GeneralDisorder

He's only going to beleive you till his inexperience catches up to his build then your stories of unicorns and rainbows are going to fade real quick. Here's the honest truth kid. You *can* do everything Rob says but he's twice or three times your age, has a ton of mechanical experience, and it took him blowing like three or four of these wonderful little gem's to get to where he's at now, and he's running an expensive, completely rebuilt block. He's got more into that RX than it's worth, and frankly could have bought a used WRX with the price tag. A mentor will only take you so far. You WILL blow that engine - probably just by driving it like you stole it in stock form. You even look at it cross-eyed with a wrench in one hand and it's done for sure. Go buy a car with a future. I won't waste your time and mine by saying anymore. If you want my opinion you can run a search, but don't say you weren't warned. GD

Sounds like the hydraulic piston isn't hitting the clutch fork. Is the fork moving? GD

Are you talking about Automatic or manual. If you are talking 5 speed they haven't switched - all the 5 speed's are Center Diff w/VC. There is absolutely zero electronics in a Subaru 5MT. If you are talking automatic, then they switched to electronic control in 1988 with the advent of the 4EAT transmission (which is still being used in upgraded form). Prior to that there was a 3AT (not electronic) 3 speed automatic that did work off a VC center coupler (no diff) for the rear output. You can expect exactly what you put into the tranny out of it. If you regularely flush the fluid and change it and make sure to not overheat it, or run it with wildy dissimilar tire wear/inlfation then they will last the life of the car. If you don't heed the proper maintenance then they will have transfer clutch and duty-c solenoid failure. GD

Upgrade? Probably not. Most Gen 1 stuff won't fit other than the mechanicals which are, for all intents and purposes, identical. Only if it's a turbo. And if you are looking for one with an LSD they were only equipped with same in '91. All subsequent years were open. As far as manual transmissions, they were AWD only. The AT's were capable of locking into 1st or 2nd gear via a "manual" button. This is designed for better traction on snow, etc. But that's not a "4WD" lock. They can be modified via the duty-c solenoid to lock into 4WD in a 60/40 configuration but so can your '95. Yes but you really don't want the '91 turbo LSD as it uses "outie" axles instead of the "innie" style that your '95 uses. The WRX diff would work fine. I don't think you will notice it at all with an automatic though - auto's don't put any more power to the rear end than they need for the wheels to not slip. They are basically 2WD cars till the front wheels spin and then they transfer power to the rear. So an LSD on the rear that only get's 20% torque transfer unless the front's are slipping? And the LSD's are actually VLSD's and only work at speed - thus they do absolutely nothing for a standing start - speeds aren't high enough, fluid isn't hot in the viscous coupler and you aren't turning..... huge wasted effort IMO. The VLSD comes into it's own when coupled with a manual tranny and 50/50 torque split. Then you can really get the VLSD to push you around corners - it's quite a lot of fun. I have a '91 Turbo Sport Sedan and I love it! You can have manual control - just hook into the duty-c solenoind and you can lock that tranny into 60/40 split 4WD (it will bind around corners just like a 4WD). Which is a great feature and one that the manual AWD's don't have. It's a couple wires and a toggle switch on the dash. Really quite simple. GD

Ok - I'm confused - what *specific* questions do you have. Your '95 AT probably is a 4.11 rear diff. But there likely won't be a sticker on it. You can count the ring gear teeth in it though if you really want to. But please lay out some specific questions if you have any - I have worked on a ton of gen 1 and 2's so I can probably answer. GD

Well - while that surely did occur, and in my own driveway sits my '91 Turbo (OBD-I) with a 3" stainless, catless, turbo-back system..... I don't think the legislation that created the OBD-II system was entirely because of people removing the cats as the VAST preponderance of cars on the road on completely unmodified. It was merely to make the "self-diagnostic" system more robust and to detect failures which would lead to poor emmissions quality but otherwise go unoticed by the consumer. They aren't after us folks that modify our engines. They are after the 99 other people that don't. Easier target and better returns for the investment by far. If they come after me I'll just find another way around it. If I have to buy two identical cars and pull the freakin dash out each time I hit the emissions place so the VIN matches..... see what I mean? The system (IE "The Man") can't beat us. So why would they try? Answer - they really don't. GD

It is under the manifold on the passenger side. A 3/8" drive extension with a 12mm socket can reach it from behind the manifold. You just remove the long, black intake snorkel, and the idle air control hose and it comes out from behind the manifold. It's a blue, two pin connector. They always fail it seems and the dealer wants about $80 for a new one so the resistor is a nice $5 fix. I get one from the junk yard and if it's not good, cut the connector off, and solder in the resistor. GD

All the tanks are the same except the Hatchback. It has a shorter wheelbase and as such it also has a shorter tank. Wagon, Coupe, Sedan and Brat tanks are identical. But all the one's on that site are for EA82's, not EA81's so they won't work anyway. GD

I will definitely look into that. I'll be doing her's in the near future. They are making that humming at freeway speeds. GD

I seriously doubt that. Who knows where it originated, but people have been doing this since shortly after OBD-II came out. I first learned about it while searching for an easy fix for a bad cat code on a Hyundia. It's not a Subaru specific mod and works on many OBD-II vehicles - they all have a #2 O2 sensor to check the efficiency of the cat and they are all subject to cat failure and most of them will respond to this mod. GD

Yeah I rebuild them all the time - usually cost's about $200 US for the carb, rebuild kit, jets, adaptor plate, etc if you find one used. Something is all wrong with your price. GD

Depends on how you look at it - I rarely get rid of the carbs - I just transfer them to the next vehicle. GD

Any of the Weber DGV's are a good choice. The DGV-5A is the manual choke, the DGEV is the electric choke, and the DGAV is the water choke. Here in the US we generally buy the Redline carb adaptors - they are the US distributor for Weber's and parts. GD

If you get a '99 and up they have the phase II SOHC engine. Much better. My Mom's has 234k on it and runs like a champ. They suffer from short-term-rear-wheel-bearing-failure-syndrome. Just know that you will be replaceing them every 50k. GD

Yeah - I get it now. I don't always see things that are so simple and obvious to others. In my mind the ratio was determined by the TWO gears and counting both their teeth. Counting only one infer's that you know all the common ratio's and that you have seen all the possible pinion gear tooth counts. If you are aren't 100% sure that it "has to be one or the other" then there's still some ambiguity..... especially with oversea's products. If you count 39 teeth you might conclude that it has a 3.9 ratio - but might it not also have a 3.54 ratio? or a 4.33 ratio? In the US we can say no but *I* don't have any freakin clue what AUS and NZ got ya know? Damn I love my Avatar...... GD

Confirm - found my docs on the EJ's - the EJ20 non-turbo was 155 HP and has a redline of 7500 RPM. 20 HP increase over the 2.2 and 1000 RPM higher redline. Thus the beefy construction. GD

IIRC, from some docs I've read the JDM EJ20's were quite bit more powerful than the EJ22's we got in the states. Something on the order of 150 to 160 HP. Head design, cam profile, higher RPM, etc. GD

Well - here in the states they sell manual choke conversion kits for about $10 or so. It's just a plastic cover that replaces the choke spring housing. It's got a hole in it that a lever goes through and then you attach a cable to the lever and away you go. I did one to an EA81 Hitachi - wasn't hard at all really. The problem you run into is that the "throw" of the tiny lever is so short that there's not a lot of feel to the choke control. The pull knob in the cabin only moves about 3/4" from full open to full close. I never corrected this but you could if you made the lever longer..... I pulled the carb off and went with a used Weber DGV-5A that I rebuilt. It was designed for a manual choke and has a lot longer throw to the choke control. The knob moves about 2" from full open to full close. Just pickup one of those kits from like summitracing, or wherever you shop in NZ..... should have instructions that you can mostly follow. I think I made a few small improvements to the kit I bought as it was cheesy and cheap and I tightened up it's action with a few modifications. I still have the carb but I don't use it - don't use the Hitachi's for anything anymore. GD

Don't worry about the purge code - won't affect how it runs in the least. You can get rid of it by replaceing the purge solenoid with a 33 Ohm, 5 watt resistor - that will get rid of the light. The original Knock sensors were flawed and crack with age. There is an updated part from the dealer - it's $65 or so and has a white plug instead of the original grey. Takes about 10 minutes to replace that sensor. It's behind and slightly under the intake manifold on the driver's side rear of the engine block. I have never had a replacement knock sensor still pull a code. Even on my Turbo where the last 10" of the harness to it was melted on a failed engine block - I replaced the wire and it runs fine to this day without the sheilding even. GD

You have been directed to read this then I take it? http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/DiagTroubSum04.pdf Sounds like you are a walking, talking example of this intermittant neutral switch in action. The neutral switch is reporting that the tranny is in neutral when it is not - thus the engine tries to idle back, fails because it's under a load, dies and sets the code. The idle air controller is working but the ECU thinks it isn't - because it refuses to do what the ECU wants it to - when in fact the ECU is doing the wrong thing due to poor data collection. Sounds like they are describing your problem to me. Am I not understanding correctly? Oh and the neutral switch is on the side of the tranny - doesn't have anything to do with the clutch being pushed or not. GD

Outback tranny should be a 4.11. It's the non-outback's that are 3.9... but double check for sure. Actually you just made me see clearly that you in fact *can* tell the ratio from this method. I hadn't thought about just infering how many pinion teeth it has but that does work and you are correct - 39 = 3.9 and 37 = 4.11. I suspect you will count 37 on the outback tranny but if it's 39 then you'll need the matching diff. Yes - you may now proceed with the beer. The ratio difference is so very small - I don't think you will have an issue with it. I put a 4.11 tranny into a 3.9 car and I couldn't tell the difference and as far as I know the new owner can't either. But I still think the tranny is the same 4.11 you have now..... GD

Perhaps the jammed rotor was strong enough to cause a loose t-belt to jump a tooth. I've seen t-belts jump time. The EA82 belts are especially prone if the tensioner isn't tight enough - being mechanically tensioned and thin I could easily see that happening. Though I would think it would break the distributor first. But I don't know - that's my best guess. GD

Yeah I try to deal with... um.... the name escapes me - the one in the back right corner. Julie never gives me the good prices and she's not very personable. Paul and the other woman that's been there forever always do. They sold me the blanks with the LED light in them maybe a year ago and said they couldn't cut them for my '91 Sport Sedan..... maybe it was that their machine was broken at the time or something. I know for sure they couldn't cut one for my Brat. They don't have that tool anymore apparently. GD

Yes - disconnect the fuel pump, run it till it stops and then crank till it's not trying to start anymore - pump the throttle to expel fuel from the accelerator pump. Fuel being pulled into the cylinder can wash down the oil from the rings. You test it with the throttle wide open (choke pulled off), all plugs out. Then start cranking - it should come up to it's max reading in about 5 compressions strokes - which is about 20 revolutions (4 stroke engine - only one in 4 is a comp. stroke). If you see any wide variation after doing that, then you need to do a leak-down test on each cylinder to determine the reason for it. I like to roll the engine over on the comp. stroke as I'm doing the leak-down to see if there are any bad spots in the cylinder as well as listening for intake and exhaust valve's not seating. EA81T's will have lower comp. numbers but still not typically that low. Around 120 psi or so give or take. They are also hydro lifter engines so it's probably not a T block. Valve adjust takes like 15 minutes - get that done - it's easy. GD

Get the bolt out and heli-coil it. Should go back together. These engines are reliable enough on the bottom end that I would just fix it. GD