KiwiGL

A couple of pics that my lady took on a drive last weekend out to Lake Coleridge. She's driving the subie for 3 months while I'm overseas. Apparently 4x140 life is growing on her... she says it's more fun to drive than her Colt Plus haha

Download how to keep your Subaru alive (can be downloaded as a pdf from suberdaves site) and read the section on idle tuning. It's a great reference, very easy to follow. That's how I tuned mine. In my case, I had a similar problem, it would idle at 1200 rpm and got to 2500 on cold starts. Turns out the throttle cable was too tight. By slacking it off a little I was then able to adjust the idle speed screw to get it perfect.

Mine's definitely 1.59 from engine speeds in low box. It's also part time. I took it on a snow mish the other weekend too which was also good fun. It runs cooler than the old motor, which definitely had a blown hg. I don't think this one does as it's got no other symptoms of one and runs much better overall. Just seems weird as it's a low kms engine and a new radiator. Maybe I should swap on the brand new water pump from the old engine. It's great in the snow, when we were up 4wding there was a young guy in a big lifted 80 series who couldn't believe it didn't get stuck haha. Mind you he also didn't believe it had low box 4x4 so yeah...

Well, the old girl is running better than ever. New engine is great, new radiator even nicer, although she still gets a bit warmer than I'd like when you're going slow up steep hills offroad. Going up the mt hutt skifield road in low second with four people and ski gear, she was pushing 2/3 on the temp gauge with heater on full! Is this a common problem? I've heard complaints about overheating on beaches on hot days, but surely on a skifield that should be ok... Even had to fit chains to it! Was great fun going uphill around corners with chains on front and near bald road tyres on the back on fresh powder snow. As the centre diff was locked in 4wd, the back end would kick out and drift around the corners. Definitely need to buy those all terrains I posted above. Just adjusted the idle today as was idling at 1200 rpm and chewing through fuel. Back to 850 rpm now. Also removed the plastic panels below the windscreen and cleaned out the 30 years of pine needles and crud that had accumulated. Luckily no rust. Loving being back in an old Subaru again! Just need to get some alloys as I'm not loving the (loose and rattly) hubcaps.

Thinking about some new tyres, how do these sound? http://www.tyres4u.co.nz/T4UTyreSelector/4wd_Fitment_ID-A488_show.aspx

Don't worry guys, got it going tonight!! Turns out the timing was about 50 degrees before top dead centre. Started first pop after that. Has a bit of lifter tick but that's clearing. Way more power than before and runs cooler

So, spent the weekend working on Gertie. Swapped the lower-mileage engine in, using the clutch (near-new Excedy), flywheel, pressure plate, carb, dizzy, alternator & powersteer setup from the old engine. Tried using the carb from the replacement engine but it seemed pretty blocked up & didn't spray fuel well so I just swapped them over (new gaskets & new vac lines). She cranks - but won't catch or fire. Have tested spark by grounding to the block - sparks ok. Earths good. Choke setup all works. Has oil pressure when cranking as light goes out. Has fuel. Doesn't want to run with extra easystart either. At this point I'm thinking we screwed up the dizzy timing - currently it points to lead 1 at 0 deg on the flywheel - this is correct right? This is my first time playing with an old school carby + dizzy car, all my others (except my old GTX turbo, but that was MPFI turbo with a dizzy I never touched) have been coils with no dizzy or diesels haha. Anyone have any ideas as to why it won't run? I figure out of compression, timing, spark, fuel and air it has compression (haven't tested it but has resistance to manual turnover), spark, fuel & air. Therefore it surely must be timing, given it ran okay with the same ancillaries on the old longblock. Pic of the carbie in bits: Looking sad in the driveway: And on a better day up the Port Hills:

What was the seat swap like? Difficult?

Have now picked up a low mileage ea82 for a good price. I'll be swapping that in sometime over the next couple of weeks, then rebuilding the heads and doing gaskets on the original engine, which has now clicked over 445,000 kms! Have also located a set of good seats, purchased some vinyl for the door trims and got a contact who can redo the headliner. The I just need to find a set of good alloy wheels, and repaint the bootlid and she's done! Looking forward to getting my first (mild) restoration done.

Gertie is probably also best viewed from 10 metres haha, the body is clean but the interior needs work. New seats, door trims and headliner. She clicked over 444,444.4 on the way down to Timaru today, not bad for an unopened ea82. Definitely needs the head gaskets done though, got a little warm going up the hill on the Subaru offroad nz 4wd trip today. Has also fouled its plugs and isn't idling well. Ok once you rev it and get a better spark. All up she did well, kept up with the newer metal and outperformed in some regards. Especially economy

Cheers for the replies guys! I've always liked that shade of blue and have always been a fan of ruby scoo, I remember watching your first videos almost ten years ago Bennie - the ones with the Urthboy soundtrack. At this point my general aim for the vehicle is keep it standard and slowly restore it back to a clean, original condition wagon. I'd like to keep the EA series engine for originality. Unfortunately I suspect it needs a headgasket done, but that's okay. My flatmate and his mate are also big Subaru guys and have plenty of expertise pulling down EJs and the odd EA, so will be a learning curve. So I need to order a gasket set, timing belt kit, and also a set of front CV boots. I might just get a reman axle as they're $37 on rockauto with $17 US shipping, which isn't a huge amount more than just ordering boots. Might ring Subaru and see if they have genuine boots in stock - does anyone know if later model Subaru CV boots fit a Leone? I need the front inner and outer boots. Also for headgaskets - anyone recommend an aftermarket brand or should I get genuine if possible? So far I've changed oil and filter, flushed coolant, changed gearbox oil, vaccumed the interior, put seat covers on the front and hosed the worst of the leaves off (was parked under a pine tree for 6 months). Still need to take the front fender liners off and hose out the base of the fender, so many needles...

New wagon I just picked up a couple of days ago. See my thread for more. :-)

Thought I'd make a thread for my new Subaru. Gertie has the honour of being the second L series touring wagon I've owned. She was named by the previous owner, and is a 1989 NZ new Subaru Omega GL touring wagon, 5 speed dual-range. My first was an NZ new 1987 Leone GTX Turbo, 3AT pt4wd. Unfortunately she rusted out back in 2014, terminal firewall cancer. Since then I've had a Forester, a Vitara and I currently also own an r50 JDM Nissan Terrano. I saw this car in person several months ago, and strongly considered asking the owner if they'd be willing to sell. When it popped up on Facebook marketplace at an extremely reasonable price, I had to buy it, especially considering I was heading down to Queenstown that weekend regardless. So I made contact with the owner, and they arranged to take it for a wof, which it clean sheeted! They also kindly put 6 months registration on for me. I went to pick it up, and lo and behold the seller is a nurse that I was working with only several months ago! She and her husband (who is sadly terminally ill) had owned it since 1992, when they purchased it off a banker in Mosgiel. Only sold it because he couldn't drive it anymore and it had been sitting for a year. Condition is generally good. The metalwork is near perfect, no rust whatsoever besides a few minor stone chips. Interior is pretty average, dash is good but seats, door trims and headliner need recovering. Mechanically it's great, little bit of hesitation around 2500 rpm under moderate throttle but better with WOT and above 3000. Slight lifter tick from time to time, not too bad. Third has a somewhat worn synchro. Suspension, brakes, steering, tyres etc all great. Smallish oil leaks. You wouldn't know it has done 443,000 km... Regular maintenance is key I suppose! Full service history for the last 30 years, oil and filter every 5000 km etc. Overall extremely pleased for the price I paid. I could sell it tomorrow for half what I paid again. Only thing I've done is replaced the battery as it was from 2011 and couldn't hold a charge.

How much for a set of the XT6 replica hubs?

He needs some of the twin-cam EA82 heads. Made by a New Zealand company for the aviation industry, they gave the EA82 140 hp naturally aspirated. With those heads you could probably get 300 hp with a turbo setup! http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/131098-dohc-ea82-aviation/

Definitely needs some touring wagon decals! Love it.

Beautiful work. Great to see it coming together! Hope you can get it registered on the original black plates

Looks mint, loving your restoration work

Nice car. I reckon the third gen coupe looks far more like an AE86 though, flying wedge profile.

Love your EE20 idea! Have you seen boxeer.com? An EE20 is also 40mm shorter than an EJ I believe so should fit nicely. I'd love an EE20 swapped 6-speed third gen touring wagon as a daily driver, would cost so little to run!

If I were you I'd go with a WAIC off a first gen legacy RS or GT, so you don't have to cut a scoop. Super tidy, looks awesome! I love the 4wd turbo on the boot, always thought those were cooler than having the plate there.

Love it, looks great. Is that the original colour?

DOC rangers are underappreciated imo, it's a hard job at times with all the track maintenance etc Blanket Bay lodge is it? Few Lord of the Rings stars stayed there...

The above poster is a little confused. Both the push-button 4WD and the dual-range are front wheel drive (FWD) under normal tarmac driving. The 4wd button activates a vacuum solenoid that engages the coupling and thus the rear wheels. Moving the 4wd lever to the 4wd position achieves the same thing in a dual-range. The difference is that in the dual-range, you can move the 4wd lever up one more notch and engage the 1.59:1 dual-range gearing, which allows you to climb and descend steep slopes safely and/or do hill starts with a trailer on (the Subie low range has syncromesh so can be shifted whilst moving). Neither gearbox is a true all wheel drive (AWD) setup as neither has a centre differential and as such these vehicles are designed to be 4wd on loose surfaces, like gravel, only and not AWD for street use. Engaging 4wd on asphalt will risk damaging the gearbox, axles, tyres etc. Only the rare (2500 sold) RX turbo had a true AWD gearbox with a lockable centre differential and a 1.19:1 dual-range, as far as the EA chassis vehicles are concerned. As far as EJ chassis vehicles are concerned, they are full-time AWD with a viscous centre differential with no locking mechanism. Some markets eg New Zealand, did get a dual-range manual transmission however. I owned one, a 2002 Forester. Also had a 1987 GTX Turbo touring wagon (3AT though). The above is true for manual subies only. Also, cool wagon man, always loved the EA82 wagons. The rear tyre carrier is mint. Looks like your roof racks are for a raised roof touring wagon though!