GeneralDisorder

Choke. GD

None... in the US. Nope - requires the same adaptor plate as any other EJ. GD

The cool thing about the hydro lifters is you don't have to worry about the thickness of the shim. It just needs enough to take up the slack, and a little more is OK just to be safe. I might actually use a quarter as the EA82 lifters are pretty good sized. Either that or some arcade nickles. No cash value on those! GD

Part of the problem is the ECU and wireing. I'm sure the wireing is similar between the EJ18 and the EJ20, but some work would be needed obviously. Maybe it would be possible to get the JDM wireing and ECU as well. That would be ideal. Or just build a mega-squirt for it using an EJ18 harness. GD

He's right - people ordering custom ground cams and intending to install them themselves are pretty much responsible for asking questions. They aren't going to offer up this information - besides I doubt they are intimately familiar with soob engines, and just assume you know to ask for them. These guys grind all sorts of stuff every day, and they know "general" guidelines on how to fit cams. Thus the sugestion to use dimes. That's a cool idea anyway. GD

The spacers under the lifters aren't going to be moving at all (so can't do a thing to your lifter bore), so yeah, change actually seems like a good choice. It's very precisely machined unlike most cheap chinese washers. Damn good idea IMO. Use the dimes. The guys at Delta know their stuff. GD

The JDM EJ20 is the better deal on there $450 for a 150 HP EJ. Nice. Use the extra $100 for the adaptor plate. GD

Shouldn't be any cutting involved, and the only welding will be the carrier bearing, and it's pretty minor. But you *could* also make a single peice driveshaft like many of the EA81 crowd have done. But welding a little bracket in place is cheaper than a $150 for a new driveshaft. Really it's not as bad as we make it sound, but it's not something I would sugest to anyone that doesn't have another transportation source. The car will be out of commision for a couple weeks probably. There's always hang-ups, and such - waiting for parts, trips to the junk yard, etc. I could easily do one in a couple days if I had all the parts, and didn't have to work, and really worked full time on the job, but that's not the usual way it works. Usually it's a couple weekends. GD

Well - pretty sure you'll need shims with *any* grind. As previously mentioned the cam won't go into the case if it's enlarged, so they just regrind them without adding metal. Thus all grinds need shims on the EA82. At least that's how it sounds. GD

You have to get the shims from delta. Theys *should* have informed you of this. It won't work without the shims. Your rockers could fall off or get jamed up due to the looseness. Basically the shims just go under the lifters in the head. GD

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