djellum

well its the belt, shredded the teeth on the crank side. next question is how easy should the cam on that side turn? there's 2 spots in it that are really rugged to move, though I would expect that's the part where the springs are tight. should it be turn able by hand the whole round? I was using the old belt to turn it, since it wouldn't go by hand. it moves easy once its near the timing mark to set the belt

so yesterday while delivering a pizza, wham, car starts running like crap. thought I threw a major vacuum line, but upon further inspection both passenger side cylinders were dead. no change with spark plug wires unplugged. limped it home, no loss of oil or coolant, no smoke (beyond normal), heat was good, oil pressure was good, just running on left bank only. primary suspicion is the passenger timing belt (or associated idlers and pulleys), followed by a possible head gasket or bad intake blow out. will start checking in the morning when I get up, but figured I would throw this out to see if there's any ideas in case its not the timing belt. you all will probably get up earlier than I do.

Scott was saying that yes you need to fully drop the crossmember that holds the engine on an EA81 car. ea 82s can get a way with a bit but not your style. you will have to extend I would say. I used a center tube of a bushing from some toyota parts my roomate had. just it fit fairly snug in the holes of the ujoints, then I welded it up. doesnt turn fast obviously, so get it pretty straight and your golden. I dont know if SJR makes them, but Im sure he can weld one up for you, if not I will do it if you send me the parts.

even a super valuable brat isn't going to be much of an investment, unless your talking some 40k original tires survivor. brats are a novelty vehicle, those that love them will pay for them, and will likely pay just as much with a small lift or not. its already modified, and the "permanent" changes aren't really permanent. the actual lift should just bolt in, and the shifters and such are replaceable.

yah i get that in a normal setup the smaller diameter hose is to relieve some pressure, but in his setup he basically is hooking a manifold vacuum line to the pvc outlet on the drivers side that pulls manifold vacuum to the crankcase. It will cause a vacuum leak to some degree, and I doubt it will flow enough fumes through a .065 hole to properly vent the crank case.

I would think that the small hose would not carry much in the way of fumes. I don't really know how much flow is needed to keep the corrosive gases under control.

check your intake gaskets. they are notoriously crappy for non dealer versions. you said you couldnt find any vacuum leaks, how did you check? try a smoke test if your a smoker/vapor or use carb cleaner if not. just spray or blow onto the intake base and around the motor. you can tell when its sucking air.

it wasnt complete from the shop, just the machine shop. I still had to pull the housings out of the car and install them, but its only about 7 bolts and I was doing ball joints at the same time anyway.

get a long handled screwdriver and touch it to all the spinning parts on the motor. check water pump, alternator, power steering, timing covers in different spots, etc. likely culprits are the water pump and alternator, but it could be anything. if its nothing like that check for misaligned timing covers or pulleys, and after that check in the timing area for belt tension and to make sure that none of the little guides on the sprockets have fallen off.

most are stripped out by now. what is wrong with it? an add here or your local wrecker are probably the best bet.

they are technically supposed to be pressed in, so expect a tight fit. tons of people do them without a press, but you may want to check your local machine shop. mine removed the old bearings, tanked the housing, packed and installed new bearings and seals for $35 a side. and I picked them up same day. not a bad route if you have a little extra money.

Reasons for an EJ to me are performance based. If you desire to increase performance there is no better way period. In my case I don't have emissions in my state, and I want the best all around Subaru I can build. My desire is to EJ is based in the double power you get, larger supply of parts, and novelty. Reasons to not EJ, are that it takes a degree of technical knowledge to work on or get parts after. If you pay others to work on your cars then you really need a quality mechanic. It is much more expensive than fixing an EA motor (at this point anyway, while parts are still relatively easy to find). Laws and restrictions don't like major changes like an engine swap. I'm dubious about the mileage thing. looking at the epa estimates for Subaru mileage the early EJ's got better mileage than EA cars (not surprising with better efficiency and injection). I think the best mileage would come from the more efficient motor in the lighter car, but I haven't driven a swapped car to know for sure. I think the ea71's were actually the highest, but were mostly talking 81 and 82 here. A large reason to swap has to do with the cars around the motor actually. the newer gen stuff with all wheel drive isn't as viable in a true off road build as an EA series car. Yes I know they are perfectly capable, but super cheap parts, ease of lift, lighter weight, and dual range trans with lower gears are better options that style. on the other hand, if you want street speed and handling, the newer gen cars are better in that respect with newer suspension, aftermarket parts, and all wheel drive. No need to even buy and EA if that's your goal. mileage and daily driver, I would actually lean on a EJ car to begin with. between axle issues, finding parts for 85-87 cars, more comfy and all options available, nice fuel injection, relays, etc, then I think it would be much less hassle for the average person. now for the biggest reason, and the one that most of us have. Its my damn car and I want it to be the best car it can be. It has status, and personality, and style. I get 2-3 thumbs up or cheers a day while driving. I was at a stop light the other day and some guys in a rude full sized Chevy with no doors, 38's, and a full cage were going on about how bad rump roast my 2 inch lifted GL was, while a kid in a Acura looked on in puzzlement. You can't buy that, you have to build it. For a lot of us, these were the style of our first cars, and some of the last cars with the look and style we remember growing up (last cars with any style if you are particularly crotchety). In the end it doesn't have to make sense mathematically.

parts stores break down the models by year, model number, and engine displacement. You can get a hatchback or brat from 85-87, that is completely different than other models in the same years, and has the same model number and engine displacement . if you choose 84 for your year you dont have the different body style subs from the next generation in the mix. it takes some effort to get the right part if you give them the years of 85-87.

did you remove the bearing housing completely to do all that work? did you replace both bearings on each side, as well as the spacer between them? did you torque the axle nut? if so to what poundage (is that a word?)? did you get new cone washers and spring washers? was there a ridge on the cone washer you put on? my thoughts are something wrong in the axle assembly; worn or damaged washers, low torque or backed off nut, bad axle. I had the same thing happen to me, going 60 mph, and the nut came completely off. I found all the parts in the hub cap when I got home. did you loosen or remove control arm bolts, or radius rod parts to get the job done, and forget to tighten them back up? id look to tires normally, but if it didnt do it before then I would guess its something you messed with recently

check that your vacuum advance is hooked to ported vacuum. if you have it on manifold it will idle but you will have no middle or late pedal power. it will also likely make a racket when the gas is pressed.

messed up the brake booster line while you were workin on that side? would be a massive vacuum leak. also did you plug in any connectors? I believe theres a diagnostic plug on that side that bypasses settings.

the bowl vent cant be plugged, or left completely open. webers have an actual atmospheric bowl, hitachis had a solenoid or valve that vented the bowl to the canister. they cant regulate the pressure on their own like a weber can. you need to orifice the bowl vent line, which is a fancy word for have it open to air, but restricted the right amount. since your experimenting you may want to find out exactly what the bowl vent solenoid did and see if it can be mimic'd, fixed, etc. having gutted 2 hitachis and ran a couple webers as well, I would say to find a way to keep the bowl vent setup in stock working order or find a way to mimic it. im not 100% sure that much goes wrong with the Bowl vent hardware, since it ussually gets yanked with the rest of it. in case you may have a couple of dollars to throw at the experiment, you may want to invest in some small valves. hook the valves to the end of the hoses so you can adjust the amount of air that gets in while its running and see what the motor does. make sure to keep your idle low while adjusting the mix. the if you let the idle get too high it can skew the results of what your adjusting.

id contact SJR. he does wheel adaptors and such for changing bolt patterns, so he could probably give you good advise on how to safely space. may also make you a set of spacers.

heres a link you may find interesting. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/127365-simplifying-the-ea82-hitachi-hose-nightmare/ it deals with EA82 and not EA81's, but a lot of the emmissions reduction stuff will be the same. also the carbs have most of the same ports, they are just moved around a little. might just find that gem in there somewhere. i notice in one of your pics that there is still an open line, what is it for? couple of things from doing the delete I did (full delete, only 3 vacuum lines remaining). gas tank hoses - make sure the input for fuel and return line are correct. make sure that the tank vent tube is not blocked or plugged into vacuum, it needs to be open to air (or charcoal canister if you have one). the big one is that bowl vent. the vent controls the pressure in your fuel bowl, and it needs to have the right pressure in there or you will never get it to tune even remotely well. the choke shouldnt engage unless its cold, id just unplug it till you get it running correct, then worry about it after. theres no real reason for increased mileage from eliminating the parts of the hitachi that make it run well. there should technically only be lossed efficiency, my guess is that the secondaries are not working or your running terribly lean which is not good overall for the motor. cant remember exactly but I think the secondaries are vacuum operated, but the passages are internal to the carb. not real sure about that last bit so double check. strange question, but did you adjust the mixture? its adjustment can be hidden behind a roll pin on the EA82's and you cant see it. if you mess with the carb lines and remove items you will need to readjust. all those hoses arent emmissions related they are what the carburetors uses to run the car. theres very little actual emmisions stuff on these, pretty much just the cat and the ASV system. the rest is actual neccesary parts to running the car and deleting things will not gain any performance increases above stock. now the reason we delete things is when they fail and are too much work or cost to replace. we can get 80% performance with 30% of the hassle and we settle for that until we can get a better solution (true fix or a weber).

the main one is the bowl vent. without a good proper balance it wont run right. I ran with the metering ports plugged, and open and it didnt change signifigantly, but nothing worked right till the bowl vent was right. it needs some restriction but has to allow for air to flow. what worked for me was a line that was too smal crammed on it, and left about 3ft long. i only ran it a few months like that till I got my weber in, but give it a try, only costs $2 in vacuum hose. the only thing hooked to my hitachi was the bowl vent hose and the fuel line (plus return line). all other ports were plugged ran well, not as good as a full set up or a webber, but make 27 mpg highway so I could commute with it. may give you a starting point

some suggestions for the first steps on the car... if you have the tools (local parts stores will likely rent them free as well) 1) compression check 2) fuel pressure check 3) check timing 4) check for vacuum leaks / cracked or missing hoses theory is that the compression check will tell you (to a basic degree) what the headgaskets, rings, or valvetrain is up to. the fuel pressure check just ensures that your pump isnt getting weak from age or the fuel system is otherwise impacted. vacuum leaks are one of the most common issues you will find, and have a great impact on performance, especially at idle. timing is very important, and mostly you just need to verify that the last guy didnt mess it up, just make sure its at factory specs. if all these check out then theres pretty much nothing major wrong with the car, and you should be able to ferret out the issues. in my experience most of these cars idle a little low for the alternators. in my carb I can bump the idle up from 750 to 850 and my dimming largely just goes away. alternators dont put out peak juice at idle, they need a little speed to build it up. not much, but if your idle is a bit low cause of a vacuum leak or bad sensor the alt may just not be spinning fast enough. I normally see fuel injected cars running close to 1k at idle, so I think 700 is indicative of an issue. the best mileage for getting the dim to go away is install relays for the lights. you can look up how to do it on youtube, but what it does is eliminate the bottleneck of the headlight switch and gives the lights there own circuit that doesnt draw in the same path as the other accessories. in your car the juice goes from the battery through the switch and out to the lights. a relay gets a small signal from the switch and lets the lights have direct power from the battery, wtih much more robust wiring as well. once you make sure theres nothing major wrong I would seafoam the hell out of it. get 2 cans of seafoam, put one half can in the oil, one half can in the valve train through your brake booster line (youtube seafoam and see how to do it), and one full can in a full tank of gas. drive out a half tank, change the oil and filter, drive out the other half and change oil and filter again. this should effectively remove any gunk buildup that is removable without a wrench and ensures that you have nice clean oil and filter with no contaminants. if the oil still looks nasty keep changing it and driving it till it looks right. its ussually after 1-2 tanks of gas after I seafoam that you start to get the noticeable results

dont remember where I read it, but isnt there an extra port in the oil pump for a second sending unit? I know there are a couple of extra plugs in there besides the relief valve. sorry I cant remember where that info cam from, was just messing around with an oil pressure problem and stumbled upon it.

Look up a local rebuilder. The vacuum cans are rebuildable. Anybody that can tune or rebuild distributors. Or call engine builders and ask them who to talk to. The race crowd does custom stuff all the time, theres somebody around that will do it

with a small lift, I was able to use zip ties around the light kink in the hose to open it back up a bit. has been working fine for me, but if its actually kinked then yes you will have to fab it. maybe cut it and install an elbow fitting? radius rods are the metal shafts that go from the lower control arm to the body under the door. I believe they are part of the trans mount assembly, or are very close to it anyway.

probably on the alignment. if its not a daily driver or you dont drive it much, check out the youtube stuff on home alignments. with a little practice you can get pretty good, especially if it was in alignment before. did you drop the crossmember and radius rods as well?