zyewdall

I love it when the friction with the ground reduces to the point when my suby has enough power to spin all four wheels with studded tires on. Then I actually outperform all the V-8 SUV's with four times my horsepower, but cheaper tires.... > The deepest snow I've ever driven in was 19" of powder. When there's an inch or two of packed ice/slush/snow, that's when the subaru really excells though.

Sounds reasonable. The driveshaft itself it feels like about 50 or 60 lbs. You could try looking up the curb weight of the FWD vs the 4WD version, but there could be other differences too. Does anyone know why they use the two piece driveshaft with a center carrier instead of a one piece driveshaft like most pickups and SUV's? This design looks like a heavy duty driveline design typically only used on large trucks (flatbeds, dumptrucks, etc), or some of the old japanese mini-pickups that were way overbuilt.

Yeah, that sounds better. The RTV just gets all over and if the rubber does seal okay without it might as well avoid that. I was used to the cork gaskets that always leak unless you goop them up good.

Nice trick I'll have to try that next time. The only time I've got it in 4WD on non-slippery conditions is a certain steep bumpy dirt road to a friend's house that it handles alot better in low range, and I go up there at least once or twice a week. When I hit the gravel road at the bottom and try to switch back to FWD, it always binds unless I swerve back and forth while gently pushing the lever down (luckily it's a deserted road so no one sees me doing this...)

Well, I coated mine liberally on both sides with spray on copper gasket material that was supposed to be used for head and manifold gaskets. I don't know if this is required or recommended, but it seemd to work fine for me (stopped burning coolant at least). I used RTV on the valve cover gaskets.

Nevermind on the ECU codes. I just found a few old threads that address this -- it appears that I'm not the first one to be baffled by this. I'll try those. But still, is there any special proceedure to start one of these engines after switching it, or just hook everything up and turn the key? Zeke

I just swapped a '90 SPFI engine into an '87 GL. Seem to be indentical engines. I think I've got everything hooked up properly, but it won't start. I think it's getting fuel (gas at the inlet hose to the throttle body if I disconnect it, and ether doesn't help either), but not spark. I know the engine ran before I pulled it from the '90, and the ECU was good when I pulled the '87 engine because it ran fine (minus the blown head gasket). I want to read the trouble code to see what might not have gotten hooked up properly. But my chiltons (yeah, I know I need to get a real manual) just says hook up the "read" plug on the ECU to make the check engine light blink with the code. But doesn't say what the read plug looks like??????? Anyone have a picture or something? Thanks Zeke

Did you look up the error code for the check engine light? Alot of times it is the oxygen sensor, if the light is on, but the car seems to run perfectly fine.

I am not sure that this is true for newer cars. Back in the 60's the radiator cap was always higher than the highest part of the engine/heating system, so if it was in an unpressurized state, it couldn't get out. They had a level indicator in the radiator neck sometimes because you weren't even supposed to fill all the way up to the cap. But when the radiator is lowered to give a lower hoodline, I think it may get low enough that it gets below other components in the system and can escape if you take the cap off -- even if it's not escaping just sitting there, the movement and flow head caused by pumping it could cause it to come out. If you look carefully, I think the "full" line on the overflow container might is higher than the radiator cap. Also, because the radiator isn't higher than the engine any more, you are more likely to get bubbles in the system too. I am not sure whether any of this applies to an '85 subaru though, or if it still has the radiator high enough to function like the old systems...

I think the worst my '89 wagon has seen is when I lent it to my roommate for a quick home depot trip. He comes back with 16 bags of quickcrete in the back and probably another 150 lbs of lumber.... I've had probably 800lbs of scrap steel in there a few times too. I still liked my welded together roof rack on my old '82 wagon. I hauled some long wooden fence post on that. probably only 300lbs total, but longer than the car.... I really should have gotten pics of that subaru log truck...

$750 is a really good price for only 136k miles. The carbs on these old cars are pretty complicated, and seem to start wearing out around 200k miles (at least on three of mine). Other than that (and making sure the head gaskets are good -- don't over heat it), these are great cars, and very easy to work on compared to the transverse engine cars.

Hmmm. So the RX tranmission is what was used with the turbo engine? Which there are some around there, but not many, and I've never driven one so I didn't know the trannies were different too. Guess I need to learn my subaru history better.

You know, I've never seen one of those. There's a gazillon of the EA82 wagons around here (and a lot of the EA81's as well), but none of the ones I've seen have the locking center. Do you know how many of the RX versions were made compared to the standard?

Exactly. I love the turbo on my diesel Mitzi truck, especially up above 8,000 ft. Sorry about the incorrect info on the turbo's on the nissans. I meant that none of the nissan cars (like the sentra and maxima) had it as a stock option on the US models. It was on ones in other countries, and it appears it was on nissan diesels used by other manufacturers. Odd that very few of the US diesel cars ever got turbos early on, but other countries did. Just another way to turn people off diesels. Even Canada had alot more turbodiesel VW's back in the 80's. Must have been the pricing -- more expensive, and people didn't understand why they were paying more... Or maybe it was just the beginning of the problem now -- all the manufacturers assume that no one wants a diesel, and leave me to salivate about the engine options that Australia has compared to the US for new cars...

Yeah, forgot that part... It does bind pretty well. I still like the dual range 4WD better than the AWD of the newer ones -- when you are plowing uphill through deep snow, you need to keep the engine RPM's up, and that lowest gear really helps. My dad's '96 Outback will stall the engine in deep snow before the wheels start slipping. Although I suppose that could also be due to the traction control keeping power to all four wheels instead of just two.

I know what you mean now. I can pull an EA82 engine in about 4 hours. It just took me four days (evenings) to pull the engine out of a VW GTI. And it's not even a V6, which I can imagine to be really difficult...

All old subaru's seem to leak oil... My '89 is a lucky one that the shop actually couldn't believe was a Loyale, because it didn't leave any drips. One thing that I've taken to doing is powerwashing the engine and as much as the undercarriage as I can reach with engine brite or something like that, and the steam wand at the carwash, once a year. It helps alot to know whether a leak you see is the same old one, or a new one that you should be worried about. Also makes is easier to work on. Just make sure you don't wash grease out of any seals on the drivetrain when doing this (don't directly blast them with the high pressure wand).

At sea level. I drive in between 5,000 and 12,000 feet. I think I may have also taken off an additional 10% for having 200k+ miles on it. Of course the NA diesel will also suffer from the elevation...

"wrong archie, no EA82 had a "viscous center diff" they had open centers with a locker. like the XT6" Hmmmm? My understanding is that the EA82's (at least the dual range ones) had no center differential at all -- just like the EA81's. You can demonstrate the 4WD vs AWD by turning sharply on gravel with it in 4WD/AWD position. If it's got 4WD, or a locked center differential, it will skid at least one wheel.

Well, at this altitude, my old EA81 was only rated at 55 HP, which is the same as the 1.6 diesel, and less torque too, which I've found is more important than horsepower starting up. (I found out when I tried to drive a stick shift '95 honda civic once, and it just stalled when I tried to drive it like my '82 suby) The VW 1.9TDI is rated at 110HP, and 180 ft lbs of torque at 1800 RPM And can be chipped/modded to around 140HP and 250ftlbs) Does anyone know whether the subaru transmissions can take that much torque?

http://vwdiesel.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1143&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15 The thread wanders a little, but there's some in there about the subaru swap

Thanks. I'm going to pull them apart this morning...

Does anyone know if the left and right front axles on a GL/Loyale are the same? I've got two wagons, both with toasted right front CV joints and wheel bearings. But the left axles and bearings are both good on em. So, I was thinking to take the left axle off one (pressing the bearings out of the carrier), and put it on the right side of the other. Someone told me they aren't the same, but he also thought it was a transverse engine.....:-p Also, are the axles the same from the '87 to the '91? Ideas? Is is possible to do the wheel bearings yourself if I weld up a simple press to use with my hydralic jack? Thanks

Thinking about it, the timing belt sounds the most probable. They do fail exactly as Snoman says -- drivers side going first. And since the engine doesn't self destruct, it just stops running and you don't know why... Till you check the distributor. On mine I could also tell it was cranking weird, because it didn't have compression in one side any more.

I've never heard of the ECU dying, unless the car is struck by lightning or something. Or if you try to jump start it and hook the battery up backwards. I suspect some sensor or such went bad, and the ECU won't let it start now. But, if you do need a new "brain" for it, I'm parting out a '91 Loyale right now. I already used the engine, but no one has taken the ECU yet... That would be pretty cheap to mail I suppose. But where is it in this car? I don't see it under the hood anywhere. Maybe under the dash?