zyewdall

Well, the first problem would be it would be really really slow, instead of just slow. It sounds like you have two wagons - -why not transplant both the engine and the tranny from the '86, and get rid of the auto tranny? I was also going to suggest just putting the longblock from the '86 into the turbo car, with all the turbo stuff, till I remembered that the turbo engines have the completely different heads for the MPFI. And if you are going to switch heads, why not just redo the head gaskets on the turbo engine. Actually, head gaskets are not that hard, compared to the control issues of changing the engine control system.... I'd just do that, and you'll still have a turbo car.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy about the way it's turning out. Not perfect for sure (for one thing, I'm just masking most of the trim instead of taking it off), but from a few feet away, it looks nice. The tires are Hancook Ipike 175/75/R13's. They work great in the snow. I think I'm going to get a pair of 195/75/R14 Ipikes for my set of pugs (for the '82 GL). The solar panel.... it keeps the starter battery charged now. I used to have an inverter and second battery to run lights and laptop and stuff while camping. And, I design solar installations for a living, so I just had to stick one on the car The toyota is a 1981 longbed diesel -- had a stuck ring that I had to replace to stop the smoking, and I haven't quite got it back running again (needs two new batteries, and I hope it'll be all good again). Z

still not done on the passenger side because it started raining, but it's looking good.... Originally, it was pavement colored, so when I first got it I added the green and yellwo accents and white roof (all rattle canned), and laminated the solar panel to the roof. And after. The metallic green is a mixture of two 1999 volkswagen colors -- polyurathane enamel, applied with a real paint gun -- the first time I've ever used one -- much easier to get a uniform paint layer than with rattle cans. The white roof is just rattle can gloss enamel, and the black is hammerite black enamel -- I picked it so when I scrape the rocker panels off (they get pretty scratched running through snowbanks and ice in the winter) I can fix it without getting the whole paint sprayer and stuff out. Bumpers and trim and mirrors are some sort of laquer for plastics, with glitter in it. Looks pretty slick -- we'll see how long it lasts. Whaddayouthink?

Hey, if it's rust free and everything, it's worth it just to find another EA82 to swap in. Sounds like a badly blown head gasket or some other sort of water/oil mixing event....

Just oxidized rock. Not sure exactly what mineral. Some form of iron, I think. The rain on the tailings piles (which are orange/yellow, instead of red like the mountain above) sort of make the whole creek a disturbing orange color on the way down...

LOL :lol::lol: Best get that fixed I think. Sad thing is that the guy I sold my '85 GL wagon to threw it away when the starter died a year later. Rust free body too.

I think you can still get the 5 spd in the Outback -- I know someone who has one. Unless his is a MY 2006 instead of 2007 -- it's only 6 months old though. Took the Outback offroading last week -- I'm more impressed than I thought I would be. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77288 Personally, I still want an EJ22 in my old EA81 though

I took the new company car up Lincoln Creek Road to the very end while on a business trip to Aspen. Not really offroading -- my stock EA81 could have done it too, but it did perform better than I expected. Especially with highway tires. It's a mild dirt road near independence pass for 5 miles, then goes into two track for another 5 to the old town of Ruby around 11,400 feet. Then at the end, it switchbacks about 900 feet farther up the side of the mountain through some old mine tailings and such. A few creek crossings maybe 8" to a foot deep and mild rocky sections. One 3 foot long patch of snow at the very very top about 50 feet before the road ended. A Jeep Liberty turned around before the end, but I didn't (he could have made it to the end fine, but lost driver confidence...). I still like low range in my EA series cars, but have to admit that the combo of an EJ25 and a torque converter isn't bad -- going up at least. Going down I would have liked more engine braking. Only scraped the front bumper once, and dragged the trailer hitch mount once or twice. Got stuck and had to try again on one switchback when the offcamber combined with highway tires started spinning. I do have to say, I am very impressed with how well it handles on dirt roads -- just throw it into corners and hit the gas and it zooms right around. I thought my EA handled well, but the outback is FUN on the two lane dirt roads. I'm a little less impressed with the gas mileage -- 25mpg average for the trip, and I drove pretty conservatively on the highway. My old EA82 I can thrash on the highway and offroad, and still get more like 28. Guess having all that power does use gas... The place I didn't quite have good enough approach or departure angles. Picture doesn't do it justice but look where the headlight reflections are in the creek. The end of the road, looking up the valley at the divide with a very light dusting of new snow (it was light rain where I was). You can see the switchbacks below me. The end of the road, with Red Mountain behind me Looking down the valley from the top. You can see the creek way down in the bottom. Looking back up the valley on the way down -- the end of the road is about in the cloud on the left

LOL. That would probably happen to me if I got rid of my GL wagon too.... Glad to hear it's back on the road. I've started running 5W50 synthetic in mine (about 15k miles ago), and it seems to be quieter on startup and smoother running. It never had TOD, but did click for a few seconds on cold startup, which it doesn't do any more. It's getting hot here.... I might have to have the A/C system fixed on mine -- it needs a new compressor, and recharged. That's really the ONLY thing that makes me want a new car... I want something with working A/C. Z

Nice find. I didn't know the '82 came with dual headlights -- all three I've had -- two GL 4wds, and one GL fwd, had single squares. But the chrome bumper and red guages tell it apart from the '83/84. I'm putting a 5spd dual range in mine (in place of the 4spd dual range) but I'm either going to keep the EA81, or go for the EJ22. If I'm going through the trouble of an engine swap, might as well go big, I figure. I really like the EA81 engine's durability.... not much power compared to the EA82SPFI, but whatever.... no timing belts to break, or skip when I embed it in a snowbank (guess if I had timing covers that would help with the snow.....). $75 is a good price.... I paid $50, free, and $600 for my '82 wagons.... Z

Huh? They are the car of choice here too, but that means there are tons of them around, and all the autoparts places keep lots of subaru parts in stock for fairly decent prices.

Average 27 to 30, mix of highway and mountain, not much city. I tend to drive pretty agressively too. I've gotten as lo as 20ish, plowing through deep snow in low range. Highest ever was 32mpg on a highway trip. Z

Keep him. Good backup transportation, or if a friend's car goes kaput and they need a loaner for a week. I keep thinking I'm going to get rid of my '89GL, and I park him in the yard and start driving one of my other cars. But it seems like at least every 3 months, I go back to driving the GL, because it's the only running car I have again..... He's probably more reliable than all 5 other cars combined (okay, the '82 suby always runs fine too but needs plates) I've promised him to my brother several times (since I owe him a car) -- now I'm thinking I'll just buy my brother a gen 1 leg instead, so I can keep the GL.

In my town of ~200, I counted 1 EA81 brat, 7 EA81 wagons (two mine), 2 EA81 hatches, 1 EA82 coupe, 1EA82 sedan, 9 EA82 wagons (1 mine), two RX's, 5 2nd gen legacies/outbacks, 1 justy, 3 1st gen legacy sedans, 7 1st gen legacy wagons, an early impreza sedan, two early foresters, and one impreza outback. And that's just on the main two or three streets. Probably double that if we start counting the outlying houses off in the woods. About 80% of those in running condition -- which is a high percentage for my town. Probably less than 40% of all the cars in town run. Nothing newer than about 1999 or 2000 that I remember (no 3rd or 4th gen legacies spotted in my quick search). Probably about 25% of all the vehicles in town are subarus, and well over half of the non-pickup trucks.... Boulder has fewer of the EA81's and EA82's any more, but tons of all gens of legacies and imprezas, outbacks, foresters. And a few WRX and such. So, you can see why I was so suprised.... On the other hand, I've never even seen a Nash Rambler.... I know of another little mountain town in Colorado where the ownership of of 60's and 70's volvos is probably about 1 for every two people. Funny how these pockets of particular vehicals form (probably because a few people in town know how to make certain old cars keep running, and collect parts for them, so after a while, that's what people buy for a cheap car, because there's someone local to keep it running) Z

If it was leaking out of the timing belt covers, it's likely it was the water pump, not head gaskets. I don't think that head gaskets on the EA82's tend to leak externally when they fail, but I could be wrong. In any case, it would most likely be leaking from where the head joins the block, not the front of the engine. Putting in a new engine is probably almost as much work as doing the water pump -- about a day for either. Okay, probably half a day for the water pump. I have a chilton's for mine. If you are in there replacing the water pump, might as well do the timing belts and idlers too -- it's alot of the same stuff you have to remove to do either.

Hmmmmm. If it was just the coolant and overheating, I'd say head gaskets, but the noise doesn't sound good... Did you look at the engine oil perchance? Wonder if it got enough coolant in there to kill the main bearings? I guess a really bad water pump bearing could explain everything except the oil leaking... It sure would be nice if that was it. Z

I decided this afternoon that the '89 GL is getting repainted this weekend. Probably not as fancy as Beefaru's (since I'm just doing it over a weekend), but same idea. I like it fine with my "custom" rattle can striping now, but everyone in my company keeps asking me why I don't buy a new car with the new job, and a service station guy did comment that it was the ugliest car he'd ever seen. Actually, I've gotten that comment from several of my friends too. But it still starts reliably even at -5F, goes through snowdrifts with aplomb, holds me and whatever else I cram in it, and gets around 30mpg. Why get a new car? I'll just paint up the old one so it looks nicer.... Picked up a bunch of sandpaper, some bondo, some automotive paint, a few rattle cans of trim colors, and an air compressor this afternoon (been waiting for a while for an excuse to get an air compressor). Watch out, here I come It's going to get black hammerite under the door strips, medium metallic green (a mix of two 1999 VW colors) for the basic color, and white roof. And all the wheels silver (instead of two silver/rust and two black). Before and after pics coming on Sunday. If it turns out good, I'm doing the same thing to the '82 wagon too.... Z

WTF???? Looks like the valve retainers came loose and the valves fell into the cylinder and got pulverized ??????? I've never seen that before (on a subaru at least). It wasn't making any horrible noises? Then again, my friend lost a rod on her EJ22, and it was still running on 3 cylinders after punching a hole in the block. Good you've got a parts engine. Z

I know... and I have sinned. I have let two good 5spd dual ranges go to waste... sold one to a non-subaru person who junked the car a year later, and one was a friend's subaru that he abandoned when the timing belt broke, and the police towed it before I did.

I was just thinking about the fact that the gen 1 legacies cars get almost the same mileage as my EA82 (high 20's). In a much heavier car. So... when I put an EJ in the old EA81 wagon, will I get above 30mpg... seems funny to get higher gas mileage, AND more horsepower, than that stock EA81, but it would also be odd that the EJ22 wouln't get better gas mileage in the light EA81 body than in the heavy legacy body.... Hmmmmmm Anyone who's got the EJ22 swap... what sort of mileage do you get on the road (I know that off-road and the lifted rigs all bets are off)

Usually not, but sometimes it will help. I didn't reinstall the fan on mine after changing the timing belts on the side of the road in April, and I've noticed that the temp guage goes up to the middle of the guage when going up a long steep hill. Especially if I'm in 1st or 2nd gear on dirt roads. It used to never get above 1/3'rd on these long hills. I'll probably put it back on soon, as it's getting hot here now. I still have the engine driven fan on the waterpump, BTW. Z

Are you sure you put it in the right spot -- if you somehow put it where the hillholder cable is supposed to go, it'll work in reverse like that. Or, just learn to drive it that way When people ask to borrow the car you can say... you think know how to drive a manual eh,,,, not this one

You mean make it not a subaru any more? You know they are alot more susceptable to rust if you stop the oil leaks.....

Racing stripes help too right? so can I roughly double the horsepower of my old wagon if I paint it yellow and put racing stripes on