GeneralDisorder

Grade 2 is fine. You don't need real hard all thread for this job. GD

The 1/4" line is just there to prevent full manifold vacuum from being present in the line from the PCV valve to the head. It's like drilling a hole in the side of the hose for your vacuum cleaner - it's not going to suck as hard with the hole there as it did before you drilled the hole. Make sense now? The size of the hole is known as the "orifice" size and the size dictates how much vacuum will reach the head and thus how much flow the PCV system will get. The size is somewhat important - it needs to be close to the size of the stock hose that Subaru used to maintain the correct PCV flow characteristics. Thus the 1/4" ID as that is very close to the original hose size (it's probably 6mm ID). GD

EJ timing belts rarely fail. Even the 60k belts will usually last past 100k. It's not that big of a concern in reality. Mostly people prefer the EJ22's because none of the similar generation EJ engines are as reliable. All the early EJ25's have more problems with gaskets and mechanical failures. GD

I would pickup a couple gaskets from the dealer - but that doesn't preclude you reusing the old one's if they are still good. Moisture will damage them eventually as they will rust but if they are not rusted or damaged you can probably reuse them. All-thread is easy to source in the size you need. And it's soft and easily worked with - a hacksaw and a bench grinder or file is all you need to make studs. We never stocked studs at the machinery company I worked for - we stocked all kinds of all-thread (even some left-handed, metric, tool-steel stuff ). You can get any type you can imagine - you can get stainless if you desire and stainless nuts/washers as well. Assuming you have a hacksaw and a file to chamfer the edges with, it shouldn't cost much more than $25 for the whole job including gaskets. (not couting the tap's of course). GD

You need that 1/4" vacuum breaker line to prevent the PCV from sucking oil out of the driver's side head. You can build an adaptor from inexpensive brass fittings at home depot. About $20 will do it. You come off the driver's side head to a standard Subaru plastic T fitting, then one T goes to the PCV valve while the other reduces to 1/4" and goes to the filter. I might have said that if you *didn't* need the vacuum breaker you could just run from the head to the PCV...... but I don't remember. I would have to see the post to figure out what I meant if I said that. GD

I think the idea is that you use studs on both sides of the plate on top. Threaded into the plate, the plate can then be mounted on the engine (after drilling the threads in the bell-housing), and then the transmission can hang on the studs pointing away from the engine. The trick is to just use a smaller OD thread for the engine side studs - this allows enough material so the threads don't interfere with each other and normal studs can be used. Proper location of the alignment dowels prevent incorrect alignment between the input shaft and the pilot bearing in the flywheel. If this isn't done accurately you risk uneven loading on the bearing and potential premature failure of either the pilot or the transmission input shaft bearing. I got my plate from Rguyver and he said he went through about 8 designs before he got the alignment and the fit where he wanted them - though he needs to change his design again to accomidate a pitching stopper mount. Don't forget to add that to your design Will.... GD

So simple - you'll wonder why you never did it before breakfast on Christmas morning. Really - it couldn't be an easier thing to fix. Biggest concern is getting the tap started straight - but in aluminium that's not a difficult task. Just push and turn - you'll get it. GD

Regarding the two top-most holes that are so close together - if you make the outer holes a smaller diameter thread than the inner holes, you can fit both of them on the plate with about 1.5 - 2mm of material left between the two. That's how the laser cut plate I have was done. I beleive the inner's are 10mm, and the outer's are 8mm. Being that it's most common to use the EJ22's in combination with the 5 speed D/R, most of the plates disregard the extra holes of the EJ25's and just go for the bottom studs and the top holes with properly located and chamfered holes for the dowel pins. GD

Not to my knowledge. The Weber is not a DOT approved carb and as such is not technically legal to run except for off-road and racing use. They surely are not legal in CA. Now, if one were to modify the Hitachi's airbox to fit a Weber and it was all hidden down under there with all the emissions systems in place and properly working as well as tuned to give good exhaust numbers - I doubt they would catch it. I'm 100% certain I could do it. But I've also installed dozens of Weber's and I know each and every existing system and how to hook it up properly. It's no small job for the uninitiated. GD

Well - as far as anyone knows, they made the STD hatch till '89 and they started using the side-starter EA71's somewhere in there (I have seen these for certain). So out there somewhere, is a side-starter 4 speed 2WD tranmission to go with it unless at that time they also discontinued the 4 speed's..... That would be a pretty rare item though considering it would only be later '80's STD hatch's that got them and they also made a 4 speed, single range 4WD STD hatch as well as some with 5 speed's (I think)..... so who knows. GD

Cut off the muffler and replace it with a straight pipe. Best bang for your buck. There isn't much point in trying to optimize the exhaust flow on a sub-100 HP engine. Just lose the muffler and it will sound plenty beefy. Might even gain 1/2 HP. GD

It's going to be brand/location specific such that you will have to match a curve to very small subsets of cars. And even then there are components of the data that can't be predicted. Say if Chrysler were to declare bankruptcy tomorrow - all the values of those vehicles would immediately plummet like a stone - people don't want to own a car that has no support for parts/service. Or if someone like Audi decides to pull out of the US market - same scenario. Then there's random spikes that throw off all the other data - throw the Subaru Brat into the data points you are matching and you'll toss the whole curve out of balance. An '82 Brat might command $5,000 in good condition and lower mileage while an '82 GL wagon in similar condition is worth less than $1,000 - yet the Brat was probably cheaper when it was sold off the lot in '82...... data like that plain and simply can't be predicted - you come up with a forumla that tells car makers which cars will become a cult-classic and you will have some folks interested I'm sure. It's an interesting excersize to plot out the data and match it to a curve, but it works for only very narrow subsets of cars and only for short spans of time. At some point the value will begin to rise again as the car reaches an age where there are very few remaining and it becomes "collectible", then an "antique", and finally a "museum peice". GD

No problem - always glad to help. Hope you get it all working again or at least save the engine. My experience with EA81 rod bearing failure is that they don't make a lot of noise for long. The one I had blow made a very soft ticking noise under load that turned into a really nasty sounding knock for about half a mile before it threw it out the block under the manifold. Thus I would tend to think that your noise may be valve or exhaust related rather than a true rod knock. They are very rare and seem to be nearly silent right up till they are about to fail. GD

The seals are the same - sometimes you will find that one of them is different. I suspect that when they were built they used two different seals - one with an extended lip and one without. You can cut the lip off the new seal if you really want to. Bearings are 6207's, but it's best if you go to a bearing house and get 6207-2RS-C3's as they are pre-greased and sealed. Better lifespan and more protection for the grease. GD

Look under the hood - look on the passenger side where the battery is located on the driver's side. There you will either find nothing, or you will find a big black thing with lines and wires comming out of it that will say ABS in large white print. As for the bearings - it's a single outer bearing race with two tapered roller bearing inner races - one for the inside and one for the outside. All the parts are pressed together and you will not be able to service it without either a press and the right adaptors, or a hub-tamer or similar tool. These aren't like the EA stuff where you can get by with a drift punch. They are SERIOUSLY pressed into the hub and take quite a bit of force to remove and install - not to mention being very careful not to damage or deform anything when you do it. I use the "FWD bearing service kit" from Harbor Frieght - you have to be a bit creative with it and you need at least a puller to remove the outer bearing race from the hub in addition to the kit and regular hand tools. A 1/2" impact is also a must to operate the bearing tool - as I noted it's pressed together with enough force to deform the housing if you do it wrong so using a threaded puller/pusher, while possible, still requires application of serious force - in this case in the form of a quality impact gun. Not to say you can't do it, but you will need the right tools. If you don't have the bearing kit it's about $80 from HF, and the replacement bearing runs about $35 plus $6 each for the seals (which the bearing tool also has provision for installing). GD

Install a generic rotary style pump - 3 to 5 psi. Carter's are well liked and are often used on newer Subaru's. I have one in my '91 turbo - no complaints. I wouldn't want some reman from Airtex - maybe that's just me though. GD

I did the conversion - you need both electrical schematics (factory service manual), and a lot of time and patience. The fuel level sender is different as well as the coolant temp sender. Both have to be swapped along with the cluster. I went to an '80 cluster because I like the looks of them and had some issues with diodes that didn't exist in the '80 - I had to add 3 or 4 to my "conversion" harness to make it work. I cut out the wireing harness connectors from the digi-dash's circuit board and made up a special harness using the connectors for the '80 cluster that I cut from the donor car. Thus the car *could* be returned to a digi-dash if I ever wanted to do that as I didn't cut or modify the car's harness in any way to make it work. It probably took me the better part of a week (working on weekends) to get it working. There was a lot of testing involved even with the factory service manuals - I built the harness with bullet connectors in the middle of the wires initially so I could proto-type the thing without it being permanent. Then when I was done I removed them and soldered the wires permenent. I did not bother with making the oil pressure gauge work - the factory one's are garbage anyway and mine is an off-road toy. I installed an autometer 3 gauge panel with volts, temp, and pressure for accurate gauge readings. All the dash does is fuel, tach, speedo, and the tell-tale and clock. The voltage gauge works but I don't use it, and the temp gauge did work but I had to disconnect it as I replaced it's sender with the autometer one. Anyway - I never did a complete write up on it and I've surely lost all the conversion wireing charts I made for the job as I did it 5 or 6 years ago. But it's not impossible if you get the factory diagrams and pin-outs. Just time consuming and annoying. GD

It's not worth a lot. If the dealer gives you a couple K then they are adding it back in somewhere else. It's likely worth $1000 or less. They just aren't desireable. It's an 80's, boxy station wagon and that's all that most people see. People in the know avoid that engine - so your market is very limited. A Legacy is nicer, just as powerful, and more reliable - they can be had for under $1000 any day of the week. An EA82T with 92k is about equivelent to an EJ22 with 192k in terms of reliability and desireability. GD

The turbo is an IHI VF7. Lowering is a whole discussion to itself. Check out the retrofitting forum. As mentioned some Miata parts can be used. There are other methods though and the best methods involve using (quality) aftermarket adjustable coil-overs and they aren't cheap. And yes - don't turn up the boost. Just add an intercooler and make sure you go over the cooling system very well. Heat is the primary enemy of your engine. GD

Your best bet is to just do the analog conversion. It's hell, but finding a good EA81 digi-dash is near impossible and even if you do it's only a matter of time before you blow that one as well. GD

I can almost gaurantee - based on your description - you have blown an air suction reed valve, melted the plastic silencer, and sucked it into the carb. Classic symtoms right down the line. Sticking throttle from the melted plastic, strange running conditions, melted plastic smell, etc, etc. I'll bet you $10 if you look down in the carb you will see melted black plastic. You'll want to disable the reed valve and remove the melted silencer as well as block the rubber line going to the air filter box. If you have two reed valves you should probably just disable both of them while you are at it. Obviously you will have to fish out all the peices of plastic from the carb if you can - if not you may have to tear it down to get it all. I don't think they fuel filter is your problem. That's not going to change your idle speed, mess with the throttle linkage, or make any nasty smells. Although - you say you have a Weber so...... depends on how you hooked it up. Generally the ASV's aren't hooked up but they could be. GD

Try replacing the radiator cap. If that doesn't do it then you probably have a blown head gasket. GD

Nope - that's the EGR line. The one you want is to the right of the EGR and also threaded into the manifold. Follow the breather lines from the heads. GD

The first few I did with a hammer and a punch. Just make sure the dress up the area that you mangle with the punch before you put the ring nut back on. Sometimes the bearings will be stuck to the stub shaft and other times they will not. Just depends on the condition. I typically will try to knock the stub shaft out before I remove the ring nut to try and avoid having the bearings stuck to the shaft. GD

Don't forget to replace the PCV filter inside the airbox and make sure the plastic connectors for the lines are clean inside as well. They have a smaller ID than the lines and tend to collect gunk. A small screwdriver can help dislodge the stuff. GD