GeneralDisorder

If you grease those bad boys now and then, it would prevent the grit from drying out the seals and working it's way in. Another benifit to no covers is that lubeing the idlers and tensioners is actually a feasible proposition. A grease injection "needle" can be had at most good parts stores for your grease gun, and makes the job pretty easy. GD

8 degrees on and 87 would lead me to beleive you have a carbed 4WD EA82.... 700 cold is too low. Your choke should cause it to idle up around 1500 till the engine warms and pulls the choke off. That's why when it's warm it's lower. Check your choke adjustment, idle mixture screw, and idle speed screw then reset your timing when the engine is hot with the vacuum advance for the disty disconnected and plugged. Also - when you have your own problem, create your own thread. No one will see this here in someone else's thread. If you have a question for the person the started the thread about your problem, a PM with a link to your new post asking if their solution applies to your problem would be the best way to handle this. GD

Actually it can't be vaporlock - vapor lock occurs when the fuel in the lines boils and prevents the fuel pump from getting fuel - since his pump is back near the tank, this would be impossible. Check it again tomorow - might just start right up and you can get it home to diagnose. Also - could be a blown Air Suction Valve - when they go, they usually melt the plastic silencer (muffler) and it often gets sucked into the carb intake and will jam the throttle plates. Check down in the carb for debris. GD

If you need some, and can't find em at your local yard, I can grab a handfull next time I'm at the yard. They would fit in the USPS flat rate envelope. I see perfect ones all day long, and the yards around me have at least 20-30 SPFI soobs each right now. As to if they are needed, well the SPFI system has three of them stock - one at the pump, one right before the inlet on the TB, and one right after the outlet on the TB going to the return pipe. I would think just one would be sufficient - after the pump but before the TB. They must serve an important purpose as subaru saw fit to install three where one would have probably done the job. I'm assuming redundancy is the reason - my guess is that when the fuel pump starts to suck air when the tank is nearly empty, those dampeners smooth out the fuel flow and prevent damage to the pressure regulator and injector. Over or under voltage may also cause spikes in the pump pressure that have to be evened out. I would also guess that the pressure regulator can't adjust all that fast to changing pump pressure, and if it had to it would probably cause rapid wearing of the regulator parts. Giving it a steady stream at a constant pressure would prolong it's life - being a mechanical part, the less it has to move, the longer it will last. Anyway - just a few theorys and ideas to consider. GD

I first started it with no 02, but only to verify my wireing and such. It did run without it as I knew it should, but ran pretty poorly. I installed the 02 the next day. Had to swap y-pipes with my wagon, as it had the feedback carb originally, and now has a Weber so was equipped with the 02 Bung (what a great word eh? Just not a lot of situations where you can use the word Bung) As for the Pressure Regulator.... that's an inegral part of the throttle body assembly, and cannot be removed... perhaps you mean they removed the one of those pressure pulse reducer things - in which case yes it will run fine without those. GD

They are pre-greased. Never seen or used oil on the top - it's supposed to be tight, and high friction. Oil would defeat the purpose. A little anti-seize wouldn't hurt, but it's not needed. GD

That makes sense - cavitation would indeed explain the noise. Hadn't thought of that, but I've seen similar things with water pumps and such on other brands. I'll go ahead and move the pump under the car then. Older RU's had the carb pump mounted in the engine bay, so I figured maybe it wasn't such a big deal. The increased fuel demand of the SPFI seems to cause a hail of issues - all part of the fun. Yeah - initially I had thought that the carb pump could maybe help supply the fuel injection pump. That turned out to be not possible however since when the carb pump is not running the FI pump cannot draw through it. A complex chicken and egg problem results with the SPFI pump unable to draw enough fuel to pressurize the system, and the carb pump unable to run fast enough due to the engine not catching, and not supplying a decent voltage. In practice this resulted in the engine not even attmpting the start. On paper you might expect to see it sputter a bit at least, but it would take more cranking than I was willing to do to get the FI filter full, and the system up to 24 psi. I bypassed it with a length of hose. The carb filter is still in place, and maybe I should just remove that and give it a try. Can't hurt to give it a go. I have always planned to move the pump down there anyway, but it's been about 105 here every day in the shade, and I'm not looking forward to a hot driveway, and gasoline running into my oh-so-sweaty armpit. YUM! At least after I get it all worked out, the rest of the system should be good to hook. I've cleaned, tested and replaced near every part of this SPFI setup - it came from 258k miles of rough stoner snowboard duty - it's parent wagon couldn't take it anymore and did itself in with a tree. The SPFI system was defiant to the very end - manging to kill off the body (totaled), engine (punctured oil filter, and drove till it seized), and transmission (stuck in 2nd gear by the obviously considerable force of the impact). I think I got the only usable part left on it..... y-pipe looks alright too, and the wheels live on (motion alloys) on the kid's next victim. GD

It will probably never ruin it. Would wear out some tires perhaps, and maybe eventually cause some axle stress - but axles are consumables on older RU's anyway. GD

Interesting - so you are sugesting I route the pressure regulator return back into the pump supply line before the pump inlet? That's an interesting idea...... I guess it's similar to returning it to the tank, but instead it's getting retured to a point right before the pump. That sounds potentially dangerous and crazy, but ya know I have a feeling it might work. I like it I think I'll get some fittings and give that run. GD

So the SPFI conversion on the Brat's EA81 runs quite well so far.... The idle quality was not what you would call.... lets see here..... good? It was wandering a bit, and idleing rough. Now the Weber ran baby-bottom smooth, so I knew it was FI related. I started checking parts, and replacing stuff with JY bits to verify. Soaked a low mileage IAC in some knarly carb cleaner overnight - looks like new. Nothing changed. Changed the MAF, CTS, TPS (and adjusted) - no change. Adjusted the timing (third or fourth time), adjusted the idle screw, cleaned stuff.... followed by hand wringing and teeth gnashing..... beer...... scour EA82 FSM for several hours.... And then I decided to look into the fuel pressure. I don't have a guage - which presents a new set of problems. I put the fuel pump to my ear and my hand on the intake duct (don't ask how this is possible - it just is with my temporary ghetto fuel pump mounting situation), and I could hear the fuel pump "chewing" (for lack of a better term) in time with the roughness of the engine. I said to myself: "Self - clearly you have a fuel pump problem" followed closely by: "Doh.... Self - you should have bought a spare". I did get a spare today only to find that it's also dead (well technically I guess you might say it's sleeping - if you give it power and then smack it real hard it will take off for a bit.... hibernation perhaps?). I then decided that maybe it just needs a cleaner power supply - wired up a second relay for it, and used the ECU power for the relay control instead. That helped about 50% I would say. I can still hear the pump "chewing" although it's not as loud now. Engine smoothed out, and seems quite a bit better. I'm looking for more tho. So I want some opinions on what this chewing might be? Pump bearings? It seems to have been reduced by applying a 14 guage power supply direcly through a relay, but it's still there. The pump is a long way from the tank. FI filter is newish, as is the carb filter down by the tank..... now on the SPFI cars they don't have a filter under the car - is that because the pump is so beefy that it can chew through anything that gets past it's little screen filter? I'm sick of spending money I don't have on junk yard pumps. I may take this little $16 gem back and see if they will let me swap it out, but who knows if that will happen. Should I go the Ford pump route instead? Should I have a filter before the pump and after it? Or shall I eliminate that one by the tank? Maybe it's too restrictive? The SPFI pump puts out a LOT of fuel, and it seems that whatever is not needed to maintain the SPFI pressure the regulator just sends back to the tank - that makes for a TON more fuel going through the lines than the carb had. Maybe the smaller return line is stressing the pump? Am I making all this too complex? :-\ I do that a lot.... GD

Autozone carries Timken bearings for like $11 each (need two on each side + seals). Heck of a lot cheaper than Napa, and a good brand name in bearings. I don't buy a lot there, but they do carry a few decent parts. Seems like I have to shop around town to get the brands I want at the price I like.... GD

I noticed when I had a *bad* MAF in my SPFI, it would hold at any RPM, but would bog under any sort of acceration.... just something I noticed while doing my SPFI conversion. Similar symptoms to yours This MAF I had was actually bad - the engine would run and idle ok but a little slow (wouldn't run at all without it connected). Just would not rev. Once you got it up there it would stay at that RPM. Weird I know, and maybe not applicable because of his being a turbo but the concept of the MAF is the same regardless so the ECU should be handling it in a similar way.... GD

Oil smoking (out the tailpipe - not CV grease on your cat ) in a subaru is *almost* always caused by one of two things (blue smoke indicating oil consumption in the cylinders, not white indicating HG failure, or leaking manifold gaskets): 1. Bad PCV systems - clogged usually. This causes the crankcase pressure and manifold vacuum to suck oil into the intake from the valve covers. Usually will NOT dissapate as engine warms - often will get worse, and you'll get a puff of smoke each time you accelerate hard. 2. Bad valve stem seals. Allowing oil to get by the valves into the cylinder. Usually shows itself by a big cloud of smoke ONLY when you rev it hard, and usually will dissapate somewhat after being run and warming up. Both are relatively easy to fix - the first being only a 10 to 20 minute fix. The valve stem seals can be replaced without removing the heads - just get an air adaptor to pressureize the cylinder, remove the valve spring, install new seals, and button it all up. GD

Yeah - Tom has a good point - don't go thinking you can use *just* the manifold. The carb won't fit. You'll need an EA82 carb, or preferably a weber. Frankly tho - for the price of a Weber, my money is better spent on doing the fuel injection conversion. It's actually usually a bit cheaper, better on gas, and better performing. GD

I have legacy seats in my EA81 wagon, and Isuzu Impulse seats in my Brat. The Legacy seats are too tall for my taste, but I keep them in the wagon as sitting higher is better for visibility off-road. Seat swaps are common actually - people on here are constantly asking about them. GD

If you are talking about carb powered.... it's possible to get a Weber to run on it - or a small Holley. Just have to jet it right, and replace the seals and rubber with alcohol rated stuff. The rest of the system is steel, and you can easily replace the rubber hoses. The carb would have to be jetted properly for it as well. The fuel filler hose is the only thing I think that would be tricky - it's a special bent rubber section that's a *************** to get to (drop the tank), and it's a special shape.... LPG would be much better and cheaper IMO. GD

Yeah - not a bad deal - especially if you got the headrests. And if you got the seatbelts you are very lucky (hard to find in good shape). After collecting all the bits from seperate sources, that's about how much I'm into my seats. $75 for the seats, and about $35 for the belts - can't recall on the headrests, but it was about a case of beer from a member IIRC. But yeah - good deal if they are in decent shape. GD

85 GL what? EA81 or EA82? GD

Sounds like a bad MAF to me.... GD

Leftafters from some B flick I would imagine. Cool in a Bizzare kind of way. GD

Yeah - you aren't going to enjoy this swap. I sure didn't - took me a month to get motivated enough to finish it once I started. Hours of testing, and slaving over the soldering iron and diagrams. This is one place that an 83/84 factory manual is almost a nescesity for the job. You're charging system is a standard GM remote sensing alternator. The BIG wire runs to the distribution box (fusible link box), and so does the sensor wire. The other wire is the excitation/charge indicator wire, and that one supplies an ignition switched power source and also runs to the "charge" indicator on the digital dashes and to the charge "light" on the analog voltage guage. If that wire is not connected the alternator will not charge until it hits about 4,000 RPM, and then it should kick itself into gear as it can sense it's own output rising, and will "jump" it's own field. Basically you need to connect the charge indicator wire in the digi harness to the voltmeter charge light in the analog cluster and it should work fine. Now - as for the rest of the circuits, you are probably going to experience a few circuits where you will need to add diodes to the circuit in order for it to work properly with the power feeds for the digital harness. I got most of it working when I did the swap. My indicators and warning lights all work - your dome light is wired into the door indicators so if you want it, you'll pretty much have ot figure it out - that's one of the circuits that needed diodes not present in the analog cluster. I didn't bother with oil pressure, or voltage. I did get the coolant temp working, but I wanted more accurate and better labled guages for those three so I added an AutoMeter 2.25" three guage cluster for those. I didn't bother wireing the clock as I don't need it, and the three guage cluster I installed in front if it anyway. I can probably help you out with the diagrams - I have an 83 FSM, but I need to hook up one of my scanners.... Also - the fuel level sender is different, and you will have to get one for an analog cluster and replace it - it's in the tank under the back of the car. If you want the oil pressure guage then you will also have to add the sender for it - the dig cars only have the switch for the idiot light - no sender for the guage. GD

The title is "EA81 & EA82......" that covers all vehicles made from 80, to 89, and 90-94 Loyales...... GD

I don't usually hold it at all really - just like an impact wrench, most of the force of your hammer blow will go into loosening the nut. I just hit it and then reposistion for the next hit. Usually even at the junk yard there is enough drag on the hub as long as it's connected to the axle still. If the axles are gone then I would just hold it - it's not hard on your hands really. I guess you have to see to understand, but trust me for $9 plus shipping, it's well worth picking one up for your tool bag. GD

No. If you want FI, you have to use the SPFI (Single Port Fuel Injection, commonly refered to as Throttle Body Injection). Typically this system is found on 87 2WD's, 88/89 GL/DL, and 90-94 Loyales. Exceptions are the Turbo's and the MPFI in the XT's - these will not work. Just look at the mounting of the manifold to the head and you will see the difference - it's obvious when you compare the two - the Carb and SPFI uses the triangular 3 bolt arrangement, and the MPFI, Turbo uses a micky-mouse ear arrangment with more bolts. GD

Ultimate Subaru Repair Manual - BIG usrm linky at top of your browser window. Use it - know it. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49975 GD