1982gl4

First off make sure you need calipers, I know a lot of people that will up sell these. Make sure your pistons go back with ease, and your slid pins are free (these are the two pins each caliper slides on) these need to be free, and lubed in order for the brakes to work correctly. If your piston in the caliper are stuck, it needs to be replaced. Usually the rotor will be blue in color and may have some unusual rust if this is this case, and you will smell burning or a hot smell walking around the car after driving (but not always). If the slid pins are stuck you will see odd pad wear (one pad will be worn more than another, or the pad will be worn more on the top or bottom) If the slid pins are stuck you can usually free them up, but not always. Up here in the salt belt I have to use a torch and heat them when they are rusted stuck. Also if you do use your old calipers make sure the pads move freely and are not stuck in the bracket they need to move freely in order to last as long as possible. * Any pro/con of the loaded calipers vs. unloaded? I usually only use loaded calipers if I need both sides, Otherwise you are left over with half a set of pads, that you may use someday... Also the loaded calipers usually come with the cheapest brake pads known to man. * Do rotors, calipers and pads need to be matched by manufacturer/brand? Or is it okay to mix and match based upon price? I miss match rotors, pads, and calipers all the time I can't say I've had an issue before. Usually I get parts that match price wise, good rotors with good pads. Usually I don't use cheep pads as they tend to be priced that way for a reason but I will use cheeper rotors, and pads depending on what the customer wants. Up here everything tends to rust out before it wears out anyway. * The array of differently priced rotors, calipers and pads was dizzying on one online retailer. Are there any general suggestions for these parts...as in, "cheaper rotors are just as good as the expensive ones, but don't skimp on calipers or pads"? This is up to you and how much you want to spend. There are indeed a lot of options. A lot of the time I find myself using centric parts as that's whats available, that or the parts store's house brand if I want to go cheeper. I tend to get at least mid grade pads because they last a bit longer and I don't like a ton of dust on my wheels... * If I am replacing rotors, calipers and pads, will I need to bleed the brake lines? It seems this is one of the more complicated things to do, which I'm willing to learn, but if I don't have to do it, that would be great. Brakes are not mushy presently. You will only need to bleed brakes if you replace the calipers. It helps to have a second person. Have them pump the brake a few times and then hold down the peddle. As they are holding it down you will crack the bleeder open, and let air along with some fluid out. Do this until you get just fluid and no air. * Special tools required? I have some basic tools and I think I still have that 17mm or 19mm socket that was required to get the wheel hub off of my '87 GL. All you should need is a metric set of sockets to change the calipers, or replace the pads. The lug nuts will be 19mm unless they have been changed for aftermarket ones. The bracket bolts to the hub should be 14mm, and I think the slid pin bolts are 12mm, but they also may be 14mm. If you are changing the calipers I would get a tool made to gently pinch off the brake hose so it doesn't drip on you while you change it. They make a special pair of pliers for this (Not vise grips this can damage the brake hose!) If you do end up using your old calipers you will need something to push the pistons back, a pair of channel locks will work. I've heard people say to open the bleeder while you push the pistons back to prevent the old brake fluid from going back into the abs pump. Up here that is risky as most bleeder screws are so rusty they will break off if you even look at them the wrong way. As said above pick up some antisieze and put it on the slide pins. I put it on the edges of the pads that contact the caliper brackets as well to keep them sliding over time, but again we have a lot of salt and rust up here. You may also need a hammer to remove the rotor, they can get pretty stuck to the hubs. Depending on how tight your e-brake is adjusted you may have to adjust it down some to get the rotors off. Also MAKE SURE THE E-BRAKE IS OFF you can pound on a rotor all day with it on and they will not come off.

I left my my factory fuse boxes completely alone. Basically All I did was build my own fuse box that runs everything for the spfi and have power directly from the battery to that fusible link. I can pull it out and look at the bottom of it, as I don't remember what it does after the fusible link. I had to repair my wire to the factory ea81 fusible link box as is was corroded pretty badly so it may look like it was spliced, but I left it totally alone and just ran it with the coil wiring so it would look good. I just had it this way, I ran the ground wire down to the block before it was in place, it shouldn't matter as long as it is grounded.

Here are some pics, I don't know how much they will help you, hopefully they are good for something. A lot of my power wires are the wrong colors because they were too short for where I wanted to put everything. I can take a closer look if need be. Coil Dont forget to add the condenser, my car would blow fuses to the ignition without it. My fuse box

Oh nice! You got to love the 6 speed, I just swapped one in my legacy turbo last summer, I will never go back!

Ok, I'll try to take some tomorrow, I built my own fuse box for my car by cutting up a legacy one so wouldn't have more than I needed, but its pretty easy to see where the wires go if I recall. I can for sure take some pics of the coil set up.

Looks nice, got to love the 4/2 pot brakes. Any plans for it?

What exactly are you looking for as far as pics go? I have a spfi swapped car if you need some photos of anything specific. I also have some of GD's original write up on my computer of just the wiring section, no pics, but I had to go back to that one page pretty often in order to get everything wired up correctly. The swap takes some time, but it is worth it when it's done, hang in there!

Just picked up this 93 Loyale from Florida. It came into the shop dead. The last owner ran it out of oil, and the engine is seized, (it leaked a ton) It's been up here a while, but is still pretty decent. Has a couple small holes in the trunk, and a small hole in the very rear of both rocker panels, but the floors are amazing. Has 154k on it. FWD five speed. Thinking it may take my black brats place as a lifted project, as this is far more solid, plans are to let it sit a while until I get some of my other projects wrapped up, and then swap in an ea81. After that if I can find a 4x4 rear suspension a dr swap....

Picked up this wrx last week. It looks nice, but it is super, super rusty. The rear strut towers have holes the size of my head in them, and there are no rocker panels to speak of. I have worked on this car for years, and know the history. One owner car, it has been pretty well taken care of. It now has 200k on it so its due for a timing belt. But it has a new cobb turbo back, access port, cobb heat shield. New radiator, front brakes, subframe in the front, control arms, power steering rack, the list goes on. I'm thinking it will be a harness swap for this, I'll be taking some other goodies off from it for my legacy as well! Not sure if I want to try and tackle the dash swap others have done, or have the harnesses merged, anyway a lot of good parts to be used here!

Good to know! I'll hit you up if I have and questions I just had the head rebuilt, got a new timing chain set, still need to order the cam and then I can put the L28 back together. I'll be swapping over to factory 240 carbs (the fuel injection didn't survive sitting 25 years) , and a five speed soon after that! Love the early Celicas I've spent some time looking for one, but I have too many projects as it is. I looked at a fairlady roadster before I bought my Z. very neat cars. It would be very interesting to see a ea81 fastback. All I can picture is an ea front end matched with the rear of a saab 900, and I'm having a hard time visualizing it in a way I like.

I've always been a Datsun fan, doesn't matter what it is. I have a 1975 280z that i'm trying to bring back to life. Its being a bit more stubborn than my subarus have been. Looking forward to seeing where your build goes with this. Some inspiration from some 70's Datsuns won't be a bad thing in my book!

Some datsun owners may have something to say about that

Great build man, I can't believe I haven't seen your thread yet. Really like what you have done with this so far, keep at it!

I replaced them on my wagon with the ones you have listed above, they fit ok, I had to do some cutting and modifying as expected. I go over some of the replacement on the first couple of pages of my build thread. After you order the part wait until they come in to do anything else, they took a while to come in for me. After that I started cutting. Make sure you position them low enough down to clear the rear doors as they open, made that mistake on my first wagon, and they always scraped on the bottom of the doors as they opened. Paint the insides of the rockers (both the new ones, and the inside of the car) before they go on the car with something like por15, or rustoleum to prevent them from rusting from the inside again. After they are on, coat them with something on the outside, I used chip/rock guard on mine to prevent them from getting chips that lead to rust, and then painted over that. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/121769-1984-gl-wagon-fwd-build/

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/47998-5-lug-conversion-list-plus-tips/

I work at a small shop here in VT, and rust is the killer. Everything becomes harder with rust, theres not a day I'm not using a torch and air hammer to get a stuck bolt out or something has failed due to rust/corrosion. (not complaing it makes for a good living, it just sucks for an enthusiast!) If you are lucky your car will make it 10 years up here. I've been undercoating my winter car, a 92 legacy since it came here from oregon a few years ago with a product called fluid film. I have a couple spots popping after 3 years of my ownership one tiny spot on the front drivers door, and a couple on the rear tailgate where the paint has cracked. I think it spent one winter here before I owned it but it was driven sparingly as it belonged to a collage student. Underneath with the exception of the exhaust, and struts, the car still looks really good, I plan on getting many more years of service out of it, but I do wash it after work regularly, and I make sure I go around touch up all the rust spots, wax, and undercoat it before every winter. I even pull the rear panels out in the rear hatch area, and undercoat it from the inside to prevent rusty from starting there like they all get, I also wash out the front fenders every year as they love to rust there as well. http://www.fluid-film.com/

Even though I felt like crap today I decided to get off the couch and do something with my life. I pulled the oil pan off, and the pistons out without a hiccup. I then decided it was time to split the case. As I was heating the bolts/block I was wondering to myself why do I live here. As a car guy I wonder this often.... The northeast is really not the best place for cars. Anyway the thrust bearing looks like it has seen better days, and the crank has worn on the case a tiny bit. Hopefully its still good enough to work with after I get the head bolt taken out.

Awesome work. I can't wait to see the ej22t swap in this!

Thanks man, its taken a lot of time to get it this far, and its not even close to done yet. Bratman18 nailed it, the plans are to take the 2.2 turbo and modify it. It will be getting ej20g heads most likely, a larger turbo, new forged internals, and potentially a harness swap so I can run newer management on it.

I'm glad it's not a customers car, or one I need to be running, it's just the spare I plan on building.

I may take you up on that rout. I'm going to talk to my local guys tomorrow and see what they think, they have been super helpful with my datsun, and my air cooled engines so far.

I'm going to call the guys I have to my machine work tomorrow and see what they do. I'm going to heat it up a bit today, and let it soak some more, I'm hoping that will let the lubricant I have in there soak in more than it normally would.

I've heard of it happening, and I've seen it on the forums. If it was a normal 2.2 I wouldn't worry about it all that much, and just pull another one out of my shed I was just hoping it wouldn't happen to one of my closed deck blocks. Going to let it soak for a few days, and see how things go.

I disassembled the 2.2t down to the short block today. All was going great. Pulled the valve covers off. The engine looked super clean. I pulled the intake off without any problems, as well as the goose neck I've had the bolts break off in the block, and that usually turns into a bad time. Had a check engine light for knock sensor, I can't imagine why. And then I had a bad time. I didn't even try with it, and it just snapped off. Right now I have the broken bolt soaking in penetrating oil, my dad as a knack with this sort of thing, and he thinks we will be able to get it out. He had a couple of tricks we will be trying. But I'm still open to suggestions. I've taken 100's of ej engines apart, and never have had a head bolt break. Guess I should buy a lottery ticket.

Dccdpro came in! Now I need to install it. I may fool around with it a bit this weekend, but I think I'm going to start pulling apart the 2.2, and I need to remove the cylinder head on my datsun because the valves are sticking.