GeneralDisorder

Depends - if the valve is stuck because it got bent when it overheated, then you need to take the head to a machine shop and have a "valve job" done. Likely it needs milling too if it got that hot. Is it still stuck? Can you see it compressed? Or did the valve just stick when it was hot like the one I did? GD

Mostly, light pulleys do some (not much, but *some*) good on engines that use a vibration dampening pulleys(heavy). The EA81 pulley is already very light. You would save virtually nothing in wieght, it would cost too much, and yeah.... just a wasted effort. Now if you were making a pulley for crank fired ignition, then you might as well try to make it light also. But that's a different scenario. GD

This seems to be somewhat common on the EA82's. I've seen it once as well. In my case the head gasket on that side was blown, so I suspect that a severe overheat caused the valve to seize temporarily. Rocker arm was just lying there in the cam case. I drove it on 3 cylinders about 20 miles home when I bought it. Replaced the HG (but reused all the old rockers and stuff. Didn't mill the heads either as cost was a severe issue for the owner), and although it ran a little warm after that till the radiator was replaced, the car has about 15,000 on it since then and the valve has not attempted this strange feat again. It does burn a little oil (little puff on take-off - probably valve stem seals or that stem is scored internally. Anyway, it runs fine, if maybe a little low on the power spectrum. Still has the Hitachi though. GD

Brumby's in AUS didn't have rear bumpers. Just the end peices. At least that's what I've always seen in the pictures, and it was discussed on here a few years ago. GD

The problems with testing all the components is there are no codes. The thing stubbornly refuses to give me any information to work with. Also this engine ran fine when I pulled it. So basically everything is the same (even the same exhaust and 02 sensor). I even tried the ECU from the donor car. Something is up with the wireing. I've tested all the grounds and power supplys, and I've got the whole system running off a new 12 guage 20 amp circuit directly off the battery with ignition controlled relays. Something isn't right, and I'm about to say screw it and build a mega-squirt for it. I'm assuming that the 02 monitors random flashing is "monitoring" the 02 sensor, and trying to tell me it's rich or lean or something. But I don't know what it means. The partial 89 FSM PDF says nothing about it (that I can find). GD

Generally, the EA engines will wear out the main bearings first. It will not cause the engine to "burn" any oil. Usually oil burning is caused by valve stem seals in these engines. The rings almost never show any wear at all. The rod bearings can wear as well, but these make a light metallic knock under load, and no noise at all when just idleing under no load. The dull thudding noise points to worn main bearings as a likely cause. Usually they will last a long time this way. I ran an EA81 with bad mains (3 times the upper limit for wear) for over 40,000 miles with that dull knock, and it never gave me any problems. Still running when I recently pulled it for a performance rebuild. Check out the timing belt, and accesorie belt stuff - get a bit of 5/8" heater core hose and use it like a stethescope to your ear to pinpoint the noise. GD

EA82 SPFI and 5 speed D/R are setup in my Brat, and after driving for a while I get a code 51. Might as well get that to go away (I don't like it throwing codes in general). I'm assuming the switch is inside the 5 speed D/R? What pins to use on the trans side of the connector? All I have is the partial 89 engine PDF, and EA81 manuals, so.... I could trace it with a MM I suppose, but it's a pain to hook up to the MM, and shift the transmission at the same time by myself. 02 monitor lamp flashes irregularly (when it has no codes).... what is it telling me? There's no rhyme or rythm to it - it's just blinking on and off. Sometimes long blinks, and sometimes very short, and sometimes nothing for a few seconds. I haven't been able to get a smooth idle out of this thing, and right now I can't get it to idle below 1500 - 2000. I just cleaned the IAC, and even replaced it with another one I had cleaned to no effect. What's going on? GD

If you use open blocks (without a tube running through them) and 1/4" wall tube, you can use the stock body mount bolts and lock washers on the top of the block, and new hardware on the bottom of the blocks. I've never had a problem with it this way. The problem comes when you are using 4" long bolts. They are both expensive, and require at least regular checking for loosening. The blocks can be built cheaper (I guess that's the reason, seems like a lot more work to me) out of thiner walled tubing, with a support in the center for the bolt to run through, but for a 4 inch lift all my 1/4" wall blocks were $5 each, and I that's including having the steel yard cut them the tubing into 2"x2"x4" blocks for me with their bandsaw (water cooled), and all I had to do was drill them. That's $90 for all the blocks to do a body lift (pre-cut mind you - they are only about $2.50 each without cutting). You re-use the same bolts for the body, so you only need about $20 worth of hardware to bolt the suspension components to the blocks. I've done four lifts now this way, and NEVER has anything come loose. GD

It has several causes actually. One is low oil pressure - usually caused by the pump-to-block o-ring gasket getting hard, or partially getting sucked into the main oil gallery and allowing air bubbles into the oil. The air gets trapped in the lifters. Another is dirty lifters - not changing the oil often enough or useing poor quality oil will cause the lifters to not fully inflate. And the last reason is worn lifters - this can become an issue with engines that have been allowed to tick for a long time, or have been run low on oil too many times. The lifters get worn from having air bubbles inside them. At this point, R&R of the oil system, complete cleaning, and replacement of worn lifters is needed to bring them back. Often if the engine is in this bad of shape, the main bearings are probably worn as well. For me, if an oil pump/reseal, and changing the oil several times doesn't do it, I would just find another engine to transplant my new oil pump/seals over to. GD

They don't always tick. Depends on maintenance. I've seen ones with a little over 100k that ticked something aweful, and I currently own one with 228k and nary a tick to be seen. It's all about clean oil, and good oil pressure. GD

Wow! - a STD/DL dash..... um..... what exactly is your point? GD

Outer - if you loosen the single 12mm "set" bolt holding the trailing arm to the torsion bar, it slides right off. You can then adjust it by one spline up or down to suit your needs. Watch out tho - one spline is all you should go. One spline works out to 3-4" at the wheel. It moves a LOT, thus the need to adjust the height bolt on the torsion tube for fine adjustment. GD

You can just use a nice welding wire, or if you like the pre-made replacement cables. The biggest problem with the stock wires is they are aluminium. That's one reason they had to be so big. It also unfortunately means they don't take well to flexing, so often I have found stress cracks in the cable near the ends. Nice big copper wires are best, and I usually end up replaceing them. The whole tape mess, and booties and stuff isn't really needed, it's just there to look nice, and prevent accidental arcing when working under the hood. No mistake tho - that's stock! The other problem that causes the "click no start" is the ignition switch harness. The connector under the dash gets burnt from prolonged starting attempts, or from just cranking too long. It's best to install a relay in this circuit anyway, and just makes sense because it's very easy to run a nice 12 or 14 guage wire through a relay to the start solenoid, and control it from the original switch harness. GD

Hhhmmm - interesting. I've only ever seen the Gen 1 stuff myself. I'm betting that they are out of production (as the Gen 1 covers are too). I've seen the carpet covers. Those don't look too bad, and are relatively cheap. GD

Can't he go to some other shop? That's just wack. Hhhhmmm - my parts quick reference shows this: Stop Light, High Mounted - 84701GA030 But it doesn't show a bulb?!? It does for everything else. Weird. GD

Warpage has nothing to do with bubbles or oil. It's heat - plain and simple. Get it to the red, and more than likely the heads will not come off straight. It's a subaru thing. Ever single engine I've taken down for head gaskets required milling with one exception - I just tore down the engine from my Brat, which had new HG's about 30k ago, AND the heads were already milled. It was severely overheated about a week after the HG's were done. No warpage, but it's almost certainly due to the fact they have *already* been warped and milled due to overheating. Can you get an engine and harness from the junk yard? Sure you could. You are still looking at a $300+ junk yard bill, and then you still have to get the adaptor plate ($100 - $200 plus shipping depending on who you buy from), drill the flywheel, etc. You aren't going to really save any money using the junk yard for a swap like that. You can easily buy a wrecked legacy that runs for as much or less. And an engine from the yard has unknown history. GD

Glad you got it sorted out. The brass hose barb must have fallen out of your's. When they run right, the weber is a beutiful thing. GD

I've taken the EA81 dashes out, and while it is a bit time consuming, once you know where the bolts are it's not all that bad. I can take out a "donor" dash from a parts car in 30 minutes or so.... of course that's not being all that gentle to the surroundings. Once you remove the steering column it's not so bad. GD

You can install a 4WD rear torsion bar, clock the trailing arms one notch lower, and then use the height adjust bolt in the center of the torsion tube to bring it back up a bit to the desired level. Custom springs or cutting the springs for the front are the best ways to lower it, but the camber will be ugly unless you make slotted adjusters for the top of the struts. You are aware of what's entailed in "making it AWD" I take it? It's not the simplest task in the world, but there's a few ways it can be done. If it's 2WD, it's going to be a pain to make the tranny fit. Been there, bought the sports watch. GD

Yes - but they didn't make those covers for Gen 2's. Which oddly enough are the more popular of the two. All the EA81 GL's use the same dash so if you produce covers they would probably be pretty popular. What would the price look like? It's not impossible still to find uncracked dashes, but if the product looked reasonable, and wasn't priced out of this world you could certainly have a lot of folks looking for them. I would probably go for one just to have around for later.... GD

If it's nice - depending on condition - anywhere between about $2,000 and $8,000. GD

In and of itself, LPG could care less what the internal workings of the engine are. There is no reason to choose the EA81, EA82 or any other engine for that matter. LPG does tend to run a bit on the hot side, but the N/A EA82 and the EA81 seem to be about even in the head gasket race. They both get a bit on the finicky side approaching 200k miles or so. A good overheat or two at that kind of mileage and you can kiss the head gaskets good-bye. Frankly it's best to just replace them in a wholesale preemtive strike if you are going for a special setup like LPG. As for the timing belts and muck issue.... hands down the EA81 is certainly prefereble in that respect. I also prefer it for easy maintenance and repair. Most jobs involving the front of the engine - water pump, oil pump, main seal, etc are all much easier to get at. GD

Startmart or the like - starter/alternator shop etc. A friend of mine stopped at one and got a smaller V pulley for the GM caddy alt he's using for like $7. Worked quite well to keep it spinning fast enough at idle. GD

Anything is possible. Instead I'll answer this question "Do you think it would be cost/time effective to replace the clutch pack with shafts/gears?" No. You are talking major surgery on the trans, and a lot of special machine work on equipment that is hundreds if not thousands of $$ per hour. The 3AT is old junk - not worth the effort. Find a 4EAT and have it locked up 100% to the rear output. EA series 4EAT would work, but an EJ transmission may be easier to find. Adaptor plates for the EA/EJ combination are pretty availible now, or just use the EJ engine too. GD

Driveplate will fit. EA82 TC timing marks aren't going to line up. You will have to work around that. If you are careful, you can transfer the marks from the EA81 flywheel to the EA82 TC. I wouldn't run it in RWD. The auto used a viscous clutch pack to drive the rear output. I just recently aquired an EA82 auto with a broken front axle. I drove it about 15 miles in RWD, and the clutch pack ate itself about 3 miles from my house. It now no longer has 4WD. It's now a FWD transmission. Parts car anyway, but I'm still going to have to say it's a bad idea. The rear output on the 3AT's just isn't designed for this. The later 4EAT is different, and can be locked to a 50/50 split using some trickery with the valves. It does require splitting the case for the changes as these are AWD transmissions. GD