GeneralDisorder

There are a few people on the board that will build you a lift too. Maybe not in your area, but if you are interested in doing custom fab work on Subaru's, then building your own would be a good learning experience. Others will see what you have done with your car, and if it's successful, they will be more willing to allow you to build stuff for them. Out here on the west coast, we have Mudrat79 that does a lot of custom work. His design is well tested, and very strong (made it through the Rubicon!), so I opted to have him lift my wagon. The cost was slightly higher than if I had bought it, but I didn't have to install it myself either. And I wanted to support a local business, so he will keep making us bumpers and roll bars etc. I could have bought the lift, but no one is in the business of selling all the other goodies that I want. I would build some stuff myself, but as I don't have a welder, and am always busy with school and trying to make enough money to live on, I don't have the time to R/D this stuff, and I would rather have someone that knows what they are doing build it right the first time. I'll tear an engine down, or do a 4WD conversion and things like that, but when it comes to custom fabrication, I leave it to the pro's (for now) Gd

There is something else it could be - your distributor shaft bushing. Mine made an awful racket very similar to what you described when the bushing was out..... probably not, but when it makes that noise, put your hand on the disty to see if any vibration is comming from there. The noise will come and go - but mostly mine did it when it was cold, and then sometimes when it was warm. Just like what you describe. GD

That wire could be a ground - since it has coolant running through it. Open it up and look. GD

I had to swap the tanks cause I was converting the car to 4WD. the other car was put back together as a 2WD, and lives on still. Now that I think about it, I probably will swap the sending units out as niether seems to be accurate (fill the tank on the 2WD, and it goes to 3/4 on the guage....), but it does not explain your problem of having no reading at all. Both guages DID register with the tank full, and do operate fine - although they are not accurate. GD

What was the car originally? The tunnel may just be too small. Mine was REALLY tight when I did it, and what I did was to add some BIG flat washers under the tranny cross-member, and the plates that it bolts to - probably brought it down a good 3/4" - enough that I could drive it without hurting anything. It would still knock tho, but since I was lifting it, I didn't care. GD

I have personally swapped tanks from a 4WD DL with analog guage, to a 2WD GL with digi-dash. Both cars work just fine - and the tanks both retained the same sending units. I don't know if this is a freak thing, and I got lucky, but I'm betting that the guage doesn't really care one way or the other - or maybe it's a DL guage thing? GD

Yeah - definately check out the sending unit - makes sure it has a good ground wire. The sending units (I happen to know this cause I have swapped tanks) are the same for digital, and analog gas gauges. GD

Did you check the fuses? Other than that, the motors burn out sometimes - try wireing it up by hand to see if it works. GD

You say the choke does not appear to be stuck "open" - it should be completely open when warm - maybe it's toast. The carburators on the Subaru's are notorious for running badly after 100k miles or so. You can rebuild them, or replace them, or for about the same cost as replacement, put a weber on instead. I'm guessing yours is not the feedback carburator version, but if it is, then you could be looking at a bad O2 sensor, or something like that. GD

84 manual (unless engine has been replaced) will not have hydro lifters, so if your hood is original, it will say that you need to adjust the lash. GD

Run some candle wax under each belt while the engine is running, and if it goes away, then you have found the problem. You can replace the belt, and if that doesn't help, then take some emery cloth to the pully, and scuff it up a bit. GD

As I understand it, all Auto's in 84 had them, and EVERYTHING from 85 on had them. Both my 84 manual's don't have them, and my 85 Brat (manual) does. Look for the sticker under the hood that tells if you need to adjust valve lash or not - it will say no adjustment needed. Also - there should be a gold sticker on both valve covers that says "Do Not Adjust Valve Lash" or something like that. GD

Well - the EA81 has no timing belts. It's definately the simpler of the two, but the carbs tend to be a bit crappy for most of us (can be replaced with a weber tho). EA82's (at least the turbo models) tend to blow head gaskets, and crack heads if they overheat - EA81's seem to be able to take just about any heat you could give them, but will eventually blow a head gasket as well if they get too hot. As for the cars - well the EA82's are bigger, and a bit nicer inside. They were also made till 94, so your chances of finding a nice one are greater. You could put an EA81 into an EA82 car if you were so inclined.... would save you from doing timing belts I guess, but you would have less power. GD

Yeah - I can understand that. My last daily driver (before the Brat), was that damn Volvo 850 turbo - entirely too fast for me, and I guess I'm not even all that young anymore. At 24, I've been driving for 8 years, and 240 HP was much too fast for me. People would piss me off, and I would have to lay the smack down so to speak. But I knew that it was not a good car for me to have, so I got out of it, and got the Brat instead. I'm much happier now. I still get mad, but there's really not much I can do if someone wants to cut me off. Now if John talks me into the EJ22 conversion...... GD

It's hard to tell from your description, but I would start checking your ignition system components - sounds like you could have a miss or something. Try replacing your cap and rotor and wires. Maybe a new coil as well. The crack between the valves is an EA82 thing as far as I know. Never heard of that affecting an EA81. Maybe you do have an exhaust leak - the gaskets at the heads could be the culprit. EA81's don't like exhaust leaks, and you will experience a good deal of power loss from that. I am also thinking of the Air Suction Valve - those will vent exhaust gasses into the engine compartment when they get bad, and they make a similar noise to what your describing. And there are two of them on some engines - one at either head. GD

I think I know who Rob is speaking of - I know there's a lot of people on the board who feel the same way. Fortunately, that individual isn't around much apparently. GD

This has been discussed before, and the consensus was the Subaru engine is definately NOT a suzuki, or geo motor. Too bad actually, cause from what I understand the Geo and Suzuki motors were much more reliable. My neighbor had a brand new justy that went 120k before the motor went. He takes VERY good care of all his rigs - his 85 4WD wagon has 335k on it. Mountain Tech (subaru only shop here in OR), refused to rebuild the poor justy for him. He said he didn't care what it cost (his wife really liked the car), but they still refused - said he wouldn't be happy with it, and to get her something else. So now she drives a Saturn, cause none of the new Subaru's can be flat towed behind his RV. Sad, but understandable given the situation. I just wish he had told me about it before getting rid of the poor justy - it was immaculent, and I could have dropped a motor in pretty easily. Oh - and the Justy had a 1.2L engine here in the states, and they had 1.0L engines in Japan. GD

http://www.cvaxles.com Many on the board swear by their rebuilt units, and axles are only $55 from them. I personally get them from the JY - $10 - $15 is a good enough reason for me. GD

Yeah - I consider myself lucky to have caused as little mayhem as possible in my carb - seems to run just fine still. I think I will go put the screen on it anyway - leave it there for good I think maybe. GD

Yeah - I have been driving with the windows down - it does indeed smell pretty nasty in there. I thought maybe I had an exhaust leak or something, but when I found the AIS valve, I figured that was probably the source of my smell as well. I don't think the plastic silencers have melted tho - unless they melt from the inside or something - outwardly they look fine anyway. I have to drive it till I get my wagon back, so I hope it doesn't melt them in the meantime - I've been driving it this way for a week or so, and just now had the time to take a look. It ran fine when warm, so I figured maybe the choke was malfunctioning, and put off looking into the problem longer than I should have probably. Hopefully any peices of plastice that made it into the intake didn't hurt anything. I guess they would just melt, and be thrown out the exhaust anyway. I remember that big discussion we had - it did make it into the archives as I recall - I'll try to find it, and post the part number from there. GD

It's a nice looking little car - I've seen it in person. So when does the 4WD go in? And maybe a turbo on that NA block? With an IC, you may be able to get the NA block to take a decent amount of boost... GD

I think one of the reed valves has gone in my Brat. It was really hard to start when cold, and I took a look, and there was a couple big peices of melted plastic blocking the choke open. I removed those, and she seems to be running fine now - back to normal I would say, so I don't think the plastic hurt anything other than keeping the choke from closing. It looks like the plastic was already hard by the time it reached to carb. Anyway - what should I do? I could replace the AIS valve - should I do both at the same time, or just the bad one? Or maybe should I just remove them completely? I like the idea of removing them, but will I still pass emmisions? And how difficult is it to block off their passages if I should decide to give em the boot? Also - if I remove them, I know it will affect the ability of the cat to work correctly, but by how much? If I remove them should I remove the cat too because it really isn't doing anything without the AIS system.... or will it still function to a degree? GD

I can jump up and down on mine.... I'm 200 lbs, and jumping probably doubles that... GD

Probably not - that's just me and my EA81 knowledge talking - disregard if it does not apply. Just trying to give him some ideas - sounds like he doesn't have a manual. GD

For one I know it has an intercooler - I'm sure it is running increased boost. It is very fast - unfortunately, it didn't help him much in the rally - the Brat's and Durago's ruled the day! Turbo's are very hard to keep spooled under rally cross conditions. GD