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I can check AUS stock if you want, we had the EA82 as long as you did and they may still be available here. Price could be insane though.

You have a PT 4wd system. AWD was on the RX and is a FT 4wd. Yes, there was a 2wd version available (DL only?). No,a FWD version doesn't have PT 4wd. There is also a later 4 speed auto (4wd) but I don't know if it will clear your transmission tunnel. You also need to ensure the box is the same ratio as your diff - either 3.7:1 or 3.9:1. You can check what you have by looking at the back of the diff, there will be a small silver sticker showing the ratio.

This is one of the biggest gripes I have with Rockauto - they cannot consolidate shipment at a central warehouse for non-US deliveries. When I was trying to buy 100 XT6 wheel studs the shipping charges were out of three separate warehouses and were comparable to the stud cost (~$100 of studs and ~$100 of shipping) - and each warehouse had wildly different shipping costs for similar weights/dimensions. I ended up going to Summit with their "free" shipping for a smaller volume.

www.row52.com/Vehicle/Index/JF1AM43BXBC445382.

Just take off one lug nut at a time, inspect the thread, and replace before doing the next nut. Gives you peace of mind, and you really don't want to get a flat and not be able to remove the wheel... If you find any with "iffy" threads, mark the lugnut with a spot of paint or tape and run it back to Costco so they can fix them also.

I don't know the guy who did the cut-down drums option personally, I think he was on ausubaru.com for a while. At its simplest it would be angle grind off the drum excess, machine down the various faces to the correct finish height (look at my thread on making the XT6 hubs for a dimensional drawing), weld up the 4 existing holes and drill 5 new holes. I'll dig a drum out and compare it to one of my XT6 hubs to see if there is sufficient meat to do it safely.

Bad spacer : eBay item #182050265148 Good spacer : eBay item #281526861375

Make sure to design the spacers with a retaining lip to the Subaru size (57mm from memory). This means the force is transmitted to the hub rather than on the studs. Cheap spacers don't have the lip.

The hub is far more complex than an adaptor. The adaptor just needs some round bar turned down and 9 holes drilled (4 counter sunk). The hub has the spline to deal with. For an MY, yes the stock (Subaru) 5 stud wheel offset is higher than a 4 stud so you need to run spacers or find other wheels to keep the same track. Typically this isn't a huge issue if you go to wider wheels as the offset of the wheels is addressed by the wider wheel size. I don't believe this applies to L-series (Loyale).

2wd is 53mm high. awd is 60mm high.

Shannon, have you got a photo of a 2wd hub ? It "should" be simpler than the 4wd version, just a 2wd rear disc hub but with the 5x100 PCD instead of 4x140 ?

Blocks are different in terms of casting sleeve size. It would be far cheaper to change the block than to fit new sleeves and bore them out (unless you had to keep the outwards appearance of an EJ18 for local roadworthy, as we do down under). And welcome OP

The EA81 was offered from 1979 through 1994 internationally. It's pretty much the best pre-EJ engine Subaru made (some would say ever). USDM was 1980 through 1986 I believe...

Magna was a locally-made Mitsubishi Diamante (wide bodied version for AUDM, at the old Chrysler facility when Chrysler went broke for the first time back in 1981). I personally haven't used the Magna set-up, but that was what Crossbred used to recommend as I believe it had the right length and the lever was easy to adapt. Finding a Diamante might be a challenge in the US, from memory it would have been around the time of the short-lived Diamond Star set-up used by Chrysler/Mitsubishi (I don't know what Mitsubishi is like in the US now, locally they are just into 4wds and smaller cars, they don't have a mid-size or larger sedan option).

Photo should work now, hit refresh. Freaking Photobucket links, I have to type them in manually on this site for some reason..grr

Not sure if I have the covers (the AUDM bumperettes have covers where the bumper bracket goes, the USDM have the same covers but with a cutout to allow the bumper through) - I can provide templates as I don't have mine fitted yet!

Not as insane as from the US Here's the existing bar (I haven't finished re-assembling the chrome one, had EJ blocks all over my workbench until yesterday). (Old photo, BTW - back in 4x140 days...)

Good to see you posting GD. Agree on the cheap drill bits. I bought a set of Kawasaki bits from Costco several years ago, I thought decent Japanese brand. Titanium coated etc etc. They would bend like a banana. Ended up throwing them all out. Only use Suttons now (local company in AUS and NZ). It helps that the company I work for makes the machines for them (2nd biggest after Walter).

As long as the heads and intake are a set you can put on any EJ25 short block.

Finding an original chrome 1982-only BRAT bumper is tough. I have a spare black one you could have rechromed (I can even recommend a good chrome plater for the plastic light surrounds). Will need some panel work though as it had a hole drilled in it for a trailer plug (I ended up buying a chrome one out of the US last year and got the last part back from the chrome platers last week). As far as I know they are the only 2 in Australia. The AgQuip bumper is another option if you can find it. Note the bumper won't fit a standard width license plate, as it's designed for USDM (shorter than our plates). I switched to slimline and curved it around to fit.

I am running 4 pots also. For the fronts you don't need anything beyond the WRX's front struts and some mix-and-matching of top hat, springs, axles and CV's to get the right height and axle width. The back is where you need the XT6 hubs, and the rest is from your donor WRX (again, I am running WRX 2 pots). The only modification you need to do on the back is drill a new hole in the backing plate to match the Brumby trailing arm and elongate the other two holes in the backing plate to centralise the backing plate with the arm (be careful here, as you may think 2 of the 4 holes already line up - they do NOT). And you also need to modify the handbrake setup as your hand brake will now be from the back wheels (drum in disc design) instead of the front. I believe Magna's have a suitable handbrake design. I don't have any XT6 hubs left from the last batch, but I have a new batch being made up and would hope to have them in April. The main difficulty in terms of manufacture are the internal splines (which is why a machined down a rear drum gets you the difficult bit done and then it is "just" drilling 5 new holes to match the PCD). If you are running STi throughout, does that mean you have 5x114.3 PCD ? If that is the case you will need custom hubs to suit as XT6 are 5x100...

There are plenty of online VIN decoders. What are you trying to work out ?

There are a few options. This (adaptor plate) is the easiest, but is illegal in most (Australian) states. it also helps with the spacing (you will find all factory EJ wheels will be higher offset than your existing wheels, so spacers or aftermarket wheels are necessary). You don't improve your braking here though, so with a STi conversion you have no chance on a pink slip (and rightly so). The second is XT6 hubs - see my (many) posts about the batch I made and sold on here. You can also look for some originals from Japan or the US, but they come up very infrequently. Legality is pretty grey, but it's a sort-of factory solution. The third is making your own hub by machining down a rear drum. I know a guy in Qld who has done this. Legality would be non-existant, but if done well would look original.

Even the gudgeon (wrist) pins change : From left to right, EJ205, EJ202 and EJ252. The EJ202 gets shorter pins, while the EJ205 has a sunken centre which reduces weight. They all share a common OD. And finally rods. I didn't bother with the EJ202, but here's the EJ205 (left) and EJ252 (right). The only obvious difference is the flat end at the bottom for the EJ252, and a very slight increase in length at the top :

The thicker walls of the EJ252 make removing the case bolts difficult. The factory has machined a very light clearance in the cylinder :