Hondasucks

If you take the cap off and look down inside the distributor, you'll see the four points of the reluctor, and the pole of the pickup coil for the electronic ignition (Spark fires when the reluctor point crosses the pole of the pickup coil.) Turn the engine over by hand until the pointer in the bellhousing lines up with the 10 degrees BTDC mark on the flywheel. Rotate the distributor housing until the reluctor is lined up with the pickup coil. This is static time, and it should be enough to start. I'm not too terribly familiar with the differences in the carb engines from 86 to 87, but the EFI engines are significantly different, and it might benefit you to swap the entire intake manifold from the 86 engine onto the new engine, replace the vacuum lines while you're at it. (Enough silicone line to replace all of them and have plenty left is pretty cheap at CarQuest, just do it carefully and one line at a time to avoid mixing anything up.) If the distributor won't line up, pull it out, rotate the shaft one tooth, and reinstall. You may need to do this a few times to get it right.

I stumbled across an article when I was digging up TDI performance stuff (And of course now I can't find it...) of a 98-99 or so TDI Golf that was pushing close to 400hp, was a circle track car in Europe, even with that much power it still would do 40+mpg. Did manage to find this http://blogs.dieselpowermag.com/6678967/diesel-car-reviews/tdi-19l-220hp-and-400-lb-ft-to-the-wheels/ but it's not the same car. (Similar list of mods)... After looking at that Acme Adaptors site, I'm thinking TDI + Samurai frame + Subaru body :-) (Was originally going to put a Subaru body on a Samurai frame, but use an EJ22 or EJ25) Now I just need time, $, and space!

I've also heard you can coat it with vaseline and let it sit and absorb into the plastic... Also works for weather cracked tires from what I've heard, doesn't "fix" the cracks but keeps them from getting worse.

Stumbled across this while searching for dash repair info, it's from a BMW forum but would apply to the older gen cars as well since they're similar in construction. I'm going to give it a try with my 68 Polara at some point LOL http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1865940-DIY-Cracked-Dashboard-Repair-Pic-Heavy (If you're on dialup, click the link and go make a sandwich lol)

That is right, on the 4WD models at least, 2WDs have one sending unit, although if my memory serves me correctly they are wired in parallel not in series. The low fuel light is independent of the level sensor and is simply a temperature sensor that pics up the change in temp when the fuel level drops below a certain amount. (If you remove the sensor that has the fuel pump assembly attached to it, you will see the low fuel sensor, it's the small metal canister about 1/2" long that's attached to the side of the level sensor.) If one of them goes bad, it throws the gauge off, either will be full = full and 1/2 = empty, or 1/2 = full and empty = empty, or something screwy in between depending on how they fail.

IIRC the ignition timing is triggered from the crank position sensor, with the cam sensors telling the computer which TDC is TDC of #1. You could: Delay the signal from the crank sensor to the computer (Might not be able to delay it more than a few degrees without setting a code or throwing it into limp mode, not sure what the threshhold is for the difference between TDC on the cam and TDC on the crank, but if you delayed both by the same amount it wouldn't be an issue Physically move the crank/cam sensors. This would most likely only give you a degree maybe two of adjustment. Best way to do it would be to delay the signal, although you would have to have a way to vary the delay based on engine RPM, since a 10mS delay at 700RPM is not going to equal the same number of degrees of rotation as 10mS would be at 5000 RPM The knock sensors will retard the timing based on detonation, sending the computer false knock sensor spikes will delay the timing, although I'm not 100% sure how much it will delay it, the way I understand it from the descriptions in the service manuals was when the computer detects knock, it retards the timing until it no longer detects the knock. The sensor triggers are off the rear of the cam and crank sprockets, and there is a bit of an indentation in the back of the crank sprocket, might be possible to bore the center of it out so that the keyway doesn't interfere, and then slice the back off, drill and slot it for adjustment, that way the ignition timing can be adjusted wihtout affecting the cam timing. You'd need to do the same to the cam sensor ring though, and the cam sensor ring at least on the phenolic pulleys (depending upon the engine, the older ones had metal pulleys) might prove difficult to slot and adjust.

I did it in a 77 wagon, the driver's side half shaft housing will rub on the steering shaft although the amount that rubs is low enough that if you chucked the DOJ housing into a lathe and machined it down a bit it probably would not be a problem. If you can swap in the crossmember and steering rack out of an 81 Brat with the 1800 it's not an issue. For the shifter, the transmission has the bolt holes around where the shift linkage connects at the rear of the case (wish I had a 4 speed to take a pic of) I did have to space the bracket up off the trans with some washers for the lever to work. It would not clear the center console in the car, however I suppose if I had cut and rewelded the lever at an angle it would have cleared just fine. I might be picking up an early 77 coupe (currently 2nd in line) and if I do it will most likely either get a built EA81 with EFI or an EJ18/EJ22 (haven't decided yet) although the 1600 that's in it has under 100k on it...

I definitely want some of that gear, like the hot shower thing, for my truck. Mount it all in a toolbox in the bed or something. I might bring the truck next year, or at least the Turbowagon... The SVX sucks for getting all our camping gear plus the two of us!

I didn't mind the quiet vs. loud section, although we were off in the far corner with people who weren't too loud, I'm definitely glad that we were not in the middle with all the people who felt it necessary to bounce their engines off the rev limiter, set off their alarms, and blast their music past midnight... Just because you're not in the quiet section doesn't mean you have to make a crapload of noise!!! Other than that I had fun, Friday night I had too much beer to care about the noise!

Post links to photos you took at the show that you wish to share. Flickr now has 1TB (Yes that's TB as in TERABYTE, as in a *$*!@load of photos!) of storage for free, good place to upload them. I didn't take a whole lot this year, got a lot of the mud pit though! Next year I need to get another lens for the SLR and a bigger card for it.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigbadsubaru/sets/72157635435548963

Won't be down this weekend but will be down next weekend. I've checked the fuel pressure, put a gauge on it, ran the hose up under the edge of the hood and duct taped the gauge to the windshield and drove it, fuel pressure was spot on. As for unplugging the knock sensor, it's an 87 car with an 88 engine, the knock control is built into the ECU instead of being the separate module like the older cars, and the knock sensor is buried under a sea of PCV lines, I have thought about unplugging it though... Russ and Austin looked at it today and Russ was pretty convinced it's the coolant sensor, and since it's $15 and mine is corroded to hell, even if it doesn't fix it, it definitely needs one.

So I started poking around my car (87 GL turbo), looking for anything obvious, found one of the injector bolts was broken off on the driver's side. Got the broken bolt out and replaced the injector seals on that side, still ran like rump roast. So I poked around some more, and found that the intake boot had come off the turbo, so I stuffed it back on and tightened the clamp, and in doing so discovered that it had a huge crack in it, right above the clamp. So I dug through my parts shed and found a good boot, was off a flapper door style MAF equipped car, but since it's shorter it works better with my cone air filter anyway. Made sure it wasn't cracked and put it on, got it all tight and all the lines hooked up, and it still runs like rump roast and has a funky idle. Compression is good, timing is good (both valve and ignition) alternator output is good and steady (The voltage gauge does jump around when the blinkers are on, etc.. but the voltage at the alternator stays steady, and this car has always done that as long as I've had it) Cylinder #4 misses at idle (Was both 2 and 4 before I replaced the injector seals) It does run better than before, and it goes like a scalded dog when it's cold but once it warms up it falls on its face unless I keep my foot out of it. Under higher boost (7+ lbs) it will start to cut out (Feels like the ignition shuts down for like, 1/2 second or so, about the only way I can describe it, occasionally it will backfire out the intake but seems to not do it anymore since I replaced the tube) but if I keep it under 2-3 psi it seems to be fine, and it has plenty of go off-boost. I've got a few theories: 1) it's got a bad knock sensor (I haven't tried putting a resistor in place of the coolant temp sensor to see if the problem is related to the actual temperature of the engine, or if it's related to what the computer thinks the temp is) and it starts dumping garbage data when it warms up, causing the computer to pull timing 2) It's leaning out, causing it to detonate, causing the computer to pull timing 3) It's got carbon deposits or a hotspot in the cooling system, and the excess heat is causing detonation, causing it to pull timing (Doesn't run hot or make noise or anything gauge wise) 4) Bad MAF sensor? I'm not quite sure how to test the knock sensor without a scope, and I'm not about to just bypass it and have it be #2 or #3 and I melt a hole in a piston, but the knock sensor looks like a whole barrel of monkeys to replace... Might have to just pull the manifold next time I'm in Albany and replace all the vacuum lines and such (I did this when I put the new engine in my SVX, found like 3 cracked vacuum lines under the manifold... Tempted to just put the old engine back in [Nothing wrong with it, the guy I bought it from had a shop replace the flex plate, and they replaced it with a 4 cylinder flex plate, which shredded on the freeway, picked up a 60k motor for $100 and thought I'd just throw it in, turns out it has a dead hole... So now I gotta pull that one back out, replace the timing belt, water pump, and seals on the old motor, and drop it back in... And I can't do that until I finish the body work on dad's Mustang so we can sell it.. Ugh, too many projects, not enough time!

It's quite possibly a bent strut. You mentioned that the stabilizer rod was bent, chances are someone smacked a curb. They usually bend right above where the strut goes into the knuckle, but it's not always apparent until the strut is out of the car and laid next to a straight one.

I would recommend just running the junkyard carb, and finding a rebuild kit for the original one. The big "doohickey" at the bottom is the vacuum diaphragm for the secondary throttle plate, which is the same as the second vacuum diaphragm on the original carb (the one closest to the carb), the first one, which both carbs have, is the pull off for the electric choke. I'm not sure what the port on the front of the carb is for, I THINK that is for the carbon canister but I can't remember, been too long since I've dug around under the hood of an 84, but the carbon canister isn't essential for the car to run right, so you should be OK blocking that port off, especially if your car doesn't have a charcoal canister. The lack of duty solenoids on the 2nd carb indicate it's off a 4WD federal model, as the CA models and 2WDs all had the computer-controlled feedback carburetor, where the 4WD models did not.

I've got one myself. If you're on your third transmission, I'd check the cooler lines and such, as if one of them is plugged (or full of metal shavings from the old transmission) it will take out the new one. There are a few people over at the SVX World Network who have over 100k on the original transmission with no problems. And from personal experience, swapping in a 4.11 or 4.44 transmission from an Outback makes the SVX much more fun to drive :-) If you really want to make it rear wheel drive, there are adaptors that go in the transmission that take the place of the viscous coupling in a manual transmission, making it a 50:50 lock front to rear, do that and pull the front axles. (By "pull" I mean remove the outer joint from the shaft; the part the goes through the hub is required, but you can disassemble it from the shaft and put the end back through the hub) Such a device MIGHT exist for the automatic, but I doubt it.

My wife Tristan and I on our honeymoon in Maui. Tried to rent a Subaru when we were there, to tear up the Road to Hana, but the rental company we went through didn't have Subarus, so we ended up with a Dodge Caliber Image hosted for free at CtrlV.in

Jesus, Russ, we are WAY overdue for beers, almost didn't recognize you!

Good idea Dan I'll check that out. I did feel each injector and pull the connector with the engine running, and I both the injectors are firing. I wonder if I did something meatheaded like boogered up the o-ring when I was putting the injectors back in... The thing that has me puzzled is the fact I remember having to darn near floor it to get it to full boost, and now it's at 9psi at like half throttle. It's something stupid, but my lack of time and tools up here (when I quit working at Firestone I took my tools back to Albany, so up here I have like, a volt meter and one of those $25 Walmart tool sets that my father in law bought my wife when she first moved out lol)

Have you checked the shoe clearance on the rear brakes? That will cause excessive travel + throw off the proportioning valve. In case you don't know how to do it: Jack up the rear of the car until the rear wheels are just free of the gound. (Be smart, block the wheels and use jack stands, don't need to be losing any board members from the car falling off the jack) Crawl under the rear, and at the bottom of each backing plate is a small screw. You may have to use some penetrating oil on the threads if the rubber cap is missing. They are a square drive, but I've always just used a small adjustable wrench or an 8mm open end. Crank it in one side at a time until you can no longer move the wheel by hand. (You will feel it "click" as you turn, make sure it's between clicks when you check the wheel. You'll feel it when you actually do it, it will be hard to turn at first and then it will "click" and will get easy again. If it won't turn, you may need to replace it, they will rust up and strip out. Once the wheel won't move, back it off two clicks. You might hear the brakes dragging very slightly (I usually pump the brakes a couple of times to center the shoes and then spin again) but you shouldn't feel any resistance. Back it off another click or two if you feel there is too much resistance. If it won't adjust all the free play out, pull the drums and check the linings and the drums, if they are worn excessively you won't be able to adjust all the free play out of it.

My former master technician from when I worked at the dealership told me that the old EA82 cars and the Loyales used to tick like crazy even when they were new, due to the lifters draining down in transit. He said they used to take them out, get them warmed up, and then run them up to 6-7,000 RPM in first gear once or twice, and that would pump up the lifters and make the tick go away. I wouldn't try it on an old one though lol.. although I did do it once on my 87 Turbo and it did make the tick go away. The problem is there are 3 or 4 things that cause the tick: 1. weak oil pressure regulator spring in the head (There is one in each head, it's under the banjo bolt that holds the cam spray bar in. This valve bleeds off a little bit of oil pressure to feed the cam spray bar, but with age the spring weakens and allows too much pressure to get to the cam spray bar, which causes the lifters to not have enough pressure to stay fully pumped up, which causes the excessive valve lash, which you hear as a tick. 2. Gummed up lifters - Over time and cheap oil, sludge builds up inside the lifters. Sometimes a good oil system flush and some marvel mystery oil along with a good quality oil will clean them up enough to make the tick at least reduce if not go away altogether after several oil changes. 3. Oil gallery o-ring in the head - This is between the cam tower and the cylinder head and feeds oil to the cam spray bar. When it leaks, it drops the oil pressure to the lifters, causing ticks. This is something that you'll want to get from the dealership, they are rather inexpensive (around $4 each) but are a special rubber coated washer. A regular O-ring will eventually lose its shape and cause it to leak. Secure in place with a drop of superglue when replacing. 4. "Mickey mouse" gasket in the oil pump. These crack/deform with age and leak, letting air into the system, which will usually collect in the lifters, causing noise. Low oil pressure can also cause it, you can always get an oil pressure gauge from an auto parts store (Most stores have rental pressure gauges) that you can thread into the oil filter housing (just remove the oil pressure sending unit) to check the oil pressure, since the gauge in the dash is rarely accurate.

Today my wife and I drove down to my parents' house, so I decided to tinker with the wagon. Poked around and found that pulling either of the plug wires on the passenger side had nearly no affect on engine RPM. Checked the plugs, wires, etc.. all good.. Started poking with the injectors and found one of the injector bolts was broken off. Pulled both injectors, just enough of the broken bolt was left that I was able to weld a nut to it and got it out. Put the injectors back in, replaced the broken bolt, tightened everything back down, fired it up and it runs a lot better now, but it still has a few issues: off boost it seems to be fine, when the boost kicks in it starts to bog down, and it doesn't want to go over 4000RPM, although I could maintim 65-70 on the freeway no problem. Once I gotback to Vancouver, stopped at a red light and whe I went agaon, it seems fine, pulled all the way to 5000RPM or so although still seemed to not have as much power as it should. I;m beginning to think it's got some wiring issues that it developed while sitting... I wish I had the money for an EJ swap! I should add that it seems to bog down more with more boost, if I keep it at like 4 pounds or under it seems to be ok, and if I floor it, it falls on its face

so on closer inspection, the one in the fender is definitely not the boost solenoid, since the boost solenoid and the injector resistor and the boost switch are all connected and operating... The harness runs into the fender, up the wheel well and then into the main harness.

No it wasn't converted, but it was originally a pushbutton 4WD and I converted it to dual range.

Did some poking under the hood of the TWag today, on the passenger fenderwell near where the air filter box used to be is a black connector, and over near the starter (the wire for the O2 sensor is in the same harness) are two more, a black and a white. Can't find any mating connectors, any ideas? Don't think they have anything to do with it running like @*$*#*! though... One in the fender: One by the starter

It's definitely not the turbo, I have a boost gauge and it will pull 10lbs of boost no problem. Turbo spools pretty rapidly too... I think I have it narrowed down, I discovered that the fuel injector connectors on the driver's side don't have the little metal clips that hold them onto the injector. Pulling either one has almost no affect on RPM, pulling one on the passenger side kills the engine. Engine vacuum is good and steady, I'm hoping it's just a bad connection and/or a bad injector. (Makes sense, engine running lean, computer pulling timing to counter detonation, and also dumping in more fuel, which explains the 16MPG )