baccaruda

you might just replace them. post in wanted. keep your brackets as the brackets are different between 85/6 and 87+. These aren't hard to find and don't usually go for much on the board.

exactly. It's also worth mentioning that the "cold air intake" idea is sort of addressed in chopping the airbox, because the part you chop is on the bottom, and gets cool air from right under the car. The air does have to go up past the exhaust, either the Y-pipe or the crossover pipe, but I don't feel it's significant.

yes. it's a Miles Fox Innovation. The forward ends and bushings of the rear control arms are a little wider in the EA82 than in the EA81, and the bolts are a larger diameter. Miles chopped a few mm off of his arms' ends and bushings, so they'd fit, and drilled out the receiver brackets on the rear crossmember so the bolts would fit. I will instead remove and relocate one receiver bracket (hopefuly only one!) on each side as well as drill out the holes. Instant sway bar! I'll probably just harvest the rear disc swap and the rear control arms at the same time.. less work at the yard.

oh yeah, that too (heh, no thanks, I'm covered locally!) I'm wanting to get the rear control arms from an EA82T as well so I can add a rear sway bar. I have a pair of XT6 seats waiting to go in as well. I would LOVE to WRXify the coupe but it's already close to using up its alloted Fun Money for the year. It also needs the rear window resealed and the windshield replaced and resealed (and the windows tinted), and the heater needs work, and I have an uncracked dash to swap in, as well as an analog dash conversion later this year.. the glasswork will cost a bit, and it also, as you can all see, needs some front sheetmetal. And on top of all that, my darn wagon's been out of commision for 2 years now! It's almost back in action and I'd rather own only one car, that being the wagon.

Rob, that's probably true but I haven't yet had any interest in putting in a larger turbo as I want to baby the EA81T. Letting it breathe better isn't against the rules but I'm not altering the boost in any way.. thanks though! AND... my tax refund just landed in my bank account! ("Where'd all that extra money come from?!?!") Could a 5-speed swap be on the horizon???!?!?! I'm so sick of that stupid 3speed auto...

(wrong thread)

Barely. one hole is off by just enough. I'll take a pic later.. .. thanks!

Oh, and I did this all in a white tux and didn't get a spot on me.

The lowdown: Bought my EA81T coupe in December. Got a custom EA81T intercooler & mandrel-bent pipes off of ebay for $100. (Not installed yet) I've tried a few times to get it to pass emissions but it failed. I've now got newer spark plugs, distributor cap/rotor, air filter, oil change, and as of today, an oxygen sensor (probably the missing link). Changing the O2 sensor was a real b$*&^#@. The 22mm deep socket I bought, with the slot removed for the wire, stretched and slipped over the old sensor when I tried to unscrew it. So I put my 22mm crank pully shorty socket on a breaker bar, slipped it over the end of the old sensor, and whacked it with a hammer. Then I used the short 22mm socket to remove the O2 sensor's corpse. Easy. I had also removed the downpipe for more elbow room and articulation. Why did I have to go and do that? The top flange broke off of the downpipe when I was reinstalling it. Crap. My car KNOWS that I am UNABLE to perform a simple repair if an upgrade can be performed at the same time. In my garage, I have an EA82T watercooled turbo that I got from Mark (XSNRG) who, for you newbies, is a Knight of High Subaru Valor and a highly recommended seller if he's got what you need. I also have a WRX downpipe that I got for a ridiculously amazing price, with a couple of extra jackstands thrown in to boot. You know where this is going... I'm on a food/internet break from switching the turbos. If you want to install an EA82T watercooled turbo into your EA81T car, know that: the turbo-to-downpipe gasket is different (one stud is in a different spot, don't ask me why). Also know that you might need to replace the crusty old crossover pipe-to-turbo gasket but IT'S different as well - the bolt pattern is the same but the heat shield flap for the EA82T gasket interferes with the oil drain on the EA81 (unless I missed something; I'll look again before I put the new turbo on). The oil feed lines are different - use the EA81T's. The turbo's bracket that braces that oil feed line is also particular per engine series. The intake snorkus/flange that feeds the throttle body (through the aluminum TURBO plenum) is different for EA82T and EA81T. You'll need to switch those and probably replace the gasket at the same time. I'll have to get the car towed to the exhaust shop this week to get the WRX downpipe fitted - it's rear is longer than the EA81T's and it's front is at a different angle, less than a 90 degree bend like the EA81T/EA82T's. I'll need to get the front / top of the downpipe "stretched" forward a couple of inches. Most importantly, the WRX downpipe will ALMOST bolt up to the EA82T's turbo - Three of the holes in the flange will line up with a little bit of filing or dremeling, and the 4th hole will have to be drilled. You can of course grind off the remainder of the WRX flange. I do have an EA82T downpipe flange that I got from Suberdave, who also righteously kicks much rump roast. As I have to get the front of the WRX downpipe stretched, I'll probably swap in the EA82T flange at the same time as it's easier than drilling out the WRX flange to fit (but that itself is close!) Also, the flanges that bolt the downpipe to the transmission are in entirely different spots. Shocking, that. You'll want custom bracing brackets made so your exhaust doesn't rattle all over the place. Also, since you'll be planning to do this instead of having it hijack your Sunday like me, consider planning to replace the oil drain hose under the turbo. Luckily mine looks OK. Back to work!!

The throttle body is restrictive The heads / valves / injectors' capacity are restrictive. The crossover pipe is restrictive. The downpipe, cats, backpipe, and muffler are restrictive. The air filter and airbox are restrictive. The airbox just happens to be the easiest / cheapest restriction to remedy.

maybe 10-15% louder at higher RPMs.. not really noticeable while @30mph+ I have a 2" exhaust after the stock downpipe so it's maybe less loud for me than for a totally stock car.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I just hacked out the bottom of my EA81T coupe's air filter box. The turbo light comes on sooner and with less input from the gas pedal - and the acceleration curve is a little steeper now. I just bombed around the neighborhood and back and the car is much more responsive. Sounds better too.

how about if I let you crash on MY couch?

Daeron, you're 100% right on that. I'm suspect of the K&Ns anyway. I don't accept that they are as clean as paper filters. I know they flow better but something's gotta give somewhere. More air = more airborne particulate matter. If you give the stock filter a larger inlet through which to breathe, and make sure it gets the coolest air possible, then you've given the EA81 or EA82 as much air as it can use. There are very few people on this board who have even flirted with optimizing an EA82T's performance (I am not one of them, for the record) and they would all tell you that it's not any particular type of air filter that is the ultimate hindrance, it's the engine's self-handicapped design. Anyone who wants better performance out of their old Subaru would be better off spending the time and money not on the air filter, but on catching up on 20+ years of neglected maintenance and then moving on to port & polishing and exhaust improvements, etc. If you have motor and transmission mounts with 150k+ miles on them, spend your money on new mounts instead of a deluxe air filter/intake system. Same with strut rod and sway bar bushings and wheel bearings. And the radiator. Bob (Bobistheoilguy.com) also says the fancy filters don't filter as well. He also points out that using an oil-soaked filter could be very bad for your car's MAF sensor (especially a hotwire sensor such as from an 87 or later Subaru).

the Fat Lip can take more of a hit than the flimsy 85/86 bumpers. Those things are worthless.

I'd definitely throw a set of rear disc brakes onto the back of your wagon. If the trailer has brakes that would be great too.

http://ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=74205

the plug's stuck because Jiffy Shack used an air tool to tighten it. I'd put a box wrench on it and carefully tap it loose with a BFH.

just kidding. I'm going to do some cut & paste as I have extra strut rods.

With the car off of the ground, punch both pins, unbolt the mustache bar, unbolt the shock. If it won't come off, it's rusted.

thanks but I decided that it ultimately won't help because the angle of the strut rod on the control arm will still present a problem and it's too much work to modify the strut rod plates. I'm just going to get some rear coil springs from a GL10 and install them in place of the strut rods; that should eliminate all of the angularity problems as well as add a progressive dampening effect so that the harder I step on the brakes, the more "push" I get from the spring... pics soon! also, I won't be needing the heims I ordered.. but it's too late to cancel them. Anybody need some? They're like 3/4" females with zerks, $100 shipped..

aaaand the latest is that after having received two highly-qualified opinions* I will not be grafting a heim onto the front of the strut/leading/reaction rods because I don't want to introduce a second pivot point to the whatever rods. With respect to the work that Solo put into his rods, with heims at the rear/tops, it's really inconvenient for me to deal with fabricating something right now, so I am going to just bend the rods upward a few degrees to account for the difference in angle. I'm not certain about the temper of the metal, so opinions about the best way to preserve the temper would be appreciated.. Of course I'll heat the rods right where they start to taper, and I'll have them both in a vise next to each other, with a drilled piece of flat stock bolted to their rear/top ends so that I can keep the bends uniform.. Afterward, will I want to: Dunk them in water to cool/temper the heated area Let them cool at their own rate Heat the entire rod up to uniform temperature and then either dunk it or air-cool it? Thanks! *thanks to subusolo2nut and WJM

usually, EA81 cars with A/C had an electric fan on the driver's side. They're nice and skinny... EA82 cars with (either A/C or turbos or both) had their electric fans on the passenger's side.

the VW 1.9 TDI is 300lbs dry and has roughly the same performance characteritics as an EJ22... probably more torque. It is probably the only diesel engine you could reasonably expect to shove into a Subaru (until the Subaru boxer TDIs are: a) available in the US, and affordable I have been interested in this for a while.. It will fit in the engine bay of an EA82.. top clearance is not determined as it would depend on how high the engine sits after the clutch/flywheel and bellhousing are adapted.. I would STRONGLY recommend using a lifted EA82 as a platform for this to minimize the chance that you'll have to put a power bulge in your hood I've not yet started on this (my EJ swap isn't even done yet!) but I am fairly set on making this happen someday. The good part is that the longer I take, the cheaper the VW front cuts will become..

melon shooter?