GeneralDisorder

Good vacuum advance is hard. Further I can't gaurantee they will last any time at all. Most are dead or almost so by now. Distributors I can get - good vacuum advances..... no one can get. As I said I can have the vac can's rebuilt - the cost is around $30 or so. Add to that the cost of the distributor, and time to get it, take it to the rebuilder, ship, etc and you are probably looking at $100 or so for one, and maybe $160 for two, $220 for three, etc. If you also want the bushings done it's around another $50 per unit from the rebuilder. But $100 for a rebuilt distributor isn't bad considering the cost from other sources. GD

Maybe - keep bugging me about it and when I can get out to the yards (weather is teh suck right now, and time is at a premium) I can grab up what you need. My parts stash is totally in disorder right now but I do have a couple of manifolds and other misc. parts. I am going to have to sort through stuff. GD

That's a great rig with the Weber. Generally quite reliable, just remember to keep up on the timing belts as they rarely last past 50k. And monitor the cooling system as the stock radiators are pretty pathetic 20 years later. Easily good for 250 to 300k. Perhaps with a taste for 4WD you'll want a REAL rally car.... So get rid of the problematic 1WD, and get into a 300 HP AWD. Try on a gen 1 Legacy turbo if you can find one - the blocks are good to 400 HP or so on stock internals. Quite reliable little things too. Replace your BMW and your Nissan all with one low-priced alternative. When you can find them they are around $2k or $3k in good shape. GD

My plain, carbed 85 sedan had factory CC. And my 84 wagon (EA81) did too. Both were factory 5 speed's. GD

I don't know that I would agree with that. There's still the subject of the paper they are made from, and I'm sure there are different grades of filter paper out there - quality wise I mean. GD

Should be able to, yeah. It just might deisel. Or you can get another solenoid - should be expensive from the JY. Or put on a Weber. GD

Probably not, but there's not enough difference in the price to worry about it. Personally I stick with OEM or Wix/Napa based on my research into oil filters - OEM and Wix are about equal in quality and it stands to reason that their air filters would be as well. GD

Yeah - Bosch has the style connector you need. They aren't expensive for the regular Bosch MicroEdge - like $6 for each blade. Was $18 total for my Legacy for blades all around. And they do work quite well - not crappy like the Trico's... GD

You have to remove the entire handle mechanism. You can't just swap the handle as it's spring loaded and held on with non-trivial clips that you won't be able to access till you have the whole thing out of the tailgate. Pull back the inside panel on the door and you will see it. There's not much to see but getting access to it sucks. GD

Huge PAIN IN THE BUTT. Sorry dude. Those things suck to repair. Last one I messed with I ended up just lubing it up real good (was rusted) even though I had a replacement because I couldn't get the old one out. It's a trade off. It comes down to this: It's a 3 hour operation to change the belts WITH the covers in place, or a 20 minute job without. I've personally run many thousands of miles without issue - just make sure all the splash pans are in place. Will it shorten their life? Not unless something gets stuck IN the belts - I dropped a rag in them once for example. But keeping the covers on means that oil can't get out, and that will break down the rubber on them too. For me personally I would will gladly trade the small potential for failure for the ease of replacement that no covers afford. But it's a hotly debated topic around here, and there is no correct answer - it's a personal preference thing and depends a lot on where you are, and what you are doing with your rig. As to putting them back on - I would move the alternator and compressor out of the way. It's only 4 bolts and makes the job infinitely easier. If the rear covers are not in place you will have to remove the crank pulley to put those back. If you do put them on use zip-ties on the front outer covers as that's the only way to avoid breaking the plastic around the capture nuts the next time you take them off. GD

They can - as with any engine. But it's comparitively rare. Often it's related to some overheat in the vehicles past - mine blew a water pump and was overheated several times around 132k. So I wouldn't be terribly surprised if eventually I have to do the HG's. 8k on new OEM water pump and all front consumables. Perhaps at the next belt change (190k) I'll just do the HG's for good measure..... Well - in and of itself that statement is worthless..... what mileage did they figure the 10% to 15% at? 100k? 120k? 200k? Percentages in this case mean little without that information.... eventually one would expect every engine out there to suffer either HG failure or bottom end failure. but HG's are far, far more common than the latter. The differential rates of expansion between cylinder heads and blocks makes HG's a wear item that WILL eventually fail. Most of the wear on them occurs durring initial warm-up so their lifespan is not so much tied to mileage as it is to number of cold-starts. GD

Ah yes - what a weird car for Maryland. A bit unique due to: 1. First model EVER with SPFI. 85 2WD GL's had MPFI. 2. Every option EXCEPT 4WD?!? Silly IMO, but they made em. Very nice body though, and with a bit of swappage it could be very cool. Sad that it's an auto - probably grandma's car. The sellers are over-generous with extolling it's rareness - stuff like that gets found all the time and doubtless more will turn up in the comming years as the elderly die off. My grandmother has a 93 Buick with 40k that has been started twice a week for the last 3 years but hasn't moved from the garage more than twice in that time - she can't drive due to her eyesight. GD

Indeed - give me a shout when you are in the area. You sound like a studius fellow and that's always welcome around my place. Probably fill your head with more info than you ever wanted about your '90.... GD

Yes, FWD, 4WD Hi, and 4WD Lo. Wire up your clutch switch (used for cruise control) to the old neutral switch harness. This will be enough to fool the ECU - as long as it sees an "in-gear" signal (switch closed, signal wire grounded) it will be satisfied. The clutch switch is close, it will just be "in-gear" when the clutch is released. It doesn't seem to make much difference to the SPFI computer anyway so it's good enough. If you don't have cruise control, just find a car with it in the junk yard, and replace your clutch pedal stop bolt with the switch. GD

Should fit fine. Be a bit less than 9.5:1 or so. Have to be real careful about fueling to avoid knock. GD

Straight swap - easy as can be. Just need the D/R lever linkage, and the plastic bits for the interior. A D/R transmission from an 87+ that had fuel injection would be best as it would have the neutral switch. The computer will be looking for it, but it's not a big deal. GD

I had a horn from a tug-boat (I think) and it was obscenely loud. I lit it off in my neighborhood once.... I repeat ONCE..... yeah I'll never do that again Didn't need a lot of air, but it was the second loudest thing I've ever heard - the first was a claymore mine I lit off about 30 feet from my foxhole. Made those look like baby rattles. It was about 16" long, and about 6" wide at the (chrome) opening. Probably weighed 20 pounds. GD

You are correct - it is a "differential" in the sense that it allows the front and rear to travel at different speeds. I was refering the to fact that it's not a typical open diff or LSD diff and is not designed to allow it to "differentiate" constantly as they are. It's designed more as a limited-use LSD.... if that makes sense. GD

Yeah - that's a similar gasket to the head mating flange. Metal & Cardboard. GD

Sure - I'll check my parts stock tommorow. Also, do you want it rebuilt? I have an excelent rebuilder local to me that can do the bushings and the vacuum advance for around $50 to $75. You can also use the Nippon (2WD) distributor if you change to the ND coil as well. I personally like them better as the cap is rotated about 1/8th of a turn as compared to the Hitachi which makes the fitment with a Weber electric choke easier. They also run a slightly hotter coil than the Hitachi so they will jump a little bit larger spark gap and tend to run a bit smoother in my experience. If you go with the Nippon you can then use the Hitachi drive gear for an SPFI conversion and get the REALLY nice Hitachi FI distributor in there. They have roller pin bearings for the shafts and I've seen them with 250k+ and NO shaft play. Plus they are entirely electronic using an optical pickup that is dead reliable. See my SPFI conversion page: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/EA81_SPFI.html GD

I would have to side with Gary on this one. Several reasons: 1. The EJ22 is the gold standard for all EJ engines. It was the first, and so far it is still the champion for reliability. That is nearly undisputed here, and elsewhere in the Subaru community. 2. We are *only* talking about Subaru's. Dodge Neons are no more applicable than the lunar rover. What is considered "reliable" depends a lot on customer expectaions, and if you have created the expectation (as Subaru has, I would argue, with the EA series, and the EJ22) that the engine should be major-failure free for 300k+, then you can't go and produce something like the EJ25 phase 1 that rarely lasts beyond 120k on head gaskets, and has a higher failure rate of bottom ends and expect people to just accept that. 3. You can't call it a bad run of head gaskets either. First, the failures correspond directly to the introduction of the "open deck" cast blocks used in conjunction with the DOHC heads, and higher cylinder pressures - they really should have used a closed deck design as the EJ22T did - instead they gambled with the customers money. Further, Subaru redesigned the head gaskets 6 times. If that's not an admission of a "problem" then I don't know what is. A simple "bad run" or "poor assembly" would not require a redesign even once, let alone 6 times. 4. The "Design Issue" argument is further born out by the fact that the phase 2 engines continued to have head gasket problems. It took time and lots of money to R&D the problems away. Three generations later and our figers are crossed that the problems are now gone. But it is pretty obvious they existed and took effort to overcome. And to Gary - the EJ22 development was began in 1985, and debuted in 88 an 89 elsewhere in the world. We got them in 90, but they predate the EJ25 by a bit more than 6 years. The EJ25 was a simple "update" to the EJ22 design (or it was supposed to be) where the displacement was increased and the blocks cast with a less expensive method than sand casting. GD

Excellent - glad you fixed it, and good job on the troubleshooting. Don't see enough of successes with this stuff - people just don't seem to have the patience anymore. GD

They used a mesh impregnated, lead "donut" for the y-pipe to mid-pipe flange. They are about $12 or so from the dealer. Make sure that the mating surfaces are clean, straight, smooth and free of rust, and make SURE you use the spring loaded bolts that are stock for this flange. I've run straight pipe on my lifted wagon for years - no problems. GD

Glad to hear you are replacing all that stuff. I got my 94 because some used car dealership didn't replace the water pump when they did the second timing belt at 117k. Best to do as much as you can while it's accesible. And glad to hear you are getting dealership parts. The cost savings aren't worth the hassle of aftermarket. Next time call these guys: http://www.discountimportparts.com/ Their parts are almost exclusively OEM brand or better, and their prices are fantastic. I second the use of Anaerobic sealant for the oil pump. It won't harden and potentially block an oil passage. You just have to be careful about using it. I personally don't like RTV except for a very, very few applications - older engines with poorly designed cork gaskets, etc. I've never used a drop of the stuff on an EJ. GD

I've found these are handy for various vehicles - commonly mounted to the passenger side of the center console. All the Audi and VW guys use them and they mount fairly universally. And best of all - they are VERY good quality as they were OEM parts for 95-96 VW Passat's: http://audiport.com/info/cupholder.htm Here's another one that is very similar, but a bit cheaper: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=126316 http://www.ultimatecupholders.com/fischercupholder.html GD