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Adding a relay to the ignition circuit may help.

(the subtitle "safe highway speeds" in the title pertains to engine rpm, not what one's opinion on what speeds are considered safe to travel. This thread isn't about driving habits or opinions on that matter, it is about information regarding gear ratios and engine reliability, maintainance, and engine speed sustainability) Over the years it's come to my attention on many occasions that a lot of people are put off by the (relatively) archaic gearing ea82 body cars have. I can't tell you how many posts I've seen on here of people questioning the high RPMS their car is turning at highway speeds (especially those with the 3 speed automatic transmission) I wanted to make this thread to document certain things I know through my own personal experience to be true, as well as to qualm any fears some people may have in regards to their vehicle and its ability to "Keep up with traffic" on today's highways. I've been driving ea82 vehicles for about 10 years now, and in those 10 years I've driven a good variety of their different formats: A 93 3 speed FWD SPFI Loyale I drove around for a good 6 years or so, both on the highway and in city driving. I took it to Canada and back from New Jersey An 87 dual range 4WD 5 speed carby GL I drove around for 3 years, both on the highway and in city driving. I drove that car across the country four times. An 86 push button 4WD 3 speed MPFI turbo GL-10 that is a current project I have that I have driven on the highway a few times and around town every now and then a 93 5 speed FWD SPFI Loyale that is currently my daily driver. I drive this car on the highway a-LOT, and around town a-LOT. In fact I drive this car....a-LOT. I've put 16,xxx on it over the past 10 months and 700+ miles on it just this past weekend. I am also an automotive mechanic and I am the sole person who has maintained each and every one of the above cars while they were owned by me. The key component to driving any of these old subarus around so much is to have confidence in them, and, knowing that I am the person responsible for their upkeep, that confidence is something I have never lacked, and I drive my cars accordingly. That being said; Regarding the 3 speed automatic cars, yes, you can do 70 mph in it. It's not going to explode. At least not unless it was going to for some reason or another anyway. I recommend that you stay on top of your oil changes (I use mobil 1 conventional 10/30 or 10/40 oil + filters year round in all my vehicles), and that you are confident in the condition of your timing belts and components. The issue here is that at 70 mph you're going to be running that lil ea82 at about 4,100 RPM. Now that's no big deal to the short stroke boxer motor itself (these engines are used in airplanes where they run high RPM for hours), but it's your alternator, your waterpump, and your timing belts and their pulleys and idlers that may complain here. If you just picked up a 92 Loyale with 38,000 miles on it that means it has slept a lot in it's 25 year existence. The bearings in that original alternator aren't going to like being subjected to you running the motor at 4,000 rpm for long. Neither is that super dried out and old timing belt. This goes for any other car, but the 3 speeds especially because of how poorly they are geared for highway use. So basically what I'm saying is that if you plan on using your 3 speed car on the highway, please make sure important components such as those I've mentioned are in good shape, and/or have spares at the ready. Also make sure the transmission fluid is in decent condition and the differential oil is as well. My real world experience with the 3 speed car on the highway is well over 10,000 miles. I drove that 3 speed loyale from NJ to Toronto doing 65-70 mph basically the whole way. It took a long time, but that was hours and hours and hours of sustained 4,000-ish rpms. And it'll get about 25 mpg at those speeds. I've also peaked a 3 speed auto at 100 mph @ 6,400 rpms. Out of curiosity. I've also driven a 3 speed auto car at speeds in excess of 75 mph for over 3 hours straight. Moving on to the 5 speed dual range 2 things; It is awesome. Please check your gear oil. I burned mine up because I drove it across the country twice without following my own advice. That being said it had no problem running 65, 70, 75, 80, 85 mph but my god the thing was gutless climbing those mountains out there. 3rd gear with my foot to the floor barely maintaining 55. This car taught me the lessons about low mile cars. I bought this 87 GL in 2012 and it only had 46,000 miles on it. I slapped plates on it, loaded it with people and stuff and took it from NJ to Nevada twice. The first trip I had 2 things happen; the water pump gave up the ghost as soon as my 5,000+ mile trip concluded and I was back in my hometown, and the 28 year old gear oil had (unbeknownst to me) turned to water and I fried the trans. I took it across the country again with fresh gear oil a second time and had no trouble, other than noise. Risky, but it did it. I still have that trans, and it still worked when I pulled it, just made lots of noise. I'm not even going to touch on the 3 speed push button in the turbo car because I don't drive it much. All I can say is that it seems to be geared differently than the FWD naturally aspirated car. 4,000 rpm is about 73 or so mph in it, whereas that would be 68-70mph in the FWD car. Last, and most extensively researched but surely not least is the FWD 5 speed in my daily driver Loyale. I have numbers due to recent curiosity: (All numbers are while in 5th gear) 3,450 rpm - 78 MPH 3,600 rpm - 80 MPH 3,900 rpm - 86 MPH 4,200 rpm - 89 MPH 4,500 rpm - 95 MPH 4,900 rpm - 98 MPH 4,950 rpm - 100 MPH 5,100 rpm - 106 MPH I find myself typically cruising at about 80-85 mph and my ea82 is humming along comfortably in the 3,600 - 3,900 rpm range. Right where the old 3 speed auto I used to drive would comfortably sit while I jostled along at 65 hahaha I find this convenient because anytime I notice I'm around 4,000 rpm, I know I'm going a bit *too* fast. I honestly find myself looking at the tach more than the speedometer. Once you get past that 4,500 rpm threshold though, two things happen: You lose the ability to (relatively) easily maintain speed (You can hold 95 without having to have your foot to the floor the entire time) and, you really start pushing the limits of your motor. I've run these engines at over 5,000 rpm for a couple hours and nothing catastrophic occurred, but I really would advise against anything over 4,500. Not to mention, there's no more power up there anyway. It all starts around 4,000 rpm and just rapidly drops off over 4,500. So to recap; 4,000 rpm = OK 4,500 rpm = Still OK! Over 4,500 rpm = Not smart. Make sure your timing belts and pulleys are good Maintain your vehicle HAVE GOOD TIRES (don't go flying around on dry-rotted tires from 1996) And every bit of information I shared in this post is entirely based on my personal experiences with various ea82 subaru vehicles over the course of the past decade. Your mileage very well may vary (And it probably will as the FSM shows a good bit of gearing variation through the 1985-1994 ea82 run).

hold onto the bad trans until you know the donor trans pan isn’t dented and it doesn’t have toque bind. And it’s not missing the torque converter, stubby shafts, or shift switch on the passengers side. Usualky they just come with all that stuff but I’ve seen all of those missing or damaged before too. but in general, Nope. They’re basically the same trans with slightly different guts inside and all that stuff usually stays with the trans Torque bind isn’t uncommon so if you wanted you could save the rear extension housing (it’s like 6 or 8 easy bolts and it pops right off). It has the 4WD clutches and solenoid. Or just hold onto the trans At least until you drive it and verify the donor trans doesn’t have torque bind. Then throw it away or keep the rear housing if you have room. make sure he knows how to properly seat the torque converter, if you don’t the oil pump will crack inside the trans. The torque converter and flex plate should not touch when the trans is bolted up to the engine and installed. The flex plate bolts will draw them together.

B assembled the rear suspension on the Impreza. To make the Mustang rear calipers fit the Subaru front rotors I turned the rotors a little thinner, about a millimeter total. Second side I had to run a lot slower than the first. Since the opposite side of the rotor wasn't up against the jaws it was chattering at anything above about 100rpm. Also we only had one banjo bolt so I made another one. Will probably eventually get legit banjo bolts and better caliper mounting bolts but they all work well enough for now. Rear suspension and brakes assembled. ABS sensors and parking brake cables just zip tied up for now. Will eventually remove ABS cables and make brackets to connect parking brake cables. Black stuff running down exhaust is carbon washed out of the engine by excessively rich mixture when we first got the engine running. I cleaned up the wiring in the engine compartment, still some work to do there. Ditto the interior. Ready for the first test drive, just have to lower the car. Been on jackstands for way too long. For some reason the cam signal issue is back. Engine still runs but not as smooth as it has been, so I probably need to call Haltech again. On the plus side we drove the car around the block and everything important seems to work. All three pedals, shifter, and steering seem to do what they should. Didn't notice any tire rubbing or bad noises or vibrations. Didn't leak a drop either.

I swapped the stock fuel pump out for this Deatschwerks pump a few weeks ago. Will keep stock one as a spare. Z wired some plugs on my light bars that plug into the stock fog light plugs. Engine compartment is getting close. Have to mount the PS reservoir and clean up wiring. Got the cam sensors to show up on the Haltech but the engine won't run with any of them connected to the main cam signal, waiting to hear back from them on ideas there. Also have to have super low values in the VE table to run close to 15:1 at idle but we have gotten it to do that now and it runs pretty smooth and smoke free. Got the parts back from paint. B installed bushings in the various rear suspension components. Used Whiteline mainly for ease of assembly. Ordered some R180 inner CV dust shields and another wheel bearing, then should be able to assemble all that. Fuel tank guards installed. Transmission crossmember/skid went in much more easily than we expected. Usually after removing these things and welding them off the car there is some amount of bending and hole slotting required. Middle portion of exhaust not fully installed, might have to come back out to install stock shifter. Waiting on bushings and roll pin for that. Front skid installed. A little bending and slotting was required to get that to bolt up to the bumper but not too much. Front bumper and lights installed. Car is getting really close to driving but there will still be a lot of things to do.