GeneralDisorder

I started with carbs when I was a kid. Since then I've done FI swaps on several EA81's and an EJ22 swap into a Brat. But I still love working on the Weber 32/36's and the Quadrajet on my truck. Carbs are great - not the one on your car - those are junk - but replace it with a Weber and you'll love it. GD

Heh - I suppose I'm used to people taking my word around here. Stick around and you'll learn a LOT about that little hatch of your's. I have an '83 GL Hatch myself. It and my '91 SS are my all-time favorite models (for different reasons of course ). GD

They can cause runnng issues - poor idling and missing problems, and they have a high rate of failure. It gets old talking about this menial stuff all the time around here. Most of us know this stuff and quite frankly we figure that if you come here for advice you'll be glad to take our combined decades of experience with these engines. If you want to experiment and find this stuff out on your own you ought to be able to do that well enough without our help. We are telling you that MANY people have solved a multitude of problems by removing brand new plugs of various brands (notably high end Bosch and other "platinum" plugs as well as low-end brands such as Champ's and Autolite's) and replacing them with a cheap set of NGK's. I run plain v-power NGK's on my 75 HP EA81's and my 200+ HP EJ22 Turbo. They never dissapoint at $2 each. I also run an NGK brand wide-band O2 system and NGK narrow-band O2 sensors - all with excelent results. GD

Regular plugs rarely require replacement. Clean and regap is all they need on an EA pushrod engine. If it has NGK's in it now I wouldn't swap them out for Champions - pull the old plugs, file the electrodes with a point file and then properly gap them. Plugs are cheap - about $1-$2 each. Toss the Champions - they can cause issues that may not be immediately apparent. GD

While he did pay for someone to strip the harness (before he enlisted my help), he did the majority of the labor himself with my supervision. I was basically unpaid - just wanted to participate from an educational perspective. Prior to me stepping in he had already bought a bunch of stuff - some of which wasn't correct or was uneccesary. His point is simply that his lack of knowledge and skills led him down the wrong path on buying parts on more than one occasion. What should be pointed out is that Jacob's Brat was built expressly for the purpose of Rally-X racing and his desire was to have it as reliable and trouble-free as possible. As such, my sugestions on how to spend his money were toward that end and to get the thing moving as quickly as possible. Lots of money went to OEM parts that may or may not have needed replacement (new O2 sensor, replace cracked knock sensor, etc) because he didn't have the time to screw around - it needed to run right the first time to make it to the first race. Even at that we had an unexpected ignitor failure that rendered it inoperable after only a single run. I think his point is that he traded money for insureing it would be right the first time and not gambling on old used parts. GD

NGK plugs, and wires from the dealer. Depending on if the engine is a turbo or not - I would replace them at every 60k service interval. More often on the Turbo's - they don't like large plug gaps. GD

The oil squirters were of dubious benefit at best. Mostly they just fall out of the crank and end up in the oil pan. The 22B impreza, which used the same block and put down 300+ HP didn't have them. There were a hedge-bet for the US market and don't really do much. The standard practice when building/rebuilding EJ22T's is to block the oil-squirt ports with set-screws. I would agree though - you don't want to pull out the turbo engine. They are excelent engines and while you could run a non-turbo at about 5 psi or less it wouldn't be as durrable as the turbo block. You will ruin the value of the car as well. Turbo's are worth several times what a non-turbo is worth and non-turbo cars are everywhere. GD

It is my opinion, based on a lot of bearing work over the years, that there is no way to press out a hub and then press it back in that will not incur potential damage to the bearings. Anytime press force is transmitted through the rolling elements of the bearings you incur potential for damage. There are cases where the design of the bearing and bearing pocket, etc have enough clearance that it can be done but that is NOT the case with Subaru wheel bearings. The force needed to dislodge the hub from the bearing inner race is considereable and can only be done by using the bearing as your press adaptor... thus transmitting the full tonnage of the press through the rolling elements of the inner bearing. That is BAD and anytime a Subaru wheel bearing must be pressed out it should ALWAYS be replaced. There is no grey area here. You cannot remove a Subaru wheel bearing component without replacing them - it is not done and it should not be done. Any dealer will tell you the same. Find another shop - those guys are amatures. GD

Everything went very well. He picked it up and was quite pleased. He talked to a friend of his with a '98 Sebring and he had a similar tale of woe that involved he and his wife being stranded after dinner one night - also a distributor failure and no warning at all. So he's thankful that it didn't leave his wife stranded somewhere and that I was able to get it fixed and on the road quickly and at greatly reduced cost over the dealership. He said he's sending all his friends to me...... so I guess in a way I should thank Mitsi for keeping me working GD

No - you do have to remove the lower portion of the kick-panel under the steering column. It's about 4 to 6 screws or those threaded push-lock deals. I just pull it and leave it off while troubleshooting, etc. Note that if you leave the panel off, when the CEL comes on durring normal driving you can just pull over and leave the engine running - the code will flash on the ECU regardless of what mode you have the test plugs in. GD

The lamp that flashes the codes is on the side of the ECU itself. Under the steering column. The white connectors are used to retrieve stored codes. The green connectors are to put the car into D-Check test mode or to set the timing. All of them are DISCONNECTED for normal operation. The other connectors in that group are for the dealership diagnostic computer. GD

Yeah - I got it fixed - not much thanks to the people on the Chrysler forum. I swear those people are a few beers short of a 6 pack. Hate having to call the guy and tell him he's got to fork out another $400 for a distributor and installation . Oh well - I guess that's the game when you own a Mitsi. 6 months ago he put in a new transmission. So at 93k miles it's eaten a tranny, radiator, and distributor. I hear these V6's are notorious for crank-walk problems as well. Yikes! GD

Change the fuel filters first. Other than that it's probably wanting a carb refresh. Distributor cap gasket is gone or shot. Subaru's don't like them. NGK is the gold standard for Subaru engines. 100% of the members here will tell you the same thing. Yes but it won't fit your engine. Manifold is too long for the 1.6 DOHC EJ turbo engines are very difficult to fit. Suspension requires custom work - it's not bolt-in. Very few people have done either of those with an EA81 (EA71) body. Very unlikely it would be targeted for theft. Too old, too undesireable, and not 4WD. Best way to do a kill switch is to interrupt the ground signal to the fuel pump. They won't get far without gas. GD

That stuff could have been changed over the years and obviously you have an aftermarket stereo - the stock front speakers in a DL/GL would be in the dash not the doors (where that coin pocket is near your left knee and between the dash vents above the glove box) . 1600 with a 4 speed FWD is defintely a STD layout. Looks like you don't have *actual* carpet from what I can see - it's all rubber around the shifter in that picture. That's what I'm refering to - not the floor mats. The carpet they do have doesn't fully cover all floor surfaces and it's a more industrial, less plush version. You defintely have a STD model. That's for certain. Some things have been changed/added but it's still not a DL. They are rare and were only offered for 1 or 2 years - 80 and 81 models and only on 4WD's. The advantage is in how the radio is installed but it's not as big of an issue now that non-mechanical decks are on the market that are shallow and can fit the normal console. You should only use NGK plugs. If they are some other brand pitch them. GD

If it is the transmission you are going to have a very hard time finding a replacement. Your best bet is an early 1600 5 speed instead. Should bolt up the same just with an extra gear. It's either that or swap out the engine as well since they stopped using the top-mount starter 1600's in like '82. The STD's are sweet little cars though - if you decide you can't or won't be fixing it - I might be interested in it. I've always wanted a STD platform to build a wheeler from and I could care less about the engine or transmission. I just need the shell. GD

That's not a DL - it's a STD (standard). They were even more stripped than the DL's. Didn't even have carpet. Plain clear dome light, single speaker radio, etc, etc. And it would be a 4 speed 2WD. They did not even have 5 speed's. GD

It would not be a 5 speed unless the transmission AND the engine were swapped out to later versions. STD's came in 4 speed single range 4WD, and 4 speed 2WD - they never came with any flavor of 5 speed. GD

There is typically a way to shove a thin, stiff insturment down into the connectors to pop the spade or pin out of them. Just look closely and you will see how they work. You need to do some soldering most likely. The door lock indicator will be on as long as the doors aren't locked. . Normal for those cars. GD

That is the size, but the stock hoses are anything but standard (they are formed hoses with special bends in them). You can just replace them with generic hose though - get about 5 feet of 5/8" heater core hose. Works fine. GD

What you guys might be experienceing is a bad cone-washer. People beat the hell out of them trying to get the hub off and then they don't seat properly and lock down to the shaft. That causes them to shift and eventually to wear to a point where the axle nut is loose even though it was torqued to spec. If the nut comes loose again and the noise returns you are going to have to dissasemble things to inspect the hub, cone, and so forth. Replacement of the hub and cone is typical for this type of failure. Junk yard parts are usually sufficient if they aren't similarly damaged. GD

You can slice the hose with a razor to get them off the nipple. But if there is that much corrosion it's time to wire-wheel those nipples and fill in any divets, etc with something like Devcon and then file it smooth so you don't have leaks in the future. Replace the hoses with generic 5/8" heater core hose. GD

You are making the right choice. It would be a LOT of work to convert a non-turbo to run with forced induction - and by simply buying a turbo car you get all the goodies they came with - VLSD ('91 only), larger sway bars, sport tuned suspension, much larger brakes, turbo engine cross-member, turbo radiator (doesn't fit the NA core support), leather accented interior, sun-roof, premium sound system, and just a whole bunch of things that no one ever thinks about. It's really the total package so that even if you were to take an NA car and bolt on a turbo, etc - you would still have a car that handled, stopped, and rode like an NA car - just with way more power than those components were meant to support..... because they *look* the same on the outside (besides the badging and the scoop), people assume that it's the same car but with a turbo added on. When in reality there is very little that the two have in common. They didn't even share engine block castings or transmissions - about the only thing that is the same is the connecting rods strangely enough.... and of course body panels and interior and trim cross over, etc. But mechanically they are almost different cars making it very difficult to duplicate one. Just keep looking. Something will come along. Even an automatic that you can swap a WRX 5 speed into - those go cheap if they have bad transmissions typically. GD

Yep - it could have damaged the hub splines - those are typically softer than the steel in the half-shaft so they get chewed up rather than the shaft. If there was prolonged vibration involved it could have damaged the wheel bearings as well. They might be ok but they might fail in a few thousand miles. GD

People have used the 38 DGAS - virtually all of them agree that it's too large. Progression issues are rampant and the amount of fuel they eat is terrible - for virtually no gain. The 32/36 is large enough for small V6's so a little 1.8 is nothing for it. As to the VW comment - that's a completely different world. They don't have to deal with coolant and the cylinder jugs just unbolt from the bottom end. It's a much simpler operation to bore out or simply upgrade an air-cooled than it is to deal with the Subaru EA engine. About the only source of monster power for the EA81 is forced induction and about 200 HP is the reliable limit. Cost is prohibitive - $10,000 for a 200 HP EA81 vs. about $3,000 for a 265 HP EJ20G front clip from Japan...... GD

Where are you seeing this "water in the oil"? If it's just on and around the breather ports on the valve covers then you need to address a PCV system flow issue. If it's actually milkshake in the pan then you have either head gasket or freeze plug issues. EA81 head gasket failures are pretty rare. That is a very stout little engine and will take a serious amount of abuse without popping the head gaskets typically. Being these engines do not have overhead cams, etc. The actual head gasket replacement procedure is a cake-walk. I could do one in probably just a few hours. Other than the rocker assembly bolts that slip out through holes in the frame rail, the head will slide off the studs in the block without removing the engine from the vehicle. The most critical aspects are that you use the Fel-Pro perma-torque head gaskets but get the intake and exhaust manifold gaskets from the DEALER ONLY. I can't stress that enough. Aftermarket (including Fel-Pro) are total junk. Make sure to prep the surfaces well - soft wire wheel on the intake manifold and head port and 3M pad on the block and heads if you don't have the heads surfaced. GD