cal_look_zero

So I did A LOT of work on my EA82. Full head gasket job, re sealed the engine, new NGK plugs... I won't bore you. However I failed to change out the cap and rotor. To say the least, I have NEVER seen a cap and rotor so burned through in my life. Found a new cap in the trap door in the back, and bought a BW rotor; Feels like a whole new car. Then, I decided to check my oil. There has not been a single drip from the bottom of the engine since I did all the work. 130psi on all 4 cylinders, no indications of blowby. However I was nearly a quart low. TOD did seem a little louder the past couple of mornings. Lots of oil in the cracked, dry, crusty breather and pcv tubes. TONS of oil residue in the throttle body. I figure that's my oil loss and definitely not helping the power. So a new PCV, 6' of 5/8" breather line, and 11 hose clamps, I think I may have handled that situation. This dang car is going to nickel and dime me to death!

I guess what I was getting at is if you're simply trying to install a cat to pass DEQ, a shop might be able to scab something on, generic and non proprietary, just to get you by. I know on an alltrac I was working on with a friend, he had flanges welded to the exhaust, and could swap in a cat to go pass DEQ, then swapped back to a straight pipe. Cost him all of $200 at a shop.

The car is old enough that they just put a sniffer in the pipe for emissions and a walk around noise check, right? Seems like it should be easy enough for a reputable exhaust shop to just put a generic in line cat in to pass emissions. Even if you drop an EJ in, you'd still have cat issues and need to pass emissions... Plus (even though I haven't done it yet, I still understand the depth) it's not like you just drop the EJ in and go. NOT to discourage you, but if money is the issue, you won't be saving yourself any by doing the EJ swap.

CMill; I've forwarded your question on to the builder. I'll reply back tomorrow with what he says.

Found a machinist who builds adapters per customer requests and told him I would gauge interest on 4x140 to 5x100 or 4x100 adapters. I voiced some concerns; primarily hub centric and width of the adapter increasing torque wear on the wheel bearings. For $300 for a set of 4, he can build them at 25mm thickness to bolt onto our stock hubs and be either 4x100 or 5x100 (new subi), and could probably do 4x 113.4 if you wanted. They would be hub centric to the stock hubs, and could be made wheel centric as well if you know what wheels you plan on running. If you're unaware, hub centric means that the adapter will fit the lip of the hub to center it, and wheel centric means the adapter will have a lip to center a wheel on it. I'm probably going to go this route for aesthetics unless an XT6 falls into my lap. I haven't seen many adapters that are under 1.5", and talking to this guy he understands the proper way to do it, and isn't just building spacers with studs and hoping for the best.

You should sell the 2.2/ecu/wiring to me, the shell to flystiguy (http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=127056), the diff (if it's 4.11) to foxyauto (http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=126950) and part the rest. Was this the $800 one from Ashland on CL?

Assuming you have oil in it, you're not really going to hurt anything from running it. My guess, from picking up VW engines that had sat for months/years, is just old gas, carbon, and whatever other crud has collected in the engine. I'd compression test it as well for good measure.

Ok, I think I got it. Grounded the red/green ending at the dimmer switch. I assume (if I'm reading the circuit correctly) that all this will do it eliminate my dimmer? In any case, I have dash lights for now...

Being newer to the Subis, I figured this was just a symptom of the boxer style engine. Per Meeky Moose's suggestion, I put some marvel mystery oil (8oz) in my oil and topped it off with sae 30. I think I'm burning a little oil since I put in 4 qts of rotella t5 semi syn when I rebuilt the top end; and she took almost a qt of oil 2 weeks later. Anyways, it rattles on cold start up, I let it warm up until the choke cuts out, then rev to 4k a couple of times. Shuts her right up. No more noise the rest of the day.

Oh... well that changes things immensely. I took a set of these super cheapies and mounted them to the bumper of my friend's taco. Worked well for off roading and weren't too hard to aim for street legal use. They have a reflector as well. http://www.harborfreight.com/off-road-long-range-truck-light-system-3029.html

The problem is the output and focus of the reflectors. Putting rounds in won't solve any problem unless you stick something with a lot higher light output in. Check out http://www.theretrofitsource.com/ for information on swapping in projectors. You don't even need to run HIDs (although if you go to the trouble to put projectors in, you may as well). Stock headlights reflect the output of a bulb into somewhat of a light pattern, whereas projectors collect and project the lighting output of a bulb through a magnified lens. Kind of like cooking bugs with a magnifying glass This is why all high end cars and motorcycles are coming with projectors. For those prices, I could retro in bi focal projectors with 55w HIDs and have about $30 left over (not even taking the huge shipping charges into account) You guys are going to make me have to go pull a set of projectors out of a car at the PNP and do a write up lol.

Ok, I'll try that tonight. Should help mitigate a lot of unnecessary disassembly and testing. If grounding a yellow gets me dash lights, what would my next step be?

Part of my testing involved messing with the dimmer. I stuck my - lead on the black wire, and got 12v across both red wires with no change based on the position of the dimmer. I noticed last night that the gauge surround didn't have any screws in it which leads me to believe that someone may have been in there previously. I'll be going deeper into it tonight; won't be surprised if this whole problem is just coincidental to the stereo wiring. Just going to download a gps speedo for the smart phone in the interim:banghead:

It's a task that doesn't require a ton of skill, but requires patience and attention to detail. After scabbing a set of Silvia projectors into the little bitty CBR headlight housings, doing it in a big ol Loyale headlight should be cake.

Ok, I goofed up somewhere. None of the stereo shops could locate a wiring harness for me, so I chopped the one off of the stock deck and began looking up/testing wiring. Had it all squared away and got the deck working; except for the fact that the deck and dash lights stayed illuminated since I bridged the 12v constant into the solid red illumination wire. I unsoldered the connection anf left the wire terminated since the red/green illuminated the deck. Now I have no dash lights; inexplicably. I have the entire dash except the gauges pulled apart and have some odd wiring gremlins I can't quite figure out. Firstly; the illumination circuit(s) show infinite resistance to ground when the circuit is off, but 0 resistance when it's on. This in and of itself says that I have an accidental bridge to ground, but I never touched any wiring besides the stereo. However I have the bridged to ground condition with or without the stereo wired in. I looked around for a screw that may have pierced a wire or something of the sort, but I can't find anything. The REALLY odd part, is that none of the gauge lights work except for the ashtray light. I get connectivity between that socket and the rest of the circuit, but it's the only one that lights up. Very confusing since if any of the circuit is grounded out, the ENTIRE circuit should be grounded out. Obvious answers: Yes I checked all of the fuses; both for voltage and for continuity. No I haven't messed with anything besides the stereo wiring. Yes I know what I'm doing electrically. Yes I'm using a high quality (Fluke) multimeter and good leads. I'm one more "midnight drive home from work without gauge lights" away from rigging up some LED illumination so I can see the trivial things; fuel, oil pressure, temp...

Personally, I'm looking at installing HIDs and projectors into my Loyale. I've done a few such swaps on motorcycle headlight assemblies with positive results. Stock appearance, with much enhanced performance.

That's nothing. Go on a sportbike site and see how badly we thrash on Harleys.

Rich, will do. I might be going out there tomorrow when they open since I have to run to Medford to drop off stuff at work. On a side note, I think I may have finally found my mysterious sporadic coolant leak. I turned into my driveway tonight and notice that the power steering wasn't operating at all. Opened the hood and had coolant raining on my from the belts. I think I might have missed something putting the waterpump back on.

I'd love a price on some sort of 5 lug swap for my 92 Loyale. Don't care of it's AM or off an XT6, just trying to ballpark pricing.

Lame!

See you guys at 2:30 tomorrow:clap::clap:

I'm going to shoot a quick video so you can see how it sounds. I was hoping for that distinct Subi grumble that the 2.5s have; think I got pretty close. No annoying resonator rattle like the I4s get.

17702 is the # is stamped on the body.

Finally got the stereo wired in correctly (Had a crossed wire and my gauge/head unit stayed lit all night) Just waiting on the Metra kit to clean up the dash. Hoping to put a 10" in at some point over the winter. Have 2 CVR10s in my Montero with 1000w, and 4 component Kicker KS602s in the doors with 800w; so a "system" comprised of two 6 1/2s from the deck doesn't really satisfy me. Scored a Thrush muffler and mounting bits on CL for $20 last night. The fates smiled upon me as the inlet for the muff was almost a perfect fit to where I cut the stocker off at. A u bolt, some strapping, and a little sealant for good measure; no more rotted out rattly stock muffler, and this one has a nice grumbly low tone that didn't give me a headache on the freeway.

Having just recently done this in addition to my HGs, I can tell you a few things. First off, I would do the HGs while you're in that far. It's 18 more bolts and I personally wouldn't want to get in there again unless I really need to. You have to pull the cam carriers out and re do the timing anyways; so replace the belts and pulleys if needed. I was able to knock it out in 2 days; not counting time that the heads were in the machine shop. My kit came with gaskets for the: heads, valve covers, camshafts, intake, exhaust, oil filler, water pump, thermostat, oil pan, valve cover bolts, front and rear mains, and a bunch of other gaskets that I didn't find a place for.