zyewdall

What year, and what system does it have now? Why would you want to go from a fuel injected one to a carbureated system?

SPFI ones were from '87 (california, '88 elsewhere) to '92 ? I think the '93 and 94 Loyales were MPFi instead of SPFI but not sure on that. The engines are the same regardless of 2wd, 4wd, duel range or pushbutton, or automatic. At least the basic engine -- accessories might be different, and you would probably need to reuse the wiring harness and maybe intake manifold from the one you have now. I've also had trouble switching distributors when I put a '91 engine into an '87 SPFI -- the ECU didn't like the newer distributor, so I just put the old distributor on the new engine and it fired right up. You can also put an EJ22 in there ('90 and onward legacy) if you get an adaptor plate and the right ECU, for alot more power.

Yup, I've put them on 180 degrees off, and the hole is only half lined up. Rotated it, and they lined up perfectly.

You can't start on LPG when it's cold? I've never owned an LPG car, or an LPG/gasoline dual fuel car, but around here alot of people use LPG generators, because they start alot easier when it is cold than gas, or especially diesel generators. I'm confused now.

You mean brake by wire? Or maybe you did mean break by wire.... What if a rat gets in a chew the wire??? Or the software crashes. I have to admit my '61 landrover, which has no power steering or power brakes (and if you have to, you can crank start it, and run it without a battery), is pretty darn nice.... Doesn't have any of the those stinkin sychronized transmission gears either. I remember my dad saying how bad power steering, electronic ignition, fuel injection were going to be. All sort of other things that work better in theory, but just make it more complicated and you can't fix on the side of the road as easy. We got used to all of them eventually too.... Edit: oh, I forgot that right now the landrover has no brakes at all, because one of the lines rusted off. So much for it being better than break by wire...

Your friend's '85 GL must have had carb problems, because my '85 GL was faster than my '82 or '84 EA81's (not much, but a little), and my SPFI '89 GL is much quicker. It does feel like it's got a little less grunt off of idle than the Ea81's though. You have to to put your foot into it more and rev it higher before shifting. It'll go about 60-65mph at 3k, and if I feel like keeping up with traffic, i can wind it up to about 85mph at almost 4k. Gets about 28mpg doing this. Remember, these engines power band pretty much begins at 2700 rpm, and they still get good mileage above 3k. I'm still getting used to that myself. Quite honestly, a 52HP VW diesel rabbit feels like it has more power to me than a 115 HP honda civic, because the civic doesn't have any power at 1500rpm and the rabbit does. Having said that, the EJ22 still has alot more power than the EA82, even with a heavier car, and they get about the same gas mileage as the Loyales. Around here decent condition early 90's legacies go for $1500 to $2500. While I agree that interference engines are a poor design, I don't understand why everyone is so paranoid about them. The lack of a low oil sensor/shutdown has killed more engines than broken timing belts that I've known. If you replace them on schedule, its pretty rare for them to give trouble.

Oh I forgot, they design roads completely differently in the west than on the east coast. The concrete is perfectly flat without wheel ruts, but they've started casting little grooves into the concrete when they pour it. Sort of like rumble strips, only smaller. For winter traction I guess? In addition to tugging the car around, it makes a high pitched whining noise when you drive over it too. The asphalt roads are nicer to begin with, but don't hold up near as well, because the studs and chains wear ruts in them so fast. I was talking to a civil engineer from the east coast, and she was baffled that concrete would last longer than asphalt, because asphalt apparently handles freeze-thaw cycles better instead of cracking apart, and I think maybe the salt doesn't destroy it like it does concrete? But she had never heard of the exisitence of studded tires.

Another thing to think about it that the grooved concrete they've started using on the freeways around here pulls your car from side to side and make it feel like it's either windy, or that struts/alignment it out of whack. Used to freak me out till I realized it only happened on the concrete sections and not the paved sections.

Huh. Maybe that's why I can bleed just the LF caliper, without any of the others, and it's okay?

At the risk of rehashing it even more.. Here is how I've done it with one person. On EA82 cars it's always worked great. On my EA81's the brakes still feel mushy (have to tap it once to absorb all the mushyness, then apply the brakes), but maybe it's something else on them. Put a piece of tubing over the bleeder valve. Stick the other end in a clear bottle, with some brake fluid already in it. The tubing should have a one way valve in it, and it helps too to have the end submerged in fluid in the bottle. Pump the brake pedal slowly two or three times, or till you don't see any more bubbles. Tighten the bleeder screw, then take the tubing off. When you loosen bleeding screws, they don't get very loose. You just want it to come out the end, not around the threads. Start with the farthest away, and work to the closest. If I've only taken one caliper off, often I only bleed that one line, and it seems to work, if I'm quick. And keep checking the master cylinder to make sure it has enough fluid as you pump it out.

You can also pull the intake manifold off, and lay it on the spare tire shelf, so you can pull the engine without removing any of the vaccuum/fuel/etc lines.

I took my '85 EA82 apart with 212k miles on it, and could still see the original hatch marks on the bores. Subaru's just don't tend to wear their bores from what I've heard. New rings might be all you need. Subarian says you can't overbore them anyway, because it's a sleeve in a aluminum block.

Mud in the horn? I think it's somewhere by the front bumper or wheel well so it could have gotten packed with mud. Anyone remember exactly where the horn is on the '97?

Nah. To me that one doesn't look the same as the subaru at all. The headlights touch the radiator grill instead of having the dividers sweep down between them from the hood, which gives an entirely different feel to the front end, IMO. I think that, more than the actual headlight shape, is what I'm feeling.

Yeah. Not so close as I thought:D. What I recognized in the Acura was the similar looking headlight designs -- with the angular shape pointing down towards the center with same angle on the the body colored divider bars between the headlights and the center grill. The previous subarus had a different design to those little dividers that made the front end look a bit different. The blue and green two tone outback wagons (not sure what particular model those are) are the ones I'm starting to like. The uni-color ones I still can't quite get into.

I would agree that the gauge is screwed up, and the alternator is okay. At idle with accessories on, I'd expect around 12.5. At 2,000prm or so, it should be above 13 with all the accessories on. More like 14 probably, but no higher than about 14.8 volts. If a voltmeter shows readings like this, the charging system is fine. Get a cheap multimeter and plug it into the cigarette lighter so you can check it while driving if the factory gauge is making you nervous (that's what I did on my truck).

Holy begeezus. 16,000 lbs towing capacity for the dodge ram with the cummins huh??? We had about 6,000 lbs on one of these, and 2,500 in the back of the truck. Guess it wasn't even close to capacity... Got 18mpg doing that too. The outback is rated pretty well I see. Hmmm. I only use Firefox, and have never had trouble other than an occasional cannot find site (I assume when it's really busy).

My dad's '96 outback (with the 2.2 manual) has gone up hill in 14 - 16" of snow before. It plows a trough, and runs out of torque before running out of traction. Unless it's really wet gloop, 10" of of snow should be no trouble. My '89 GL wagon had handled 19" of fresh light powder without trouble. The higher power of the new engines should make up for the lack of low range than they have compared to mine. I have driven a '03 ford explorer, ford expeditions and my 4wd truck, and there is no comparison to the subaru's handling in snow. The ford explorer was especially bad. Squirrely on the road due to short wheelbase, and on bad roads the supposed 4wd lo would not spin more than one wheel at a time, and the suspension is way to soft for offroading. I don't know what the magnum is, but it sounds sort of like a big SUV/minivan? It sounds like she's interested in pretty high horsepower, but I think that even a stock 2.5 non turbo can tow 1,500 lbs. My friends '98 outback still performs like a rocket pulling a couple of kayaks on a trailer. But I'm used to an 84 HP car (the subaru), a 52 HP car, and an 84 HP truck too. A test drive is the only answer here -- remember a subaru will weigh alot less than something with a V8 engine in it too. As for the ugly design. Well, I agree on the tribeca, but the design for the '05 outback's is growing on me as I see them more. Can't help you here... Funny you like the Acura though -- I think it looks like the '05 subarus...

I clean my engine compartment with the high pressure wand at the car wash. That should take the mud off. You do run the risk that it won't start till it dries out, from blasting water into electronics, but I've done this with two different EA82 subarus, and they both start right back up with no trouble. So does my truck, but it's an old mechanical diesel, so it doesn't have any electronics.:-p If it still runs, I'd say you didn't get any into the air cleaner. You could check just to be sure.

If he put a 4wd transmission in it from an EA82 car instead of the AWD transmission the legacies came with then it's not problem. I ran my '82 GL as a rear wheel drive for a while when I stripped a front hub on it. But why? If you want to slide around ineffectually in the snow, get a '70's american V-8 coupe with an auto transmission and bald tires.... don't nueter a subaru.

That's great. I chose roofing screws and galvanized ductwork for my '82 GL. RIP. I've had over 200k on all of the subaru's I've owned and have never changed the clutch. But I don't know how many of them were the original clutch. I suspect they were all on their second one by the time I bought em. My friends '90 Legacy needed a new clutch at 140k miles.

From reading other posts, it sounds like you have a DC welder? So this may be a moot point. But I just added a 1500 watt inverter to my truck to run power tools. $85 at Costco. I've only trouble with a few things on modified sinewave (some tool chargers, but Dewalts are okay), but I haven't tried the wire feed welder yet... It supposedly draws about 1700 watts on full power so we'll see if it'll work. I would never recommend a non-sinewave for a house any more, but for work trucks or cabins, I still use the cheap mod-sine inverters.

Serious off roading, maybe the explorer is better (an older one at least, the latest ones are to soft sprung and heavy). An old Toyota truck would beat either of them just from ground clearance and lo range. But on slick dirt roads, the Outback is best. I had a friend who took his '95 explorer, and a '01 outback wagon on a road trip on little dirt/snow covered roads through wyoming and norther colorado. His wife was driving the explorer and just couldn't keep up with the outback he was driving. So they switched. And he couldn't keep up with the outback either.

That's why my policy is to leave it in 2wd (both my suby and my 4wd truck) till I get stuck, then put it in 4wd or 4wd lo to get out. Of course, usually I then make an exception to the policy and keep going after putting it in 4wd, until I'm really good and stuck... Shovel time!!!

Remember that this engine will always be running at 2,000 to 4,000 rpm during average driving, which is where it has good oil pressure. It's not like big v8 gas guzzlers, which might actually be used to drive the car at not much more than idle speed.