GeneralDisorder

Usually I stick with Fel-Pro, but I get dealer gaskets/seals for Intake Manifold, Oil pump, Oil Pan, EGR, and valve covers. I find the dealer ones are thicker, and better quality for those specific gaskets. The Fel-Pro stuff is cheaper, and their head gaskets are superior. GD

RTV is just "automotive silicone" basically. RTV actually stands for "Room Temperature Vulcanization" - in other words it's silicone based rubber that sets using chemicals instead of heat. The Automotive stuff is colored, usually safe for oxygen sensors (natural silicone vapor will destroy them), and very heat resistant. The most common brand is Permatex, and you should be able to find it virtually anywhere - even Wall Mart. Here's a shot of what I use - it's called Ultra Gray, and blends better with the aluminium block I think. I don't like strange colored goo oozing out my engine. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006SNLQG/002-7959755-0570465?v=glance&n=15684181 (just realized that link is for a case of 12 - pay no attention to the price. hehe) Mostly I use it on valve covers, and oil pans. I also use it for water pumps. It's safe for cooling systems, and safe for use around oil, but be very careful not to use too much if you apply it wet. It can get sucked into the oil passages, or lifters. That's why I apply a coating to the gasket and let it fully set up before using it. I try not to use it on anything that comes in contact with gas - it will melt. Tightening the bolt - here you should just "feel" it. Unless you have a very small, and very accurate torque wrench you won't get much a reading from them. Also replace the little rubberized washer under each bolt (Fel-Pro includes them in the gasket sets, but I'm not sure if you can order them seperately. Dealer should have them for a couple bucks). Just tighten them down till you start to see the metal of the cover begin to flex. It's made with the ridges in it to flex and apply tension to the gasket. Over time that's what kills the normal gaskets - the pressure eventually compresses the oil-soaked gasket, it gets cooked, and hard and the bolts get loose. With the RTV this does not happen. GD

Probably compensating for something. GD

yeah - what he said. I'll add what I do to them. I coat the gasket in RTV. What I mean is that I smear a thin layer over the gasket (both sides, and the edges) and let it dry. This prevents the gasket from absorbing hot oil, and cooking themselves into shoe leather. If you do this, you probably won't have to replace them ever again, and you won't have to go back and tighten the bolts more as they will retain their springyness. I don't use any grease or anything - the RTV coating makes them almost like a rubber coated gasket, and they seal very well. As always - clean your mating surfaces. GD

86, and 87 Brat's where imported as trucks. No seats. Before that all the 4WD's (including the wagon, etc) are classified as an "MPV" or multi-purpose vehicle. Not a simple passenger car, and thus not applicable to those laws. Reality is that no cop is going to mess with you, as a mildly lifted Subaru doesn't look "too big" - the most you will get is a warning about tires sticking out past the fenders. GD

I too like the Redline, but there is really no fix for the crappy 4 speed. Only fix for that thing is to get yourself a 5 speed - smoother shifting, and no issues with syncros. GD

You are experiencing "torque bind" which is normal for a 4WD. You are not supposed to engage it in hard surfaces. There are none - not without dissasembling the transmission, which is a lot more work. GD

Depends on what you call easy I guess - if you convert to the rear disc brakes, and use the Nissan 200SX calipers (only slight modification needed), then it's just a matter or rerouting the cable. GD

Rear is easy to do suspension lift on - just clock the torsion bar down a notch, and get some longer shocks. EA82 rear axle joints will afford the needed stretch for the axles. The front is messier. It CAN be done, but the axles do not have as much extension ability as the rear. Half body, and half suspension can be made to work and not stress the axles too much. Stronger springs can be added, along with strut cartridges that have more extension - blocks need to be added to the cross member to keep the alignment, or new lower control arm mounts have to be created, and the leading rod (some call it the radius rod) needs to be lengthened. 1" - 2" of suspension in the front is possible. And with a 4" block lift, you can get 5"-6" reliable, not strain the axles all that much, and still keep the camber flat. It's all about fabrication, and a little investigation of parts. GD

It's not uncommon to blow just one cylinder like that. At least the EA81 couldn't be easier to do the HG on. I actually enjoy those. EA82's are like pulling teeth.... GD

Adjusted the valves, and no real difference to be seen there either. I don't know if the "thudding" is related to the roughness, but I suspect I have a cam journal that's bad. I'm going to shoot a little video with sound - it's actually quite noticeable from the oil fill tube. Pulling each spark plug makes no difference in the noise, so it's not piston or rod related it seems. FSM points to badly worn lifters or cam journals near as I can tell from the troubleshooting chart. GD

Been around too many EA82's lately.... I think that all the EA81 radiators were 2 row come to think of it. I knew there was something about them.... it's that you don't want a 1 row (if they even make them??). All mine are two row...... GD

In order of importance: - Get a NEW radiator. There is no 2 row option for the EA81 that I've seen, but a new stock radiator will do just fine. There really are no "other" options, as virtually everything I've seen or looked to buy is too tall. You could have yours rodded and resealed for about $60 too.... - Reduce your coolant blend to 30/70, or even 25/75. This is the blend recommended for "tropical" environments, and I've noticed that it helps cool the EA soobs tremendously better. Water is a much more effecient heat transfer medium than glycol - For 20+ year old EA81 going 3k miles, you want at least these extra parts: Alt/Water pump belt (duh) Ignition Coil Distributor Extra fuses - at least 5 of each size used in the vehicle Extra clean air filter (or your gauze filter cleaning kit) Water pump and tube of RTV Alternator Front axle One FULL SIZE spare tire (really no need for two if you have the next item) Tire repair kit (ya know - the jerky sticks with the punch tools...) 1 gallon anti-freeze 1 gallon water 4 quarts of oil 1 quart of ATF 1 quart of gear oil Tools (you should be able to actually USE any of the above parts, and then some - electrical tools, tape, butt splices, etc, etc. And at least enough tools to do a front or rear wheel bearing if you absolutely have to.) Ok - for the fan - the other side of the radiator has threads already for the low profile EA81 AC fan. Foster had one lying on the ground near a red or blue EA81 wagon last I knew. I took the other one they had recently GD

Alright - I'm not getting anywhere. Changing the disty really didn't help. I mucked around with the idle speed and it seemed to help a bit, but in the end it's just as bad as it was. Lets take this in a new direction. The engine has really never been all that smooth. With the Weber I had the idle set at right around 1,000 as much less than that would result in a similar rough idle situation. I strongly suspect it has pretty worn main bearings - the compression is top-notch at 175 - 190 on every cylinder. Hydro lifters, and no ticking is evident. It has nothing that sounds even remotely like a rod knock, but it has a dull "thud" like knocking that you can feel in the gear shift, and you can actually hear it as well. I'm fairly certian that it's NOT a rod bearing. For one it does not sound like one, and for another it's been there for 40,000 miles since the day I aquired it. Clutch has been worked on and replaced as well as the rear main seal to no effect - no strange noises there. I worked hard to get the oil pressure up where I like to see it. I put on a new OEM oil pump and sender shortly after I got it, and it's got 20 psi or better at idle, and over 50 psi at cruise when hot. The perfect oil pressure seems to point away from any internal problems, but everything else seems to sugest heavily worn mains..... The idle is satisfactory at 1,000 now - only a little bit rough, but now that I think on it, it's about where the Weber was at 1,000. I have fought with this problem for two years on this engine, and I'm beginning to realize that it's probably internal. I'm going to try a valve adjustment just for good measure as I never did like the way it looked when I adjusted them after milling the heads. I'm hoping that at least it will even out some of the roughness. I have a complete Fel-Pro G-set, rings (EA71, and pistons), undersized rod/main bearings (also Fed-Mog), and a turned crank. All I need is a Delta Cam to go with.... What say you? GD

No - carb pump is a diaphram thing that puts out 2-3 psi. The FI pump is a rotory vane style, and puts out around 50 psi - which is stepped down to 20 psi at the throttle body (for the SPFI - turbo is more). GD

The recomendation seems to be a Ceramic, 68 Ohm, 5 watt resistor or right around those values. Anything between 50-100 Ohms will fool the ECU acording to the FSM. Any electronics supply should have something along those lines. GD

The problem is the price - Here locally after I buy all the parts, I'm already into the deal $150 at least (on a good day). Even if I got real good at doing the wiring and such, it's 2-3 hours of work at the junk yard just to get the parts plus travel time, gas, etc, and probably another 4 hours of wireing, and modding the disty. Even at say $10 an hour (which is less than I make at work) you are looking at probably close to $80 - $100 in labor to build it. Then I would probably need to do a core exchange with the disty because I need the EA81 Hitachi drive gear to build the disty.... oh yeah - and I would have to include about 4 feet of new fuel injection hose - $20 there. Extra wiring, relays, spade terminals, solder, flux, etc, etc. I am guessing that I would be into the deal at close to $300 - $350 just to make a single set. But I suppose $350 - $400 is what folks are paying for Weber's from redline, so it still might be doable. Still out of the reach of most.... I have thought about just doing the harness and the disty up, and letting folks find their own manifolds and fuel pumps and such. That would actually be most of the labor, and the parts would be fairly minimal that I would need to collect and ship. Probably only $50 or so in parts, and about 4 hours of labor once I get it down. The difficulty with the wiring is that I couldn't just make one master kit - EA81's can be different depending on year, and I don't have all of them availible to look at. Still need the core exchange on the disty since I can't source dozens of EA81 disty's..... Almost forgot - there are two types of SPFI. Two different ECU's, different MAF, and such. I would have to know which one each person was going to use parts from in order to have the correct harness made up. The permutations are a bit annoying to say the least. Any sugestions? GD

Sure - bring it to me and I'll do it for a nominal fee. That is assuming it has an EA81. The EA71 will not work as the injection manifold won't bolt on. GD

I installed the new disty last night, and it actually seemed to help a bit. It's hard to tell, but I think I noticed a reduction in the missing. I've thought I had the problem solved before however..... thanks for the tip though - I wouldn't have thought the disty could cause this with seemingly perfect bushings. I wonder what goes wrong with the CAS - it seems pretty simple in design. Checked the timing, and it's pretty solid now. It's right on 20, and only moves maybe 1/4 of a degree. That could just be that I haven't ovaled out the hole for the disty mount yet, and the disty is moving just a tad. Timing light doesn't skip any cycles that I noticed. I then went and replaced the throttle body as well. After that, my idle won't drop below about 1500 with the IAC screw all the way in - bottomed out. IAC is working - if I unplug it, the idle drops to 1100 or so. I'm thinking maybe I need to adjust the TPS. This is getting to be absurd. I hope when I get it right it won't need adjustment for a long time.... GD

Heh - having looked at many, many soobs, I can tell just by how the suspension sits, tire size, mud flaps, etc, etc. Add to that it's a loyale sedan, and you've got a recipe for 2WD. They didn't make a lot of 4WD sedans anyway, so most of them you see are 2WD's. In the end it's an educated guess - there is always the possiblilty they changed the tire size, lowered the struts, etc to make it look like it's 2WD..... but what are the chances of that? I happen to own a 4WD sedan, and it's got rear mud flaps..... GD

He means power locks - that thing is 2WD anyway, so can't refer to the drivetrain. Price is just stupid high, but they will talk some sucker into it for $2k, and they will think they have gotten a deal... GD

The canister that you speak of is the vacuum accumulator for the heater controls. It operates your buttons on the dash that change the vent configs for heat/defrost/AC ect. Unfortunately my problems aren't that simple. EA81's have no vacuum operated controls, and thus no white canister to give me grief. In fact, the whole engine bay has exactly one vacuum line now as I am not running EGR, or EVAP either. And I know I don't have a vac leak - I wouldn't be getting 21 in/hg of vac at idle if I did...... GD

Cooper makes some - better known as the Les-Shwab Wildcat EXT. Mine are also that size, and are made by Hankook - Korean make - getting very popular with the off-road community. They have a 6 ply sidewall, which is the most I could find in radial. I've not hurt one yet other than some scrapes and such. GD

A less expensive way (and it works good - many of us have done it) is to put a bit of screen into the hole, and fill it with JB weld. You can smooth it out before it dries, and it makes a really tough seal. GD

Doh - I meant 205 there. Shouldn't post right after I wake up. My bad. And what else are you refering to that I "have to stop"? Everyone makes typing mistakes. It happens. GD