derburger

Isn't there a lot of work required for an ej22 swap? Like a flywheel adapter and new wiring? My EA82T has 55k miles on it and doesn't leak or burn oil. But, the original EA82T in my XT blew up at 90k miles. My XT is a daily driver, mileage is 20-26 mpg in FWD which isn't great for a light aerodynamic car.

The water pump is underneath the alternator-area. My XT had it's own coolant leak, Turned out to be the rubber O-ring that seals the metal pipe to the water pump went bad. My guess is it's either that O-ring that seals that pipe has cracked or enlarged, or the 90 degree bend hose on the water pump is leaking. Either way, I would take off the belts and timing covers and replace that O-ring on the coolant pipe (available thru dealer for a few cents) and the hose (Gates, 90 degree bend bypass hose)

1986 XT Gl-10 96,500 miles

My ea82t leaked from an o-ring on the pipe to the water pump. Plenty of other dumb hose arrangements that can leak too. It's from the engine, so that narrows it down...

I can't believe how much smoother and faster my ea82t XT accelerates after I replaced the CTS wiring. Now the car has uniform acceleration, passengers don't get pushed forward and backward around while shifting now. It's stupid how much better the car drives after replacing this 2 wire connector and about 10 inches of flaky, corroded on the inside 80's wire. All I did was buy a Bosch fuel injector repair connector, Dorman/Motormite part number 85850. The Coolant temp sensor uses this connector. I cut into the original CTS wiring which was corroded on the inside near the original connector, I soldered and heatshrinked the new wiring and connector in, put dielectric grease in the connector and CTS. Very EAsy! I highly recommend doing this if the CTS wiring is original like mine was. The P.O of my car replaced the sensor because it flashed a code, but didn't replace the wiring. This is what I bought to fix my CTS issue. It's a bosch fuel injector repair connector with maybe 10 inches of wire attached, same connector the CTS uses. This XT runs and drives like a new car now! Idle is still at 1200, eventually I'll find the cause of the fast idle but for now I don't care. 8)

Anything with an ea82t is poop on wheels, I definitely won't buy a Subaru with this engine again. Gotta love the head cracks/gaskets, turbo coolant hose, water pipe o-ring, coolant temp sensor, idle air control valve, any rubber hose in engine bay, cooked wiring harness, overheat-o-matic cooling system, fuel economy on par with many v8's, tick of death, all of these are worse in a poorly maintained engine. Well, other than that stuff it's not the worst engine out there.

Thanks, I ordered the $16 eBay drier. I'll have to look at my FSM about the expansion valve and hose routing, since the TXvalve can't be flushed with solvent, which I need to do to get the r-134a oil out before putting Mineral oil in.

It's almost the time of year where I need to be thinking about A/C. My XT was converted to r-134a in 2004 and now doesn't cool. Since I've recently replenished my stock of Freon r12, I'm going to convert this one back to r12 like I did with my MBZ 300cd last summer. I'll flush out the system really well with solvent, replace all O-rings, replace drier, add oil, draw a vacuum and refill with r12. Since I already have the gauges/vacuum pump, mineral oil and O rings, it should be less than $100 for cold A/C this summer for my XT, if my compressor is fubar, I have a spare. I have a question about the Filter/Drier unit for this car. Is the filter/drier unit the same on all EA82 turbo cars? The filter I'm looking at is Four seasons part number 33453, and lists applications for most 85-89 EA82 subarus, including MPFI turbo ones. Is the drier a standard 80's subaru part or is there a special XT one? The drier on my car looks just like this one, same 16mm inlet/outlets, hose arrangement. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SUBARU-1 ... ccessories Are there any "gotchas" when working on the Subaru A/C system? Is the expansion valve somewhere behind the glovebox, I imagine it's somewhere around there. Thanks for all your help so far. I still have a high idle, but I'm going to solder up the coolant temp sensor, replace the oxygen sensor (I have spares), reset the ECU and hope for the best.

But... digi-dashes are super rad! Grandma's oldsmobile even had one too! My XT digidash has a digicar! That's much cooler than oil pressure or voltage.

I'm wondering about my 86 XT's AC system as well. Unfortunately it was converted to r134a in 2004 and I assume most of it has leaked out by now. I'll probably recharge it and see if the A/C is acceptable with r134a, which is unlikely. My MB 300cd it was converted to r134a before I bought it and the compressor ate itself. I flushed out the system, replaced compressor, drier and expansion valve, vacuumed out refilled with r12 freon, now the 29 year old car cools like a modern one or better. A/C work isn't that hard, usually I don't bother with having r134a converted systems since they don't cut it.

Sometimes I can't get the hill holder to work, I have to shift from 2-1 and then it'll engage. It's useful, except when it doesn't catch and I have to grab the hand brake

Does that XT have a turbo? My turbo XT with a 5 speed is getting 26.5 MPG highway. Yours is probably 30+, right? Very nice color, I think mine was that color originally before painting.

Bad picture, but you can see the tank is either made of brass or copper by looking in the rad cap post.

I ordered a Koyo brand radiator for $50 shipped to me from Rockauto for my 86 EA82T xt. On the page it says plastic/aluminum tank. I was pleasantly surprised to receive an all-metal NOS "Genuine Super Complete" brand copper/brass radiator! All metal construction and it's made very well. It has the fittings for the auto trans that my XT doesn't have, they're brazed into the copper or brass tank. Should I just loop a hose on these two fittings, or plug them somehow? The fittings small fittings are seen on the left of this photo, my manual XT doesn't have them. I would take a pic of my new radiator but I just have a crappy cell camera picture. The radiator was part number 45111GA580 from rockauto, $33. I don't know what radiator they would send after mine, they probably bought up some old stock, and I ended up with a brass/copper radiator. Pretty sweet for $50!

The blue jacks are pretty nice for a scissor jack, my XT came with two of them (the P.O had 2 XT's, someone totaled one and he pulled parts off it). If you want to see a shoddy jack then look at the one that came with my 1980 MBZ. There are circular holes in the body for this jack. If you use it on anything but a perfectly level surface the car crushes your foot.

An update, fuel problem solved for now... I installed a new fuel pressure regulator, and I think that was my problem. It must have been stuck closed and causing high pressure in the fuel system. Now the car runs great without hesitation, no noise from the fuel pump (and now when the green plugs are connected in the trunk, the pump cycles normally and doesn't sound like it's sucking sand after a few seconds) I'll pick up a fuel pressure gauge next time I'm at harbor freight to check the pressure for reference. The fuel before the fuel pressure regulator was very rusty, it must have clogged the regulator somehow. I have a set of 4 injectors that I'll swap in later, running on junk fuel must have been bad for the ones in the car. The idle is a little funky still. When the car is started after running it idles at 800-900 RPM, cold starting about 1200, but during driving of the car, it idles at 1400 at a stoplight, for example. When I unplug the idle air control valve, nothing happens, I've looked everywhere for vacuum leaks, cleaned the coolant temp sensor and grounds. However, I've gone through the fuel and cooling system, and the XT should be a "somewhat reliable" daily driver for now.

My bet is on the pressure regulator being bad, causing high pressure in the pump lines. Nothing happened when I took the regulator's vacuum hose off. I removed the fuel filter and got a tremendous gas spray, even after I disconnected the fuel pump and ran the engine, and very little gas came from the return hose when I disconnected it and blew it out. Of course this doesn't mean much until I get a pressure gauge. I was just at Harbor freight this weekend . I might just order the pressure regulator along with a new radiator from Rockauto and replace those next weekend.

Low fuel pressure would tell me...? High fuel pressure would tell me...? My XT is either of those two problems. And connect the gauge where? It'll be another week before I can work on the car again. I replaced the fuel filter with a new one. Connected another fuel pump, that one makes noise too. There's a vibration from the high pressure line coming from the pump, no vibration from the low pressure. Then, I blew out the supply and return lines, after the gas was out, I blew out rusty powder . That's a problem... I replaced a few more hoses by the driver's rear tire that looked suspect, and noticed that the (fuel pump to fuel filter) line wasn't secured well and could be pushed and pulled around. If the fuel pump is cavitating, then it's not getting enough flow from the fuel tank. I think there's a pickup filter in the tank. I put in a new gas tank a few weeks ago, I don't even know if it has a filter in it or not. I guess I could disconnect the large supply hose at the fuel filter, and blow compressed air through to clear the filter? Bad return fuel pressure regulator so the fuel pressure is too high at the pump? I'll pickup a pressure gauge next week when I can get to working on this car again. This car is kicking my butt

Bump, some more info... I rechecked all the fuel hoses again and they are tight with proper fitment, the supply hose under the tank was fine. I blew out the return line. The pump still makes noise, but I didn't feel any vibration or bubbles in the supply hose when the car was running. My next guess is that the fuel pump is bad. Although I put on my spare Loyale fuel pump and that one made noise too. When I pull of the supply line, lots of gas comes out, I don't think there's blockage in the tank. I'll try my spare Volvo FI fuel pump, which wasn't run on rusty gas by me, to see if there is the same issue. The car still idled high after I replaced the tank and pump, but the pump didn't make noise & stall the car until about 200 miles. Is there some sort of filter in the gas tank at the supply line? The tank is brand new "Spectra-Premium", I don't know how that could be fouled already. I know the fuel pump is for "pushing" fuel rather than sucking, so a supply issue would make sense for the noise, but I can't find any issue there. I looked at the little "sock" in the inlet side of the pump and didn't see anything in there, but I didn't attempt to clean it. I'll change out the fuel pump again tomorrow... Other guesses include clogged injector, rusted fuel supply line...?

An obnoxious color would probably wreck the car's resale value... I think a metallic gray would look good sprayed on the lower 1/3d of the sides. Do you mean paint just the lower part of the bumpers, or the entire bumpers? I don't know where the P.O got the banner or the I emblem in the front. If I thought the banner was "80s" I would keep it, I think it's a little ricey. But I probably won't peel it off due to laziness.

That's the type of paint job I want on my 86 XT, either 2 tone, or a stripe that's straight then angles up towards the trunklid, in obnoxious colors. Right now it's plain blue(not oe color) with no clear coat. Since I have the setup and materials for painting and the time this summer, I want to do some paint work, either keep it blue and add a clear coat, or 2 tone with a clear coat. It has the "blue subaru, gold wheels" look now. I like the angry hornet 2 tone side stripes, I think I want to paint mine like that, but in obnoxious orange or green Currently: (I'm going to remove that SUBARU banner, it came with the car and I don't like it :-\)

I had the same problem with very little heat at any speed except idle. I flushed the heater core & radiator with a garden hose & replaced the mcparts thermostat with a Subaru one. Now there's plenty of heat Buy one of the "hose menders" at harbor freight for a dollar to hose clamp the garden hose onto each heater core hose.

bump

400 miles after I replaced my 86 XT's gas tank due to rust, I am having fuel delivery issues. The fuel pump is buzzing/vibrating loudly, the engine will stall after sitting at idle for a while, and will stumble upon acceleration. This is a new issue, 200 miles after replacing the gas tank it appeared, and I barely made the other 200 home; the XT stalled the minute I got off the highway, I was able to drive it home.... if I kept it above 2000 rpm. All of the fuel hoses are the proper size and fit, hose clamps are tight, I've tried 2 different fuel pumps and filters and there are still fuel delivery problems/ the fuel pump buzzing. Two causes of this issue I can think of are these; a supply hose is sucking air somewhere, or the fuel pressure regulator has gone bad. Do you think a faulty fuel pressure regulator can cause my fuel problems? I won't be in town to work on my XT for a week, so if I need to order parts I need to do it soon. What's a good place to buy a pressure regulator, if that's the likely cause of my fuel delivery problems? I think after solving this I can stop working on the XT every weekend and give my older MB some attention

I think that's an old hot rodder trick Hopefully it worked. I don't know if they make clear fuel filters for gas cars, but I would put one in the line between the tank and fuel pump inlet if possible, to see if junk is still getting out of the tank.