djellum

I dont know about stock hitachi's. most people weber them (DGV 32/36), which you can find at Redline.com. if you need to get inspected they may black flag a weber though so check your emissions regs.

the story your going to hear 99% of the time is scrap the motor and put an EJ motor in it. just do a search and you will see what im talking about. EJ's go in with minimal modifications and in this case would be easier and cheaper than your described idea. nothing wrong with keeping the EA82, but id at least research an EJ swap first, especially if you want the turbo. lots of EJ's can be carbed as well, they have a cover on the motor that you can remove and install a distributor. I think the FI EJ is the best option, EJ carbed second, N/A EA82 third, and EA82T last. some of the fuel injection heads wont bolt to a carb manifold, so I would expect to have to craft one if you want a weber.

rev the motor while you check. they are probably ported vacuum so they increase the vacuum with engine speed rather than being max at idle.

bowl vents are all about keeping pressures even. when I gutted my hitachi I never got the car to run right until I restricted it the proper amount. I used a long section of small hose crammed onto the bowl vent outlet. I tried open and plugged and it never ran right. the pressure in the bowl can force fuel into the carb, or having a vacuum there can starve it, so you need to relieve just enough pressure.

imo if your looking for a cheap utility car, cheaper is almost always better. cheap cars are rarely sold because they are perfect and need nothing. having money left over is worth more than anything that was done to the car, since they always need something. if its solid then you can always spend it on something else. on any subaru, id make sure to have the money to replace at least 1 or 2 CV's. once they are fixed right they are fine, but lots of them get sold because of the CV's, and the pita that the aftermarket CV manufacturers put us through. in general I plan for enough money to do the brakes completely on any car. if you look at a gen 3, make sure the heater works perfectly or pass on it. don't get stuck with a blown heater core in those things.

you have to adjust the idle screw along with the mixture screw to adjust the carburetor. it could be the mix but you will have to adjust the idle to get it around 750 or so to set the mix. attempt to turn the mix screw all the way in. dont wrench it hard but lightly bottom it out. if the car still runs theres a larger problem than the adjustment. also you should check if the carb you have is a feedback carb (will have sensors and such to run). check and see if you have an oxygen sensor in your exhaust.

afterfires are just a combination of air/fuel/heat in your exhaust. the exhaust is hot and most cars run extra fuel through into the exhaust, so its mainly a game of finding where air is getting into the system. check ASV's and for exhaust leaks to start.

backfire or afterfire? backfires come out the carb, afterfires come out of the exhaust. im guessing afterfire from the sound of it. check to make sure your ASV is plugged off, you may have left it open when you pulled the air box. also it could be an indication of a too rich condition.

they can go bad and cause problems before they catastrophically fail, so its a good idea to replace them. Id say whenever you flush your cooling system throw the extra 7 bucks in on it. id say the coolant flush is probably more important and thats done much less than it should also. for ultimate maintenance, flush and change the cap once a year. for normal maintenance, do it every couple of years. for what most people do, let it go until your mopping up fluid after a bad day.

mu baad

doesnt hurt to replace bearings so you know they are good, but I doubt you would be driving it if the bearings were causing the car to slow and pulling over half of your mileage away. the noise and vibration if they were that bad would be serious. I would suspect brakes first. just because the lever is down doesnt mean the parking brake is closed or adjusted right. follow the parking brake adjustment in your haynes first off. its simple and quick and will eliminate at least 1 possibility. if that checks out inspect the actual brake system. calipers, master cylinder and hill holder if you have one. stuck in 4wd indicates possible trans issues, if you do the bearings see if you can spin the CV while the spindle is out. that will tell you if theres some binding in the trans.

I think the point thats trying to be made is that the proper alignment for the carb would be with the bowl in the rear of the carb so that turns and acceleration wont affect the way the carb works. on my DFV if you take a tight turn with the clutch in the motor idles down, and it wouldnt do this if the carb was running left/right orientation. I would still prefer this to the other alignment though cause that can cause stalls under heavy breaking. Holleys used to do that and it was scary enough to have a panic moment without adding a dead car with no steering to it. with the orientation I have now it only rarely makes a difference, and I have tuned it out enough so that doesnt kill the motor, just bogs down a bit. our adaptors run the carb front to back because the stock carb was running the same direction. im sure others were side to side, though I havent seen any. the shape of the manifold shouldnt matter, otherwise v8-4 barrels would have problems with the rear cylinders when the secondaries arent kicking in. im sure the extra 1 inch of distance that the mixture has to travel makes little difference.

id avoid welding it. gears would probably have a heat treatment to make them wear longer, the heat may mess it up. when you weld the carrier the ring gear is off (everytime I have seen someone do it, though i guess you dont have to.). you just weld some of the the gears inside the carrier. you could probably just put a few tacks in the bolt safely, but the same thing applies as number 3. id just run without.

when you add an EJ to the EA trans you need a spacer, the reverse would be true for the EA to EJ trans, the engine wouldnt go far enough into the bell housing. with the EJ swap dont you use XT6 clutch to make up the inside distance? could you do that with this one as well?

nothing wrong with the 82. id still go EJ if the EA is going to cost a significant amount. my preference would be EJ, followed by EA81 for the chain and pushrods, EA82 is last in line, but I drive mine happily. I certainly wouldn't worry about it unless theres a catastrophic failure, and then I would do the EJ.

a lot of stuff could cause it, vacuum leaks, fuel filter/pump problems, carb problems, ignition problem. if its not had a tune up in a long time, check the basics, fuel/spark. you can turn up the idle with a screw near the bottom passenger side of the carb. it will do the same thing as the ac unit but its just mechanical and that is exactly what its used for.

look up SJR fabrication. I believe hes up North there somewhere, and does a ton of sub fabrication stuff. just email him through your website, i dont know where exactly he is.

if your going to mix tires, check the manufacturer for the actual diameter. the 175/80r14 type of designation is just ballpark. 4wd isnt as critical as Awd but id still do at least 2 at a time. keep the axles the same, meaning keep matching tires on the front and on the back.

sounds like a choke issue. theres an electric choke on the stock carb (if thats what you have). havent adjusted one before, but thats your best bet to research.

schwab and places like them will replace everything or nothing, and sometimes will make you buy new tires cause they wont put worn ones back on. do it yourself or go to a real mechanic/brake place. personally I wont get work done from tire stores, just get tires there. they don't hire mechanics, they hire laborers.

the EJ22 somewhere along the line changed the design and ended up with an increase in HP and in (supposed) fuel economy. I dont know but it seems to be a bit easier to find a 2.2 or 2.5 as well, but I dont know if that is just luck of the draw or if they actually produced more. going off the basic wiki ratings, the ej18 was 110-120 hp, ej22 was around 140 hp, and they increased from there. the swap as I understand it is basically the same, If you have an EJ18 laying around I doubt I would seek a 2.2, but if you have to source a motor anyway, id go for more powa.

I dont think the disty from the spfi wont work, normally a vacuum can disty and an cpu controlled one are different. from the sound of the parts you could do a complete motor minus dist and intake/carb, then swap it in. Jeszek hasa write up on engine oils, and theres a post floating around from General Disorder about doing head resurfacing at home with sand paper and a piece of glass. having the heads gone over is never a bad idea though. I dont know for sure if the extra compression would even matter, im just saying pay attention to it. you can go higher octane or lower timing advance, though I dont know if either is really needed.

also the axle pin is supposed to go in one way, so make sure your attempting to put it in the right hole. should be slightly bigger and beveled. find someting with a very slightly smaller diameter (such as a punch) and slip it through the hole all the way to make sure its lined up before you start with the hammer.

manifolds cant affect compression, just heads and pistons. in this case pistons. id just basically rebuild the spfi motor and put the new clutch on it, then put the manifold,carb, and disty from Ned on it once its in. doubt it will ulitimately need it but I would start with 92 octane gas and work down to make sure you dont have knock issues with the higher compression (im assuming your running 20 deg timing). Im guessing that the bottom end on the spfi motor is fine, and the heads would be the gen 3 ones, so just work on it while driving the other motor as long as you can or need to. manifold carb and disty are a few hours of work so you can probably get the car back on the road in a day if you prep right.

the older subs will still be outnumbered many times over. that said there was a few dozen older subs at the last one. also in the mud drags and mud pit theres a lot of old school, though a few newer ones tear it up there too. theres a separate set of awards for old school stuff, and last time it was in a separate area. still nice to mingle and see the WRX's, and SVX's though. you shouldn't be disappointed with the representation of the old school.