subynut

Cleaned the carpet and upholstery in the PandaWagon - great scott, was that dirty!

EA82s are solid with proper maintenance. EA82Ts are more prone to failures due to that head gasket issue all EA82s have. Just don't let it get too hot and properly maintain it and you will be fine. I have a 87 GL 4WD 5sp wagon with SPFI (Single Port Fuel Injection). It's got 172K miles on it and I am getting 23-25 in town and 25-30 on the highway depending on how fast I want to get there.

That's awesome!

On my drive home the other day, I found the temp gauge wandering around on my blue 87 wagon. Found the fans were not doing their job. Rewired the fans and put them on their own circuit - happy fans now! Having CEL issues on the same car - CEL on while sitting at the stop light, touch throttle and CEL goes off. Check for codes after drive - nothing. Car sometimes bogs badly at part throttle with no CEL and no codes. Stupid heat cooked 20 year old EFI....

I was wondering when it would hit them that this thread is a few months old. Unfortunatly, we also have not even seen a single flake this winter. Probably won't see it till later next year anyway. Supposedly, we are going to get some next week, will see. If so, I have a Suby wagon and a camera ready for it.

My daily SPFI wagon has a bad case of indecisiveness: Yesterday, I took the car to meet someone - cel on, cel off, cell on, cell off after every shift. Pulled into driveway, cel off. Started it back up an hour later, light off till I touched the throttle and here we go again: on, off, on, off all the way home. Pulled into the driveway, it's off. I touch the throttle and it's on again. I checked for codes: purge control solenoid. All that drama for a purge control solenoid?:confused: Today: no cel at all.

Greetings from Sierra Vista!

We have a neighbor a few doors down with a Forester and a honda accord - guess which one stays outside at night? We are back up to 7 Subarus in the family. It's always easy to tell people where we are - just look for the house with all the Subarus in the front yard. Oh, and welcome to the board!

It really all depends on how you drive it. When I switched from the hit-touch-e to the weber, my in town mileage did not change as long as I drove respectfully, and my highway mileage went up about 3mpg and I did not have as much trouble holding the speed limit. During the winter, I would idle the engine to start the defrost process while I finished getting ready to work. I lost about 2 mpg on the tanks I did that on.

If the rest of the exhaust is still in tact, then no, you will not harm the engine. Maybe your ears, but not the engine. I've ran streight pipe for a few months, and the engine did not care.

Replaced the rear stay bushing for the shifter, the tranny mounts with STi mounts, and installed a short throw shifter on my parents' Outback. Wow, what a difference! No more bouncing shifter while getting on and off the throttle and far less slop in the shifter either.

SPFI codes for EGR and Purge are because it is getting a funny reaction to the solenoids. Most likely the solenoids shorted out and the computer does not know if they are working or not. I had the code for the purge solenoid - checked the impedance of the solenoid: open circuit. Inserted a 1/2 Watt resistor (picked a resistor size roughly in the middle of the specs of the solenoid impedance range) in the connector on the harness, bypassed, and removed the solenoid. Voila! Computer happy and besides taking 2 tries instead of 1 to start in the morning, drive ability unchanged. I am not sure of running with the EGR enabled all the time would effect drive ability or not. Might cause it to run too lean till it warms up. Only way to find out is try it.

Reassembled the engine for my sister's suby yesterday and reinstalled it into the car. Idles smoothly and good power, but the TOD is quite noisy. Then TOD was drowned in this awful racket - one of the cooling fans died. Oh the noise when the bearings die in a electric motor! So, what was supposed to be a simple CAM and carb swap, turned into a tear down to the short block due to an intermittent sticking valve, HLA replacement, and fan replacement. :-\

Pulled the engine in Barry (my sister's Roo) for a clutch replacment and misc work: Called around today and not one machine shop is open today. Will have to have the flywheel resurfaced Monday. Installed Delta Torquer Cams , installed Weber, found that the motor mounts were shot, ordered those, plummed the PCV system and found more hoses that need replacing. Can't complain, I really have not done much since the last trip to WCSS, so, it's been just over 3 years since I have done any major maintenence (besides oil changes) on this car.

Yes, exactly! Been driving Bonnie, but no funny clunks. Weird.... I guess she just does not like Mom.

I don't get it, I go to Subiefest and 2 Subarus die within 12 hours of my departure: 02 Outback (Bonnie) made a loud "clunk" then stalled twice, mom says, when she was driving it. 87 Wagon (Barry) decided his clutch was done and would go no more. I looked at Bonnie and I saw nothing visibly broke, test drove her and no funny sounds or vibratons. Will continue diagnosis... Barry has been due for a clutch for quite some time and he finally decided he had enough. So, I pushed Operation PandaWagon back to the back burner and will takle Operation Barry Power Up while I have the engine out for the clutch replacement someware between sleep and work.

Continuing work on Project PandaWagon: So far I have the power steering reservoir done and filled, the coolant expansion tank installed with all the coolant hoses except radiator done. The radiator has been a bit of a challenge since there are not very many dual and tri core radiators that fit in that small area. I have been contemplating going redneck, if I cannot get a small enough radiator for the front, and put the radiator on the roof, but I am not sure I will be able to get good heat transfer there. Hmmmm... I finished off most of the body and engine rewiring. I did a test and so far, things look good. I still don't have rear power door locks or reverse lights, but I'm getting there. I did a quick test of the ECU and I have a blinking CEL, but I cannot get the laptop to communicate with the ECU - the laptop assigned the serial card's ports to COM7 and COM8 but the software only goes to COM5. Will have to see if I can reassign the COM ports to something a little lower so the software can see it. Since I don't have oil or coolant installed, I cannot see if it will start. Besides, I need to drain the tank - it's about 2 year old gas in there! I don't have pictures of it yet, but I picked up a sandwich adapter and installed the EA gauge, an aftermarket pressure for oil pressure and a aftermarket oil temp gauge. I also installed the coolant temp, oil pressure, and oil temp in a gauge pod on the pillar. I plan on adding the sensor for the in dash coolant temp gauge too. I wired in the low oil pressure sensor from the EZ30 into the dash idiot light too. That was interesting, since the car originally did not use that light since it's a GL, but I decided to go ahead and add it in there just for the heck of it. I just pulled the light from the AT temp light, put it in the oil pressure light socket, and spliced into the harness. I was hoping to have it ready for Subiefest, but I am not going to get it finished by then. I still have to finish the brakes, exhaust, alignment, shake rattle and roll test, and clean the interior before taking it on a long drive as that. Oh twell, maybe next year.

On Project EZPandaWagon: Scratching my head on what to do about a radiator - it's gonna have to go where the a/c condenser used to be since the timeing chain covers are sitting where the radiator would go. Wiring, suspension, brakes all need finishing. My sister's 02 Outback is playing games with me: Runs fine at home, but when I take it to Tucson (about 2600ft lower in elevation), it stumbles, coughs, and bogs like mad with no CEL to tell me what is broke: stupid automotive computers trying to work with semi working sensors/actuators. I am waiting on a ODBII device to arrive so I can log the computer while it's running to help diagnose what is wrong. Another sister's 87 wagon doesn't like cold weather - high idle and no power. Weather warms up and the car is fine! My blue 87 wagon drinks coolant just as fast as it drinks fuel and has the opposite problem the other 87 has - idles at 3000 rpm with bog city when it's hot and dry out and just fine when it's cold and wet out. CEL code for the purge control solenoid. Although it's mostly due to the drinking coolant that is giving that one the grief.....I think. And why are Subarus so jealous of one another? One breaks, I fix it and then it's "Me too! Me too!" What gives?

I'm in the same boat, Brian. No available time off AND no Subaru worthy of the dangerous trek through desert. :-(

Replaced the fuel filter, the two O2 sensors, the neutral switch and reinstalled the splash plate on the underside on Bonnie (the 02 Outback). Ran fuel lines, ran wires, installed the XT6 axles (the legacy ones were too long), and bled the brakes on the Panda Wagon. Going to Tucson tomorrow morning to get some hardware and maybe find a XT pitching stopper and bracket to help the wheel hop I will get with that EZ30 under the hood. Still working on what kind of radiator to put in there....ain't a whole lotta room in there.zzz

Very straight forward. Just plug and play. Biggest hiccup I ran into when we did that on my brother's 87 was the starter interlock. I shorted two wires on the connector at the AT shifter box on the floor to get the starter to work.

Depends on what you want out of your 4wd. I was running out of gearing on my stock '86 wagon out here in the sand and rocks (mud? what's that?) I finally learned that it's gearing and torque in the off roading world that is required. I was always burning my clutch trying to crawl through sand and rocks because I couldn't charge it. So, I read the board, read many a off roading story, read many a off road roo buildup. After weighing the advantages and disadvantages of a lifted Roo vs a bigger 4WD, you know what I found on every one of those threads? The search for more torque at a half MPH. According to my calculations, with the kind of terrain I travel while wheeling, I would need enough lift to put a second transfer case in with 4.44 geared diffs and no bigger than 32" tires and an EJ22 tuned for lots of low end torque. Just so that I can crawl through that rock bed or that sandy wash I got stuck in countless times due to not enough power to spin the stock tires let alone 27" or 30" tires. I've seen what a lifted Roo can do (and it's awesome what they are capable of) and I've seen what a stock bigger 4wd can do. At least for me, I chose the bigger 4WD - an F350 V10, 6spd Manual, 4:30 gears and 35" tires (one step up from stock). Why? Gearing and lots of torque. That thing will crawl over anything it can get it's tires over, at idle, and I can tow anything I feel like. Did I loose a bit? Yes. The truck is a standard cab, it gets half the mileage my Subaru got, it is a bit bigger, the insurance is higher, and maintenance is more expensive, . But for me, it was the better trade off. If it breaks less, that means less wrenching and more wheeling.

Beautiful.

Stuffed the engine in the Panda Wagon: Now for the radiator dilemma... Can you say tight squeeze? Now off to measuring and looking for a radiator that will squeeze in there..

Last trip to WCSS my bother got consistantly 28MPG till we hit Cali where the speed limit dropped to 55. Then it jumped to 35. That's with an EJ22 and the FT4WD 5 speed with stock tire height. Corse, around town he got low 20's due to his jack rabbit starts.:-\ My XT6 with FT4WD AT got 25ish around town and 30 out on the highway. My brother driving that same car - he's lucky to hit 20. We'll see what kind of mileage the 3L will get in my wagon when I get that working. Although it should be able to beat my F350.