iceageg

I was speaking (although not clearly) in general terms. For all my tinkering on subarus I have yet to do any work on a transmission or do a complete rebuild of an engine. It may be more of a headache than I originally though. Hopefully somebody with a definitive answer specific to this application will chime in soon. I will need to know soonish too!

Replacing the front and rear main seals is cheap, easy and good insurance against leaks. Unless I have first hand knowledge that they are fairly new and in good condition I always replace them. Just my $0.02.

Bought it. 86' GL hatch. Hope to be updating this thread regularly. It's good to be back in a subie again.

I just recently picked up an 86' hatch and am planning my way down what I think is a very similar path to what you are hoping to accomplish. If you are dedicated to staying with the EA-81 platform then the multi-spark ignition unit and a weber carb will be your best friends. Magnaflow makes direct bolt on exhaust parts for the brat/hatch as well. All three of those together probably won't add up to the benefit a D5MT would give you. Even better if you paired them all together. A bigger carb will only work if you feed the engine more air and that's where the effort and expense starts to rise dramatically. You are talking about a bigger cam, headwork, forced induction or some combination of them. As someone mentioned before the EJ-22 conversion starts to make alot more sense when you start to look at the cost and effort of the two side by side. Especially when you look at the end result. All that said, my preferred way (and current plan) to get around the "alot of effort" constraint is to source an engine and start early. Put it on a stand and get it as ready as possible to drop in when the old unit comes out. That way it's ready if something does go wrong and you don't have to rush to rebuild the engine you took out just to get back on the road again. If I can source a good EA to start with I will likely stick with that just for simplicity. EJ's are a dime a dozen in Colorado yards though, parts are plentiful and aftermarket support is huge so I may build one of those carburated instead. Either way it will end up supercharged. May even toss one on my existing EA-81 before the swap just to add it to my list. I don't know how far you have got into your "stage 2" planning but remember that bigger isn't always better.

Figured I would necro this thread instead of start a new one. I'm back. After being transferred to Florida I sold my 85 hatch. I moved back to Denver a couple months ago and just picked up an 86 hatch yesterday. Time to start watching the yards again and replacing/upgrading parts as I find them. First up are seats and wind shield. Need to source a DR5MT eventually as well. Anyway, its good to be back.

Welcome aboard. 84 GL hatch here in Littleton. You're not alone here be a long shot.

I put a set of XT6 seats in the front of my 85 hatch. It was not a bolt in swap though. I had to remove the seatbelts and hardware from the XT6 seats and fab up some brackets. In the end I have the 85 hatch rails - bolted to custom brackets - bolted to the XT6 seats. I was able to maintain all of the function of the seats though. The passenger side still releases from the back seat and the drivers seat adjustable hight still works. Very nice for us big guys.

Welcome back into the fold!

Smashed, welcome to CO. Hope you enjoy your time here. Great season to be in the rockies.

Magnaflow Y-pipe/cat. No more exhaust leak!!!

I believe Nissan used R200 diffs on most of the early Zs and the early V6 S12 style Silvia/200sx/Gazelle models. The 4 cylinder S12s had R180s. I am sure they were used on other models since Nissan's of that era are more or less lego-cars like Subarus. In addition to the links above you should try club-s12.org. There is a fair amount of information about the rear diffs on various models in their archives. If memory serves the first big issue you will run into is the spline count. One manufacturer uses 25, the other 23 so you will have to get creative. I don't remember which is which off the top of my head.

Pretty much all aircraft engines both certified and experimental run two full ignition systems primarily for reduntant emergency purposes but two sparks have other benefits too. At least one of the two ignition systems is usually a magnito which continues to provide its own spark in the event of electrical failure. And Subruise is correct. Anything that goes on an airplane is painfully expensive. 15-20k for a motor will usually only get you a powerplant for experimental use only that is in a box on the floor, uninstalled. Testing and insurance are prohibitivly expensive and the cost of the certification process is staggering. But the people determined enough to be in that industry do come up with some fantastic stuff!

This is the same principle that has been used on propeller powered aircraft since at least the 30s. The engine is operated at a constant RPM and the pitch of the propeller changes to provide the resistance that maintains that setting regardless of what else changes. There are some other differences but speaking strictly about RPM, the ability to maintain the most efficient RPM for economy or power is a big step forward. On an emotional note though, there are few things in the automotive world more fun than running through the gears. Boring efficiency be damned!

In Aurora you have Speedyrupair. I have had 100% luck with them on newer generation subarus in years past. There used to be a subaru specialist near Emerald Isle in Aurora but I am not sure if they are still around. Haven't been there in almost 2 decades. Retroroo is up near the merchandise mart and a big supporter of this site. AWD Pirates have regular meets in the metro area. It was started by a bunch of locals that left NASIOC. Not sure how active NASIOC is in Denver anymore.

Welcome!

Not sure how similar the seats are between a 85 hatch and your Loyale are, but I put XT6 seats in my hatch without too much custom fab. Used the rails from the hatch seats, took a couple of brackets off of the XT rails, used half of the existing hardware, a few new bolts, nuts and washers, some steel barstock cut into appropriate sizes, and done. Not sure about the rest of the interior though. Good luck.

If i remember right the Nissan R180s have a different spline count in the diff. You will be looking at custom axles to go along with the diff. Would love to see it done though.

Replaced both of the 85 hatch front seats with a set from an 88 XT6.

Thanks again for the quick response. I was able to pick up the seats and decided not to bother with the rest. I managed to get the seats installed this weekend. I will post pics and some details about the effort involved in a new thread.

Wagon wheel for me???

At F.A.T. we have concentrated 99% of our efforts on the certified aircraft market. As a result we only have bolt up parts for Continental and Lycoming engines. In fact we just completed an installation on a Cessna 182 for a gentleman based out of SLC. We don't have anything for the EA81 . . . yet. My hatch will be the development platform for that one. We don't use the scroll type superchargers you are familiar with or twin screw for our applications. There is a company called RAM Engines that specializes in Subaru engines for experimental aircraft, boats and cars including supercharged applications. If you are looking for bolt-on parts in the immediate future they will be your best bet. I have two development projects in the works already that need to be completed so my timeline for supercharging the subie is longer than any of us would like. We use a number of centrifugal superchargers, primarily for weight and flexibility of mounting locations. We have certified products for both carburated blow-thru and fuel injected aircraft engines. We have made some slight adjustments to the existing fuel systems on those aircraft but the way engines are managed and boost is applied to general aviation aircraft simplifies those changes compared to the relative complexity of automotive engines. Some of the theory behind boosting aircraft engines lends itself very well to automotive applications in the form of solid power with terrific reliability but most people rarely consider it or apply it.

Perfect. I am not looking for details. Just an idea of what I am up against before I pass up the parts. Still searching through the details. Doesn't sound like I will change my existing plans. Thanks.

It was not the direction I was origionaly going with my build, but I find myself with access to a nearly complete XT6 that I can get parts from. I have an 85 2 door wagon that is essentially bone stock. I have done some searching and I am continuing to search but I am curious about what will transfer over. There is limited time before the parts are open to public consumption so I am hoping to get an "order of magnitude" estimate of what will swap over. The ER27 is complete but I am not interested in the full drive train. Either keeping the FI or converting it to carburator, what would it take to bolt up to the existing 4MT? Will the front seats bolt right in? I know disks, calipers and knuckles are needed. Do I also need axles, control arms and struts to convert over to disk rear and 5 lug all around? I know searching is my friend. I intend to find the answers myself. I only ask this way because I am trying to secure the parts should I decide to change my plans for the build.

Try replacing every nut, bolt and fastener you can with aluminum ones. They are a bit pricey but you can shave a fair bit of weight from the engine as well as the craft itself (I know you don't have access to it). Lots of suppliers out there.

Good write-up and a big congratulations on getting done what you wanted, the way you wanted it set up. It turned out great. For others looking to do something similar here are a couple of other items to include in your design checklist. These equations are good but there are a few other factors that can impact the actual boost your engine gets. One is the efficiency of the engine and the other is the ductwork the boosted air travels through to get to the throttle. It is easy to loose a couple of pounds of boost and tons of velocity to these factors by the time it actually enters the cylinders. One more factor to keep in mind is where you place the belt tensioner/idler. The tensioner should always be placed on the slack side of the belt, closer to the supercharger pulley than the drive pulley. Whenever possible the tensioner should squeeze the belt inward (creating more wrap on the pulley). This is done to ensure the belt does not slip causing premature belt failure and erratic boost delivery.