sometimes wonder why I drive my subie

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 11:02 am

I took my OLD Ford out for a rip yesterday and started to wonder why I even bother with driving my Subies. The economy is about the same, 250 cubes versus about 110 doing half as many revs. Some hills - most hills - the Ford just walks up at 62.5MPH at 2000 RPM, where the EA81 needs to revs its t its off in third or strain in 4th and the turbo 82 will just do it in TOP 3rd or rev in 2nd.

Well, the Ford, I watch like a hawk, no longer fits in parallel parking (they getting shorter) so risk factor for damage from others, parts are hard to get, and dirt roads are rare for risk of paint damage so just that off road stuff is definitely out due to bein' lowered.

Tell you what though , I enjoyed the drive more so when I spotted another known XT I haven't seen for years

Matatak · Post by **Matatak** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:02 pm

EJ the brumby

and suddenly itll walk up hills alot better than before

GTlegs · Post by **GTlegs** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:41 pm

Fuel economy the same? Nice one.

D3V1L · Post by **D3V1L** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:57 pm

im thinkin the same...some of my previous cars where awesome economy as well..better then the subaru's ive owned

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:59 pm

Well naturally just about anything is better than driving an old EA81 around, especially when you talk about maintaining speed up hill climbs etc. Your EA82turbo sounds like theres something wrong with it if you can't hold 4th gear up a long hill...?
Get an EJ you won't look back

Post by **Alex** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 2:25 pm

when i get 650km from a tank in my liberty (never more than 45-50L) i dont care who gutless my poor little ej20 is. And it isnt that gutless, i can get her to go ok.

Ej your car. You wont have to nail it everywhere hence using less fuel. And they got a bucketload of EJ POWAH!

alex

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:39 am

I know, I know EJ the way to go, but what do i do with all my EA spares?
I have so much that I told myself to stay EA. EJ just not a quick simple cheap option. The EA82t only has THREE gears forward - it's auto !! Also telling self that EJ could be on the cards when all current projects are sorted - you know , some motorvation. T

fredsub · Post by **fredsub** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:57 am

steptoe wrote:Iand the turbo 82 will just do it in TOP 3rd or rev in 2nd.

you must have something wrong, when I had my ea82t, there's 2 steep mountains passes my way, Bulli Pass and Mt Ousley, my old L would rip up them in 3rd, on Mt Ousley, cuz its long can shift up to 4th. Sure a crummadore v8 could pass me, but can sure tell it was going flat out...(hehe probably was embarrassed)

I really must recommend an aftermarket ECU, I had a microtec fuel only is all you need, and i've seen em on ebay a few times fairly cheap now.

Re the fuel comments, your big 250 cubes would use alot of fuel all the time even for cruising, whereas your small ea82t, if you don't use the boost so much cruising around and racing the traffic lights you get reasonable economy, with mine driving style varies the consumption hugely(a bit of guesswork,but) 10.7l/100km to 15.2l/100km.
I guess big block engines don't have so much variation, but they do consistently use more fuel:)

BrennyV · Post by **BrennyV** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:30 am

steptoe wrote:I know, I know EJ the way to go, but what do i do with all my EA spares?
I have so much that I told myself to stay EA. EJ just not a quick simple cheap option. The EA82t only has THREE gears forward - it's auto !! Also telling self that EJ could be on the cards when all current projects are sorted - you know , some motorvation. T

you can always sell of your ea spares.. then use some of that money for upgrading to ej? :P

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:10 pm

ain't mt ousley limited to 70 k? It is a good haul ain't it ? Then there is the Moonbis

?)

1800 cc (petrol) at 4000rpm and boosting V's 4100 cc (LPG)at 2000 and not boosting and 1800cc (LPG) @4000 or 5500 I reckon the Ford is sucking same fuel and air almost

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:55 pm

But the V has probably twice the piston surface which amounts to almost twice the torque.

For a while, not long after my conversion, i was feeling a little disheartened because of the crappy running and performance. But now that i have fixed my problems and am safely pushing 10psi. I love it again.

Sure an EJ can deliver more power and reliability than the EA82T, and a turbo EJ can have up to 3 times the power.

But I still like the feeling of self satisfaction that i rebuilt and modified a reasonably rare engine from the mid 80s to put in a car i drive every day to work.

32ford · Post by **32ford** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:35 am

I must admit that the xt is one of the tightest, squeak free cars I have ever driven. I dont know why they seem to be better than xr's xw's and xy's. about the only car that comes close from the era would be the big two door mercedes coupes, but they are about five times the price.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:50 pm

well said Gannon, I have been in some or driven some spensive to own, repair and insure cars ( the hottest being NSX '92 still worth about $70k and 300 a month to insure) but I do take some ammount of pride in knowing that my 3 to 5 k budget cars have been brought back to servce or kept in faithful service by meself.

Gordon, the XT musta ben drawn up and assembled by some happy crews maybe. I keep coming upon people with fond memories of their old XT's. If only people renewed upper control arm bushes - that gets rid of some squeaks. Found my original was worn from round to D shape. Feels nice now