GeneralDisorder

I didn't think you were implying anything - figured you were confused because I said gallons in the first post instead of the usual quarts these are rated in.... just want to be clear on what I have done and how I've done it. Best to state it explicity so there's no confusion. Valvoline Dex/Merc generic fluid. GD

The drain/fill came up heavy on the fill end because I left the back off the transmission overnight with the tranny cross-member off. I had to put in about 6 quarts. Yes I did check it while idling and hot after driving. The fluid level is spot on. GD

I just changed the duty-c solenoid and valve body on a '98 Forester (did a drain/fill at the same time) and now the AT-Temp light is out and the TCU is happy but once it warms up the transmission shifts hard and at some speeds/throttle posistions it can't seem to decide which gear it wants to be in so it bucks back and forth between two gears for a few seconds. Really odd behavior. The torque bind is gone or at least reduced to what I consider normal levels. I can't say for sure if this behavior started before the duty-c change but I would think the owner would have mentioned it. I'm guessing this has more to do with changing the fluid than it does the duty-c because AFAIK the duty-c only controls the clutch pack lockup which seems to be working just fine. What I'm getting seems to be gear switching or TC locking/unlocking or both. Will the trans-x additive that people talk so highly of help with this? Could I have done something durring the duty-c change that would have affected this? Fluild level is good, color is normal, etc. My drain/fill replaced about 1.5 gallons of fluid - a bit more than usual because I lowered the back of the tranny and pulled the extension housing off for the duty-c change. GD

Correct - the paper clip looking protrusion on the spring holds the check ball in the center and thus down on it's seat. As for being the Hitachi expert around here.....I used to fiddle with them quite a bit and have rebuilt a few dozen of them as well as made some posts on how to strip them down and simplify the hose nightmare. Ultimately you will come to the conclusion that the way they are setup is overly complex and they just won't do the things you really want like progressive linkage and they aren't big enough for good low-end toque. GD

I have never seen a booster fail either. Have seen a bad MC or two but it's usually bad reman units from people replacing them for no good reason. I don't often go as far as you are going with this stuff. I address problem areas, flush the system, and leave it at that. My '83 hatch has it's original MC and booster, and all the rest of the system besides the pads and shoes are good used parts. My '69 GMC truck has it's original bendix booster and MC. I had to replace leaking wheel cylinders on it and did the shoes at that time but otherwise a simple flush did the trick. I would leave the booster in place, sand it, mask it, and paint it. GD

The yards here allow us to cut off sections. I do it all the time. GD

It can take a while for you to get the P0400 code related to the lack of an EGR because the EGR only opens during part throttle cruise and the ECU has to look at the MAP sensor data over several drive cycles to determine if there is an EGR flow problem. Using the engine harness for the 2.2 will not help. The difference is both in the vehicle wiring harness and in the ECU. Here in Oregon you can still get them to pass since cars prior to the 2000 model year can have up to two incomplete readiness monitors and still pass the inspection. So you just drive it around till you have two or less monitors in the not-ready state and then hit the test station. It will not have had enough time to pop the P0400 code yet and you'll go through the test without fail. GD

Fell out?!? You didn't use a proper OEM crush washer did you? GD

Order one for a '98 2.5RS. Exedy is what i always get. GD

Yeah coolant passage - carb base heater port. If you are putting on a weber you will want to block that with JB weld or similar. GD

Correct. I strip them to engine control and label all connections that you need to make. You just add it to the car. GD

Yeah the stock cams run fine and if it's a daily driver I would reccomend them. The torque grind cams play havoc with the idle on the OBD-I's. GD

It's a lot of work - especially the first and second and third times you do it . We have a process down fairly well now. But yeah it's never as cheap as people sometimes like to purport it as being around here - not to do the job the right way anyhow. GD

Doesn't work that way. You are talking about a harness merge and that's not usually done with EA's because of the quite different nature of the two. For $250 you get the 92 harness stripped to where you can install it into the car as a seperate entity - adding the appropriate fuses and making the neccesary connections for it to run properly. A merged harness where I incorporate the EA and EJ harnesses into one unit that plugs into the car would cost significantly more both in labor and shipping. Somewhere around $600 labor plus additional shipping for the monster box it would live in. But again - no one does that. It's easier to just do the neccesary dozen or so connections in the car without ever removing it's original harness. GD

A properly done swap is not going to hurt the value. Though 95% of the swaps I've seen aren't properly done. A stock Brat has a lot of drawbacks. The 4 speed's suck. The EA81 is underpowered and getting more difficult to find parts for.... etc. There's no reason that a properly done swap would hurt the value - the Brat still looks the same on the outside. GD

4 yellow plugs. GD

Sure - up to you. I can strip either one. I remove the SMJ when I strip them and most of the people that offer stripping services do not. It's a bunch of extra work and that's why I'm $250 for those and $200 for the 95 to 98 harnesses. I solder and heat shrink all my connections and label all wire connection points with printed labels. The best harness for a swap IMO is a '95 or '96 Legacy 5MT harness. GD

It will work fine if you build adaptors for the manifold and swap the cam/crank pulleys. People put phase-II EJ22's where 251's and 253's were originally all the time without any runability issues. Oh and you will have to do something for the EGR pipe because they are different. As I said before - I know a guy that put an EJ251 into a '95 Impreza by building adaptor plates for the phase-I manifold and swapping the phase-I cam and crank sprockets over. Yes they do fit and the ECU will not have a problem with the smaller engine - as can be seen in all the examples of people swapping EJ223's and EJ251/3's around with impunity - hell I just sold an EJ223 to a fellow member here that put it in an '03 Legacy - runs like a top. It's not dumb enough to fall for your volumetric effeciency theory - it has an O2 sensor and can tell if the engine wants less fuel. The MAP vs. MAF has nothing to do with the ECU's ability to compensate for the engine demand - both systems are designed to do that. That's the whole point of fuel injection. GD

They will fit if you cut and box in the frame rails a bit. Not that hard to do. I have seen people put EA82's in the first gen body's and they are wider than the EJ's. GD

OBD-II is the government mandated interface for diagnostic code readers. It was made mandatory in '96 but many manufacturers such as Subaru were compliant in '95. It has a generic (not manufacturer specific like OBD-I) port that can be used to check for diagnostic trouble codes, etc. Code readers for this interface are about $25 on ebay, etc. The OBD-II ECU's are faster and easier to interface with. Their wiring harness is also much simpler than the OBD-I harnesses as Subaru did away with the Super Main Junction (SMJ). Depending on the year - some OBD-II's have only a few additional connectors - the OBD-II port itself and the secondary O2 sensor being the most prominent. OBD-I (90 to 94) is a nightmare. A lot more work to strip the harnesses and the ECU is primitive and picky. The MAF and IAC were tranmission specific unlike the later years and the diagnostic process is more involved - you don't need a code reader to simply get the trouble codes but to interface at higher levels such as reading raw data streams, etc you need a Subaru Select Monitor ($$$) or a laptop setup with special software and a custom cable.... OBD-II is the clear winner. But to make your 92 into an OBD-II engine you will need the wiring harness, manifold harness, IAC, MAF, and ECU from an OBD-II setup. Possibly a few other sensors also. Secondary O2.... etc. GD

EJ is the way to go. The EA engines are quaint but there's no real benefit to keeping them. You can do a carbed EJ22 if you want one badly enough. It's been done. Most people don't bother because the MPFI is a better system. GD

Exactly. GD

Yes - you have to remove the timing belt and the crank sprocket. It's not that big of a deal - just slides off. GD

You can't easily fix the EJ22 not having an EGR. The computer will know the difference and it will complain. Giving it the solenoid is not enough. I've done at least a dozen of these swaps. GD

OBD-I's are not fun. You won't like doing a '92 Scott. There's quite a few wires that have to be soldered to eliminate the SMJ. That's why I charge $250 for OBD-I and $200 for ODB-II. GD