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G'day, I've done around 5000km in my L wagon in the last 6 months or so since buying it. It drives ok and is reliable but the engine isn't smooth and surges as you accelerate. I've wound the timing up a bit which helped make a bit more power. It is a slug down low and you really have to rev the **** out of it to make any power. This is the only Subi I've owned. Is this normal? Also after reving the engine out you get off the throttle and the revs take a long time to drop back down. Do I have carby problems? I'm going to check the cam timing today, the previous owner did the cam belts and I want to make sure they're not a tooth out. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Marty.

Hey marty, if one cam is a tooth out, you'd know about it. They're hard to start and its like pushing a brick on acccelerating and your top speed will be less than the legal limit.

This could be different if both are out a tooth.

Your timing may be too advanced (could be related to the cams). Another thing to look at is vacuum leaks, either in the hoses, or the manifold gaskets. If your carbie hasn't had a clean in a while and you have nothing to do it could be a good idea, just make sure you know where all that bits came from.

Other things to look at are spark (the plugs could be a problem here), leads, coil first as the easy things to check.

Does the car run hot or overheat?

The surging suggests fuel. Check your filter before pulling the carbie down. This may be partically blocked.

Anyway, try this out, and leave a note as to what happened/didn't happen/has changed with what you did.

Cheers

fuel filter i reckon...mine was doing exactly the same afew weeks ago...

alex

i think its fuel filter too i changed mine and the problem hasnt been back since

I checked the cam timing and everthing is fine. The plugs and timing are good, when I got the car I wound the timing up until it pinged and then backed it off until it didn't (my technique on all my cars). There's no vacuum leaks. The previous owner tampered around with the vacuum lines that run between the carby, carbon canister and all the other bits and pieces on the motor and I'm not sure that they are all hooked up as they should be. There are a couple that are disconnected and blanked. I can't see it having too much of an effect though. When I got the car the vacuum line to the dizzy wasn't retarding the dizzy due to not enough vacuum. I moved it onto another spot on the inlet manifold and it works well now. The problems I'm having aren't anything major, just a little annoying more than anything. I'm new to Subis so sharing a few experiences is a good thing. I like my cars to run as smooth as possible. The EA82 just seems like it has a lot of extra crap hanging off the motor that can make it all a bit confusing for the backyarder like me. I'll replace my fuel filter and see what happens.

yeah marty, the previous owner was probabily trying to disconnect the anti-pollution stuff, apparently that makes the engine run better... So all the extra crap your talking about would most likely be the anti pollution gear.

Good luck, i hope you get the desired results soon.

I think I'm just expecting too much out of an 18 year old carby motor. As long as it's reliable I think I will just learn to live with the engines imperfections.