GeneralDisorder

You can use the points and condensor disty if you do a MS setup. That's the key to using this system with any engine - MS and then just use whatever FI parts you want from any manufacturer. GD

They did - the 4EAT (FT4WD, or AWD if you like - 4 speed auto with overdrive) came out in 87, and the 3AT was only used on the low and mid-range models. GD

The proper term is "driveline assembly". Not technically a propeller shaft as this isn't a boat. Same idea though. The EA82 driveline has a "front" and "rear" section, and the "carrier bearing" which is a CV joint. Yes - as stated just remove the rear portion of the shaft, the diff, and the rear axles. Won't hurt a thing. GD

Hope you have an open mind then The facts are in, and sadly recycling does NOT save trees, and in fact in almost all cases (alumnium is one of the very few exceptions, but there is real money in alumnium) it is worse for the environment (and air quality) to "curbside" recycle. I'm not talking about industrial and commercial recycling as thats been going on for decades because it just makes sense, and it's profitable. Have a read of this: http://www.perc.org/pdf/ps28.pdf And download the Penn & Teller BuII$hit eppisode about recycling from your favorite file sharing network. It's almost sad in a way, but it's true. We have all been brainwashed. I told the collection company to take my recycle bins away because ALL my stuff is going in the trash. GD

That is correct and normal. The 3AT is not an electronic transmission - it is entirely mechanical. Shifting to 2nd LOCKS 2nd in regardless of speed. It will start in 2nd, and it will NEVER upshift or downshift when 2nd or 3rd is locked. GD

I confer with the skipolator. I've got a 3AT 3-door that does the exact same thing. And it's SPFI. I've tuned it - new O2, new plugs, wires, etc. Replaced the TPS with another, cleaned the MAF then tried another one, changed out the CTS, etc, etc. I took it on about 10 drives in D-Check and the engine checks out. Has good power in 3rd on the freeway, and idles real nice. All this did help *some* but it still isn't right. BUT - just like your's it wants to bog out when starting from a dead stop - especially on hills, but it's intermittant - almost like a valve in the tranny is sticking. I replaced the modulator, and swapped a different gov. both from a known strong 3AT to NO effect at all. It's definately starting out in 1st cause I can feel all the shifts (Caddilac it aint). Following the troubleshooting in the FSM it lists the control valve assembly as the probable culprit. I got it going as good as I can, but since I have no intention of keeping the 3AT, I'm not about to drop the pan and service that sucker. I sugest perhaps starting with all the above sugestions on the engine side - rule that out as much as possible first. Check all that timing stuffs, etc. Then if it's still hanging up, have the tranny flushed and the filter replaced. If that don't do it, then it might be time for a 5 speed swap. GD

I fixed my AC on my EA82 sedan (needed new o-rings and charging), and this last summer I can say that with ice-cold AC, and my Weber I didn't notice any real drop in mileage. I was driving 150 - 300 miles a day at the time, and filling the tank every morning. I tracked my mileage between 27 and 29 just like it always is all year round. And some of those days were up near 100, and I had the AC running cranked for several hundred miles. On the days before I fixed it with the windows down my mileage came down into the 25-26 range. I calculated my mileage EVERY morning as we had our own fueling pump at work and I pumped my own gas. I ALWAYS topped off the tank exactly the same way and it was always the same pump, and the same gas. GD

What brand of intake manifold gakets did you use? How much water is in the oil? If it blew that hard, then you should be able to shoot water out of the radiator just cranking the engine over with the starter, and if it runs at all, it will run very, very poorly. If it's just some on the breather hoses, then that usually indicates bad intake gaskets. GD

Officially according to subaru it can take up to an hour for lifter tick to go away after the engine has been dissasembled. Sometimes they tick, sometimes they don't. I always dead crank the engine till I see the oil-pressure guage start to rise before I put fire to the it. That said, it may NEVER completely go away if the lifters are worn, which fortunately isn't terribly common. It's usually the oil pump and seal, and sometimes the cam carrier o-ring that causes it. Usually the oil pump and seal are the worst offender though. If the engine hasn't been apart, then likely it always ticked, and probably will continue to do so until you adress the issue causing air bubbles in the oil. They rarely "bleed down" over time unless the lifters are already worn. GD

Sounds like valve stem seals, yeah. You can replace them without removing the heads. You pressureize the cylinder with shop air to hold the valve closed, and then take the spring off and install the new seal. GD

I'm going to go against the grain here..... get a toyota and join a yota forum GD

CTS is the coolant temp sensor. It's on the front left of the thermostat housing. I remove the solenoid and soak the IAC in carb cleaner overnight - works very nicely and looks new again. Sounds like the TPS is the major problem though - the idle switch isn't reporting to the ECU that your throttle is closed. The

Sure sounds like HG's to me. They aren't that bad - I've done half a dozen of them now - takes about a day. GD

That be an EA81 core fo-sho mate. No worky on the EA82. No rubbery bits on the EA82 core's - they have tubes snaking all the way to the firewall. The EA81 is done that way because there is a "control valve" that goes between the core and the supply tubes that can shut off the coolant flow to the core. The EA82 accomplishes the same thing by re-routing airflow instead thus allowing the core to remain in the coolant loop at all times. Also eliminates the valve which occasionally fails, and makes it much easier to bleed the air out of the core so they don't "gurggle" like the EA81 cores often due from trapped air. GD

Verify the operation of the IAC, and CLEAN it so it moves smoothly. Your symptoms are totally classic for IAC failure. Also verify the operation of the CTS. Code 42 indicates the TPS is shot or out of adjustment - you need to either adjust the TPS so the idle switch is working, or get another one. Something is definately wrong with the idle switch in it tho. GD

It's quite possibly the control valve assembly in the tranny. Tune up the carb and see if it helps, and definately check the modulator. If neither helps, then the control valve assembly in the tranny needs to be serviced. This requires dropping the pan and removing the entire assembly - taking it all apart, etc. Best done by a transmission shop that knows about such things. They are not for beginners. GD

Yeah - that's normal. The 3AT's suck with a passion. GD

You see what I mean now right?? GD

Yeah - runs great. I just took a load of "loyale" to the scrap man. Along with the van, and my Brat I got $31.20 for almost the entire body of a 91 Loyale minus the doors and hood. I cut it into about 15 peices GD

The EGR system *should* be introducing inert exhaust on a properly tuned carb. There will of course be trace amounts of both even on a near perfect system, and even more on badly tuned engines. It doesn't really cause a "runability" problem when the engine vacuum is low (off-idle). The problem comes in when you open it at idle and it allows engine vacuum to by-pass the carb and not pull in any fuel and fresh air. This is why it gets "delayed ported" vacuum that is exposed to the intake just shortly after the port for the distributor advance. O2 is introduced (on the carb models) by the air suction valve system (passive "smog pump" basically) for the catalyst to perform at peak. That's a completely unrelated emmissions device. You are correct that it's for emmissions only, and does not harm the engine life, performance, or econemy when it's operating properly. By removing it you are simply adding to the pollution problem. But that's enough of a reason to keep it in my opinion. This is all academic though - not to mention it's been discussed to DEATH many times before on here. I was simply pointing out that BDG's methods and REASONS for removing it are unfounded, and simply absurd. GD

I agree - no problem with point/condensor other than the extra maintenance interval. Pretty good record. I've had floats stick (not fun), I've clogged the crap out of the primary and idle circuits to where I had to remove the top of the Weber and blow the passages out - that's happened several times. Better air filtration would probably have prevented that though. I was still able to fix it in the field - borrowed a can of carb cleaner and 20 minutes later it was all good again. Feedbacks are just nasty - don't ever get one. I had the oxygen sensor actually fail in my EA81 feedback hitachi and the engine just died at a stop light. I pulled the O2 plug and was able to drive it that way for a while. What a mess. But really, you can't say that you wouldn't have had the same good luck with FI - and generally speaking for "john public" the SPFI cars are the ones in the EA82 family generally considered the most "maintenance free", and "trouble free". Cars (and especially subarus) are designed to be as trouble free as possible, and that includes both carbs and FI systems. Just because it's got electronics doesn't make it more or less reliable than a system without. You still need good design principles. The carb has 100 years of this to draw on - they have come a long way to be sure. FI drew on all that experience, and brought new ideas and possibilities to the table. It definately is capable of better mileage at the same or better power than any carb ever devised. Even the feedback couldn't match the SPFI for economy or performance, and just look at the mess they created trying.... The SPFI has the performance of a Weber, more econemy than a feedback Hitachi, and is more simple and more reliable than either. Strickly speaking if you want total reliabilty - get a horse. This is an extreme example, and it's neither economical or performance minded (it also frequently sucks, and smells bad), but it illustrates my point. There's trade-offs to be made, and in the case of carbs the problem is that development has moved on. The difference in econemy and performance is small enough to be overlooked for now, but sadly I don't think that's going to be the case much longer. If the next few years brings even higher oil prices I think we are all going to be looking at either a Justy, or some form of fuel cell or something. The big win for FI for what I do is angle, and altitude compensation. There are of course carbs that could do both, but not that are easily and readily adapatable to the subaru. Plus for my daily the econemy and power is very handy. And I enjoy messing with things like MegaSquirt and such. Besides - who's going to help all those hapless SPFI owners if some of us don't learn how it works GD

I knew autozone couldn't be right about them being discontinued . That just makes no sense - if they were going to do that for old cars they would have discontinued the EA81 axles I've been buying long ago. Well that does suck - maybe just get some boot's for now and a couple tubes of grease. Here - read my write up on axles. Give you a good idea of how to replace those boots. It's actually quite easy: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/axle_rebuilding.html BTW - what does it take to establish an account with them? GD

That's cool - but carbs are very simple. It would take only a few minutes and a couple diagrams to get the idea. It's just a venturi (speeds up the airflow) and a tube leading to a bucket of fuel. The engine vacuum and the low pressure caused by the venturi effect of speeding the air up "sucks" fuel into the air stream like you are sucking it out of a gas tank. The tube has a special sized hole in the bucket end called a "jet" and that limits how much fuel can be sucked thus "tuning" the carb is a matter of picking the right sized jet. Everything on the carb is about this principle. You have one jet for each barrel, and then you generelly have an "idle" jet that's only used for idling. The rest of the parts are largely ancillerary to the engine actually running - like FI there is a cold enrichment. The plates at the top of the carb block air flow - less air = more fuel sucked out of the "bucket". The accelerator pump smoothes out the transistion from one "bucket hose" (jet) to the next by squirting fuel anytime the throttle is depressed, and the float maintains the correct fuel level in the "bucket" (float chamber). You have a couple vacuum ports that run the EGR and the Distributor advance on the front. Really that about covers it for basic carb theory. Simple. It can be a real biotch to troubleshoot at times, but hey - that's what WE are here for right? GD

I understand, but the only "electronics" in the FI are the ECU, coil ignitor, and the optical pickup in the disty. All are extremely rugged, and personally I've only ever heard of the ignitors failing occasionally. They are small and you can easily carry a spare. Besides that, you HAVE an ignitor in your carb disty unless you are running points and condensor from an EA71 which I doubt. So really you aren't losing any reliability there. The disty's suffer from shaft bushing failure occasionally, but then so do the carb models, and it's less common on the SPFI as the disty has pin bearings on the shaft. The SPFI disty is also easily dissasembled and the bearings replaced - the carb model has the be pressed apart as the reluctor is press fit onto the shaft. The ECU is amazingly rugged - I've never heard of one failing. The one exception is they will be immediately destroyed if you hook up the battery in reverse. But you aren't going to do that now are you? And the point is that if any of these things fail you can carry spares and swap them out just as easily as a carb. Easier in fact in most cases. If the ignitor on your carb goes you have to replace the disty pickup - on the SPFI it's the coil bracket so a lot easier to swap out. If your disty shaft bushings fail swapping that is the same as the carb but easier since you don't have to mess with any vacuum pots. And if the ECU goes.... well that would be pretty obvious too for a lot of reasons. The O2 monitor lamp on the side of it probably wouldn't give you a model code - it would just act "dead". So what do you carry for spares in a carb model (fuel and ignition)? Here would be my list: Disty Coil Carb stuff (cleaner, adjustment tools, etc) SPFI: Disty Coil+Bracket ECU MAF TPS And of those I would expect to need only the ignitor, and *maybe* the TPS, but likely if the TPS developed a flat spot I would just drive it home anyway. But of course I like to be prepared, so I carry all the spares I could need - in case lightning strikes my ECU or something The reality is that the carb has more moving parts, and parts that move fail a lot more often than solid-state electronics. Plus learning how to check the codes for the FI is easy, and the ECU will TELL you what's wrong. How much easier can it be?? 10's of thousands of Loyale owners can't be *that* wrong. The first SPFI conversion setup I got came from a 90 Loyale with 248,000 miles on it. Car was wrecked and the engine was run without oil or coolant till it basically seized (radiator split, and the oil filter was gashed open - they rallied it around his property till it stopped running). The SPFI system ran fine from it once transplanted into my Brat - even abused with high mileage it started right up with just a few cranks. GD

That sucks - did they say when they might be able to help you? GD