88SubGL

That’s a nice car! One of the great things about it is that it’s an ea81 under the hood. No timing belts to worry about. Any more pictures of it, interior, exterior, under the hood?

Do you have pictures of the seal?

Nice job cleaning that tank. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tank that bad. It ought to run great now. It looks like your perseverance is going to pay off.

You probably already know this but at some point, pull your dipstick and see if it smells like gasoline. If it does, you’ll want to change your oil before you run the engine much. I understand that right now you’re just trying to get it to run.

Perhaps trace where each vacuum line goes and then ask the question: do I need this for it to run correctly? My car is fuel injected so I’m not much help knowing what your lines are connected to but I do know what is needed to make an engine run and can tell you if something is needed or not. If your 85 is like my 88, you will need a vacuum line to run the ventilation system.

With all of the pieces you need to change over, it might be worth looking into buying the whole car and having it shipped, if it’s in that good of condition. Could come out about the same money wise and have a stash of NLA parts.

Don’t know much about the 6 cylinders. Should have examined the artwork closer.

I thought this was a 6 cylinder not a 4?

Sapphire blue is the darker of the two. That’s according to my original 1988 factory brochure.

I wish I could see the pictures of the car. In North Carolina we are required to carry uninsured/underinsured insurance on our cars, don’t know about your state. If it does, I would think it would cover a situation like this.

Try Amazon. That’s where I bought mine. It came fast. Or check online at Advance Auto, if they don’t have it in stock they can usually get it pretty quick.

Pretty sure that’s an electric choke. If I’m not mistaken, you should have power on that wire going to the carburetor when you turn the key to the on position.

I had a similar problem on my 85 Nissan pickup. Mine would go off when I hit a bump. I traced it to the dash light dimmer switch. I replaced it with one I had from another truck, no more problem. I would think you could bypass the switch to see if that is your problem. I didn’t try that on mine because I had another switch.

Buying your gaskets directly from Subaru? I have heard of problems with aftermarket intake gaskets.

Idle as low as possible without it struggling. Factory tach’s can be a little off. As long as you have good drivability and the engine is not racing or about to die, you’re good.

Car, why do you say it has GL-10 option? I thought GL-10’s had that designation on the outside of the car, not just GL. The seats don’t look like just a GL though.

That’s sad. A car that straight and apparently pretty much rust free. That’s one I would want to fight the insurance company on, especially since it was someone else’s fault. But I get it, with your schedule you have no time.

It’s valves not rings. Do a valve job and call it good. Unless you’re just wanting to rebuild it. Like you found in the EA82, the cylinders don’t seem to wear bad in Subaru’s.

You said you see some smoke coasting and then see more smoke when you accelerate after you were coasting? If that’s correct, then it’s valve related. When you’re coasting the engine creates more vacuum, pulling oil by the valves and into the cylinder, then when you accelerate you burn the excess oil and you see it more out your tailpipe. You may also see smoke when you first start it up in the morning. If it’s rings, you will see smoke every time you accelerate from a stop sign or traffic light.

Is it turning over ok, just not getting fire or is it having trouble turning over? With everything that you mentioned that you had changed, it sounds like you were having an issue with it turning over. Are you the same issue or is it something new?

I saw Autoworld had re-released it. I have one of the original releases of it. Cool WRX version.

I usually contact the seller I bought the compressor from. When I replaced the compressor on my ‘88 Wagon, I was told 8oz. of PAG 150, yours may be different. Also, ifyou haven’t already, l would suggest going through and replacing all the o-rings with R134 compatible ones.

He notched the frame rails for the dohc engine on page 3.

Are you losing brake fluid? If so, it may be a bad wheel cylinder. If not, check your brake pads and shoes for wear. Or possibly the rear shoes need adjusted.

Really need to find what caused the backfire. Usually a timing issue. Maybe one of the timing belts jumped a tooth. Belts replaced recently?