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ok i have my road going l seires wagon
i think its an ea82 motor
i have a few spare motors and a lot of talent, ascess to tools (lathes mill)
yadda yadda yadda
the only thing im lacking is cash

i want to get a few more ponies, or free up the ones ive got at least
im thinking of removing fans and replacing with electrics
maybe shaving heads
playing with valves but all on my own
any more cheap!!!! mods??

Have a look in the 'conversions, modifications and performance' section on this forum there are a couple of threads aimed specifically at increasing the performance of earlier engines.

From what I understand, your L series should have an ea82 not an 81. It will be stamped on the engine block.

Cheers

off road or race? I say get cams done. If you promise not to go big tyres, Ian Watson of Watson Race Cams in QLD did a nice 20/60 for my EA81. Same grind will spice up an EA82 I am sure.

yeah seen a lot of the other post but they seem to be just one single part ie electric fans or head work not the whole engine
ill go have another look
thanks

Ideally to make sporty cams work the compression ratio should increase but the problem is the detonation threshold on these EA series engines .

Breathing is a real problem for EA's and particularly the EA81's so if you can port them it should help out .
If it is an EA82 you really should consider the EFI heads because they at least have individual inlet ports per cylinder unlike the carby 82's and all OEM 81's .
I think I remember reading that later EA81 heads had larger valves than earlier ones but don't know the change over point .

I would be wary of spending a lot of money on NA EA81's/EA82's because I don't think there are going to be big gains in it for you .
Starting with a fresh engine ie rings that seal and valve guides and seats that function as per new is good advise .

The killjoy performance wise on EA heads is that the ports are small and there isn't really enough room or meat in the castings to open them up .
It's pushrod holes in the 81's and bulky hydraulic rocker pivots in the 82's that take up room where larger ports needed to be .

When all you have is atmospheric pressure to charge your cylinders port and valve size is critical if an engine is to get enough air in to make good power .
With limited breathing area some form of forced induction is the only other answer because increasing inlet manifold pressure is really the only way to get more air in .

There really is only two ways to increase torque without moving the power up in the rev range and they are to increase the capacity or the compression ratio .

No cheap easy answers here , A .

If it's an L series it will be an EA82
http://www.sunspares.com.au/sunspares_m ... 0Wagon.jpg

If it's an MY it will be an EA81
http://www.15q.net/img/subaru3.jpg

As others have indicated...it's really not worth it. Save your money (and more importantly time) and just plod along as-is, then swap engines to an EJ later down the track. If your smart about it and well prepared this can be done very cheaply these days.
If you mess around with your tired old EA trying to get more power all your going to really increase is it's unreliability.
Even spending big money on an EA won't product an astounding engine, they are fundamentaly a poo motor as far as performance goes

yeah ok spose i will just save up.
was thinking of making a dual carb setup using standard carbs just to show off lol

AndrewT wrote:Save your money (and more importantly time) and just plod along as-is, then swap engines to an EJ later down the track. If your smart about it and well prepared this can be done very cheaply these days.

As AndyT says - don't bother playing around with the EA motor - all it will do is make you realise what a shoddy design that motor really is...

I too stand by the comment of saving your money for an EJ upgrade. It really is an upgrade on the L series, making the old subi a well balanced machine. Mine's a pleasure to drive now and goes well on the fuel compared to the old carbie job.

There are some big advantages with EFI systems as well - they're pretty much maintenance free in terms of operation, only spark plugs, oil and coolant that really need to be maintained.

Cheers

Bennie

yeah ill be organising an ej soon. got my spare 82 motor sitting at home so gonna rip it apart and see whats so bad lol.
might even set it up to be mated to the 2wd auto box and putting in the formula v as a race car and then upgrading to a ej with that too soon.