GeneralDisorder

There should not be anything sticking out below the EA81 drive gear. Perhaps you are using a ND EA81 drive gear - they are shorter and that would result in about 1/4" sitcking out below the gear if you pushed it up to the thrust washer. Take a look at the pics in my write up - the pic of the Hitachi drive gear is of an SPFI disty with an EA81 Hitachi drive gear. http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/EA81_SPFI/EA81_disty_gear_compare.jpg GD

Most Weber's are, but I don't think the DCAV shares the same base mounting so it would require custom fitting. GD

81/82 have lower 3rd and 4th. 83+ are all the same so the two EA81 trannies you have are the same. EA82's are basically like having an 81/82 4 speed but with an extra overdrive gear. Way preferable, and the linkage is much happier too. Personally, myself and many others have chosen the EA82 trannies for a variety of reasons. There's not any drawbacks to it other than making it fit properly. They are an improvement on every level. GD

DGV's are electric too, and there's no need to turn the DGV around if you just make a depression in the power steering reservior for the choke with a ball peen hammer. My 86 has a DGV that's been on for 30,000 miles using the original throttle cable. GD

Maybe. I have yet to own an EA82 that didn't need HG's either when I aquired it or shortly after. 175k to 225k depending on driving habits seems to be the lifespan of the OEM gaskets. By that time they generally need oil passage o-rings, and new oil pumps/gaskets anyway. Not to mention valve covers resealed and the pan gasket replaced. Fortunately HG's take about a day to do if you don't pull the engine. Maybe 2 days if you have to have the heads milled flat. They usually don't crack heads unless it's a turbo model. My current sedan blew the HG's (slightly) at 220k, and after replacement with Fel-Pro's it's now got 237k and never goes above 1/3 on the temp gauge except in hot (90+) weather with the AC on high. GD

No Loyale EVER had an airbag - even when discontinued after 94 they didn't have them. So no matter how you look at it the mechanic is wrong - either about the year/model or the airbag. GD

New gen keys will not fit EA81 or EA82 locks. You must use a Nissan blank. GD

Agreed. But the OP says he has a 4WD 5 speed, not an Auto. The autos are slow, but my 4WD 5 speed sedan can move without any difficulty. 90 HP isn't a lot, but you also have to know where the engine makes power - that's in the 3500 - 4500 range. GD

DG(E/A)V is what you want. GD

That's just not true. The 2WD's are actually quite a bit faster on the top end. It has to do with the gearing and weight mostly. The 4WD's *feel* faster off the line, but that's largely an effect of the lower gearing in the diff's. As far as RPM's go, the redline of the EA82 carb engine is 6,000 RPM, and Subaru's reccomendation of "no more than 4,000" for extended periods is just their usual line of over-cautiousness that was typical of their 80's models. The EA81 and EA82 share essentially the same block with the EA82's being built slightly beefier in the main bearings and ring lands. Despite this, the experimental aircraft community routinely run the EA81 blocks at around 7,000 to 7,500 RPM continuously for many hours on end. The rods are very short and thick due to the nature of the boxer design, and some have estimated their burst speed at something north of 11,000 RPM. Indeed the ring lands, pistons, head gaskets, and heads all have many times higher failure rates. Typically those failures are a result of pushing the turbo EA82's too far with added boost and/or added compression. Rod failures aren't all that common and are always a result of badly worn bearings. I've been in the mud and reved out to 6 or 7 thousand over and over while trying to free myself - never has it resulted in a catostrophic failure. Indeed I had a rod blow on my first off-road engine doing 65 MPH on the freeway due to lack of proper oil pressure from a worn out pump. Had nothing to do with RPM's. Basically your timing is probably hosed, and you are being too cautious with the revs. Set the timing straight and go from there. GD

Gots me a Weber..... 2WD vs. 4WD makes a big difference too. My 2WD EA81 with a Weber would do 110 before it reached equilibrium with the wind. I can easily hit 100 with my EA82 5 speed 4WD. Perhaps it's the Weber helping, or perhaps it's just a good engine.... couldn't get out of it's own way with a running start on the Hitachi I got it with GD

Your timing may be drastically off. 75 should not be the top speed. They aren't fast cars by any stretch of the imagination, but my 86 carbed EA82 can do well over 100..... your's should be faster as it's got 6 more HP stock. Make sure the timing is properly set at 20 degrees BTDC. If it is, you may consider checking to see if the timing belt drive sprockets on the crank got mixed up - there's an inner and and outer. The inner one has a groove for the front crank seal. If they are reversed the engine will still run but will be down on power and may overheat. Likely the overheating is a result of Florida temps and an old radiator. It's best to replace them as they are cheap and don't do well with any amount of corrosion. GD

Not in the US. But they do exist. A member from Barbados had/has one. One of the reasons it's not too hard to retrofit a disty to the EJ is that there's casting marks for the machine work needed to fit it to the passenger head. There's also an EJ15 that came as a carb option in some countries. Apparently with the 2 door Imp body they get over 40 MPG. Megasquirt has no problem with the EJ CAS - in fact some folks use them for other engines. There's not a lot of published *settings* for EJ's, but then there's really not a lot of published settings in general. Most people tune by driving once the engine is running. Laptop in the passenger seat is very helpful. GD

ECU's are tough critters unless you hook up the battery backwards. I've done a lot of plugging and unpluging, testing, poking, and other jiggery-pokery with my SPFI harnesses and have yet to damage one in the slightest. I've got about 4 extra ones sitting around here and they all work. GD

Generally won't destroy a quality axle - cheaply rebuilt unit - yes. So will bad tranny mounts. The tranny mounts on EA81's are crap. Mounts should always be checked, but a quality axle won't be overly stressed from poor mounts. The axles are designed to operate at a variety of angles. Rebuilt units generally have welded cages and races that wear out rapidly due to poor tempering, and poorly machined tollerances (often done with a die grinder by eye ). GD

Larger diameter shafts and joints were used in all 4WD spec EA81's. It's not Brat specific. The GCK's are redesigned useing better than original 4WD spec components and are completely new. As far as I know, no one has ever broken one or had one fail. It wouldn't be easy. GD

With MegaSquirt there's no need for carbs and wierd distributors from Ford's to modify the fuel intake. You can attach any TB you want and tune it any way you want for about $350. It also allows any engine to be installed - start with an EA82 SPFI, then later drop in an EJ22T, then maybe later on a WRX EJ20, etc, etc. All without touching the wireing to any great degree or having to locate stock harnesses or ECU's. Just retune with your old PII laptop running Windows 95 or whatever you can find at the goodwill. At this point carbs are a solution for those who are afraid of FI, or have no knowledge of electronics or software. Anything a carb can do, FI can do better and more reliably. And I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.... and with the addition of open-source FI packages like MS it's cheaper than most performance carbs too. GD

SPFI doesn't do anything for top end either. For that, you need a cam change. GD

No, you are just using poorly remaned axles. Go to autozone and ask them to order you a new GCK axle. GD

The Accel coil may have damaged the ignitor in the distributor. The experience of this board indicates that ALL aftermarket coils are potential problems for EA series distributors. Almost all distributor module failures are a result of this kind of jiggery-pokery with ignition components (coils, plugs/gap, or wires). Use the stock Hitachi or ND coil - they cost MORE than the supposed "high performance" units from Accel and MSD ect, and are resistance matched to the distributor module. Many have run for several decades without failure, and there's no evidence that a "higher performing" coil translates to any measureable amount of performance gain other than the obvious 25 HP gain from the yellow paint or faux-chrome. The spark plug has ONE job - to ignite the mixture. It either does, or does not accomplish this task on each cylinder compression stroke. For all practical purposes there is no such thing as a "better" ignition, or a "more complete" ignition. That's just marketing hype that's targeting the wallets of mindless consumers. It's like putting a towel rack on a Honda - the car will never see speeds sufficient to warrant the application, nor would attaching it to the flimsy trunk lid do any kind of suspension loading. If the plug does not ignite the charge, you will encounter a noticeable "miss" and your emissions will go through the roof. This is almost always a result of poorly gapped plugs or old deteriorated plug wires. The original coils rarely die, and are of much superior quality to the aftermarket units. The Subaru engineers knew their stuff, and the ignition system is designed to ignite the mixture with well over a 99.9% probablility. There's almost no room for improvement here, and anyone that tells you differently really doesn't have a decent grasp of the overall design and intended purpose of the EA series engines. GD

That's an EA81 manifold. EA82's have the coolant outlet on the passenger front. Looks like a standard EA81 to me (with power steering, and the AC alternator bracket). Came from a higher end EA81, and from the looks of it an 82 or newer. GD

There's no such thing as a "starter relay" (unless you count the solenoid, which is mounted on the starter). The crank circuit is not a relay circuit. Full soleoid power flows through the ignition switch, and optionally the inhibitor switch if you have an automatic. My write up covers the wiring pretty well: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/EA81_SPFI.html GD

You have a feedback carb. The ECU isn't your problem, it's either the coolant temp sensor, the O2 sensor, or the carb itself. Rip the thing off and replace it with a Weber 32/36 DGV. You probably have the carter/weber single barrel. They are known for a variety of issues. GD

I did a loyale 3AT to 5 speed D/R swap a few months back and it was a 3.9 as well. They are definately out there. This particular one was a 91 IIRC. GD

I'm running a 91 harness and manifold with an 87 ECU in my Brat. Just so I wouldn't have to use a clutch switch and change the pedal assembly. They are all interchangeable - I've even used a Loyale Auto ECU in my Brat and it still worked fine. The only difference is some switches in the manual ECU's, but they were added to unused pins so the older ECU just doesn't look for them. GD