mikeshoup

You say same size tires all around... Are they the same tread pattern and wear?

Lift all four wheels, or just one side of the car off the ground. Keep it in first, and let the idling engine spin the one wheel with it in 2WD. Should just have the front wheel moving. Now stop it, put it in 4WD and do the same thing. Should get both wheels on the one side moving. This is just to verify that it is indeed not going into 4WD... Otherwise it sounds like something internal is damaged if its not engaging 4WD. If it was the lever and the rod going to the tranny, it wouldn't "click" into 4HI...

Call up a glass shop and get a quote... My brother had $173 quoted from Elite Autoglass to come out and do his windshield. But with all the rust there, it wouldn't be too much longer before either the windshield cracked again, or started leaking. Funny, my brother's three door has rust in the wells in the hatch too. Except both sides have a small hole. Those I would cut away all the rust, and paint so they don't rust anymore... wouldn't worry so much about the hole. That way the water has a place to drain

Yours is an EA81, his is an EA82. Different. Sorry, but underneath an automatic EA82 IS a two piece driveshaft. And the EA82s do not need to have radius rod plates swapped from my understanding. On ALL 4WD EA81s, there is a one piece driveshaft, and its the same manual or 3AT. All EA82s and newer use a two piece.

An EA82 just needs the Manual drive shaft (IIRC, just the front half) And only need the tranny crossmember. Don't need the radius rod plates. Axles are fine as is. You'll need a 3.9 diff... most Autos are 3.7 I think?

Unfortunately, the adapter plate allows EJ engine to EA trans, not the other way around. This is because an EA trans' bell housing is half inch shorter than the the EJ, so you're making up the half inch with the half inch plate... Using the adapter plate the other way around would leave a gap.

The 3AT is offered in both 4WD and FWD. It would bolt right up... but reliable? probably not.

Crap, mother's day... Can we do this the next sunday, May 20th? Otherwise, I'm out too.

ECU has to be from an SPFI... probably even an 87. I know there's been wiring changes from 88-89, and 90+... I dunno if that would have an effect on whether or not you can use a later ECU.

You should test it without it plugged into the ECU... just unplug the sensor in the engine bay and plug your multimeter's positive lead into the O2 sensor side of the connector, and ground the negative lead.... that should render the actual voltages the O2 sensor is giving as it generates its own voltage. You can do it with the O2 sensor plugged in as well. Find the check connectors under the dash. One of the pins should be the O2 sensor output. Then you can open the throttle a bit and watch the O2 sensor cross hatch.

Good luck Russ! Hope it all turns out well. The quicker you move your bad mojo into a state further away the better

Its to support your spare tire (has nothing to do with bracing the strut towers... way too thin of material for that)

Check every inch of the cooling system. Replace all the rubber hoses, thermostat and radiator cap. Inspect the radiator. If you suspect the radiator to be bad at all, replace it immediately. If you let this baby overheat, you will blow head gaskets. Just keep it cool and it'll be a fun car.

Yup, same length. I was able to reuse my drive shaft for my 4spd D/R in the EA81T wagon.

*crosses fingers*

That'll make for a long trip to Washington if you have to stop periodically to let it cool down for an hour.

What are you rambling on about BGD? This makes absolutely no sense what so ever. Perhaps your common sense isn't quite so.... common.

Parents, hide your children. There's a large hornet driving around! I like it.

I'd try a pair of vice grips.

Another possibility is that your radiator is so old and plugged, it won't drain out. I remember in my old XT trying to drain it... opened the drain plug, had a couple drops of coolant come out. Still tons in the radiator. Wouldn't come out until the lower rad hose was pulled off.

No need to apologize. The only thing that bummed me was that it was left outside and got water in the cylinder bores... (I bet the other engine's heads are fine so all I really wanted was a decent shortblock) But yeah, I figured when you said the compression was low on #1 and #4 I knew something was bum.

The timing belts were dead on. So its either the rings are gone, or my compression tester is off... I'm gonna check it on my car and make sure its not reading too low.

I found the problem, at least for #4. The valve seat for the exhaust valve came loose and wedged itself between the valve and the port. The block is trashed though. The motor had to have been left outside and it got water in it through the spark plug holes that were empty... the cylinder liners are rusted and pitted. Didn't take the head off the other side... don't see a need to really. Could be a similar thing or something else. Don't really care now. This motor is trash.

Neither of which I have I'm going to take the heads off of this motor and see if anything is obviously wrong.

Yup, that's my confusion. Cracked heads, huh? Could be. I think the engine had a ton of miles.