GeneralDisorder

Generally with good lifters and everything sealed as it should be it won't tick for more than 10 seconds on first startup. I've had my 86 completely torn down for head gaskets and it didn't tick at all. I primed the oiling system by cranking it with no plugs till the oil pressure gauge registered then started it. It never ticked before or after the reseal. GD

Well - you do have a lifted rig, and that may be putting stress on the boot? I haven't had that problem with my lifted wagon. Could just be there was too much grease on the boot when it was installed. Replace the clamp with a stainless steel hose clamp. GD

Hitachi and Carter/Weber use different throttle cables. As for the rest of the stuff - you don't need most of it. In the first picture the two ports on the front of the carb where you have them connected - those are the EGR and Distributor advance ports. The EGR will be the higher of the two. You don't need the hard lines - just run new vacuum line instead. The hard lines are confusing and branch in weird ways to accomidate thermo-vacuum valves and such..... trust me just use new vacuum lines and simplify the hookup. Do some searches as I've covered hooking these things up before, but it's been so long since I messed with one that it would be better if you searched for my old posts on it. I got sick of the antics of the Hitachi's and tossed my entire collection in a dumpster one day. I only run Weber's and SPFI now, and I'm in the process of getting rid of the Weber's too. GD

No GD

You may have an aftermarket unit already. The transmission cooler lines are often incorrectly angled on aftermarket radiators. Never has anyone on this board (to my knowledge) found more than one model of radiator used in EA81's. Even the Turbo's used the same radiator. A "2WD Auto with AC" makes no difference to the equation. The car rolled from the factory "equipped for installation of optional AC" - it will say so on the dash as every other EA81 does.... They wouldn't use a seperate radiator because it would needlessly add to the cost of the AC kit. And I've seen the AC kits - they don't come with one. My conclusion is that your radiator was replaced at some point with a poorly fitting aftermarket unit. Thus the problem with your cooler lines. GD

Yep - figure about $750 to $1000 in parts and machine work. That's assuming you do the labor of the rebuild yourself. GD

Yeah - if the rod truely is broken, then the engine is completely shot. It cannot be repaired once damage to that extent takes place. That said, I highely doubt the rod is broken. In every single case I've seen of a rod bearing failure, the rod EXITS the block. As in punches a hole in it. Likely it's something else that's making a horrible noise, and the owner was told that a rod has failed - meaning of course that the bearing is going out but hasn't broken yet. Otherwise it wouldn't start. The rod would almost certainly jam the engine and prevent it from turning over. GD

Could easily be a timing belt tensioner or something equally simple. Not likely that it's a rod knock. Kid obviously didn't take it apart because it's still runnning. Buy it - $500 is a good deal even if it needs an engine. Can pick up NA EJ22's for dirt these days. GD

SPFI pistons are 9.5:1 without any decking at all. With decking.... probably over 10:1 GD

You may have pinched the seal or didn't get it torqued just right. I would try sealing it with some anaerobic sealant..... You DIDN'T use any other sealants besides the paper gasket and o-rings right?!?! GD

The radiators were not replaced for dealer installed AC. It's the same radiator as the non-AC models (which it was before the kit was installed by some dealership). The cooler lines may have been extended as part of the kit but not the radiator itself. A plain old EA81 radiator (pay no attention to the measurements) will fit any model of EA81. GD

I guarantee you don't have a "freak" radiator. There may be differences in how they are measured, but measurements are not important for the purposes of an EA81. ALL (and yes, I know it for a fact) EA81's use the same radiator. They changed from a large cap to a small one in 83 but it doesn't matter - either one will fit in either core support. All EA81's have a three groove crank pulley for optional AC and Power steering. These cars are quite predictable and I do know exactly what you have. I gaurantee my information is more accurate than any parts store or system on this. I know more than the dealership parts guys almost every single time.... GD

Easier to just replace the back half - don't have to worry about pulling the front half out of the transmission that way. Although I would still drop the carrier bearing down to work on it. As for getting one.... I'll see what I have laying around and get back to you here. GD

1600 pistons aren't much taller than 1800. About .007" IIRC. But you might have to do a search on some of my older posts to find out for sure..... it's not a lot though. SPFI pistons are the way to get massive comp. numbers. GD

That's just silly. There's plenty of sources for EA81 radiators. radiators.com for instance.... and there's lots more. Any auto parts place can order you one for around $100 to $120. Last one I bought for my Brat was right around $120 at my local parts store. EA81 heads don't crack. They can warp and even if they did not spend the $80 (~$40 per) and have them milled flat regardless. If they show they are flat and you want to get away cheap use some 600 and 1200 on a sheet of glass to finish the cleaning. I would. It will be cheap and you will learn a lot doing it. Very easy engine to learn HG's on. Quite possibly the easiest you will ever do. Stop being a wussy! Get out your tools and do the job yourself. You'll save a ton of money, you'll gain valuable knowledge about your car, and you'll be investing in tools that you can use again instead of throwing money away having the job done by someone that doesn't care, and would probably just love for you to come back with more problems. Yes. You need basic hand tools, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, and 21mm sockets, ratchets, and you'll need a cheap ($10 at HF) torque wrench. The parts you need will be under $100 for all of them. Fel-Pro for the head gaskets (Autozone), and Dealer ONLY for the rest. Yes. The heads come right off. There's plenty of room. There are some access holes in the frame rails that you use to remove the rocker arm assembly bolts. Other than those everything is accesible from above or below. You ALWAYS replace both HG's. Don't even think about doing only one or I'll fly to Colorado and make you my biatch Factory Service Manual. Barring that - Haynes is a LOT better than Chiltons. If you do it yourself you can easily pocket $500 of that.... maybe a little less if you have nothing in the way of tools other than a pair of tweezers and a butter knife. GD

Generally, if the ticking has been going on for more than a very short time, you will have to replace the lifters and either MIC out the oil pump and reseal it, or just replace it completely with a new one. The problem is caused by air bubbles in the oil. These get inside the lifters and have a tough time comming out. Unfortunately they also cause the lifter to be "spongy" and this will wear out a lifter VERY quickly. To the point where it will not hold pressure and will tick forever - untill replaced. The trick to getting the EA82's to not tick is to never let them start. If you properly prime the oiling system after having them torn down, and you keep after the oil pump, seals, and cam carrier o-rings they will never start ticking. Once they have started it's almost always unfixable without replacing some or all of the lifters themselves. DO NOT add anything to your oil. This is just asking for trouble. At most you can do an ATF flush but don't leave anything in there long-term. The only thing that should be in your oil is OIL. Good clean oil. If it was supposed to be in the additive package then the manufacturer would have put it in there for you. You have no way of knowing (and probably no real idea) of what adding additives to your oil willy-nilly will do. It could (and a lot of times does) make your oil foam like shaving cream. This will just make the lifters worse. An ATF flush will clean anything that *can* be cleaned without splitting the case so just leave it at that. I've seen EA82's with a shade over 100k tick like crazy, and I own an 86 (before they changed to metal reinforced cam carrier o-rings) that has 240k and has never ticked even once. Just happens to have had excelent dealer only maintenance by the old man that owned it. And yes - RTV is Satans smelly cousin. I rarely use it in it's uncured state.... sometimes on water pumps for older engines. It has it's (extremely limited) uses, but I find them diminishing with each passing year. GD

Honda reliability is far, far over rated IMO. My experience has been about the same as any other vehicle on the road. Newer Subaru's (after the last of the EJ22's..) are no exception. For some reason, the golden era for Honda, Toyota, and Subaru seemed to be the late 80's and early 90's. After that the engineers started encorporating technologies that didn't get enough testing or something. The drive to compete bites the consumer hard at times. GD

The code 35 will not cause the ECU to enter "limp mode" or "open loop" operation. It is PURELY an emissions control device (and a rather unimportant one at that). It CANNOT in any way affect other engine parameters so ignition and fuel maps are not changed. As far as the ECU is concerned there is nothing at all wrong with the engine or it's control circuitry. It's just noticing that it can't purge the vapor canistor properly, and letting you know about it..... I can't think of any code I would rather see if I had to see one :-p I like to get rid of all codes as otherwise important codes might go unoticed. I use a $0.50 resistor to eliminate my Purge and EGR solenoids. GD

You have a feedback (computer controlled) carburetor. Either the Hitachi, or the Carter/Weber (both were available as feedback models). It's an enormously complex system that uses some sensors (CTS, O2, etc) to adjust air/fuel mixture in the carb. It is NOT an OBD type system designed to report failures in the emissions systems effeciency, but rather to alert the driver that some part of the feedback "Emissions Control System" has failed. This WILL adversely affect both the mileage and driveability of the car. Unhooking the lamp will probably leave you stranded on the side of the road somewhere down the line because you didn't fix something you should have. Also the testing station may look for the lamp to illuminate durring a "key on" as the computer will light it for a bulb check. Although most EA81's didn't have the feedback system so you could probably get away with it on that account unless you lived in CA. Read the codes - when the ECS light goes on, LEAVE THE ENGINE RUNNING and pull the kickpanel to access the ECU. There is a red LED on the front that will flash morse-code style codes to you. These can be referenced to figure out what sensor or solenoid is malfunctioning. These things are primitive, and without properly working sensors they do not have a "limp mode". They will simply cease to function properly. I had a bad O2 sensor on my EA81 feedback actually cause the engine to die completely at a busy intersection when I stopped for a red light. I had to pull the O2 sensor connector to get it to run again (poorly), and limp it to a friends house. GD

Lots of UK and Isreali Brat's (or MV Pickup's) were FWD, and they had the long-bed option as they were commonly used for hauling due to the prices of fuel.... long bed = more cargo space, and FWD = better fuel econemy. Almost all Brat's sold in Europe were FWD in fact. GD

Vicariously through all those board members that have blown them up durring my time here at the USMB - probably dozens. Personally - two. One was completely wasted when I got it (timing belt covers melted, heads cracked, etc), and the other blew BOTH sides out - no comp. in any cylinder - on a drive over the mountains. Of all the Subaru's I've ever owned (over 25 or 30 by now) I've had exactly 3 blown engines. Two of those were BOTH of the EA82T's I've had. The other was a blown rod on my EA81 lifted wagon.... too much contaminated oil and a weak pump (digidash, and I hadn't learned better yet). GD

CCR doesn't use the Fel-Pro's. They use OEM and perhaps the spray is better for those 20 year old gaskets..... Fel-Pro's are plenty good dry. GD

I generally run the WIX (Napa is the same) filters. They are larger than OEM and very high quality so...... GD

Rislone, or MMO might be good alternatives if that's true about the ATF not containing lots of detergents anymore.... but I haven't heard that before so I'm not totally convinced. GD

Doesn't really matter what kind. I usually stick with some name brand of Dexron.... Just run it up to temp (ten minutes or so), and then drain and fill with oil. Oil and ATF will mix fine so some residual ATF is alright. Change the oil again in about 500 miles as it will probably absorb a lot of crap knocked loose by the flush. It's not uncommon for the ATF to go in bright red and come out black.... Some folks will replace an entire quart of oil with ATF and just leave it in there to quiet noisy lifters in EA82's and other makes of engines. It's pretty common but I don't reccomend that personally. But I mention it to illustrate that using ATF is perfectly safe for flushing purposes. I wouldn't tell you to do it if it wasn't safe either..... GD