joe5

ive got an xt6 I'm parting out if you'd be interested in the radiator from it.

Check out this video. It, and others by the same guy, are incredibly awesome. He has a video for most things you will ever need to do on your car.

In my loyale the 4wd was engaged via vacuum. There was a thin line that ran from intake area to the passenger side firewall. Once or twice it just popped apart at a linkage between motor and firewall. Then 4wd wont engage. Re-connect the line and the 4wd comes back. If your lucky, that could be your problem. The intake has obviously been minimized so I'm not sure what to look for on your car but I'd start looking at some of those that run under the bar that supports the spare tire. Sweet rig.

For what its worth, I think a shop asking 450-500 is a fair price for their time. But you could do it cheaper if you have more time than $. It will not be a 30min job. If its your first time I'd plan on giving it a whole weekend. Don't start taking things apart if your gonna need the car the next day. Lots of little steps will take you longer than you expect because there is very little space to get in there. Especially taking off the fan and timing belt covers. That said, you can totally do it. The parts themselves are not too expensive. Pumps are really cheap. You will spend more on the timing belt and Idle's but like DaveT says, you should do it. Its totally better to do it now.

4K is arguably too much money even if you didn't have to do anything to it. If you intend to reseal the enigine, the 4k is WAY to much. Reseal typically involves everything from the headgaskets and out (cam seals, rocker covers, timing belts, intake gaskets and people usually reseal oil pump and replace water pump at the same time). For 4k this should have already been done recently. Assuming the car is near perfect, I'd try to talk them down to 3k. If the car is not essentially perfect, its too much.

To be honest, 4k seems alittle steep. Even for being on the east coast. Loyale's in near perfect condition rarely sell for more than 2k here in the PNW. If its truly emaculent, MAYBE 3k for being on the east coast. It should have the 1.8L SPFI in it. Reliability is all about how well its been taken care of. Headgaskets and broken timing belts are common problems. They can be pretty solid. Keep in mind though a challenge for you will be finding parts when things brake (and YES they will if you keep it for a while). At a price like that, you'd almost be better off flying to the PNW, buying one here for a 1/3 the price and driving it back! You could trailer back a whole parts car while your at it for a supply of parts. Just my 2 cents.

thats the multipoint fuel injected was only in some of the xts i think

just a thought... do you happen to be talking about a rear axle on a 4wd ea82 car? because those have a lock ring you have to remove first. I found this out the hard way after doing the front I assumed the rear was similar and beat the crap out of it before I noticed the lock ring. Felt dumb but it was what it was. If that happens to be whats holding you back, you gotta use a punch and come at it from an angle to back it out. May not be your problem but thought its worth mentioning...

Are you trying to get a stock muffler replacement or are you wanting to do an aftermarket?

ok thanks. I read that line but had interpreted incorrectly I guess thinking it was refering to the front and rear mounting points of the front seats. But now after you point it and re-reading it I get it now thanks.

resurrection of old thread: regarding the saturn seats, will the rear work fairly easily also?

one time the black piece of trim that runs from the front of the windshield back to the rear door on the top sides of the car came loose going down the highway. The rear side came off but the front stayed on. So going down the highway all of a sudden...WHAP WHAP WHAP WHAP haha it was super startling but luckly not a big deal just ripped it off and kept driving.

just got the magna flow installed. Sounds great, I'm super glad I went that route.

Ok yea the ones in my car have dark blue vinyl on the sides while the middle is a light colored cloth with a pattern of small blue checkers. So I'm likely to find similar seats in 4WD ea81 cars rather than 2WD?

So I've started a few post about my 84 gl 4WD sedan which I'm cleaning up and weighing my options still on seats and dash (ie to replace repair etc). As I weight these options, I'm on the look out for blue seats and an uncracked dash. But I'm not sure what cars had the same seats. Ive seen a few pictures of ea81 gl wagons with seats that look different, but the pictures I saw were not of a 1984...So is the difference a year to year difference or sedan/wagon difference? Will I also find different dashes? In case your wondering which seats exactly I'm talking about, they are the same style as the black sedan owned by gloyale posted in this thread http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/142645-lets-talk-about-gen-2-interior-colors/ And before people get carried away, I know I can do some fab work and put in newer seats, but I'd prefer to keep the original ones (either replace or repair) Thanks!

relay did the trick fyi in case other people are weighing the option it works

thats a nice looking wagon!

why not buy a forester locally? I'd expect them to be abundant in CO

I'm interested in this thread cuz my ea81 sedan doesn't have a muffler. I dont mind but getting pressure from the wife to make the ride quiter. Just talked to the local muffler shop and was quoted 140 to install a basic muffler and 225 for magna flow. I eventually plan to sell the car. Is the sound gonna be significantly better? I like the low rumble I get now. Not sure what ricey means. Is it worth it get the magna flow?

To address your question about cost, the ej swap is feasible and pretty well documented but don't underestimate that it is still a very involved and costly process, especially for a beginner. It also will cost more than people tend to discuss. As far as dollar for dollar goes, you could replace your whole ea81 motor for 1/10 of the price of an ej swap. Unless you get super lucky finding parts for the ej swap, it could easily cost 1k or more. Especially if you need help with the labor (and you likely will, especially with the wiring, redrilling the flywheel, you'll need a custom exhaust so unless you weld you'll need help with that and lots of other little things that can easily add up). It will also take allot of time. It is NOT going to be a "quick fix" to get your subie back on the road. Just scavenging all the parts you'll need will take quite a bit of time unless you buy a whole new gen car to source all your parts. The people that are able to do ej swaps quickly and cheaply usually have lots of experience, the ability to fabricate on the fly when needed, and have access to lots of cheap parts (These guys are usually professional or at least part time mechanics). I don't wanna turn you off the ej swap, I did it and loved it. But it is an in depth project with costs. I'd say the best place to start is replacing hoses (PCV) specifically. Your ea81 can be just as reliable as the newer ej motors if you can take good care of it. If your pumped about the ej swap, still just fix or replace your ea81. As time goes on, keep your eyes open for good CL deals for motors, wiring harnessess, exhausts, adapter plates etc. Once you accumulate all the parts, then you can dive in to an ej swap down the road. Just my 2 cents.

If you already know how to loosen the alternator belt, just go one step further and pop the belt off. Thats a quick and easy way to answer with confidence whether its associated with the alternator or not (or other accessories run by the same belt)

Haha DaveT your gonna kill the thread if you keep tellin everybody how to fix the quirks. We are gonna have to change the name to "weird quirks our cars used to have before DaveT fixed them all". jk i'm glad your offerin up the knowledge and helpin everybody out. Its just funny perhaps you've become the hero of the thread.

I also appreciate the inherent value to keeping rare cars stock. I think mods and upgrades are great, but with a car as rare as the rx I think it makes since to keep it stock especially if the rest of the car is in good condition

For the price, you are flirting with being able to just doing an ej swap but if your not interested in that, then I guess its kind of up to you. 700 dollars seems like allot but it is expensive to do a rebuild and there are fewer and fewer ea82t motors floating around that are in "ready to go" state. Unless there are other motors you are considering, it sounds like your only option. If it comes with a warrenty that would make me feel better before buying it...

either will work but for the best performance I prefer flying squirrels