TomRhere

Spent some time wrenching on it yesterday. Pulled the starter and tore it apart, cleaned and lubed everything, re-installed it. Seems to work properly now. Finally got an electric fan mounted to the radiator. Had a few instances of it wanting to buck-n-jerk going down the road the past few days. Was thinking fuelpump issue, so I swapped the one in from the '86 BRAT. No help. Fuel filters were new when I put the engine in, so I'm thinking they're good. May have to open the carb up and clean it.. Took it for a drive myself, and yeah, it acts just like it's starving for gas. Let off the pedal a bit when it does the herkyjerky thing, and it runs good. So yeah, fuel issue....

Yeah, torque on those is 145 foot pounds +. Can be a bit of work to get them loose if they've been on there for awhile.

Definetly have issue with the brain in this Wagon.... Christopher sent me a text yesterday, saying the "check engine light" came on. Sent him one back saying not to worry about it. Only took it 10 days to figure out something wasn't right under the hood any more. Going to pull the dash and remove the bulb this weekend. Engine has been running good since swapping the Weber in. Had a "crank but no start" issue again. But it started right up when I got home and gave it a jump. Need to do some cleaning of the grounding points, and swap starters. This starter doesn't always want to stop cranking engine when you let go of key. Even keeps cranking when I jump it at the starter, so I know it's a solenoid issue atleast, and not something with wiring in the car.

There's people on here running disty's and carbs on 2.2 engines. So yeah, you can mod the intake to run a carb on yours. Not "the best" way to do it, but it will work.

I too have had the "no fire-up during crank, but fires-up when key is released" ordeal in the past. Got it right now on Son's '88 Wagon.... Check voltage to coil during cranking, should be battery voltage or very near it. Also, pull coil wire from disty cap, hold it near a ground point on engine, crank engine... What does the spark look like? Should be a fairly brite spark that will jump a 1/4" gap easily. I have found everything from worn ignition switch contacts, to fauly wiring, (IE: corroded connectors) as causes. Improper grounding of vehicle body, and engine, to battery -, could also be issue. Ignition coils output is directly related to input voltage, less voltage in on primary side = less voltage out on the secondary side. It takes a "hotter spark" to "start" an engine than it does to "run" one. My "temporary work-around" on Son's Wagon is; Tap into the wire for the starter solenoid and run a wire to the coil + side of a relay, run wire from the relay coil - to battery -. Run fused wire from battery +, to switched contacts of relay, run wire from other side of switched contact to ignition coil +. Very simular to what they used to do for a points type ignition, way back when... Those "started" on 12 volts, "ran" on 6 volts thru a resistor of some type, depending on make of vehicle.

Cool!!! To bad though, Wife said "no". We have Family in that area, been easy to get.. She did say that it was cute!!!

It Lives, once again. Had to do some more clearancing trimmage on the powersteering mount bracket to clear the carb intake. Time spent hunting up enough fuel hose to re-route to the Weber. Located an ingnition "hot" wire to feed the choke coil. Blue/Red wire in the Large Black connector, read battery voltage with key "on". Adapted the fuel pump into the Wagon. FP actually came out of an '86 Sedan I bought of MilesFox awhile ago. Rounded up proper fittings for the fuel lines. Made me a pig-tail to adapt the wiring over without having to change anything under the Wagon. Had to take a hammer to the FP to get it to run, but it works now. Still have some "finishing touches" to do to it. But it can be driven down the road now. Christopher took it for a couple trips up&down our street. Ran good, no hesitation at all. I do need to address the Y-pipe gaskets, they be a bit leaky. Put used ones on during engine install, have new ones now, just didn't get to that today.. May just leave it the way it is now, may look into the SPFI issues later this summer or so. Not sure right now. Just happy it's running good.....

Yeah, I'm thinking there is definet issues with the wiring and ECU in this Wagon. Some issues may have been there when Noah had it, others may have came from it sitting here for 5 years, IE; corroded contacts in connectors. Plan for later today is, go carb. I just don't have the needed time to do in-depth troubleshooting of the SPFI system. Need this Wagon on the road, asap. Work to do; Swap the intake out for the Weber setup I have, swap disty out, swap fuelpump out. I already have a carb type EA82 disty reworked for the EA81 engine, it was going to go into my '85 BRAT, (whole different story there), but,, it's needed in this engine for now. I'm out of "good" EA81 type disty's. Fuelpump will be out of the '86 BRAT the Wagon's current engine came out of. Engine ran exccelant when it was in the '86 BRAT with the Weber setup on it. Only unknown as of this moment is the EA82 disty I'll be installing, but I have a couple of those, so spare parts are available.

This is what Fox is refering to; NOTE: Don't recall where I read it, or who told me this, but.... Just placing the EA81 flywheel ontop of the EA82 flywheel to transfer the timing marks is not accurate. Aligning the bolt holes still leaves a 6* difference in the timing between the 2 engines. EA82 flywheel on an EA81 engine leaves you 6* more advanced with the timing. IE; 0* on EA81 flywheel reads 6* BTDC on the EA82 flywheel. Definet difference in where the 2 engines have the timing holes located, but apparently, the bolt holes on the cranks are clocked differently also. 'Cause as Miles stated previously, there's about a 30* difference in where those are located between the 2 engines, so the crank holes have to be clocked differently also to only be 6* different. I've just about had my fill of trying to get the EA81 to run on the SPFI. Really thinking the Weber/EA82 manifold setup I have here is going on this engine. For your issue; I would pull all of the plugs and crank the engine over for a bit to clear out any excessive gas. Re-install plugs, and try starting it again. Chances are, you flooded it fairly good running the FI pump.

Ok. Had to do an 8 hour day at work today. Get back here and go thru the "fun" of pulling the cluster, to find that Noah had pulled the bulb for the ESC light. Replaced it, and re-installed cluster. Turn key "on", no ECS light. Grrrr!!!! Taking a break, before I start "breaking" things. Not,,, a Happy Camper!

Found info on "D"-check. Was here on this computer, buried...... Digging into it, will post back results sometime this weekend..

Layed waste to 2 cans of carb cleaner checking any and all possible sources of vac leak. Nothing indicated... Every hose, gasket, tube, fitting, ect., etc., etc.... Kicker is; it will go down the road just fine and dandy in reverse!!! Put it any forward gear selection, and it falls on it's face when you give it any throttle input. Have to "feather-pump" the go-pedal to take off from a stop in forward gears. No make sense....... :-\ Just came in from checking the disty timing to the crank position/#1 clylinder compression stroke. I have to be within 2* of being right on time according to the pencil in the plug hole TDC figuring method. NOTE: Don't recall where I read it, or who told me this, but.... Just placing the EA81 flywheel ontop of the EA82 flywheel to transfer the timing marks is not accurate. Aligning the bolt holes still leaves a 6* difference in the timing between the 2 engines. EA82 flywheel on an EA81 engine leaves you 6* more advanced with the timing. IE; 0* on EA81 flywheel reads 6* BTDC on the EA82 flywheel. Definet difference in where the 2 engines have the timing holes located, but apparently, the bolt holes on the cranks are clocked differently also. 'Cause as Miles stated previously, there's about a 30* difference in where those are located between the 2 engines, so the crank holes have to be clocked differently also to only be 6* different. Found that out when I did the alignment method myself during the engine swap. Pulled a U-check on codes, got 7 flashes of O2 light. Indicates '88 48 State Auto Trans according to my Haynes manual. Check engine light didn't light with key on, (never really noticed that before, and/or don't recall it not working), but I'm thinking now, Noah may have pulled the bulb out when he did the CIS conversion. Haven't pulled the dash panel to confirm that yet. Pulled tests on the TPS and MAF/MAS/AFM (whatever you want to call it). All check out good according the manual I have. Do know; During the U-check test, (green connectors connected), I had clicking under the hood, but no fuel pump cycling. FP is supposed to cycle, right?? So??!!?!?!?! Indication of "ECM issue" here with that? Numbers on ECM tag are; 22611--AA392 MECF-022 8201-----4E Build date of vehicle, 02/88 Wanting to pull the D-check, but need to find that info on here. It's not covered in the Haynes. I know I've seen it, just need to test my "search" skills. HaHA! If I haven't figured this out by this coming weekend... SPFI is coming off, Weber is going on........

:drunk: 3 Cheers to Brumhilda. May she live long and heartily in other Subes. Had to send a few off to the Great Beyond myself. Not a good feeling. Speaking of feelings... Hope things go good for you on the surgery. Speedy recovery and all that....

Yeah, EA81 engine running the '88s SPFI and auto trans. Pretty sure I got the timing marks transfered over correctly, but I can re-check that. Son drove car yesterday, says the stumble got way worse. But it would go great in reverse. So,,, he drove it home in reverse....... Gotta get this figured out. Back on 9 hour days for the moment, so I have a bit of time after I get home to do a few checks on things. Cap, rotor, plugs are all new. Good wires on it, but they're not new ones. Other thread I had going on it. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=104479 I remember Noah saying he had issues with this car, but what those were I can't recall. All of his threads are long gone from this site. His screen names don't show either, so all was lost.....

Worked on it some today. Forgot to bring home the DMM, so didn't check anything for voltages and what nots. Was a long week at work, 12 hour days all week, including yesterday. I be a tired puppy. But I needed to wrench on the BRAT, so figured I'd look into a few things on the Wagon. Mother Nature even blessed up with a nice drizzly day to do this. Got some Seafoam and carb cleaner. Dumped most of the seafoam in the tank, but kept some to draw into the intake thru the vac line for the heater system. Nice smoke cloud effect.... Spraying carb cleaner around didn't show any signs of a vac leak on any hose or what have you. So thinking we can rule a vac leak out. Pulled the TPS off the throttlebody and checked it out. Found some corrosion on the pins and in the plug. Cleaned them as best I could, but probally didn't get it good enough. Even swapped TPS with another one I had laying around, just cause it "looked" better. Cleaned the MAF plug pins and connector also, as it showed some corrosion. "Slight" improvement in the engine as far as taking off from a stop goes, but nothing to get excited about. Hesitation/stumble is still there, just not quite as bad. Need to get some cleaner for the connectors, see if that helps any. Forgot to run a code check. Like I said, I be tired, brain not wanting to work, wants to rest. Not sure what my work schedule is for the coming week, but I'll try to get back to it before the weekend gets here.

That DS fender came of an '86 Sedan I bought, for parts, from Miles Fox. Wishing now, I had kept a few more of the exterior pieces. Most of us have seen Fox's paint schemes on his TrashWagons. This Sedan was one of his TrashSedans. Christopher really likes the looks of the paint scheme on the fenders. He's a U of M fan, and it's also his schools colors. So,,, he wants to do the whole Wagon to match. Fox has said he'll be over this way sometime this month. Hoping he has some free time to stop by and give Son some painting tips, in-person. I'm more worried about getting it running better.... I'll leave the "looks" of it to Son.... Do think Son needs to help with some paint application to the building in the background 1st though.

I'm liking it.. Was wondering what you had done with it since the accident happened. Glad to see you still have it..

TPS was my 1st guess, MAF for the next guess. Car has been sitting here for 5 years with no engine, it's got one now! Solid lifter EA-81 running the '88's SPFI. Good runner when it was in the '86 BRAT, (it was a replacement engine). Need to spend time with it figuring things out, but work hours put that stuff to the weekends. I need to get some carb cleaner, along with other goodies and cleanout a few items, see what happens then. Do know, when I drove it last night, it does want to fall on it's face when taking off from a stop. Gotta play with the go-pedal some. But,, when I turned it around, (to park it in the road), put it reverse and gave it gas, it went like there was no problem. ?!?!? Stopped, and gave it some gas again, and yeah, it goes in reverse just fine. WTH??? Not real keen on FI systems, so I have some learning to do on them. I'll dig thru some of the older posts on here, see what things I can glean from them. We've owned a few different Makes/Models with FI, but I didn't have to do much to them, and have friends that know those particular systems well if problem came along. They don't know Subaru systems though.

Son... Welcome. Just read thru the older posts on here and you'll get a lot of info on these here Subarus....

A few pics.. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/album.php?albumid=222 "Tis all about use what you got, run what you brung...........

Still, next time it does it.. Try twisting the key just a tad more, either dirrection. See if it helps...

Sing it Willie! On the road again! Got things buttoned up and semi-properly rigged. Didn't have enough pieces/parts on hand to do a proper job on the PS tensioner, but it works... Good ole Yankee errornerring right there!!!! Get-R-Done!!! Got some pics of finale assembly, will post them shortly. But it runs and goes down the road hella better than other engine did. Son is "Happy".

Took Friday off, giving me a 3 day weekend to wrench on this here Wagon. Weather forecast sounded like it was a good weekend for wrenching outside. It has been so far!!!! My Brother stopped by Friday morning and helped me manhandle the EA-81 engine out of the BRAT, then we started swapping stuff over. Had to get out the angle grinder and do alot of clearancing in the bellhousing area to fit the EA-82 flex plate. Then I had to cut down the flywheel bolts, as I couldn't find any of proper size/length. Set about getting the EA-82 disty and SPFI modded to fit the engine following GD's writeup on the EA-81 SPFI swap. Worked on mounting and needed mods to mount the EA-81 alt bracket along with the EA-82 powersteering pump. Still need to work on just how I'm going to do the PS drive belt tensioner, but it's on the engine and very close to being done. Saturday, Spent time doing alot of fit-n-finish work on the disty, PS pump mounting. Then Christopher and I dropped the engine into the Wagon. Have most everything hooked back up. Still need to; install the Y-pipe, fasten down motor mounts, mount the electric fan. Figure on the tensioner for the PS belt more. It was approaching sunset and starting to cool off alot, and supper was ready, so we called it a day. We'll be back out there this morning to finish it up. My camera is being very finicky, not wanting to take pics, or not wanting to talk to any computer when it does take pics. So, no pics of things done yet. I'll try to get some of the finished install, but it may be a few days before that happens.

Brakes are different, won't fit.