GeneralDisorder

Make sure the plate is closing fully and that there are no burrs or other damage to the idle jet and that it fits well into the holder, etc. Not idling back should be a simple thing to diagnose - you are getting air and fuel from somewhere. Either the plate is not closing or there's a problem with the idle jet or the transition slot is too exposed below the plate. You have to carefully set up where the plate lands when you put the carb together or it just won't idle or transistion properly. The trans. slot should be fully above the plate when it's closed. GD

You're insane. For less than half you could have had an EJ22E with 135 HP and MPFI - including the adaptor plate and harness to install it in the EA81 chassis. Throwing money at the problem is not impressive. At least not to me. EA81's are simple to rebuild and economical to run but apparently not for you. I doubt you'll see impressive power gains from what you describe. Perhaps on the order of 10 HP or so. The stock heads just can't flow enough regardless of the valve size - the JDM dual-carb heads had reversed valves like the EA82's. GD

This has been debated in the past and the conclusion is that it does nothing beneficial as the EA82 belts are going to fail around 60k no matter what you do. Numerous people have tried it both ways and if anything retensioning them seems to make them fail earlier. Leave them be and change them every 50k. They are cheap. GD

Seriously - post in the "wanted" forum like a good little newb. And get yourself a real turbo engine. GD

You people just don't listen. It's NOT the grease that provides the lubrication. It's the oil that is contained in the grease that does this. The grease gets hot, the oil drops out and the bearing is cooled and lubricated. If you pump the whole knuckle full of grease then it can't perform it's job. The grease just provides a lot of friction, the bearing gets hot, the grease fails, and then the bearing fails. A zerk fitting is a nice way to pump in grease but if you dont ALSO provide a method of removing the old grease (and presumably contamination, etc) then one would have to pull the axle to do the job anyway and thus the zerk provides no benefit. The only good solution is to use sealed bearings, properly install the knuckle seals and bite the cost of replacement bearings every 200,000 miles (as if you would ever have to do a second set anyway ) GD

Your homade throttle shaft bushing with the copper tubing is almost certainly to blame. Each time the plate closes it's slightly different and even minute changes in the airflow will cause big changes in idle tuning. Your acceleration problems are similarly linked to the throttle shaft play and improper setting of the transition port against the plate. The port must be dead center of the plate or it will be rich or lean at idle and will not transision properly. Either have it properly reamed and rebushed by a machine shop, or get a new carb. You'll tear your hair out till you do. GD

Virtually no gain in power without mechanical modifications. Cam, ported heads, larger valves, etc. It can, however, support those mods without fuel system modification as the SPFI EA82 is 90 HP.... EA81's are 73 HP. So you can support up to 16 HP in mods without fuel system upgrades. The fuel system alone does nothing but provide what the engine demands. Driveability is increased, cold starting, reliability, etc. The engine doesn't change though so you won't see anything on the dyno. You will notice slightly better response and maybe a bit more low-end torque but not as much as with a Weber swap as the SPFI has a smaller TB openeing compared to a Weber. GD

My write up: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/EA81_SPFI.html GD

Bad idea. There's no drain for the old grease. The bearings should run with about 1/2 the cavity filled with grease. Soon you would have no air, and you would overheat and destroy the grease. The grease has to be able to expand and to "drop" into it's oil state to provide lubrication. This cannot happen if the cavity is filled. Best thing to do would be to order sealed bearings. Just append a "-2RS" to the bearing number. I think the front wheels bearings are 6208's so you would want "6208-2RS-C3" (if that is indeed the correct number}. The standard open bearings are C3's so you want to make sure you get the same standard of tolerance. Order them through any bearing house. Cheaper than the parts store anyway usually. GD

More work than it's worth. Used and jetted for a V6. After a rebuild kit, new jets, adaptor plate, and then it's likely to still be a tuning nightmare... buy a new one. Trust me on this. The amount of money you will save isn't worth the hassle. GD

The IAC is mostly for cold-idle. It's basically a solenoid valve and you need to verify not only that it's working but that it's getting proper voltage. It may be getting a poor signal due to a high-resistance ground or connection in the harness. A bench test will tell you if the valve works (pulls in and stays in), and then you need to check the voltage in the car. Beyond that there is an adjustment for the IAC port in the throttle body on the side of the TB - looks like a big flat head screw that's recessed into the body. That is how the idle air port is adjusted and you may need to close it off some. Additionally, make sure you haven't adjusted, or someone in the past hasn't adjusted the throttle plate stop screw. That is NOT the idle adjustment and should never be moved or adjusted in any way. There should be a white paint mark to indicate it hasn't been moved. GD

You can look at my SPFI write up - should be very similar. Just do a search for the link as I am away from my computer just now. GD

That is entirely incorrect. The AIS (Air Injection System) takes advantage of the exhaust pulses to pull in fresh air to combine with the catalyst in the converter. It's a passive form of smog pump and has nothing to do with the anti-afterburn system which is seperate and prevents the carb from dumping tons of fuel durring closed throttle coasting. In fact the AIS can actually CAUSE backfireing (afterburn) if enough fresh air is allowed into the ehxaust stream and the mixture is rich enough. The systems are, however, unassociated. The AIS does not affect performance. In fact NONE of the so called "emissions equipment" components affect performance save for one - the Hitachi caburetor itself. It's a big peice of crap and if you are looking for performance you will end up figureing this out on your own. All the ancillery systems are "passive" and other than making the engine bay look cleaner, removing or altering them will gain nothing at all. GD

If the emergency flashers work then the flasher module is working. There is only one module. Still could be a wireing issue. Is there any evidence of the windsheild leaking? Often when you have interior wiring issues with the EA series cars it's because of water intrusion from a leaking windsheild seal. Usually in the corners at the bottom. GD

You have bad ball joints. Steering with the gas and brake is a classic symptom. Replace them before your wheels fall off. GD

Of course not - many vehicles don't have AC. The AC dries the air which makes the defrost work a little bit better. It also serves to keep the oil in the AC system circulating and the bearings from being damaged by months of non-use. GD

That means little - just because a company makes a low-end product like Fram for the consumer market doesn't mean they don't also (likely) make high-end filters for the industrial markets and can make whatever you want. They are made to Subaru's specifications and THAT is the factor that needs to be considered. My company builds and sells compressors (among other things) - if you want a cheap POS - we will sell it to you. If you want the custom hot-rod of compressors - we'll build you that too. It's about what you ask for. Fram IS cheap crap, but any good manufacturer has more than one level of product line to sell. My dealer is less than $6 for filters, so yes you got totally hosed. My Napa is 4.99 for the EA81 filters, and $3.99 for the EJ filters. WIX OEM of course. GD

If you can't move it by sucking on it - it's bad. It needs to be able to respond quickly to small changes in manifold vacuum - just a few inches of mercury. You should be able to suck about 5 or 6 inches and it should be responding to that. Max vacuum signal to the pot is around 20 inches or less due to the ported vacuum design and the limits of what the engine can pull. Likely the rubber inside has shrunk or something. There are places that can rebuild them. I had one done a coupe years ago for about $20. As they are no longer availible that seemed like a good way to go. GD

The neutral switch will not cause your problem. Start looking at your fuel system. Run a D-Check and see if you get any codes that way. You could have a bad TPS or maybe several things wrong. GD

What do they do when they aren't working? On constantly or nothing at all? It's likely to be a bad flasher module as the switches don't often fail. Probably a failing speedometer cable or speedometer head. It's very likely that your heater core is clogged. You can try flushing it but that rarely works. There could also be a problem as previously stated with the mechanical control - there's a heater control valve that operates by a cable and rod system - it controls the flow of coolant (or not) through the core. The valve is located on the drivers side of the core down by your feet - follow the heater core hoses into the cabin - they attach directly to this valve assembly. Check to see that the valve is operating when you turn the knob. GD

Not true - they changed in 83.5 to a different pedal bracket with a change in the cable as well. The cables are not easily interchangeable without changing the entire pedal assembly. Aftermarket cables suck - you'll be changeing it again. Remember to route it under the steering linkage and heater core hoses. GD

You are correct - disconnecting the vacuum line is just as good as building a block-off plate. As long as the valve is not leaking it will be closed and effectively IS a block-off plate. All this talk of making special parts makes my head hurt. Cut the business end of the valve off and weld up the hole - block-off plate.... check. Cut the end off the pipe that threads into the head leving about 1/2" of the pipe left. Crimp the pipe flat and run a weld bead across it. EGR passage plug.... check. EGR does not affect performance IN ANY WAY. Blocked, unblocked, working or not. Got that? It merely lowers combustion temps to prevent formation of certain exhaust oxides. Personally I clean the valve and leave them be - I'll often reroute the vacuum supply directly to the carb to avoid the solenoids that the stock system employs. I have run them blocked and not - working and non. You will notice no change in performance. Trust me you need to look elsewhere - Weber or SPFI. GD

That's a STD hatch. It's going to be a 4 speed, single range 4WD. EA71 (1.6 liter) with about 64 HP. As stated by others none of the parts from the GL10 will really help you here. The front hub you need is different as is all the drivetrain parts. If the GL10 has a manual transmission it could be made to work but as it's probably push-button it wouldn't be worth it. There's a good reason why there aren't many STD hatch's left. They stank - looked neat with the twin round headlights but no amenities, no dual-range, and small engines. The real killer is they have no tach and no oil pressure gauge - the latter causing the demise of many an older DL and STD model Subaru as push-rod engines like a new oil pump every 100k miles or so - but you wouldn't know that since you can't monitor the pressure without the gauge. You'll spend far more than the hatch is worth getting it rolling again - probably to find that the engine is toast. You can't even get most of the engine parts for the EA71's anymore and even CCR (a leading Subaru engine rebuilder) has discontinued support for them. Subaru doesn't even carry the head gaskets anymore. A much better bet would be to find a decent condition EA81 (GL) hatch here on the west coast and fly out + drive it home. They are plentiful and cheap and you'll spend far less time and energy getting your plan off the ground. Then again - you might want to reconsider your choice of "old Subaru" for your "fun" car that you might wreck. Get something newer and more powerful. There's little fun to be had rallying with 75 HP and even less fun when you wreck or break something and can't find the replacement part you need to save your life. Compared to a more modern Subaru such as your's or my 91 Turbo Legacy driving my hatch is like driving a truck. GD

Likely a head gasket yes. They aren't hard - an afternoon job. Do them on general principle - if they aren't bad, or only slightly bad, they will fail soon anyway with all the overheating you have done to it. GD

The stock rubber fuel lines on a carbed model aren't high-pressure rated. If you simply install the FI pump without upgrading all the lines they will burst and you will be very unhappy (possibly dead). It sounds very much like you have absolutely no idea what you are doing or why. This, coupled with the rather bad tempered nature of the EA82T will result in your ultimate abandonment of this car somewhere on the side of the road - if it ever runs. Now - to see if I am right yet again GD