thirsty and gutless L-Series

grytvikken · Post by **grytvikken** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 11:11 pm

recently bought am l-series wagon that is fitted with 185r14lt's its gutless and for what it is heavy on fuel! i probably wouldnt mind that if it was a goer but shit its so gutless i feel im getting done over twice. i had an old MY a few years back thaqt had larger tyres and it went a lot better. was looking at the american site and saw that someone had mentioned that the timing belts stretch and that leaves the timing out therefor leaving you with no grunt and lots of fuel wasted. does this sound reasonable? what should you expect from an l-series wagon regards fuel use. ie litres / 100 k's? the car is in good nick emngine wise it uses no oil am i just expecting too much? 2nd and 3rd gear if you plant your foot the sound level goes up but the speedo stays almost stationary. any opinions

mattims · Post by **mattims** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 11:01 am

mine uses around 10L/100km but its done 320,000k's. It was much lower than when new around 8L/100km when it had only done 150,000k's. And i have 205/65/R14s on it which would only be slightly smaller than your tires. It still accalerates ok. Not much over 130k. Although its never been a quick car.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 3:15 pm

Oh, I can see your problem . . . it's right here!

Nah, seriously . . . Cam belts and pullies are notched, so you can stretch them, tension them, adjust them, whatever you wanna do and your cam timing will be spot on, whatever rpm whatever day of the week.

Here's what I'd do:

Oil change, filter change +Nulon oil aditive
New fuel filters, full tank of Optimax
Carby clean
Advance timing to 10 degrees or so, maybe more(!)
New plugs and leads
New air filter
New accesories belts

Just give the old girl a freshen up, a once-over and she'll love you for it.

Remember, it's only and EA82.

fredsub · Post by **fredsub** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 7:39 am

somehow it is possible for the belt to skip a notch or so,
yeah dunno how tho? as MUDRAT says "Cam belts and pullies are notched"
perhaps only when its getting fairly worn, happened a long time ago when i had a carby ea82...
result was terrible fuel consumption, and very bad performance.
Had one mechanic that did stuff all, then found one that knew subarus - replaced timing belt and it was back good to how it should be.

Another thing could also be broken advance unit in the dizy

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 7:53 am

Yeah, I guess if it slipped a knotch you'd certainly see it . . . although just stretching wouldn't do anything.

liberty92 · Post by **liberty92** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 12:17 pm

I'd like to see someone try to stretch a timing belt they'll break before they get longer. You could just have a worn out ea82 they were never a power house ever or as some said it could have jumped a tooth

camo

Kev · Post by **Kev** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:25 pm

My last motor got 10l/100km, this one runs better but gets worse fuel economy.
I agree that they run better if you advance the timing.

Rex · Post by **Rex** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:49 pm

If your timing belts & timing is ok, then you may want to get your exhaust back pressure checked, over the tears I have found a lot of l/ser Subarus with melted cats & blocked exhaust systems. When this happens they get even more gutless & heavy on fuel.

Rex

grytvikken · Post by **grytvikken** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:19 pm

cheers guys for all the input i will look into them all but if anyone has any other ideas please keep em coming.........oh one more thing would all exhaust systems have a catalytic converter? mine is a jack beedham one.

smoov · Post by **smoov** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:28 pm

i believe the carby is the source of all evils for the EA82. Get it rebuilt.
timing is safe enough to advance to 12 degrees.

grytvikken · Post by **grytvikken** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 9:27 pm

carby rebuild or carby replace? would like to get it all power and economy....... 8O

GTlegs · Post by **GTlegs** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:30 am

What smoov meant to say was 'replace the standard carb with a weber'.

smoov · Post by **smoov** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:09 pm

GTlegs wrote:What smoov meant to say was 'replace the standard carb with a weber'.

Bingo. All power. No economy

I don't know about either replacing or rebuilding the carb. depends on where you take it. I took my s.hitachi originally to the next carby guy i could find. really, the biggest waste of $300 ever. Rebuilt/rekitted it, and it still stalled after going over the slightest speed humps at about 10km/h. A nightmare offroad. Touring, With 3" Lift and 27's I was getting 12-14L/100km. Wouldnt go anywhere past 100 on my dial (~120km/h?), and used to bog down in fifth gear back to 80 on my dial (~100km/h?) so wringing it in fourth gear was a must to keep speed up.

Since the installation of my weber Thread can be viewed by clicking HERE, ive been chewing more through the fuel (about 16L/100km), but now pulls effortlessly in fifth gear all the way to 120 on my dial (~140km/h?), without wringing it. Cruises nicer, Idles flat at around 600rpm, and is much more driveable with 27's. I may be using as much fuel as a GU 4.8L patrol 8O , but hey, it goes better

I dont think you can both economy and more power...

have you tried These mods??? (click here)

hope this helps

alex

fredsub · Post by **fredsub** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:59 pm

smoov wrote:I've been chewing more through the fuel (about 16L/100km),

8O 8O
gosh even a ea82t doesn't need that much, max maybe 13l/100km when giving it the boot alot, my usuall is 10.5-11l/100km, and it surely has more power than that....

are you sure your not running too rich?, FYI, running too rich != more power!
Alex, you need an EJ conversion, you know you do....

smoov · Post by **smoov** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:09 pm

I need a GT Forester Auto with 4.44's

fredsub · Post by **fredsub** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:14 pm

I've looked at Forestor - too small....whats happened to the cargo space ?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:14 pm

He knows he needs and EJ, he just has trouble admitting it to the rest of us.