Steptoe's photos

I have been running turbo EA82 since 2006 and still have a love for them. SPFI is only single intake port, where turbo uses the twin intake port mpfi heads. EA81T were single port inlet and they do OK from reports. You could do a suck-it-and-see approach on your spfi set up but what I have read of turbo on NA compression varies from, spun a bearing to 50,000 miles on high boost before it was toast. What makes my EA82 a little more robust in one of my cars is the twin core EA81 radiator (EA81 body with it too , mind you ) Twin electric fans with a better user control is also a help in warmer climates. Give it a shot, no extra boost, pull the initial timing back a bit, like , I think set at 20 normally, try at 10. If you look at the exhaust port you will see there are two threaded holes not in use where current exhaust bolts up. The EA82T exhaust manifold uses these. The EA82T head on the non dizzy side is an mpfi head and has flat cast faces tapped to supply oil to the turbo and a drain back to same head via 5/8" /16mm hose. An spfi head may also be adaptable to give and take oil to and from the turbo or run a T piece from oil pressure switch up front. The drain plug of each head, the non dizzy side is used to supply coolant to the turbo via long pitot style pick up banjo bolt that screws into the drain plug, steel, rottable pipe, then rubber hose to turbo. Coolant then returns to the underside of thermostat housing. I actually have a couple of EA82 spfi intake manifolds here in Australia. I started adapting one for a turbo EA81 idea - used the spfi ECU coolant temp sensor port for the coolant return. You will need to keep your coolant temp sensor, so will need to T in a return somewhere. I started the EA81 turbo idea and nearly got there before concentrating on EA82 for it's superior design and drivability over EA81. I guess people saw EJ having an advantage of EA82 too. I just didn't look that far

a simple compression test can help determine if valve timing is correct. Ignition timing and lead order are another thing I mark all my leads and cap with coloured zip ties , red on both ends of #1 lead, and where it fits to cap, blue on two, grEEn on thrEE, yellow on #4 - fool proof !

keeping 4WD ability I assume? A FWD 5 speed box from an EA81 sedan or hatch would work. Many have fitted EA82 4WD 5 speed manual boxes behind EA81 in EA81 bodies such as your BRAT. I have. Do some research and you should find a load of info of what to collect, what to do etc

I did mine a few years back - tank was out of car for this messy task. I used the internet to get details and went for it - hydrochloric acid of some particular strength ADDING IT TO WATER ALREADY IN TANK as is the acid precautions list starting point. Forget how long I left it for, rinsed, rinsed and rinsed, then once happy with shiny insides, added more water and a heap of carb soda/bicarbonate of soda to neutralise any acidic stuff lurking and more rinse cycle. Dry out in the heat of the day. No more gunked fuel filter problems. White vinegar might be a safer option for you to try. I would suggest you experiment with rusty metal waste pieces first to see what happens. As soon as white vinegar soak for 24 hrs is done, wash up and rust starts to form again quickly, so spray with penetrating oil to see how it protects things from oxidising. Move on to the tank when you have some experience. READ ALL PRECAUTIONS OF USING AND HANDLING ACID. PROTECT EYES !!

measured them up, not including head, 115mm and 130mm

Funny, I put end of breaker bar on or rather prop against floor, on driver's side of LHD, passenger side of RHD

just sorting an engine set of head bolts out myself for someone. Six long, three shorter per side. Exact measures might be helpful eh Steppy ?

well . I interswapped 2 with 4 and got no change so at least these two go together. Not exactly precision is it ? just an advance on one squirter spfi really

oh yeah, the 4EAT as many call it, but I saw a Subaru brochure refer to it as E4AT - has a Trans Control Unit TCU, that can stay or go depending on how you feel

the auto 3 speed turbo were 23 spline i had a 4 speed awd out of an 89 RXA/GLTA and from memory it's owner did a same swap to PT 4WD 5 speed box from an RX. I think he also gave me a pair of front shafts, which makes me think he needed to use 25 splines for his RX box, these AWD auto 4 speed shafts may have also been 23 - so you might be lucky on that front. The AWD 4 speed auto also used a different rear gearbox mount to the manual box mounts. The 4 speed AWD auto box weighs about 113kg with it's fluids and torque converter. A PT 5 speed 4WD is mid 50 kg plus flywheel and clutch. The last person I spoke to who fitted an awd 4 speed auto commented on how it seemed to sit lower -it would be the extra 30 odd kilos The wire for the inhibitor switch is easy to find when you remove auto shifter. Thicker black wire maybe white or yellow trace on it. I just bridged mine. I never made any change to the ECU to tell it that it was now a manual, so that did not affect my driving at all, so you may also be able to forget about that, as I did forget Always an improvement to get 5 gears with feel to it.

exterior might not be the best descriptive word for an additional fuse box. I find many electrical suppliers, outdoor activity places sell universal blade fuse fuse boxes - or just look at ebay to see if you can find what you need

I like to pull the engines of new to me, new pan gaskets and seals where ever I can and Dremel wire brush things to like new - and then they pretty much stay that way or get washed back to clean if I get them dirty - so I know where you are coming from

fluid quality?

I am still in the middle of rebuilding my EA82. I sourced pistons 7 or 8 years ago that are only half the full rebore limit - 0.50mm or 20 thou. I recently had some block halves in for the rebore to match the pistons, and the hone. Not doing anything on the crank or main bearings as the block only had 90,000km on it before someone pulled the inlet manifold off, let coolant seep into the inlet ports and sit for a decade. I just sorted out my parts list of stuff and ordered from Subaru and others. My shed will be tidier (as will my head) once all back in one lump.

only 21 psi ? OK , I was thinking 36psi but that is for mpfi and their turbo options. I would think you need to test the pressure when it won't restart or plays up, before it gets a chance to cool down and drive normal

hang on, there is "firing" and injectors "squirting" ...firing is spark - do you not have spark? Or you not getting fuel squirt by the injectors? Your ECU - is it three plugs or four? I know my three plug would err.. "fire" as in squirt fuel from both injectors at the same time per bank and would not be surprised if all four fired, sorry, squirted at the same time...so along these lines, wondering if you could bridge or jump the Earth wire from the ECU to injectors, bridging all injectors together so they do all fire, sorry (again) squirt fuel at the same time at all four?

Normally I would not expect to see points-less ignition with the ballast resistor on the coil bracket. I think points ignition stopped about 1983 in our Australian market EA81. Almost suspect your 1980 is EA71 1600cc ....We refer to the ignition thing inside the distributor as the ign module , goes much where the Kettering style contact points would go. Like GD asks ..pictures might help us help you

yeah, sort of clipped in. I think ( only did this swap a few months ago, and I think??!!) I tend to slid fingers along cable to the back of the speedo head and feel for the clip(s) and to spread fingers splayed out and pull on cable outer at same time. I undo the two 12mm headed bolts to lower steering column after removing steering wheel for better access

Sounds just like EA82 lifter playing up after either sitting for years or need replacing. I even get this on new EA82 lifters, reco lifters and a low speed drive lurking around suburbs has taken 20 minutes to go quiet. It also sounds like when I pulled a Ford six apart to find a broken comp ring. I wonder if the sound can be isolated to the one with lower compression ? EA82 early turbo are only supposed to be 120 warm comp test. I have a later with 150. Surprised you getting 150 from an EA81T . NA seem to vary 170-190

1985 would be carburettor in any world except turbo and XT ? 90,000 is very low, suggests not driven much somewhere in it's life time. Anything else you have done and not told us, like the cat gutting ? So many things to cast a wand over, such as fuel quality, age, volume. Just replacing fuel filter(s) can resolve issues, so too a fuel cleaner. How is air filter ? If it is copping oil and water mix from blown HG and or blow by, it may not flow well. I always say to start with a compression test and come back with those findings

Down Under, we have a supplier who had LED lights made to comply with our fairly rigid Aust Design Regulations so they are under 2000 Lumen? I think on low beam. Ultraflex 4x4 is his busines name and sells them on ebay dot com dot au They are so darned good, I installed a set in my Vortex as driving it with what it was born with was like one of those stupid dreams I get where I have trouble seeing very much as at all - just two round , yellow beams on the road in front. The difference is usually documented everywhere you might look on the internet. They light up almost everything in the 180 degrees in front of you, picking out eyes of wild life, reflectors on utility service points way off the road . Then you go around comparing the quality of your light versus others on the road. Hard to match !

i run front struts that I pulled from my EA82 4WD sedan 1985 made , complete with springs. They were already old but still very good, despite the original git installing CLEARLY marked as to where they go on the vehicle, left on right and vice versa. Silly me only caught the no problem trick after installing in my 89 EA81 body GEN ll Brumby. Not a roadside conversion, but still, not too hard. Starting with keeping the front - most mounting hole for the strut top, I bolted an old EA82 three bolt strut top in place with the one bolt, in order to drill the new 2 rear holes to take an EA82 /GEN lll / 1985 strut top. GEN lll strut rods are a larger diameter than GEN ll so won't "just' fit the two bolt GEN ll strut tops. GENlll use a bearing, where the older use just a bushing, that can get dry ( so too can bearings , I know ) The bottom of the strut where it fits into the top of the front wheel bearing hub is about 0.50mm - 1.00 mmfatter OD than GENll. To resolve this fitment problem, I "just" got out my long strips of 80 or 120 grit emery paper on a roll and worked its OD down by hand until they fit greased up receptive hole. I also made up jelly bean shaped washers out of 4 or 5mm mild steel plate to replicate the look of the factory ones spot welded in place for the 2 bolt strut. No fancy CMC stuff here, just old school metal work class skills. Need 4 of Since had many good years and miles (km's actually) out of this fix

high rpm engines ? What engine are you using as a control Dave ? I think red line is 4800rpm on the EA81. What a grin on got in my control vehicle when an EA82 went in ! Control had run twin carb EA81 with L Series EA82 5 sp manual in a GEN ll EA81 body Brumby/ BRAT. So, it was not like comparing an EA82 L Series wagon to the EA81 Brumby. When the first drive happened and I hit 4500 it was still quiet due to being hydraulic liftered not solids , and OHC instead of OHV. It just kept going effortlessly, up the rev range. I don't recall if it was this one, but one of my combo's of EA82 wound out to 6500 (must have been the turbo with big hole under the turbo More revs in each gear just meant that each gear had greater scope than the EA81 ever had

this could go a bit like " I get x miles per tank" , with people relying on judgement as to how much of the tank was actually used. On my fully rebuilt EA81 with a 20/60 cam, on the highway, I managed 609 km from full tank to empty-I-ran-out-of-fuel in my 92 Brumby I think held 55 litres tank This same build, running 4 sp DR box on standard 175/70.13 tyres allowed me to take off on tar with a squeal from the front tyres, then a chirp into second, and was about 18 seconds to a true GPS 100 kph (62mph) . Initial timing set at factory 8 DBTDC and I serviced the dizzy internals by pull apart, clean and inspect then greased all the moving parts. I also ran new plugs, rotor, leads and cap, new air filter. Yeah, I said 18 seconds Maybe check your zero to 60 mph and compare ?