new to the old subaru! lots of "ideas"

[n.fork_gravel]

Hello all. First of I have been a hiding out reading a lot of posts and would like to give thanks to those of you who do so much research and experimenting with these gls. It is truly helpful.

 

So anyway. My list of toys.

1969 datsun 510. Ive had a dozen or so and love them

1995 chevrolet 2500. Steady old truck

2006 subaru wrx base model. Lots of fun

2009 Honda cbr600rr. To much fun

1985 subaru gl10 4dr sedan.

So my story on the gl.

I towed it home 2 weeks ago and have been digging and pulling wires and going to pull apart to replace electical conectors and moldings and fans and the list goes on.

I need to do a re build on the motor it knocks really bad and I can not see where the oil is comming from because every time the motor heats up it looks smokes from all the oil like its on fire. About the only dash light that will come on is the ecm light and oil light. So here is what I have....a bad motor in my mind. U was told it had 2nd gen heads? They are good? Or better than 1st gen? A fuel injection system that has no clue what it is doing because it has no maf sensor. And a digital gauge cluster that doea not work. No heater.... no power to the heater and no heater contorlls. No 4wd as the passenger side front axle is missing and the push to engage shifter button has been ripped out...... also none of the blinkers work unless I hold the blinker assembly at the perfect angle pushing forward and to the left.

 

Here is my plan.

Re build motor. Bore to the next appropriate size. New pistons and rings.

Check the crank. New bearings. And grind if need be.

Go through the heads get them shaved,and make sure they are up to par. Replace parts as needed

Get a new intake manifold for a carb.

(I want to see how the water jackets run through, if possible I will make a new one from scratch.)

Get a carbed engine bay harness (i am a freak about un needed wires)out with the fi.

I have a weber 32/36 and re jet for a blow through turbo.

Make my own fmic system.

New alum radiator. Maybe aftermarket brz? With prius dual fan?

Swap out blinker head light and window wipers from the dash to the 90's column style. And just because I want to all new aftermarket gauges. I will pull the housing from a pull apart car and gut that so I will still have the digital.maybe sell it to someone who wants to tackle the repair? Some like it I guess.

The air ride is gone so i am thinking to keep the gl struts f/r go ground contoll sleves f/r and look for some shock inserts maybe adjustable? I want to dump it. And be able to bring it back to stock when the snow hits home.

And cutom ss header/up pipe. Down pipe and 2.5" ss exhaust with a no cats. Probably go with an ebay muffler.

This may take some time maybe a month but financial reasons cause the sale of my wrx and the purchase of this gl. All of 200 $ without the gas bill to tow it home. So I am on a budget and need to get this going. I am ni wiring guru or I would look into an ej swap more. But with the datsuns and in mind old school is good. I am not looking to get crazy power out of the ea82 just something reliable i can work on if that is possible with this motor? Like I said this is all new for me and any imput on this build is appreciated

Tylor

[djellum]

the story your going to hear 99% of the time is scrap the motor and put an EJ motor in it.  just do a search and you will see what im talking about.  EJ's go in with minimal modifications and in this case would be easier and cheaper than your described idea.  nothing wrong with keeping the EA82, but id at least research an EJ swap first, especially if you want the turbo.  lots of EJ's can be carbed as well, they have a cover on the motor that you can remove and install a distributor.  I think the FI EJ is the best option, EJ carbed second, N/A EA82 third, and EA82T last.  

 

some of the fuel injection heads wont bolt to a carb manifold, so I would expect to have to craft one if you want a weber.

[NorthWet]

IMHO, if you want to do a lot of work for no reward, you have the perfect project for it.  You are taking a niche-market model and trying to remove everything that makes it different from a base carb'd model... except the one thing that makes it less reliable than a carb'd model.

 

Going away from fuel injection, especially with trying to keep it turbo'd, sounds like a really bad idea.  The engine is already prone to detonation and overheating, and the arbitrariness of  the mixture provided by a carb, especially in blow-through, is likely to exacerbate these issues.  Add the loss of the "knock sensor" and you are asking for real trouble. 

 

The dual-intake-port heads only came with MPFI manifolds, so you are looking at some fabrication here.  No real source for up-pipe, so another fab job.  I am not sure why you want to shave the heads.

 

There is also little point in getting the engine rebuilt, as it will be expensive relative to just getting a used engine.  Are you sure that it is a bearing knock and not just very noisy "lifters" (aka "HLA"s); the HLAs can be VERY noisy and sound like a rod knock.  There is usually no reason to bore the cylinders, as they probably still have the original honing marks: Unless they are scratched or corrosion-pitted, they will last almost forever.

 

Why an aluminum radiator?  They are shiny and lighter than copper, but far inferior in every other way.  And you will need the superior cooling of copper.

 

For wiring, it sounds like you will be replacing nearly all of the wiring from the steering-column forward to the radiator, plus replacing some of the senders (including fuel-gauge sender???) to go from digi-dash to analog dash.

 

A carb'd or SPFI GL model would be far more practical and reliable.  But, it is your call.

 

BTW, I have owned my '71 510 since 1977.

 

Cheers!

[n.fork_gravel]

Good input. Thanks

.and northwet I wish I could have gotten a 71 510 in 77. Probably realy clean!

[MilesFox]

that mpfi turbo engine will not fit a carb manifold. you can swap heads, but 7.7 compression is not as ideal as 8.5 (carb) or 9.5 (spfi)

 

You can just drop in a whole complete carb engine, wire it to the coil, and replace the fuel pump with one for a carb.

 

But for the effort, find a crashed legacy and swap the ehj22e as a stock legacy engine still has 30 more HP than that ea82t out of the box.

 

are you sure your 'knock' is not lifter tick? I doubt rebuilding the case will gain you anything. go ahead and pull off the heads to see the crosshatches are still there. Boring these engines can cause it to spin a sleeve.

 

As far as keeping the same engine alive, do the oil pump seals and the cam tower o-rings. 

[n.fork_gravel]

Well my main thought with a full rebuild is just piece of mind nowing that it is not going to have any problems. As far as a legacy swap. Will the ea82 tranny bolt up?

[MilesFox]

Do your homework as there are bellhousing adapters available to mate the ej engine to the ea trans. There is a 10mm difference in the bellhousing. the bottom studs and the pilot shaft line up, but the top bolts line up different. One could engineer an adapter plate. You may have to space the starter with washers.

 

Then you use an ea82 flywheel and clutch, and hog out the bolt holes on the flywheel to match the ej engine.

 

The rest is a cut down wiring harness and adapting the engine to the radiator as the hose diameters are different. 

 

There are lots of documented examples by using the search function. Or look in the "Subaru Retrofitting" forum

 

The easiest way to accomplish this is find a whole donor car for the parts, unless someone else has already pulled a motor and harness for this purpose for sale.

Edited August 27, 2013 by MilesFox