GeneralDisorder

So why should I believe you over someone with a degree who is also more articulate? That's just ignorance - if you belive what you just said right there, then there is no point for me to continue discussing this further - therefore - you win! I will discuss this matter with you no further. Please - by all means continue to believe whatever you want - makes little difference to me. GD

I had my 84 wagon to 110 when it was 2WD..... just me in it. That was on the perfectly flat and level. GD

A compression test will tell you a lot IF the test says the engine is good.... if there's a problem, you have to move to a wet/dry compression test to really see if the problem is severe.. The bulge in the roof is a "touring" version - nothing more. Also - look for a GL or GL-10. They look the same as a Loyale - but they have more features... GD

Nope - she just ran out of juice. You have a 2500 lb car with 85 HP...... that and you ran out of gearing. 5 grand is on the downward slope of the power curve, so you had less HP, and your HP balanced out your vehicles rolling resistance, and wind resistance - no more speed for you! GD

Actually - one way to do it is to run straight water into the intake..... no seriously! If you take the hose, and run a constant stream of water down the carb or throttle body, it will basically steam clean the inside of the cylinders. I doubt seriously that any kind of additive would work as well as the steam cleaning approach. The techron stuff Chevron puts in their gas is supposed to help.... although I have not done any research on what that stuff is, or what it does. Might be worth looking into. When doing the water thing - rev the engine up to a couple grand, and run the water through till it slows down to about a grand. Don't kill it! You want to do this with a warm engine that has been fully heated up Afterwards - change the oil and filter so no water can remain in the oil to cause problems later... GD

You *can* do headgaskets in the car - much easier out tho. There's not much room, and Subaru even had a special low profile socket just for removing heads.... You can another guy can pull the engine - lay a large beam (4x4 post about 6 feet long works well) across the engine bay, and chain it to the engine - when everything is disconnected, you and two friends should be able to guide it out of there. Installation is reverse. Myself and one friend have lifted EA81's out of cars with nothing more than out bare hands - did it just this afternoon in fact.... Definately easier to drop in a new engine (good used one maybe), but probably not cheaper.... GD

Don't know about serials #'s..... You can tell the hydro lifter engines - they have a gold sticker on the valve cover that says "do not adjust valve lash" or something like that. If you see remnants of a sticker.... that's probably the one. Other than that - I don't know about carbs - the carbs were specific to the type of vehicle - generally the single barrel carter / weber (peice of crap BTW) came on 2WD's - but not all 2WD's. Some Auto's too I think. Mostly on the 2WD 5 speeds I think.... not all of those either tho - mine had a hitachi.... GD

No - I'm sure you have all the maintenance down just fine. Carbon buildup is a fact of life - it's going to happen no matter what. You can help the situation by changing the oil regularly - thereby prolonging the life of the rings, and valve seals who's job it is to keep oil out of the cylinders. Also - running a *lower* octane fuel will burn hotter, and leave less buildup than running a higher octane fuel - the lower the octane, the hotter, and more completely it will burn. Running a high octane fuel in an engine not designed for it, will only result in faster buildup of carbon, and shorter engine life due to all the crap that isn't being burnt and getting into the valves and eating up the seals. Not to mention the unburnt blow-by that gets by the rings and into the oil, and thins it out, and fills up the filter with disolved carbon - making regular oil changes that much more neccesary. Carbon scores the cylinder walls, and eats the rings up...... basically it's just bad stuff in general. And I'm not saying I know more about Subaru's than anyone here... just relating what I've learned in school, and what I know about internal combustion engine theory of operation. Trying to educate the readers of the board - nothing more. Please - ask away with your questions - I'll be glad to answer anything I can... GD

Do a search - there was a post a LONG time ago from someone who did just that - might have been Adam, or Subarubrat, or Hassey - one of the guys with a list of mods longer than my arm I think...... could be wrong tho. GD

Wow - good chance if it overheated that badly, there's probably a blown headgasket involved - maybe cracked the heads too.... I would pull the engine and start inspecting it.... GD

No - a mechanical guage requires an oil line to be run..... GD

Have you compared the difference in mileage with the difference in price per gallon? You may find a discrepency in your logic there.... One thing that CAN cause you to need higher octane - carbon buildup in the cylinders can increase your comression, and require you to run higher octane to counteract the resulting ping... the increased mileage in this case has nothing to do with engine design, and everything to do with an old engine, and bad maintenance.... GD

Replace with a mechanical one - bit of plumbing that has to be done, but the mechanical guages are much more accurate, and dependable. GD

Yeah - the "big valve" heads are the heads for the hydraulic lifter version of the EA81. These came in 83 1/2 and 84 Automatics, and ALL 85 to 89 EA81's. And yes - as for making any major engine mods - you'll want the hydro lifters, as they require no adjustment - adjustment is a pain on a stock engine - certifiable nightmare on a modded one with different cam etc..... The EA81T is basically the same as the EA82T - just different valve train - using the EA81 as the core motor. It has a lower compression (7.7:1 instead of 8.7:1), and it originally came with an oil cooled and oil lubricated turbo. There was a recall to upgrade them to water cooled / oil lubricated turbo's.... they are comparitively rare (only built in 83 and 84), so parts (especially heads) are pretty hard to find now.... they make 95 HP stock compared to the 73 HP of the normal EA81. My personal preference is for the regular EA81 - they can be turned into quite a beast with a cam grind, head deck, and EA71 pistons (yeilding something around 9.5:1 compression), and a weber with a free flowing exhaust - looking at around 125 HP, or more with not much work at all really. The EA81T can run higher boost, and an intercooler for more HP, although there's not been enough of these modded to know much about what they can do. One thing to say - they are not much good off-road because it's hard to keep the turbo spooled. No torque on the low end..... GD

As for the lifters - try some of the additives, and thicker oil - if that doesn't work a new oil pump usually solves it - sometimes just a reseal will work too... http://www.cvaxles.com has been reccomended by a lot of board members - quality rebuilds, and they aren't terribly expensive... ($55 I believe) Fuel tank vapor line - just leave it open to the air... the tank has to vent afterall.... Use the fitting off the hitachi on the weber for the return line... A clear filter - yes - I am running one too. Just plug off that vapor seperator line - not needed. You can remove the whole evaporative emmisions system if you like - canisters and hard lines - all of it. The valve cover breathers should be run into that little nipple on the weber's air filter... GD

Skip - on EA81's I have only seen 1 or 2 wire sending units...... on the 2 wire ones, one of them IS the ground, as it's on the mounting bolt like you say. It was my understanding that the low fuel light was lit by the guage when the resistance got in the right range..... Am I smoking my shirt?!? GD

I want scientific proof - not demostrations - write a paper and submit it to a journal - how many degrees do you have in physics and chemistry? mechanical engineering perhaps? These are the people I will believe. Maybe you and all the guys who get 100+ MPG from their special carburetors can get together and come up with some degrees in these fields..... 99.9% of all the information in the world is availible ONLY in written form - learn to love it AND use it..... Leaded fuel was availible here in the early 80's. Maybe not where you live - that I don't know.... Here's a quote from the EPA's web site to this effect: GD

Not many questions are actually "stupid" - we just get tired of answering the same ones day after day. Thanks for using the search feature - it's greatly appreciated... Welcome to the board - you have one of the best little cars Subaru ever made in my opinion. I have a friend with an 84 wagon (same engine - original too) with 320k on it.... GD

No less than 90? Good Lord! But that is completely wrong.... The descripincy of the FSM could be due to it's age. There are two ratings of octane for gasoline - research octane number (RON), and motor octane number (MON). These are placed into a simple forumla to come up with what you read at the pump. Right now, that formula is a simple average: (R+M)/2. However - it was not always this way. Back in the eary 80's when your car was produced, the availibility of leaded gasoline meant a different formula for calculating the resulting "pump" octane of the fuel..... Here's a link for ya'll: http://www.csgnetwork.com/octaneratecalc.html It explains some key points such as: Here's another good page: http://www.leeric.lsu.edu/bgbb/7/ecep/trans/b/b.htm said there: I can give you more links if you like...... and your EA81 is nowhere near 9.3:1 BTW, and 87 octane should be more than adequate. If you do as they sugest, and: I think you will come up some interesting results.... GD P.S. - Stupidru - lose the attitude - it's not neccesary here, and it looks bad for someone with a low post number such as yourself.

I would start by checking the linkage - basically if it isn't the linkage, then it's internal to the tranny, and you would have to split the tranny open to figure it out - easier to replace the tranny... GD

Gen 1's DO have a vin on the dash - drivers side - just like any other car still made today... Gen 1's also have it on the firewall stamped into the metal - passenger side. And that number your found - sounds right - sounds like a Gen 1 vin to me anyway.... GD

Why is it that everyone must run the highest octane even tho they don't need it? Can someone please explain why otherwise intelligent people *refuse* to belive that you should run the lowest octane you can without pinging? The lower the octane, the more combustible the fuel is, and therefore you will get a more complete burn, and better mileage..... just because you have been brainwashed by the fuel companies into thinking higher is better does not make it so..... run what the manufacturer recommends for your engine..... GD

Yeah - and you don't want a lifted turbo anyway - even if you replaced the tranny with a D/R (messy cause it's an auto to start with...).... turbo's are not any help off-road. And the added complexity mixed with mud and water is also not a winning combo. GD

The fog lights were almost certainly a dealer install. It's a SOA "upgrade" of sorts - much like the dealer installed CC, or A/C. That switch on the dash is the same as the Passing light (center lamp) switch, and the older style CC switch (also dealer installed). In fact - if you had an 82 with the center lamp, CC, and the fog lights, you would have all the switches filled up down there.... GD

Screw the engine swap - Kill the neighbor - sounds like more fun to me..... That's really sad - great to hear that he didn't accomplish anything tho - since your still working on it. I think if it were me, I would park a couple more ugly cars down there just to mess with the guy. I'm just vindictive that way I guess. GD