zyewdall

Good luck getting it running.... I've got to get mine running again too. It's got a problem with an injector(s) I think... not as good of mileage as it used to get (around 30, 35 highway -- used to get 33/38 highway), and occasionally it acts like it's totally flooded... think it's a bad injector. I found a set of new ones for $200. Also needs a new drivers side window, that a bear broke. And... I'm going to put on a grill guard and ATV winch while I'm at it. just for fun. Or in case I hit another moose AND.... my girlfriend has the legacy, so I'm not even getting the gas mileage of an EJ22 -- I'm getting about 15 to 16mpg in the ford ranger (which is seriously used for a work truck, filled with hundreds of lbs of stuff, and ladders and all on the roof rack, so it's not that bad for that use... but when I'm doing errands in it I'm really starting to cringe).

Just don't try to hitch a ride from Durango to Bayfield.... I got passed by about 200 cars one morning trying to get a ride back to my subaru that had died the afternoon before (timing belt....) before over in Bayfield Larimer county just added e-tests there... but kanurys is right, it's mostly counties in the Denver metro area, or with a portion of the county in the metro area, like boulder and larimer, that require the etests. Certainly not statewide.

I just did this to my '99 yesterday.... drove over a little bump in my yard with a little suspension flex, and heard a bong noise... though I'd hit a piece of wood or something. Then, saw that the end had snapped off the front swaybar. ??????? Odd that my justy has the same diameter swaybar as the legacy...

The story gets weirder.... This one is lifted -- there's strut blocks on top of the struts. I guess that explains why it rides as high as an outback instead of a regular legacy... The seller didn't say anything about that. I wonder if he even knew. He said that it came from the NW originally. I was talking to ShawnW yesterday about options to put a DR in it....

Yeah... I didn't realize this at first, and thought that EA82's and EA81's just got much better mileage than EJ22's and newer.... but on the highway they are about the same even though the newer ones are lower in the mountains. It's just that you can go so much faster in the mountains with the EJ22's (and proportionately faster with the new EJ25's) that you use more gas because of that, I think. When I drive my older cars I realize that I have gotten used to going at highway speeds up hills now.... which never used to happen

Hey speedwagon... I'm thinking that one of the issues with your wiring harness could be the giant splice that I did in it... if this is the car I think I'm remembering. I swapped a 1992 loyale engine into a 1987 GL, both SPFI, but one had different shaped plugs for the main engine harness. For some reason I didn't have the original '87 intake manifold to swap onto the '92 (I think I'd sold the engine from the '87 a few months earlier), so I had to splice the round plug onto the big square plug from the '92 intake (or vice versa.... I know that one had a square plug and one had a round). Anyway... I THINK that was this car, that you now have the harness out of... so if there's a big bundle of electrical tape on there kind of behind where the battery would have been on the EA82, unwrap it and you'll find a soldered splice of every wire in the harness. It ran for about 5 years after I did this, but perhaps it went bad on wire 45 in there?? Not sure, and I'm not even completely sure you got that particular frankencar that I'm remembering, but check it out.

As far as I've been told (by Boulder County DMV) emissions are required on anything newer than 1975 now (which is annoying since I have two 1976 ones). You can only get the classic plates on 1975 and older -- but no more e-test on those when the are sold, like before. I've never had issues with the older subarus passing -- only newer (90's) ones (standards are stricter, and if the cat starts goes bad, they get enough out of whack it seems). With an EJ22 it should run alot cleaner than the original engine, so I suspect it shouldn't be a problem. The techs there are usually morons who have no idea what they are looking at. They never seem to on my cars.... I doubt they would catch that it was a different engine. They're not allowed to fail it for a check engine light on any more, so I suspect that if it passed the test, they'd be okay with it, no matter what they found under the hood. I have seen them look underneath with mirrors (to make sure the cat is still there?) though... My '72 had the air injection system removed, but they never got past the loose ignition switch to get to testing the actual truck... then the rules changed to not require the e-test so I don't know if that would have been an issue or not.

I've got a buddy who just got a 2011 outback with the 6 speed automatic, and he claims he's getting close to 30 in mountain driving.... alot more than his 2009 forester with the 4eat (I think). I've never had something that new, but my old ones (EJ22's and EA82's) always dropped at least 10 to 20% in mountain driving vs flatter highways (flooring it up the canyons......). I'd easily get 30/31mpg on trips on I70 over to utah (even counting the passes), but commuting between boulder and ward, more like 26 in the EA82's, and 23 in the EJ22's. The Justy drops from about 40mpg highway to aroudn 32mpg commuting in the mountains. I've taken a 2007 outback with the 4eat on the same I70 trip, and only averaged about 27mpg, but I was probably going faster too... if I wound out the old EJ22 to 80mph the whole way, it also dropped to around 27/28. I wonder if the greater weight of the newer ones is giving them a bigger penalty for hills though? I think the greater horsepower definitely does, because you can go up hills faster... using more gas... where the old EA82's just didn't go up the hill any faster.

I am not sure about the newer subarus, but I've noticed that in my older ones (EA82's) I actually get just as good of mileage when shifting at 4,000 compared to shifting at 2,500 ish. Lugging an engine is bad too, and with that small an engine, a higher rpm is probably understandable (the Justy is even higher... power band really doesn't start till at least 3,000). I think alot of people who use the 2,500rpm "rule of thumb" for best gas mileage are used to old V8 engines with carburetors that have power below 2,500, and open the secondary on the carb at higher rpms and really guzzle gas there. That being said, the newer subaru engines are alot bigger than the old 1.8's, and I'm not sure if they should be run at lower rpm's or not... my truck has a 4 liter V6 engine, all new and computerized -- should have a diesel really... but those were never sold in the US -- and it definitely drops in mlieage when you keep it at higher than 2,400rpm or so. Feathering the gas vs flooring it is definitely a big differentiator though, regardless of rpms. Getting one of the instantaneous mileage gauges is a good way to try out different methods though. You can shift into different gears (rpm ranges) on the same grade and immediately see whether it's better to have a higher rpm in a lower gear, or downshift and slow the engine down, but have it producing more torque.

second this.... I've had many engines that stayed right in the middle of the guage, but due to oil leaks (or grease from the inner right DOJ on the cat), smelled really bad when running...

Okay... this is a kind of odd one. It has a rear wiper, and intermittent wipers that are either stock, or someone did a good job of swapping them in. And cruise control (though that looks somewhat aftermarket). But no tach, and all manual windows/locks.

Is this one of those concrete highways will all the little grooves in it? I've had those cause quite noticeable weaving back and forth at speed, when there was actually nothing wrong with the vehicle's steering at all.... highway 287 north of Longmont is especially bad with certain tires and cars.

?? I'd think that any EA82 alternator would work (possibly with swapping the pully if it's the different type). Which means '85 through '94, EA82's. I think I've used the EA81's ('81 - '84 + later on the brats and hatches) on my EA82's as well, but I can't remember if I had to do modifications to them... nothing major that I remember, but wiring harnesses might have been different shaped plugs or something and I probably wouldn't remember. Z

Also, odd thing... the spark plugs go through holes in the valve covers, instead of into the heads directly, like EJ22's I'm used to seeing. But... I've had mostly early 90's ones, and one 1997.... never had a 1999 before.

Cool. I was wondering why a brighton goes for at least $1000 less than a regular outback ($3200, with less than 100k on it... and I was seeing similar outbacks with 220k needing work, for the same price). On the ground clearance, I was noticing that it seems to sit higher than most legacies I see -- closer to an outback already... maybe just because it's new and detailed and clean, instead of full of junk like most of them ? But if I can swap in outback struts for even more clearance, that would be great (snow....you know...). Rear wiper would be really nice. Someone has swapped in a really nice radio, and the cruise control already.

I just bought a 1999 Legacy wagon, brighton edition... I like it because it's got the 2.2 engine instead of the 2.5 that the outback's got in 99. But... no tach? Really?? How hard is it to swap the instrument cluster with a normal legacy/outback that has a tach? Is it just a matter of removing the old one and plugging a new one in, or is the wiring also missing? The engine is so quiet that having a tach would be nice. Maybe I'll get an aftermarket one and just add it, like I did with my 1976 pickup (which does not have a quiet engine by any stretch, so it really doesn't need it...)

Ouch... Colorado just started doing fees for back registrations, however, they cap them at $100 (four months worth). It sucks for people doing restorations -- in which you might have the vehicle unregistered for several years (you can't register a non-operable vehicle because it won't pass emissions.....). But, still not nearly as bad as CA it appears.

I know that the EA's are getting older... but you'd think that the early EJ's would be taking their place as the $600 running beater car... but they don't seem to be here in Colorado. As for emissions.... I have had more problems trying to get 90's cars to pass emissions than I ever had with 80's cars, and that was why I got rid of my '97 impreza -- the only subaru I've had that refused to pass emissions, as well as the newest subaru I've owned. I'm going back to pre 1975 ones that don't have to. Z

Has anyone else noticed this? You cannot buy an old running subaru any more for under about $1200 to $1500 and even at that price range it's hard. It used to be that craigslist, local classifieds, etc, had dozens of EA81's and EA82's for sale, for under $1000, in fairly good running condition. This winter, it's been only broken ones for sale, even expanding the search to first gen legacies. I've only seen four EA81's for sale all winter in the denver area, and three of them weren't really for sale (a friend showed up with cash for two of them and the owners backed out and decided to keep them after all). Seems like almost everyone with a running old suby is keeping it instead of upgrading like they used to do. Stupid economy

I thought I had a collapsed lifter in the 1990 Legacy... but upon further inspection, that's not lifter click that I'm hearing.. I'm pretty certain it's a rod knocking. It's a deeper sound, more to the back of the engine in the middle, than the side, and if you take the drivers side rear spark plug wire off, it goes away... Only 329,125 miles on it... geeesh It starts right up at -10F, and passed emissions with flying colors last fall, and doesn't really burn oil. It also needs new brakes, wheel bearings, struts, tie rods, as well as having a whole host of other quirks. Guess maybe it's time for it to be a parts car, and find another matching one to drive, eh...

I think that it has nothing to do with being in 4wd. My cars ('89 wagon... same as yours) handles very nice in 4wd in the road -- binds if you turn, of course, but only on dry pavement. Check your alighnment, and for anything loose underneath there... ball joints, struts, CV's, etc...

Is morgantown on the east coast somewhere? I've seen cars from the east coast, of the age you're looking at, show similar rust... I think it's pinholes in the paint that let the rust bubbles start, but not really sure. Its from the salt... I personally wouldn't buy a car that new with any rust unless it was a dirt cheap beater for just a few years use (I shoot for rust free even with 80's cars, and 70's if I can, but I generally shop in the pacific northwest or arizona/newmexico for older cars.... definitely avoid east of the mississippi like the plague, when dealing with older cars. Z

I've run stock (Hitachi) EA81's at 9,000+ feet quite a bit (I live at 9,300 myself) and they run fine.... I have no idea if mine were jetted for high elevation or not from the facotry, but I never noticed any issues with running with mine. I think the highest I ever had mine was around 12,500 or so, over trail ridge road through rocky mountain national park... still ran fine, up hills and all. On the other hand, it does reduce the power. A LOT... A stock EA81 at 12,000 feet makes an EA-81 at sea level seem quite peppy, which in turns makes almost any other vehicle ever made seem peppy:grin: If you're not in a hurry... no problem. If you are okay taking 10 minutes to achieve 55mph..... It won't stop or anything... but it might annoy the guy behind you in his 500HP supercharged range rover. The water heated throat on the hitachi's do seem to be quite immune from icing, compared to some other carbs. I've never had issues with them starting in the cold either (assuming everything else is good, of course)

If anyone's wondering how the dual range impreza is doing.... it's not any more. I wrecked it last week.... a 4runner spun out on the highway in front of me on glazed ice and bounced off the guard rail. I tried to swerve and stop, but just got myself sliding sideways (with almost brand new non-studded snow tires on it even) and slammed into the sideways 4runner. the subaru is quite smashed on the front right corner and rear right corner (but the right doors and mirror are untouched), and radiator is smashed. I was probably going sideways at about 20 - 25mph when I hit. The 4 runner I hit is missing the end of the rear axle. No injuries... but I suspect insurance is going to total the suby. oh well...

Yes, ideally, you want narrower tread width to get higher ground pressure for the snow tires, so they'll press through the snow down to something more solid. In most conditions.... if you are trying to offroad through big snowdrifts in the spring, you want wide tires to float on top of the snow and not high center the vehicle, but that's not typical "snow" driving that most of us do (I've done it though.... lots of winching involved