GeneralDisorder

My wite up for EA81's: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/clutch.html EA82's are easier. GD

Having had more of them apart than you have likely ever seen, I am "pretty sure" (damn positive in fact) that the tollerances are VERY tight. An order of magnitude tighter than you'll find in similar vintage american engines. They are rated in hudredths of millimeters. They may be old, but they are of german design. The manual calls for 30 weight for good reason. Unless you *need* multi-viscocity oil (probably not this time of year), you shouldn't be running it. Furthermore - 10/40 has WAY too much viscocity modifier in it. A spread that high is only going to cause more wear. And oil that thick will ultimately not lubricate as well. You are going to lose a rod doing stuff like that. So you band-aid a temp problem by trying to get an overly taxed radiator to keep it even cooler? The engine is designed to operate at 190 degrees - so is the oil. Not reaching operating temp will cause a lot of issues - 160 is not enough to effectively eliminate condensation from the oil - you need to get it hot enough to flash the water off as vapor. There's good reasons for what the manual sugests. Change it up at your own risk. Many have come before you and found out the hard way. GD

Yeah - cross-member and mounts. Should work without issue. The 4WD shift boot (and the hole in the floor pan) are significantly larger than the boot and hole for the 2WD so it should work without issue. There will be a hole in the boot where the 4WD shift linkage was - just tie it shut with some cord. The cover panel will snap right in. The center console peice is the same for 2WD's so the panel is interchangable. For the sake of the Brat being easily convertible back to 4WD I wouldn't bother changeing the radio console out - the floor-pan won't allow it to be installed without major modifications. It isn't neccesary either. GD

Install a pre-'96 2WD transmission and rear end or replace the transmission. Without making custom parts you won't be able to transfer power to only the front wheels. The center differential (before the VC) will just turn if it isn't connected to anything and the car will not move. GD

The distributor could have an intermittant ignitor failure. Try swapping it out. GD

EA82 2WD 5 speed's are the exact same transmission as the EA81 2WD 5 speed's. Across the board they are identical. Additionally, since the EA82 continued right on using the EA81 2WD tranny, the 4 speed clutch disc you already have will slide right onto the 2WD's input shaft. No changes needed. You will need an EA81 2WD transmission cross-member. The stud for the 2WD 5 speed shift linkage is already present. They made 2WD Brat's in europe and what you are doing is entirely bolt-in. It can be reversed and you aren't hurting the body of the car. I don't see an issue here. GD

190 F is the stock thermostat. You need to watch how you treat this thing. Seriously you are cruising for major destruction - high viscocity oil and now a 30 degree drop in the thermostat? Do you have any idea what the tollerances are on these engines? :-\ GD

Forester's weren't made in the "early 90's". And if you are talking about the first generation 2.5 liter - it's not so much that I can't answer your question as it is a problem with the question itself.... It's like when a child asks if they can be an Astronaut when they grow up. "You can do anything you want to if you put your mind to it" Doesn't mean it will be smart. GD

To answer to your question about the fuel delivery system - it's a feedback loop controlled primarily through the O2 sensor, AND the coolant temp sensor. When the engine is cold (before the O2 begins reporting), the fuel delivery is controlled based on engine temp, and tends to be rich - thus no pinging. I would put my money on the O2 being bad - once it switches over to closed-loop operation the O2's data is telling the engine that it's running too rich. Either that or you have a bad cylinder/valve or ignition system that is causing large amounts of unburned fuel out the exhaust - that would give the false rich signal and cause the ECU to try and lean out the mixture. Ignition problems would be more likely than mechanical problems though I would think as the mechanical inneficiencies of a single cylinder would tend to be self-correcting in matters of fueling - if it's low on compression it's not going to draw in as much mixture as the other three. Anyway a compression test is in order, as well as an ignition check and probably an O2 sensor replacement. All of which are cheap and will help to narrow down the possibilities. GD

Nothing is welded - it all unbolts just as you surmise. Should be simple if both are 2WD. Although personally I would just swap the trailing arms and the shocks. This gives the opportunity to go through the brakes - the shoes are very inexpensive, and it would be a shame not to since you have to bleed the brakes anyway. GD

If the "new" one's core like that in a short time then the drive gear inside the transmission is shot. It's better to just get a used transmission if that happens. GD

The cables are dry-lubricated with a soap-like compound inside the sheath as well as an inner plastic core. What happens when the cable loses lubrication is it starts to eat into that plastic tubing and eventually it will eat it's way through to the steel braiding in the cable sheath. At some point it will eat through enough of the cable and will snap. WD-40 is only a temporary lubricant - it will evaporate away. You could try some moly fortified lubricant spray - like the stuff used on bike chains. But ultimately it's not worth the time for a cable that cost's less than $20 from the dealer and takes about a half hour to install. GD

If it's good quality tape and the surface was clean it might hold. It also might only partially hold and you may end up with bleeding later - I would remask it personally. I'll be interested to see how your attempt turns out from a beginner standpoint. This method works great if you do it right it just takes some old-world techniques that aren't real common anymore. GD

' There are manual 5 speed's - they are All-Wheel-Drive, not 4 wheel drive, and they are not dual-range. There are several folks on here that make adaptor plates to adapt the EJ22 to the 5 speed D/R or the 4 speed D/R such as you have in the hatch. It requires some swapping of clutch parts for the 4 speed and a redrilled EA82 flywheel to mount on the EJ22 crank nose. Cost is around $200 for the adaptor and having the flywheel redrilled (after you obtain one). GD

You should be able to reach up inside with the wheel removed and get some access - not sure it will be enough but it's worth a try. And those inner plastic covers are annoying anyway. GD

I want to say yes but I'm not entirely sure. I did one a long, long time ago. The fender's come off easy though and it's always nice to clean behind the fender where debris collects - bottom-right, next to the door jam. GD

Your jetting may be a bit lean also - that's leaner than I run at sea level anyway - but at 5,000 it might be alright. For reference, I run: 140/140 mains 170/160 air correctors 50 idle jet(s) I verified these jets with a wideband O2 sensor and they are very well suited to the EA81. Excelent power when you need it and nice and lean in the part-throttle cruise with no hessitation issues anywhere in the band. In the case of jetting - Redline did a good job picking jets for the kit as I have never had a need to change them. GD

Rereading your post, and considering what you have done.... My money is on a severely restricted exhaust. I'm guessing that your catalytic converter has imploded (as they often do) and in your case is clogging up the discharge end of the cat housing or further up inside the muffler or something. It's worth the time to pull down the y-pipe. Remove the heat shield from the cat, cut a square out of the cat housing with a cut-off-wheel in a die grinder and see what it looks like. If you are lucky the clog is in there and will be easily cleared. Then you just weld the sqaure bit back in place (welds like butter - the cat is stainless!) and put the heat sheild back on - no one is the wiser and if you still need a cat to pass emissions put one of the ebay models in the mid-pipe. Here's what I mean (from my '83 hatch): In this first pic - be mindful that you are seeing EXACTLY what I saw when I opened it. This was untouched by human hands since 1983 - I cut it open right before taking this series of pics (I had previously welded the passenger side runner where it cracked clean through, but never opened the cat - you can see my weld in the pic): In the case of my hatch it wasn't enough of a blockage to cause a severe loss of power - there was some loss of power but more problematic was the loss of freeway mileage - I gained about 3 MPG by clearing that out. Your's may be worse and I could easily see it causeing a lack of power. Mine was largely burned away leaving only the metal bits - but wadded up like that and stuffed into the cat dsicharge there was very little flow and it was causing a lot of backpressure. I too went round and round looking for the answer - decided it had to be something I couldn't see and pulled the y-pipe for an inspect. GD

Better to get a used header probably. For starters the "places" that would do such a thing.... well.... aren't the places I would want doing it if you know what I mean. Welding sheet metal is not easy and the heat sheild can't be "peeled" - it has to be cut away in sections (sometimes three or four peices), the leak repaired, and then the heat sheild carefully peiced back together. I just did it for an EJ22 header that was cracked right at the bend under the driver's side head. No big deal for me personally, but I have a lot of welding experience and some with sheet goods as well. Exhaust shops are (mostly) the last place on earth I would go to find a decent welder Also, welding on it will cause work-hardening of the steel in the header - it will probably crack again right next to the weld. The only way to insure that doesn't happen would be to anneal that whole section to releive all the stress and work hardening of the welding process. What I'm telling you is that you should take Rob up on his offer of a solid used header - a proper repair to the one you have would cost more than what he will charge you and you are assured that you will only be R&R'ing the thing one time. GD

I though that as well - till I parted out a 3AT wagon - a 93 Loyale if I'm not mistaken... it was a 3.9 and I drove it home so I know it wasn't swapped at some point. I remember specifically because SoobGoob and I swapped in a 5 speed D/R and we were assuming we would have to swap the diff but were pleasantly surprised that it was also a 3.9. And that's how I ended up with a spare 3.9 open diff in my shed..... not something I would ever buy but I can't throw away free parts. IIRC that FT4WD Turbo sedan you and I parted out was a 3.7 though so I think you are right there - at least as far as the EA bell-housing 4EAT's go. GD

The EJ22 would have a 25 spline inner joint for the CV axles on the transmission. You just use the EA81 axles and swap out the inner joint for one from a 2WD legacy axle I believe. The engine cross-member needs the holes for the motor mounts slotted outward about 1/2". The tranny cross-member has to be modified to accept the EJ tranny - just some welding and fitting. Not a huge deal. Mechanically it can work - electrical is the biggest hurdle, and really that's not all that hard either. GD

Only the Renault 5 "LeCar" was marketed here in the US by AMC back in the 70's So unfortunately (although those are really neat looking) there aren't any in the states. But if you want to talk overseas stuff - there's tons available from Subaru in Germany, Japan, and the UK that weren't available here - better looking options too. GD

It is not your issue. In fact I would guess that the *majority* of carbed Subaru's still on the road have bad vacuum advance pots - I've owned and driven several that never worked. You will notice a slight lack of performance from a bad vac can, but ultimately at WOT the engine isn't using the vacuum advance - it's only used for acceleration and part throttle cruise. GD

Recheck the intake manifold gasket - good chance you used an inferior aftermarket gasket and improperly installed it. Only 12 ft/lbs on the three bolts, and NEVER use an aftermarket cardboard gasket. The OEM gaskets are like a head gasket - graphite inpregnated metal. GD

Actually the bolt pattern is not evenly spaced. The flywheel can only bolt on one way. But to answer your question more in-depth - the balance indexing is done with the pressure plate. The flywheel and the pressure plate are both supposed to be stamped with balanceing marks that are (according to the FSM) supposed to be placed between 120 and 180 degrees apart (IIRC). The problem is that many times the marks are ground off when the flywheel's are resurfaced and most of the pressure plate's sold by aftermarket parts dealers don't even have them. In practice it rarely makes a difference. I have never had to take one back apart due to vibration. Theoretically it could happen according to the FSM's, but I've never seen it. Seats (in good condition) for EA81's are difficult to source. EA82 seats (the '85 to '89 body style) are easier to find in decent shape - those cars are more plentiful in the yards. You have to make some brackets from flat bar and weld them to the bottom of the seats to mount the older style rails as they are a bit over 1" farther apart on the newer seats. They fit fine otherwise though. I have set installed in my hatch if you would like to have a look. How's about a junk yard run? GD