GeneralDisorder

Yeah - I'm sure labor is near nothing compared to what it is here. It's not at all unusual for a shop to charge $75 to $100 an hour for "skilled" autmotive work of any kind - be it mechanical or body shop work. What's your labor rate down there on mechanical work? I bet it's less than I charge from my own garage - cost of living here in the US is high. GD

Oh - and if it's clear coated it's not original. Subaru used single-stage paint back in those days so it wouldn't have clear from the factory. Might be a dealer option or it's common to see that on older body work from say a light fender-bender when the car was closer to new. GD

Just color-sand it and put some new clear coat on. You can do it yourself. GD

The antenna wire is only a short one - like 10" or so and then you will find the *real* antenna connector. You can add an extension wire to that from any stereo shop when/if you want to install something different. But yeah - the wire on the back of the unit is not easily removable. And actually those deck's are fine but you will probably find (if you look) that the speakers are shot from age. It wouldn't be a bad idea to replace those - the stock deck will just sound that much better if you do. Especially the front door speakers - easy and cheap. GD

Most likely 8x1.25 yes. GD

Incidentally - how do you know you don't have power to the fuel pump? With FPCU cars the pump only runs durring cranking and running (when there is a tach signal). Just turning on the ignition will not power the pump. GD

Heh - $1500 would be a crap job - you are looking at $500 to $750 in materials (quality multi-stage paint, clear coat, prep and finish materials, etc) and the labor is just nuts. Try more like $3,500 to $5,000 for a decent paint job. The bed drives the price up as well. Add significant body work and ding repair and the price just keeps climbing. GD

86 DL should be carbed.... It will have a fuel pump control unit instead of a relay (it is the relay) under the dash. Look for a black blox about 2"x3" with a 6 pin connector near the relays or above the hood release cable bracket. The wire going to the pump is usually a blue with red stripe. The control unit will also have a yellow tach signal, black ground wire, and an ignition hot supply (white I think). GD

If you don't adjust them they will get tighter just like the DOHC H4's and you'll burn an exhaust valve when the clearance closes to zero. Seriously - don't ignore that service. I just did an EJ25D with a burned valve at 170k due to a lack of proper valve adjustment. GD

On EA81's the 4WD's were Hitachi in stock form. That does NOT apply to EA82's. It's also only a loose rule of thumb because many have been swapped, replaced, changed or the whole engine swapped out, etc. There's mix/match stuff all over the place on cars this old so it's not a hard and fast rule. For parts ordering purposes you will find the 4WD's should have Hitachi's listed while the 2WD's have ND's. GD

Make a new post asking for people in your area willing to help. That's what this board is all about. Someone will likely have a garage and need a few extra $$ plus has the skills. Also check on www.legacycentral.org - good guys over there - and possibly NASIOC as well - there's a lot of folks with skills there too. Just be careful about the fanboys over there as there are a lot of kids that probably don't know what they are doing. It *is* a coolant flow issue - the coolant stops flowing due to the exhaust gas bubble that displaces coolant into the overflow bottle. That is still a head gasket issue - thus the comments above about loosening the purge port on the radiator to vent the exhaust gasses - the system will never reach proper pressure when vented like that though. It is probably not the thermostat. They don't randomely overheat in the middle of driving due to a bad t-stat. Either they stick open or closed (usually closed) - they don't just randomely clamp shut. Typically you see them stick closed and simply overheat immediately. GD

Understandable - they should warantee them if the boots are still good. Won't cover your labor and will probably fail in another few months - just the nature of those NAPA axles. Many, many folks have been burned by their axles. Personally I don't ever shop at NAPA anymore. Their tendacy to rebrand everything to their own house label and the overall poor quality of the parts I've received time and again from them has soured me on the chain. I now shop through Lithia Subaru in Oregon City, Discount Import Parts in Milwaukie, and occasionally through Baxter's Auto Parts. The rest I buy online through www.rockauto.com, www.summitracing.com, and a few times through Amazon, etc. GD

Used is the way to go on those - they almost never fail so $10 from a yard is a much better solution. GD

The devil you know vs. the devil you don't...... I would fix it. If your dad has enough tools to pull the engine and do the head gaskets (I do NOT reccomend you do them in-car) then go for it. It's not that bad of a job. Only "special" tools you need are an engine hoist (which you can rent for $25 a day, etc) and a torque wrench - which for a single head gasket job the $20 Harbor Frieght model will work. Figure a week of down-time if you work on the weekend. You will have to have the heads resurfaced and that can take a day or three depending on how busy the machine shop you use is. If you pull the engine after work on a weekday you might be able to drop the heads off and pick them up the next day and then have it back in within just a couple days turn-around. Line up your ducks before you pull the trigger - get the engine hoist rental figured out, machine shop location/price/turn-around time, alternate transportation, etc. Pulling the thermostat will not result in a totallly non-functional heater. It will get mostly up to temp just run a little cold. Heater should still function adequately. They also sell some cigarette lighter heaters that will work in a pinch. If you get really cold you can set the passenger seat on fire GD

Let's here a "Hooray!" for it not being my timing belt job Sorry man - I should have known when that thing bit me that those plug wires were suspect. I thought you had it sorted with that ground wire but I think that just shunted the "bite" away from your brother's hand . GD

EMPI makes some decent axles - I have run a set for over 4 years now on my hatch - I now have a bad boot on one of them but they are still going strong. They are brand new axles - not reman. They are made in China but EMPI is a well-recognized quality aftermarket brand in the VW community. I have had good luck with all the one's I've used on all models of Subaru's and other cars. So far - other than a boot failure - I have not had to replace one. I get them for $69 each from Discount Import Parts here in Portland. GD

Also - if you could do the rear transfer section mods you are talking about for an older D/R tranny (won't be that much different from the '99 up tranny - I have had both apart and that section is very similar between EJ and EA 5 speed's) then those of us that are running these in a Subaru don't actually need the reverse R&P and thus it could still be a marketable product. I would definitely buy a 61:1 transfer section for a 5 speed D/R and I know there's a LOT of people on here that would also be saving their pennies for one if such a product were marketed. There's already a couple members here doing a pretty decent business in lift kits - if lower gearing were to come along all those people would want one and it would attract more people over to the subaru off-roading community. Possibly some who actually have money . GD

NGK is a great value for wires and we all use their plugs - I have not had an issue with either and have used many of each as well as their NTK oxygen sensor line. Love all their products. Only time I don't use NGK wires is on my EJ turbo engines. I use OEM for those because they are much more sensitive to ignition parts. GD

If you want to visit Portland I do that kind of work - just as you say - personalized service from my own garage. I have quite a few older Subaru owners in your general area that make the trek to my garage - strange as that sounds. I guess *honesty* and *value* are hard to find anywhere these days - sad that it's come to that eh? PM me if you are interested GD

You *could* punch the guts out of the thermostat and it might be ok like that for a while. Running it too cold is still much better than running it too hot. I've seen this work on cars with bad head gaskets - it sometimes will do the job for a long time because the engine doesn't get hot enough for the "leak" to really open up and start dumping exhaust gas into the system. I bought a '97 Legacy where this was done and drove it 150 miles home without incident or coolant loss - didn't find out about the gutted thermostat till I tore it apart for a timing belt. When I put in a new Subaru t-stat it overheated within 15 minutes of driving. I changed the radiator and t-stat again and bled the system but it didn't help. I replaced the head gaskets and all is well with it now. Might be a temp fix for you - easy enough to try anyway. GD

If the gauge spikes it's too hot. The guages in these cars are what we call "dummy gauges" - they sit at halfway over a wide range of temperature. They have to get pretty hot for them to actually register higher than half. Better safe than sorry - $15 in oil vs. replacing an engine. GD

A range of pricing is typical of a shop that works more closely with the customer - I do that all the time. The difference is that *some* people like to have choices - choices on brands of parts used, choices on what to replace that is "labor free" because of the engine being apart for something else already.... etc. The $1950 quote is from a different type of shop - the way they do business is different - you drop it off and they call you when it's done. Whatever needs to be replaced *in their opinion* for them to warantee their work is what is done and the high quote is to cover their asses. If it comes in well under that then the rest is just pure profit because you aren't going to see a dime of it. You need to STOP DRIVING IT. Every time you overheat the engine you comprimise the oil - a few of these and you will be very dissapointed when you replace the head gaskets and the rod bearings fail in another 10k miles. You should, at the very least, change the oil EVERY time it overheats. You will kill it if you don't. There are certain costs that are built-in to that job - parts and machine work mostly. The parts, fluids, filters, etc will run about $400 and the machine work is typically about $200 to have the heads fully rebuilt and surfaced. That's $600 that's built in. Labor would be about 8 to 10 hours at whatever their shop-rate is. About 2 to 3 to pull the engine, 1 to 2 to tear it down, and then about those figures on the assembly and installation side as well. I charge $40 an hour and that works out to about $400. So typically a head gasket/valve job runs about $1000 out the door for people that bring these to me. I would be wary of any "import" shop - what brand parts do they use, etc? Subaru's do not like many of the aftermarket parts that are availible and some of them need to be downright avoided for a lasting repair. Head gaskets are a big deal and they are ONLY bought at the dealer by people around this community. Same goes for all the other gaskets used in that engine and also a few other choice items like the thermostat, etc. GD

Yeah - flashing CEL indicates a misfire - that's the only time they flash. It's to get the driver's attention to stop them from destroying the cat. I can't see the belt skipping - everything is new in there. Something would have had to go really, really wrong for that to happen. With all new parts and belt that seems highly unlikely. The fact that the coil pack bit me (and you) when we touched it has got to play into this somehow...... maybe that plug wire was loose all along and just now decided not to spark. Or perhaps something is actually wrong with the coil pack. I know Discount Import Parts has NGK's in stock. Pretty sure anyway. Probably about $25 or so. GD

Holy crap! I'm in a couple of those pics and my wagon is too . Speaking of my wagon - it started today for the first time in a long while and may be on the road by the date of the run. I shall try to make it this year. Been a long time ('07 IIRC) since it's seen the road - let alone snow! GD

I would have to wonder why they are selling it so cheap - but if it has a clear title and clear carfax then I would guess they just got a smoking deal on it from a trade-in and want it off the lot. There's not a lot of things that can go wrong with these at 88k. Perhaps they aren't that familar with Subaru's and the market for them in TX is small? Look it over carefully for fluid leaks, etc. Ask for maintenance records if they have them or can get them. But otherwise - if it runs and drives fine with no strange noises I don't see any reason not to buy it. GD