88HatchMonster

Stock is 3 degrees positive on an EA81.

One more thing you might want to grab is the tranny crossmember...

Sounds good. Remember to get the flywheel and center driveshaft out of the GL! Just PM me when you're ready.

OK plug time. You'll need an EJ-EA adapter plate to bolt your motor to the new tranny. You'll also need a redrilled EA-82 flywheel that will bolt to your EJ crank. I sell the adapter plates and do the flywheel redrilling. Make sure to grab the flywheel when you grab the tranny. For axles, I have heard that you can use the axles from a FWD auto Impreza. I have a set but they need to be pulled. Supposedly they are the right length and spline count for the job. I have not confirmed this, but it seems highly likely. My adapter plates are $185, flywheel redrilling is $75, you can have the pair of axles for $50 or free if you want to come pull them yourself. I'm over in NY about an hour south of Plattsburgh. I've also heard that, when cut, the EJ center driveshaft will slide right over the EA one making it possible for you to resize it yourself if you are (or know of) a halfway decent welder. Here's my website for info on the adapter plates and flywheel redrilling: mroseusa.com

They're supposed to be straight and if it's bent then your control arm is bent as well, so I wouldn't replace the radius rod without replacing the control arm as well. But if it's only a slight bend and the vehicle has been aligned recently and tracks straight then I wouldn't worry about it. Put it back in the way it was and get an alignment done if possible.

I believe he went to Costa Rica to find a source for importing the trannies but found there wasn't a large enough supply there. Last I knew he was going to look into getting them from Australia.

Hey Fishums. I live about two hours north of Albany. I'm a hatch fanatic myself. I've got two. An 87 and an 88. Neither for sale, sorry :-p But anyway one I'm building into a bullet-proof offroader to be completed by this Spring. So I wish you luck finding yours and I'll probably be in for some offroading as soon as I get mine done.

No longer available OEM and not available aftermarket. A few NOS OEM ones may still exist, but they would be the holiest of holy grails. Just another thing that makes a straight rust-free brat such a gem.

He's serious. You're literally talking at least $300-400 in POR15 products to do a whole car. The rotisserie sounds like a great idea. I get shivers just thinking about lying on my back for one more second under a rusty subie.

I'm going to be the voice of reason from someone who has been there. It will take you 100's of hours to fix that rust. What we can see is bad. What we can't see is going to be worse. With the work-hours lost you could afford to ship a rust free AZ or CA brat many times over, and this one will never be as clean or original. That said, it's a beautiful car. The body is straight which is a plus... and I would probably do it if I were in your position. BUT it can really only ever be a "good enough" resto. That's just the nature of a NE car. Rust through every weld seem. POR15 is your friend. Good Luck

Takes some time, but not hard. check out this thread: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=48848

Mudrat did a real clever add-a-shock setup on Turbone's big camo hatch. It mounted to the front of the lower control arm on the bottom and to the crossmember lift blocks on top. There's a pic of that up somewhere, see if you can dig it up.

My '88 4WD hatch has the same size tank.

Your EA81 radiator will work. The legacy radiator looked too wide to fit in an EA81 without chopping up the rad. support. quite a bit. Don't know if an EA82 rad will fit an EA81.

Yeah, he's talked about doing that swap.

Oh yeah, you're absolutely right. Still.... no one's running them in subies, and we're looking for a 4wd tranny or a RWD tranny to run with a divorced T-Case or something for offroad. Kind of a pipe dream but something I've wondered about too.

Yeah, the front axle stubs on the tranny aren't great for running accesories, mainly because they turn in reverse when you throw the car in reverse... I think the original post was asking about the possibility of fitting say a Toyota tranny or something similar to the Subie motor. The answer is nothing bolts up and no one has made an adapter for bolting up a non-subie tranny. The T-Case route is not elegant but it works... The subie tranny is tough, simple and well designed. You're not losing a lot of power spinning that front diff. Still, it would be awesome if you wanted to research and develop a real tranny swap... Maybe look into Nissan truck trannies as Nissan is a sister company of Subaru. Don't know jack about them myself but that's a start.

Forget the tires for now. Use the budget to build it up and throw some used tires on it until you get the money for swampers. As for basic theory on the t-case conversion: It's basically a work around the limitations of the subie tranny. The subie tranny will always stay in 4 hi or 4 low so power goes to the rear driveshaft and from there into the transfer case (divorced case from a Nissan or Samurai). The front axle stubs in your tranny are left to spin. If you put the subie range lever into front wheel drive you go nowhere. The transfercase now sends power to your rear diff, and in the front you mount another rear diff on your engine crossmember to drive the front wheels. The engine is mounted higher up on custom brackets. Also note that you will have a rear wheel drive vehicle now when you do not have the T-Case in 4WD mode.

EA81 Wagons, Brats, Hatches, and Coupes are all the same when it comes to putting in a lift kit. The only difference is in the overall length of the body. It would be cool to see some pics of some wagons with 6"+ lifts... don't know if there are any out there. Anyway the process WILL be the same as on a brat or a hatch, so you can check out Subarubrat's excellent website: subarubrat.com for tips on building a monster size lift. Here's a direct link to the page with the original how-to on building a 6" lift: http://www.subarubrat.com/hasseylift.htm I suggest going with a 12" lift and 33" Swampers, for no other reason than because I just want to see that on a wagon Good Luck

I disagree. Allied Armament, for one, is only putting out 4" lifts now. 4" gets you up in the clear for a wider variety of offroad tires and wheels with less bashing and cutting necessary to fit. SJR's 6" lifts look really cool as well. I say no worries on the bigger lifts.

Hi Ken, good to hear from another Upstate New Yorker. I'm about two hours north of Albany myself, in the Port Henry/Moriah Area (a little north of Ticonderoga if you've never heard of it). Anyway, yeah it's gonna be tough to find a non-rusty Loyale up here, but they are out there. Try wantaddigest.com if you haven't already. Also, there are a lot more subes of that vintage driving around VT, so you might want to cruise around VT a little bit, and pick up some local newspapers for classifieds. Expect to pay about $850-1500 for one in good condition, with less than 150K, though sometimes you can get lucky and steal one for a couple of hundred bucks... Doubt you'll be able to find one with a lift in it, not as many people lifting subes around here as the west coast. Lifts are pretty cheap and easy to install, though. Anyway, good luck! Ryan

Way to mix business with pleasure! Have fun

Sounds neat, that's a good price, too. Shipping must be kind of pricey, though? I'm not sure I agree with the 3" strut extension... Seems like that's playing it a little overly cautious, and sacrificing ground clearance and travel in the process. With a 4" body lift, a 4" strut extension will give you stock axle angles... In retrospect, the only thing I would have put shorter lift blocks under is the tranny crossmember, so as to avoid having to fab new shifter linkages. 4" is just a little too much, especially for the 4wd lever.

I'm guessing they're a little low-class for this event. Hardly a "fine automobile" like a Saab or a BMW :-p

I used the intake and throttle body off of a '94 impreza EJ18. Ya know I bet it was just someone's off-handed comment that stuck... so if no one chimes in with a good reason to do it I'll drop it off the list.