Subaru_dude

You guys are gonna give me hell for this because I've never heard of anybody doing this. EA82, 170psi in 4 but 135ish in other 3. So it's probably just carbon buildup. I pull the plug and fill the cylinder up with soafoam and let it soak for a few minutes. Then I stuff a towell down over the hole so it doesn't spew all over the place. I go to crank and it basically just blows the towell out from under the hood, and then I see flames. The spark plug wire ignited the seafoam. My initial reaction was "HOLY MOSES!" I run as fast as I can to grab the waterhose and get it put out safely. My secondary reaction was "Welll that was quite exciting." My mother's was "PUT THE DAMN WRENCH DOWN NOW!!!" HAHAHA!! She cracks me up sometimes. Lesson learned for today: ALWAYS unplug the coil at the primary so the coil DOES NOT SPARK WHATSOEVER AND THERE IS NO DANGER OF FLAMMABLE LIQUIDS BEING IGNITED!

Thanks for staying on topic guys . At least many of you made good points. Yes, this thing is definitely more sensibly put together than those damn Hondas. I've been staring at the engine for quite a while and I'm quite surprised how simple it looks, and it's quite a roomy engine bay too. And I like the vertical oil filters, easier to prime before installation. As for the car itself... it bounces quite a bit, needs some shocks but I'm not gonna worry about that right now. The only rust on the car (it's from Houston, but originated in Kansas) is on the rear fenders and under the driver side door. Everything except for the dome light works on the interior. All gauges, knobs, cluster and heater control lights work. NICE stereo... I guess I've been listening to my 20 year old speakers too long in my GL. Front tires are brand new, 2 different rear tires. One makes alot of noise, will take care of that sooner than later. Has it's creaks and groans, but it runs REALLY well. And DAMN that's one solid roof rack, it sure is an upgrade from the EA series roof racks. Cruise control is a huge plus. Overall I'm very happy with it so far. Paid $1100 for it, which in my opinion was too much but the guy was really cool and completely broke. I will wash/vacuum it tomorrow and take some pics. :banana: :banana:

Well looks like I'm buying it. He took some pics of the wheel wells and undercarriage (car is from Kansas) and there is a little rust around the wheel wells but nothing serious underneath. He's on the same schedule as me so he's coming to deliver it tonight and I'll drive him back and be in bed by morning to go to work later tomorrow evening.

Subaru is NOT Honda. EVER. I'm talking with him on the phone now... he's willing to drive here as long as I drive him back. It's 2wd but that's a plus being that gas is $3.00 a gallon. AND I could actually get around to the EJ22 swap and 4wd swap on my sedan assuming it's reliable and in good shape which it definitely sounds like it is... he seems honest and really needs the money. Going to school and was promised a job but didn't get hired because the boss hired somebody else (possibly a friend?). I will keep you guys posted as the events unfold.

http://nashville.craigslist.org/car/622534263.html I'm very fond of the impreza wagons. I like it... do you think it's worth that much?

Do you think pulling the plug and pouring seafoam and turning it over a few times would help that out? I don't want too much strain on the headgasket, seems like that could cause it to pop eventually. UPDATE: Compression test lead me to believe it wasn't headgaskets. Yesterday I hanged the plugs and wires and drove it about 5 miles. I started it today and #4 is fouled again. That cylinder held about 135 psi. Coolant is lower than it was yesterday too. How do I test for intake manifold gaskets? I've tried spraying it with brake cleaner but nothing about the way the engine ran changed. Just a reminder on the car-EA82 SPFI FWD 5spd.

Okay, on 1, 3, and 4 the #'s were between 135 and 140 which is a relief. BUT on 2 I got a whopping 170psi!!!! I cranked it 4 times just to make positive because I'm kinda baffled? Anyway, the #4 plug was fouled and smelled like fuel but who knows why it's fouled, intake manifold perhaps? Maybe it's the cheapo NAPA champion wires. Anybody know why compression in 1 cylinder would be so high? And is it bad? Doesn't seem like it would be but... that's awfully strange. I did also notice my coolant is a bit low so I am suspecting intake manifold gaskets.

Yep going out right now and having a look, just got outta bed. If it passes the compression test, then it must be intake. I will be back with compression #'s.

Lately my car (EA82 2wd 5spd sedan) has been running rough on startup, sounds like it's running on 3. So this morning when I'm leaving work I start it but it doesn't clear up like it usually does within the first 10 seconds. So I get out of the car to sniff the exhaust a little. Guess what I smell!!! Burning jell-o!!!! It clears up about a minute later. So... I'm gonna pull the plugs if it stops raining and do a compression test too. The headgaskets only have about 10,000 on them, so if it's headgaskets I'm definitely dumping the EA82 probably in favor of an EA81 and doing the EJ22 swap later on down the road when I'm ready for it. Wish me luck on it not being headgaskets!!!

You still need to replace that fluid though after adding a little atf to free things up. But you will probably spring quite a few leaks if you go full synthetic (Royal Purple). Mine sure did, smoked like you wouldn't believe everytime I pulled off the interstate. My 2wd 5spd feels a WHOLE lot better after some atf flushing and fresh fluid. Mine has 215,000miles and the only thing that I've noticed is nothing but improvement from the flush and fill.

UPDATE: Clutch cable gave out today. Replaced it and what I thought was hesitation caused by failing fuel pump or pcv valve (which I also replaced with OEM) was actually the clutch slipping because the hesitation disappeared with the replacement of the clutch cable. Also replaced front struts, and attempted to do the muffler but it's really stuck. So the list is as follows now because I discovered a few new things. Front DS ball joint Lifter tick Needs shifter linkage (shifts smoother with clutch cable though) Side marker lights don't work on PS Rear bearings starting to make noise No power getting to window brake light thus no workie I hate to brag, but damn ain't she georgous?

Do the headgaskets and don't mod it and you should be fine.

Yeah I was going to go that route for the simple fact that I would hate to accidentally drop it into low when shifting gears, but your reason is good too. Drilling all the way through would be a good idea, makes it easy to see what i'm looking for when I look in the trunk. Thanks for that advice. I already put 4wd springs and struts in the rear because the 2wd ones were just too soft, but I still have them so I'll stick em on and see how it looks. How about the 4wd springs with the 2wd shocks?

First of all I must say I'm quite happy to see yet another member located here in the South-east. Second of all yes, be very specific on the info you give them. If you have a haynes or chiltons manual, you can probably figure out what kind of distributor you have (nippindenso or hitachi) and they should be able to get the exact part without much trouble. Make sure they know whether it's 4wd or 2wd.

Alright guys thanks for all the help. It doesn't sound like anything too far out of my range of experience so I'll start getting all the parts together. Another thought: My donor car is a s/r with the button on the shifter. I was thinking about having a setup similar to the twin stick but substituting a stick with the button. Using the s/r shifter button to engage 4wd and using the knob to engage hi/lo. So I could have 2wd hi/lo and 4wd hi/lo. Sound like a good idea?

Thanks for all the great info guys. As for the exhaust, so I just need to get something custom from the cat back or would the y-pipe get in the way too? And how hard would it be to get to the nuts that would hold everything to the bottom of the car? The one's I'm most concerned with are the ones that would need to be in place to hold the mustache bar in the rear... I can't really tell by looking how I would get to those. So, is this going to be fun?

I have some 4wd arms with swaybar mounts on them and new bearings, that's what I will use. And yeah, by looking at it I can already tell the exhaust will have to be moved.

I have a non-feedback carb and a Weber. The Weber needs to be rejetted, cleaned up but I don't have the adapter for it. The Hitachi ran OK. I'm only an hour and a half away from you so maybe I could be of some help despite my lack of knowledge when it comes to carbs. There's a pull-a-part in Knoxville with plenty of EA82s so you could get a SPFI setup there.

I have all of the undercarriage stuff (axles, diff etc.) on my S/R donor car. I'm just wasting my time looking for a suitable wagon so I might as well just throw the D/R in my sedan. It would look just as awesome as a wagon when it's lifted IMO.

I've decided it would be more cost effective to convert my 2wd 5spd EA82 sedan to 4wd D/R instead of trying to find a D/R wagon (what happened to all of them?) As far as I know the only thing I really need to alter on the actual car itself is the transmission tunnel (cut a hole for the D/R knob) and drill+tap holes in the body. So far I have: D/R transmission with shifter knobs and linkage everything needed on the undercarriage from a S/R donor EDIT: Can I get the axle shaft seals and rear seal for the tranny anywhere other than the dealership? And is it worth splitting the case to replace the front seal? Is there anything else I need? I did a quick search but I didn't come up with any sort of list to go by. Thanks for all your help guys. -Jordan

Does the needle make a slow climb to the red or is it suddenly jumping? If it's suddenly jumping then there's probably air in the system. If it's slowly climbing then either your rad is clogged or a hose is callapsing.

Probably air in system. Park it on a hill to get all the bubbles out.

I like the sedans, but like GD said... they don't have very much of a following. Shame, they look really good.

I've had trouble with this too, mine was rusted pretty badly and it took me and my dad going insane and jerking the engine as hard as we could to get it loose. Even then it took everything we had and 2-3 hours of repetative insanity. The cast aluminum should be okay as long as you don't hit it with a sledge like I did. I broke a pry-bar clean in 2 without doing a whole lot of damage to the aluminum bell housing, so you should be okay with getting pretty agressive with it.

8.5"? Just drive over it.