TomRhere

Going by that, I would take a look at the connections between the fuse box, and the light switch. Loose fitting, or corroded terminals will cause excess heat. If nothing is found with the connections, I'd swap the light switch itself.

As mentioned, I would look at ways to isolate the air flow to the radiator. The way it looks now, you're drawing air that's been heated by the engine and muffler. You want to get as much cool air as possible. Once the engine starts to overheat, you're just adding more heat to the radiator with the way the air flow is now. Just my .02....

Welcome... You've found a great place. Can't help any with Clubs around your area, but I do recall stumbling arcoss a web site for a Southeast Michigan Subaru Club a while back while looking for Subaru stuff. Thinking it was an Impreza site, not sure now, been awhile back.

Gotta agree with the Mustang look, but I could live with it sitting in my driveway. Thinking different rims though. Just don't like the looks of those.... Otherwise, I likes it... So does Mikey!!!!

I couldn't agree more with that statement... Seperate intake runners will wake-up an engine as compared to a single runner. Just wish there was a dual port exhaust head available for these engines, that would be the

My bet would be that there's pin-holes in the Y-pipe. Can't see them due to the heat-shield covering the pipe, but you'll probally find them if you removed the shielding. I removed the shielding from an old Y-pipe and found a bunch of pin-holes along with quite a few cracks in the pipes. Way to many holes and cracks to bother trying to save it, so I made my own exhaust.

My now departed '86 BRAT (RIP) had 183k on the ticker when the guy I bought it from got it. He put in fresh gas and battery and fired it up. His boys baja'd around the corn fields for a while in it, then I bought it. I drove it for about a year as my daily driver, with no engine problems. Rust was the reason I had to get rid of it, was way to far gone to be saved. So yeah, I'd keep the engine/tranny, maybe the rear diff, part out the rest. I would be interested in the trim panel for the inside backwall of the cab, myself. Not sure how easy it would be to ship though. Possibly some other interior stuff, have to go thru my stash here and see what I need to replace.

http://www.all-foreign.com/epcvsoapimc.epc?cookieID=1OQ0HCS0S1PD0DRA6Y&drillid=8&subcatid=800990@@Piston%2FCylinder%2FRings&clientid=all-foreign

No need to mess with Tie-rod, just need to get some movement of the knuckle here. Either pull the lower control arm pivot bolt, or remove the ball-joint from the knuckle by removing the pinch bolt. I prefer the Ball-joint/knuckle separation myself. Once that is taken care of, you just turn the steering wheel towards the side that you're working on. This will give you plenty of swing-out room, with out messing with the tie-rod ends. Is not a good idea, nor safe practice, to use a pickle-fork type ball-joint/tie-rod separator on one that you plan on still using. For one, you'll rip the boot for sure. Two, it puts un-do stress on the joints in the wrong way and is detrimental to the way they were designed to work. I have seen pickle-forks pull the joint apart rather than separate them from a steering knuckle. Just my .02

Can't say as to the Turbo model, but do know the EA-82 carbed engine fits into a 2nd Gen with very little mods done. It be tight to the frame-rails, but you don't need to hammer on them. You'll have about 3/8" room on both sides when engine is bolted in. When putting the engine into the BRAT, you'l want to leave the motor mount bracket bolts on the engine, loose. This will help the studs go thru the crossmember. Once you have engine centered, tighten bracket to engine bolts then the studs. The slots in the EA-81 crossmember are wide enough for the EA-82 mounts, but the slots are further up towards the frame rails on an EA-82 to allow for stud clearance when installing/pulling engine. If you have a Hill-Holder,and want to keep it, you'll have to move it rearwards towards the firewall, about 2". Basically put the front bolt of the H-H bracket into the rear hole in the frame. Will also need to tweak the front-most brake line where it attaches to the Master Cylinder. Don't need to move it much, but it needs to be tweaked toward the strut tower to help clear Vac unit on disty, (if your engine has one).. I would suggest using the EA-82 flywheel if at all possible, otherwise you'll need to transfer the T-belt and igntion timing marks over to the EA-81 flywheel. Take it from me, ain't no fun doing T-belts with no marks to go by., plus the ignition timing marks are off a bit between the two. To transfer marks, bolt the crank side of one flywheel to the clutch side of the other, aligning the holes properly of course. Then just scribe the marks where needed. Good time to re-drill crank bolt holes now if you use the EA-81 flywheel. Best to have the EA-82 flywheel ontop of the EA-81's here, as it will help insure that the drill bit runs straight. As for the mechanicals, that's about it other than fuel line and pump. Now, you have the wiring side of it. Can't help much there, but others have done it doing the EJ swaps. If,,,, I ever get back to working on my engine swap in the '82 BRAT, I'll have my own wiring to contend with, (ER-27 swap).

Can this Non-Turbo Subaru owner get a clarification on just what that means?

Use an EA-82 carb intake manifold under the Weber. It has a larger port opening for the carb, and I think the runners are larger too. Some mods have to be done to the intake to clear the disty, but it fits. The EA-82 lower radiator hose works for the upper hose, with some trimming. Do the other things mentioned above also. Have pics here of my last swap, I can send them to you. I spun the Weber 180* on this last one, less interferrance with disty that way.

As stated earlier, the 1st thing you want to do is a compression test. This will either eliminate possible HG problem, or atleast show you which side/cylinder is the culprit. You'll be looking for one cylinder to be much lower than the rest. Next step, is to bring that low reading cylinder to TDC on it's compression stroke and apply some comressed air to it thru the spark plug hole. Look for bubbling in the radiator. If it's there, yep, popped the HG. Or,, and I hate when this happens, you cracked a head. Now, if all cylinders read about the same, chances are the HG's and heads are good and you have a cooling problem. If,, when you removed the T-stat and started the engine, (with the engine cold), and got bubbles imediately.... Then yes, I would suspect that you have a bad HG or head. But,,,, it still could just be trapped air in the cooling system. Do the compression test before doing anything else.

I want to agree with hodaka rider. With engine off, pump the brake pedal maybe 10 times. This will insure that the booster has used any vacuum stored. Now, with you foot on the brake pedal, start the engine. If the pedal falls away from your foot, ( so to speak), chances are the booster is good. If the pedal doesn't move any, booster diaphram is shot. Hence poor brakes, and lousy running engine.. Blown booster diaphram is a major vacuum leak.....

http://www.all-foreign.com/epcvsoapimc.epc?cookieID=1OQ0HCS0S1P903RNCC&drillid=8&subcatid=801030@@Front+Discs+%26+Drums&clientid=all-foreign Just one of the places I buy parts from...

I know some guys around here that are into Mud Trucks that would kill for the suspension under that. Nice looking body though... And yes, with proper gearing in the front diff, you can run a different size tire on the front than what's on the rear.

I think a roof rack improves the looks of a Wagon, regardless of what make it is. I say go for the rack now, do the lift later. I would say go with the 1" tube for the rack framing. That way you know it'll be sturdy enough for what ever you want to put in it later down the road. Haven't played in the mud with any of mine, yet.. But I have had some serious fun playing in the snow with my '86 BRAT and the XT-6.

Item #1 is the Hill-Holder valve. When the nuts are put back on and it's properly adjusted, along with the clutch cable itself, it will hold the brakes on when you're stopped on a hill, without the need to have your foot on the brake pedal. No idea on Item #2..

Glad to see that you made it with little problem. I've made many a road trip, and try to keep the repair equipment easy to get to. Never fails though, something will get "buried", and then it's "dig thru the vehicle" time.

Yes a good engine shop can check a crank. They will check for straightness, scoring of bearing jornals, and whether the jornals are round or egg-shaped. If it's close to tolerances, the jornals can be polished. A crank can be re-ground and you would need under-sized bearings. I've had a couple cranks ground, but opted a few times for a new crank, mainly due to what the engine was being built for.

Welcome to the Board, you've found the best place to get info about your car(s). If the coolant is dripping from the front of the engine, out of the Black plastic Timing belt cover, I would say it's the water pump. There's a weep-hole in the body of the pump, it's behind the T-belt cover. When the pump seal goes bad, it will leak coolant out of the weep hole. The water pump is located just to the right of the crank pulley, (large pulley, center of engine), as you stand in-front of the car. There are afew other places that the coolant could leak from though. Give the engine a good look over for signs of coolant leaks. There's a few small hoses on top of the engine, there's a hose from the water pump to a metal tube that heads toward the back of the engine, where it connects to the heater hoses. The lower radiator hose goes to a metal pipe that leads to the water pump. There's an O-ring on it at the pump that can leak. Any of those can/will leak and the coolant will find it's way to the ground. One needs to see if they can trace the leak back to it's source. The '84 BRAT I had leaked coolant, owner said bad head gasket, when I bought it. Turned out to be pin-hole in heater hose, cheap easy fix. :} Look engine over some more and post back with findings. We'll guide you in from there......

Can't say for sure on a Wagon, but this is what I found on an '86 BRAT as far as connections in the harness going to the rear lights. There's a connector behind the PS kick panel, harness runs under the doorsill trim. Next one rearward is just infront of the backwall, behind the side trim. Maybe it's behind the side trim of the backseat in a Wagon, don't know. Harness runs between inner/outer body panels, over the rear wheel well. On the BRAT, the next connector is behind the PS tail light assembly. The harness splits here to feed PS and runs across to the DS getting the plate lights and gas tank on the way. There is a ground wire to the body at the connector behind the PS light. On the BRAT, it is attached behind the 1st access panel in the bed. Maybe it's behind the side panel of the Wagon, again,,, I don't know. Just thought I'd throw this up here to help you trace things down.

I bought a set for my '82 BRAT a couple years ago. The on-line parts place ain't there anymore, but I have others to try. Will let you know.....

Welcome indeed.... Always glad to see another Michigander join the Board. Yeah, it's not to far of a drive to Lansing, about 1 to 1-1/2 hour depending on traffic and route taken. I-69 is the easiest, but not really the fastest. I prefer either M-99 or US-127 depending on which side of Town I'm going to. Dad-burned kid and his friend playing on-line games are messing with my DSL. Ones on his system, others on the X-Box live. I'm going to pull the plug here shortly.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c264/TomRhere/7b2961db.jpg Gates 28466 hose. Trim to fit either EA-81 or EA-82. It's the hose from the water pump to metal tube under the altenator, the "fun" one to change....