GeneralDisorder

You have done an excelent job of explaining your problem and what you are seeing - the pulley that you are refering to (the one that also runs the fan) is, in fact, the water pump. It sounds like you have classic syptoms of a water pump seal failure - unfortunately that does mean you will have to replace the pump. Given the location of the pump and what must be done to access it, it is generally best if the maintenance history is unknown or questionable to replace the timing belt, tensioners, idler, cam and crank seals, and the water pump + bypass hose all at the same time. It's also a good idea to remove and inspect the oil pump and reseal it while you are in there. All of these things are ONLY accesible once the timing belt and covers are removed so it is best to do everything and be sure you will have a trouble free 50,000 miles till the next belt change. GD

The "rumble" is not due to the boxer engine design - it's due to the unequal length headers Subaru uses. This also decreases power - so more rumble = less power. You can make it louder - just lose the muffler. I run straight pipe on my lifted wagon - stock exhaust. It's not that loud..... but I don't drive it every day either. GD

Does it act lean or rich when you floor it? Remember that you will always feel a lean condition more than a rich one. Lean will be anything from a light surge to a violent jerking. Rich will just be anything from a nagging power loss to black smoke and refusing to gain RPM's. Try "reading" the plugs. What color are they? - if you have a decent camera and can take a picture of all 4 of them at a nice resolution perhaps we could help read them. It sounds rich from your description - which could be high fuel pressure or a maladjusted float (among a lot of other things - but given you have checked the jets already, etc). The jets are only half the equation - the other half is the fuel level in the bowl - unless it is dead on the jets will not get the proper fuel supply. GD

Probably blew the freeze plugs out of the heads eh? That's what I would be looking for - that's a classic winter problem if there's no anti-freeze or it's not a proper mixture for the climate. GD

The good news is that when you become an old-hand at the EA series cars, and you have a nice supply of parts cars and shelves full of parts it gets a lot cheaper. My '83 hatch has 240k on it and within about a month of bringing it online for a daily driver I replaced both axles (EMPI - $58 each), new water pump, new oil pump, rebuilt a carb for it, new hoses all around, new belt, new clutch and accelertor cables, new engine and tranny mounts, new brakes, and various other misc. items. With the exception of the water pump which started weeping from the shaft seal (replaced before it stranded me of course) - ALL of those items were done as PREVENTATIVE maintenance - none of them outright failed on me. I knew they had to be done and every pay-day a few more items were checked off the list. The car was bought for $250 and I probably still have less than $1000 into it. I has NEVER left me stranded - of course it's not without issues - 3rd gear syncro is almost gone, one cylinder has low comp., etc. It's all about knowing what you can ignore, and what you need to address before it fails. I started with a car that had very high mileage, had been parked for 3 years, and neglected by it's owners prior to that. With care, a trained eye, and proper priorities, it was no problem to bring it online again. GD

If it's not road worthy at 8 degrees, then something is very wrong. Put it back to 8 and start troubleshooting. You shouldn't be running premium gas - that will not help you properly adjust the timing and it's more expensive without giving you any advantages. You should always run the lowest octane that your engine will tollerate without pre-detonation. As you don't have a turbo, that means 87. GD

I've only done EJ's with EA transmissions and EJ turbo's so I figured perhaps it was different. On retrospect though it really wouldn't make sense for it not to have one.... GD

The way that kind of swap is done is to use many newer turbo parts (WRX, etc) along with the EJ22T block. The block is very good and desireable - but you would want to swap over to 2.5 liter heads and many folks also go with 2.5 litre rotating assemblies - the result is a 2.35 litre turbo "stroker" that's easily capable of 800+ HP. The engine is desireable and even valuable to some - but as noted to make it work in a 96+ you are going to have to do a TON of wireing or use a lot of newer turbo parts with the 2.2 short block under them all to interface with the car's electrical. GD

I'm in the (slow) process of building new strut blocks for the front of the wagon so I can (hopefully) take it to the show. I'm doing them similar to what your original's were - slotted for camber adjustment. I suspect though that it's going to end up being similarly screwed up in the camber department to your's. I'm going to try to build in enough offset to adjust the struts flat again but I'm not sure it's going to be that easy. Did you attempt to build new strut blocks that allowed enough adjustment to fix the camber or is the uni-body just totally in the way? GD

That's true - I am more used to the EA clutches where there is a pilot in the flywheel - my mistake. GD

Sorry - "round file" is a (military?) term for trash. Or as my boss would say..... "That's a gozinta.......... gozinta the trash!" GD

What kept you from just cutting and lengthening the stock inner tie rod? Seems like you could cut the rod and sleeve it with a bit of thick-walled tubing - plug welded in several places of course.... would that have made it too thick? Or was the idea to use the stronger VW ends? This shim you made... I'm curious as to how you went about that? Did you just form a cone from a sheet of shim stock? Or was a it more involved job.... turn them out on the lathe? GD

Check the connections at the tank. The sending unit is right at the rear of the tank on the back side. It is easily accessible (just look under the bumper). The bullet connectors often corrode and the ground leads get rusty back there. If that's not it then either the sender is shot or there's a wiring issue somewhere under all the interior bits in the car. I don't recommend removing the sending unit unless you are good with rusty bolts/nuts/studs - the potential for breaking some of the mounting studs is VERY high. GD

If you completely remove the bleeder screw they thread right in without much effort. Messy, but less frustration. I just use a pair of needle nose pliers and they go right in *almost* every time. I have run across a few that were broken and wouldn't thread in at all..... but that's another problem at that point. GD

You don't have a choke. You have a throttle body injected engine - carbs have chokes, injection does not. Clean the IAC - yes you have to remove it. You can't clean the CTS - it is a thermistor and it is either good or bad. Test it's resistance at various temps and report them back to this post and I'll tell you if it's good. It is located on the left side of the manifold near the thermostat housing. It has a two-pin green plug. Pull the codes from the computer and find out what it's complaining about or what it has complained about in the past. Likely you need a new CTS, clean the IAC properly, possibly clean the MAF, and replace the O2 sensor and you should be well on your way to a properly running SPFI system. GD

Easy out's are BAD - don't use one if you can help it - they very often break. Anyhing is better. Best way is to weld a nut to what's left and turn it out. GD

Non-turbo EA82 heads don't crack severely enough to leak coolant and if the did it would be into the exhaust ports not the chamber. No - What you have is run-of-the-mill head gasket failure. Nothing exotic and unless the engine has been severely overheated multiple times you probably aren't looking at warped heads either. Unless you have a machinist's straight-edge that has a truely flat surface that you can check them aganst you are better served just spending the $75 and having them milled - 95% chance you could ignore it and gasket slap the thing and never have another problem. This isn't rocket science and we aren't building swiss watches here.... GD

Clutch kits are pretty generic anymore. The engine puts down 135 HP so clamping force really isn't going to be an issue. If it were me, I would likely buy a reman disc and pressure plate from one of the online sources and then buy high end pilot and TO bearings. I think you are over-thinking the clutch selection. Disc and pressure plate failures are incredibly rare. Get whatever is in your budget anc makes you comfortable - just don't cheap out on the bearings. If it is cheaper to buy a whole kit and then round file the cheap bearings then so be it.... it is incredibly frustrating to have to go back in to replace a failed TO before the clutch has reached the end of it's life because you then may as well do the whole shootin match again... thus my goal is always to avoid premature bearing failure at all costs. Buy those at the dealership if you can't find any other source you trust. GD

What you are looking at is the inner tie rod - it is a ball joint and has no adjustment. If you pull back the boot you will see where it threads onto the rack. They are inexpensive and it's good practice to replace both. You will obviously need an alignment and if it were me I would replace both tie rod ends as well. GD

It is mostly wiring. You have to strip out the FI portion of the donor car's harness (fuel, ignition, computer, and all relevant sensors), and piggyback it to the vehicle's existing harness. It can be a daunting task if you are not uses to it. The ecu has about 50 wires - input, output, power, ground, etc, and the majority of them have to stay. If you are not comfortable with dealing with all that and the potential learning curve to troubleshoot the installation then i sugest you swap the manifolds and use your existing carb on the SPFI block. GD

The SPFI regulated pressure is 21 psi. Deadhead pressure is 50 psi. Do a search for Ford F-150 fuel pumps here on the board. They have been succesfully retrofit many times and they are very cheap. GD

How comfortable are you with wiring, schematics, etc? GD

Intresting - how much of an increase in clearance was that good for? You have 14" now - what was it before? So how did you run across the tie rods and ends that you used? And what was the tap for? Pics of it assembled? GD

Much easier than your EA82T - pull the engine up and forward - you don't even have to remove it from the engne bay. Non-turbo clutch replacements are easy. I would definitely consider doing it yourself. GD

Anything is possible, but it will not directly function with an unmodified stock computer.... if that's what you are asking. GD