TahoeFerrari

The car in question is an '89 GL wagon. Also have 87 3 door and 90 wagon. I've got the Subaru 1600 & 1800 manual. It's good on the EA81s, but seems to have little beyond some info about the engines for EA82's. Anything you could provide would be appreciated.

If it was working, I wouldn't mess with it. I'm definitely having problems with the Panasonics. I've gone though 2 Panasonic units plus the original. Clutches went on 2 of them and I'm not sure what was wrong with the third. I live in Subaru country - lots and lots of ea82s in the junk yards around here. The panasonic compressors are relatively rare - most have hitachi units. I've also never had a problem with the hitachi units on my other 2 ea82s so that's why I'd like to ditch the Panasonic (it was a dealer installed add on where as the 2 hitachis were factory installed). Thanks for the info, Matt. I think I'll give it a go at it and maybe even get the condensor and evaporator from a hitachi car. You wouldn't by any chance have a wiring diagram for the two different a/c systems?

I've also thought about adding a turbo to an ea82 spfi, but not for the reason anyone might think. I live and drive mostly at 6000 ft above sea level and have 3 ea82 spfi subies. They do fine on the straight and level - easily cruising at 65-75 mph. The problem is that on hills at this altitude, they just don't have the power they would have for the same grade hill at sea level. An NA engine will only develop about 75% of its sea level power at 7000 feet (or 67 hp instead of 90 for an ea82 spfi). I would like to "turbo normalize" [common in aircraft engines] the EA82 spfi so that it always had sea level pressure available and could thus make its full power without hurting the engine. Seems like the stock air flow sensor would signal the increased airflow from a turbo and thus cause the right amount of fuel to be delivered. Beyond the mechanical question of custom exhaust and intake ducting, the main question I have is how to limit the boost to an absolute 30-31 inches (mercury) maybe with some kind of pop off valve. Might even go an inch or two beyond that, but any more would risk damaging the engine. Any thoughts?

I''ve seen various threads mentioning replacing Panasonic A/C with Hitachi because Panasonic in not reliable. I have 3 EA82s - 2 with Hitachi and 1 with Panasonic that is constantly giving my trouble. I have an extra Hitachi setup (brackets, idler, compressor, etc.) and can get the hoses for the Hitachi compresor so the mechanical work is a snap. Question is are the Hitachi and Panasonic systems electrically compatable??? The connectors look the same so.... Any thing else I need to know before swaping the Hitachi in place of the Panasonic? Thanks in advance.