GeneralDisorder

Probably some time in 87 they changed them. I did an 87 a month ago that was rubber only, and some of you guys have seen rubber/metal, so that's probably a good guess. As to you 93 having more power - sure. They probably made some changes over the years to improve valve springs, and it might even have a different cam profile. With the Weber on my 86 though, it goes very well. For being low geared, and 4WD, it moves with plenty of quickness. It was horribly slow with the original Hitachi. GD

Nope - have to take the manifold off. Use new gaskets FROM THE DEALER. Trust me on this one. GD

RAM gets 140 HP from the EA81 with modified stock heads, cams, MPFI, etc. Subaru race EA82T's were 175 HP. There have been reports of someone is AUS getting around 280 HP from an EA82T. I don't know what the reliablilty was, but its' still an impressive number even if it wasn't reliable. GD

My AC works (I charged it with vintage R12 cans ), and I'm pretty sure that the clutch fan is there to cool the compressor when running the AC at a dead stop. Without the clutch fan, the compressor and compressor clutch would get dangerously hot, and the high side of the system would ice up.... very hot + very cold = all kinds of havoc. My GF's coupe had a completely seized AC compressor and a broken clutch fan (smooshed durring a front-end collision). When I hooked up the disconnected wire to the compressor clutch you could shut the engine down by pressing the AC button on the dash. Compressor wouldn't budge AT ALL - would stop the engine dead. I think I may see how the EA81 electric AC fan fits on the EA82 radiator, and wire it to come on with the AC compressor clutch. GD

Yes - 87 and newer use a hot-wire. It cleans the same way. Flapper door style are found on MPFI/Turbo units from 83 to 86. GD

Basically means you have to strip the engine down to the bare block and heads. Yes - it can be done in the car easily. I did it today and yesterday all at once. Took about 12 hours total probably. But I did a lot of cleaning, degreaseing, etc, and I did head gaskets too, which is a whole extra couple hours of taking the exhaust off, taking the heads off, cleaning the bolts, gasket sufaces, etc, and then careful reinstallation and proper torque. Just the HG's add another 4 hours to the job I would say. Cam o-rings and oil-pump seals could easily be done on in an afternoon. Just start removing things. You will need intake gaskets, cam case o-rings (there's two of them - one on each cam case), and RTV for the cam cases. Oh - and assembly lube to hold the rockers in place when you install the cams. DONT use grease - it's not oil soluble, and will clog the lifters. Leave you timing belt covers off, remove the air injection system, and replace some seals.... good times, good times. GD

Yes - definately. The picture you see is from an 86 sedan in fact. Could also be oil-pump mickey-mouse o-ring gasket, or also dirty lifters (in my opinion, that's usually not the case). Usually it's from air being sucked into the lifters from somewhere. Mostly this o-ring on the cam tower, and the oil-pump gasket. And check your oil level to make sure it's full. Quickest way to noisy lifters is an empty oil pan That one in the picture is HARD - like petrified hard. There's nothing rubber about it after 20 years in a 190 degree engine. I would highly recommend replacing them, and the oil-pump gaskets. It's inexpensive (the parts anyway), and the labor isn't too bad. Gives you a chance to inspect a lot of things down there in the timing belt areas. GD

As far as I can tell, the clutch fans were only on AC equipped models. The few non-AC EA82's I've worked on did not have them. Much like the second electric fan on the EA81's that only came with AC. GD

Well - I'll point out that ALL EA81 radiators were 2 row. And most EA82 radiators were single row. That probably accounts for most of the differences people notice. Haveing twice as many rows makes it a lot harder to clog an EA81 stock radiator. It also seems that most folks that manage to pick up a double row EA82 unit have no problems at all with cooling even on the turbo units. So probably if you compared an EA82 two row, and an EA81 two row the EA82 version would win just being that it's wider..... The problem on the EA82's is that two row's are either extremely rare, or were never done at all from the factory. I've yet to see one anyway... GD

Best method by FAR is switch to the outboard pump and belts. That tensioner setup is silly, and I don't mean in the "haha funnay" way. GD

Just for future reference, the metal ones are availible at www.thepartsbin.com, so the problem has obviously been noticed even by the aftermarket. That's a rare occurance. http://oem.thepartsbin.com/parts/thepartsbin/wizard.jsp?year=1988&make=SU&model=LOY-4WD-001&category=All&part=Cam%20Housing%20O-Ring&dp=false GD

Lots of folks have them - I made one. Just take an old rear drum and knock out two of the studs. You could post in the wanted forum, but people with 15" rims don't usually get rid of them. GD

You need to look for Pugeot rims. Call around to some wrecking yards. Subaru didn't offer anything in a 15" for the 4x140 cars. You can drill 15" chevy 6 lug rims too. That's what a lot of us off-roaders use. They are heavier duty rims anyway, and you only need to drill two holes to make them fit. 6x5.5" is equivelent to 6x139.8mm. GD

I did have one lifter slightly complaining most all the time on my 86 sedan on the passenger side. It was a very slight tick so I mostly ignored it. The time came for head gaskets, and what do I find? Now I'm about 95% sure this o-ring is original to the car. Head gaskets had the Subaru logo on them so were either original or replaced with dealer new parts. But they definately looked original, and none of the bolts looked touched to me. None of the usual "mechanic's been here" droppings that I could find.... This leads to an interesting question - exactly when did they realize that a "normal" o-ring wasn't good enough and switch to the metal impregnated form we all see from the dealer today? The new ones I got from Lithia Subaru were definately rubber-over-metal style. Which leads me to wonder how many people out there have TOD they simply will never get rid of without replacing these? Was there a recall at some point? A service bulletin perhaps? This sedan I have was meticulously maintained by an old man - he wrote EVERYTHING down in the manual - even circled the original brand of spark plugs that came with the car from the dealership...... yeah, clearly a nutball, but I have to admit this is the best running carbed EA82 I've seen with 230,000 on it. Never ticked any major amount for me in the last 20,000 I've had it, and all evidence so far sugests the slight tick I had to be gone with the new case o-rings..... What say ye? *edit* I should probably mention this isn't the first time I've found non-metal rings. I replaced what appeared to be original HG's on an 87 Carbed engine about a month ago, and found the same plain rubber rings in it. So if those are to be beleived, the change happened after 87 sometime. GD

Inboard AC pump yes? Pretty much you have to pry it down and tighten it up. It takes about 3 people, a tow truck, and a donkey usually..... Try an actual pry-bar or I like to use a long flat blade screwdriver sometimes. Also taking the pulley off and lubing the track and sometimes a little grinding on the back-side-nut-slider-dealy helps too. But yes - it definately is teh suck, and I feel your pain. :-\ GD

Someone not long ago used some wheel of a Mazda I think - he was asking around on the board about hooking up the cruise control buttons on it.... you might search for a post along those lines. GD

Solved! Third radiator was the charm. I have no idea why the other two radiators I had around (including the one working perfectly prior to the water pump eppisode) wouldn't do the trick.... I put in a 91 Loyale radiator I had around. I wasn't real sure about it since I smacked it around pretty hard when I was taking the engine out of the car (darn torque converter), but it looked like a replacement. It's got a strange lower hose as well - the lower output comes out straight like an EA81, so it's got a full S-curve hose on it. But it works perfect. The temp is 1/4 on the guage and solid as a rock even at 80 MPH. Maybe it was just air in the system and I had to get it hot and flowing a couple times to make it happen. I'm certain the HG's were blown after the water pump went. One cylinder was 20 psi lower than the other 4, and it would heat up to red hot just sitting at an idle. So new Fel-Pro's, OEM intake gaskets, and new OEM cam case o-rings. Thanks for the support everyone! GD

Nope - the Imp is different. GD

Ok. It does spin freely with just a tiny amount of fluid resistance. If you spin it it stops after about 1/2 revolution. It's got maybe 1/32" of play to it - not much at all really - just enough that you can feel a slight movement if you grab it firmly. It makes a lot of noise when you rev the engine and keep it reved... the sound of lots of air being moved (this is with the hood up). I thought they were kind of supposed to sound like that..... GD

Hhhhmm - pretty high up too. Starting to sound unlikely that it could have shot stuff up there and into that hole.... but then it is spinning pretty fast. The pump was totally detroyed - the shaft had 1/2" of play in it as the bearing was GONE. Pretty amazing, and there was really no warning. It just went - started overheating, and by the time I got pulled over it was toast. Had to call AAA. Thanks for the pic - that at least gives me some confidence in the size of that passage. GD

Not a cheap pump - that's the last thing I suspect at this point. It's an OEM part - same make that SOA uses, just with Parut packaging. Pump isn't the issue - of that I'm certain. GD

Yeah - I put a Parut on it (OEM if I'm not mistaken) - cast impeller. The clutch fan is still equipped, and you can definately hear that loud sucker spinning up.... can an overheat damage those? I also have the radiator fan wired for permanent operation as the thermoswitch has always been dead on this one. GD

Not rebuilt or swapped. Original to the car. It was my daily till the water pump went last month and I switched to the Brat - I had put 20,000 on it when the water pump blew. I just pulled it all apart and did everything - head gaskets and up (230k miles - I figured it was probably due anyway). Still overheating. Never had this problem till I changed the pump, but overheating can cause all sorts of gremlins.... GD

Engine running drains the battery - your alternator isn't keeping up. The alternator provides power to the running engine, and charges the battery. Really the battery is only there to start the car. Once it's running the system is self-sustaining, unless the alternator is dead. Then it will run till the battery drains and die. The voltage regulator in the alternator is probably shorted and draining the battery when the engine is off as well. GD

Radiator was fine before the water pump, and I tried another good one I have to no effect. Cap and thermostat are brand new. As of doing the head gaskets (finished today), it only overheats when driving. If it sits idle it will start to cool down. I took it on the freeway, and it got about 1/4" from the red. Never got into the red, but much too hot just the same. GD