voltage from the alternator, and when those climb much past it's ability to regulate it blows. There's probably collateral damage inside them. Sadly the one I blew up I tore apart and cut the connectors from the PCB to make a conversion harness for an analog cluster. Actually worked nicely, but the dash is no more I'm afraid. If I pick up another one I'll let you know. I do sometimes run across them at the yards. A lot more EA82 units than EA81's anymore. But I hear the reliability of the EA82 units is better also. Perhaps a detailed comparison of the workings of the two would show the changes made to the power supplies, and may even give a clue as to how those changes might be further improved upon. GD

Just push down on the 4WD lever. HARD. If it won't come out of 4WD, then drive in a straight line till it will. One notch up is 4WD High, and two is 4WD Low. There is actually an "in-between" setting where neither are engaged. It will put the tranmission effectively in neutral so if you have no power in first gear, then the 4WD selector may be between High and Low. GD

Then you haven't searched enough, or properly. Look harder. This has been covered every week since the inception of this board. There's at least 50 to 100 threads on it, and at least a dozen GOOD threads on it. No busting your balls, but searching will yeild more information than I can post here for you. No - because the possibilities are so varied. There's any number of reasons they will tick. Ultimately it's because they either aren't getting enough oil pressure, or because the oil is "aerated" with bubbles. You really need to do the homework with some searches because if you run them that way for long they won't stop ticking even when you fix the cause. GD

I would say your engine is original. The tag is probably just the distributor (for which bushing failure isn't uncommon), and the reason it was pulled was for the clutch - that's common as well. It's a lot easier than the tranny. The chances of the engine having just the right serial number to be correct for your year is almost non-existant. And JDM engines have the same color for the valve covers.... black was never used on any of them. Likely they were painted due to rust when the (cork) valve cover gasket inevitably started leaking, or when the last valve adjust was done (required every 15,000 on solid lifters). GD

Double Post. Again.... GD

Welcome! And a fine first thread it is too... Never in black. They were certainly painted. According to that number it looks like your engine is original. That would put it at the later part of 1984 production. Well - I think you may have run into the culprit right there. Your car probably was originally equipped with the Carter/Weber single barrel. Most people don't like them, and worse the parts for them are difficult to find. They had an almost unstoppable tendancy for the bolts holding them to the manifold to work loose and fall out. Worse than that those bolts were put in from UNDER the manifold and you basically had to remove the manifold to get the carb off, or to fix those pesky critters.... Anyway I digress - most likely someone repaced it with the Hitachi and it's associated manifold (they are different). So there's really no telling what your's came from although I can tell you that it's probably an 82 or 83 carb from the numbers off it. 84 would have been a DCP-306-25 or something. Might even be earlier than that. BUT the good news is that almost any Hitachi will work. Most have very similar connections and all of them (except the EA82 versions) will bolt right on. Although you would have an easier time, and a lot more fun with the car if you put on a Weber DGV series. You can get a kit with the proper manifold adaptor for the Hitachi manifold for around $350 or so with a brand new carb. They run infinitely better, and with the progressive linkage they have a lot better throttle response, and the larger barrels give more low end grunt. If you want the ultimate mileage machine, then you could swap over to the EA82 throttle body fuel injection. You can see my write up here: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/EA81_SPFI.html GD

Do a search for "Tick of Death" or TOD. Will it stop? Yes most certainly...... eventually it will be made into soda cans. GD

Double Post.

Crappy rubber and/or cheap/non-existant hose clamp. If you cut some grooves in the metal peice, and make sure the interface is clean and free of oily substances it should work fine. There just needs to be a lot of friction there. You may have to replace the rubber - they get hard after years of hot turbo intake air. GD

The cost is close to what a new radiator cost. Radiator/cooler service is for larger, more expensive, or more exotic coolers. GD

Sorry - Gloyale is right. Electric fan works with the coolant thermo-sensor. Mechanical fan is for the AC. I get mixed up sometimes with the EA82's - Subaru changed a lot of stuff from the EA81's.... found out it didn't work and changed it back on the EJ's. Go figure You could change over to double electric fans - that's what the EA81's and the EJ's have. Mechanical fans are a pain. GD

Yes - your 89 is *really* an 84 for all intents and purposes. Nothing changed between 84 and 89 with the EA81 series. It's not that the dealer is "discontinueing" anything. It's that the parts warehouses just don't have them and they aren't going to make more. The car has exceeded it's lifetime as far as the dealer is concerned and there's no profit in makeing those parts again. Once they run out, that's it. Your best bet for a lot of the non mechanical stuff is to hit the junk yards and start collecting all the parts you can find. Again - 1980 to 1984 vehicles are the parts that will interchange for you. 85 to 87 they still made Brat's and Hatchbacks, then only the Hatch in 88/89. You can also ask on the board here. There's lots of us out on the west coast with access to a LOT more parts than the east coast has. My parts collection is huge, and doesn't seem to be decreaseing..... GD

Usually I don't.... saves the aluminium block threads from wear..... You can if you wish. Just double-nut them and they will come right out. A razor blade and a 3M pad with brake cleaner will clean the surfaces up good. Yes, but most people don't. Add a few extra pounds. Instead of 47 (or is it 57??), go with 55 ft/lbs (or was it 65??) as your final torque. Just make sure the threads are chased in the nuts (and rocker bolts) and that the studs have been wire wheeled and properly oiled for torqueing. Niether required or reccomended. This is the route I personally go as these gaskets are VERY tough. I love every set I've used. GD

I HAVE been to Tahoe.... and Reno, Seattle, Portland, etc, etc. Hell I was in Tahoe last weekend. You DO NOT have more Subaru's than OR and WA. Sorry. In fact I noticed a distinct lack of them according to the "Portland, OR" calibration of my finely tuned Subaru radar. Not that they didn't exist, but I only saw a measly one or two EA81's, and a handful of EA82's. More legacy's and outbacks but not every third car as it is here. Lots of SUV's and a disturbing number of vehicles that were obviously not locals due to their "2WDness" Seattle and Portland are probably the two Subaru "mecca's". Both have way too many to even try and compare the two. I do tend to see more EA series in Seattle when I'm up there, but it's really a toss up and depends on what neighborhood you are in, and other factors. Both have Subaru only shops, and both have tons and tons of Subaru's in the yards. I have 6 yards I hit - all of them have regularly have DOZENS of EA82's alone. Usually a handful of EA81's and a couple handfuls of EJ's. That's at EACH yard. It's hard to describe it to people that have never been here. They are so plentiful that they keep following me home. I've got 6 at once now and counting.... GD

AC only. GD

Stock Weber jetting for street engines... 140/140 mains 160/170 air bleeds 50 or 55 idle jet(s) GD

Increasing the diameter of the supplys will decrease the pressure. It's very touchy actually as the decrease is not linear with respect to galley diameter. You will rapidly approach the point where no stock or modified pump will be able to supply it sufficiently. Deleting the HLA's is all well and good, but they are not the only consumer's of oil pressure. The conn. rod bearings and the crank mains also require pressure to overcome the force of combustion forcing them downward. Too little pressure and the oil film will collapse and you will have very short lived rod bearings. To a lesser extent the mains will also suffer. Anything much below 15 psi hot is to be avoided. And that's at the extreme low end. Personally I would want to see 20 or more. GD

There really is no such thing as "power steering fluid" It's hydraulic fluid, or in the automotive world it's "Automatic transmission fluid". Subaru's used Dexron ATF for power steering. It will say that on the cap. Whining indicates the pump is cavitating - you have air in your system either because the fluid is low, or there is a leak in the hydrualic lines or seals (which usually means the fluid is low ) GD

For me - 3 hours - open hood to close hood. I remove the radiator - might as well seeing you have to drain the coolant for the WP anyway. For you - probably more like 4 or 5 hours having never done it before. Realistically I always take about 25% to 50% longer the first time, and about 10% to 25% longer the second time. After I've done a job twice it usually continues to get faster by a bit till I reach some kind of equalibrium around the 10th or 20th time. That's what I've come up with numbers wise wrenching everyday... Sorry to say this just won't work. The cams are under tension from the valves, and will not hold a solid position once the belts are removed. They WILL move and there's really nothing you can do about it short of making a special tool to keep them stationary at whatever point they happen to be at. The cams are under a LOT of tension. They will "jump" as you turn them when the valves force cam lobes to spin. So much tension you will probably injure yourself if you try to move them by hand. I use a 3/8" breaker bar with a 10mm on the cam sprocket bolts to turn them where I want them. Just put one straight up, and one straight down and throw the belts on (with the center valve timing mark aligned on the flywheel). Then put the #1 cylinder at TDC compression then back off to 20 BTDC on the flywheel marks. Point the disty at the #1 plug tower. Should fire right up and require only minimal adjustment (if any) if you do it that way. GD

I missed the part about the stop-leak stuff initially..... I tried it ONCE.... worthless. And I had to replace the heater core for my effort. It can and does clog everything in sight so you may need to replace the radiator at this point. $150 is a bit high - check ebay. Frankly unless you have a turbo I don't feel there is a need for the dual core's. It's nice but if money is an issue then a stock replacement should get you going again. GD

The N/A heads rarely crack. If you are careful, and patient, you won't overheat it at all. It's a procedure, and you can stop at any time if you find it is not working (IE: temp gauge too high). He lives in CA - his radiator is almost certainly still good. While a dual core is nice, it's most likely uneccesary for him. At any rate there's no point in wanton replacement of parts without first eliminating possible air in the system. GD

Yeah - it seems to be mostly an EA82 problem. With the EJ22 they realized what a pain this is and added an "air release" plug that you remove while filling the radiator. It's on the opposite end of the radiator over the top of the upper hose. You can accomplish this with the EA82 by slightly pulling off the upper hose where it connects to the radiator and allowing air bubbles to escape while you are filling it. Makes a mess of course, but if you have about 4 hands you can do it without much trouble. GD

Dieseling is normal when the Weber is installed by people that have no idea what they are doing. On stock engines, there really should be no need for an anti-deiseling solenoid. Mostly those are useful for race engines that have mixture settings designed for WOT most of the time. Idle mixture, idle speed, and timing are the key components. If these three are correct, there will not be any deiseling. Bogging in second sounds like the carb is having a hard time transitioning from the idle circuit to the main circuit. Possibly the accelerator pump, or a vacuum leak near the throttle shafts or carb base. Could be a lot of things really. If you want to sort it out, you'll just have to learn about Weber's and probably end up redoing the install if not tearing the carb down and putting it back together *correctly*. GD

Replace the thermostat with an OEM on general principle. They are about $12 from the dealer, so don't cheap out on any aftermarket products. They aren't the same. Then get the air out of your system. It's the air bubble's that are causing your problem. You need to "burp" the system. It takes time and patience to do it right. Massage the radiator hoses while filling the system with the car slightly uphill. There needs to be NO air in the system for it to perform correctly. GD