GeneralDisorder

Yep - see my comment above about about people that buy cars for no good reason at all except to one-up their neighbor. My industry (industrial machinery) uses a lot of synthetics. And for good reason I might add. They really do work - although it's *mostly* just a way to keep from changing the oil so often. Don't do your proper oil analysis and submit the paperwork on it and you'll void your warranty - I kid you not! I work on a lot of German pumps. They are the most silly, obtusely designed things imaginable sometimes. I don't know what it is about the German engineers, but I do get sick of their shenanigans at times. German cars are no different (especially the newer stuff), and thus I would expect the type of people that gravitate towards owning them either have no sense of practicality at all, or simply own them for their "prestige" and just don't give a damn how much it costs. Either way - those folks can all go broke putting synthetics in their cars - I'll just laugh at them and their gullibility. GD

Heli-coils are designed to return a completely stripped hole (no threads left at all) back to the correct thread size and pitch. They generally include a drill and a tap to oversize the hole in preperation for the installation of the coil itself. So to answer your question - no that's not a problem. Trust me - I do this stuff every day. A simple heli-coil will fix your problem. GD

Heli-coil is much easier and the result will be stronger than the original threads. What is your issue with making a simple thread repair? GD

I think he bought the car (running) with that carb setup already on it. The swap seems to have been done by the previous owners. As for the sight glass - I don't think I have any EA82 carbs around here to look at. I have a single EA81 Hitachi that I keep for no good reason at all - it's a spare and I've rebuilt it so on the shelf it sits..... GD

As far as what's wrong with the EA82 - some of it is the heads, yes. Up to about 200 HP it's the heads and the head gaskets and the head bolts. Here's how you get to 200 HP: 1. Switch the head bolts to studs. ARP will make you a set for about $1000. They are a totally oddball size - 11mm. Note that you have to remove the engine from the car if you want to pull a head when using studs. The reason they used bolts is so you wouldn't have to do that. 2. O-ring the block. It's the only way you are going to get the fire-ring on the head gaskets to hold the pressure. 3. Forged pistons. Another custom animal but not as expensive as the studs. 4. MegaSquirt and very good monitoring equipment. You need to monitor EGT's for both heads, cylinder head temps, wideband for mixture control, and a lot of hope and prayer that you don't have an injector fail..... That would get you to a reliable 200 HP. Beyond that and you are talking about more than the 3 main bearing crank can handle and the heads would never make it. And at the end of the day it will never be as cheap or reliable as an NA EJ22 with 5 pound of boost - which generally comes in around the same 200 HP. GD

SPFI = 90 HP Early MPFI = 95 HP Spider MPFI = 105 HP USDM Turbo MPFI = 115 HP JDM/EMD Turbo MPFI = 135 HP At least that's how I have it remembered. Someone will correct any errors I'm sure.... GD

I think pretty much every Hitachi carb made in that era has a sight glass. I know the one's on the Suzuki Samurai's had them as well. Just judging by the backwoods, cobbled together nature of that car I wouldn't think they would have modified the manifold to fit the EA81 carb the the EA82 manifold. The bolt pattern is different. It's definitely an EA81 airbox though - that they cut the air intake bit with the carb heater port off of. Maybe the throttle base for the EA82 carb would fit the EA81 top?!? I doubt that but it's the only way I could think of that it could have an EA81 carb on it. GD

Looks like they used an EA81 airbox but that is definately the EA82 manifold and carb. In one of his pictures you can see where the upper radiator hose is located which gives away the EA82 manifold - the EA81 carb won't bolt to the EA82 manifold so I'm assuming it's got a complete EA82 setup on it. It wouldn't cost that much to go back to SPFI. Check and see if the ECU is still there or not..... you can post in the wanted forum for the parts. I'm sure someone has a setup they would sell. GD

Exhaust tubing is very thin wall. Running a decent bead on it is difficult for beginners. A small MIG welder is best - running gas sheilding. You need to clean the area to be welded very well in order to run a decent bead. GD

Unless it was bored oversized with a legitimate boring plate, there's potential for the liners to break loose (they are cast-in liners) and spin in the block. The stresses of having the heads bolted to the block must be simulated by bolting a 3" or thicker steel boring plate to the block before the machining takes place. I wouldn't risk it - not unless this guy has a lot of knowledge and has built a few of them. Why is he giving it up? Sounds like he's put some effort into the thing. I'm skeptical, but them I'm not there in person to evaluate him or his supposedly rebuilt EA82T. Also, I know it doesn't need to be said, but no amount of rebuilding or machining will help that engine. Only way to help it is to melt it down and recast it as an EJ22. GD

They are for the air inejction system - which you may or may not have had. The only engines made with non-AIS spacers were feedback carb models and they had an AIS spacer on only one side - the other side had a "blank" spacer. Good luck finding one. You are better off welding the port closed on the one's he's offering you. GD

Synthetic is great stuff - if you need it. The question then becomes - who needs it and why? Synthetic's are superb at handling high heat loads for a significantly longer period of time than non synthetic oils. Beyond that - right up to the point that the conventional oil begins to break down - there are no significant differences. Also one must consider the possilbility that switching to synthetics will adversely affect the seals and gaskets in your 20+ year old engine. Synthetics have a larger quantity of additives as well as different additives entirely than conventional oils - this is needed to allow them to go 10's of thousands of miles before oil changes (with top-offs and filter changes of course). This radical difference in additives will not likely be friendly to the old seals and gaskets in your engine. Personally, synthetics aren't my choice for older engines - for one the 5,000 mile oil change is a good time to look everything else over and check other fluid levels. I don't use synthetics in my engines - even in the cases where I have rebuilt them completely. The reason? I don't have the time nor the inclination to do oil analysis testing - which is important to both maximize the value of synthetics, and to pinpoint when filters and oil should be changed over the life of the engine. Any industry that uses synthetics, as well as every single branch of the military has recognized this - there is no shortcut around it - if you run synthetics you SHOULD be doing oil analysis as well. I would rather just change my conventional oil every 5k and not bother with the added work of analysis and tracking every single aspect of my various engine's. Once again - this isn't rocket science and we don't build swiss watches here. This is a Subaru - not the military, not NASA..... Further, I would sugest that 90% of the people that run synthtic in their vehicles do so for no good reason at all. "it's more expensive, so it must be better!" The same reason that a LOT of people buy the cars they do. I could go on, but you get the idea.... GD

Very possible for it to be wireing connection issues. Often suspected alternator failure's on EA81's are really the result of bad connections. Either it taxes the alternator too much and causes repeated alternator failures or it results in strange readings at the gauge that really aren't indicative of what's really happeneing. GD

I would make sure you can even remove them before promising to sell them. A lot of the time they will not come off without a fight and you need a large torx socket to fit the bolts that hold them on. GD

Ditch the Carb and put the SPFI back on. It's a far better system and whoever pulled it for that damn Hitachi should be shown the bottom of your boot. There is NOTHING on an older Subaru more frustrating than those Hitachi's, and I'm probably one of the most knowledgable around here about them and carbs in general. The ports on the bottom of the carb that are dumping fuel are the access holes for removing the main jets. You forgot the put the plugs back in. GD

Most likely the legacy radiator. Number of cores is only one factor. Dimensions and construction techniques are just as important. Without having actual thermal rejection specifications it's really impossible to tell. But being that the EJ22 uses larger radiator hoses, more coolant, and is a larger, more powerful engine, it's a safe bet that it is designed to reject more BTU's than the EA81 radiator. GD

Find out where you are losing power. It's a pretty simple matter to look at the MPFI wireing diagram and trace all the power leads and which pins they connect to. You have an ignition relay that provides main power to the ECU when the key is turned on - I would start there. GD

Maybe - not much though. The stock EA82 NA y-pipe is already unequal and the performance losses of making it *more* unequal are pretty slim. Probably not enough to notice. Might pick it up on a dyno but we are talking about an engine that delivers 84 to 90 HP here..... it's not going to make enough difference to talk about and if it gives the desired exhaust note then it's a viable option. Pointless IMO, but to each their own eh? GD

No - I don't think it's causing his issue. But it could be a problem down the line. It is, as you say, a matter of the "right way"...... although technically it's not even a "PCV" system right now as there is no positive flow through the crankcase with it using equally sized lines on either side of the engine like that. GD

Plugs look good - might be a bit of oil on that #2 cylinder - valve stem seals perhaps. But nothing to worry about really. The carb looks fine - that boss on the back is for a second accelerator pump - they are not equipped with them in progressive linkage format - that is just a casting artifact that isn't used on your's. You need to change the PCV a bit - the line between the PCV valve/drivers side valve cover and the T going into the filter needs to be reduced to 1/4" ID - that is a vacuum breaker line that should only be large enough to prevent the PCV valve from sucking oil out of the drivers side valve cover but not large enough to interrupt the directional flow through the crankcase. With all the lines the same size like that you won't get any flow through the crankcase. Otherwise I don't see many issues. You have the HH disconnected so you should add a clutch fork return spring to keep from wearing out the TO bearing..... And there's a chance you could damage the ignitor in the disty with that hot MSD coil. It's not neccesary and the stock coil's are amazingly reliable. You gain nothing but the potential for failure using that coil. GD

EA82's are a damn sight easier to work on than any transverse engine setup you could conjur up, but still a royal pain in comparison to the EA81.... no timing belts - I can change a water pump in 15 minutes. Try that with an EA82 The problem is that there aren't many shops around that still have people with the knowledge to work on them, and so there's a lot of sub-standard timing belt jobs done anymore. That and people cheap out on the parts and skip replacing items that really need to be replaced (water pump when you are doing t-belts, etc) - and you end up with the situation you are in now. I got a 94 legacy a while back on the cheap because of the exact same situation - water pump failure due to an improper 120k service. Figure on spending about $200 in parts to get it back up to snuff. You should also replace all the radiator hoses, and the heater core hoses since you are doing the bypass hose anyway. Flush the radiator and heater core and replace the coolant while you are at it - EA82 cooling systems were not designed with a lot of overhead capacity wise and it is neccesary to keep them in top condition to prevent overheating and potential head gasket failure. GD

The key to bringing out the low, deep, grumble is to use resonating chambers. This does not require any exhaust restriction. It is merely an expansion chamber (a section of pipe that is larger diameter for a distance, then returns to normal diameter). This allows destrutive interference to eliminate the unwanted high-picthed tone's. When done correctly and properly tuned it results in a very nice sound. The system on my 91 SS started out life as a $400 ebay special (for a WRX) - 3" stainless, straight through, catless, turbo-back. It has no mufflers - only a single mid-pipe resonator, and a straight through cherry-bomb style tip. The tip section is a resonator with a mesh core that further dampens high pitched tone. It sounds very nice, is completely without restrictions, and it definately has the "rumble". My headers are completely stock so the rumble is quite pronounced. In fact if you wanted to increase the rumble of the non-turbo engine, fab up a turbo header to it. It is a LOT more unequal than the standard NA y-pipe's. GD

There is nothing particularly challenging about the job - the thing that gives people the most trouble is getting the timing belts on correctly. Unlike almost all other engines out there, the EA82 uses two seperate timing belts. The engine is non-interferance though so the most that will happen is not running at all or running incorrectly. There are some good walk-through's of the procedure around here - do a search for EA82 timing belt guide or procedure, etc. Pull the radiator to get room to work on the front of the engine. It is not uncommon for the outer belt cover bolts to be frozen in their capture nuts and for them to spin in the plastic - many of us just ditch the covers as they are more of a pain then they are worth. Sadly, with an EA82, unless you do the maintenance yourself - the price of having a t-belt/water pump job done at a shop is usually more than the value of the car. Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 to $750. GD

Lets get some facts straight here. 1. The sound an engine makes - as it pertains to the "smoothness" or "roughness" is determined by the number of cylinders, and how evenly the exhaust pulses are emitted from the tail-pipe. 2. The one and only *reason* that Subaru engines and other boxer's have a "rumble" to them is that they have a small number of cylinders (more widely spaced exhaust pulses) and as Carfreak pointed out - almost all of them have unequal length headers due to the cost and complexity of producing EL headers for such an engine design. The gains are small from EL header design's (on the order of 25 HP for a 300 HP turbocharged engine for example - gains are much smaller even for NA engines). 3. Conversely, the reason you *don't* hear this on other engines is that they either have more cylinders, or they have nearly equal length headers - which is trivial to produce for inline engines. Accross the board in other vehicles out there you either have more cylinders, or you have an inline engine design that has EL factory headers simply because it was easy and inexpensive. GD

I'll go one farther and say that I've seen it do so. GD