GeneralDisorder

Maybe we'll never know, but can you ascertain what might have happened? Is there a hole in the block as you suspected? My money is on a rod puncturing a fuel rail or line. Source of ignition is hard to determine though. GD

It's no big deal - it happens all the time. A mod will notice and move it. I wouldn't worry yourself much about it. GD

You wouldn't zinc plate alumiunium - you would anodize it instead. And yes you could have it gold.... or purple for that matter. Any color you want really. GD

You may want to pull the driver's side fender and inspect the "snorkel" - the airbox pulls air from inside the fender. You may have some anomaly in that area. Your problem is VERY unusual. It could easily be electrical as well. BTW - your post belongs in the "newer generation" forum - Legacy's are new gen. This forum is for EA series.... which were still made till 94, but are really just 80's models that have been rebadged. GD

It's a pitching stopper as noted above. If you don't drive like a total moron it should be fine for a while without it as long as your engine and tranny mounts are tight. GD

On the EA series vehicles, camber is not adjustable so that's a difficult question. I suppose there's a spec somewhere that you could check it against but frankly as long as nothing is bent and your bushings and strut tops are in good shape.... it is... what it is.... ya know? GD

Craigslist - and patience are your best friends. You can find nearly anything with enough of those two. Look for 90 to 94 legacies with body damage that didn't imact the engine bay. Stuffed-up rear end's and quarters are perfect. They are out there I assure you. My last legacy was a free gift, the one before that I traded a $1000 car for, and the first one I owned I bought for $750 needing a water pump and timing belt. They are getting cheaper every year. Oh - and NOW is the time to look. They command a higher price in winter when people start looking for cheap AWD's for skiing and such. GD

I don't know if we get any special pricing - we do weird coatings through them that aren't cheap - specially formulated nickel mostly. Their minimum is $40 - it's actually more expensive to do a whole bunch of tiny parts than one big one like that. Myself and a co-worker that is restoring a mustang both sent parts and the bill was $50 so we split it down the middle. So it was $25 for both peices. Generally Zinc is cheap - it's an inexpensive material, it's not particularly bad for the environment, and the electroplating doesn't take very long. Turn around was less than 24 hours. I mean.....they zinc coat decking screws by the ton.... it's not an expensive process. In fact the sand-blasting would have been more expensive if I hadn't done it myself - over an hour at the cabinet. Makes my feet hurt... GD

EA82's have the 5 speed D/R that you want. Specifically the 87 through 89 years are best - 85 and 86 will work but do not have the switches used by the fuel injection computer. As for fitment - the engine mounts are almost identical - I beleive the EJ22 mounts are about 1" wider apart overall. You do need an adaptor plate and custom flywheel to mount them to the 5 speed D/R though so you should probably have everything on hand before you start. No need to buy two whole vehicles - just buy the 5 speed tranny seperate and buy a donor legacy for the engine and wireing. There's no advantage to having the car the 5 speed came from - the engine though is a different matter - it's best to have the wireing intact so you know what you have runs and works properly and YOU are the person taking it apart. GD

I almost did that as it would have been free - unfortunately PC is thicker and prone to chiping - the black PC in particular also fades very badly in the sun. Zinc will dull with time, but is studier in an application where rock chips may be an issue, etc. It's an excelent rust inhibitor - on par with epoxy and enamel, etc. PC is great as well untill it starts to bubble off and comes off in huge sheets as long as your arm And if you *do* get a rust spot - you can hit it with a wire wheel, some cold zinc compound, and a bit of gold paint. You can't effectively make a lasting repair to PC. Once it's chipped you are pretty screwed. GD

I was inspired by Pooparu's restoration on his EA81 power steering cross-member and rack. So a couple weeks ago I pulled out a project I had stashed away in the shed - an EA81T cross-member with power steering and the "scooped" portion to clear the up-pipe to the turbo - it also mounts the power steering lines on the drivers side so as to keep them away from the exhaust. I dissasembled it and am in the process of evaluating the rack and ordering new mounts and rubber bits. I sand-blasted the cross-member and sent it to our plating company for zinc coating: It's like jewelry for your underbody! More to come as I get it back together. Haven't decided what's going to happen to it yet. Maybe it will go in the Brat.... maybe I'll sell it. Not sure. GD

140 lbs or so with all accesories and fluids. GD

There's two compressor types - as you noted. I was refering to there being about 3 or 4 belt arrangments over the years. There's a couple different V-belt arrangments, and then there's the serpentine belt system used on the spider intake MPFI/MPFI Turbo XT's and such. GD

Pull the plugs - you can cause internal damage if a cylinder is full of coolant. GD

They aren't switched. There were about three layouts used - two different A/C compressors from different manufacturers and then different belt arrangements as well - one type of compressor is "inboard" of the alt, the other is "outboard" of the alt. Your layout is perfectly normal for your car. It's down to the year they were made, the plant they were made at, and if the AC was installed at the factory or after the car was sold at a dealership. There were kits to install AC if a customer decided they wanted it after buying a model without it. GD

You need some Yeild. I'm thinking about starting a group buy.... GD

Other components could be damaged without being actually burnt looking. There's a chance that replacing it will fix the problem, but there's also a chance it will not. There's also a slim possibility that what caused the transistor to blow in the first place is another component on the board being out of spec..... which will just keep eating them. If it were me I would find another one from a yard around here - there's plenty of yards to choose from - remember that calling them isn't always going to work since EA81 hatchback's were made till '89. I'll look though my junk and see if I have another one - you need the black one correct? GD

Warped isn't a problem - $35 each to resurface them. It's only when they are BADLY cracked into the coolant jacket near the exhaust port that there is a problem. That only happens on turbo models though. I've never seen anything but tiny cracks between the valves on non-turbo's. Those are not a problem - even Subaru issued a TSB telling tech's to disregard them. GD

The rings are different so you would need a new set of rings to go with them. Otherwise a simple hone job and a new set of rings would do it. I would likely do main and rod bearings as they are cheap and you are going into it anyway since you'll have to hone to get the new rings to seat. The pistons will drop right on - their only difference is they are "dished" in the center like a bowl - this lowers the compression ratio. And yes - it would allow you to run really crappy gas too. I'm not sure how much of a "bennefit" that is, but such is the way of low compression. GD

I beleive they will not. But check to make sure. I haven't owned an externally regulated rig in a long time. As long as the EA82 has a non-feedback carb it will have some kind of FPCU that works on the same principle. The EA82 feedback's don't have one as the ECU controls the fuel pump. Look for a non-feedback - it should have one somewhere - not sure it will be in the same place. The only carbed EA82's I've had were both feedback so I haven't looked for one before. GD

I think the ticket is the EJ22E with about 10 pounds and a TMIC. Cheap, reliable, and good for about 200 HP with no major mods. That and a light EA82 body.... good times can be had with that combo. The legit 22T is better of course, but a lot more expensive and there's always the temptation for more power - when you have a block that can do 600+ HP..... well you kinda *want* as much as you can get. With the 22E though it's only good to about 300 and you would have to change the pistons to get there.... less temptation. Damn - now I want to build one! GD

That's the key - with the TMIC you get cooler, denser air. And with the TD04 you are pushing 12 psi at a lower turbine speed thus a lower discharge temp. Although I would imagine that it takes longer for the thing to spool compared to the VF7. The key to your success Rob is that you went through a bunch of engines to find a decent block, and you aren't pushing the thing to it's limits. That's only 5 psi over stock and you matched up your small increase in boost with mods that almost negate the negative effects of said boost increase. The difficulty is that I don't think you'll get much farther without damaging something, and you are probably (realistically) not quite to the stock performance level of my EJ22T (not getting personal or anything - it's just the handiest benchmark at my disposal). Honestly what do you think you are pushing? GD

If he isn't comfortable taking a weekend to do HG's on an EA82 then he isn't even in the same ball-park with people that will attempt a motor swap of that magnitude. The mechanicals pale in comparison to the electrical system modifications that need to take place and frankly if he hasn't done electrical before then it will be a rolling fire-hazzard in all likelyhood. I would not reccomend that route for someone that's never even been under the hood of a Subaru. GD

Seems to fall on deaf ears most of the time. Half the time I wonder why people ask for our educated and experienced opinions and then ignore it and do whatever they wanted to anyway? Oh well - I do help some folks occasionally. The rest hate me because the truth hurts. Even seemingly VERY intelligent people refuse to beleive they have made a mistake - my co-worker got a "good deal" on a mitsi eclipse - 91 model. He's into it over $5,000 now - NEW engine, third used tranny, whole new exhaust, etc, etc. I had to say "I told you so"..... cause I did when he brought it home (not running) for $250 out of some meth-head's garage ..... I said "that's a money pit if I ever saw one!".... exact words. GD

Read in the PDF on how to run a full D-Check. It's a full procedure where you depress the gas pedal to the floor with the key in the run posistion (engine off), then return to half-throttle, etc, etc. Then you have to drive over 5 MPH for a specific distance. Look for the procedure in the PDF's and follow it. It's often the case that you will get codes with a full d-check that didn't show in u-check. GD