GeneralDisorder

Yikes - that's a fortune that you should try to recover at all costs. Besides they are rarely needed. Water will not hurt them. When you reassemble, should you choose to use the covers, toss the bolts off a bridge and use zip-ties in their place to hold the front covers on. This way you won't have trouble getting the bolts out later. GD

Now that you have posted it rather than searching, go ahead and look at the similar threads listing at the bottom of this page. GD

That's the point tho - I feel it's a fair trade off. Sure they *might* break (mine haven't in 35,000 miles, except due to my shop rag incident), but I will gladly trade the small chance of having them break for making them simple and quick to replace. I carry a spare set, and the single socket I need to change them, and if they break because of age, or because of other damage I'm still ahead because I'm only 10 to 15 minutes late at the most. Plus it makes adjusting the tension, and checking them out for cracks, etc really simple. Routine maintenance becomes a lot easier all around. Probably not too bad down there by Pilot, but up here IN town - forget it. Probably get hit by a truck and wiped out while I'm under the hood. Plus the cops will give you a hard time for working on your beater 20 year old car in commuter traffic. Down south aint so bad since there's simply less congestion. GD

Vac can has nothing to do with 2WD or 4WD - it's the CA emissions models with the feedback ECU that have the two pot can. You use the inner port for the advance, and leave the other port alone (disconnected, and NOT plugged) - it's a vacuum retard used by the ECU on the feedback models. GD

Correct - the mechnical fan is there to cool the AC compressor at slow speeds. It doesn't really do much for cooling the engine. But I think he wants to use that space for added cooling ability. Post in the wanted forum for the EA81 AC fan, and then put in new brushes and grease the bearings. Should be fine for a very long time. They are rugged. Cheaper than a flexalite, and no mods required. You can't shorten the water pump shaft - that would change the orientation of the belt pulley. There's not much room to be gained there - even less with a proper two row radiator. The EA81 AC fan is like 1" thick, and is the perfect fan for the job. Find one and rebuild it. GD

What risk? If you are careful, their's really not much. I dropped a shop rag into the running belts and both snapped, but that was my fualt. I would rather lose a set of belts and only be on the side of the freeway for 10 minutes that to have to be there for 45+ minutes - or more likely get it towed cause it simply would suck to be in the side of the roads around here for that long. Now if you were going to off-road it, then by all means put the covers on. But why you would off-road with an EA82 engine in the first place is beyond me. I sure as hell wouldn't. All mine are street daily's, and if the snow is high enough that it's getting in my engine bay then I'm staying home, or taking my lifted EA81 out to play (still taking the day off). GD

Yep - point the little dot skyward and you can't miss. One tooth off is pretty wonky looking really. The cover marks are superfluous unless you are cross-eyed or something GD

It's a slick little device, but it will only work if a single bulb is burnt out - if both are burnt it will not function. think of it like a two way relay. It's got two electro-magnets that pull on a switch. When both bulbs are good, current energizes both magnets and their two forces exactly cancel each other. If one bulb goes, that circuit is cut, and current no longer engerizes one of the magnets. The other magnet pulls the switch closed and illuminates the dash warning. GD

No need to appoligize. I just wanted to make sure he didn't totally disregard those green's - they have helped me immensly with odd running conditions not detected by U-check. Definately read the codes first as Caleb pointed out. GD

Have you checked the bulbs? There are two seperate elements - one for the tail lamp, and one for the "brake" lamp. When you press the pedal the extra element lights up, and often just he brake element will fail, and the bulb will still work on it's "low" beam element. The low is not as bright, so usually doesn't burn out like the brake element does. GD

Gee, I don't know..... maybe THIS: Not to mention the title of his post: "Earth physics and car..".... not SUBARU, but "CAR". He's asking what we think of this "spot" and if it effects cars in general - not what he can do to fix his subaru. Besides which people are blindly referencing the SPFI SB, when he doesn't even drive an SPFI anymore - he WRECKED it. Jeez - do I have to spell it out slowly? M. E. N. T. A. L. I. L. L. N. E. S. S. But this really belongs in off-topic or some physics forum somewhere. It's not subaru specific, and the question isn't even dealing with the car, but rather the earth's effect on said car when traveling over it. GD

He's claiming it's happening with: 1 carbed EA82 1 SPFI EA82 1 4.3L GM 1 Bicycle. So the SPFI long right hand sweeping turn oil consumption SB doesn't really apply now does it? I'm guessing he's hearing the suspension articulate in way that *sounds* like an engine issue to his (obviously highly calibrated ) ear. Or the tire hits a hollow spot in the pavement, or a slight dip or rise or something. It's obvious that it's not related to the vehicle, so there is either another logical explantion, or he's hearing things (quite possible given the track record here). And what in the natural world does this have to do with old gen, or Subaru's in general? Just cause he was riding in one? Cmon - this is rediculous. Can someone get this junk over to a proper forum?!? GD

Cool - well I guess I need to hook mine up, or drop a tube down under the car. Good thing I change my oil regular like. Thanks for the references - good info. GD

I see what you are saying. The valve would provide some exra flow for fresh air into the passenger side valve cover, but it would have to be hooked up to the valve covers such that one is attached to the PCV, and the other sucks clean air for it to work. Most hot-rods aren't setup that way, and the use of valve cover breather filters is pretty commonplace. I don't see it as being a huge issue. You don't see crankcase explosions from bad PCV valves. They just cause blown seals generally. The pumping action of the pistons creates a swirling action of the air in the crankcase, and it's going to do some fresh air exchange - the PCV would help it to do more, but I don't see it as being horribly detrimental to not have it. GD

Not a lot - I used to use the carb pump in my sedan to redistribute my free gas ability at my last job to all three of my rigs in like 5 gallon increments. It would take like 10-15 minutes for it to pump out 5 gallons. The pressure is like 2.5 psi, and it really doesn't move a lot of fuel at that pressure due to the small line diameter. More fuel at a low pressure like that would really require larger lines. GD

There's a FPCU (fuel pump control unit) attached right above the hood release cable bracket under the dash. It supplies power to the fuel pump only durring cranking, and by using the tach pulse from the coil, when the engine is running. If the engine stops turning, the pump stops pumping. Safety feature in case of an accident. It does provide a short (like 2 seconds) run of the pump when the key hits the "on" posistion, but by the time you get back there to check the voltage it will be gone. GD

"super" invisible? Wouldn't just plain "invisible" do? If the ground is in fact invisible, then I would put a call in to the authorities - I'm betting the FBI probably has an X-File on such things, and may want to have a speak with you. Could be an alien landing site - those are known to cause strange earth anomalies. BTW - since this does not relate to subaru's by your own admission, you should post it in off-topic. Or better yet - find a forum on physics. GD

Yeah - that's how I understand it anyway. Plus when a sealed piston travels up in the cylinder, it displaces exhaust gases out of the cylinder (which is somewhat offset by other cylinders that are travleing downward in their bore's, but it creates airflow anyway), and at the same time it sucks fresh air into the crankcase from the breather tubes in the valve covers. Blow-by is only a small fraction of the composition of what's inside the crankcase - with open breather ports, it's mostly composed of fresh air. GD

That makes no sense to me. If the crankcase "breathes" (and in a real sense it does - it pulls air in and out as the pistons pump) then it is exchangeing air through the valve covers. What action keeps it from exchanging the acidic portions of the crankcase air? "pressure" causes air to move. So "overpressure" is going to move the air around - and it's not a small amount of air either, so I just can't see a way for those gasses to build up with the constant pressure and airflow. GD

As a custom trike, I doubt he has to pass any inspections. The moisture thing just doesn't seem to be a problem in practice. If you were only taking short trips all the time there are many other problems that would get the engine before a bit of condensation would - especially with regular bi-monthly oil changes, which would be required for a vehicle with that sort of usage pattern. As for it "needing" the suction of the intake, the pumping action of the pistons creates a positive flow of air in and out of the breather tubes on the valve covers. I once put a rag over the breather tubes as a makeshift filter, but the backpressure was too great, and the poorly fitting drivers side cam seal was pushed out of the block creating a HUGE oil leak. Put your hand up to the breather tube sometime, and you'll see what I mean. Perhaps it's the opposed cylinder oreintation that creates this flow effect, but at any rate, manifold vacuum is not needed to "pull" the gasses out - they will evacuate on their own provided the the breather tubes are not blocked. GD

I see what nipper is driving at, but really, a bit of condensate inside an engine that is run regularly, or garaged should not make any difference. 180 degree engine temp will drive out any small amounts of condensate rather quickly once the engine reaches operating temp. Also, condensation will genererally collect on the filter element, and not actually make it inside the engine. As a theory, I see what you are driving at, but for a garaged Trike in CA, I can't possibly see this being a problem in practice. Also, I am pretty sure emmissions aren't going to matter for him either. Also, since I'm a really lazy gbastard, the valve cover hoses on my sedan have been OPEN (no filter at all, and no PCV valve connection) for the last 15,000 miles, and I've changed the oil 4 times so far and there is NO evidence of any contamination in the valve covers or anywhere else. And the car is outside all the time, and I live in a wet, wet climate. GD

Mine had the horizon stripe, but not the Brat lettering. Just about anytime is good for me. Being unemployed has that advantage. GD

Thank you for the clarification and the pics. Accurate information is most welcome. I too have noticed that the "pin" in the crank pulley is not always there. My 86 doesn't have one, but with the N/A's it doesn't seem to matter much. GD

Yeah - just as long as you use some filters on the valve cover breather tubes you'll be fine. The PCV, besides being useful for emissions, is also very useful when "sealing" an engine against weather intrusion. Having the valve covers loop back to the intake with a one way check valve is the most appropriate solution if you are putting on a snorkel, and are going through some deep puddles. For trike I can't see this being an issue though. Just thought I would toss that out in case anyone reads this and thinks it's ok to get some bling "V8" style mini-filters for his valve covers and then go hit the deep stuff. GD

Do you need one that already has the graphics on it? Mine needs some body work and paint before I go putting the graphics on, but if you want measurements and what not, that's no problem. I have a friend with an 82 that is pretty cherry - he would probably be up for it as well. I'm in West Linn, and he's in NE. GD