zyewdall

Ah. Another reason to avoid autos. I've owned one car with an auto -- an '89 honda accord. I couldn't stand the auto trans. Couldn't sell it either as no one wanted an auto.

Moved this to a new thread... What do you mean bad on gas? I've gotten '89 GL wagon 5spd SPFI ~26mpg, 31mpg on highway trip (went faster than the older ones...) '85 GL wagon 5spd carbed ~25mpg, 32mpg on highway trip '84 GL wagon 4spd ~24mpg, 29mpg on highway trip '82 GL wagon 4spd~26mpg, declining to ~23mpg as carb wore out. 36mpg on one half tank (highway trip going mostly downhill for about 250 miles ) I think the lowest I've ever gotten in any of them is 17mpg on the '82, which was alot of dirt road low range driving. 22 - 24 is pretty normal in wintertime if I'm in 4wd for snow, and letting them warm up. I drive pretty fast, but accellerate slow (people call me grandma in town, but were a little suprised once I got on the mountain roads and don't slow down on curves -- my front tires show it...)

Moved reply to new thread http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?p=338169#post338169

Anyone out there have CAD drawings of the back of an EA82 engine? Or of the tranny and bell housing that these mate up to? This is actually in relation to another thread on here, if you want to know why.... http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34141&page=3&pp=10

Here's what I had figured out for attaching the VW engine to the subaru tranny. I've got a pretty good thread going over at one of the VW diesel forums too, and there's some pretty phyched people there too... The old VW engines (1.6 NA, and turbo) use in inside out clutch design -- the pressure plate bolts to the crankshaft, then a donut ring flywheel bolts to the outside of it after you put the driven disc in. The release "fork" is actually a pin that pokes out of a hollow center in the transmission input shaft. Bizzarre... What I had figured out was to disassemble the VW pressure plate by taking the actual friction surface off. This pressure plate frame then bolts to the subaru flywheel (via drilled tapped holes), and to the VW crankshaft. Then you can use the whole subaru clutch, starter, etc. The trick is to make the adaptor between the VW engine, and the subaru bell housing. If I had a drawing of exact layout of the subaru engine, I could design the adaptor, because I have drawings of the VW engine available. It would basically be a flat sheet of aluminum, about an inch thick, that could be made with a precision drill press once you had the design figured out. The thickness of this plate would control the positioning of the flywheel to make sure it was in the same place longituninally, so the clutch would work. The subaru clutch is actually a little bigger diameter than the VW clutch, so it should take the stress fine. The subaru starter is apparently a smaller version of the cummins and toyota diesel starter, so it'd probably be strong enough (I've moved non-running cars around with the starter...) As I understand it, the 1.9L VW diesels (which came in a IDI turbo version in Canada and Europe, but I think only the TDI version made it over to the US starting in 1997) have the normal clutch setup, so I'm not sure if the same practice would work for those. An easier setup, if you were doing a batch of them might be to have the subaru flywheel remachined with a slighly larger crankshaft centering hole, and with 6 bolts instead of 8 to attach it to the crankshaft, and attach it directly. It would save about an inch or so of length. One thing that would be good to figure out before embarking on designing a adaptor kit, would be what diesel engine to use, and what tranny to make it connect to. For me, the GL tranny is the obvious one, since they had dual range 4WD, which I like much better than the AWD or single range 4WD ones. Personal preference. The diesel engine choice isn't as clear. From what I understand, some of the nissan engines rotate the wrong way, so that's out (someone told me they can be dropped in the old nissan pickups as a direct bolt up, but you have to flip the rear axle around to make them go foward... ). And the Nissan diesels were never turbod for the old ones. I think the clear choice is the VW diesel. The VW diesels rotate the same way as he EA82's (and I assume the other subaru engines). They are the most common diesels in the US (maybe aside from the Mercedes diesels, but those weigh about 500lbs and I don't think they'd come close to fitting in a subaru. The 6 cylinder in line turbo diesel is bigger than alot of V-8 engines.). As has been previously discussed, the 1.6NA engine is pretty slow... http://www.rocky-road.com/diesel.html This site has specs for the various VW diesel engines. In my experience, it is hard to find the 1.6 turbos here. And 1.9TDI's are expensive (plus they have a complicated wiring harness because of the electronic control). The 1.9TDI is also 180 ft lbs of torque, which might break a GL transmission. Or at least spin all four wheels! I think that a 1.6 IDI turbo is probably the best match, so the question is just where to get these easily.... Then of course, there's making engine mounts (easy, some welded angle iron to go to the existing mounts), exhaust system (need to find a source of better headers for the VW engine -- their stock design leaves a little to be desired...), power steering pump (or turn the subaru into a non-power steering car), and all the miscellaneous little things. Sorry for the long post. Just wanted to get all the design parameters out there...

Get a vernier throttle that you can set for whatever throttle position you want. Then you can set it wherever it needs to be to keep the idle up at cold temps, then push it in when it warms up. A friend of mine has installed these on a few old cars and trucks (70's and 80's), actually hooking the cable to the gas pedal. It works great for warming them up on cold mornings -- and even as a crude cruise control (just remember to hit the red button before you put your foot on the clutch to downshift, or the engine rev's will go through the roof....). About $25, and an hour or two to install.

Actually, I think it's easier. You do it while the engine isn't even running, with a dial indicator in the back of the injection pump. As far as I can tell, none of the nissan diesels had turbos back then. The VW diesels had turbos all the way back in the early 80's, but they were very rare in the US. Apparently lots of 1.6TD and 1.9TD VW engines in Canada and europe. The turbo engines are designed a little different than the normal diesels, so it's not as simple as just adding the turbo......oil cooled pistons, oil lines to the turbo and to an oil cooler, different metalurgy on the head, if you want it to still be durable.

I would pull the engine. I just did one this way (since I was putting a new engine in anyway:lol:), and I found it alot easier to line the shafts back up when reassembling it than trying to work from underneath... Just label all the wires and tubes from the engine when you pull it so you can get them all back in the right place. If you want to do timing belt, water pump, seals, or anything else, it'll be a littl easier with the engine out anyway (although I actually have done a head gasket job on an '85 suby without pulling it....)

Update on what I've learned on the Subaru diesel It appears that Subaru sold Nissan AD wagons rebadged as Subaru Leone's for a few years in early to mid 90's (after they stopped selling the original subaru leone I guess). They came with the option for the 1.7L diesels to begin with, and 2.0l and 2.2l later on. So... they weren't subaru's at all..... Transverse mount engine even in the 4wd drive ones from what I can tell...:-\ I did find out more about the 1.7L nissan engine. It's still available new from a company in CA, along with the 2.0 liter, and a 2.8 liter 6 cylinder variety. They're apparently used in all sorts of industrial equipment. And they have a good reputation as being semi-indestructible. Actually the old isuzu diesels do too. But how could you fit one in a subaru.... I bet whoever figures a kit out to do this could make some money -- probably be at least as popular as the kits to put subaru engines into vanagons....

Oooohh A TDI in a subaru. That would be pretty cool. I've driven the TDI jetta's, and it's sort of fun to blast by everyone in the passing lane going up mountain passes in 5th gear, still getting 40+ mpg. They suck on dirt roads though. zilch for ground clearance. As far as engine clearances, I actually went pretty far in working on putting a 1.6NA IDI VW into an '87 GL wagon. If you tilt it over on it's side about 45 degrees (standard for the vanagons), it comes close to clearing the hood, and you just have to move the radiator forward a little. Not all that hard if you've got a basic machine shop and a welder. And fabricating engine mounts of course. I bolted the subaru flywheel to the VW crankshaft, to use the subaru clutch setup. But what finally stumped me was making the adaptor between the subaru bell housing and the VW engine. I don't own a milling machine...... I'm trying to find out more about the subaru leone with the nissan diesel. Whether it bolted to the subaru tranny, or whether they put an entire drivetrain from the little nissan 4wd wagons into a subaru. So far I've found out that it the 1.7L engine was used in the early 80's sentra's, and had 65HP, 104ftlbs torque, redlined at 4,800rpm, and got 40-50mpg in the sentra. I bet that would perform as good as the stock EA82 around town and off road -- lower HP, but I rarely rev my subaru high enough to use it's theoretical horsepower anyway, and I'd like more low end torque. Later nissans got the 2.0 and 2.2 liter, and the 2.2 liter was apparently used in 80's pickups as well.

Actually, I forgot about needing secondary combustion chambers, and glow plugs too. In addition to physically blowing the engine apart. Designing an engine almost from scratch could be pretty expensive..... But I was just reading through all the old posts on the possibility of diesel leones existing in japan, with Nissan engines in them. Did you find out any more about them Ross? Also, I saw mention of the kennedy adaptors to put EA82's or EJ22's in VW busses -- but woudl that work to put a diesel engine to the tranny from a GL? Seems like it's going the wrong direction....

Hey. Any luck finding out more about these engines? If we can find out what the heck they bolted into a leone, and whether it used the same tranny as the US GL/Loyale, I want to import one. I don't care if it's a 1.7NA IDI (translate, slow as dirt....), I still want one.....

Completely wacko question here. What's the chance of running an EA82 on biodiesel? I'm thinking some pretty major changes, like new pistons to boost compression (to 16 or so?), adding an injector pump, putting injectors where the spark plugs are now, etc... I just thought of this idea, so I'll probably think of more things that could go wrong in a while. So far I've thought of -- head gaskets are already a little weak, so higher compression wouldn't be good, block might just split open, where the heck does the injection pump drive from, Crankshaft and rods would probably break, or maybe melt, etc... Remember GM's ill fated 350ci diesel that was just a 350 gas with different heads... But in my experience, the suby engines are way more durable than the old GM's to start with. Here's the motivation. I love my old subaru (I wake up to 19" of new powdery snow last April 20th, shovel the windshield off, and go... past all the upside down SUV's). But I can't really justify buying imported petroleum products any more so a gasoline engine is out. I've been driving a mitsubishi diesel pickup recently and I'm working on getting a rabbit diesel going. But I really want to keep the old GL suby. Better handling. Easier to work on. No gol darned transvers engine that you can't get to the back of. I was thinking that some of you who do super performance mods -- high compression engines with turboes - might know just how strong a subaru engine is and what the first thing to give is... Or the other option is to put an old VW diesel into a subaru -- but I really like the suby engine better.... Plus replacing an H4 with and I4 is a pain..... Just wondering if it might be easier to take all the parts off a VW diesel and use the long block from the EA82... (especially since I have an extra just sitting around....). The VW guys say to just get a quantum synchro.... Am I as nuts as I suspect?

Uugggh is right. I forgot that Spokane county has emissions testing -- we were in Stevens county so we didn't have to test. I forget, does the chiltons have a vacuum diagram for that cabureator? If it is running, and looks like everything is connected, can you just take it in for the test and see if it passes -- mine passed in Denver pretty easily, even though it didn't run quite right, because I think most of the screwed up stuff was related to cold starting, not after it was warmed up. It's a gamble, but you might pass and not have to figure it out for another year...

I feel your pain. Unfortunately, I sold my '85 last fall (and every time I took it apart, I seemed to end up with more extra vacuum hoses...). If you're ever near Denver, there's a shop in Nederland who is great at keeping old subies running -- he got an extra year out of mine at least. Short of that, I don't know what to do -- just plug the ends of any errant hoses or barbs so they don't create leaks, and see if it runs okay I guess. Thats usually what I did.

I know people put 15's on the old GL's when they do the lifts for off roading. Anyone know what these are? My dad got a set of snow tires for his '96 outback, mounted on 16" steel toyota truck tims. Obviously, they were redrilled and machined to fit the suby bolt pattern and hub, and he got them new from the snow tire place. Perhaps someone does the same for the 4 bolt subys?

Last year I had a $200 '83 GL wagon that you could start with anything -- house key, screwdriver, nail file, etc... You could also take the key out while it was running, if you forgot something and had to run back in the house. Great little car for a few months till the oil pump started leaking (then I took the new snow tires off for my other suby and sold it for $100)

So, I just pulled the engine from a '90 Loyale, and put it in a '87 GL wagon. Everything matches up fine (both were throttle body fuel injected), except the wiring harness. According to Chiltons, it should be exactly the same. Well, the two engine harness connectors have all the same colored wires, just different shaped plugs. So I chopped the chassis plugs from the '90 and soldered all the wires to the same color wire from the '87 chassis, so it'll plug into the '90 engine. But then I get to the little four wire plug to the distributor. Those colors aren't the same. Neither quite matches the Chilton's color code, but the '87 is alot closer. Hmmmm. I checked the third car ('89) to see if that helps, but it's the same colors as the '90. Any suggestions on how to connect the '90 distributor to the '87 wiring harness?

I've got a 1990 Legacy wagon that's burning alot of oil -- more than a quart a week (less than 250 miles). The funny thing is that is doesn't smoke noticeably, starts great, still lots of power, decent oil pressure. Only 140k miles on the engine. If it were a 70's american V-8, I'd expect the cylinder bores to be worn out, but all the old EA-82's I've owned have shown no sign of bore wear after more than 200k miles, and still only use a quart every 1000 miles or so. Could the rings or bores be worn with out losing power, or do the EJ engines not last as long as the EA? Maybe some other seal that's leaking internally (I don't see any leaks onto the ground)? Any suggestions would be welcome. Or if anyone has ideas on where to get a used engine for cheap. Zeke