GeneralDisorder

Repair shop is dead wrong about the lifter tick. The lifters can be rebuilt for cheap, and replacement does not require the removal of the engine. Proper oil pressure, and rebuilt lifters will almost certainly rid you of the tick. If the engine is otherwise sound, lifter replacement is a lot less work, a lot cheaper, and less of a gamble than a replacement engine. On the other hand - the ticking is more of an annoyance than anything. If you can ignore it the engine will not suffer. GD

Might as well find another one and clean that first - then just swap them. Will improve your downtime by a lot, and you may find the old tank has a lot of rust and scale. If the car spent some time in the midwest or east it may be nasty inside. Most radiator shops can clean them out real well too if you bring it in. It's a nasty, nasty job to remove them. Working overhead, and the years of crap on the top of the tank plus all the lines and the filler tube. Have to remove the rear end to get to it as well. I would rather pull 5 engines than 1 fuel tank. GD

Buy a new one - it's well worth the $60 for good oil pressure. Killed my wagon engine because I didn't change the pump - only 165k on it when it blew a rod. Too much swamp water and bad oil pressure. GD

Ok - so I'm in the process or convering the Brat's EA81 to EA82 SPFI. I've got all the electrical worked out save for the speed sensor. Well - I have the wire for the ECU, and I have a yellow/red wire from the cluster that the EA81 FSM indicates is the speed sensor. The EA81's were equipped with this for the optional cruise control unit. My question is does it operate the same as the EA82 speed sensor and will the signal be compatible with the Loyale SPFI ECU? Here's what I could find to describe the EA81 speed sensor operation from my 84 FSM: "When the speedometer cable rotates with the ignition-starter switch on, on-off signals at more than 5V and 0V are repeatedly transmitted." Does this coincide with the EA82 speed sensor design? GD

What do they charge for a tranny at the PAP's these days? Isn't it like $100 plus tax? GD

www.1stsubaruparts.com - $65 + shipping. Discount Import Parts (local to me) - Parut OEM - $60. I called em at 1 PM, and picked it up at 4 PM. GD

Yeah - I say rear wheel bearing too. Remove both rear axles and retest. That will narrow it down. GD

Ball joint = 1/2 hour easy. Sorry - not near ya, but if you get down portland way it would be a peice of cake. GD

Well - that's a good question - it's an NPT thread, so it's going to suck to measure it. I would take the sender with you or a spare oil pump if you have one so you can check fitment. It's definately metric I know that. Here's an option for ya - when you buy a new oil pump that hole comes with a steel plug in it - drill and tap the steel plug - it's normally a hex drive so you already have a starter hole too. Oh - and I just remembered - it's the same thread as the carburated coolant temp sensor - EA81 or EA82. That should get you going eh? Sorry I don't have the specifc size. I just dealt with it in the above manner. GD

You want the Parut pumps - they are OEM. About $60 around here at discount places. GD

DOH! Yeah - my bad - the feedback version does NOT control the choke - the ECU does. Sorry. GD

Improperly routed vacuum lines, bad tire pressure, incorrectly set choke, etc, etc. There's a ton of things that will do it. Want awesome mileage? Put 60 PSI in each tire, and run ATF in your manual tranny. Mostly make sure the mechanic hooked up the carb correctly - those Hitachi's can be nasty. Vacuum advance for the disty, etc. GD

Usually not - but sometimes, with some calipers it helps a lot. Especially with some non-subaru ones I've encountered. GD

Not a whole lot smaller?!? Perhaps my picture doesn't do it justice - was trying for a close up of the setup. It's about 2" shorter than the stock sender. Really quite small - you can't even see it unless you actually look up under the radiator support. I was also doing this to get that silly wire out of the way of brush and the belts. I hate the way it's routed down the front of the engine. The other port - for the idiot light - is on the block itself for the EA81, and at least in my case has proven impossible to remove. I gave up. I would have to pull the engine back out to use a vice grip on it. I also don't think it would supply enough pressure due to it's location, but I haven't tested that theory. At any rate, the setup I used is rugged, and with the skid plate in place you would have to demolish your radiator and oil pan before anything got to that little fitting. Oh - and from experience I can tell you that once the dummy light actually comes on - you have wasted the engine anyway. It's basically a "Replace Engine" light. One reason I HATE the DL and Digi-dash setups. GD

Most likely - can you see any movement in the castle nut? If not, then the wheel bearings are totally gone. They will make some pretty loud humming noises, and grinding at lower speeds. I've run on bad wheel bearings for quite a while before, but if they are dry they will fail quick. Mine were shot, but not dry of grease so they kept on trucking for a few thousand till I had a chance to replace them. If you can move the wheel a LOT then stop driving it - if they totally fail then you are in BIG trouble. GD

Yeah - that should be fine. Best to keep the crank-case using the PCV as this way any blow-by will get burnt in the intake. GD

Solution - STOP USING ADDITIVES. Fix the problems. Hate to yell, but if they worked, Subaru would tell you to use them or the oil companies would have already included them in the oil. There is no silver bullet for this stuff - lifter ticking is usually a result of bad oil pressure. MMO is just a cleanser/degreaser, which is already present in your oil in lesser quantities. Flushing the engine with MMO is not bad - I just wouldn't leave it in there. If you have leaks - replace the seals or buy kitty litter. They are hard and no amount of additives will bring back hard, crusty rubber. The sealing junk you used probable sealed up the lifters just as much as it sealed up the gaskets - now you have a mess. No leaks, but oil can't get to the lifters to inflate them. Flush the engine out a couple times with kerosene or MMO, etc. Run a whole case of cheap, cheap oil through it - replace it every couple hundred and the filter too. If the lifters tick, repalce the oil pump seals, and cam tower seals, and possibly the whole oil pump (I replace the whole pump - they DO go bad). If that doesn't stop the ticking, likely the lifters are worn from lack of oil flow - have to replace them too. There's a place that can rebuild them - someone posted a link to them. Pretty reasonable too. GD

Yeah - check that castle nut too. If that's loose you'll need to replace the cone washer under it, and if the splines in the hub are shot you'll have to replace the hub, and most likely the axle too in order to prevent the problem from re-occuring. GD

Look under and from the side - you will be able to see the ball joint at the bottom of the control arm - the knuckle will move but the control arm will not. If the knuckle is not moving, then it's almost certainly wheel bearings. GD

Valve areas are not directly connected to the crank-case in such a way that pressure will equalize (without blowing seals), so yes you need the PCV. Run all three to the air filter and you should be good. As long as the breathers get filtered air you should be fine. GD

Yes - or I wouldn't have explicitly told you to leave it OFF . It effectively clamps the rotor to the knuckle - rotor attaches to hub, hub is splined and bolted to axle, axle is fitted through wheel bearings.... see? GD

Yes - unlike EA82's , the Brat has a single peice driveline, and you need it in place to hold the tranny oil in. Find another driveline. GD

Jack it up with the rear wheels chocked - leave the parking brake OFF, and try to move the wheel. Wheel bearings, ball joints, or tie rod ends are your culprits for it pulling, but the noise leads me to suspect the wheel bearings. GD

Ok - here's some pics: The adaptor I got with my Autometer guage set, but you can make one by cutting the end off a sender from the junk yard (EA81 or EA82 - they are the same) drilling and tapping it with a 10x1.0 tap. Use a vice tho, as brass isn't fun to drill through. The right angle I got from home depot - it's just a standard 1/8" NPT Brass fitting - about $1. The braided line I got from summit racing: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM%2DG2960&N=400304+115&autoview=sku , and then it's just a matter of putting whatever sender you like on the end of the line. I used a hose clamp screwed to the fender with a sheet metal screw, and I used a bit of clean (well... it was ) shop rag to cusion it against the screw head, and clamp. Works great. GD

The two types of control units are for feedback(blue) vs. non-feedback(black). They are functionally equivelent, but the feedback carb version also controls choke power. GD