GeneralDisorder

I had a clogged valve breather (PCV) hose cause one of the original cam seals to pop right out the front on my sedan. Of course that leaked at a rate of about 1 quart ever 10 miles..... GD

Unless you are planning to pull the engine there's no reason to do the cam or crank seals. They rarely fail in practice, and the cam and front crank seal are accesible later anyway. I usually evaluate that stuff as I go. GD

The cam is only engaged when the choke spring is holding the choke plate closed. Hesitation could be idle speed, timing, vacuum leaks, etc. And vacuum leaks near the base of the carb will cause hesitation. Do you have the vacuum advance attached to the carb? Does it work? GD

Fel-Pro's are better, and are only $16 each from Autozone. GD

8mmx1.25 GD

Wire wheel works best. Sanding removes too much material, and unless done very carefully with a perfectly flat surface will result in a warped surface. That, and 600 grit wouldn't do squat. It would clog too easily. Get a wire wheel. GD

I'll add that I have NEVER had a properly installed OEM gasket fail. I've blown TWO sets of Fel-Pro cardboard units....:-\. They just didn't do their homework on those. GD

Dealer only. NO SEALANT. The proper gaskets are graphite impregnated metal - just like a head gasket. And just like the HG's, they are designed to be installed dry. Clean the mating surfaces with a wire wheel. Clean the bolts with a wire wheel, and chase the threads in the heads with a tap. Torque to 12-14 ft/lbs with a 3/8" torque wrench. There's no sequence. If you use the cheap cardboard aftermarket gaskets then probably use a sealer on them - but they will fail no matter what you use. There's a reason Subaru doesn't make them from cardboard. GD

Hhhmmm - I beleive it was discussed in the thread about installing the N/A low gear and 4.11 diff into the RX tranny. I'm pretty sure there's no place inside the N/A tranny for the center diff to go. And even if it were there in the casing, you would need to have machine work done for the diff lock mechanism, etc. Also shimming it correctly requires special tools, etc..... it's better, if you want something like this, to take the low range from the N/A and put it in the RX case. GD

No - the FT4WD box shares many components with the early Legacy trannies. As the regular D/R has no center diff, there's no place for one to go in there. You can install the low range gear set from the regular D/R to the FT4WD D/R though. GD

As far as heads - I've seen some serious deterioration from coolant passages blowing into the cylinder. Had several on SPFI/Carb EA82's that I'm sure wouldn't have held for long without a bit of sanding. The place *I* go to has a mill, but my friend that took his heads to have them done when I did the HG's took em to a place that put them on a big belt sander. Actually looked fine, and worked good. And being aluminium heads it would be easy to do that yourself - just get a nice true flat surface like glass, glue down about 6 sheets of the desired sandpaper, and work them under their own weight with a swirling motion till you get a nice even flat surface. Check with a metal straightedge and a feeler gauge. GD

Engine should be fine - the contamination is purely *steam* blowby. It condenses on cold places, but being your oil looks clean there should be no damage to any bearings. The "Kit" comes with crappy intake and exhaust gaskets, valve stem seals, valve cover gaskets, cam case o-rings, and some other misc. bits like the oil fill tube gasket, thottle body/carb base gaskets, etc, etc.... it also has the MPFI/Turbo intake gaskets - it's a universal kit so comes with everything for all the EA82's, not just the SPFI...... All things you either don't need, or definetely want from the dealer. Just buy the individual HG's, and get the rest from the dealer as they are superior. GD

Sounds like a partial blown HG from the cylinder into the water jacket. I've had ones very similar to that where it would only overheat after it lost most of it's coolant. The bit of water/oil mix under the cap is typical of condensation - blowby from the burning coolant. It doesn't mix with the oil, but it does condense on the cooler oil cap like that. You might also find traces in the PCV tubes from the valve covers. This could also be indicating a failed intake gasket - which might account for your coolant loss as well.... for the price of the HG's though - I would just do them regardless as it's not that much more work to take the heads off once the manifold is off, and it's probably a good idea to do the cam case o-rings and reseal the valve covers, etc while you are in there. Set of Fel-Pro's is about $35 shipped from Autozone. Get the cam case o-rings, and the intake gaskets from the dealer - about $10 for all. You'll need a tube of RTV if you don't have some for the cam case. Mark the lifters for re-install. I use a flap of cardboard from a box. Take a utility knife and make an arrow pointing to the front of the engine. Then make two rows of 4 X's in the flap, and shove the lifter and rocker into adjoining X's. This way you can easily keep track of them for reinstall. For the price of the JY engine - it's going to cost triple or more than doing the HG's on your existing engine. Plus at least you *know* what you have right now. You might end up with something that has a rod knock, etc. Plus doing the HG's is less work than pulling the engine IMO. No hoist required for one. Having done it before, a HG job should cost no more than $50 in parts. A bit more if you need to have the heads trued up. BUT you can do that yourself if you are creative . A sheet of glass, a blanket and several sheets of sandpaper will do a nice job actually. These type of graphite/metal HG's actually prefer a more coarse surface than the new engines that use the MLM gaskets. GD

The early EA82 rear drum mechanism is self-adjusting. Easy upgrade if you don't have a set of discs around. You drive backwards and give it a couple good hard stomps to set the self-adjusters. Hell of a lot easier than adjusting the shoes every few thousand. Of course if you have a set of discs that's even better. I love having the discs on my Brat - I haven't touched em in 25,000 miles. GD

I always forget that on the military 5 speeds reverse is where first is supposed to be . 1st is where second would be, etc. Weird heavy duty truck transmissions. GD

What the hell are you talking about? The EA81T is 95 HP. You don't need to shorten any axle shafts for EA series transmissions. For the work required, put an EJ22 in the car - no turbo hassle, and 135 HP. GD

They aren't known for headgaskets - that's the EA82T. Still not worth the hassle though. Put SPFI on your stock engine. That'll give you as much performance as a Weber, and better driveability. It's also generally cheaper. See my write up: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/EA81_SPFI.html Ditch the 4 speed. They suck. Beleive me. GD

No - you will have to cut and re-weld the rear mounts if it's a long style bar.... if it's the short style I think mods are required for this too, but I've never done a short style. GD

MMO is really just ATF - which is an excelent lubricant, and has tons of detergents in it. Used car guys use ATF to clean engine bays for a reason, and people use ATF to clean engines of deposits too. HOWEVER - as a flush for a few hundred LIGHT miles it's alright. Do not leave it in - it's not engine oil, and shouldn't be used long term. Only thing that should be in your engine is OIL. Plain and simple. If the stuff had good properties as an engine oil, then it would be in the oil in the first place. Lucas is just plain garbage. *Maybe* in a tractor differential that stayed cold, and slow speed at all times. But really not even then as there's better alternatives for those situations as well. GD

Rockauto has em for $85.... sorry $60 was the EA81 core. But still not over $100. Autozone has em for $71.99... even cheaper. Just got to do your homework...... GD

SPFI has it's own distributor - crank angle sensor. No "module" to fail. It has no parts that really fail at all - it's got needle bearings on the shaft (instead of the crappy sleeve bushings of the carbs units), and an infrared optical pickup/interrupter disc. Nothing inside the disty touches except the shaft bearings. Very, very reliable. Although I haven't had any modules fail in the carb disty's. But then I use only the ND carb disty's. I have had to have the bushings on the ND distys replaced - about $35. But never had to replace a module. Oh - and the aircraft guys use the ND unit too, and just add a second pickup too it. Plus the ND has a hotter spark due to it's matching ND coil wireing. GD

Junk. www.bobistheoilguy.com GD

Flush the heater core. If that doesn't fix it then you need a new core - about $60 and 6 hours of work to remove the dash and get at it. Air bag inflatable suspension w/ride height control. They almost always fail, are difficult and very expensive to repair. Replace it with normal spring struts and coil-overs. GD

Make sure the MAF's bypass port isn't clogged. No air will flow over the MAF element and the engine will die out as the computer attempts to compensate for the incorrect airflow reading. Your ability to run the engine at WOT is because the MAF is ignored at WOT. That's a good reason to suspect issues with the MAF - most especially oil or other gunk clogging the bypass port. MAF's rarely fail, but people often think they have failed because the bypass is clogged and replacing the whole unit fixes the problem. GD

Are you running aftermarket coils? Those will kill the ignitor. Best. Solution. Ever: SPFI. GD