Ross

Did you fix that bad ground? If only oscilloscopes were a little cheaper.......sounds like you need to find out what signals are getting where. It would certainly make the diagnosis easier if you could hire one or something.

That would be the auxiliary air valve - it is responsible for the high idle when the engine is cold - i beilieve the wires are actually attached to a small heating element that the computer can control, not a sensor. The computer is then able to lower the idle point before the coolant is fully heated. You said that it now starts and idles well, does that mean the problem is fixed, or does it still play up?

First off, are any of the parts you put in second hand?

yes.

10 degrees is way too much. I too have heard of/seen chevy engines with around 2deg of advance, but i doubt it would be too happy with 10deg.

I think the ea82 flywheel uses larger bolts?

I was thinking of just strengthening/expanding the original one a bit.

No, the spacer wont wear under normal conditions - should last for ever (if you change your bearings on time!).

turbo cam has less (or none?) overlap, and will not go too well in a N/A car. As for the N/A in a turbo, dunno how that will go. Yes, you have to split the block!

Do you have a return spring on the cable end of the release fork? As for the knock, i'd be putting a proper oil pressure gauge on and seeing what that shows.

I find the stock ea81t's turbo spools up at such low revs that you don't really get a surge at all. higher comp ratio may change that, but i'd say it should still be ok. I've been able to do some slow crawling 4wding in mine (so low i have to go pretty slow over most rough stuff) and i havn't found it a problem. The problem is, of course, that you have a N/A cam in there......and thats not quite as easy to swap as the heads! You could always just run it N/A MPFI.

Sweet, wish mine was that close! Gotta split my block again and find out whats wrong with a rod bearing!

Code 11 can also refer to a missing ingition pulse from the distributor pickup in non-CAS engines. If you pulled this code without the engine running, don't worry about it, its normal. If it shows up with the engine running you have a problem. Try cranking the car with the coil lead datached from the distributor and near the body/engine. see if it sparks. If nit doesn't, then it could be wiring between coil/dist. or maybe the pickup in the dist.

Yeah, you should be able to get it all legal if you get an engineer to check it out - we can in NZ, and from what i've heard our modification laws are stricter than yours! The problem with letting anyone do it, is that they could very easily grab a bit of medium/high carbon steel ("yeah, stronger, right?") and weld it up with a MIG or stick with the part at room temperature as normal. You'd then put the extension in, drive away, hit a pothole while going around the bend and wonder why your steering stops working! Welding can be very dangerous when done by someone who doesn't know what they are doing - even if they can make a very pretty weld. If you do end up welding anything critical like that, make absolutely sure that the steel is a plain low carbon steel! Some other alloy additions wont cause any probs, but others will, so watch it. If there is any doubt about the carbon/alloy content, don't risk it, you wont be able to tell that the part is brittle untill too late.

I would change the plugs back to NGK's and go over the whole ignition system. A weak spark can cause this problem as well. In particular, i'd check the breaker point gap (in the distributor) and check the condition of the contacts. Depending on your coil, points can have to be replaced up to every 15,000kms i find.

Two nuts where the clutch cable attaches to the release fork - undo the lock nut and tighten the cable with the other one.

I have my cd player in my '81 in the glovebox, fits fine in ea81 cars without A/C, not sure about ea82 cars. I just made some L shaped steel brackets that hung the deck off the top of the glovebox by its sides. Works well, would be better if that particular head unit had a remote!

I second the hammer, and would suggest it is a fairly big one (although small ones are useful too). Self Amalgamating tape is great to have - have heard of a guy who fixed his radiator hose with it and left it for 10 years untill he sold the car! Pliers are a must, vise-grips are very useful. cable ties are surprisingly useful.

If it has low range (i'd also bet it does) the selector shaft off the 4wd lever will attach to two seperate levers on the gearbox - one for engaging 4wd and one for hi/low range.

An ea81t i bought had custom looking pistons in it - havn't been able to find out what they are, and they seem to be crap 'cos two of them have cracks in the skirts.

Well, they couldn't enter a 4 door could they? People might have laughed....

Holy crap, they should be good for a few horses!

Sweet, so whens it on the dyno next? Edit: just read your other post, question answered.

Hello, sounds like a nice car - should go for ages with that low kms. Should be able to get you a few places too. Is the sportswagon a manual or auto?

Pretty much, you need to remove a few bits of trim from around it, then you just pull those big clips out.