swisscheese

By the way, I am not that far from Concrete. Just bought some land a little north of Trafton. If your friend is tired of that 383 and tranny being in his way, I will give it a good home.

Back in the '80's many thousands of young men, many with room temperature IQ's, put small block chevy V-8's into their vegas, with just minimal reinforcing of the unibody. Often they kept the stock vega rear-end, but since the tires would break loose so easily, the 3-4 times increase in power was manageable. I think a soob unibody is stout enough with some common-sense reinforcement to handle a SBC. However, I would recommend replacing the driveline, use the chevy tranny and find a solid rear axle at the pull-a-part, something out of a S-10, maybe. I think they are still less than $100. You should be able to re-use the front suspension, just eliminate the drive components. I say go for it. Yeah, you will need to do some fabricating, but how else do people learn but by doing? Go to some V-8 Vega websites for some good info on low-$$$ V-8 swaps. I just happen to have a fuel injected 350 and a turbo 700R4 in running condition and am contemplating making a nice little sleeper out of a EA-82 wagon myself.

I have 14 x 5.5 white spokes off a '88 mazda 2wd pickup.

You are right, as I check further it is seeming more and more like a wheel bearing after all.

Will the noise go away when brakes are applied? I am getting more of a scraping noise from front left that goes silent when i apply the brakes

6:00 pm Saturday, Everett, WA. He had not decided whether or not to keep driving or wait until tomorrow to head for "Spokidoki".

Pat just left my house in Everett at 6:00 PM. He is running 8 hours late, and was debating whether to drive all night or wait until tomorrow. His next encounter may have more info.

Very nice! What brand of bender did you get? I am looking at a JD2 brand myself.

If it is out of an S-10 it is probably a "New Venture 233" It has an aluminum case and weighs 74 pounds. It has a 2.76 ratio. If you could work the driveshaft problems out it might make a good candidate for a T-case job. I think they are made with a variety of outputs, so it would have to be done on a "case by case" basis (no pun intended )

Yeah, the gasket set looks like it has several intake gaskets, so I think I am set. (no pun intended) Thanks for the info, I am sure looking forward to some turbo-powered acceleration!

Yeah, the pistons are different, lower compression, but I can't find any resource with any good info on whether my NA rings are the same. I am pretty sure they are the same size (thickness), but they may be another material to handle the higher heat/pressure.

Thanx for the info!

Yeah, I need to know if the FWD and the 4WD take the same clutch. Centerforce lists only FWD applications for the EA82.

I have a '88 EA82 N/A SPFI, I got a complete set of engine gaskets and rings for it. I also just bought a '88 EA82 turbo. Will the gaskets and rings interchange between the two, so I can re-ring and re-seal the turbo and ash-can the N/A, or do I need different gaskets? I have been trying to figure this out via various parts supplier web sites, but haven't met success yet, they are too confused.

Me too, I have to drive a long way from everett to get into some trails that are challenging, but not likely to be fatal to my stock wagon. I am hoping to use the christmas holiday break to install my lift kit so I can put on the big meats, but until then I don't want to go broke on gas for the highway driving.