GeneralDisorder

If you have coolant and oil mixing like that - you have a bad HG or a popped out freeze plug. Intake manifold gasket wouldn't do it. Block sealers will not help you - the oil will prevent them from cureing. You have no recourse but to change the HG's and check the freeze plugs in the heads. If you drive it like that it will destroy the bottom end in just a few hundred miles. Coolant and oil mixed together don't lubricate for beans. GD

I understand what you are saying..... I would port and polish a manifold and put a Weber 32/36 on it. More carb than it will ever need. Dual-carb is interesting but at the end of the day it's just a lot more work than a two-barrel progressive and for not a lot of gain. You would be surprised at how much you can awaken that little engine with just a simple DGV carb..... assuming you don't have to pass any kind of emissions laws with it. That's one big benefit of the engine transplant in CA - you can have it smog ref'd and you can actually legally drive it with a frankenmotor because it will have all factory smog equipment in place. GD

Cross-post for my thread on head resurfacing (relavant to all Subaru heads): http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=126868 GD

Yes - as Nipper pointed out there are some "modern" engines that require a very specific surface finish. Though I don't beleive that any of Subaru's engines to date are that particular. I have had plenty of them resurfaced at the machine shop and they have never asked me what specific engine it came from - and all of them come back with the same characteristic swirl pattern of a blanchard grind. Actually pretty rough compared to my 320 grit wet-dry. A straight-edge is also not just a reasonably straight bit of metal or wood. As bheinen74 points out - to make the check you really ought to have a proper machinists straight-edge. You can get them from ebay for very little. A metal ruler will NOT be straight enough. It's important to take note of the DEEP ridges that are formed by the head gasket fire rings - especially on the older EA engines. It's as important that these be removed as it is for the head to be flat. To some extent a bit of warpage is actually not a problem - the bolts will pull it flat. But the imperfections near the fire ring can lead to premature failure regardless of how flat the head may be. This is why I question any shop (including the dealerships) that doesn't resurface at least the heads. Also - it's very interesting/educational to see the progression from warped to flat. You don't get to see this if you take them to a shop. You just take them a head and you really have no idea how flat or warped it was unless they call you and tell you it's so bad they can't save it GD

I know I've mentioned it before, but..... yes you CAN resurface your own heads. And it's not even that hard. Especially with Subaru heads because they are aluminium and very small. This time I took some pictures of the end result, the rig that does the job, and some pictures durring the process that show the progression from warped/pitted to smooth and flat. First of all - the first one I finished next to an untouched unit: A good cleaning in the parts washer, some scraping of the gasket material residue, and a spritz of bra-kleen: About 30 seconds of surfaceing. You can see where the low spots and high spots are and you can see the clear (and rather deep) groove that was created by the original HG fire ring. That groove is not acceptable. It needs to be removed so the new gasket is firmly held. The more of this groove we remove - the higher the clamp force will be on the new fire ring. Clean the paper and another 1 minute or so of circular motions on the "resurfacer". You can really see how the head is "cupped" and the center is not even touching our paper yet: Another few minutes of work: And the final result: Now they match. I will be going over both of these with a finer grit paper to finish up the surface. You don't want them too smooth though as the gasket needs some imperfection to "bite" into it. Too smooth is a bad thing - about a 320 grit is the finest finish you need on a Subaru head: Here's the simple rig used for this job. Solid workbench with a laminate top that's been scraped smooth of any imperfections and checked for general level-ness and flatness. Doesn't have to be totally perfect - that's the job of the glass. I then backed the 5/16" thick glass with a 1/2" thick section of plywood - also checked for basic flatness. The paper (wet-dry 220 for initial stock removal, and 320 for finish) is glued down with contact cement (the glass is cleaned with mineral spirits between paper changes) and the lubrication is WD-40. You have to use a lot of WD-40. You MUST use it to clean the paper as well as lubricate the sanding operation - other chemicals will break down the paper and the glue. This little rig has saved me time, money and waiting on several projects. It seems that often I am assembling engines on the weekend and the machine shop isn't open. They also want money for their services and while I don't begrudge them some business from me here and there - I prefer to trade a few minutes of my time that I would otherwise have spent driving to and fro to drop them off and pick them up simply doing this job myself. It takes about 30 minutes per head with paper cleaning, paper changes, etc. GD

Dealer is 100% incorrect. That's really, really sad. ALL Subaru's made from '97 on are solid-lifter engines (Subaru totally abandoned hydraulic lifter adjustment that year on all models and has not made any engines with them since) and DO require adustment or you risk a burned exhaust valve. GD

If it's an '81 or earlier then it's got an EA71 in it most likely. The biggest difference and the best way to tell is to look at the starter - if it's directly on the top-center of the bell-housing and is a rather large ungainly affair - it's an EA71. If it's off to the driver's side and is smaller then it's an EA81. EA71 manifolds (of that vintage) will not fit EA81 engines. They are too narrow. Later model "fat-case" EA71's share manifold dimensions and have side-starter bell-housings but those didn't come in very many cars..... primarily the STD model hatch of the 84 to 89 vintage. A rare animal with a rare engine. GD

I had a blue 94 5 speed GT wagon..... One of the coolest first gen's I've ever had. Second only to the SS IMO. Nice score on one with such low mileage! Convert it to synthetic immediately and probably go for its first t-belt job a little early - I would just because of the age. GD

Yes that's what I'm saying. The cam timing marks have nothing whatsoever to do with the ignition timing (TDC measurement, etc) - they place all the pistons at half-way in the bore so that durring timing belt R&R there is no possibility of piston/valve interferance. Yes - it applies to all Subaru EJ engines. Regardless of phase. The arrows and hash marks at 3/6/9/12 are for the DOHC engines where the crank and intake cams are aligned with one set of marks and then the exhaust cams are aligned to the intake cams with a second set of marks. GD

In the first post he says the disc fits the tranny..... which would not be the case if it were a 4 speed kit. So I think he got a mess of parts that doesn't fit anything. GD

Typically Subaru uses 5mm and 6mm vacuum line. GD

Cams rotate when you remove the belt. That's normal. What's important is that you have the crank timing mark lined up - that puts all the pistons half-way up in the cylinder and makes valve/piston interferance impossible. You are most likely fine. When they rotate like that it's because the valve is closing and forcing the cam to rotate. Just pull the heads off an proceed with your dissasembly. GD

Yes. 83/84 they produced a turbo-charged version. It was almost a completely different engine though - different heads, pistons, MPFI fuel inejction, etc. There's ways of doing it - but if you have to ask how - it's probably way over your head. GD

There are many conditions that can affect dyno readings - not the least of which is engine management - which with the 251/253 bottom end is problematic because of the extremely high compression of nearly 12:1. The 25D is much more tame at around 10.5:1 and thus more condusive to stock engine management - not to mention safer. Most of the failures have occured with 251/3 bottom ends. The dyno information that I have seen indicates about 185 crank HP with the 25D bottom end and Delta torque cams. It sounds like a lot but in reality it's only a 20 HP gain over the stock 25D (and, incidentally - only about 10 HP more than your quote above - but again I beleive poor management is to blame with the much higher compression of the 251/3 piston choice). And that's simply a quote from a forum. I have read many different quotes from many different forums. I have also built and run them personally. The benefit to them is in their low cost to build and higher than stock power output. Reliability, performance, and inexpensive..... hard to beat frankly. Irregardless - it's more than any EA82(T) is going to make. GD

Then they have already been replaced with conventional struts - very common to see that as the air-bag struts were in the $300 to $500 per-strut range so when a couple of them fail it's pretty easy to talk somoene into just swapping to conventional. Thus your flashing light. You can remove the switch, and you can also remove the compressor and tank under the driver's side fender. None of it is functional and it's just dead weight now. Neither is correctly actually. You need the whole 96 to 98 OB strut, spring, and top-hat for the front. In the rear you will use the OB strut and spring and the '92 top-hat. It's important to retain the OB strut AND spring as they both contribute to the ride height increase. GD

3/16" is not thick enough unless you reinforce it by tieing the blocks together or by boxing the sides in partially. I have seen 3/16" thick blocks bow outward on the sides after heavy off-roading. 1/4" wall thickness is minimum for individual blocks without any further reinforcement IMO. With proper reinforcement the 3/16" will work but it doesn't sound like that was your intention.... welding required. GD

You will eventually toast the transfer gears in the transmission running it in RWD. The Subaru transaxles were not meant for it. Especially the 4 speed's as they have smaller gears with smaller teeth. GD

Any head shop/machine shop can handle the valve repair. Usually when they burn you need a new valve and a new seat. Adjustment on that engine is via a simple rocker arrangement. You don't have the bucket/shim system as that's only for the DOHC engines. ALWAYS pull the engine for a proper HG job. It's easy (takes about 1.5 hours) and with the engine on a stand the job can be done cleanly and correctly for a lasting repair. Removing and installing the heads in the car is a mess - you have to remove the heads and install them with the bolts slid loosely into the head..... fluids wanting to drain out of the block, bending over the engine bay..... not cool. Just pull it. GD

And for that matter why not just use the EJ trans bell-housing on the 4EAT..... or a whole EJ tranny. Cheaper than an adaptor plate...... GD

Just remove the door lock and hatch tumblers and have them keyed to the ignition - have the ignition handy so they can determine the key-code since it's obviously different from the passenger tumbler code. Any good locksmith can handle this. GD

You might check to see if the EJ22 flex-plate fits the 4EAT TC..... they didn't change that tranny much when they went to the 2.2 and it might work.... the 2.5 flex-plate/TC is larger than the 2.2 but I'm not sure the 2.2 is larger than the 1.8 4EAT..... definitely larger than the 3AT though - I checked on that one. If it doesn't work - then an early Legacy TC would probably work on the EA 4EAT...... GD

Why not just drop in an EJ22 (you can get a whole first-gen Legacy donor for about $500 or less these days) and get 135 HP without all the monkey business? And then if that's not enough you can substitute an EJ25 bottom end and increase displacement and compression under the EJ22 heads - resulting in about 180 to 190 HP. You'll never come close to this with an EA82 of any flavor. Even a dual carb or a turbo. I congradulate your enthusiasm..... and I've been involved with builds like your's. They eventually end up with some kind of fuel injection setup in the end anyway. Carbs are just too primitive and troublesome - getting them setup for doing one thing really well invariably results in reduced performance under other circumstances. FI has none of the drawbacks and many, many advantages over a carb setup. GD

I've done an EJ swap to a 3AT and the flexplate was matched to the EJ pattern just like any flywheel redrill. Worked great with a standard adaptor plate. I would assume the same would be true for a 4EAT. GD

Hardware store...... 10x1.25.... GD

Almost nothing is compatible. They are different chassis generations. 77 to 81 is first gen. 82 to 87 is second gen. Complete redesign - wider, heavier, bigger engine, etc. GD