Ross

I have never come across an ea81 soob without a little vibration in the gear lever - more than you would expect in most other cars. I suspect this is due to the fact that I have also never come across an ea81 soob wihtout worn out bushings on the gear lever, and have never bothered putting too much effort into fixing them. The gearlever design used will always be good at transmitting vibration simply because it is connected to the gearbox in such a direct manner - unlike most other vehicles. Problem with trying to sort this out on a forum is that everyones definition of too much vibration will be different, and there is no easy way to measure it.... Remember that, although the flat four is a well balanced design, it is still a reciprocating machine, so a certain amount of vibration is unavoidable - hence the need for rubber mounts - check your gearlever bushings, they are probably worn out.

No, they are different. THe pickup in the ea81t is the same as in the early (85-86) ea82ts, although the distributors are of course slightly different.

It shouldn't damage anything, just reduce the efficiency of power transfer to the speakers. Contrary to popular belief, its the same with decreasing the impedance (which can cause damage) - running two ohm speakers on a 4 ohm amplifier will run much less efficiently than with 4 ohm speakers. The supply and load impedance should always be matched to give maximum power transfer.

Yeah its always an effort to install a stereo in an old soob- no room for anything... I ended up making some fairly deep (~70mm)surrounds that space some 6" components out from the front doors, and some 6x9s in the boot which I just have mounted in free boxes so that I can move them around to get them out of the way. I was surprised at how good the fronts look - I've just got the surrounds, which are made from MDF, wrapped in some dark grey carpet. Headunits dont fit much better - I have one in at teh moment, but it sticks out miles so I have a laptop to go under the fornt seat and a 7" touchscreen LCD to put where the headunit goes.... but that can wait for a rainey day....

Not to mention disgustingly overpriced..... There is no way i'm spending over $50 on a 50mm length of hose.....

easiest solution is just to remember roughly how many % out it is and use the speedometer accordingly. As long as you know what the speedo should be reading, thats all that matters!

I have seriously thought about taking to my sump with a caulking gun and a whole lot of RTV........

Definitely best to measure off the rims - best to rig up something that clamps to them and extends out..... Measuring off the tires is always going to be dodgey since the tread waves around a fair bit..... In the past I have used very fine wire instead of string...

I'm in the process of making some fibreglass pipes for a legacy awic on mine.... nothing like making things difficult for yourself ay!

You'll find that gets a bit messy during gear changes, since all that air you're letting out has been metered..... BOVs are really only suitable for MAP based engine management systems.... better to go with a BPV.

You'd be surprised just how accurate you can get toe in adjustments with a little non-stretchy string and fair bit of patience! +/-1mm or so, which I believe is within factory specs.... or close enough anyway.

Another thing to check is the universal joint on the steering column shaft..... I had a bad one in an 81 wagon, I was amazed at how much easier it was to turn with a new one! A symptom of that was that the wheel wouldn't centre itself, even at 50km/h or so you'd have to physically turn it back to straight....

No, definitely sounds like a clogged radiator

yeah, get an ea81t, ohv all the way!

The changeover in ECU did indeed occur between '86 and '87 in our part of the world too. As Gloyale said, there are a number of parts that will need to be changed..... But your problem does sound a lot like an incorrect coolant temperature sensor was installed..... I'm not sure if these changed when the new ECU was brought in or not..... I had very similar symptoms when I installed an intake manifold on my ea81t which had been being used with a LINK ecu. Turned out that the CTS was just different. +1 for just swapping the entire intake manifold.

Nor have I seen another set..... Scrap aluminium....

14": 13": Unfortunately, I only have 3 of each of these, since some knob stole one of each..... So if anyone sees any of them.... let me know!

Positive camber

Anyone ever found a manufacturer that does air shocks to fit an ea81 wagon (rear)? The ones I have tried don't make any that small...... Or has anyone done any mod for ride height adjustment? (other than the factory one of course....) The factory adjustment just doesn't cover enough range for me - between going around town with an empty car and going on long trips with four guys and gear and beer and a boat on the back......

yes there will be pressure, but there wont be any flow through it, and your engine oil supply will be unchanged. It doesn't restrict oil pressure (apart from small pressure drop) to turbo that I know of, I believe they run on full pressure.... mine does, it runs directly off the pump where the standard pressure gauge is mounted on NA cars.

Based on a system schematic that I have seen (I wont stand by the accuracy of it, but thought I'd mention it....) the cooler will do absolutely nothing without the turbo oil supply line hooked up. The aforementioned schematic shows that the cooler is connected in series with the turbo - so no turbo, no cooler. So you'd have to make use of the "extra" supply for this to be useful. Again, the schematic may be wrong..... wouldn't be the first time for an FSM.

mine was, but it was a japanese one and they dont have them... (or at least some of them don't....).

Oh, something else to factor in, If you are planning on increasing power, plan on adding an oil cooler - I have trouble with mine and its almost completely stock. Im having to run horribly expensive synthetic 10w60 to keep hot pressure up to a resonable level.

Yes, I got it reground to standard turbo specs. It is a very good grind if you want to have a good amount of low down torque - mine pulls very well from just over 2000rpm to about 4000rpm. Its still OK after that, but nothing impressive. My crap exhaust wont be helping though....

THe only real difference in operating conditions between turbo and non turbo bearings is temperature - the turbo engines do run with higher oil temperature. The force on a conrod bearing caused by the combustion is actually quite small compared to the force required to accelerate the rod and piston, so you don't need to worry about that. I would imagine that the N/A ones available would cope with the small amount of extra heat just fine.