attacking a monojet

[Barry Donovan]

next mission

exhaust and perfect..has not happened for me and the little sube. the bigger and better I make it, the more flow..the dumber the exhaust seems to get. rather than cramming the engine with its own ass.. I looked for free advice, be it inadvertant through you tube.

was watching a porsche 991 getting dismantled..of course they be the genius of boxer exhaust, many years of power and different sounds..draft cams, injections, turbos..
I spotted these mufflers or resonators or cats..whatever they are, they are at the side height of the cylinder heads. must be a huge relief for a boxers design.
epiphany. I can’t go to side of engine to add a box to gain some height..but I do have room behind th eheads, to make something similar, one for each header. it may be a spot to do a crossover under tranny as well, allowing for full duals out to the side. As things came together nicely this year, the focus can be an extra..I choose exhaust. it is already all mine..needs more thought. thanks porsche.

that big muffler i could not use..it is in my parts pile, looking new. 3 weeks or less use. I will chop that in half and make a similar gadget to the porsche..that is plenty of height, chopped in half, plenty of room behind each head, one half each.. would only need a small sheet to seal in the halves, make my own resonance while open.

watching some local racing, a view of winterport dragstrip through an rx-7 windshield, the sound of an LS, and sight of a shaker hood scoop rocking to the right...seems so new. LS, little car, etc.
I was there almost 20 years ago. 1/8th mile still seems useless. the rx-7 being closer to a motorbike with a v8 makes sense in a short run..my chevelle buried the right rear bumper, spewed fuel, and never hit third...all that for a cough halfway down the track and 70 something miles an hour.

part of learning the little sube is learning how to drive a four banger. this sounds like a motorcycle now, caught on recently to ways that keep power rowing gears..instead of the truck like life it has had for 26 years.

the stage 1 clutch allows for not letting off throttle entirely between gears. the boxer freakishly loves that gyro'd momentum uninterrupted. I learned that unintentionally very recently. I would guess it catches my slug old chevelle times in a crazy proportion of little power to the work getting done. I'd be proud if it did...its even got bigger tires than my chevelle did.

my real interest is a result of an event years ago, around 90mph..the boxer gained another world. assumed it was heads draining to the wind. the gear calc has been right all the way to my only speeding ticket...in an 84hp subaru. Funny life I lead. all those years..my first speeding ticket is with an 84hp subaru engine. A 135mph interests me at loring more than an eigth mile.

laugh if you want, but am going to find some more flow stuff about porsche and modern day. I have injection cams on a draft...some challenges.

some things learned getting a larger diesel type push...
diesel being the keyword for a need of high octane. my hillbilly learning curve I guess. I have never exceeded an octane rating until the little sube. maine only has 90. I learned of this with a another subaru owner, big spender. an overseas version..world of trouble. snappy twacking headers is about as good as it got. I followed suit with custom stainless, mandrel in the very hot zones..unpredicted was shredding header wrap. I am on my own.

this one is small, alot of small things and time lengths to monitor. 90 octane took a long time to soak the system. that was a nice gain, it will get away with it..
exceeding air fuel volume by a bunch, the large header, breaking fire up below 3k rpm..
all those things are more than gimmicks for this old ricer.

exhaust needs a guru, as subaru has been freakishly insane with piping since the ea82 came out, and years following..going on 30 years now. There was a calm spell with a 2.2 liter and equal header, funny enough, those are the most retained value when looking up subes for sale. Can you imagine? An equal header, even cheaper to make, kept the value of the car and a few more miles going on 20 years later...companies are damn stupid sometimes.

Subarus. It's like wondering what experimental monkeys did every time I pop the hood of an oem version..the owners are the sane ones going for straight pipes and window rattlers.
not to slam subarus EJ generation entirely.. I only narrated its end when it began. I would try a 2 liter if it proved to be in a rare chassis. there is some jacked up ones, thumpier than the others. to me, that marked the end of the overlap of ea82 engineers and what they believed was manly enough.

It truly went to hell after that. early 90s. Not much choice for boxer engines and being real with them. I mention it here..no odder than the desire for an ohc six cyl, something america did not make much of either...or an isuzu diesel in an s15 pickup..there is some odd sprites with a trait of something really desirable. Stereotypes of origin is the only thing to contend with.

[Barry Donovan]

followup on choke setting..
did not wait for intake heater,
started right up, stall, then a slightly fat start..exactly what I want. I could wait for heater a minute, the fat gurgle, its only a few seconds. I like it however. ignition is every reason to keep confident, toughest plugs in the world setting it off.

this cold, thermometers don't matter from now until march. it is a deep chill climbing in.

anyway, intake heater to the rescue. Car is quite a rumbler, this engine is quieter, but much larger. I only had hydraulic lift on oem subes 32mm throttle...this is yet another new engine combo for me this season.

big runtime, very large for the size. heater works awesome..only a ten minute run or so. this is now comparable to the corsica I had , the only 4 cyl machine I have ever had with injection. realtime actions, and if not..the wait is not long.

antique plates next week.

Was just watching a quick clip on an old international harvestor, thay had a nickname "cornbinder." international went on with the same name, but we all know they did not stay cornbinders as history keeps them.

I think I am understanding the subaru flim flam..calling the older weakest. even after not getting what they needed, one can find one running a couple of decades later, wobbling the under rated wheels and tread.

short throws and straight gears, they don't go with this one..even the gear design concept with this old sube has to earn a big way down the road. I found a while back, if I take it to simply 90..I had to label the vid to show it. tricky sounds and sights I guess..

the gear linkage alone has more steel than an ej series crankshaft. cold start? I mean damn cold start.

keeping track of the cold..
this recent run below freezing could hit 96 hours and then some. one of the days forecast says 33F for a high.
now at about 50 something hours... about two hours seprating a previous 48 hour run below freezing. that is how to keep track of the real weather. Looking at history records, it looks all the same.
they don't mention the high of 33 was for less than an hour...stuff like that. tricky to analyze when one number is written for a whole day.

this year is going to be cold. I love it. spring springing is literally big changed summer. vehicles related, people moving..changes.

am glad to get that engine installed in May, get air away from the dainty alloy. takes forever.
it is down to purging water pump, designed to do that by itself. that is a clever piece on subarus behalf..exept when it needs to do it tricks inspectors.

[Barry Donovan]

cam compression deck clearance

found the real numbers..
the book dealers gave to mechanics.

cam spfi:
intake
10 btdc
54abdc
exhaust
49 bbdc
15 atdc

overlap 25 degrees
duration 244
112 centerline ATDC intake
107 centerline btdc exhaust

deck clearance .0014 (call it a zero)
head cc: 43 clean
relief piston <2cc
compression @ .039 headgasket: 9.62:1

these are cold numbers. my pistons made an impression of chamber on their deck..softies.
just squashing head to .021 gasket = 10.16 to 1

my guess of 10.2 nominal is correct...and that is a clean engine. dirty would exceed maines 91 octane.

the strong draft is explained with cam timing..it was not symmetrical after all. a slightly beefier carb/turbo time they had used way back when. profiles are never revealed, one has to catch that by eye..the spfi is very large, like an upside down egg...looooong opening time. the old carb cams, have a snappy hard point at their peak of opening.

cam profiles are like maines weather keeping. people thought it was 32F all day..when in reality it was ten minute peak and frigid for the rest of it..

some interesting facts..
the 2wd stick shift spfi engine had a throttle curve so fast it gained octane pings. the AWD can step up another half point in static build...and never ping its whole life...especially the ten speed. I could bump that to a .021 copper gasket, as long as lift is hydraulic (head cushion)

something I learned with a very short stroke. I find that amazing. it actually goes with the mystery of analyzing an entire cam profile, not just the peaks.
tearing down 2wd engine.. pistons not only had clearance, it looked like they shrunk in a 15 year runtime. the AWD, they go the other way, gain an impression of head chamber...
how does that happen?

all torqued engines to a load pump more oil. it is in the design of heads and piston pressure together to move oil to top end. This means mains and rods get more as well..even on priority main oiling. AWD gained a zero deck to crank getting more volume..big expanding float as years go by. the only drawback? it will be the one to break heads, or rods, or even pistons eventually. just like the v8 world.

when analyzing old engines, the pistons can tell you, light car or worked truck. the truck with pistons beaten, will still have the better crank..becuase it got more oil to top end working to weight.

interesting stuff...
and this leads to the mazement of the boxer. one can also determine if displacement too small for the work it was give after a teardown. the boxer 3 main throws that out the window. if you want 1.5 liters balls to the wall in a 3000 pound AWD..it will still run a very long time. Counterbalanced has to have a tighter equation for work needed and longevity...boxers do not.

the american corvair has that little secret...just like the old beetles, porsches, vans, and old subes.

refinding this stuff..
decision is made about exhaust. Side exit it will be, modern cats up close to merge of header. it would not be smart to do that to a light ea82, single range, sedan, 2wd..keep that exhaust faxtory for best engine runtime. the side exit pushing boundaries, is because it is truly pushed to do so. pistons need relief. the others do not need it.. I ran all of them for years.
the rx-7 local from 1985 finally got a way down the road with antique plates. the sube has to do the same just to be oem respect. The exhaust and engineering reason beyond oem, is acceptable now.
also remined every year ow stupid people can be...auto inspections.
I a thinking of a plate that simply segregates this wagon from the others..as if wide stance, big camber tires an wheels is not enough..(and this place is that stupid- this means you.. runt at twin city speed.)



I am trying this first, "flat out" second.
"1 jet" for the rochestor would put it back into.. "oh thats cute" by fat c's and speed shop runts.

[Barry Donovan]

my gm engine

this thread makes me appear to have some laser beaming focus daily on a foriegn tin can..nearly impossible, it needed that much attention. My interests are in many places, but I love gm short stroke.

I already have a v8 engine planned, no chassis..
simply the 4.8L truck engine, complete..alot of them out there. I really enjoy interrupted ignition/carb..edlebrock has a setup just for that.
dual plane carbed intake, msd digital ignition to work with oem stuff.
the cam is at summit, the smallest available for the 4.8..

being it goes in a light chassis, I'd go through the bearings, get some new ones in..let it rip.

seems less than $2500 can have an A+.
I love the LS block, crankcase design versus mains hanging out. I bent two, and blew two, 5.7L of old.
there is some things I choose to leave behind. the chassis that contained the old engines.. they deserve the new stuff.

that is just me.. I only wandered off to an old subaru for a time.

edit:
an interesting thing I just found..a four pattern camshaft by comp cams. I am a nut about cams. that is somethnig I have painstakingly taken apart in a dirt driveway, v8 and little boxer. my first obsession was a reed valve two stroke and piston timng when I was 15, working a 1974 kawasaki snowmobile engine..fascinating results in thousands of an inch.
the sube , even in the 80s.. they obviously made cams a target in their engineering after the torture of the ea81 and the traditional single cam. the one in this thread got attention on both intake exhaust, forward cylinders and back...all factory.
I have never had a simple assymetric, or symmetric in a subaru...although they did make one. that engine has been long gone for a long tme..funny enough it was the multi port. the greatest appearing engine fom the topside got the dumbest cam..but that is subaru for you.

I look forward to a v8 my way as well.

[Barry Donovan]

e-wire revisited

the simple wire from alt to battery, its been sometime.
subaru engine is different in some ways, like the water pump. if that is leakng white rust, or a fluid lighter than the coolant mix...and stops. this is intentional, has to happen. real easy to determine old pump if there is a fan attached.

That is the only strange difference. the rest can be setup like an american runtime. engine got somethig weird, batteries die sooner. one wants the mystery to go to bat negative..not anywhere else.

anyway, the update is finding that the battery is indeed gathering..good news. the posts, and even a bit of old green from some year way before mine. I hope it needs one someday. Excuse for a little bigger one.

the ignition on a single wire to real ground is also american..that is prerequiste for the e-wire to even work. ignition lit double positive is not going to help any engine. that was a bad mistake on subarus behalf.

the error original was no feedback to bat to regulate, and ignition double positive. the enginein it now had a different type of ignition, another reason casting is very nice...still not correct as oem, hence the accel ignition, and mag pickup disty. Tried and true stuff, back to normal.

this little problem got very serious, even gave me a non-organic disease. The scale of time breaking the grey chain was years...I got a good dose in the military, so if your car is not right, you may not get infected. my path is a bit odd..closer to an astronuat flying in junk. if you do have aproblem, the shower stall will be grey a few days afterward..it does not show up all at once. I have certainly narrowed it down to the subaru..the old engine 85-87. the newer ones are alot better. Nothing abnormal..old coolant chains. white rust..which is very good. this means engine did not pulverize water, or keep a strange nitrogen (could be my words for radon gas), healthy engines rust in other words..and not much else.

these factors make an 85-87 subaru ea82 even more rare. if you still have an old solid lift original.. I hope you are getting drenched in the northwest usa.. or places with big rain. It was bizarre finding these as a success...their rain saved a few lives.

the wagon in this thread came from that area..an island north of washington state, metlakatla alaska. Still wa snot enough to stop the very serious infection. I still call it nuked. in fact, the lack of swapping owners, leaves that is its original title. never had any games with sales and losing records. if it were not for that wet home, this car would be long gone.

some cars get lucky...

the engine casting modern, an american air/fuel/ignition, high pressure gas tank..my version of welds, american steel, and alloy wheels proportionate to the work getting done...

i would hope it gets a safe place in history. the odds are freakish. I did not mention the hydrochloric gone stage yellow stuck in the rear left arch root..
that needed many more than one weld. just the past two years seems normal stand still. Alot of steel for a tin can for sure.

the last of the odds, is a 4000 mile ride. wet to cryogenic maine tundra. the engine loves the cold. the welds..
strangely correct history to make it right, no premeditation to continue until I got it.

I followed the map to metlakatla..some amazing views. whoever thinks maine is big is as puny as I feel they are for thinking it.
some of the roads are a 500 mile run..no tolls, no hills, no nothing...nearly 500 miles of just humming along to a little boxer. Several runs like that appear in the directions. I had figured no one in their right mind would tow one of these behind a camper. that is for the 2wd.
given the decay of rear tube was a beyond average...it must have driven a long way all at once. changed the metal.

I'd drive it back that way just for the amazing nature.

[Barry Donovan]

antique reg (cont)

attempting to keep this fun, the previous years leading to this is very sad. Not on a builders behalf..it is the states allowance of mentally challenged inspectors. I could keep this as regular plates..but I do not want another monkey pretending he built it inspecting my car again.

Add to this a past life with integrity, related exactly to inspecting mschines on a very serious level. One that matched a video game like to get on base past the guys with guns, then sign off a couple million dollars with an A-ok to fly. I will be leaving...not depressing, I mean optimistically. I was finding a hundred year history in the stronger family...350 miles from here. A place called "upstate new york".
Grandparents made it seem like years away. if the road is not a smooth valley, its a long ride I guess. Head west through the hills...I am just like that. The little sube made it a fun trail.. I will do it again, as a one way ticket. I won't get custom plates, no extras..just register as basic as possible.


80s japanese car owner? this shirt is for you.

part of maines antique law is being able to use plates from the year of manufacture. 1987 was a revelation to how broke this state is by using a barely stamped plate, no outside rib for strength, and basic black and white. this ink falls off the numbers eventually. I was here in 1987 to see the last of these. I may grab a pair if registration goes well.

plain jane plates for the 1 barrel sube..

I was just thinking, as I used to wander on long trips, 2008 with the fuel really was a big slam.. I guess I ignored it, building at 40mpg, strong enough to climb some hills without a ricer scream...
I am not done yet. This buggy needs a true finale, like me.

today marks the last day with normal plates. they have been on the car for just six years..quite beaten. I could think more of it..as a path of regular for a quarter century, ending on a 26th birthday. that is a long trail. I just assume keep regular, but I have written the several reasons. the worst one relates to the same chassis for 9 years.. I have the first one, and the ldest engine, all factory. it really needs an indicator.
As the two letter suffix indicates origin, I am fairly sure the plates appear to be a town north of here..when me nor the car match it. another plus to taking them off.

back to the monojet..headed for its first single digit since mounting on the car in february..it never got this cold yet. A claim of just 5F for this evening. below freezing for...seems to be 4+ days now. a quick bounce to 33 on a couple of them, useless..it stayed below of course. Tricky maine.

A word on the coolant.. this is my first go with a "hybrid" organic acid, these engines started off with just plain old organic acid. That is all the purging as of recent.. am glad its kicking some butt. it can be like a modern engine. Still ethylene glycol based, but the hybrid stops some seriously strange things from being organic...keeps it the acids as intended. that was my first engines battle for years.. I was fighting a monster that even wanted to eat people...right in the damn coolant, old version.
this engine is nice, even the carb knows it.

that organic problem is not all that young to be fixed..1996 and older, they all had that old monster for coolant.


headed for cold spot of the nation..as silent as usual. Am I the only one that keeps talking? it seems that way.. I just keep right on talking.

was watching hot rod mag and the crazy aussies just now..I have not figured use for a burnout, unless a dragster. it occurs to me, you won't even hear an engine workng to redline loaded unless dyno'd...or doing a burnout.

I saved two axles to get this little one into RWD, only a temporary mode,unless I machine some ideas. this leaves front brake ebrake to aid in a little burnout. I wonder what 9k rpm 3 main boxers sound like..while loaded, and sitting still enough for a mic to capture. I gotta try that sometime.

I chuckle as the car exhoes off of buildings...the funny part is, it may only be one building, no forced funneling of sound..yet echoes. I cannot capture that exactly.

no counterbalance eye twitchers..just a little boxer working. I love that sound.

headed for a weather phenomena this evening..the record is zero set in 1929. my grandma (rip) was born in november 1929. must have been a cold baby.

it is below zero about an hour from here..the path that creeps in seems to be in place to send bangor a quick shot....the average low is 23. that was not far from todays high. We are way below the norm. The cold streaks coming from chimneys and exhaust is a january sight.... single digits before dec 1?

30 minutes to go for november 30, at 12.5F and dropping...will it make it to single digits before december first...the drama, the drama.
realtime weather station

[Barry Donovan]

brrr.
it was in the singles before dec 1, I was looking at a warmer location, inner city reading. where I am at is two miles from the colder number, falls right down my street.

single digits at the end of november…a low of 7 forecast

below zero to the northwest. 25 years here..the peak of sun cycles are always interesting. defies a lot of babbling. the sun can do that.

I am of course curious about cold starts..but it does get predictable. not so much nerdy fun, knowing what is built is going to be tough enough.
the gaskets I home made for the carb? now is why.

[Barry Donovan]

big air

I was looking forward to the first of frigid starts..was not sure if it was even going to go.
big air flood, I attacked this the last time into a scrawny straw sized intake opening..and that was a very bad mistake.

let it start, go through a diesel like routine, but air instead of fuel setting the pace, a little rough in the cylinder sounds..the opposite of a diesel start, with fuel waiting to fire.. yet the same sounds. this one starts once, stalls slowly, go at it again. stays running. Intake heater did not take long. Very nice. Fuel mileage is that of a spring day versus a maine winter.

so project is complete.

the rest is waiting on some steel change..that finals in february. I mean micronic change, no big moves..it's a steel thing. most are real dumb about that, I don't talk much of it.

there is a fake quench, and then there is gods version. Not much survives the latter...explains the prejudice I get, being a welder. My version wins.
speaking of steel..
the exhaust electrical snaps is much less. not sure what it was waiting for, must be 60 hertz related..or new hertz from accel to disperse. memory is in metal that has been used..alot needed to change this year, right down to a different sound of hydraulic lifters instead of solid. the casting of engine alone, in a different make, only looking the same...biggest change of all. nice bright, resistant..very nice.

as stubborn as an awd can be of course..a different line to grab in many directions. I have had worse with just 2wd and a v8. Brian and the drivehaft episodes on his caprice. Gm don't know 25 years...crazy as 4.10 gears behind 400 foot pound diesels. About my only complaints..(gm is my favorite)..and I do weld to make up for what time cannot tell until it is lived.

it really is the end..the mysteries I was awaiting did very good. the rest is normal history repeating..called routine. I took this on after working on 50 year old jets, in maine of all places. Attacked by steel since I was a boy, my dad and those hard old rigs...never considered it an enemy. it talks, some people can hear it. it is an end and new beginning all the time..as things get old.. man made piles on wheels. This locale is like a broken spirit, all the way to mechanics as careers in the outside world.

Assumptions that nobody just keeps building is a terrible plague in maine. Working behind a fence, life and death military. I chuckle at the thought of some of the runts that mouthed an opinion about strong stuff somebody made. Without the loud mouthed retarded monkeys..I looked down. Self declared strong builders with speed shop as the name of their business...sit the hell down, odds are you do nothing but cause trouble for those with integrity. how is that for assuming? did I return the favor?
a parts catalog has alot of pretty things doesn't it...
what people make is tons stronger...than china.

a real learn can happen. I take that with me for life.
anyway, it goes with the keeping of this stuff here...

something I have not done since I was a kid..
drive around with an expired inspection sticker, and a registration a day over due. I am quite jumpy about that stuff. If cars gained respect in longevity like humans...antique is getting pretty close to that. hardly a day late, time is short..

I only got the first hundred mile leap in on this one. will share a destination or two as they happen. In my own history of the ea82..a famous trait for this was running at -28F. too cold for suspension, the 13 inch rubber four ovals. all bearings howling..the carburator a very large tea pot whistling even with a steel lid on. Its my famous little 1781cc..even if it is no one elses.

that is one trip planned, way below zero. Another, may simply be the bigger subaru gathering with some parts to sell...see how it goes. I like to plan. Something I have wanted to do for a long time at that subaru gathering, southern new england...bump a flame thrower out of the way and get the free dyno for public to witness...just how wrong they left all of us with the ea82, and what I did wih it the american way.

headed for some ice/snow out of this rather deep cold spell. I am still youthful about it..the first place I ever encountered it was maine, ended up the only place 25 years later.

this seeming babbling rambling on build is just for this..I have been waiting I guess.
my first and last near defeat with this very wagon, a january a few years ago, still had little wheels if I recall
... a minus 22 F to a 56 above in 48 hours...snapped the car temporarily in the back end. when I learned the little animal was saving itself, not to fail..but keep going... I need say no more. its got a gods trophy.

remembering the troubles of this, as if to be focused on for no reason.. I just spotted a state trooper car in the parking lot next door. I got to wondering "if I got pulled over going the half mile to town hall...?"
as stuff had to expire to go ahead antique...this place does get that bad. I even got defended by the gov't because of the gov't.. over traffic violations in the past. I never did get a call back from the head inspector. I figure if I am having problems with this, that one guy must have a thousand calls a week. I won't bother him anymore. The frustration in that legally the car passes the standards..i guess they can meet that on the road if they have to. I also memorized the law..very troubled as a teen, not even the badass.

meanwhile..november finished off with single digits.
now 6F to 48F in approx 30 hours.
being as busted up as I am physically..a hot bath is more than a calgon take me away commercial.
tooth finally stopped aching to several gallons of fluids ...
hard to believe my ancestry is nothing but north. I ache more than a tropical island immigrant.
enough about me..the car ached just as bad once upon a time. at least steel is fixable.

..and that is doing wonders. I guess I don't need to be told that at all. I will be taking another project on sooner than later. Steel will no doubt be part of it. I don't know as a small vehicle will be on my list ever again. not even for a boxer engine..
I'll be 40 soon, leave me alone. my thought of evolution is elsewhere.

[Barry Donovan]

now antique


forgive the same photo in pic of the day thread..they share the same bandwidth anyway. I have since drilled two holes in the middle of the plate to center it in the bumper..the last time I did that was six years ago.

now registered antique. This car fits the bill exactly..it was good vibe getting handed the new plates.

a few gallons of 91...
driving around unregistered or inspected, loud exhaust...I must be a badass.

donuts around cop cars and tearing up the police station lawn must come next..and then post on you tube my one hand on the wheel getaway at...73mph.

hahaha.
this is a first for me, and most likely a subaru in maine, of the a10 chassis going antique. the first years were so bad, even in storage they could commit suicide.(hydrochloric puddles stuck in the roots.)

looking over original sale, the owner stated there is white underneath the champagne (its got other names) right in the bill of sale. This was a subaru rebuild, even got an oem paint code sticker. As the sickest part of this history goes..this chassis could a be a remanned 1981. Evidence there to go along with that fact...

I made a good choice. A rare one...most keep iron that stays good, I made the iron good. this evening got a rub of fan on shroud at cold idle..right rear is quenched to its new home. that is a place where no subaru build made tight..I did that just this past summer. Now the rear camber does its cradle next..magic. it will stay there even on a 90F day. its like a playdough mild into hardening. more on this sube than a hard framed car, I had to learn it over the years. it is clever..just need to guide it. hot weld is the tightener until unity, and no quench gets it, it has to be the seasons that do the final work. Assuming deck of cards is sad..this is welded steel and gods earth becoming friends. the nice high pressure tank and the extra layer I gave front and back to go along with a perfect cage for it..I am very happy about this old impossible problem gone...in a very strong way. the right rear strut is still over active, but plenty tough enough being a toyota 4 runner front strut holding up a tiny sube. I found february was a month for this one after the summer prior welds..like a six month scale of time to change resonant frequency. the longer it takes, the tougher it is. I remember my first year welding this, and learning that..I thought sure i did something too weak, and that was an eye opener. this car takes months to respond at the beams to the hard change. It can still make an ass out of a career metal man. I go back to shop class, making a box and the metal pinching machine. that teacher gets all the credit.. I literally applied it in real life on a unibody sube: you cannot just make a metal box, there needs to be a weak point...if not, it is a long wait.

will continue the quest for car show worthy, details. the only error interior is driver seat and a quarter inch dimple on coin tray. everyhting works, no errors.

immediate is an a1 cordone ps pump with viton seals. my own rebuilt rejected old school seals. viton in the heads still unnecessary, these boxers get too tight..a valve stem leak of carbon based oil is most welcome at the valves. Not that I have caught it in action, only to find it after teardown, how much it liked a less than stellar seal. I had a v8 like that..ran to 200k+ miles. not worth it today, oil prices..best keep a fresh v8. this boxer is an odd exception being flat out...still adds no consumption.

hearing the other little cars straining for dear life from december onward..this sube is still there, that part will never be unique to any 1.8 liter and maine...the astounding part is just how long it takes the beatings.

one start today. no stall.. a good day for an old rochestor.

I am not letting myself get itchy to a craigslst ad, trade it off for something equally troubled and recovered. A 6.2 diesel hasmy mind going as of now. I don't think i'll get what I want...but that is as prejudice as a self declared mechanic inspecting all vehicles: never underestimate a working owner.

I am going to peel off that "giant" inspection sticker on the tiny ricer windshield and call this good.

I choose black and white for the first photo, old car plates.. I was just watching a vid on tropical birds..more moves than a street clown, very colorful. the males and their flashes of iredescent, at no other time but to impress the lady.

that is this cars origin. Trying to impress with stuff not seen, angles not taken...and just as colorful. my prejudice of it being weak is done. At mcdonalds, waiting in line.. a mr.beechy eclipse (mistubishi) ..another real oddball, stepping up to be a performer. sounded like hell, a chink of its bead missing from a rim..a grind into gear, and the same snap the little sube dishes out, like a motorcycle...off it went.

I expect these to be more oddballs getting protected by antique plates in coming years..they are not far behind the crazy sube. in the 80s, the sideway inline, and AWD together, was a hopeless mess locally. It was not until the 90s some hung on with the same torture as the little subes dish out trying to keep the foriegn tin moving.

learning all the time. I do have a need to make my real vehicle american again...its been fun and not fun, every extreme learning the ricer sold as tough years ago...
a tropical animal.
being simply a steel kinda guy..I do pay attenton to this cars iredescence. plain brown much of the time..as the sun went down today, the brilliant garnet blood red came out, very rare to do so..as if begging for the sun. It tells me the future. Spring is going to be on fire....
happy bday to the old sube, its a big one after all.

I spoke of nordic gold, and the copper in the carb..the brass copper radiator, all together. This fall, I noticed shades of gold in the tailgate, and then it hides in the brown..and if the red comes out, like a crazy birds mating call, foliage vivid...the gold is hiding. never a dull moment. Steel is amazing, we got it in its own planet with four rubber wheels suspensing it..eventually, it does get serious.

those that do not work machines, just paying for them..they do not know these things. funny enough, mechanics are the biggest culprits. A jack of all trades criminal..master of nothing.

nerd number searching, I noticed antique plate numbers have a dot after two numbers, then a 3 digit number.

my own plate is a CT law meaning "stay pending appeal"..no party takes action given by a court order. Seems appropriate for a witch hunted little sube.

the other def I found, as long as washington dc uses a 1997 NAAQ standard, it is ok for 2012 and future. (national air quality standard)

nothing else to find, no nerdy 1337 talk for this sube to haunt me with.

[Barry Donovan]

favorite photos 2012

Searching for my favorite photos of 2012...
I did alot of work..looking back, I thought I put the stage 1 clutch in 2011, no. it was january of this year..holy cow. I had the engine in and out twice, radiator numerous times..water pump, blown engine, a rochestor feeding it even more...rebuilt alternator,power steering..welds in the back end (which I feared for no reason as it turns out)
I am making history. useless as it may be.. I am still making some.



some important Spec colors there..car would be junked without a strong clutch. Speaking of strong..2012 marks the end of getting sucked into bad advice in the suby world entrely. this car was more than twice as big as I was led to believe.


first fit of rochestor on subaru ea82 intake..machined myself. the silver spoon bracket at the end on fuel line, is in memory of what kept a monojet strapped down to my 250ci in the early 90s.



object in photo is as large as it seems.


I cracked a hole in japan. this engine blown in the photo , and its history, it is astounding, even by a trucking standard of life. the morphing self healing slob even worked back into the hardness I know to nurture to..only to show me it was too late. sintering does not happen often..but some 30s F below can reel in some years. 25.5 for this one..one build. Pistons worked beyond zero deck, and stayed quiet. The end was actually me exceeding the 140 foot pounds on the crank pulley. I spun it off getting on the highway. that was still not the end, rapping away.. I drove it all the way home, and blew it in its parking spot.

my #1 photo for 2012..

it is actually a shot of the car when steel was in its first finale, perfect stance unseen for an ea82 goofball chassis...but I don't share them on the net much. As that turned out, this car cannot sit straight like a live axle and be safe..it has to sit tucked in the rear left, to be straight while working..think "1980s B-rally" insanity to understand it more. I would have to build my own rear end . I believe I outran their design- yet nowhere near 181 foot pounds, hard telling..as they did build funny things...so that photo is in the pile of 2012.

onto 2013...as antique.

I may build that rear end, funny enough, I'd do the same asymmetry..just hidden a little more. For now, enjoying the big air tuning into maines weather. it really makes a carbs past too humble to be real, after learning what the few extras can do...

a pack of buzzing bees with an echo...minus the jackhammering thump of an inline...after not guessing it was a boxer in the first place, the climb continues into a shreaking formula 1, gently..the little legend goes on.... 1 barrel and 3 main bearings. it worked beyond my expectations. Still two dirty cylinders from oem EGR working their way to better every day. tough little engine. the rochestor monojet is a good king of it.
just two days in a row for the start once and no stall. the cold snap must be getting old black sulfurs out of driver side bank (egr victims). I actually like smelling a rotten egg climbing out of this one...it aint coming back.
with this on a back burner, attempting to go for my frst dslr..the nickels and dimes, especially labor (priceless) gets a break for some time...back into digital photography in a real way... me and my crt to process some raw.

I found I went to 4k photos with old stuff, and it was still quite a few priceless keepers at 4mp and less. I don't jump up as mr. fabulous and a 4 grand dslr... I earned something, long overdue...and no, i am still not going for the biggest baddest megapixel faking iso3200 and beyond..

[Barry Donovan]

how to drive

was thinking of the 1hp to cube formula, american stayed happy for many years there in the 8 cylinder.

the first to defy this... then brag like a plague falsely as something better was the inline engines, and the v6.

anyway, found a cheap slr bridge camera to not feel bad to wreck trying it in maine, will get more videos, take down the old (I have six years of them probably floating around the thieving internet that never updates)..

the new cheapy is a fuji finepix, my first camera at 1mp was a fuji finepix..now digitally obsolete. 120fps at 720p is another option built in. It seems through examples of videos watched I can indeed get a recording of this little monster eventually.

I found the only person that has not lost a gentle start in the little sube gone bigger, was my father...the trucker of nearly 40 years. Some people are alike, called genetics. When a three main drafted gets big, you launch more like a diesel..more than ever. Exactly the opposite of the counterbalanced world on gasoline hyping up to a racers throttle curve.

I hope to get that out there, I don't get many views, but the past is horrifying whn I stepped up to share innocently. I guess I have one more goal for this tortured buggy after all...more than one.

[Barry Donovan]

a few more nickels and dimes

I found the 5 to 9 psi airtex pump 8012 (has that number been forever?)
for $14.22 on ebay..delivered.


I learned some run Rochestor 1bbl as low as 1psi, but that was with multi single barrel setups dividing a bigger pump for more than 1 carb.
the norm is old school 5 to 9..I am at 1-3.
so, a few more dollars, get aother pump in. i like the relay version, shuts off at 3psi..but maine kills it in the hills,
I-95 hills, local hills, nearly all hills.

I want out of the chattering pump anyway. Would love the holley trochoid..but that is a sick dream considering the cost of using 1/10th of the pressure.

just a few minutes ago, after posting, I found this in my subscriptions..I like the wild offroad buggies. I instantly assumed fuel surge on big pump as the culprit. Another reason not to deadhead the fuel...
I got a return on 3 psi if to reveal my own paranoia.

not sure of the big fail in the vid..but I did get the above thoughts in a second. I worked with air refuel jets...old school enough, a hot day would spew fuel right onto the tarmac.

minimalist approach is the best.
dialing in 5 to 9 with a return weeping...that took some time to conclude that is a finale. A rwd can stay even calmer, this old 4wd unibody has resonance beyond human comprehension, needs the fuel numbers upped a bit...and that boxer leap, sustain in the hills..that was a lesson learned a long time ago.
an oddity with subaru is finding they had a setup for larger, and they never go through with it..its all through 80s machines. the fuel pump gadgetry dropping to 8volts on a timer instead of pressure..all while the fuel line has an original damper expecting high pressure at the pumps exit way in the back. A full return setup on a 1psi runtime...weird stuff to be compiled together like that.

Lucky for me, as old cars need that as updates for modern changes. this one had it built in.
a unique overlap of very old and new..I am calling it the last of antiques, justifiably with facts. I found insurance companies have a 1980 as a cutoff date for classic or antique..that is plain wrong. America went to late 80s with the very definition of what makes a classic/antique. Someday I guess..we have to wait on alot of things to get specific. The lack of patience among people leaving stuff behind is a bigger value for us that keeps things.

..pump on the way. I can easily thrash in the snow to throw that in..it is literally a plug that matches car, two fuel lines..throw it on top of fuel pump mount, strap it down, no bolts. this is actually the last of my curiosity peaking before it arrives. My lesson on the monojet was in my 74 chevelle and a mechanic by ASE career taught me some basics... a long time ago. It is a carb to gain with fuel pressure, it acts like an injector..old primitive one, responds to big pumps. I got way ahead with the return line, etc...the pump is actually on an old todo list. This should get even peppier in the throttle...and the stage 1 clutch has been waiting for that too.

anyone heard of a 70s monojet called an electrojet? am curious.. I can't place where I first heard it. much before the internet. the funny ambiguity..it was not related to the choke, it was related to that power valve brass looking totem pole..it respnds to static pressure, determining fuel. old injector...very primitive, and genius forever.

edit: the new pump is still a solenoid, and can't be mounted level..the exit should face the sky by a few degrees. so much for a clean mount..just going to throw yet another weird pump under the car I guess.

the cheapest rollervane found was for a ford, an inline pump at 58 bucks..

here is the list of airtex:


the e8004 is 80 bucks, + shipping. they can go to hell...
and then there is the little red holley 12-801-1. $100 even for a new one..did not see fittings.

the holley would have been great getting this tank seated...it works with contaminated fuel. anyway, I did decipher the solenoid pumps...the one I have now hates left turns and a start from a hill. will see how a couple of more psi goes..same volume. Full12v as well, so the max will try to achieve at all times.

if I skip over power steering pump for now, will go for holley red or better yet:

my real quest is a gerotor pump, found the carter line of pumps also has a carb version, inline. these normally use cold fuel to stay cool inside a tank..but I got the sube pump mount setup as a heatsink with a breeze. so, this is my next pump for sure:
carter PUMP P74028
$36.28 on ebay
found a review for a 1967 tri powered vette, one happy owner. good enough for me..especially when it mentioned near silent runtime. I want gerotor for the gerotor oil pump at the other end of the fuels journey.. seems silly to mention, I have a physics guess what the two do if they should meet in resonance...friendly outcome.


Airtex E84070 Electric Fuel Pump rotary vane.. old as the militarys use for them. this is my second choice. seeming expensive.. I have narrowed these down to 60 bucks or so. very rugged... just don't let it go dry.

the solenoid pump, don't know where those came from, but to mimick a mechanical cam driven one in many years of cars.. a transition pump , excellent if you have carb that thumped to cam driven pumps, and needs it for some reason unknown to us morons in the real world. they pulsate, and chatter..

I hate this pump, but it is durable...just don't allow it to run level.
edit: it seems a good call on the pump, I got subconscious routines in my head after 15 years with thie ea82. Today was a long wait for cold smoke, and warmup. the pump in it now knows to slow down at a certain preset pressure with its own relay/solenoid gadget built in.. that has bugged me for a long time. Even full 12volt resorts to useless.
so, the cheap pump coming is more than double psi on the slow side, triple on the high... and I read of complaints it climbs past 10 psi. that complaint is welcome on my setup. must be a loud solenoid pump to work the psi that high...the key to these, regardless of pressure is GPH, a carb needs 30 ,minimum. I am liking the specs on the cheap gerotor by carter..70psi at 30gph. Very fine resolution. Will grab at one of those eventually. for now the perculating pump is getting tortured yet another maine winter.
as of now, idling for five to ten minutes brings the very large little engine I did alot of work to gain..and then it whimpers off into calmer, after going down the road to a nominal throttle, speed limits etc.. too calm to get enough fuel.

the last problem, almost done..and it is always winter related. I remember the rollervane types, the old military planes I worked with. in the wnter it was a double wait for the same job, transferring fuel etc. even the brake booster/accumulator pump had a giant version. I was outside more than once listening for the pump and a gurgle, I had to tell the crew chief at the switches, if I had heard any abnormal noise at all...in the cold, a static snap and 110,000 pounds of fuel is...well..bad news for sure.

years later, I finally dug into the fuel pump subject. I think gerotor is the future. The oil pump on an ea82 coincides with that good opinion.

[Barry Donovan]

wheels from france and a carb from texas

I was amused after my first internet gathering of parts, another subaru 7 years ago.

this one takes that long list and multiplies it alot.

so cal has quite a pile for old subes, I get alot from there.
this recent fuel pump is miami Florida. unusual. never got anything from florida until the accel ignition. It is then I remembered all the places that piled this tin can together.

the steel is from ohio i believe, u.s. millsupply.
wheels are from france
one yokohama, the lonely yokohama that came from pheonix recently. nice new tire. am liking that alot.
clutch from alabama..made in alabama fresh upon ordering..
carb from texas
the second engine is an spfi..most likely a sube that got off the boat in new jersey. i bought that engine from the floor of a horse trailer in maine.
the car is titled to metlakatla alaska, most likely got off at seattle from japan...then driven to maine...
I bought it with a north carolina muffler shop keychain in the ignition.

found a reciept for fishing tackle from new hampshire..1990s.

hard telling where a car has been...

my own rides have ct, Ri, ma, nh..and the northern tip of maine.

...and I get mad for it being weak when I bought it.

a peculiar thing I do, is get heatshrink wrap or other doodads, like trim buttons, straight from tawian, hong kong..takes 3 to 6 weeks sometimes.

I read a story of an old sube, guy slapped on some old peugeot wheels..he was an insurance appraiser for the big hurricane.. katrina possibly. drove from the northwest all the way to the southeast, and back. Spoke of no other work done. that is the "northwet" and subarus anyway...
With as much thought and effort as I have wasted my time on.. I gotta get a long trip in sometime. I think of that guys one journey occasionally.

kidding analogy for a ten geared sube with fat tires on...

I actually worked with horses when I was a kid. I was just catching up on terms like "hands", the height of a horse. At 17 hands, it is a big horse...that is 5 feet 8 at the bottom end of the mane. With my height near 5' 9", I knew a large horse from small..just standng next to one.
the farm I was at had a 14 (I may have remembered it wrong..could be 16) hand, being a cold giant maine horse seeming hairy all year, not a clydesdale. just a massive horse. height did not matter much for that one..

getting to be a rare breed, the clydesdale. I could believe they are the biggest, as an animal in the cold has alot of pumping to do, hair to carry..natural gain of lard. Anyway..2am, no sleep for my aching head at all.
I found oranges tackle my problems. the less knife hacking them up, the better. my problem is non-organic. As if to be a welder for 50 years..life is strange.

its been fun writing about a tin can in maine. there are places so stable...if I wrote something about a noise it made on a certain day..some think it stays that way forever. A Maine 30minutes is someone elses 30 days...I have had ten cars in that 30 days, all in one. Alot of opposites when steel is worked with..maine is the opposite of life in the slow lane. Exactly the opposite. 115k psi rails in a 1 ton subaru...that is where I'd be headed. This place makes a clydesdale look like a donkey.
to do list is narrowing down.. I have to get some front honda springs for the back end. over double the current rating, and variable..so it won't be hard at all times. Something I learned from trucks, if it stomps its feet, its hard enough. I am there already, it is just the overall weight limit sucks (as ricers normally do).. just need to step it up one more time.

[Barry Donovan]

oil pressure switch for fuel..

I was chatting with my dad about getting my first hd videos to thrash around in the cab of the truck on some journey someplace. he wants me to get route 11 in maine with the 550 cat unstoppabale, it is impressive. that route is the one that made the silly country songs about how many drivers lost on that one route. Still just as crazy today..I was with him a couple of times with a 350 cummins way back when. dropping gears fast enough to just hit the splitter to low range and not bother with all the double clutching. the 550 cat must be a dream at 50psi..look forward to a video clip or two. The road seems much smaller today, with bigger rigs. Way back when that 50 miles or so must have been 1000.
..wandering off into chat about cold starts, I told him of my giant fuel pump on the way. he was telling me about the diesel, the injectors aren't even electric, they wait for oil pressure like a hydraulic lifter, control begins there..
looking up fuel pumps, I found the same thing for cars. fuel will not pump until switch gets a kick by some oil pressure, as a safety. my old sube has never had that extra..am thinking I should install one.

some other notes on the fuel pump..
it goes to a 4.1L v6, all the way to a ford 390, I mean the old engines..327, 350, etc.
like the airbleeds on a carb, do not pay attention to the engine it is going to, pay attention to where it came from and work with it that way. this little 1781 will use the big pump because of the carb, a 5/16ths restricted line, and full use of a return for final adjustments..it is all for the carb to go for 5 psi minimum. I would not try stepping up an oem hitachi subaru with the 8012s..

being a solenoid pump that is designed to deadhead, and also right at home with a full needle and seat gm product.. I will not be adding the pressure switch..in fact, I am just normalizing its origin to work on a 1781cc.

..a first remark about the old sube with antique plates goes to....my neighbor. mentioned just as I thought the same. the 9004 headlamps make it absolutely unique to see those plates...he would not have guessed it either...like a paradox. I still did not verify that ford and subaru were the first on earth to go to the socket style lamps in mass production, goes way back to early 80s. subaru did not get them to america until 1985, but they had them in use in their own country. fun history fact..
..and they were a bt cautious about those bulbs. the wiring is the biggest in the car next to starter and ignition switch. not even the electric fan has the monster wires subaru gave the lights. that changed later down the road, on newer cars, real shame.
a funny thing they did..they gave the high beam indicator its very own relay.. as if terrified of huge headlights...they split every function away from them.

trying to watch a film spoken in japanese about their native 10000 rpm n/a racing...
I took one look at an ea82 and thought 10k rpm natural...in fact, people are stupid. I have it limited to 8500 rpm. That may be one of my first hd videos coming soon. in the races, it seems that is their shift points...8000, 8500. the rotary is right at home pegging 9 to 10. all the cars are little engines. they allow the rotary much bigger hp due to no torque, and I noticed the v engine got less hp to help stay even..
all way up there, production engines. I did not spot a 10k rpm, but they do take on a formula 1 sound, tiny version.. I do not know as I would poke fun with the ricer jokes with their league of rules. right to the hammer getting it done.

[Barry Donovan]

ice

am tempted to thrash around in the little sube..
alot of little accidents of hindless cars off into the ditches right now.

one of the funnier things this car was to be remembered by..
it will still go to speed limit in the snow ice and slush.

The little gyro.

most of humanity did not get these straight and strong..as expected. I had to find the snake in this one years ago.

I know my camera is useless, being uh oh.. a really old 4 years now. Finally digging into my photography again..
I decided on a manual focus, all metal, 1.5 pound bridge camera. A theorized iso 12800 (I still argue its fake too), that should be enough to play with in manual modes. Raw+ jpeg option. before instructions on this wild net.. I found I was attacking 90% of my jpegs to be real... that is a natural sign of needing "raw". I still do not fall for the adobe stampede of processing..that is still someone elses eyeball. Anyway... still learning that stuff in my spare time. hopefully a newer setup soon. I did learn what is unique here when I go about recordings...worth a camera or two of course.

I stay home avoiding risk for now.

maybe get some winter vids in, not sure of camera yet..poop happens all the time, camera money is way back shelf at all times.


unusual.. these half wet storms normally go to well above freezing before the cold follows it. would have made a nice ice box out of the car this time, not common to happen that way. It started up well, does not like a damp alternator, even being as solid state as the 19th century. but having been in this slop many times with this engine, it did very good. That is the last wait in this type of weather, the alt has to climb out of some strange state. still charges, but I can drain it to battery loss..have to be choosy about what gets running first. intake heater is a number 1 item now.

The intake heater is the real gem, instead of hours, it is minutes to snap the car out of the arctic slop, into its own world as needed…the exponential gain on everything is very fast compared to its past. Fuel pump will be here soon, installed on a wet ground. I like it that way, as drops of fuel won’t bother anybody in the wet snow.

..and the throttle its a lively one, even in the cold wet. That is a new event for me...it has been a long time letting this thing stay runted in one way or another..it seems it cannot escape the grasp of my "huge american five foot niner" self this time.

the ignition under the dash, the full wave diode, the intake heater, my own fuel pump mount, steel everywhere..this weather gets the best in some way or another..
this car does not even puff back up taking several hundred pounds off of it... I am winning at something... it is humble to mention.

a four low snap to keep it from its spot, and make a trail while snow soft. I hate forgetting that chore..not much of a pile , but its a heavy density. foggy right now, at 32F..
january is going to be quite something at this pace.

I was thinking there was a hg gurgle, reminded me of hg starting to fail..but was mistaken. A ea82 failing spits the water pump nonstop. The heater is smooth as silk..it tends to get nothing if there is any problems at all with coolant going to the wrong place.
fixing the water pump to new will force a blow if there is a problem. (that is actually a tip to fix it.)

wanting to get a look at the cylinders, an excuse to take decent looking felpro hg out is silly. I found some .015 steel shims I could use for gaskets. with no squashing the head leaving as factory, a 10.5 to 1 instantly...buff the heads aggressively, may get 11. Seems it is quite lively enough for me as of now. At 100k, it ought to have mains and rods to go with such a tight gasket..so, it is an afterthought..

speaking of afterthought, I bury the pursuit of cameras likes it's a trauma. I was snapping 5.1 mp in 2005 better than the quality I am finding with the 16mp bridge cameras today.. I am one disgruntled hobbyist.

anyway, found myself drawing the line at the nikon d40, maybe a d50..searching for the right used one as of now...and my 4 year old bullet proof panasonic mpeg2? that is continuing for some years to come..be it a sunny day I guess..no bridge camera for me.