88HatchMonster

For the record, the ball-type bearings that came stock in the rear of the Imprezas and failed so often are obsolete. When you order rear wheeel bearings from the dealer for your 98 Impreza or whatever you get tapered roller bearings, part #28016AA030. This is in fact the same bearings that came in Legacies through 1999. This has been in effect since August 2001. This is what Subaru has to say about the whole "shipping grease" issue: "The new genuine Subaru rear wheel bearings are not to be packed with grease of any kind. The bearing is ready to install out of the box." This is from an Endwrench article found here: http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/WheelBearing.pdf In the article, they claim that improvements to the bearing in manufacture and an installation procedure using their special "hub tamer"-like tools will "reduce the possibility of repeat premature failures." Why do these bearings constantly go? Nobody, I mean nobody really knows. Apparently not even Subaru. Even the new bearings, installed using their new procedure go bad after 20-40K. There are many theories as to why they go. One I am leaning toward lately is that the outer CV cup gets rusty and compromises the inner seal allowing water and dirt into the bearing. I drive my OBS all winter in Upstate NY just like Andyjo, and it's HARSH. I can just imagine the many times I've driven home from work 1 1/2 hours through the salty slush and parked the car, with every inch of the underbody caked with salty, dirty snow. And then it melts and freezes etc. Magic fairies or even three fricken seals aren't keeping that crap out of my wheel bearings... Anyway, Approximately 18 months ago I had a local garage install new left rear wheel bearings on my 98 OBS. 12 months later they were completely trashed. This time I did the repair myself. When I pressed out the hub--ball bearings fell everywhere. The shop had used the parts supplier CarQuest and installed more uber-crap ball bearings, and no suprise they only lasted 12-15K if that. So I installed the updated OEM tapered roller bearings myself. I figured I was golden. No problems so far. BUT.... Last month my other side rear bearings went on me. These had been replaced at a dealership a few years ago. I thought "No big deal, they probably put the crappy old ball bearings that they still had on the shelf in it and that's why they went..." Unfortunately, when I pressed these out, I was dismayed to find, *gasp* tapered roller bearings. No doubt installed with their fancy low-force Kent Moore tools. SO: If you have an Impreza that eats rear wheel bearings you are doomed to repeat failures whether you put in Legacy bearings or not. The Legacy bearings definitely do last about twice as long though... OK, so now that my rant is over, does anyone have a real solution here that is proven to work? I'm not talking anecdotal advice on replacing wheel bearings, how to pack the bearings etc. What is wrong with these cars and how can we get at least 80K or 90K out of a set of bearings? Please only respond if you have SOLID info on this SPECIFIC subject: Impreza rear wheel bearings. Thanks.

It's 1" black iron pipe (O.D. more like 1 1/4"). I would have used some thinner walled tubing for a little bit more flow but the hardware store was way closer than the steel mill. My bottom rad hose is also two peice, to join that I used a 1 1/4" plastic union also from the hardware store. I would recommend using that if you don't need to put in a temp sender. The oil pressure hardware cost me about $45 total. There might be a way to run it with less adapters, but that was all I could figure out. If anyone's interested I can try to dig out my invoice on that stuff and I can get part #'s for the adapters and put you in touch with the supplier (Paragon Performance in CA). I tried getting all the stuff from jegs or summit, but some of the adapters are a little too specialized.

Actually on the EJ motors the T-stat is on the bottom before the lower radiator hose. So no worries there, you see your temp go up as the engine warms up. Inline on the heatercore hose would probably be good too... especially if you don't have a lift, like I do.

Yes, they can be "ovalized" to match either by a machine shop with a milling machine, or do it yourself with a die grinder or dremel tool.

Did you get a quote or an estimate of the price before you had the work done? I could see a shop charging $250 for what I do. It's custom, it's a one-off thing for them. It probably took one tech half a day or more. Anyone wishing to have their flywheel machined by a local shop would be advised to see if they can simply mill out the existing holes to match the EJ crank. I believe the extra expense came from asking them to fill in the existing holes. So anyway, don't feel like you've been burned Snowman. I may have set you up for a fall by offering my service at such a low price. It takes me at least 3-4 hours and I'm all set up with a jig, etc. My first one took MUCH longer, and most machinists and welders (more specifically shops) don't do ANY custom work on the cheap. Baccaruda: If you need to give someone a template for a redrill, use a flexplate or the small backing plate that goes on top of the flexplate on an automatic. Much more convenient than a whole flywheel.

Some of that info may be a little off, Austin... The EJ oil pressure sender triggers an idiot light, so it's not compatible with the EA81 gauge. You can plumb in an EA81 sender with several adapters and a section of flexible hose with AN fittings. The temp gauge does read cooler than normal if you hook up the EJ sender. This can be remedied by welding a bung for an EA81 temp sender into a section of steel tubing and putting this inline in your upper radiator hose. the tubing must be grounded for the gauge to work. The EA81 tach runs off of the coil, but this doesn't really matter... the EJ ECU has a pin that will wire right into your EA81 guage. It works perfectly. If your Brat has an ECU... first throw it in the garbage, second find the yellow wire on the larger harness. That's your tach wire. Flywheel: any EA82 4WD (must be redrilled for the EJ bolt pattern) Pressure Plate: XT6 Clutch: XT6 EDIT: Pictures added to illustrate descriptions above. Proof that you can run all of your stock guages with an EJ swap, no compromises.

You can only bash so far. I was able to achieve perfect 0 degree camber on my lifted hatch by splitting the strut towers in half and pushing them in toward the engine. I then welded in new metal to bridge the gap. I was left with slots that allow me to go anywhere from -2 to +5 camber. In order to clear the master cylinder on the driver's side, I removed the 1/2" spacer where the brake booster bolts to the firewall and cut down the studs that come out of it by the same amount. This gets you a little more room to push in the strut tower. Does this make sense, Scrap? It may be your next option if you really want perfect camber. Don't attempt it without a good mig welder, though...

The Chiltons manual has the engine control wiring diagram you will need. It is way too small to read right out of the manual, so blow it up with a copier. Then go through and white out and correct all of the wrongly color-coded wires on the diagram (there will be a few). The Chiltons manual covers almost every model between 1980 and 1996 so you won't need another manual for wiring diagrams.

Thanks for the info, everyone. I was hoping that someone had tried it already though. I do have a 2WD tank but it is under a stripped body and buried in the mud behind my house. I may pull it and try this when it gets a little warmer out. I will let everyone know how it works out.

Hi, I've searched but can't find a definite answer on whether or not the larger 2WD hatchback gas tank will fit in my 4WD hatch with a 4" lift. If anyone knows FOR SURE please let me know. Thanks.

thepartsbin.com has them. They ship to Alaska, right?

The price is for redrilling only.

Strange, yes, but not unique. I'm the same way with my '87 Hatch and my '98 OBS.

Well, the main thing you need is an adapter plate to bolt the EJ22 to the Loyale Tranny. I sell them: http://mroseusa.com There are many other considerations to doing this swap, please use the search function, you will find tons of info in no time. Once you've researched a little bit come back with some specific questions and everyone will be glad to help. The GL is a better choice for swapping in an EJ22 because it has a dual-range tranny which is a necessity offroad and for running larger tire sizes. You can easily swap a GL tranny into your Loyale. If you don't plan on doing much offroading or running larger tires, than you don't need dual-range, and you may want to look into doing a full drivetrain swap from an AWD EJ.

OMG. I wish a mod would lock this... It's a resurrected 3 year old thread (posted before there was a retrofitting forum). DMX, the EJ-EA swap is very common now. Please do a search for EJ22+EA82+swap. You need an adapter plate to swap in an EJ and keep your Loyale tranny. I sell the adapter plates. Contact me if you need one.

I've checked with several machine shops about this and they've all said that with a self-centering flywheel like this balancing would not be necessary. If you think about it, the proportional change in balance is very low when you are machining so close to the center of the flywheel (like where it bolts up).

No prob, doesn't hurt for everyone else to hear it.

I love the hatch dude! I've been working on a trashed hatchback for years, too. Mines finally coming together as well. Thanks for posting the pics, it's great inspiration

Yes it centers itself. It's hard to screw it up. You can't really "drill" them though. You have to mill them out will a dremel tool or die grinder. You will see how they have to go when you compare the two flywheels. Even though I weld the old holes in and redrill them myself, I totally encourage people to do it themselves with a grinder if they are so inclined. The flywheel centers itself on a locating collar on the crankshaft. You can have some ugly-rump roast oval holes and it will still work just fine.

Your passenger side control arm and strut rod may be tweaked. They are easily and often bent. The strut rod should be perfectly straight and the control arm may be kinked where it gets way too skinny next to where it bolts to the crossmember. Sometimes it's hard to tell if either is bent, check it out real closely and compare to the other side. To do a rough fix, just heat up the strut rod at the bend and pull on the control arm by the ball joint with some come-alongs. Or just get a junkyard control arm and strut rod (get both the arm and rod, cause they always bend together). I wouldn't worry about the back too much... The back always gets a little wacky and it's only adjustable by shims... which is a lost art I've never known anyone to actually attempt.

There are a few sources for EJ-EA adapter plates in the Pacific NW, but I make them as well, right here 2 hrs. north of Albany, 2 hrs. south of Quebec... Anyway, there are a couple of threads out there on this subject, it has been done, in many ways it's just like putting an EJ motor into an EA with a D/R... please search, and ye shall find

Sounds like it's going to be sweet! The one tip I have for building your own lift kit is: buy your front strut top extensions premade from a lift kit manufacturer. They're are the hardest part to get right when making your own lift. This will be money well spent. Also, just buy longer shocks for the rear, you don't need to make extensions there. I believe shocks from a 70 Chevelle bolt right in for a 4" lift... please search and double check that though. 3/16" mild steel is plenty burly enough for lift blocks. Build it like a "Hassey" lift as outlined on Subarubrat's website: http://www.subarubrat.com/hasseylift.htm This makes for a very, very strong lift. I went ahead and built a whole frame for mine by connecting the lift blocks front to rear. Pics are in my gallery. Good Luck!

Aluminum is real easy to cut. It may be expensive and hard to find though. If you are going to go up to 2" I would suggest going with 3/16" thick 2" box steel tubing. Lifting the crossmember and tranny will be easy. just cut 10 2"x2" blocks with your sawsall or chop saw and drill 1/2" holes through the centers. Go with grade 8 bolts. Also your steering shaft may need to be lengthened. The strut tops will be a pain. You have to extend the strut, but you also have to angle them just right so as to preserve stock camber. Maybe just see if you can order a custom set from AA. They could probably also do your steering shaft.

I'm not sure the lift will work without some sort of strut top extension. Lifting blocks alone may simply lower your engine and drivetrain, decreasing ground clearance while keeping the ride height basically the same. Here's an idea for lowering the rear end without changing the stiffness of the torsion bar: How about lifting blocks on the front two bolts of the torsion bar only. Theoretically this would angle the trailing arms upward dropping the rear end. As for material for 1" lift blocks... the first thing that comes to mind is hockey pucks. Second is solid aluminum.

That rusty jones guy is full of it...