afterbang Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 i have a family friend that has a subaru 1600 4wd wagon. the car is in absolutely beautiful condition cosmetically and i went out on a limb and asked if they would ever be interested in selling it. they said probably within the next year they would be willing to let it go and would let me know so i had first grabs on it. the oldest subaru ive ever owned was a loyale when i first got my license and ive only had 2.2 and 2.5 liter legacys since then so i know nothing about these cars other than that it looks awesome. is it impossible to find parts for these 1.6L subarus? would it ever be possible to put an ea81 in this if i ever needed a new engine? anything i should be concerned about with these older subarus? the car runs great and has been taken care of its whole life so i don't want to pass up a chance to buy an older subaru that i can just adore and drive every once in a while. any help and insight would be greatly appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 What year is it? 1600 does not tell us much. They used that engine from '75 to '89 in one thing or another. Being a wagon it's got to be a '75 to '81 but that still doesn't narrow down which one we are talking about...... GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afterbang Posted October 9, 2010 Author Share Posted October 9, 2010 it is a 1980 DL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 Probably best to just leave it stock. The engine is an EA71.... what we refer to as a "top mount starter" due to the bell-housing design. If you were to change the engine at a later date (EA81, EJ, etc) then the transmission would also have to be changed as the top-mount-starter bell-housing is not compatible with anything made after the EA71 engine. 80/81 models are problematic for ever "converting" to another engine or even fuel injection - there's issues with them not having a speed sensor in the cluster as well as not having a fuel return line with the engine-bay mounted fuel pump. It can be done but it's more work. They also have externally regulated alternators which are a pain unless properly converted to internal (there's a few posts on that). It's a cool collectible though. I always tell people to stick to the '82 and newer EA81's because they are more modern in some very critical ways. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afterbang Posted October 9, 2010 Author Share Posted October 9, 2010 well in the past you firmly talked me out of the 84 gl turbo wagon idea and your comments on this one seem like this is a bit safer of an idea. like you were saying, i just want this to have for myself and weird obsession for older subarus. thanks again for your input and ill take some pictures of it the next time i get a chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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