DaveT

Absolutely not. That is one of the things I hate about newer cars! You can't get at anything without a load of extra work! Added some extra lights to my wife's 09, what a PITA trying to get power, add a switch.

The dowel pins, I didn't remove, just work around / avoid them. The blocks I've dealt with barely needed anything. I just used 220 grit, and count strokes if you have to, so you don't over do one area. Use single edge razor blades or utility knife blades perpendicular as scrapers to get the gasket junk off without shaving aluminum.

You need a 5watt resistor for 40 ohms @ 12V, especially when you account for the ambient temperature. I never used a resistor. I found that Toyota solenoids from the same era are much more reliable - I am still running the same ones I got at a scrap yard in the late 80's.

No the aluminum channel is only 2" wide. It's long enough to span the width plus a bit. The idea is just to touch any high spot, or stuck crud. I don't try to remove a lot of material. Make sure you hit all areas evenly. The ones I have done have not been bad. The headgasket seals against the steel cylinder wall, as opposed ro the aluminum on the head side, so there should be less imprint.

The block hasn't usually needed as much. I have a piece of flat aluminum channel I wrap the sandpaper around, and use that.

I use the post apocalyptic resurfacing method to get rid of the marks from the fire rings. That us #1 priority. By then, the rest should be clean.

For the amount of work, you are better off swapping in an early EJ 2.2 . More power, more reliable, parts are available. EA82T - Many parts are NLA. I think the turbos were MPFI. The non turbo are SPFI.

Pick one of the manifold vacuum ports. Put a T in the line. Connect it to the vacuum motor. see if it pulls. Notice if it changes the idle once it has stabilized. Pull it off, and block the hose [kink the hose] to keep the vacuum, see if it holds position. If it isn't leaking, it should stay still.

EA82s are good for 4000rpm on the highway. Not a problem.

I just looked at one of the heads I have laying around... The 4 valves should all be the same height. I just put a straight edge on the ends. That one looking short, seems odd. I've had a few of these apart, never noticed them looking different like that.

It might be do able.. I've pulled a seal in a similar location by using a pointy sheet metal screw. Get the screw part way into the seal, pry it out. Might need 2 or 3 for angles to work it out.

I have had any one of the 3 idlers go bad and start making noise. Take the covers off. Use a piece of hose as a stethoscope.

This looks like it could be modified to fit - https://www.mishimoto.com/subaru-brz-performance-aluminum-radiator-13.html

I don't remember if I've seen anyone do it with an EA82. Since the 81 & 82 are the same displacement - I would think that the 2 carbs would need to be slightly smaller, because the CFM through each would be about half of what the flow through the normal setup would be. The Hitachi carbs are a nightmare to deal with, probably better off with something you can get jets for, like webers? From what I remember from numerous threads, the ultimate power limiter on the EA 81 & 82 is the ports in the heads.

I might be able to find an old aftermarket part number on one of them - but they went NLA YEARS ago. Not sure what good that will do though. I've been trying to find radiator parts / re-builder suppliers that I can order parts from. I have a couple that need new cores.

I'm pretty sure SPFI loyales had single row. The GL that became the Loyale also. The turbo ones had dual row. Maybe the 4WD wagons, but it's been too long, I don't remeber now. I always got the turbo radiators and put them in my SPFI cars.

10w 40 is what you want, unless the climate is very cold.

I haven't seen one fail. Been driving Subarus since the early 1980s. If you are too aggressive with removal efforts, they can break. Usually, they just need new seals and orings.

Those years are pretty close, they probably will work. All of them have a pin that tells the ECU if it is is connected to an Automatic or a standard shift. If you have both schematics, you can find it. I will see if I can find some time to look at one of my spare ECUs. A few years ago, I started to reverse engineer one. Many of the ICs were normal parts I could find data sheets for. Transistors, I can figure out, marked or not, I just have to trace out which one is connected to the CEL pin.

Don't know, but they are pretty likely standard metric dowel pins. Decent car parts store might have them, just as generic parts. I usually check Mcmaster-carr for things like this also.

Re. This- " With a known good bulb in and it closed-circuit, there is still ~12v on the IG side but more like 10.5 on the other side. Is this normal? " Ok, this [combined with the info from your open circuit test] indicates that the bulb is lit by the circuit grounding the 10.5V side of the bulb. I have not had to trace or trouble shoot one of these to this level before, but from general electronic design experience, I figure that the ECU pin for the lamp is an open collector type drive. That means it is open circuit until the ECU signal makes it tie to ground, maybe a few hundred millivolts would be on it in that case, and the light would be on solidly. It is possible to blow out the transistor - if something were wired wrong, like it was tied to +12V and then the ECU tried to light the CEL. The other bulbs - I'm thinking you are referring to the other red lights on the dash, for alternator, brakes, etc? Those are not controlled by the ECU, they have their own circuits. Some are switches, so they will read very low V on the GND side. The alternator one, for example, is wired into part of the regulator circuit, and likely not driven as hard, so a couple volts on it is not unexpected.

What is the voltage on the bulb, both sides, with a known good bulb in the socket? With it open circuit, bulb removed, the voltages can be misleading.

For checking the links, you are better off using a spare light bulb, like a brake light bulb. One end to the battery - or frame, the other to each end of each link, in turn. A volt meter is good, and all, but a bad link with a high resistance connection can show as good with no load. The lamp test is the load. Even better, check volts while the lamp is lit. You cannot test amps unless you put the meter in series with whatever load you are testing, and many loads in cars are way too high for typical amp meters, so you really want to know what you are doing before you do that, or you will need a new meter, or worse.

Yeah, go looking for that first. Generally, I've rarely seen anyone on here with a dead ECU. I've never had a dead one. I've been running and maintaining EA82 powered wagons since 1988.

This description - The sound is like a "chuch chuch" - makes think small exhaust leak.