GeneralDisorder

Yep the willamette valley has snow comming down right now - people are driving like idiots - especially in big trucks and SUV's. I just pulled my Brat into the driveway off the street cause I would hate to have some tard slide into it while it's parked. Very real possibility - we have ice with a slight dusting of snow on top right now - insanely slick! I've seen probably 10 or so trucks and SUV's off in the ditches - was driving around all yesterday and today in my wagon. With the lift and tires it's really more like a truck as far as handling goes, and I have to be careful or I'll slide all over. 4WD is nice - but doesn't help much on ice. The Brat does much better as it's stock.... wagon gets more looks tho. GD

The Gen 1's with the 5 digit odometers should be disqualified since they cannot possibly have six digit mileage readings, and would be unable to prove the mileage of the vehicle. Not that they couldn't go that far - but saying they have is not technically factual since the odometer doesn't read that high. It's hearsay, and not admissible in any court...... GD

Skip had a good method - use a plastic drinking straw through the park plug hole on #1 cylinder to know when the piston was on the upswing. Look for the timing marks on the flkywheel to come into veiw whilst doing this and if you line up the 0 mark, you should have either TDC on compression or exhaust..... if you do this with the cover off the disty, then it should become a matter of trying one of the two possibilities. The disty should be pointing at the #1 cylinder wire when the timing mark is lined up on the compression stroke for #1..... timing marks could be in your crank pully - or it could just be a notch to which you have to line up a special tool I think.... Don't actually need the timing marks either - it can be done with just the straw - a little extra trial and error will be needed tho. Yet another cool method was mentioned by Skip (again) - put a small cotton ball in the spark plug hole - when your on the compression stroke, it will blow it out! Still have to use the straw maybe to find when it's at the top of it's travel..... GD

Ask Flowmaster87GL - I know he's done it, and he's online a lot.... GD

Yeah - I sent it via UPS ground a couple days ago in fact. You should get it shortly I would imagine Haven't been on Messenger lately - I haven't been home much for the holidays.... GD

Yes - but the hybrid principle might not actually help you - a smaller exhaust will only make the problem worse - since the diameter of the exhaust impeller is smaller, it will have less rotational torque, and take longer to spin up a heavier intake side. It's just like using a small breaker bar vs. a large, very long breaker bar - it's easier to use the larger one. Same goes for the exhaust side - it will be easier to spin up a smaller exhaust side, but at the same time it will also be more difficult if that is hooked up to a larger diameter intake side. What I'm trying to say is that the smaller exhaust impeller is going to "inherit" the large inertia of the intake side, and also not have good torque due to it's smaller diameter - you lose in both respects. This is of course all very acedemic, and who knows how much it will actually affect the performance - some experiments are in order. Discussion is great, but some charts and graphs of impeller sizes / and exhaust flow rates over time are in order I think.... GD

Your choke is not adjusted properly - there's three screws on the choke retainer ring that you can loosen, and turn the choke till it's set so it will idle with the choke not fully pulled off (hasn't heated up yet). You'll just have to play with it. Sometimes they need asjustment seasonally - depending on how severe the changes in weather are in your area. GD

It won't spool the same - the turbo is bigger, and therefore has more inertia - it will spool slower. GD

Your brake booster likely has a vacuum leak when you apply the brake. If it's not a large leak, everything will still work fine. A correct booster will cause a slight change in idle if you pump the brakes, but if you hold them in it shouldn't technically change the idle like your describing. I wouldn't worry about it unless it's severe. GD

I could probably reconstruct that one Shawn - but didn't he come with color sometimes? Like red horns and stuff? I don't know, but I thought I remembered seeing one somewhere.... GD

It's the early 83 and 84's that have the problems - the 85 and up are much more reliable from what I understand. Also not terribly difficult to find compared to the 83 and 84 style. GD

20w50 Castrol GTX. I usually alternate between a quart of Rislone and half a quart of MMO with my oil changes. I make it a habit of changing the oil every 2k or so..... GD

You should have a talk with Mudrat79 - he's the one to talk to about the nissan T-case swap. He reccomends 8" of lift for that since if you only go 6" you will have to cut part of the tranny tunnel out to fit the T-case under the car. With 8", there's no cutting neccesary. I was talking to him about that just the other day.... He's done at least two of these now - and there's of course unhatched - Lumpycam, the man who started it all by designing the first Subaru with the nissan T-case swap. There's a lot of fab work involved in that, but no one on the board except Mudrat79 can really tell you what all it involves, since I believe he's the only one on here that has done it (correct me if I'm wrong guys....). Lumpycam of course knows - but he's not seen on this board often, and lately not at all that I can tell.... The lift itself is actually pretty straighforward - you just unbolt the engine and drivetrain from the vehicle, and lift the body up - putting blocks in-between. On the 6", there's usually some x-braces involved to stiffen up the lift peices. The lift itself has been discussed many times - do a search for it. Subarubrat's web site has good info on it as well.... look him up in the member directory. If you go with 31's, you'll probably want a little extra power - either an EJ engine transplant, or a H.O. EA81 would be in order probably. Just a heads up. GD

You can frankenstien together a turbo from parts of your existing turbo and parts of a legacy turbo to get a larger turbo that will bolt in. There may be a few modifications neccesary other than that to the pipeing. There's others of the board that know more than I - but I remember hearing about it here. Do some searching of old posts and I bet you'll find what I talking about. The larger injector thing has also been discussed in the past - not sure about that, but I'm sure you can find that in old posts as well. Also - you have to realize that a larger turbo is not neccesarily a good thing. It will take longer to spool, and probably give you worse off the line performance. There's a lot more that goes into a proper turbo setup that just "bigger is better". This is why many high performance cars have gone to twin turbo's - one small one, and one larger one - to get the spooling effect more even, and a flatter torque curve. GD

I'm thinking of getting it tattoed on my arm..... Anyone got a nice one they could scan - with color and all that? GD

That makes sense actually - they "gave away" 50, but of course since they were producing them anyway - they would have taken orders for more since the more you make, the cheaper they become.... thus Subaru made more profit if they produced more of them (or less loss depending on how you look at it). Certainly he must be correct that you could pay for em. The promotion was for 50 give aways - they just neglected to mention that you could also buy em..... GD

The last runner I got was my 84 parts wagon - $390 - had a bad axle (not that bad - drove it 100 miles home, and another 2,000 on it before replaceing), and the driveline from it has bad U-joints. Still rusn strong, and the car has no rust. Had 316k on it when I drove it home - few dents. I switched it over to 2WD after converting my wagon using it's 4WD parts, and it lives on as a daily driver with a friend of mine who I sold it to for $300. (Now has 320k on it). My wagon - which was probably one of the MOST pristene examples of an 84 wagon I have ever seen (not anymore since the lift and some off-roading), was bought at a dealer auction for $405. Only had 144k on it, and runs like a top. Of course - it was a 2WD which I converted to 4WD. Definately would be cheaper to get one with a blown engine, and have Qman give you some pointers on putting a used engine in. finding anything from 83 or 84 that you could call "dependable" is not very reasonable. Likely it will need some attention - probably consistent attention thoughout it's lifetime now. Unless a complete restoration is performed. These cars are old - most have over 100k miles, and even if they don't, the parts start to break down from age. Expect to do quite a number of axles, and a lot of other little things. It's not that Subaru's are not dependable - they are VERY dependable if the little signs they give off are not ignored. But it's not reasonable to expect a 20+ year old car to be perfectly dependable as a "turn key" solution. Get a legacy wagon if you want that. GD

Your syncro's are dieing. They are a wear item. Replacement or rebuild of the trans is really the only permanent fix. You can try Redline brand gear oil - it will help some. GD

All over the place - you just have to look. They come up here on the board - craigslist - newspapers - just everywhere. These are just *some* of the ones I've found in the last couple weeks while looking for a parts car: 84 wagon 4WD - white - engine knock - $150 82 wagon 4WD - brown - blown head gasket - $200 (gone - got there 15 minutes too late) 83 Wagon 4WD - needs trans work - $125 All were nice looking, and you can get a running EA81 for $100 and slap in there - or in many cases there really isn't anything wrong with them except owner ignorance. Don't settle for something you have to pay a fortune for - wait for that deal to come along - wagons are all over the place, and not worth anything really. Hatches and Brats you have to pay up for usually - they are getting harder to find. GD

84 DL 4WD Wagon - 320k - original engine - different trans tho. Was my parts car and was converted to 2WD. The original drive train went into my wagon and is still running. The 4WD trans that was in it was a replacement from the JY as the original single range gave out at about 220k (syncro problems). This car belongs to a friend of mine (he's on the board - just doesn't post at all), and is still a daily driver making a 70 mile commute 5 days a week. GD

Don't think so Miles - diesel needs around 20:1 compression. As I recall diesel engines run anywhere from 20:1 to 100:1 compression. I don't think a stock EA81 block would handle that kind of pressure without some serious work. My guess is that if an EA81 diesel did exist, it wasn't really an EA81 - would need a complete redesign to last any legth of time. Diesel runs hot and high pressure. That is the cost of sponteaneous combustion. But it's also why they are so efficient... GD

The rears do last a long time. I've never replaced a set because of failure that did not result from some other problem. I had a set go bad because the little washer with the tab you bend down had sheared it's key off, and allowed the nut to spin off. (this was a 2WD rear bearing). On the 4WD this is much less likely to happen because of the design of the spindle. GD

Well - the way I figure your at least diluting the contaminates with more clean grease Also - if the bearings are cared for properly, and the car was designed with bearings that could hold it's weight, they should never fail. The metal never actually touches - the bearings ride on a thin coating of grease - the only way a bearing can wear out is it's it's got too much weight on it (thus sqeezing out all the grease), or if it's running dry, or with contaminated grease. So saying that they shouldn't need regreasing till they fail if properly installed doesn't make sense - if they were properly installed, they should never fail. Of course this isn't a perfect world, and they do indeed fail because of either improper installation, or seal failure, which lets in contaminates, and water (even clean water will ruin the grease), and lets the grease leak out. For these reasons I like the idea of a grease fitting - it would allow you to just replace the seals without having to remove the hub and pound the bearings out of it. Just remove the seals from either side, and pump in new grease till it runs clean from either side - new seals, and put it back together. This way you could prevent failure of the bearings for a long time I think. GD

Yeah - I have to dissagree junkie - water and other contiminates from the abuse that us off-roaders do to our bearings is going to make them fail prematurely. A good regreasing via a zirk fitting on the hub after every couple runs would help to keep them from running dry and failing prematurely. I don't think that drilling a small hole for a fitting would weaken the hub. If the hole is drilled properly, it shouldn't be a problem. GD

If the car your looking at is in this area of the country (OR, WA, CA), and has been for a while, then there isn't going to be much in the way of rust on the car. I hardly ever see a rusty one in the JY even. They are either hit, or they have little simple problems that cause them to end up at the JY. I've seen a couple that just had bad distributors. Someone who isn't knowledgable about Subaru's would take it to the shop, and the shop would quote them probably a couple hours of shop time at $70 an hour, and $300 for a rebuilt disty. The car isn't worth $440, so off to the JY it goes..... If it was ever on the east coast, or in the midwest or something, then it might have a bunch of rust. I would stay away from ANY amount of rust out here in the west coast - there's too many around with no rust at all to even bother with a rusty wagon..... now a Brat with a little bit is a different story. Wagons are easy to come by, and dirt cheap. If you pay over $200, your really paying too much unless it's something very special. GD