Hello, I recently bought a 83 Subaru GL wagon! So now that I am the owner of an old Subaru I am finding myself here on this forum and I want to thank everyone in advance for taking the time to help me out!!

 

I'm sure you hear this same question a lot, however the information I have found after searching has left me with more questions than anything as I am not very mechanically inclined. So please if you are so kind to help me out, remember that I have little knowledge on repairing cars. 

 

First off... I need a new carburetor! The shop i took it too suggested i rebuild the single barrel carb in my 83 Subaru GL. Which will cost me $750.00

However, after reading some threads I've discovered that the single barrel carbs are not worth rebuilding. If the cost of conversion is comparable I would rather do that. 

 

I discovered that a lot of people are very fond of WEBER Carbs!! Especially the fact that you can put a brand new carburetor in which to me is appealing. However the conversions sold from weber are apparently for dual barrel carbs.

Now that being said I have found that you can get a intake manifold from HITACHI and then be able to install a WEBER. 

Unfortunately, that is where I'm left wondering because of my lack of knowledge on fixing cars in general.

 

What i'm trying to do is provide the mechanic with the parts he needs for the converstion and installation. What exactly do i need to give him in order for him to get my car running?

Should i convert? or just spend the money on rebuilding?

 

Any help or any tips to some threads that are more straight forward in the exact parts i need would be greatly appreciated!

 

If you need additional information from me , I will gladly do what i can to provide it. 

 

$750.00 to rebuild your carb????  FULL STOP! NEVER go back to that shop!! You can do this yourself. IMO one of the easiest upgrades (Weber) you can do.

Edited October 30, 201510 yr by jonas

You will need a 2 barrel hitachi manifold, adaptor plate, short air filter with clips, intake manifold gaskets, lots of screws/bolts/capplugs to block of vacumn lines. there are good threads on here about what you need and don't as far as they are concerned.

will be a great upgrade - simplifies the whole engine compartment

good luck!

I just finished converting my 83 DL with the  EA81 engine to an offroad weber carb from redline (best price i found), with a manual choke. The conversion kit cost almost $300. You will need to use the old carb's arch lever that the throttle cable is attached to--using the one that comes with the weber will cause it to to idle at over 1000 rpm because the original throttle cable is not long enough. The other thing i had to do is modify the mounting bracket that holds the end of the throttle cable. I had to reverse it, bend it a little and grind one of the bottom corners down a little. Otherwise once again the original  throttle cable is too short and holds the carb half open. The manual choke cable/knob fit perfectly in a moulded knockout in the dash near the drivers left knee. A 1/2 inch drill bit to open up the plastic and the metal behind it, and the cable threaded nicely through one of the existing grommets. Getting the old carb mounting bolts out of the intake manifold required patience, using the double nut technique.

 

Your big decision will be what to do with the emission hoses/ disconnecting the emission/vaccuum hoses that all tie into the carb. Mine will never have to pass an emissions test, so I got brave and pulled them all, except the valve cover vent hoses--(see bumblebeasts thread on re-routing those) i used 5/16 vacuum hose pieces 1 inch long plugged w 1/4 inch machine screws. Runs like a honey- and left a clean uncluttered engine compartment--i did have to reset the timing because of the increased vaccuum on the distributor advance. Good luck!

Best thing i ever did was swap to a weber.  You will need a hitachi intake manifold as said as well as the whole kit for our cars (weber + adaptor).  For intake manifold gaskets make sure to use subaru only!!!  There are threads on here about how to hook up the PCV system correctly.  If you follow how the factory did it, it should make sense.  Then the only vacuum line you need to hook back up is the vacuum advance on the distributor.  It really cleans up the engine bay and makes it easy to work on.  

Edited October 31, 201510 yr by hatchsub

I'm really happy I found this thread since I also plan to do the Weber Carb swap to my 83 GL.  Now after reading this I see a few of you talk about other threads about the vaccum line deleting, and all that you need for the Weber carb swap, I am going to look for this now but just incase any of you readily have the link I'd love if it got posted here

Thanks in advance!

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/161649-ea81-weber-conversion-writeup/?hl=%2Bweber+%2Bcarb Here are the condensed steps for a Weber conversion for an EA81