Dirk

Yikes! Thats a lot of info to digest. I do not have any facts or understanding of engine design but I can give you a basic engine comparison to discuss. I have a soob 1600 dl EA71 (as you well know) and also an Alfa Romeo 33 (1.5l boxer) These engines are more or less the same size and block design however they perform totally differently. The EA71 feels more powerfull than the Alfa and deffinately has the low end grunt that allows me to tow consideranle loads behind it. The Alfa does not have a tow bar but I just know that it would not be able to cope with the same loads. However it way out performs the soob as far as speed goes. The power comes on at about 4500rpm and just keeps on coming all the way to the rev limet. The Alfa engine is a way breathier design. There is no intake manifold, just carbs mounyed direct on the heads (one barrel per cylinder). The head is for sure a better flowing design with dual intake and dual exhaust. The exhaust has 4 long headers that merge into a fairly modest looking system. Judging from the exhaust note I suspect a more aggresive cam also. All in all the engine seems designed to pump air/fuel in and out as fast as possible. It is also a smoother running engine that enjoys high rpm which suggests to me that it is better made and ballanced. The EA71 does not breath nearly as fast as the Alfa. (long intake manifold, complex heads, shared intake and exhaust ports) The EA71 does not seem to enjoy the high rpm as much despite all the hp being at the top. It has been suggested to me that the length of intake manifold has a big influence on power band. I don't think that a stock EA cam takes full advantage of scavenging. I think that the engine has been designed rather to use exhaust backpressure to load fuel into the cylinders. I leave the rest for you guys to dissect.

Actually I was tempted to agree with Rick. But in my world 'hope springs eternal'. Very pleased it worked out for you. BTW the pages I posted come from 'How to keep your subaru alive' by Larry Owens. ISBN 0-912528-49-4 Great book and complement to the Haynes manual. Cheers.

Hey Rick! Now that I have insulted you by calling you grumpy:(, I still need your input on these advance numbers. Don't suppose you could have another peek at the FSM? Cheers. Dirk.

Morning Eeyore. Did you get out of the wrong side of bed today? Maybe you are right but maybe there is nothing much wrong with the engine other than needing a damn good service. Kinda hard to tell from this distance. Cheers Dirk.

You need to upload your pics on to a website. I use photobucket because its free and easy but there are many to choose from. Then you paste the photo link into the http box. Hope that makes sense. cheers.

This should keep you out of trouble. I'm sure I have seen the service manuals on this site somewhere but I can't for the life of me find them anymore. Maybe someone here can point us in the right direction.

Cool thanks. Ill give it a go. Think I know just where to get some too. Cheers

Looks fairly normal but its actually about 100mm higher at the back than it used to be. Ill lift the front about 20mm when I get round to it. Would love new struts for the front but they are very spendy.

Looks the bomb! I lifted the back of my sedan via the torsion bars. Had to get slightly longer shocks to do this. They needed replacing anyway. What a difference a new set of gas shocks make! Maybe stiff gas shocks would help for yours? By the way, If you haven't already, you should look into making a strut tower brace for the front. It makes the car feel so much stiffer. cheers.

A little over 150km/h for me too. My goal is 160. If the boys in blue catch you doing over 140km/h in NZ they take away your licence. Can't afford this so not really trying too hard.

Yeah mate, that looks like the fella. Awsome find. I would say deffinately worth it for the peace of mind.

And here again. I guess the last set of data includes vac advance.

I think this is the data I am looking for. Interesting that it suggests the mechanical advance is active all the way to 5000rpm. Can anyone verify this data? I have converted the vacuum from mbar to inches (writen to the left). Again can someone verify my numbers. Cheers. Dirk.

It would also be handy to know at what vacuum the advance starts and at what vacuum it peaks. (factory spec) I understand that raising the compression of an engine increases manifold vacuum. If this is correct, would the advance systems need to be modified accordingly and if so how?

And she rises like a monster from the deep. Looks like it has been a few years for this one. I would like to throw a spanner in the works by suggesting that the ported vacuum on the EA engines is not formed by the venturi but is true manifold vacuum that can be 'turned off' by the throttle plate. I think that the vacuum secondary runs from venturi vacuum. Does anyone now know the factory specs for the mechanical advance of the EA engines? I suspect my mine is coming on too soon.

I've seen the back end stiffened up with a coil fitted around the shock. Sort of a DIY rear strut assembly. The one I saw looked pretty rude but its not a bad solution assuming the WOF inspector doesn't laugh at you.

I'm told they run better if you take the cat out............

For those who are interested.

Thanks from me too.

What a strange behaviour from a cooling system. I can't imagine why it would fail to keep the engine cool at speed when it can at idle. I think a new radiator is a good idea but my guess is that it will not be the answer. I'm trying to think of other reasons for an engine to get hot. Heres what I have so far: 1. Drag. I wonder if the transmission oil is too thick? 2. Timing. Retarded timing tends to warm things up pretty quick. Are you sure you are getting full advance from the dizzy? 3. Fuel mixture? Is the engine running too lean? Just my thoughts on the matter. Just out of interest are you happy with the performance of the engine at speed? I would like to know what your spark plugs look like just to see how enginge is running. Cheers. Dirk.

Sweet. Thanks. So far as I can tell, the jetting and breathers are very similar to a standard setup. Would be handy to know for sure though. Also can anyone tell me what vaccum signal I can expect from the manifold? Same as before?

YEEEEEHAAAAAA! Check it out! The carbs are pretty battered but I have a few spare so no worries there. The throttle linkage is complete but there is no choke linkage. If any one can post a pic of what the choke linkage looks like that would be great. Also can anyone tell me about jet sizes. Do they run the same sizes as a single carb setup?

Has anyone considered making up a sway bar for the rear end?

TA DA! Since I have relocated the spare tire to the trunk it was easy enough to do this with some alloy tubing. I was surprised to feel such a dramatic improvement to the handling. I would reccomend this mod for sure.

Cool. Thanks Ross