Subaru advice!

[Quidam]

yes i do believe that spfi came with D/R 5 spd trans.

 

Yep, I've seen a few in this small University town. I have an '89 SPFI, DR 5 speed sedan as well. It's getting a LSD, rear disc conversion, manual steering rack, and other stuff in the comming months.

[RONAN]

I would go with a 87 on up FI EA82 wagon, no turbos.

Just one mans opinion.

[jacobs]

Ah, but have you compared the two carbs? I think it's safe to say that the subaru carb is four times as complicated as the '66 chevy carb, thus $600. Even a racing carb is simple compared to all the gizmos and solinoids and vacuum controls on a late 80's carb. I like the old carbureators from the 60's and earlier -- a giant flathead straight eight in a 5 ton dumptruck had a carb that was physically smaller than the subaru carb (with larger venturi's, of course, but without all the extra crap).

 

Even the Rochester Quadrajet was priced about the same in 1966 and in my opinion it's much more complex and better than a Hitachi. I like carburetors including the Hitachi because I understand them, can rebuild them very easly, and fine tune them including changing metering to suit my needs. I've changed jets and or metering rods in every carburetor I've used since 1970. This is one reason my vehicles get the fuel milage they do. I still believe $600 is INSANE for ANY carburetor.

[jacobs]

Dup

[aartod]

Well, I am going to look at a 1990 legacy wagon -- 5 speed, AC, 2nd owner, 146,000 miles --- for $1500 --- we'll see how it goes, you know the joys of used car shoppping!

[idosubaru]

for off road or bad weather the legacy will be a step down from the EA series stuff since it doesn't have any form of center diff lock. any EA series trans, PT4WD, FTWD, dual range would be much more useful for off roading and bad weather driving. but the legacy's have good engines and trans though. they would be considered new generation since they're the EJ series stuff.

[idosubaru]

I would question your calculations if you are seeing over 40 on an EA82 of any sort. That's very difficult to acheive in normal conditions,

there are plenty of gas mileage threads. GD is right, 40+ mpg is hard to come by on an EA82 with typical driving. any time someone is claiming something that's above and beyond what everyone else is seeing it's hard to not question. as many details as possible would be helpful to convince someone that you're seeing something that noone else is seeing. that you live in flat country probably helps. the only legitimate 40+ mpg EA82 that i know of is a FWD MPFI 5 speed 1988-1991 XT. with some very delicate sustained 50mph driving i'd imagine a few others could come close, but few people drive like that.

[thatswhatshesaid]

What is differance in the loyale from a DL or a GL?

A name cgange in '90. They all (DLs and GLs) became Loyales. The Loyales, unfortunately, had less of the sweet options as the earlier models (rear cargo lamp, sunroof, etc.).

 

To the Subaru "layperson", I guess you could say that in '90, they all pretty much became DLs. Loyales do not have dual range (HI, LO) 4WD. They DO have fuel injection, and they are RARELY turbo motors.

[jacobs]

there are plenty of gas mileage threads. GD is right, 40+ mpg is hard to come by on an EA82 with typical driving. any time someone is claiming something that's above and beyond what everyone else is seeing it's hard to not question. as many details as possible would be helpful to convince someone that you're seeing something that noone else is seeing. that you live in flat country probably helps. the only legitimate 40+ mpg EA82 that i know of is a FWD MPFI 5 speed 1988-1991 XT. with some very delicate sustained 50mph driving i'd imagine a few others could come close, but few people drive like that.

Flat level ground, 55mph, timing advanced, driving like there's an egg between the gas pedal and foot, and leaned carburetor (jet change).

[pyromanic]

for off road or bad weather the legacy will be a step down from the EA series stuff since it doesn't have any form of center diff lock. any EA series trans, PT4WD, FTWD, dual range would be much more useful for off roading and bad weather driving. but the legacy's have good engines and trans though. they would be considered new generation since they're the EJ series stuff.

 

In 90 or 91 (or thereabouts,) my wife and I bought a brand new Legacy. It was the first year for them, so whatever year that was, just don't remember.

 

Anyway, I got it stuck in a snow bank one night, and the tranny failed. When we got it towed to the dealer (oh, and it was like maybe 6 months old at the time) they said there was a recall on the auto trans, replaced with whatever the upgrade was. I only stayed around another year with that car, left for greener pastures, but now I drive an 85 with DR 5sp.

 

Pyro

[aartod]

The car turned out to be a turd... bummer... and the seller seemed to be a bit untruthful as well. Bad combo if you ask me!

[zyewdall]

Well, I am going to look at a 1990 legacy wagon -- 5 speed, AC, 2nd owner, 146,000 miles --- for $1500 --- we'll see how it goes, you know the joys of used car shoppping!

 

The legacies are pretty nice -- way more power than most of the EA82 cars, and they sure handle nice on the highway. For off-roading and deep snow I greatly prefer the locked 4wd and low range that the EA82's have. To some extent, the greater horsepower of the EJ22 can overcome lack of low range, but not in all cases. The legacy is a bigger heavier car too, which is bad offroad.

[idosubaru]

The car turned out to be a turd... bummer... and the seller seemed to be a bit untruthful as well.

well that sucks, but keep your eye out there are good soobs and good people out there and you'll have much better luck with them. good luck with it. if you can expand your search area to a couple hours away that can really open up some options.

 

Flat level ground, 55mph, timing advanced, driving like there's an egg between the gas pedal and foot, and leaned carburetor (jet change).

okay, most people don't drive like that, so that's the difference. but the SPFI and MPFI will get even more than the carb's if you drive like that. the 40-42 mpg i mentioned was normal highway driving at 70mph if mpg sells on you vehicles, you would thoroughly enjoy an MPFI XT driving the way you do. benebob gets mid 30's in his 6 cylinder XT6 AUTOMATIC...driving the way you do. i'd be curious to see how high an MPFI XT would get driving like that, but i don't own one that runs right now.

[aartod]

Well, I ended up buying a '92 subaru legacy with 166,000 miles... Runs and drives great! Well I guess this would mean that I cant post in this forum any more, I think a '92 questions would be better suited in the "newer generation" section! By the way, are subaru valve cover gaskets a pain to change or what? Valve cover gasket leaks seem to be a chronic problem with subarus...