Subaru_dude

Okay I have gotten it running and tried to set the timing. (Don't ask me how, I had pulled the motor to replace the flywheel with the original and realized I didn't have a clutch for the EA81 flywheel so I just left the EA82 flywheel in there and threw it back in. Went to start it, and it cranked right up). So it has an EA82 flywheel and I have no idea if the timing marks on it are correct. I doubt they are because I had to drill out the holes to make it fit. So I did a google search and found that (in Australia at least) there is a mark on the crank pulley (in my case 2, 180 degrees from eachother) and these are supposed to be 8 deg btdc when lined up with the case halves, NOT TDC. I have no idea if this is true with the American market cars. I painted both my marks and went about timing it. It runs great if the mark is to the left about 2 inches, but as I turn the disty to the right to bring it to "8 deg btdc" it won't idle. It idles just fine if I turn it back to the left and the mark goes to the left, but it's not really driveable because it's still very gutless. Also tried moving the rotor in either direction a tooth and got kinda confused as to where my mark was supposed to be, but it's dark now and I'm pretty mentally drained and can't concentrate enough to keep track of what I'm doing. Any clues? If the disty is off some teeth would it do this?

I' guessing he's wondering if one could install a newer trans/engine into an older model Impreza. Early 90's Impreza with that drivetrain would probably get 40mpg.

HAHAHA That would be PERFECT!!!

You lucky Northwesterners and your rust free Subarus....

It is hooked to the passenger side port. And the reason I didn't bother reviving the old thread is because it would have been redundant to do so. Like I already said, I will check the brake booster and insure timing is correct before bringing this up again.

I had brakes before the swap, and I rebuilt the Weber and all the jets are correct and it's nice and clean. I only see one hose coming out of the vacuum advance on the distributor but I will definitely check to see if the rotor will move. Will also try plugging the brake booster hose. I have indeed pulled the plugs, they seem alright. They are Bosch so I will be swapping them for NGKs. Compression test... will do. Sounds like I need to pull it and stick the right flywheel on it so I can properly set timing. Thanks for the feedback guys, this is some good advice.

Here's the situation. 1984 Subaru DL 2wd 5spd 2door. Had EA71, swapped in an EA81 and de-smogged the feedback carb. Ran like it had a vacuum leak from day one so I stopped driving it. Fastforward to today. I've dropped a rebuilt Weber in there and replaced the crappy cardboard intake gaskets with legit Subaru intake gaskets. With the intake sitting on the heads there was no rock to the intake, so I know the surfaces are pretty well planed. I clean up the engine bay a bit and get the Weber adjusted according to what the Weber site says it should be to start off before final tune. Well, it's doing the exact same thing as before. Stumbling, high idle, seems to be running lean and while messing with the idle mixture it kept falling on its face. Was kinda hard to keep it running and play with mixture. Something else I have not done however is properly set the timing, used an EA82 flywheel. I'm wanting to say it's close BUT I could not say for sure because I can't get it running well enough to tune it by ear. So, I'm at a loss here. I know I should get a vacuum tester but I'm certain it's low on vacuum because the brakes barely want to work. But for the life of me, I CANNOT find ANY air leaks WHATSOEVER ANYWHERE on the carb or intake. I went through 2 cans of brake cleaner today trying to find a leak but NOTHING. What do I need to do, step by step, to figure out what is going on here? Could this be a sticking valve? Could the timing being off cause this? Exhaust leak at head? Fuel pressure being off? If I can't get this figured out I will have to part with it and I've put enough time and money into it that I really don't want to say goodbye to it just yet. This seems like a fixable problem but maybe I'm just overlooking something? It seems like I must be missing something right in front of my face and am just not capable of seeing it. If I could just get step by step instructions to track it down that would help me emmensely, I kinda don't know where to start. Thank you.

Yeah the "shaker" look is what I was thinking but it would be pretty far forward... the hood cowl idea would be cool because it could run the length of the hood and you couldn't see how far forward the filter is. I at least want some protection from rain... that's the only real reason I'd rather use an on-hood cowl design. You've posted on my other post about getting my hitachi running right because I had symptoms very similar to a vacuum leak. You had suggested not using the crappy cardboard intake gaskets. It now has legit Subaru intake gaskets and a Weber, BUT I haven't started it yet. Soon....

That engine is the EA82 engine. It's alright, tends to leak oil though and the head design is weak and also the radiator is not enough for that engine so it's a good combination for head failure later on down the road. It's a non-interference engine so breaking a timing belt shouldn't do anything to the valves. Engine swap wise, you could go with a 2.2 liter (EJ22) out of an earlier model Legacy, there's alot of wiring involved and it's time consuming but doable. There's write-ups here on the site for the EA-EJ engine swap. An easier and quicker swap that doesn't yield any power but gives you a more reliable and easier to work on engine is the EA81 swap. You'll have to add some wire to the distributor plug and take the disty to a machine shop to have some parts on it machined and also I think the engine mount holes in the front sub-frame may have to be reamed out. Bolts straight to the transmission and exhaust. It's also smaller in size so there's more room in the engine bay. The EA81 is a carbed engine from the factory so it's slightly lower in compression but you'll hardly notice the difference in power. The EA81 also has no timing belts which is also a huge plus.

So I was SUPPOSED to get the shorter filter in the mail but it came with the taller. Not gonna complain because they never did charge me for it... so I did a search on cutting a hole and adding a long backwards scoop that is pointed towards the windshield (Ram air? whatever they call it...) and haven't seen any old gen Subarus like that. Wondering if anybody's tried it OR has any other better ideas for covering the hole... It would be pretty awesome to see the filter rocking side to side under accelerating and while revving...

I really REALLY love that hatch... that's beautiful. NICE find. Keep her in the garage...

Friend of mine has a spfi ea81 Brat and towed a 4wd hatch with it, it did just fine. I had an '89 2wd 5spd EA82 sedan and had a 4wd rear end in the trunk with various other parts in the trunk... I would GUESS 350lbs of stuff in it. You could definitely tell it had a hard time accelerating, having it full of people had the same effect. Didn't have any trouble stopping, but going through the mountains with more weight than just me in the car is fun if you like hearing the beautiful sound of an EA82 at 4000rpms and up.

Update. I pulled the intake and the weber off it's adapter plate. I plugged the hole for the brake booster and the hole for the disty advance (have been switching it between that and the left port on the front of the Weber). I stuffed a rag in one end of the intake, covered the adapter plate with my hand, and blew in the other. No leaks anywhere... BUT the gasket between the carb and the adapter plate was soaked with gas. And as I moved the intake around gas was pouring down into the intake from the carb. I don't remember the hitachi ever seeping gas into the intake... does the carb need a rebuild? I also noticed the butterfly valve hinge hole thingy is WORN out.

Thank you GD, I think it's crap too. I just got onto the EA81/EA71 bandwagon a year ago, so much nicer to work on. No timing belts FTW.

I added extra washers to compensate for the possibility of the bolts bottoming out. The brackets are indeed gone. I'm going to let it run a while and see if it smokes white without me spraying anything. And as for sealing the gaskets, I didn't seal them up because my google search seemed to imply it wasn't necessary.

I'm pretty sure it's holding fine. I mean, it didn't leak enough coolant into the cumbustion chamber to smoke white before, and that was with JUST a very thin layer of ultra grey. Besides, can't afford anything until I get a job. I've turned in several applications and am making phone calls, when I get the money I'll worry about it.

Alright it has a Weber on it now and I cranked it, but it's still doing the same thing so I'm assuming there's a vacuum leak that's not related to the carb. I sprayed WD40 all over the intake and carb (avoiding spraying directly IN the carb) and didn't notice any difference in the way it idled.... BUT it did start smoking white and it didn't smell like coolant. Couldn't quite put my finger on the smell... does wd40 burn white? I tried to light it on fire but it's not even flammable.

Pretty soon I'll be pulling the engine out of my '84 to fix that same leak, I'll try using sealant and come back to this thread and update (unless I can access the seal without splitting the trans in an EA81 2wd). Also, to remove the AWD off the rear of the trans be sure all of the long bolts that hold the 2 halves together are out. The AWD clutch pack has a couple of long forks that hook around one of those bolts and it won't come off until that bolt is removed. Can't remember which one it is exactly... but you'll be removing them all anyway.

I think you should replace the Datsun badge with a Subaru badge... just so people can tell. OR you could go ahead and leave it and stick a Subaru emblem on the other side of the grill to confuse people.

Doesn't matter if you can IMAGINE it or not. Maybe you should try it before you go nay-saying. Why do you need DIRECT access to the seal to apply sealant? Just squeeze a whole tube in the sleeve and you've probably got it. Seal the weep hole as well and whaddya know!! No trans grease on the pressure plate!! Always trying to find problems... it's amazing some people ever get anything fixed.

You might get away with leaning the engine forward, I think you can use the starter hole to get to each bolt on the pressure plate. I would think it would be pretty darn tight. And I think the shaft having grease on it keeps the sealant from actually sealing to it, but forms tightly around it and thus keeps grease from getting past. I would imagine the chunk of silicone or whatever I used probably spun around in there being it was so greasy. I don't even think I bothered to spray in there with brake cleaner.

I had a '95 Brighton Legacy that had a leaky input shaft seal. Trans grease all over the exhaust and all the stinky smoke. When I pulled the trans out, all I did was fill in the small gap between the input shaft and the sleeve with some kinda sealant, can't remember exactly what I used. I let it sit for a day and installed the new clutch, put the trans back in (definitely would have been easier to just pull the motor. I originally thought the trans was bad but it was just the clutch). Even with the extra play from the worn out input shaft bearing, it didn't leak a single DROP for a few thousand miles. The trans did fail, another bearing in the trans gave out and it caused the clutch to fail because the input shaft wasn't even coming out of the trans straight, busted the clutch disc. If it's just the seal I would NOT split the case to replace it, or even pull the trans. The sealant worked great for me and I believe a member from Australia had tried this before with success. Maybe it was Phizinza? But anyhow, all you would need to do in that case would be pull the motor and seal around that shaft. Make sure there's not TOO much play in the input shaft though...

Great to hear! Knew you'd be happy with the Syntec.

Yeah the nature of the accident was especially rough on the roof because it rolled down an embankment and LANDED on that corner. I had also recently healed up from a broken left collar bone, felt like I had shin-splints in it for a few weeks after that (seatbelt directly over that shoulder). And the car's long gone, I only had it a couple months after I rolled it. The motor had 250,000 on it and now resides in my sisters Legacy. She has since put 24,000 miles on it. Darn good engines them EJ22s...

My sisters 1996 Legacy sedan auto EJ22 gets 26 in mixed driving, she did manage a tad over 30 once on the interstate. She doesn't really pay a whole lot of attention to how she drives but she certainly isn't a lead foot. Her drive to work is a total of MAYBE 6 miles, with 6 redlights if I remember correctly, and it's nearly flat. Her and the bf take her car everywhere being he drives a truck, and if they go anywhere it's into the city to go eat or watch a movie. I would think your Impreza would get at least what her Legacy gets. You got a check engine light on? Maybe hypermiling doesn't work well with automatics...