mudduck

Had an 86 Brat for my first car. Did a j-turn into a rock and bashed in the front drivers side fender. Not even a mounth after fixing the carnage from that, had it up on two wheels after riding down the dirt road with the pass side wheels up on the embankment going about 20 mile an hour and clipped a tree root with the control arm, had it in water over the hood on a few occations, many full throttle runs through deep snow banks, catching air lots of the time, 4wd donuts at 7,000 rpm a bunch, had the thing so over loaded with firewood, had to put it in 4wd to get going because the front didn't have enough traction to move the car, hitting speed bumps with speed, lots of it, and the list goes on. Oh yeah, got rear ended by a car going 40 mph, and drove the brat for 2 months after that, until I sold it.

Thats what I do!

Lowrider 4wd I bet its fun in packed snow and ice!

I would hope that you at least got the exhaust routed out from under the car with that setup. Thats a good way to gas yourself in traffic if its dumping right under, or in front of your feet.

I just don't see those particular cars being exempt from smog testing. There is no reson for them to be exempt.

I don't understand how not having the cat would make things simpler? I have a cat under the car, and the exhaust seems pretty straight forward. I just don't see how replacing the cat with a pipe makes things simpler.

Sure they do. Why would a modern high performance car be exempt from an emissions test in any state that does emissions testing? If my old subaru is required to pass a smog test, then why wouldn't that $35,000 mustang be exempt from a smog test?

Never had a problem with my stock cooling on my ea82 either. Its never fotten hotter than 1/4 to 1/3 on the gauge. I've really never had any issues with the motor in 100,000 not so easy miles I have put on it. leaks a little oil, but other than that, it seems like a fine motor for having almost 300,000 miles on it.

When I was living out there, I passed the e-test with the check engine light on in my old toyota truck. I don't know if they changed the rules or not, been three years ago, but the light being on didn't matter then. Here in NC in certain countys, on 96 or newer, they do a obd test. Any codes come up you fail and have 9 days to fix the problem.

Unrealated to lowering the car, but what are the mudflaps under the car for? Just curious.

Llooks like you need to do what i do. Carry two spares, one under the hood, and one in the back, both fullsize and keep a couple of spare at home also. And a BFH to fix those tweeked rims. A can of starting fluid and some matches for stuborn tires that come off the bead to(but use caution using this method of setting beads!!) How did you do that to that rim anyway? Looks like you were having fun!

I havenever driven a subaru with a locked rear in the snow, but plenty of other 4x4s with a locked rear in the snow, and they absolutly sucked! The slightest side hill, the rear was going every way but where I wanted to go, and on packed snow and ice, the rear wanted to come around all the time. I'll take a open diff and chains in the snow before a locker, but thats just my opinion.

You could go to the fealer, but they ain't cheap(at least around here), find some at the pick and pull(subarus are very rare in junkyards around here), or do what I did, use a fuseable link for another make, I think I used one for a chrysler. I took the ends off the original, and crimped them on to the replacement. Been good so far.

is the fan kicking on?

I was just going to ask this. the pipe isn't leaking there, but I need to pull it apart to cut the muffler off and weld the straight pipe to it.

Is the motor bogging when you turn on all your accecories at idle? thats normal. you are putting a load on your alt.

I was thinking that there was some sort of gasket that was supposed to fit in there. When I took it apart this afternoon, there wasn't any kind of gasket there at all. I'll see if the dealer in town can order a gasket on monday, need to get y-pipe gaskets also.

Does the exhaust systems on ea82 use flange gaskets at the exhaust flanges? The one after the catyletic converter is leaking, and when I pulled it apart it looked like there wasn't ever a gasket in there. If idon't use gaskets, then how can I seal it up? Also, any downside about ditching the muffler and just running a straight pipe?

Not without a winch to get up rockpile and a few other obsticales.

Check the wireing back there if you haven't already. I had a similar problem in my loyale. Turned out to be a bad connection going into the socket.

Overcharging alt. Hopfully the battery was all that fried. Really suggest replacing the alt. before tossing another battery in there.

How many volts was the meter in the car showing? If it was reading any higher than 15 volts, your alt might have been overcharging and could have fried the battery.

It all depends on how and where you are going to wheel. A moddified subaru would be about distroyed running say, Prichart Canyon in Moab. A lightly modded Samari would make it out with out much breakage if any, might flop it on its side a time or two, but they can handle a lot more abuse. Myself, I would'nt mess with a Sammy because of the lack of space in the things, but if the price was right, (real cheap) I'd pick one up, build a cage for it, and wheel the hell outta the thing.

Hook it back up and see what happens. If they worked before you cut the wires to the black box and see if the dash lights come back on. You didn't cut any other wires under there, did ya?

Did you check the fuse? Were there wires hooked to the black box?