Uberoo

watching some of the videos makes it seem like the subaru did quite poor.Its was a mess of smoke and broken parts.On the other hand when viewed after watching what the expensive as hell buggy had to do to win,It seems like the subaru did quite well for itself when you look at the terrain and sheer size difference of the buggy vs subaru. do you have any pics of the mods you made to the subaru?Also why did you add a second shock to the front?

I am somewhat interested.So is this a wheeling trip or just meet up somewhere and have lunch kinda thing?My subaru is in pieces right now.My current rate of progress(backwards right now due to finding more broken parts) i'm not sure if I would have it done by then.

Sounds good. Subruise any chance of some pictures of everything thats been done to them?Monstaru so there are two different lengths.Do you remember what aplication is the shorter one for a car based wheeler?

I heard a rumor along time ago that the strut inserts for a VW super beetle would fit inside EA type struts giving a bit more travel. IIRC something like 2" more suspension travel. I was putting some stiffer tempo springs in my struts and I found out the driver side top nut had worked itself loose and messed up the shaft pretty good as well as most of the threads. seeing as I have to replace it anyway why not upgrade.So has anyone else heard about or seen the super beetle strut insert mod? Also for the record: Ford tempo springs WILL work in our struts.YES they have different specs so at first glance it looks like they wont.The spring rate is about 1.5 to 2X times stronger than the stock springs so they help with heavy bumpers,ej's,etc..Secondly, they are about 1/2" smaller in diameter than the stock springs.So when your fitting the springs the will move around on the perch a little. Once everything is tight they wont move. If it bothers you a couple of tack welds on the spring perch will hold them solid,just tack weld it while you have the strut apart.Thirdly depending on the year of the tempo springs you will have to cut 1-2 coils from the bottom of the spring to make the springs the same length as a stock spring.

It looks like a either a one piece driveshaft or a carrier bearing skidplade is in order.

I don't know if WA has a visual cat check but if they dont then cut the cat out and replace it with a straight pipe.Then take your old cat to a scrap recycler and get money for it.IIRC the last time I turned in a subaru cat I got $30.

the problem with the twin stick setup is I already have too many sticks in my car as it is.Right now I have three,the third one is my transfer case shifter located where the orginal ebrake went.

One of the popular ways of controlling wheel spin offroad is run duel e brakes to selectively lock the front wheel that has no traction so the wheel with traction will turn.Dune buggies have "turning/cutting" brakes that apply to the rear wheels to turn if the front gets light.On those they have a hydraulic cylinder positioned above and below the fulcrum of the lever.So that when you push the lever forward the upper one compresses,and when you pull the lever back the lower one compresses.Could the same idea work with E brake cables?Or would there be too much slack in the loose cable to make it work?

Same.Where can one acquire said beastie?

redundant thread due to internet crapping out.Mods please delete.

I spent some time looking through some of the old threads that are archived here.All I gotta say is Thank you to all the innovators and pioneers of the subaru world.My own personal offroader borrows heavily on the work of the original subaru pioneers.Lifting a subaru,swapping in a 5 speed into the Ea81's, Swapping in EA82 front suspension,Installing an EJ,and finally doing a transfer case conversion.All ideas that I borrowed to make mine.My subaru is pretty much the only "big" lifted subaru Ive seen locally.I think there is a EA81 wagon and a legacy that are lifted an inch but no-one else with tires much bigger than stock so Its kinda easy to get lulled into thinking I created most of it.The fact is without the work of the original pioneers of the subaru world most of what I built wouldn't exist.I would still be running no lift with cut/bashed fenders.Without out all the original pioneers my subaru and many others would not be where they are today,for that I Thank You.Although EJ powered T-cased rigs are a bit of a rarity still. speaking of that stuff does anyone happen to have any of the old footage of the Rubicon run and other earlier outings?Those are treasures that should not be lost.

After looking at some of the threads from the distant past it would seem that my subaru has some of the lowest ground clearance of most of the lifted subarus.I have 13.75" under the transfercase,12.25 under the rear diff,and a paltry 10.5" under the front diff all while rolling on 31's(they actually measure out to be ~29").So I think that could be a large percentage of the problems I am having.I already knew my front end had sunk down alot,I just never realized it was that bad.I bet with just the FWD ea82 springs I am dropped like 2" in the front.Come to think of it the FWD springs did drop it about 1/2" when I was just running the EA81+ T case.Adding an EJ tends to drop a car 1-1.25" on 4wd springs.So Its dropped alot. DOH!!!! When I made the lift blocks I dropped everything egually to minimize stress on the axles.So going off the fact that a 31" tire should raise the car roughly 4" over the stock 23" tire.I should be sitting at roughly 12.25-12.5" under the front diff. So FWD springs holding up the extra weight of an EJ22 and a nissan transfercase and a rear diff up front dropped the car roughly 2". Gee I feel dumb. I suppose I will check the local junkyard today(was sleeping when I realized this) and see if they have any ford tempos I can jank the front springs from.. Moral of the story,when something doesn't quiet go the way you plan go back and check the really simple stuff.

While your at it cut out the lower radiator support and replace it with a piece of steel box tubing.If you do it right you can make that part stronger while also improving ground clearance.Tow hooks/loops will probably have to be relocated to a strong bumper to get the most gain.

I didn't see any pics on damaged/bent parts. just rust and lots of it.

I would like to add that only boner county salts the roads.The rest of idaho uses gravel.

just cut the muffler off and then run a glasspack depending on your preferences.Most of my EA81/ea82 vehicles haven't had mufflers.My 93 legacy had an 11" glasspack because the exhaust was a little too high pitched and sounded tinny.With that little glasspack it sounded like an STI. No you will not damage your engine by running a different muffler or even non at all.The muffler is far downstream that the engine just sees a reduced diameter pipe(check the flow rate of pipe to an equal size muffler). While we are on the subject an engine does not NEED backpressure. What it needs is a certain exhaust velocity.Too slow and bottom end suffers,while too fast the top end suffers. small pipes have high velocity, large pipes have low velocity. the problem with high velocity is it leads to something known as backpressure, in other words resistance to flow. The exhaust travels in pulses so there will be a positive pressure than a negative pressure.When velocity is about right when the exhaust valve opens exhaust will be drawn out and the fresh air charge will get drawn into and trapped in the combustion chamber to start the cycle again.When exhaust velocity is too fast the intake charge will be partially sucked out the exhaust.Too slow and the engine has to expend energy to push the exhaust out.Not to mention most of the combustion chamber will be full of exhaust which doesn't burn. so too small of pipe will choke the top end,while too big of a pipe will kill low end power. On just about any subaru 2-2 1/4 is about ideal.On turboed things a much bigger downpipe is allowed for a different reason.

so what exactly is bent that is causing the tire to be fubared?Chances are it can be replaced.Any pictures?

Uberoo what part of the five lug stuff has less travel the stuts or axles? hadn't heard that before so good to know. if you get a chance go to your local PnP and flex the suspension on various subarus. The rear ej suspension is horrible because it binds up after a couple inches or so because the pivot points of the control arms are not in line or in sync.By contrast the rear EA suspension will smoothly travel because the control arm pivot points act along the same angle. Front struts are pretty much the same except there is a little less travel in the the EJ stuff,But the EA suspension has a radius rod to control the lower control arm.Its pivot point does not act along the same line of action or angle as the control arm so it introduces binding.So EA and EJ front suspension is more or less a wash.In either case the struts limit travel,then the axles will limit travel before any binding from the suspension come into play. Like I said visit a PnP and play with suspension parts.You might have to remove some things to find out where stuff is limiting travel.On a legacy even with the rear strut removed and out of the car their is very little flex due to the inherent binding issues..

I found a BSFC chart for a EJ22 and from my understanding you will get the best MPG possible between 1800 and 3500 RPM at WOT.At anything less than WOT the engine has to work harder fighting the vacuum the engine produces against the closed throttle plate.By comparison a diesel which has no throttle valve will use the least amount of fuel at its torque peak and use more fuel as RPM's increase. So my question is how exactly are you supposed to drive at 1800-3500 RPM at WOT in city traffic? Just for reference the BSFC can be found here: http://www.rs25.com/forums/f4/t156942-mpgs-efficiency-torque-curves-shifting.html

The RX has a 1.19 Lo range but 3.7 diff ratio.A better choice would the the low range box from any of the other non turbo EA82 subarus. Also why are you swapping the 5 lug stuff? it has less travel than the stuff that is on there now.If its a wheel fitment issue then anything running 6 lug will bolt on either by drilling the wheels or the hubs.The wheels from a 4x4 chevy,or most any japanese mini truck have that bolt pattern.

A v8 MIGHT fit in the engine bay.Although fitting is relative because you will have to FABRICATE new mounts,and possibly a crossmember. Steering would be a pain to work with because the steering shaft would directly interfere with the driver side head/exhaust manifold.Then there would be clearance issues with the brake master cylinder/booster. Assuming you got all that set up you would need some seriously stiff springs because the old school "tree fidy" and its transmission is about 3X times heavier than whats in there now.The stock engine weighs about 200 lbs plus about 75 for the transmission.A 350 weighs about about 750 lbs with iron heads not even including the transmission. Next up is the body,While the unibody is quite strong strong it will not hold up to v8 torque without some re-enforcements. The Brakes in stock form are barely adequate at coping with stock power,mass,and speed.So they will need to be updated.Finally the stock subaru rear end likes to break under stock power in RWD if you thrash on it on pavement.A solid axle and its suspension will need to be swapped in. Horsepower costs money.How fast do you want to go? In short it will be a LOT of work to put a 350 into a subaru and make it work right,not to mention alot of money.If a $100 driveshaft is stopping you from attempting this swap then there is no way you could do it.At the minimum it would take close to $1000 just getting junkyard parts. A better option would be to remove anything that isn't needed: spare tire,AC parts,Rear seat,carpet and sound deadening material,radio and speakers,headliner,any glass after the windshield,hell for that matter toss the heater and just wear a coat.Ditch the passenger seat because a girl will NOT ride in the car with it like that.If you have a wagon cut off the roof after the rear doors including the rear hatch as well.The hood can go too.Then go weld up the rear diff for better sideways-ness.

1500 would be my upper level bid. while it only has 156K miles lots of things could need to be replaced soon.Stuff like the rubber fuel lines,brake lines, vacuum hoses,etc just from not really getting used. Discounting the relative rarity it is still an econobox from the 80's. Subarus from the 80's are not collectible as of yet. As you said only an enthusiast would even recognize it for what it is.Everyone else would see it as just another 80's econobox with the reliability issues of being 27 years old.So $1500 sounds like a safe bet.Start with $1200 and work your way up.

rental cars do better offroad than 150K baja trucks.

There is always that debate on weather subaru's were actually supposed to do what we put them through offroading. The owners manual states that the cars are "all road" not all terrain.However, The BRAT changed that because subaru named it Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter.The brat is fundamentally identical to the wagon of the time so that means that the brat and wagon are all terrain vehicles.Then every other 4wd EA81 shares the same suspension parts, so therefor every 4wd EA81 vehicle is an all terrain vehicle.Thus they ARE meant to go offroad.I'm sure most you know this already,but it means just having your subaru offroad is doing what it was intended to do,so its happy.Even if offroading does slowly kill the car. Ea82 suspension is more or less an evolution of EA81 suspension, so EA82 vehicles are also all terrain vehicles. EJ suspension however, is fundamentally different to EA suspension so EJ vehicles arn't technically all terrain vehicles.They are "all road" vehicles and they do well at that, IE rallying. Discuss.

So I am doing some repairs to the rear tow points on my 81 Hatch, and I'm getting tired of babysitting the glue that seals the rear body panel to the floor.Every time I try to cut/weld something under there the glue catches on fire and burns up some of the wiring.So what is the best way to remove the glue so it stops catching on fire so I can focus on the task at hand without worrying about if the car is gonna go up in flames or not. I tried scraping it out but I didn't have much success.I dunno wire wheel?