GeneralDisorder

Yeah - I don't run covers so I get to see the belts every time I lift the hood I'm at 20k on my sedan's belts, and they were used when I removed the covers to do a cam seal. Who knows how many miles are on them - car's got 228k, and the last known belt change was 165k per the sharpie notes on the upper radiator support . Still look alright - no evidence of freying or any cracks, and nicely tight too. The ones you retentioned every 10k that blew at 50.... were those OEM or some other maker? GD

Yeah - don't let anyone scare you, subaru's are one of the easier cars to do a clutch on. At least you don't have to pull front axles or work completely from underneath the car like most FWD transverse vehicles . It's really an ideal learning car for clutch work. Be careful, take your time, label things if you aren't sure you'll know where they go. Put every bolt back in the threads it came from or in a labeled tin, etc. Being a good mechanic is 90% patience and thinking things through. GD

Working on a newly aquired EA82, and found the culprit that's likley reponsible for most early t-belt breakage. The belts DO stretch. We always hear about how they last about 60k or so, but I've talked to others that have run them over 100k without breakage - the answer? You MUST adjust the tension. Now as to how often this should be done, that I'm not sure of but I have a set on my sedan without covers that has 20k on it since I took the covers off and they are still tight. I didn't replace them, only removed the covers, replaced a bad cam seal, and put the old belts back on. It may also be that once *new* belts have stretched, they will not really stretch a lot more, so one good adjustment at the proper mileage may be all that is needed for a long belt life. (videos are short - about 10 seconds each. 2MB or so, so those with slow connections be patient). http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/belt1.avi http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/belt2.avi The mileage on these belts in the video is unknown, but for sure it's considerable. Engine runs like a top, but was obviously a replacement engine to the car I pulled it from (yellow "I'm a junkyard engine" paint pen on the torque converter read "EA82" ). I almost couldn't beleive it ran without shredding the belts (and ran quite well really) - there's at least 3/4" of slop in both belts. I'm not pushing on them really at all with my hand in the video, I'm just lifting the belt up and down to show the play in it.... GD

They are checking this with both front wheels off the ground right? Tranmission a manual? Really doesn't sound right the way it's desbribed, so I'm starting to question the testing methods..... GD

Yeah - I'm thinking that the splines are probably worn out, and it's just catching on random bits of spline that are left in the hub. That's my guess. That's the only thing I could see happeneing that would allow the partial turning of the wheel and him still being able to drive it. Any CV or DOJ that had that kind of play in it would surely make an ungodly racket going down the road if it didn't fail immediatly. Failure mode for the axle components is either severe clicking, or catostrophic failure.... there's really no inbetween for those. If you have ever taken one apart you would understand.... they are close tollerance machined parts, and any little amount of play would turn into a big BANG - the forces at play on them is too great to allow 1/4 of a turn to not destroy one. GD

I've gone that route on several occasions. The ratio of disc to flywheel/pressure plate replacement seems to be about 2:1 or even 3:1 in small cars I've noticed. Basically the flywheel and pressure plate are like brake rotors and the disc is like the pads. Reality is the flywheel and pressure plate do not wear at anywhere near the rate of the disc (cast iron vs. organic disc material isn't much of a contest). I usually only resurface them if there are serious grooves or discoloration showing it's been overheated. If I had limitess $$, I would just replace them every time, but as most subaru owners I don't. Incidentally I've NEVER replaced one - only resurfaced. As for doing it yourself, that is definately possible. It's not really all that hard to disconnect and pull the engine out. You can rent or borrow a hoist for a day and have the engine out in 2 hours or less. Takes me about an hour to pull one usually. Clutch replacement is striaghtforward, and then back in takes another few hours usually for the uninitiated. Easily a saturday afternoon job if you have some tools. GD

Probably badly torqued castle nuts - I've had that problem repeatedly on one EA82 that I worked on. The hubs will strip out as they are cast, and the axle will just wear down a bit when they grind. The result is the hub is totally chewed, and the axle is worn to where it *looks* alright, but will destroy more hubs in short order. The way to fix it for good is replace axle, hub, and nut/cone washer. GD

There's only one style that has the screw on cap (with the exception of the EA81T, but not likely you'll get anything like that) - just ask for the part, and look at it when they bring it to the counter. If it's got holes for the screws, and the rotor has the set screw on the back side you're almost certainly good.... at least that's how I did it when I got one locally. GD

Low end power will increase dramitically, mileage can be very good but remember that has more to do with tuning, and a LOT of other factors on the car. That said, I've gotten over 29 MPG on my 4WD's, and when I had 2WD in my wagon, I got 32-33 MPG. The carb will hit the PS pump. You will have to make a largish dent in the reservior with a ball-peen hammer. I used the stock hitachi spacer under the adaptor plate for more height, and then contoured my "dent" till I got a good fit with clearance for the choke. The other option is to turn the whole carb around backwards, but then you have issues with the throttle cable not being long enough, and replacing the fuel lines, etc. It's easier to just make a spot for the choke. Doesn't hurt the PS pump at all, as you are only denting the fluid tank on top. Remember to attach the disty vacuum advance prior to bolting the carb down as it's inaccesible once it's behind the PS pump. Other than that, it's really pretty simple and can be done in a few hours. You'll find that you will be throwing more stuff away than putting things on. GD

No - carbed EA81's are 8.7:1 compression, and carbed EA82's are 9.0:1 compression. GD

Strange - all I've ever seen are the Hitachi units with the screw on caps. What's the "other" unit look like? GD

You'll need the EJ-EA adaptor plate, flywheel has to be drilled to accept the EJ crank. Tons of wireing, fuel pump and lines upgraded, funky radiator hoses..... It's been done - do a search on "EJ conversion" and you'll pull some stuff up. It's no slam dunk that gets completed in an afternoon, but it's possible. Unless the car is REALLY nice or you just like projects..... not really worth the effort when you could just drive the imp. GD

All mine have been 32/36 DGV's, but the DFV or the Holley/Weber 5200 (motorcraft rip-off DFV from the pinto's and capri's and such) will all work. There is a brand new kit sold for the EA82 that comes with the adaptor plate and all that junk - it's around $400 though. My last one I did for ~$200 - used carb ($80), complete rebuild kit, changed some jets, adaptor plate ($40 by itself), and changed to the electric choke as it was a water style. SPFI is better tho, and I just got a whole parts car for $100 GD

All the crank angle disty's are Hitachi. Subaru only used one style of CAS disty for all it's FI engines. Anything for SPFI, MPFI or Turbo will work. GD

I've seen some that were pretty wasted - presumably from being exposed to exhaust gasses. It will literally eat the threads right off of them, and I've had heads that didn't want to come off without a fight because of all the carbon around a few of the studs/bolts. GD

I have never bought either one from the dealer. Doesn't look to me like you could take the spring out, but then I tossed all my Hitachi carbs and parts in a dumpster about 6 months ago. I washed my hands of those damn things. I converted all three of my rigs to Weber's and SPFI (soon to ALL be SPFI). If you can get the choke housing, it will likely be only slightly cheaper than a whole rebuilt carb . I think I saw a receipt for one once that was over $100 for the choke assembly. Heck - a new one for my Weber is around $35, and it's not a fancy unit at all - just a bit of plastic with a spring in it. So being it's a dealer only part, and it's a fancy aluminium thing, with a choke pull off doo-hickey on the side..... I'm sure "rape me" is in full effect. GD

The problems I forsee are both the feel, and the interface. The feel part others have covered. The interface is going to be difficult - how do I select 1st gear from 5th? Having to smack the down paddle 4 times would suck, and having to operate the clutch by foot? No I think if you are going to do it you will at least need to eliminate the clutch completely. Retrofit a hydraulic clutch on there, and servo that too. I've seen some toyota's with small hydraulic actuators that should be easy to retrofit. And instead of paddles, go with a seperate button for each gear - one for each finger on an ergonomic grip somewhere.... To get the kind of speed you need, you will probably have to go hydraulic with a TON of psi. Probably well over 1000 psi to get the system to move fast enough. GD

Read post #2 by me: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=60928&highlight=EA82+choke GD

I've torn down a few engines now, and I've not seen any thrust surface wear. The mains and rod bearings wear, but the thrust sufaces don't seem to. Not to say it's impossible, but it's at least rare. Easy enough to test - try to push your crank in and out. Likely you won't get any play from it. Clutch adjustment has nothing at all to do with the thrust bearing. The transmission input shaft floats in the clutch disc, and in the pilot bearing. It is free to move and so would absorb any movements of the assembly anyway. It is this same effect that allows the flywheel to be resurfaced and used many times - ie: slight changes in the position of the disc and pressure plate relative to the transmission input shaft are not important. GD

Probably have to get some new GCK axles, and then change the DOJ cup on them. I'm betting you can get brand new DOJ cups from somewhere - maybe call up that place in Florida. I doubt that GCK would do anything custom. They are just a huge OEM manufacturer - they don't rebuild axles, they just make new ones somewhere in china. GD

You might be able to weld a nut to the end and twist it out.... this has the added advantage that it will heat the bolt and keep the heat localized to prevent damage to the block. If it's so stuck that you actually broke it though.... I say it's probably not comming out easily. At this point you might consider taking the block to machine shop that has the proper tools. I'm in agreement - "easy outs" are TEH SUCK for the metal. Ok for a woodworking shop, but definately should be banned from all metalworking environments. GD

There were two *brands* of carbs used on the EA81. Hitachi, and Carter/Weber (no - it's not the cool weber, it's a single barrel with a lot of problems). Each of those had two different setups - one setup for the electronic feedback (for California), and one setup for the non-feedback without the computer. The carbs are jetted differently to accomidate computer control, and if you remove the computer system, they will run extremely rich. You can tell the difference in the two types by the ECU under the dash, and the duty solenoids on the manifold. In his pictures I can see one of the duty solenoids, so I know what he's got. Just looking at the engine bay will not immediately ID the type as they all use the same kidney bean air cleaner, and the Hitachi's look very similar except for the extra hoses, duty solenoids, two-prong CTS, and the EGO in the y-pipe. GD

Interesting - I've not warped a set yet. I had not thought this to be a problem with the EA81 brakes..... well of course you *could* warp almost anything given the proper circumstances, but I drive my stock Brat pretty hard and haven't had any problems. I've always taken my stock rotors in and had them turned - way I figure if they are warped, then once they are turned they should be more difficult to warp a second time.... just a thought. Now I've also seen the pads wear unevenly on many of the ones I've taken apart. I think due to worn calipers or sliders. Any evidence of that? The pads wouldn't be as efficient disipating heat maybe? GD

Sure - increase your insurance, and have a nice fat monthly payment. You'll be poorer for it in the end. Spend your money on some tools, and some shop manuals. GD

Nope. Not even close GD