Soobie Newbie

[Alphius]

Hey! I just bought my first Subaru last night. It's got a couple problems, but overall looks and runs great.

 

I haven't been an import guy much, but the advent of ski season and my daily driver being quite overpowered and too much RWD for snow has led me to purchase a winter beater...

 

I bought, for the princely sum of $400, an '87 GL-10 wagon.

Turbo, ?3AT? (not 4eat, no O/D, right?), Pushbutton 4WD, Digital Dash.

It has about 70,000 miles.

 

I'll get pics after I get home from work and wash it this afternoon.

It has been sitting under a pine tree for a year...

Slapped a new battery in it though, and it fired up in 10 seconds of cranking.

 

Here's why I can't make it up the mountain in the winter...

Daily driver has been an '84 Chevy Camaro Z28, I built it from the ground up, new motor, paint, everything.

355ci Small-Block Chevy

5-speed

Limited Slip

Rear tires are 285's, no good in snow, or rain for that matter. lol

 

 

Now, for the problems on the soobie... There's only a couple.

 

1.) Speedometer doesn't work. Neither does the odometer. Rest of gauges fine. Is there a speedometer cable that drives both? Related I assume, Trip Computer doesn't know what's up. No mpg or DTE display. Also no Outside Temp display, just shows 0F. I would love to fix the temp display at least. I suspect the mpg and stuff will start working when I get the speedo fixed.

 

2.) Heater won't switch from vent. Can't get it to switch to defrost or anything. Works great otherwise!

 

3.) Lady I bought it from claims "something is wrong with the head". The mechanic told her it would be $1500 to fix. Seems to run great, no overheating yet.

 

4.) Check Engine Light sometimes, pretty normal for these I guess? I'll pull codes today too.

 

Cosmetically, body is straight, paint is great, grayish/dark blue I guess, interior looks brand new, stock AM/FM stereo and all. Somebody caulked the sunroof, and the headliner is very saggy. Doesn't seem to leak since the caulk job though, but I'll take all that out and repair it eventually.

 

Hope to hear your opinions! I'll definitely get pics up here this evening for you to ogle. Should make a good ski beater for getting up the mountain, and some fun wheeling now and again.

 

I'm looking forward to owning and driving my very own Subaru!

[Mudddn]

Good luck on your soob. The subaru world is a great world

looking forward tohear what your doing to it

[Frank B]

The odometer is part of the speedo, so they both use the same cable. Look on the side of the tranny, it screws out. You'll have to pull the dash to get it off the cluster. They usually break becasue they dry up, no grease. But they're cheap.

 

The vent issue is a vacuum leak. Look on the pasenger side, under the hood/ there will be one small vacuum line going up and into the passenger compartment. It's probably off or broken. Or maybe it's off under the dash.

 

The turbo engine can be a pain, you need to choose your battles with this one. If you try to fix everything so it runs perfect, your going to go crazy! I've had two, I know. Just keep the vitals in check and you'll be happy with it. The main thing to watch is the engine temp. if it overheats, it's toast.

If you want more out of it, install an intercooler, raise the boost just 2 or 3 psi, open up the exhaust a bit(2.5"), then leave it alone! Anymore than that you'll be asking too much of it and just aggravating yourself.

[The Dude Abides]

Welcome to the Obsession.

 

Now for the bad news. You have what is called a problematic car. The engines in the turbo cars are notorious for having leaking head gaskets. The digital dashes are also notious to fail. Also the 3speedauto are pooches and fail often as well. But its a low mile car which is good. If you build that car then you can swap the auto for a 5 speed on this one and replace the head gaskets if necessary. As far as the dash goes, i dont know if you can fix it or just switch to analog. If you go the analog route i have a set of gauges for you.

[Alphius]

Hey, thanks for the kind words...

 

I've been lurking here for a couple days, so I kinda know a couple things...

 

I am sorta worried about the 3speed, but I am very mechanically inclined, just more so on domestic cars. So far everything looks pretty simple on this. I'm sure I could pull off a 5-speed d/r swap on this thing in a weekend if I had to

 

Speedo cable I figured was a fairly easy fix, as well as the heater. Just gotta start diggin into it today after work.

 

As far as motor goes, I already have a line on a TMIC and hood scoop, then I'll buy a boost gauge and build a manual boost controller. I'm thinking 10-11psi should run good still with the I/C. Coming from my nearly 400hp Camaro, this soob is always gonna feel slow, so I'm not too worried about making it much faster.

 

The Dude, I'd really kind of like to go analog on the gauges, but I'm not sure how involved it is to switch over. As long as my digidash keeps working I think I'll be better off keeping it. Another bit of the car that was problematic is the air ride Height Control Somebody already replaced it with regular wagon struts though, so I'm good there. It really is the most unreliable parts of any of these Subaru's, rolled into one car, eh?

 

Can definitely feel the turbo spool, it's kind of addicting. Doesn't spool quick enough for me though... New up and down pipes will help that, right? Along with the TMIC and a couple extra pounds of boost I'm hoping for it to be more noticeable and sound way cool.

 

Another thing that made me grin was punching it up a wet hill and losing traction, then thumbing my 4WD button and instantly hooking up. Like you guys say, it just may be an obsession now. lol

[bheinen74]

100hp and AWD, compared to 400hp RWD, you will see what the subies AWD system is all about. on snow, ice uphill, etc, the subie will outrun anything on the road with its puny little boxer engine. you will be racing everyone in the snow, and win no probs.....

[Bucky92]

The turbo EA82s dont like to be tinkered with too much in regards to the boost.. there are only a couple people who has successfully played with them and one is using a CCR rebuilt motor. And like others have stated..its a problematic motor with head gasket failures. Listen to Frank B on this matter we see too many try and tune an EA82T like its an EJ20T or others..Be prepaired for failure if you do much more. Another route is the belessed EJ22 swap which is a very successful alternative and will give you more then that EA82T could. Its a bulletproof motor and also N/A. Many Many write ups on the swap.

The Digi Dashes in the EA82s dont have the problems like the EA81 digis..so thats a plus.

 

EJ22 swap and a 5spd D/R swap..and you will have the perfect winter snow car..and it will be amazing on gas. I am suprised it wouldnt have the 4EAT tranny though being its GL-10 and turbo.

[Frank B]

Install a boost gauge before anything else, as far as performance parts. Stock is 7 psi or so, 11-12 you'll hit the fuel cut. Stay at 10 or lower.

Keep reading the other posts here and you'll see what I mean about aggrevating yourself if you try to get too much out of it.

Don't worry about the up-pipe, just the down pipe and back. 2.5" from the turbo back with a universal cat in there somewhere(they're not that restrictive) is all you'll need.

Remove the intake muffler from behind the fender, drill holes in the airbox or install a K&N cone filter.

 

1 10 psi max

2 tmic

3 bypass valve

4 open up the intake

5 open up the exhaust

6 blow head gaskets

7 blow tranny, install the 5-speed.

8 blow axles

9 etc

10 etc

 

 

Good luck with it, you will enjoy it!

Edited December 3, 2008 by Frank B
spelling

[The Dude Abides]

I concur with connie. If your want ing more power (not blistering power) go with the ej22 swap. Very popular and an easier to do swap. If you want to go freekin apes*it shoehorn in a svx motor, or an impreza motor. As brent put it to me this weeknd. These cars and there predacessors are basically legos.