low power 85 ea82

[larry bruggeman]

this is my 1st subie.I noticed right away i could'nt pass anyone anywhere anyhow...soooi went to work on the how comes...one thing i noticed when changing the plug wires,dist cap and so forth was someone had gapped the spark plugs wires in the cap as well as the coil...i a,m an HVAC&R Tech. so i know a little about electric stuffff...what would a gap due for a dc system???resistance has always been evil in my traid...help!!!!

[Turbone]

Not sure on how you would go about gapping the wires in the cap and coil:confused:

Your problems could be the timing, the cat converter, or whats plagued older Subaru owners for years. A gutless car.

[GeneralDisorder]

You have a 2600 lb car with a 90 HP 1.8L.... with losses, I think 70 WHP would be amazing.

 

At any rate, just don't try to pass anyone.... especially if it's an automatic.

 

A Weber carb and better flowing muffler can help a bit - makes it feel faster from a dead stop anyway. Doesn't do much for top-end tho.

 

GD

[simple monkey]

gaping the wires makes you get better gas mileage i think, but doesnt do much for power.

[ballitch]

well since its an 85 it has to be carbed so i would start by timing it correctly. if your looking at the engine w/ hood open, the front left plug wire is the number 1 cylinder, hook your timing light to that. loosen the two bolts that hold the disty from moving. if youve been around carb'd vehicles before fogive me..... set timing to 8 degrees BTDC, if its already at 8 degrees, and youre feeling cocky.....(use only premium for this) set timing to 10-11 degrees BTDC. that will give you some power, but not much. if you have emissions in your area im sorry. its a 22 year old car so i think they might go easy on you, maybe not though. if you really want more power, motor swap......hear that all to often. a more pracitcal temporary solution is a larger exhaust. from the header/Y-pipe, go 2'' straight back to the muffler( get a good flowing muffler), this will gain you about 5-7 hp. any decent exhaust shop should eb able to fab up an exhaust like that for ~$200-$250. but before that i would get new fuel, air filters and an oil change with a good oil. pump up the tire pressure about 5 psi over normal to give you less rolling resistance, if you notice your tires getting bald in the middle of the tread turn pressure back down. other than that....search my friend.

 

 

~Josh~

[Buddy]

ah...the famous 82hp story. yeah check out every thing that was pointed out. try premium gas as these engine were designed to really take premium only. (i have to admit i fuel with regular unleaded oct.87 )

[TROGDOR!]

try premium gas as these engine were designed to really take premium only.

Which one? In anything but a turbo engine, running premium will actually slightly hurt performance.

 

 

These cars are slow, slow, slow, especially the automatics. It's just the nature of the beast. Do a basic tune-up, make sure it's timed properly, and that's about as good as it gets without tinkering with aftermarket stuff. On the bright side, these engines are damn near bulletproof and can handle high revs fairly well, so if you have to run it out to redline while passing, no worries.

[Buddy]

Which one? In anything but a turbo engine, running premium will actually slightly hurt performance.

oops sorry if i didn't specify. i meant to say the ea82s

[85Sub4WD]

Which one? In anything but a turbo engine, running premium will actually slightly hurt performance.

if it's an '86 nonturbo carb, you need mid-test (89 octane) gasoline - the spec is "90 or higher" but 89 does fine ALL 85 MY are supposed to use 90, and I am sure that's the case for 86 carb, probably turbo too - they don't have as a good a timing control system as the newer cars (SPFI/87+ turbo)

 

the best thing you can do is give it a tuneup, and live with it - these cars were designed for economy, and extreme conditions not a great 0-60 (newer soobs focus on that) - SPFI coversion is a good idea, it will net you more hp, and it is a more reliable system - not as easy to do as a weber carb, but it does give you better performance - standard NGK plugs will give you the best performance - at ~$2 each, I'd say it would be a good idea to go ahead and do them all

 

anything else would require pulling the heads (MPFI conversion) or swapping engines (EJ22 - and it requires a lot of work, but has ~140hp)

[zyewdall]

Your problems could be .... whats plagued older Subaru owners for years. A gutless car.

 

I never realized how slow my '85 GL was, cause I drove it every day and was used to it (and it was a little faster than my '82 GL). But then I drove my friends new diesel jetta on a road trip for a week. Come back to the GL, and my first reaction was "what's wrong with my car????". Nothing... it just won't go 95mph with power to spare like the jetta would...

 

Jetta hated even mild unpaved roads though

[GeneralDisorder]

Which one? In anything but a turbo engine, running premium will actually slightly hurt performance.

 

TROG is right - use the LOWEST grade of fuel you can without pre-ignition. Lower octane means more BTU's per gallon of fuel. If you can run the stock 8 degrees with 87 octane and no ping, then do it. Adding more octane needlessly will hurt your performance as the anti-knock qualities of the fuel also reduce the power they deliver.

 

You could up the octane, but only do it if you intend to increase the timing beyond spec in order to gain that extra hot top end... note that this high timing level will only be acheived under hard acceleration when the vac advance is fully open. Under anything but full throttle, the timing is not advanced suffieciently to cause ping with any grade of fuel, so unless you are doing a lot of racing, your wallet will thank you for getting plain old regular.

 

GD