Ross

loosen the three bolts holding torsion bar arm to control arm and move hub assembly around..... takes some practice to get it right.

thought i'd add that after loosening the three arm bolts on the rear, you'll need to do a wheel alignment....

Really? I'd guess a little lighter than that..... anyway, I'd weigh it up first to make suere you aren't spending all that money on saving 10kg or something.... you'd be better off running your gas tank a little emptier!

here's a question: how much does your glass window actually weigh? will you actually be saving enough weight to make a significant difference? or should you just make bowel movements compulsory before entry into your car!

If you are cheap, just grind the cutting edge of some sandard ones to a more oblique angle and they work OK.

No offence, but you have just listed a bunch of "buzzwords" here, most of which will give you little or no performance increase, let alone the 260% (!!!) increase you desire. For example, the ea81 crank and conrods have been shown to last fine at engine speeds apporaching 10,000rpm - i seriously doubt you will be exceeding this, so new ones will give you little or no benefit. A lighter crankshaft is also rather redundant, since you are still going to have to throw a flywheel on the back of it anyway. Roller valve train? who has ever heard of ea81 rockers wearing out prematurely? Sure, it will happen at high revs with hard springs etc, but will probably take much longer to wear than the engine will last at those sorts of power levels anyway. You are not talking highly modified heads - you are talking completely redesigned and built from scratch heads. I am not saying it cant be done..... but i think you underestimate how hard it would be to get such a huge amount of horsepower from a 70hp engine. By all means try for as many horses as possible, but concentrate on new heads, forced induction (supercharger pref.), pistons, cam, and ENGINE MANAGEMENT. the main internals will be fine.

Cheers. I think my problem may actually have nothing to do with the code 22 that I get if i go for a drive with the green connectors connected. I suspect that all this code is saying is that the egr vacuum switch is not operating -which is not surprising, since it is not connected to any vacuum lines due to the egr system having been removed when I rebuilt this engine. This has been the case for a couple of years now, and has never caused a problem - I think the ecs just gets fussy about this when in test mode. In that case, it means that the problem has not occurred during any of my test runs (makes sense since i didn't notice it). Have been driving a fair bit lately and it hasn't happened again. Anyway, after some thinking, I've pretty much narrowed it down to either a problem with the airflow sensor, idle switch or their respective wiring. Cant be anything to do with ignition, since problems after the mag pickup wont cause the ecs light, and problems with the pickup or associated wiring etc will cause the tachometer to stop working, which it did not. Auxiliary sensors like the coolant temp sensor, outside air temp, knock sensor, and O2 sensor either shouldn't make such severe symtpoms, or should prevent the engine idling properly (mainly in the case of CTS). Fuel supply problems would be very unlikely to give such frequent and sudden changes between next to no power and full power, since it will take a finite time for the pump to bring the lines up to pressure, as well as for the lines to loose pressure once the pump has stopped. I'm not sure exactly what the ecs does when the idle switch is activated, but i suspect that it may try to bring the engine speed down if it were higher than idle by cutting fuel supply. The ecs light would in this case likely be caused by both the idle and WOT switches being closed at the same time - another possibility is that the ecs didn't like the large airflow measurement it was getting with the idle switch closed. The other option is the airflow meter - maybe this was just sending the ecs a signal that didn't make sense. I guess it could also be a problem with the injector circuit. Anyone know where the wiring for the injectors separates into four individual injectors? Other than that, it could be a dry joint etc. in the ecs itself....... Anyway, I'm pretty much going to have to wait for it to happen again before I can really diagnose it properly....... But any thoughts suggestions welcome....

That is for an ea82t, mine is an ea81t. A different beast. ea81t has only 1 boost switch, and cannot store codes.

That boost switch? I didn't think the computer used that - isn't it just for the dash light?

I got a code 22 out of it last night. apparently that means "Pressure or Vacuum Switches - Fixed Value". is that right? unfortunately that doesn't really help much, since I can't think of any pressure /vacuum sawitches that i still have hooked up.....

yeah its the switch tps. Can rule out water i think, cos it was a dry day.... Just wish i could get it to do it again while i look at the ecs led!

The wagon almostg stranded me half way down a beach last night.... Was driving along fine, then alll of a sudden ecs light comes on and engine stops making any real power.... It wont die, idles fine and the ecs light will go out if idling. Put any throttle on, and ecs lights up and very little power is produced at first, then (if at full throttle) the engine will abruptly power up for a second or two before dieing out again - this repeats as long as I have my foot flat. After stopping the engine for half an hour or so, it went fine and drove it home - it did the same thing for a minute or two on the way, but cleared up again. Being an ancient ea81t, the computer doesn't store codes, and I didn't manage to catch what they were while it was occurring. I'm thinking TPS or VAF...... any thoughts?

i believe he means that there is no point in insulating the manifold from the engine block if there is coolant running through it anyway, thus keeping them at the same temperature as each other, regardless of any insulation or lack thereof between the mating surfaces.

Standard 6psi.... Not keen to go higher without an intercooler..

I guess if they are very stiff, thus having a natural frequency higher than encountered at maximum engine speed, a single spring should be ok....

Yes, you certainly do.

Most permatorque ones have a bead of sealant on them already.... so probably wouldn't be a good idea to put anything else on. +1 on the copper stuff for oem ones tho, works a treat and is nice to use.

Agreed, mostly- I think some minor work around where the heads and manifold meet is probably worth while - the holes are very poorly matched (were on mine anyway) as are the gaskets. But going all out with porting on a forced induction engine isn't necessary. Just put a new oil cooler on mine - much better, the oil stays clean looking now and pressure stays right up even after a long hard run at ~175km/h (in a four speed!!). Runs smoother like this too.

They already lack weight in the front for hill climbs - would be hopeless off road like this.... unless you added some ballast up front...

Realise this is a very old post.... but anyone done this yet? Tempted to give it a go - measured up an ea81 quickly and looks like it will just fit - my samy has a body lift so the engine could sit over the chassis rails... Would have to tilt the engine up to do the valve clearances tho!

I have one of each.... as been said, if you want a real 4x4er, get the sammy - a sammy with no other mods apart from a 2" body lift and 31"s will go wherever a landcruiser with 35"s and two diff locks will - except river crossings! Gearing is marginal with 31"s though. Soob is much easier to live with on the road and has a fair bit more space inside. But they get bent and broken off road pretty quickly if you aren't careful.....

Whats wrong with the standard vented ones?

The cardboard ones actually work OK with copper sealant and CORRECT TORQUE SETTINGS. Problem is, the specs that subaru give aren't for cardboard gaskets, so don't work too well, and you get the below situation. I had to use cardboard ones once (had to wait 3 months for oem ones, I think they were being sent via the chinese treasure fleet or something.....) and worked out some revised torque specs to use with the cut-your-own type cardboard stuff. Planned on replacing them once the oem ones arrived, but never did. That engine did another 20 or 30 thousand k before it got relegated to spare engine status.... no worries! So if anyone has to use card ones for some reason, it can be done, but dont use soob torque specs.

Sounds about right..... You may not need to offset the coil input manually though - the turbo ones have an ignition retard function already, all you need to do is trick it..... although I'm not sure how far this will let you retard it - how much is needed? I'd guess quite a bit, but it would depend on your fuel, combustion chamer temperature etc. As you say, the electronics side of it is simple..... but getting it to work well might be a different story..... you might just end up pouring a whole lot of unburnt petrol out the exhaust......

Sorry, but that is rubbish. In Japan, everyone gets first pick as there is just such a huge volume of vehicles being disposed of. Plus, I think you underestimate the number of second hand vehicles we (foolishly) import from japan...... As for paying top dollar, if you are paying more than about US$500 for a whole car a couple years old over there, you are getting ripped off. 90%+ of the cost of Jap import stuff should be shipping and certification costs. The experiences I am talking about is of whole vehicles being imported - not engines. I am assuming the same quality issues would exist with seperate engines as with vehicles. We don't really import second hand components - by the time you've payed shipping costs etc. it's going to be cheaper, or at least almost as cheap, to rebuild, and then you end up with a like new component.