GeneralDisorder

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

Probably won't feel anything - definately not till the throttle is opened, and then the engine speed is too fast for you to tell. Too much vibration, hot metal, etc. I doubt you would feel anything with the size of the hole anyway. That's weird that it's not fitted with a barb there - must be REALLY old. I have a couple 1980's DGV's and they have both. And I have a holley 5200 with some vac fittings too. But then it came off a Ford in the 70's so that really doesn't surprise me. Don't worry about the hijack - his question was answered. GD

You should start a new post - you'll get better response. When you do - tell us where the oil is comming from. The stock turbo is oil cooled, so if it's leaking there you may not be getting sufficient oil flow through the turbo. GD

2WD rear wheel bearings are completely different than 4WD. You guys are talking apples and oranges and aren't even aware of it ..... yeah. You *can* overtighten the 2WD ones a lot easier than the 4WD version. But it's possible on both. Just really, really stinkin hard on the 4WD's. 140lbs is the axle nut spec on the 4WD (not sure about the 2WD, but the bearing is a lot smaller...). GD

The hole neck's down inside - the barb is the size for a regular vac hose, but the hole into the throttle bore is very tiny - maybe 1/32". Probably why your probing bottomed out. Yeah - on the EA82's it's a tight fit. I had to put the hose on, and then mount the carb with it attached on the one's I've done. GD

Not entirely true. The EA81T is much better than the later EA82T. They generally do NOT crack heads like the later models, and frankly they generally don't blow HG's either - especially if the recall has been done that changed them to water cooled turbo's instead of the orginal oil cooled units. If it's just blowing out the tailpipe and not in the oil, then it's very possible that it just needs new manifold gaskets, which is about a 2 hour job, and the gaskets are $3 each from the dealer. It's a common failure, especially if they were replaced with non-OEM intake gaskets in the past, or not torqued properly (12 ft/lbs) or both. The automatic transmissions (all EA81T's were originally auto's) are widely considered to be junk, and generally failed long before the engine. Still they can attain 200k or more if properly maintained, and not overheated or used to tow heavy loads. And yes - *somthing* is fishy with the 1987 part. Either the engine isn't original, it's not a turbo, or that's the wrong year. 83/84 only. GD

The pulley's come off pretty easy with an impact. I don't know if it will be an issue with those nissan units, but with the GM conversion you have to get a smaller pulley so it spins fast enough. Otherwise the amps drop off at idle and your lights start to dim and flicker. That's a nice alternative - especially for the EA82 crowd that wants to keep their AC and stuff. And it looks almost factory. Is that 90 amp a mitsu alt like the XT6 one? As for the non-AC crowd (EA81's, and EA82's without), the GM alts are both higher powered (the large case caddy one is 100 amp for about $50 - lifetime warrantee.... and even larger, up to 250 amp, is eaily attainable if you want to slap down the cash), and cheaper. It's true that some modification is required, but I'm running a standard small case GM alt (65 amp, single wire) on one of my EA81's with zero mods to the alternator. I just had to bend and redrill the outer mount a bit. GD

Hhhhmmm - isn't E85 pretty corrosive to older rubber's and such? I'm not sure what it would do in a diluted state but I'm also not sure I would want to try it without doing a few bench tests with hoses and o-rings and such. I would hazzard a guess that most if not all of the newer rubber compounds being used for automotive applications (ie: WRX's) is rated for it already.... GD

Hhhmmm - air cleaner looks round.... is that a DFV series? Although the layout doesn't match any of my DFV's.... looks like a DGV the way things are cast. Ah well - here's what I'm talking about so there's no more confusion: See what I mean about it being *right* above the throttle plate? The edge of the hole on the inside of the carb actually touches the throttle plate when the throttle is closed. This gives that hole vacuum when the throttle plate is cracked open just a tiny fraction of an inch (known as "ported vacuum"). The EGR is up higher and doesn't get vacuum till the plate is open a little further (EGR is basically an enormous vacuum leak, so the engine has to be turning pretty good to overcome it). Also notice the block off brass "bolt" used in the EGR port if you are not hooking that one up. It's a factory thing. My NIB Redline weber (not this one) came with one as well, so it's a factory thing now. They used to come without that port drilled, or with it blocked off with a brass inset plug like the middle port in the one pictured above. GD

#1 don't off-road it till you have two vehicles and AAA. Seriously. And don't say "I'm only going to do this or that with it". Never happens. You'll break it, then your life will be completely suck. So far you have killed by my count 1 Brat, and 1 poor EA82 wagon.... between those two how many engines exactly? I lost count. Anyway, you are soooo not ready to do an EJ swap. Don't even consider something like that till you have more experience. Plus you really need a whole donor car - wireing, etc. All said and done it's easily an $800 - $1000 job to do a transplant like that. No one ever gets away for much less - there is always maintenance items that should be done before the engine goes it - misc. parts and supplies. Not to mention whatever your month of labor is worth. Yeah - expect to spend two weeks to a month doing something like that unless you don't have to work or only work part time. Two cars, parts everywhere, hoists, jack stands. Just a mess..... been there, got the sports watch. Pull the cam tower off and inspect. I had an 87 carb wagon that did something similar. It blew the HG on the passenger side, and one of the valve rockers was just hanging out in there. I still have no idea how this happened.... my guess is a severe overheat caused the valve to stick and the rocker just fell off, but I inspected everything, replaced the gasket, milled the head and tossed it all back together and it's fine to this day. The owner has put another 15k on it without problem. It does smoke a bit on hard acceleration, but just a little puff - nothing horrible. $100? Are you smoking something? Try more like $200 or more. If you overheated it, then the head is warped. Almost a gaurantee. That's around $30 - $40 just to have it milled, and I would have them inspect that sticking valve as well. If you are going to the trouble to do that side, you may as well do both sides, so expect at least $100 bill from the machine shop to do up the heads for you. Then it's time for parts. Fel-Pro's are about $35 for two. You need cam tower o-rings, intake and exhaust gaskets, and probably want to replace the pan gasket, cam and crank seals while it's out. At least another $100 in parts. Then there's whatever tools and supplies you need. New oil+filter, coolant, etc, etc. There's a reason shops charge like $500 - $800 to do HG's. GD

Arbitrary - depends on maintenance, condition, usage patterns, evironment (dusty, dry, wet, hot, cold, etc), quality of rebuilt components, brands, etc, etc. There's no point in sticking a mileage value to the stuff - hours of operation is a better metric, but not by much due to the variables I previously mentioned. But - no hourmeter on a soob anyway. It's like asking about clutch wear - one person gets 200k out of a clutch, the next guy gets 25k... it's how it's driven, and the conditions of it's use and maintenance that matter. GD

I think the "jet" you are describing is the vac port. Take the "jet" looking thing out and you will see what I mean. It's just a block off brass bolt in case the port isn't to be used. The other port (that's not drilled on some older models) is for EGR, which didn't used to be common. On a weber the ONLY jets that can be seen without taking the carb apart is the primary and secondary idle jets, and those are higher, on the same horizontal plane as the choke houseing - one on the front, and the other on the back. They are bigger than a vac port, and are to the right of the throttle bore on the float side. The idle mixture needle is way down on the base of the carb, and has a spring behind the slotted adjustment head. Seriously - take that jet looking thing you describe out and you'll probably find that's your vac port. GD

The throttle plate acts like a second venturi in effect - restricting the airflow and causing the incomming air to speed up. You can check for yourself. The vacuum does drop off some at WOT, but that's taken up by the mechanical advance. EGR port works the same way, but is only slightly higher so it gets vacuum later than that advance pot. More throttle = more EGR. Pretty simple really. The SPFI has a simliar port for the EGR, and doesn't even have a "venturi" in the common usage. The throttle plate serves the same purpose for that port. GD

Advance needs to increase linearly to engine speed. The faster the piston travels, the sooner the spark needs to occur in order for the flame front and the top of the piston to meet at the optimum point for maximum benefit from the burn - ie: best mileage, and best power. If the pot is attached to manifold vacuum, there will be only mechanical advance for high speed as the manifold vacuum is almost non-existent with the throttle plate wide open. With it attached to "ported" vacuum above the throttle plate, the venturi inside the carb creates vaccum that is inversely propotional to the manifold vacuum. It's high at high RPM, and zero at idle (throttle plate closed). This is the design of the subaru distributor. It *could* have been designed to accept manifold vacuum, but was not. Without ported vacuum it will not work correctly, and if attached to manifold vacuum, it will perform opposite of intended, and actually hurt mileage and power more than if not connected at all. As for drilling that hole - the port inside the carb has to be immediately above the throttle plate, and it's only about the size of a pin head. I'm sure that it's probably part of the casting, but I highly doubt the hole is actually there in the inside of the carb. I think you would probably damage the carb unless you have proper tools for this sort of thing. I am going to reccomend you NOT try that. GD

Probably why you don't have any power, yes. GD

Every Weber - even old ones - that I've seen has a port. Look for a brass one on the front possibly blocked off with a small brass threaded insert that can be removed with a small flat bade screwdriver. Should be right under the choke linkages and stuff on the front. As for drilling - no, you cannot drill anywhere on the carb body without special equipment. The hole needs to be extremely precise, and only a fraction of a mm from the top of the throttle plate so that vacuum is immediately availible off-idle. GD