GeneralDisorder

Ok - for safety reasons, and simply so you aren't pulling your hair out trying to figure this out, you REALLY need to understand how this works. I don't have the time to make up schematics and such, but here's some links that will clear everything up for you. Read this stuff, and you'll understand how to setup your electrical circuits. http://www.rowand.net/Shop/Tech/AlternatorGeneratorTheory.htm http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/onewire-threewire.shtml And yes, all alternators after 81 were internal regulated. GD

No switch - it goes to the main junction - where your fuseible links are located if you are using them (you should be). GD

Not exactly. What we are talking about is an economic Subaru engine - small, low power output, and a design that has proven itself to 200,000+ with relatively little careful maintenance. The analysis was performed with an engine that most would agree would be tired at 200,000 and was built more on the performance end of the spectrum for a sports car. If you look at some of the oil change interval equations, many use a "power" constant to help bias toward more frequent oil changes for higher performance engines. It should also be noted that the Subaru engine was far ahead of the GM engines of the same time period both in construction and materials. The differences are not a large as you might think. If anything (and I'll state right now that this is educated conjecture on my part) all things being equal the EA subaru engine should be able to go LONGER between changes than the Z28 V8. It has a superior lubrication system due to the cylinder oreintation (oil does not as easily drain from the cylinder walls as they are not vertical), and has a comparitively large oil filter for the engine displacement. One can also deduce from the original specifications of 7,500 oil/15,000 filter put out by Subaru in the owners manual that their own engineers came to this same conclusion 20 years ago. The new subaru engine continue this legacy. The owners manual for my friends '06 forester 2.5 reads the same way (after the initial break-in change). It's a general guideline, yes. It would not work for all scenario's, and (just as the authors of that page) I would not sugest that anyone blindly follow those intervals without consideration for their specific situation. But, in the face of no availible statistics for the EA engines, it's better than nothing at all, and most especially better than seat-of-the-pants, and guesswork/conjecture. I'll take a detailed scentific analysis of a similar situation any day over nothing at all. The similarities far outweigh the differences, and in practice one could expect similar numbers from most alloy engines built in the last 40 years. GD

They are both internal combustion engines, and both share piston over crank design... what specifically are the differences that would invalidate this testing? Please provide details. Words like "huge" have no scientific value at all to me or anyone else here. Again with the "huge". Provide accurate data. Why not? We use the same oil in both. Seems to me that the oil's properties are going to be similar when used in engines rated for similar amount of mileage before rebuild. Both are street gasoline engines. Not race equipment or special service designs. Here's more info for ya from the good people kind enough to offer their Z28 up for analysis. And they bothered to quote sources! "Engine wear actually decreases as oil ages. This has also been substantiated in testing conducted by Ford Motor Co. and ConocoPhillips, and reported in SAE Technical Paper 2003-01-3119. What this means is that compulsive oil changers are actually causing more engine wear than the people who let their engine's oil get some age on it." GD

It's not silly at all. You are talking about impacting the environment, your wallet, and a big investment of time. But largely what we have done here is guesswork. If you want a real answer, then it's got to be based on your specific circumstances. Arguing about oil change intervals is like arguing over how hot you like your shower. What works for some, may not work for all. Here's a good breakdown of current theory's on oil change interval. Many based on good, actual science not the seat of the pants dyno and the reading of chicken bones: http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/interval.html Check out the rest of that site too - there's lots of interesting info including a full on oil analysis of mobile 1 and amsoil at 1,000 mile intervals. The Mobile 1 hung on for 18,000 miles and didn't need a new filter till 12,000 (Wix). This was in a 2002 Z28 Camaro.... Here's a tasty quote for ya: "Based on the results we've got here, we'd recommend 8,000 miles between oil changes on an engine that uses no oil at all, perhaps 10,000 miles on an engine that uses some oil, and 15,000 miles or beyond with a filter change every 5,000 miles. This, of course, isn't any kind of guarantee, and you must evaluate for yourself what your engine requires. One thing we're pretty sure about though: 3,000-mile intervals is a huge waste of resources." (no oil company advertising there ) GD

But that's an exception to the rule, and it's even MORE reason to use non-synth oil. There is really no difference at those kind of mileages. Synth's big advantage is it's ability to go longer between oil changes before the contaminates saturate the oil. With an older EA engine, it's going to burn and leak enough that you could literally NEVER change it. Change the filter and top it off and it would still be fine. Also - if you do the "Severe Driving" thing then you should be keeping track of hours not miles. GD

Right - but I said "in stock form" Virtually anything was an option, and even more strange things were done in the aftermarket. Like the EA81 convertibles, vintage EA81 5 speed swaps, etc. GD

I've been able to get all of mine (including my 230,000 mile sedan) to read at least 20 psi hot idle with a new (OEM) sender, and new oil pump and/or seals. I have yet to encounter a properly sealed up engine that wouldn't register correctly. I think the reason they put that in the manual is that reading 0 at idle is alright as long as the guage comes up when you rev it - just means the seals are a little old, and the sender is probably leaky. GD

You are competing with the Datsun guys. $350 to $400 is about the going price. Shop the u-pull-it type yards. I've got them for about $45 before. It's just a diff to them. As for buying a turbo car, it must be a FT4WD 5 speed to have the LSD in stock form. GD

Virtually unkillable. Amazing the punishment my lifted wagon's power rack has taken. I tore it down looking for a problem that turned out to be something completely urelated to the rack, and it looked nice inside. Realy simple design too. I doubt you hurt it. GD

Oh - if you are refering to the gear ratio then you are correct. The ratio does not change. The cams rotate at exactly 1/2 crank speed. Correct. But I wasn't advocating counting the ribs - I was merely describing mathematically *why* the two crank sprockets are not aligned. GD

Way to me open minded kid. Lots of luck to ya. That's actually detrimental. The PH of synthetic has barely stabilized at that point. Plus with the cost of synth being changed so often, you could afford to have oil analysis done and get a true breakdown of the heavy metals, acids, and alkalids of the oil. Not to mention that regular dino oil, changed every 7500 miles, with a new (quality like WIX/Napa, or a few others) filter every 15k per the owners manual is perfectly fine for your soob. Most of this 3,000 BS is perpetrated by the oil companies, and dealerships that make money off frequent oil changes. Very, very few vehicle manufacturers reccomend 3,000 mile changes at this point - so basically you are operating off of reccomendations for 50 year old equipment. Don't you suppose that engine construction/materials and oil engineering has made some advancements in that time? GD

Big difference between the headlight relays and the flasher module. There is only a single flasher for the signals and hazards. But it is located near the relays. Relays are round and silver - flasher module is square and black plastic. GD

Ok - Alternator 101. The subaru EA series alternator uses the normal GM remote sensing system of the GM 2 wire and 3 wire alternators of the past. (Note - 1 wire alternators are an aftermarket thing - haven't been used on any production vehicle that I know of, and frankly shouldn't be either. Totally stupid idea made for people that don't understand electricity). The LARGE ring terminal mount on the back of the alt goes to the "main junction". As does the smaller black/white wire from the 2 pin connector. The large wire is the main alternator supply - it charges the battery, and handles current demands of the electrical sysem. The smaller wire is the "sensor". The alternator uses this wire to regulate voltage AT the main junction. With accesories turned on, the voltage at the junction should remain a constant 14.5 volts. The output at the back of the alt will be higher to maintain the proper voltage at the junction. ALL your main electrical circuits should eminate from the main junction so each circuit has the correct 14.5 volts. The third and final wire (smallest of the three) should run through a 15 amp fuse to a single 12v lamp on the dash. This will illuminate if the votage drops or the regulator malfunctions. It's known as the "charge indicator" lamp. With very minimal modifications you can use a GM 2 or 3 wire alternator. I had one on my EA81 wagon for a bit. Or there's the nissan maxima 90 amp that is basically a bolt it. They all operate the same wireing wise. GD

500 is fine, yeah. You aren't going to hurt it so run it till it feels nice. GD

Verfiy the reading with a mechanical guage. The stock senders are known to read low or not at all. I find that oil pressure problems are almost always the sender, or the pump/pump seals. GD

After doing a lot of homework on the subject, and finding lots, and lots of reasons NOT to use additives, and relatively few substantiated claims by most of them, I tend to stick with plain old oil. And as someone else pointed out - PTFE is the spawn of satan - stay away from that stuff. It was actually Dupont (the manufacturers of PTFE) that sued Slick 50. The ruling was that Slick 50 had the right to do whatever they like with the stuff. Dupont sued them for using it as an engine additive, and has publicly stated it has no recognized benefits when used in an internal combustion engine. It does show some small benefits for power and torque when used in race engines for SHORT TERM use. But it clogs oil filters, and increases wear. It's VERY bad for anything but applications where the engine will be rebuilt after each race or season. While synthetic is clearly THE way to go for a newer, close tollerance engine, an older EA82 that burns a bit, leaks a bit, and is well broken in, it's really a waste of money. That's not to say that a good grade of oil shouldn't be used. After a thread on here a few years ago from a member that was in the oil industry, I've been using Chevron 10w40. It's both a very high quality oil, and inexpensive (I get it by the case at Costco). Chevron owns the patents on the processes and machinery used for almost all synthetic oil production, and much of the refinery equipment in the world. They know their stuff. I don't have any troubles with lifter ticking, and my 86 sedan has 230,000 on the original engine. They also don't sell any of this gimicky "high mileage" oil, or other strange creations. They sell oil - plain and simple. GD

Run a few hundred with ATF, then fill with Redline or your favorite sythetic. The synth gear oil helps a lot with cold temp shifting. ATF should clear up your "crunchies" pretty quick. I've had similar issues with tranny's that have sat for a while without fluid in them, or without being run through the gears in a while. As far as I know, Rislone is just a similar formula to ATF but with more cleanser additives. It works very similar to ATF in my experience. Go with the ATF flush, and if you feel you want rislone after you have filled it with synth, drain a quart and put it in. GD

Yeah - that's the FPCU. The flasher relay is further up undeneath. It's near the headlight relays IIRC, but don't take my word for it. Just look for something similar that will plug into your new one. GD

You have failed to insert the variable for the size of the belt ribbing. By doing that, you have assumed it is of size 0. In which case you would be looking at a smooth belt - like a serpentine, or a v-groove. As it is though, the belt ribbing is not of 0 size. Thus you cannot pick an arbitrary rotation of the sprockets. Each sprocket MUST turn about 5(?) degrees before it will again line up with the belt ribbing. The situation is that the distance between the cam's, and the drive sprockets is different - for the eqaution to be satisfied for both sides, a different number of belt ribs must be used. (NBR * BRS) = BL Where: NBR = Number of Belt Ribs BRS = Belt Rib size BL = Belt Length (between the sprockets) By assuming the rib size is 0 (smooth belt), you invalidate this equation. Furthermore, since the rib size, and the belt length are determined by the design of the belt, and the routing on the engine block respectively, those two variables ARE constant. This leaves only the number of ribs that can change for the two sides. And it does, and it is NOT a whole number. In the case of one side it's a whole number (purely by chance I'm sure), and on the other it's a whole number of ribs PLUS another half of one. That extra 1/2 rib requires that the two sprockets not be aligned with one another. Make sense now? Basically, BDG, and anyone else that thinks they *should* line up is not working with the correct mathematics. You cannot use whole number math for this. Fractional belt ribs ARE possible, and in the case of the EA82 they are being used. Thus the difference. It is possible to design it in a way that all the rib counts are whole numbers, but it would require a change to the tensioner location (mathematically, NBR and NBS held constant, and the BL changed to compensate). For whatever reason, they did not do that. Conversely - from an engineering standpoint - there is no reason to do it either. Except to help the grease monkeys not screw it up - but that's all-too-often not often a concern for the engineers. GD

Sounds like the mechanic failed to tighten the axle nut sufficiently, or installed the cone washer incorrectly resulting in a stripped hub. Axles rarely fail like that without giving SEVERE warning - which any mechanic with half a brain would have seen. If you can do brakes, you can verify that the hub is stripped - just take off your hub cap, and see if the axle nut spins when you try to take off in drive. I would call that mechanic you took it to and complain - try to get a refund or something. GD

Yeah - it's under the dash - attached to something up behind the fuse panel. Just scoot under there and you'll find it. Black square flasher module. GD

FSM indicates 43 to 51 Ft/lbs. 78 is definately way too high. GD

On the EA82, the read mem. connector is white. Both sets are in the engine bay wireing harness behind the drivers side strut tower. At the bottom of my SPFI write up, there's a link to the portion of the FSM that covers all the codes, and testing procedures: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/EA81_SPFI.html GD

The Killers: Flapper MAF turbo with gen 1 heads No FT4WD 1.2:1 low range Sedan RX body, with a TON of miles on it. Sadly, not a very desireable EA82 in comparison to the *real* coupe RX's. People in the know want a coupe for the RX line, and people just looking for an old soob are usually looking for a wagon for skiiing, etc. The body style is also getting very, very dated, and I don't think you are likely to have many interested parties in the community at large if you have the price at $1k. Put it out for $800 OBO, and let them haggle you down to $500. Frankly if you put some effort into it, you wouldn't be so hot on selling it. It's worthless as cars in general go, but if you get things straight it will be worth *more* to you because you know the car. GD