zyewdall

EA81's have it up front, EA82's it's on the back of the drivers side head/cam-case. Can you weld a pipe across the bumper? The problem with a front end hit on these is that it pushes the radiator back into the timing belts. Look for old threads on this. I've seen it a number of times before. Z

On the extra horsepower.... do you know how to drive an EA82 subaru? I see alot of posts where people are driving them as if they have a V8 -- keeping the rpms below 2,500. You have to run them between 2,500 and 4,500 for much power -- and oddly, high engine rpm doesn't seem to affect gas mileage that much. I've got 228k on mine and still get close to 30mpg on the highway ('89 GL - same as a loyale, but with the d/r 4wd). It'll actually keep up 85mph on the highway (getting to there takes a while though).

LOL I have to start using toes on both feet if I count EA series subaru's on the quarter mile walk to the post office from my house. I feel sorry for you guys. On the other hand, I hear that eastern canada has lots of the old turbodiesel veedubs.... on the veedub diesel forum there's always people wondering why someone would even buy the non-turbo ones when an 80's turbo jetta can be had for $400.... maybe in London, Ontario. Here the old non-turbo rabbits sell for $1,000 with bad head gaskets because they are rare.

4WD manual EA81 wagon, running good, stock tires, I get between 24mpg and 29mpg usually.

Do you already have the EJ22 swap and it's not fast enough? I'd think that just putting an EJ22 would be so much more power than an EA series engine, in a much lighter body than a legacy, that you'd hardly need MORE power. Hopefully I'll see soon when I get an EJ22 in my '82 wagon. Z

Wow I've done rattle can jobs, but they do cost a bit more if you do it right (it's at least 10 or 15 cans of the $7/can industrial enamel stuff). Wow!!

Rochester area. It gets a bit of snow there I understand, so I was suprised to not see old subies everywhere.... Then again, a friend moved here from Boston last year, and his '99 outback looks worse than my '82 wagon, rustwise, so I guess not much would be left of the 80's ones by now.... I just find it suprising that something could rust that fast.

I was in upstate Newyork last week, and noticed that there were no subarus I saw two second gen legacy outbacks and one forester, but no EA81's, EA82's, brats, or 1st gen legacys. Certainly not the somewhere around 20% of cars that seem to be subaru's here. Is this due to rust, or do people back there just not drive subarus? I saw a lot of newer american made cars there, which was odd too... people actually buy those?

According to some people offroading the duece and a halfs, the stock NDT tires suck in the snow -- rounded lugs don't grab anything. Someone called them non directional travel tires... Those trucks apparently have massive understeer too, so I'm not sure how much of the problem is that. Under the right conditions they'd probably be pretty good though. They look pretty tough.

Wonder if I was mistaken in the dark and it was an EA81t ??? perhaps? Could have sworn it looked like the EA82 body as it went by though. I did mistake an older forester for an '82 wagon from just the headlights in the dark once.... the headlights and side markers looked the same in the rear view -- but that was obvious when it got a look at the actual car.

Going up the canyon tonight, I see headlights appear in the dark behind me. A second later they are getting closer. Another second or two there are four headlights right behind me, getting very close. I drive pretty fast, but this guy's going REALLY fast. I figure it's some nut in a camaro or porsche or something. I pulled onto the shoulder to avoid getting rear ended and behold, a reddish colored EA82 wagon passes me and dissappears off into the dark After I saw it was another EA82 (I was in my '89 GL wagon), I put the pedal down to try to keep up with him, but he vanished after only one or two turns in the road. I think it was an '85 or '86 (no third brake light, and the four headlight setup). It was a local (he knew which curves to hit the brakes on, and which to just accellerate through), so I imagine if I keep my eye out for a red wagon with the four headlight setup, I'll see him again. I just wonder what the heck engine he has in there.

Nope, it ruins the pulley when it comes off, not the crankshaft How do I know that you ask? Locktight, and make it as tight as you can get it, I say. It's steel, so you don't have to worry about stripping aluminum threads.

What I'd do is find the main power wire supplying the power windows, and reconnect it to a switch to the main always on power buss -- instead of to the ignition power busss. If you move it, rather than just adding a new switch, no problems backfeeding the ignition. If you wanted, you could put a relay in parallel with the new switch, triggered by the ignition, so it would also work whenever the ignition is on like it does now too.

Nice. Almost the same as my '82 wagon. Except mine doesn't have the bull bar on the front. Is the trailer hitch just attached to the bumper, or does it go back to the subframe in the back? Z

An identical pair of white 2007 Subaru Outback wagons. They are the two new company cars, actually... not mine. But I drove one around for a while today... certainly much nicer and modern than my '82 or '89 GL wagons. A bit more powerful too (you can drive with the A/C on even ), though not as much as I expected, for having somewhere over twice the horsepower as the old ones. Maybe it's because they probably weigh 50% more too. Boy have subaru's gotten big in the last 20 years -- they can't fit into parking spaces that my GL would fit into, and you can't quite do a u-ie in the middle of a regular residential street. And maybe the lack of power feeling is partly because I don't have all the auditory clues to let me know I'm at highway speed (the rattling, engine noise, general feeling that I'm about at terminal disintegration velocity... ) so it doesn't seem like I am actually going as fast as it seems in the old ones. I also notice that there is legroom in them now too. I liked the sport mode on the auto tranny -- I could actually put the tranny in the gear I wanted it in instead of letting it shift, which is always my big problem with auto trannies. And I avoided jamming my left foot on the brake as hard as I can, which is my other problem with auto trannies if I don't pay attention. I want to take one of them off-roading, and see how it does compared to the old dual range GL's (No, it's not really a company use, but sometimes we have clients that live up really bad roads that almost classify as off-roading).

A friend of mine threw a rod on her '91 EJ22 while engine braking around 5500rpms on a long hill in 2nd gear. It still ran afterwards, but on three cylinders, and oil was splashing out of the hole in the top of the block. I'm not sure it had anything to do with the high rpms though -- because i'm convinced that she has a poltergiest in her car. It was the second EJ22 that her car ate in a year. And she regularly (like every two weeks) gets flats on her driveway when no one else does. Scoff if you will, but I've never seen a subaru have so many problems. And when she borrowed two other vehicals while getting the engine in the suby replaced, they both stopped running too....

'89 GL wagon = 7.5" '82 GL wagon = 9" '84 GL wagon, struts cranked all the way up = 11" The front crossmember on the EA81's is not the lowest thing there by any means -- exhaust is probably and inche or two below it at least.

I suspect the catch isn't staying uncatched after you pull the cable -- you need to pull the cable, and then try to lift the hood while holding the cabled pulled out. What I do sometimes when I encounter this is to put a set of vicegrips on the pull to keep it out, then go out and lift the hood. Z

I have a little cheapo buzzbox like that... works well enough for 1/8" thick and under stuff. But, for bodywork, I really like a wirefeed instead of a stick. You can usually get a flux core wirefeed for under $250. Just alot easier when you are under the car trying to weld exhaust pipes back together, or trying not to burn through sheet metal or whatnot. Maybe I'm just not very good at welding and if I was I could do all that with the stick, but I really like the wirefeed.

I took my $50 '82 wagon on a 3,000 mile trip from CO to WA and back. It made it fine. Watch out for the wheel bearings. And the oil pumps on the EA81 engines can go out sometimes. And standard stuff like belts, hoses, etc. Other than that, they seem pretty bulletproof. New clutch and accellerator cable might be a good idea just in case. And lots o tools.

Not going to make it Came down with a nasty cold yesterday, and it's probably better if I stay in bed today, and not spread it to everyone else. Have fun. Zeke

What is it???? I've got a plan to skip stuff Sunday and come.... but it's going to have to be in the VW rabbit. It's not a subaru, but it thinks it is sometimes

Yeah, they started using that in Colorado a few years ago. Kills trees on the downhill side of the road too. Whatever happened to everyone buying studded snow tires and driving slower in the winter? Z

Gah, got a training seminar for work. We'll see if I can skip out on it, but don't count on it. Z

ALSO -- I think the switzerland trail is cleared of the giant drifts now. Checked out about 5 miles of it the other day and didn't find any snow. I've got one of my 4x4 trucks running again now, so I'll check out the north end of it, where the biggest drifts (and the part for lifted subies only) are. But, if some of the north of denver folks want to come up to my area to play, we could do that. Actually, after what I did in my stock '82 wagon last weekend, I'm tempted to try the jeep cutoff at the end of this trail. With a few spare tires on hand that is.