tjZ06 Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 Well I'm STILL in the market for my Subi (some of my might remember I stormed on here a few months ago w/ a million questions ) and came across an intersting one. '89 Turbo GL Wagon ~170k Miles. It is very very clean inside and out for a 17 year old vehicle, 5-speed 4x4, all the stuff I'm looking for. But the sales add listed it as "turbo doesn't work" so I emailed the owner and they said "it does work, it's just slow to kick in." What could the possible culprits be? Could it be as simple as an exhaust or boost leak? Or could it be something much more serious? Just the turbo itself going south? Or a whole motor going bad? I guess my question is... worth a look or should I run the other way? -TJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calebz Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 What could the possible culprits be? Could it be as simple as an exhaust or boost leak? Or could it be something much more serious? Just the turbo itself going south? Or a whole motor going bad? I guess my question is... worth a look or should I run the other way? -TJ Could be any or all of the above. Either way, if it is a decent price, EA82s are cheap to build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjZ06 Posted February 17, 2006 Author Share Posted February 17, 2006 Could be any or all of the above. Either way, if it is a decent price, EA82s are cheap to build. What would you call a decent price, based on the above desc. From the pics I've seen it's one of the cleanest/straightest EA82s I've seen. It's red, which is "okay" with me, not a big plus nor minus. The asking price is 950obo. When should boost come in by (there's some kind of boost gauge right)? It's a non-digital dash so that would mean it's a D/R not full-time AWD right? And just how cheap to rebuild? My current beater truck is hanging in there so that is a viable option, if it's cheap 'nough and I get the ca cheap 'enough. I just want to know what I'm in for. Thanks for the help! -TJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjZ06 Posted February 17, 2006 Author Share Posted February 17, 2006 Also, two fuel questions: 1) does the Turbo require premium? 2) what can I expect out of a totally stock EA82T wagon (once it's running right of course), what about w/ ~4" lift + 27-29" tires? Thanks. -TJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calebz Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 If you are looking for something to lift, perhaps an 88-89 SPFI wagon would work better for you. The turbos are sorta lacking in bottom end. I spent about $400 on my longblock.. a large chunk of that was for some specialized taps and such that I had to buy to install the carbon steel head bolt inserts that I wanted. I did as much of the work as I could. I paid a local NASIOC guy to weld a small piece for me, and a local muffler shop for a piece of intercooler piping. All other assembly and mods were done by me. Where I started to get into more money was when I bought a bigger turbo, Intercooler, RX body kit.. things like that Oh, and BTW, no boost gauge that I know of in any of the EA82T cars. Granted, mine have all been digidash, but I don't think the analogs had it either. CRX A pillar pod and some guages takes care of that though. Also, there is usually a bit of debate about fuel grades. I always use premium. 90% of the cars I have had over the past 10+ years have been turbo. Most of them asked for 91 and above in the owners manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjZ06 Posted February 17, 2006 Author Share Posted February 17, 2006 If you are looking for something to lift, perhaps an 88-89 SPFI wagon would work better for you. The turbos are sorta lacking in bottom end. I spent about $400 on my longblock.. a large chunk of that was for some specialized taps and such that I had to buy to install the carbon steel head bolt inserts that I wanted. I did as much of the work as I could. I paid a local NASIOC guy to weld a small piece for me, and a local muffler shop for a piece of intercooler piping. All other assembly and mods were done by me. Where I started to get into more money was when I bought a bigger turbo, Intercooler, RX body kit.. things like that Oh, and BTW, no boost gauge that I know of in any of the EA82T cars. Granted, mine have all been digidash, but I don't think the analogs had it either. CRX A pillar pod and some guages takes care of that though. Also, there is usually a bit of debate about fuel grades. I always use premium. 90% of the cars I have had over the past 10+ years have been turbo. Most of them asked for 91 and above in the owners manual. Hmmm. Perhaps a NA is a better option for me. It's down 25% on HP and 33% on TQ which is pretty huge... but has a stronger bottom end. But the higher grade fuel and (presumeably) worse fuel mileage would start to kill me with a 100mi/day commute. My current DD gets about 23-24mpg freeway and only takes 87. I really don't want to go too much worse than that. -TJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WagonsOnly Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 If you baby it you'll get about the same gas mileage on regular. If you use 91, as I do, you should average around 26 in highway driving. Also, this is likely to be a pushbutton 4WD system, part-time but not dual range. Subaru used the same "basic" 4WD transmission from the DL on most Turbo models. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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