iceageg

No noises. Just a constant miss below 2000 RPM and the spark plug is wet and smells like coolant when I pull it. No water in the oil which was my first pucker-moment concern.

Well, Rubie needs some serious work. She is suddenly pouring water into cylinder #3. I have not yet pulled the head so I am not sure if the head is cracked or the head gasket has is simply leaking into the cylinder. I noticed the temp guage rising before she overheated so unless the previous owner treated her badly I should have avoided any substantial damage. Best case scenario she needs a passenger side head gasket. Worst case it's time to EJ swap. I am looking at options to locally source replacement EA81 heads, a EA81 block to rebuild, or local EJ22 donor cars. Anybody in the Denver area who might have the parts I'm looking for is encouraged to chime in! I have compiled links and downloaded enough documentation that I am confident I have all of the information needed to do the EJ swap should it come to that. That said, before I go back and re-read this small library of information I have assembled, am I forgetting anything that I would need for the EJ swap? Running donor car (90-95, I forget which is most ideal) Adapter plate Studs for adapter plate Exhaust (if I remember right there is a fitment issue with the Y pipe) XT flywheel to redrill (optional) Assorted EJ rebuild/repair parts as needed and . . . Working off memory that should be about it with a functioning donor car, correct? Just trying to get my ducks in a row and budget my options before I start taking things apart. Thanks in advance.

Its like I said in one of your other threads RAD, 99.9% of all attempts at doing something new and innovative come with increased cost or decreased reliability. Usually both. Maybe you will find the holy grail of EA mods and shock us all. Maybe you will fail so completely your username becomes the stuff of internet lore. Most likely you will end up spending more money than originally planned and have a car that can't be driven reliably for most of your R-n-D phase. That's the way this sort of thing works. . . Dream, try, fail, scratch head, try again, fail again, scratch head some more, change, sorta succeed, change again, fail worse, change again, improve but still not good, change again, fail worse, throw your arms in the air and curse the automotive gods, loose sleep, kick car, go to doctor for a cast, take pain meds, dream it is possible, hobble to the garage and try again, fail, hit car with crutch, drink beer and complain about car with friends, one friend makes a offhand comment about component X or Y, you have an epiphany, spend the next couple days doing a 90% redesign, car works almost how you expected but only you can drive it because of quirks, drive it like that for a couple months while smiling, fiddle with it two or three times a month trying to figure out how to tune the quirks out of it and maybe succeed. In the end you may be able to redo your design in a cost effective way but getting there will be expensive and inconvenient. It ALWAYS is. What you want to do may be possible, but not at the cost or level of inconvenience you are hoping for. One in a million people have that luck. Or you can do what others have already figured out at the known cost and effort. Good luck either way.

RAD, I don't think what you are seeing is a lack of respect for the EA81. It is people trying to help you understand that making EJ levels of power from an EA will cost more than swapping to an EJ. There are decades of documentation where people have tried and it is a well proven fact that the Weber/Cam/MSD combination is about the limit of what can be achieved while both maintaining reliability and keeping costs under those of an EJ swap. If you decide to pursue any other avenue you are 99% guaranteed to have costs start to spiral and/or daily reliability start to decline. It is the very nature of hot rodding. When you start to push the mechanical limits of the original design parts start to break, and when you start to add systems that are not already tried and proven you introduce quirks that must be dealt with. You absolutely must anticipate scope creep in both cost and complexity when you start into uncharted territory or you are doomed to disappointment and failure. You really do need to get the idea out of your head that you can improve on 30 years of well documented, tried and true, proven options cheaply and easily. This is the only factor that you seem to be unwilling to acknowledge in your quest to try something new. In your earlier posts on various threads you listed cost as one of your primary factors. If this is still true you don't want to dive down the rabbit hole of R-n-D. All that said by somebody who hopes you try, fail, change, fail, modify, fail, start over, fail, adjust, fail, tweak, fail, give up, try again, fail, facepalm, succeed, then bring a new and innovative success to us vintage subaru lovers. Not that I hope for or will get any joy out of your failures. I've just been through this enough times to understand that the process is universally unavoidable. I have plans for Ruby Sue that involve uncharted territory as well and I fully expect people here to call me foolish and accuse me of wasting my time. Others will grab a bag of popcorn and eagerly wait for the result. But I hold no misgivings that it will not be disastrous at times and there is no guarantee that the end result will have any market viability. I count on the endorphin rush that comes with accomplishing something unique. I'm sure I will be able to get a serviceable result but it is very likely that the result will simply be proof that it can be done rather than the best new product on the market. So much of what you get here (like anywhere on the internet) will be people who believe it is downright criminal to waste so much time and money to waste that much time and money on an effort that will likely never be duplicated. You will get others who are unable to think outside the box. There will also be a lot here who have actual knowledge about how new things could be tried and more importantly, how things have failed in the past. All of these voices are valuable to the process. I read a quote that was attributed to Bill Gates once that went something like, "A companies most valuable asset is it's loudest critics." The people who are challenging your ideas should be thanked. Trolls are a different story but thankfully we don't have many of those on this site. Personally, I doubt a metered low volume NOS feed is going to accomplish what. I'm quite certain it won't ever turn into a common modification in the community. It would do something and I'm curious how it turns out. Not curious enough to try it myself, but I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment that comes from trying something new enough to appreciate the efforts of others. Just loose your death grip on the notion that it can be done both cheap and reliable. That's not how hot rodding works. Unless you are one of the lucky 1% that are made of unicorn poop and get it right the first time you are going to be either replacing parts or struggling with drivability. Probably both.

New 16" steel wheels off of a 1996 Honda Passport fitted with used 205/50 R16s. Also drove it from Denver to SoCal and back with my son. Good times.

When I returned the old radiator for the core charge I had a few extra minutes to wander the yard. The result . . . Ruby has a new pair of shoes! Before: After: The wheels are 16" steelies off of a 1996 Honda Passport. I was hoping for 15's but these are what was at the yard the day I was there. I read through several of the drilling threads before attempting it myself. The tires are two pairs of very good condition 205/50 R16s. Also not exactly what I wanted but the price point made them impossible to pass up. In the future they will be replaced with something more befitting a subaru but for now they have WAY less road noise than the tires I removed and they don't rub. Also, most of the shimmy/shake I had at speed is gone with the newly balanced wheel/tire combo, so that's a big win too. They made the recent whirlwind road trip from Denver to SoCal and back without issue (as expected).

Thanks for the replies and clarifications everyone. This is good news indeed!

Awesome. Now where did I put that followed thread that had the details???

The interior is trashed. I am going to go back and see if there are any interior trim pieces worth salvaging but the dash and upholstery were garbage. I think the body panels were in good shape with all of the trim pieces, grill and front bumper all in tact. While I did not look close, NOTHING rusts in Colorado. I would not be surprised if there was little if any to be found. I think I will go back and see if the engine turns freely and what condition the engine oil is in. If it looks to be rebuildable I may pull it and start a slow build. Somebody already took the carb but the rest of it is still there. The entire drive train was still in tact as well with the wheels still bolted on. The radiator still has clean stickers from the shop where it was purchased sticking to it. I can't believe I got that lucky. As far as shipping to AUS my guess is it would be cost prohibitive. I don't know if they have a policy about that but money usually talks and they are in the business of parting out cars. I can snap some pictures if you like. I'm not sure how much longer it will be there.

I know EA82 turbo wagon's are viable donor cars. There is an AWD XT turbo at the local yard that still has all of the rear disk components. Would the XT parts also work to convert my hatch to rear disk breaks? Thanks in advance.

New radiator and seat rail. Running cool and less wobbly. Win win.

As I stepped out of Ruby Sue the other day I heard a hissing noise from under the hood. Turns out the radiator had developed a crack/hole where the fins meet the passenger side radiator end cap. I decided to try my luck at the yard before laying down cash on a new radiator. As luck would have it there was an 85 hatch with what appears to be a brand new radiator waiting for me. I also grabbed the driver's side left seat rail since mine was bent. Back on the road better than ever.

I've developed an intermittent starting issue recently that I've been trying to track down. It would either start strong like there was no issue or do nothing. No click, no dimming of the lights . . . it was as if the key was not turned at all. Disconnecting and reconnecting the wires to the the starter worked sometimes to fix it but not always. I ordered a new starter (3-4 days to be delivered) and decided I would try disassembling the existing one and see if cleaning it out would help me limp by until the replacement arrived. I went to disconnect the leads once again. For whatever reason as I leaned in I grabbed the wire instead of the connector on the starter first this time. The insulated male connector built into the starter for the switch signal fell off with almost no force at all. The piece of copper that should have connected the inside of the starter to the interior portion of the insulated connector was snapped completely in two. If I pushed the connector into the starter the two halves would touch under spring pressure and the starter worked, once the engine shook around a bit the connector would wiggle loose. I use a small pair of needle nose pliers to reach in and bend the interior portion slightly towards the opening which improved the sprung tension and used a bit of rubber to wedge the connector solidly in place. It worked 100% until the new starter came in. Switched it out in the parking lot and got my core charge back from a dumbfounded sales guy in 10 minutes. I love working on this car.

New starter. Intermittent starting issues resolved!

New oil pump and blasted all of the debris out of the radiator fins. While I had it off i also removed about 50 pounds of road grime off the back side of the crank pulley. An exaggeration to be sure but there was an amazing amount of caked on oil and road grime.

The new pump is in and I appear to be leak free. While it was off I took the time to spray all of the bugs, pebbles and road grim out of the radiator fins. Lots of schmutz removed so maybe it will bring temps down a bit next summer. It never overheated but the needle did creep up when pulling hills on hot days. There were lots of fins that were either damaged or flaked away at first contact so now i'm casually on the lookout for a replacement radiator.

After replacing the leaky valve cover gaskets I still had an oil leak so a few days ago I pressure washed what portions of the engine I could get at so I could track down the remaining leak. Turned out to be the oil pump which wasn't a huge surprise. I picked up a rebuild kit and set about removing it. I removed the belt, crank pulley, oil filter, disconnected the oil pressure sending unit, took out the four bolts, gave a tug and it didn't want to come off. No worries, a chisel between the block and pump, a couple gentle taps from a hammer in various directions until the gasket surfaces barely started to separate then back to tugging and felt the sort of wiggle/shift you would expect. A little more force and I was rewarded by a crunching sound and what was my leaking oil pump cracked apart in four pieces. The external casting was intact but the half of the pump that goes into the block was cracked into 3 pieces. If you are familiar with the design, the housing that physically goes into the block had completely cracked off of the plate portion that bolts to the outer housing half. The plate portion was also cracked in half the top portion at a slight diagonal. Worst part, the housing portion with the o-ring was STUCK in the block. After a couple hours of trying various combinations of pliers, pry bars, using a torch to heat the block material around it, and a wide variety of offensive language I was unable to extract the remaining portion of the old pump. In the end I had to remove the radiator, grill and half of the front support in order to gain enough room to drill/tap a hole in the offensive piece of what was now scrap aluminum large enough to thread in a -5 bolt. Using a pry bar and a significant amount of force the scrap chunk of pump finally broke loose. Once it broke loose it slid out quite easily. At this point it was well past dark so I decided to call it a night on a successful note as I inspected my new paper weight and showered it with more colorful language. Then I noticed something. The piece that I had extracted from the engine was entirely covered with what appears to be a thin film of clear silicon on the exterior surface. It has roughly the same consistency as dried RTV except is is much easier to remove. It wipes cleanly off the surface with a swipe of my thumb. I don't know what it is or why it would be used in that location but my suspicion is that it created a sort of vacuum lock between the two surfaces making them damn near impossible to separate. I am fairly certain that the pump was already cracked/damaged prior to me starting the replacement because it took very little force for me to pull it apart. Anyway, there doesn't appear to be any damage to the block or cam and the new pump has arrived. Tonight I will clean up the surfaces and reassemble everything. Has anybody else had this trouble with their oil pump before? Does anybody know what the clear film of rubbery crap might have been? With the o-ring and gasket beyond that I can't figure what the purpose of a sealant would be in that area.

The shifter itself should feel like it is floating in a bowl of oatmeal. There are a couple threads here with details on how to firm up the stick itself and remove most of the floppy play. Actually engaging the gears themselves could be the syncros going out. As I understand it this was an issue that the 4spd gear boxes had that the 5spd ones did not. If you are familiar with double clutching I would run it through the gears a couple times doing that. If it is syncro related the double clutch should bypass the issue entirely. May help you narrow down the source.

If you get an early "phase 1" EJ22 you can convert it to carburetor with a modified early 80s Ford Escort distributor. If you are comfortable tuning a custom setup like that it would eliminate the need for the ECU and accompanying harness. There are some threads on here on that topic if you want to investigate it.

Yup. I am already looking at various bluetooth radios. The only reason I installed the CD player in the first place was that I had it in a random parts pile. There are a number of reasonably priced 1/2 DIN sized head units out there now. Just need to pick one and make it happen. Thanks for the idea though.

I purchased two new front axles to replace the clicking and torn ones I have. Turns out one was 25 spline (incorrect) and one was 23 spline. I replaced the one that was clicking badly and will be returning the other. Since I had a little extra time (didn't have to do the second axle) I decided to dissemble and clean all of the grease out of the old axle. With the boots removed you can see all of the ball bearings and associated moving parts interacting. It'll likely end up being one of my son's science projects. Another generation of gear heads is growing! Also, while I didn't do a full system flush but I did empty the radiator and refill it. The crappy CD player has been removed also but nothing has replaced it yet.

Drained the radiator and refilled it. New front right axle. Superoo, we'll need to meet up sometime so I can take a look at your setup.

It can be done for less than that if you do all the work yourself. Of course that costs you your time and inevitable busted knuckles. Higher up the thread RAD is pretty firm that he does not want to go with fuel injection. So within the scope of the most recent conversation there would be no TPS unless he piggybacked it onto the carburetor somehow. One way to avoid all that is the system linked a few posts up. It only engages at full throttle eliminating the need for a TPS but i'm guessing it would be a bear to tune a carburetor for the very sudden increase/decrease in air flow. Lots of good conversation on the topic if you care to re-read the entire thread.

What he said. I am also in the market but they appear to be manufactured from a combination of unicorn poop and hen's teeth. If I find two I will let you know about one of them though. Best of luck.