ferox

Thanks Gary. He's got an almost totally flat commute. For locals, he works in NW Portland and lives in Salem. He's a bachelor, and drives a '91 Dodge Dynasty aka "The Nasty" which pretty guarantees that he will remain single in the foreseeable future , so I think the Impreza would be a perfect car for him, and he wants an automatic with cruise. It sounds like from what you are saying that the 1.8 might get around 5 mpg +/- more than the 2.2 if driven mellow on flat land, which is definitely the situation. I will try to find one. Was '97 or '98 the last year of the 1.8s in the US? One problem I am finding is that people tend not to mention 1.8L engines in their for sale ads.

I can't remember for sure, it's been a while since I had to do this. I think I would probably either try to drill from the backside or just leave it in there and clean around it. Sounds like you've got it handled. The Haynes manual isn't good for much, but it has a decent carb rebuild section if you find that the piece of paper in the kit isn't adequate. See if you can find one used though, because you will probably only use it one time if need be.

I am going to be purchasing my first new gen here soon in the form of an Impreza AT. Ultimately I am going to pass this along to my brother who commutes ~120 miles a day. I have been looking for a 1.8L, but in my research it seems that maybe the 1.8 doesn't get a huge mileage benefit over the 2.2L if driven mellow. My brother drives like a grandma. In fact my 93 year old grandma would probably pass him on the highway if she were still allowed to drive. My bro is way into fuel mileage, so I know he's going to want the best possible, but if it's a matter of a couple mpg's then the 2.2 may be the better route. They seem to be more plentiful and obviously more displacement pushing the same car will be easier on the engine. Anyone have comparative experience [with fuel efficiency] between the 2 engines they would like to share? If this is a dead horse a link would be great. I am having a hard time finding an effective search query.

Yeah nice rides. Sometimes it's nice not having purdy cars. I'm down with that.

Is this still attached to the car? If so you should remove it before you get crap in your manifold. You can take the choke body off the top, (remove the needle and float) and get access to the underside of those screws. They go all the way through the choke shaft, and if I remember correctly they stick out a tiny bit on the underside. When I had this happen to me I think I approached it that way with some vice-grips or small pliers. I replaced them with some small stainless allen head screws. Even if you can't get vice-grips on them, if you drill the screw from the underside the bit will try unscrewing the screw at the same time. Or you could just leave it in there and clean it almost as well during the rebuild. Since this sounds like your first rebuild, I recommend you have a manual, Haynes will work fine for this procedure. Tape the small parts to a piece of cardboard with transparent tape as you remove them and label them with their name and the step # in the manual procedure. Reassembly is reverse of disassembly so the stepwise labeling makes that easy.

It's going to be difficult for us to give you a parts list if you don't tell us what you want in the end (NO PUN INTENDED). Kinda sounds like you were describing a sleeper if you originally wanted a super-charged franken-engine but wanted to retain a stock '83 pickle look. If you want an older-gen street rocket I suggest an auto AWD transmission, but even that takes fab work. A simple task for some of us, not so for others. Even a small, decent, welder set-up is expensive. Not trying to discourage just being honest. I seriously considered swapping a full EJ series undercarriage and running-gear onto an ea81 series body and changed my mind, and I even have all the tools to do it sitting in my garage. I may still do it, but after investigating the underside of a Lego it's obvious that is no small task. I think the remaining ea81 bodies in the world deserve the effort you are proclaiming, but it is a helluva lot of work. I think you have the right idea of visualizing the end product you want even if that hasn't yet been fully described in this thread. Please do tell.

Blew my front driver's-side brake line yesterday. :eek: First time that has happened to me. Luckily I was going ~5 mph in a parking lot when a woman pulled right in front of me. I hit the brakes hard and felt the line burst before the pedal hit the floor. The other half of the brake system stopped me in about 5 feet, but it was not functioning very well either. I was less than a mile from home so I limped it back. I am embarrassed that I allowed this to happen, but I thought I would post so others could possibly avoid my mistake. I am undoubtedly a new member of the Lucky MFer's Club, but I caution anyone else from trying to join in this manner. I got new Centric brand lines for $20 each, so if your lines are cracked like mine were, spend the $40. If I wasn't planning on upgrading my entire brake system in the next 1-1.5 years I would pay for some steel braided lines for the offroadurabilty. Once the lines get hardened they flex at one point instead of the whole hose. My passenger-side line was also cracked and frayed at the same point.

I am more familiar with '84 and older Hitachis but yes you can ditch most of the emissions stuff. I am running a de-emissioned Hitachi in my '81, but I kept the charcoal vapor canister. You can keep the EGR valve too. Lucky I lived there for 9 years, great place.

Where did you hear that? Doubtful, the Weber 32/36 is a fairly universal carb that can be installed on a myraid of vehicles. Parts should be fairly easy to come by, but you might have to order them. If I wasn't going FI on all my cars I would have a Weber 32/36 on my '81 Hatchback, '88 Justy, and '82 Jeep.

Do you have a rebuild kit? Or are you just cleaning and resealing? Whenever I do these with a rebuild kit I just tap a screw extractor down the center bore of the needle seat and unscrew, takes 2 seconds. It will mangle the seat a little bit, but if you are replacing it anyway who cares. If you aren't replacing it, then don't do that.

That's what I usually do, but this time I set them right about in the middle. That is probably contributing to the clack a bit. I'll adjust them a little tighter when I check and adjust.

Adjustment, after torquing everything to spec., the passenger side was slightly loose and the driver's side was slightly tight, but they all required less than an 1/8 turn of the adjustment screws. I figured I would drive it a bit then check torque on the head nuts/bolts and valve lash.

Thanks, I guess I'll just have to do that.

Headgaskets went out at 288k on the '81 Hatch. #3 Coolant to oil. The fire rings were still holding. Consequently, the car still drove great and had good compression, but significant amounts of coolant were getting in the oil. I don't know how long I drove it that way, but it washed out the internals pretty well. I pulled the heads and replaced the valve seals. The valves looked like they had been undersea with all the barnacled carbon on the back. I wish I had taken pictures. I am amazed at how well the car drove with carbon & steel drumsticks for valves. Anyway, I got it cleaned up, did the DIY head treatment. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=126868&highlight=apocalyptic Thanks GD The car drives great. I wish I had changed the HG's long ago. I thought my car had pep before, but the new HG's definitely woke it up and no oil smoke at start-up anymore. However, with the coolant wash and extensive cleaning, the engine is definitely more clacky and it seems like it could use something to condition all the freshly exposed metal. I gave it conventional Valvoline 10W-30 to wash any remaining emulsified oil out and I am going to switch to full synth this weekend. I was wondering if anybody has ideas or experience with additives that might help, kind of like the Rislone in the 4MT trick. The sound of the engine is bothersome, but I am really more concerned about function and protection of the internals.

That would probably be driven mostly by boiling point(s). Ethylene glycol bp = 197.6 C (387.7 F) http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927167 Di ethylene glycol bp = 245.8 C (474.4 F) http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927514 Seems like that would be an adequate relative difference for them to separate it.

Just about any small torch or even a heat gun applied to the knuckle on the outside of the bearing area will help tremendously. In the summer I just leave the knuckle in the Sun for a little while (it gets really hot) and the bearings pop right out.

You're probably looking at around $60 in dealer wares, give or take. Sounds like you are working hard on the green beast...pics are almost always welcome :popcorn:.

Pictures please.:cool:

+1 on the idea It's more work and window than I want to deal with, but it would be nice to be able to roll down the tint with the window closed, especially in cold dark climes that also get intense sun reflecting off snow. Seems like grime in-between the glass would be a deal killer though.

Looks great...don't mean to mom you, but you kids need to make sure you have properly placed jack stands under that car before you slide your arm and torso under the rear drum. If the stands are under there somewhere I can't see, then please disregard this message...and cool dog.

I see this ride around town every now and then. Last time I saw it I think it was down at the Burnside Skate Park this summer and a woman was driving it. At least I think it was a woman, you can never be totally sure in Portland .