zyewdall

Yeah. Gives me time to get a subaru running too (the '82 runs, but has no license plates, the '89 is having trouble with the front right DOJ right now and I don't want to drive it that far or it might be rear wheel drive by the time I get back). Otherwise, I'll have to bring the green monster (volkswagon rabbit). If you guys are saying that this trail isn't real offroading, I just might :-p

Angle grinder is nice -- but then you are left with a chopped stud you need to remove. Personally, if you can't get a grip on it with vice grips or pipe wrench, I'd weld a chunk of steel of some sort on there -- like a new larger nut perhaps. Having a wirefeed welding sitting next to the car is dangerous.... Gives you ideas

Nope -- the GTD was never sold in the US. I just put the engine from an '88 diesel jetta in it. It sort of sucks on hills on the highway, but other than that, reaching 85mph is not that hard. Average 40+mpg even with hard driving though.

Okay, 56k killer coming... My 89 GL wagon, stock. Daily driver, but quite often my days include this road. My 82 GL wagon (pics from today -- stock with crappy tires right now, though its getting a lift soon, can't believe I actually made it up some of the rocky sections without blowing any tires out. I also went through a puddle deep enough that I flooded the passenger side floor) My '76 Ford Sasquatch (solid axle goodness ) and my '84 turbodiesel mitsubishi pickup (yes, I'm dragging logs out of the woods with it) And it wouldn't be complete without the VW GTI... Just kidding:lol: But, actually I do take it on some pretty bad dirt roads sometimes. I need to get a skid plate for it -- I busted the oil pan and an engine mount last summer. It's got a diesel engine, so the torque is really good, and it's so small that you can get it places people wouldn't think. And my friends have a discovery landrover, a 1980 Scout (doesn't have the subtlety of a subaru, but makes up for it with brute force), and a 1974 FJ cruiser.

I second all of his suggestions.

I ran for 5,000 miles with an EA82 engine that used (towards the end) a gallon of coolant every 20 miles. No coolant in the oil, or vice versa, and no pressure in the coolant system..... soooo it might have really been a intake manifold gasket leak. I do know I seriously overheated it at least twice before this happened though. But at any rate, I put new head gaskets in, and it was fine again. Never had any running problems (other than the worn out carb that was the same before, during, and after)

Yeah, I've been in those storms down in Coca Beach -- when the road is 3" deep in water, just because it can't run off any faster. And after the storm, it's still 95 degrees, but the humidity has changed from 80% to 100%. Impressive, but I'll take my blizzards :-p

Dinosaur lights.... (what one of my friends named them) http://server5.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=gti-grill.jpg http://server5.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=Blue87.jpg http://server5.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=Twoblue.jpg http://server5.theimagehosting.com/image.php?img=Green89.jpg the two turn signals on top of the hood. All of my cars have acquired them. The initial reason was that on the subaru's the turn signals are under the bumper and get coated with mud and snow and dissappear. Now, I just like the styling, so I stick them on everything I own . They are running lights, something like $3 each at checker auto, and I put in the highest wattage bulb that fits the socket -- still nowhere near as bright as the stock turn signals, but bright enough to keep from getting pulled over when the other ones are invisible (I guess), and wire it to the same wire as the lower turn signal light.

A good resource on the VW diesels is the VWdiesel.net forum. I used it alot when putting a 1.6 liter VW diesel in my VW GTI. They are mostly US and Canada based (english and french forums), but not much european from what I can tell -- which limits the knowledge about the 3 cylinder versions. I hear that the 3 cylinder version were also available in south america. Also, I've done several diesel engines on biodiesel, and several on vegetable oil (SVO), so if anyone has specific questions on that, let me know. I've never actually made biodiesel from vegetable oil (always just bought it at the local station here), but I know many people who have -- and exceeded ASTM specs with a homebrew biodiesel reactor. I'm more into auto mechanics than chemistry, so I'm a little stronger proponent of SVO if you're doing it yourself, if you engine can handle it (which alot of newer diesels can't -- so biodiesel is the only route) My personal experience with the 1.9 liter TDI's is that they are great engines -- gobs and gobs of torque, and smooth running. BUT, the reliability of the computer control is not what subaru people are used to. Some people actually put a mechanical injection pump on the TDI engine, which reduces power somewhat, but (IMHO) increases reliability, and makes it alot easier to swap into another car (three wires to hook up, instead of a whole ECU). As well, the mechanical injection systems seem to handle SVO much better. Also... VW makes industrial engines. http://www.kraftpower.com/vw/vw_diesel.html Less power than the automotive versions. http://www.haywood-sullivan.com/vanagon/TDI/tdi_specs_en.pdf AND -- don't ever let on that you want to use these in an automobile -- they will refuse to ever talk to you again. A friend of mine wanted to put a duetz diesel in an old pickup to make a farm vehical, and once they heard pickup truck, they hung up on him. I have specs and torque curves for several other VW diesel engines that I'll try to get linked to here soon. Interestingly, the specs for the TDI engine states a maximum tilt angle of 35 degrees -- I think thats a little less than the vanagons, which use it at a 50 degree tilt angle. I THINK that the only difference in the vanagon engines is that they have a different oil pickup tube and oil pan. Obviously our subaru engines operate with the clyinders tipped all the way over

Just to let anyone who's interested, we've got a thread going over in the transplant forum, on putting a VW diesel engine in an EA82. There seem to be three or four of us on this board pursuing this, and with luck (and time and money -- the limiting reagents for most projects ), at least one of them will be one the road by the end of this year. We'll post pictures and narrative as we go, so stay tuned if you're interested. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=64687&page=2

Hey, it's the "lets put a VW diesel engine in a loyale" thread again. I am seriously working on this as well. FYI, the old VW 1.6's and the new 1.9TDI's are actually quite similar, and if you could figure out how to get one in there, you could probably get the other in. People have bolted the TDI's into old VW rabbits. I was planning on the tilted over design, and lifting the subaru, to get an extra few inches of room for the engine in height (it's a tall engine compared to an EA81 or EA82. I am actually wanting to go for a 1.4TDI -- the three cylinder version of the 1.9. Only was sold in Europe, so I'll have to import one. But, lengthwise, it's a bit easier to deal with. Only about 75HP and 130ftlbs, but hey, I've got an EA81 right now, which at my altitude (9,000 ft) is probably about 50HP and 70ftlbs... Considering that a jetta TDI will easily cruise at 95mph, and my EA81 weighs a bit less than a mark IV jetta, and the speedometer only goes to 85mph, I think the 1.4TDI should be great.... AND -- if they offer a diesel legacy outback in the US in 2008, I will most likely buy one. Our sales guy says I need a new car soon so clients don't see my old multicolored suby , and a diesel is the one thing that will make me buy a new suby (otherwise, it's going to be a golf TDI most likely -- because it WILL be a biodiesel car)

Don't know for towing, but I've had 1,200lbs of batteries IN my '89 GL wagon, and it did okay. Slow going up hills for sure, but still braked okay and didn't overheat. And didn't blow the tires out. Trailer will be slightly different -- less weight on the tires, but more odd forces on the car. Question is -- if you're wagon's rusty, is there something good to attach the hitch to down there?

I have not noticed any correlation between leaking and synthetic oil, in my subaru's. They've all been high mileage when I switched to synthetic. Some leak, and continue leaking. Some leak ALOT and still do. Some don't leak, and don't on synthetic either. Unless it causes catastrophic increase in leaking (which it sounds like it did on the chevy truck), I'd recommend it, as it runs so much nicer on synethetic -- easier starts with less noise, seems to rev easier and the bearings and everything should last alot longer -- and I want the engine to last forever, of course Plus, in general, it's easier to replace seals than main bearings and rods... Just a note, I use 5W50 synthetic -- instead of the 10W40 regular oil I was using. If I use 10W30 regular, the '89 GL burns about a quart every 400 miles. With the 5W50, it seems to get about 600 miles per quart, and runs better (I still regularly get 30mpg out of it). To me, this is worth the $6/quart for oil. EDIT: I'm about to switch my '76 mazda pickup over to synthetic -- it's low mileage, but has been stored alot during it's life. Not sure if this is a good idea, but I'll give a report in a few months on whether I killed it, or saved it.

Yeah... The people who do custom cams do V8's...... which are actually cheaper anyway, because more people do them. Performance parts for odd 4 clyinder engines are expensive. I was going to add a Mallory electronic distributor to my old 4 cylinder mazda truck -- $800 For your average V8 engine, only $300. Guess I'll keep the points and condenser.

Oooof. That looks a little like my older '82 wagon I used to own. No metal below the rubber door strips, and no rust free paint below the roofline. Still ran fine, but I finally donated it to a school shop class because the body just wasn't worth fixing.

Much quiter on startup. I never had TOD on this one, except on cold startups after sitting a few days. I did try synthetic in my '85 wagon that had pretty loud TOD, and didn't make a bit of difference.

About 195k when I switched, and 227k now It didn't leak at all then (the subaru shop was astounded), and it still doesn't leak. I must have gotten the only one. :cool: Every other suby I've owned has leaked a bit....

Yeah. I sawzalled the whole top off of a school bus and welded it back on 14" higher up once...

My family lives far away and doesn't even know I own the '82 wagon yet. Or else, I'm sure they'd be saying that I've got more important things to do than sawzalling more cars apart

What width tires are you running? I am doing a mild lift (2 or 3") and 14" pugs on my '82 wagon, and am trying to decide on tires for it now. Typically, I run 175/75/R13 snows. And the only way you can stop it in the snow is to lift the wheels off the ground (not that hard, actually... ). But I'm worried about how such a light vehical will perform in snow with wider tires. Say... 195/75/R14 or 205/75/R14. My 4x4 pickup truck only has 225 wide snow tires. Most of my "off-roading" is in snow. And a fair bit of my on-road driving is on icy snowy roads. So good snow performance is my main criteria for tires. Also, any suggestion on what type of snow tires I should get. I had blizzaks which did really well in snow, but wore out really fast from dry road driving (that's another thing -- we don't exactly have a definite beginning or end to snow season -- for example, the last few weeks have been sunny and warm, and we're getting 2 feet of snow today (6" so far)). Right now I have Ipike's, which seem to be doing better on the dry road durability, but still do well in the snow too. My trucks get studded snows on them, but the subaru usually not, because I wear the studs off cornering to hard. Thanks Z

Should I do it? It would be really neat to have a tailgate wagon, even though the EA81's never came this way. Cut the rear door in half in a line even with the top of the taillights, and remount the bottom half as a tailgate, and keep the top half as a hatch. It would require a bit of sheet metal welding and grinding and repainting to make it look stock. And re-designing the latches so there was two of them now. But I have a parts wagon with a good hatch too. For lower hinges, I was thinking of steeling two door hinges off the parts car. Or turning the hatch hinges around from the other hatch. And I have a wirefeed welder, grinder, paint, bondo etc. I think I could make it look pretty good when I was done. What do you think?

Good point. Selling a used EA81 when I take it out -- maybe $100 if its in great shape. One that's SPFI already -- a bit more... As far as trannies go, it's a '82 wagon, but the engine is an '83, and it's going to be getting a 5 speed dual range from an EA82 soon (the lower range in that should balance out the larger tires I'm putting on there, maybe) I liked the explanation about the cams. Makes sense. I know that valve timing and duration can have a big effect -- the non VTEC honda engines have pitiful torque at 2krpms, but the VTEC ones are decent torque, and they can rev. Not sure what I think of a computer controlling the valves though.....

Well, doesn't seem like many responses to this, but I'll post pics of mine when I get it done. IF it's sunny next weekend, AND my paint gun arrives by then, I might even do it then :banana: Really, I should be working on putting the lift and the pugs on there first, but I don't have the cash for that now, but I've got all the paint sitting here already, so that's what I'm working on first....

Well, eventually, it's getting a turbodiesel swap, which is going to have way more low end torque than any EA series engine, and possibly than the EJ22 even. But the question is how much do I fool around with the stock engine before I get around to the big swap. I sort of like fiddling with engines, and I've never put fuel injection on anything before. But if a good EJ22 fell into my lap, I'm not saying I wouldn't stick it in there. Or, I could keep myself amused by putting a megasquirt system on my old mazda pickup truck instead. Too many toys, and not enough time

Come to Ward. There's about 8 EA81 wagons, a few hatches, and a '82 brat. And lots of EA82 wagons too. Only one older wagon that I know of though.