GeneralDisorder

Downdrafts are superior for this application - you don't want the air taking a 90 degree turn. That's the whole point of mounting them on the heads is to get rid of the turns and twists of the manifold, and eliminate the heat of the coolant passage. GD

Wouldn't have worked for me - EA81, so the bracket won't fit. Besides, making some small brackets is easier than drilling out the spot welds on the donor. GD

Before you went into the sand, you should have aired down. At least as soon as you started slipping you should have got out and aired down to 10 psi or less. Digging yourself deeper doesn't help as the body will bottom out. And you should know before hand (via testing) what your most effective aired down pressure is. Being unprepared is the biggest mistake you made really. GD

It was done on vintage JDM EA81 race engines. There's pictures in the USMB galleries. It's no different than VW dual carb setups - you just need to rout the coolant passage from one head to the other. Everything else is the same as any other dual carb engine. The carbs have to be syncro'ed, and VERY carefully tuned. And you do need a vacuum pressure equalizer hose. ... you will want to use the EA82 MPFI heads - they flow better. And you'll need to change the cams, and possibly the compression. Probably best to just start with an EA82 MPFI for it's higher comp. anyway. GD

I had problems with differences in some circuits not having diodes in them on the 80 cluster, but the digital did. I had to add the needed diodes into the circuit before it entered the cluster. But this may not be needed on an 83/84 cluster. Just be aware of differences like that, and look for them on the schematics. Took me weeks to figure that out..... GD

Shouldn't the only differences be the 4WD and Turbo indicators between the Turbo and Non-Turbo Digi's? I'll see if I can find my notes on this. I put an 80 cluster in mine.... it's probably got slight differences. A lot of it should be the same tho. I had the biggest problems with the door ajar/dome light setup. All my ajar lights work, but the dome light does not come on when you open the rear drivers door . I called it good enough and quit screwing with it. I'll help with what I can..... GD

Well - if you used enough that might work. The fundamental problem with *just* RTV, is the shape of the pan lip. It's got ridges at certain intervals. The newer pans are aluminium, and the lip is flatter. GD

Center carrier isn't that hard. Took me about an hour to fab some simple brackets out of some scrap I had. Basically I just used a jack stand, and some wood shims to put the carrier where I wanted it, bent some scrap metal to the right shape (3 lb hammer, anvil, etc), and welded it to the floor. Forgive the nasty welds - the floorpan sheet is thin, and I had to weld peice-meal to keep from setting the insulation and carpeting on fire. That and my welder is out of gas, so had to use flux-core. The carrier mount doesn't have to be anything special - there are no forces at play on the mount other than the weight of the ends of the shaft. And it doesn't need to be perfectly centered either (it's a CV joint). Really this isn't rocket science. Oh - and you can't weld the carrier to the tunnel - it's plastic. GD

We have a lot of interesting cars here, but the nicer stuff doesn't make it to the u-pull-it style yards. In the last week I've seen two Ferrari's, a Lotus Elan (weird), and a Ford GT. But I live right next to a very "rich" neighborhood. I'm right in the valley between all the rich folks up on the hill, and we all shop at the same grocery. Makes for some interesting sights. The older BMW's do sometimes make it to the yards. There was an older 325i convertible at Foster not long ago. But there's no rust here, and so a lot of those type cars end up getting fixed rather than scrapped. GD

Dielectric is non-conductive, so can be used on open circuits without possibility of a short. In this case, the problem is the arcing going on between the contacts just as they close. I think dielectric would just make the problem worse if anything. You could install a capacitor to take the hit each time the button is pressed - rather like a condensor on older style point distributors. It's there to prevent arcing and pitting of the points.... you would likely need a seperate cap for each set of points - at least that seems the easiest way to do it. Probably have to take each switch to peices and do some interesting surgery to get it to work..... a relay would probably be simpler. Giving the points less current (and thus less arcing, less carbon, less maintenance) seems the easiest method to me. GD

That will make the windows go slower. You could probably rig up a relay for the switches so they don't have to carry the motor current. GD

The cheap oil pan gaskets do that. They soak up the oil, and then the bolt pressure gradually "splits" the gasket in half with the center ridge of the pan. Your bolts are not getting "loose", but rather the gasket is getting thinner. I had one of the cheap cork models do that, and as I gradually tightened the bolts over a period of weeks, eventually the gasket just split in half completely and part of it just fell out the side. Dealer only for those pan gaskets. They are cork as well, but are already compressed, and have a coating on them. Prepare the new gasket by coating with a thin layer of RTV, and allowing it to dry before installation. GD

One oil change is sufficient usually. The coolant mixes VERY well with the oil, so once it's drained it's usually almost all gone. I've seen engines sit for a year and the oil/coolant was still mixed. Fill it with cheap wall-mart oil, run it for 20 minutes, and then drain/refill with quality oil. Any remaining water will evaporate with continued use. GD

Really ought to look into how the speeds are controlled on the EA81 and see if it could be retro-fit. They never fail, and AFAIK, there is no resistor block used. It might be in the switch itself..... I'm not sure. GD

The post is 2 years old, and your car is over 20 years old. That makes anything in this post "latest and greatest" by default. And my reply was very informative. If you notice that I was the one that gave out the information originally in this post - that means my reply was reinforcing what I stated 2 years ago. Also, you didn't search enough. This has been covered MANY times, and most recently just a few months back it was discussed at length. Brian just recently got his after a LONG discussion in the off-road section. Try searching for more recent posts. GD

The relays under the drivers kick panel mounted to the steering column of every EA81 and EA82 soob will work the same. That's what I usually use, but BMW's and Jag's are rare in the yards here. GD

How about reading the whole post? Isn't that why you dug up it's grave in the first place? GD

I'm sure they are, but I really don't have a lot of use for one. I've got alternate ways of taking care of most of that sort of thing. While it would be useful, the cost would probably outweigh my personal benefits. GD

And what evidence do you have to sugest that? That's not a terribly common failure, and usually when the turbo's go you start burning oil as well. It *could* be a lot of things. But being the intake gaskets were recently replaced makes them suspect. Cheap gaskets, and improper torque are very common with the intake gaskets. GD

IIRC, you replaced the starter? I've encountered this problem *mostly* with bad ignition switch wireing. The starter could also be at fualt, but I've always been able to fix the problem with a relay in the crank circuit. Any relay will work, yes. GD

There's a lesson for ya - pay THEN troubleshoot. I usually just tow them away so the seller can't watch me do my magic. GD

Mine has been welded for going-on two years now. I've snapped a few rear axles, but not since I went to the deeper EA82 joints on my EA81. If it's welded correctly it will snap the axle long before you are in danger of breaking the diff welds. I welded the spider gears to each other at 8 locations using a grade 8 bolt as filler jammed between the gear teeth. Then welded the spiders to the carrier as well. That's a total of 16 welds. I can't even imagine what it would take to break it, and I'm 100% sure the axle will break first, and if that doesn't break, the diff stub would twist off. GD

$190 for a crank kit? IIRC, Shadow had the one I bought from him done for $150. That was turned, with new undersized main and rod bearings to match. Looks real pretty. Sadly he never had a chance to use it as the engine it was to go in (EA81T) was destroyed in a garage fire. Needless to say I got a good deal on it Heads are usually around $70 for milling (Turbone has tax too) around here. Maybe a little more for guides, but I would say you most likely don't need those. Probably just stem seals. I would say you don't need a hone if you can see the factory cross-hatching. A simple bottle brush swipe will do for seating the new rings. 5 strokes with the block in a parts washing tank full of solvent. Ring sets are about $50 for the chrome variety. Go with ONLY the Fel-Pro gasket set. Cost is a little more, but the gaskets are superior. Then get the intake, exhaust, oil pump, oil pan, and rocker cover seals from the dealer. GD

It does actually - the EJ engines have bolts holding the cam bearings in don't they? And not a problem on the EA81 as the cam bearings are split with the case. GD

No - it's a coil of "resistor wire", soldering it will destroy it easily, and even if you got a "glob" of solder on the wire you would just create a hot spot that would burn through virtually instantly. I'm sure Ed probably has had a hard time finding these, but I've owned 5 EA82's at various times, never had one fail, and when I did go looking for one (I accidentally destroyed it while cleaning out a mouse nest), I snagged about 3 that were all perfect as well. I grabbed enough of them that I would hopefully get one or two home in one peice, and installed without breaking it. They tend to be rather fragile. But emperical evidence sugests that they survive well here in OR, but apparently not in WA. GD