Subaru Leone/Loyale Opinions?

I'm selling off my current beater daily and looking for another. I've been on the look out for a wagon, my Camry blows for junkyard runs.

There's a 92 Subaru Loyale for cheap cheap on the local CL. Opinions on these old, ugly boxes?

The body on this one is kinda beat up, but looks decently rust free. 1.8 SOHC, 5 speed. I've yet to see if it's D/R. Power windows, locks, blah blah blah.

I've never owned a Subaru, but I'm a bit weary of them. Every one that I've worked on has been a total E36 M3box. Very leaky leaky and a lot of bad transmissions. I've only had the pleasure to work on late 90s/early 2000s stuff though.

In theory, it checks all the boxes: Beater daily and maybe something to thrash trail riding and at autocross with some upgrades.

I love these cars! I've had probably a dozen or so EA82s over the years, they are largely what I cut my teeth on as a young'n here in Wisconsin. They are SLOW, and the gas mileage is a bit disappointing for their size, but they are rugged as hell, super easy to work on, and can get through pretty much any terrain.

If it is a Loyale, it is NOT D/R, period. D/R went away with the DL/GL/RX etc nomenclature. The transmissions are stout unless you are an idiot and don't know how to drive stick, as these cars make all of 100HP. The automatics are just plain garbage, like most from the era. You will often find them for cheap with broken timing belts, which is no big deal because it's non-interference and the belt takes 10 minutes to change once you have the covers off (I run open covers on all of mine, including my current XT turbo). Delta makes some cams if you need a little more power, but the heads flow like garbage and are a poor design, and the TBI injection sucks. MPFI setups flow a lot better but are valuable to turbo guys like me. They do NOT take well to overheating, all-aluminum. They will typically leak oil from the "Mickey Mouse" oil pump seal, cam seals, and front & rear main, but the seals are cheap and it takes a whole half an hour to pull the engine and remedy it. EJ-series swaps are easy though and will make an otherwise stock EA82 chassis run mid-14's, as well as doubling your gas mileage.

They are NOT sports cars, they were designed to be like small trucks, not sport wagons. If you want to make one handle, plan on finding a Subaru XT6 to steal the 5x100 knuckles, hubs and brakes off of (stock is 4x140 and unless you're great at finding old Peugeot wheels, 13's are your only option). An XT6 will also have rear trailing arms with sway bar mounts (only turbo models and XTs got the rear bar); Whiteline does make bars for these cars, FWIW. Once you have the XT6 knuckles, you can bolt modern Impreza front suspension on with minor fiddling. The rear is a little more difficult but there are solutions out there, including a kit to retrofit 05+ Legacy rear suspension and brakes.

I know a TON about these cars so please let me know if you have any questions. Ultimatesubaru.org is the forum for these, BTW.

Did NA models get multi port or just the turbos?

NA was TBI.

My friend has a tbi/5spd/4wd one with like 400k on it that i want like crazy but he's too smart to let me have it. He knows it's cool too.

TBI seems like it would be low maintenance at least. Looks like there's good interchange between models/years too, which I'm always a fan of. The import section of my junkyard is like half Subarus. Mostly legacies, but there's a brat and a couple of DL/GL hatchbacks too.

Our '88 GL Wagon would run for a long time without any oil on the dip stick. Also, if you break a front CV joint by driving down the rail road tracks, you can just put it in 4wd and still get home. Oh how I miss high school!

These are super popular and common in the Lake Tahoe area when I went there they were all over as well as Justys. It was weird, never seen so many old subarus.

Esplain me D/R..

Vigo wrote: NA was TBI. My friend has a tbi/5spd/4wd one with like 400k on it that i want like crazy but he's too smart to let me have it. He knows it's cool too.

Actually, not always...VERY few NA GL-10 models (and ONLY GL-10 models) left the factory with MPFI and a sexy blood red interior. They are extraordinarily rare though.

Woody wrote: Esplain me *D/R*..

Dual Range (hi/low) 4WD.

Thank you.

They rusted in ways that made Italian cars jealous. 240Zs sat off to the side and said "Dude, I think you have issues."

Also they were slow, like sl-o-o-ow, like you know how people whine about 1.8 Imprezas as being slow? Figure that Loyales were heavier and you needed the Turbo engine to get UP TO almost having EJ18 levels of power (118hp EJ18, ~110hp EA82T) And the turbo engines cracked heads if you looked at 'em funny.

Rust. Leaks. Ugly. Slow.

Other than that, they are just great.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED my GL. Until it literally rusted apart when it was ten years old. I removed some of the seatbelts by pulling gently on them.

Had a great cruise control, too. You put it in 4th gear and bolted the accelerator to the carpet, and it'd get up to 87mph. Put it in 5th gear and it would slow down to maybe 80 or so, I don't know, I never actually used 5th gear except for flat ground or downhill when driving at the actual speed limit. But the turd would get 27mpg no matter how it was driven

I had an 87 rx. it was rusty but fun as hell in the dirt.

one of my friends had a 4 door fwd Loyale about 15 years ago... if she couldn't kill it- she was 17, and took care of her car about as well as any other 17 year old girl- then you probably won't, either.. the only things i really remember about the car was that the spare tire was on the engine, it had a lot of hidden storage compartments, and it would spin about 4500 rpm's at 70mph on the interstate.. also, it was slow..

Sllllll

Lllllooooo

Oooooowwww.

Fuel economy is way lower than you wish it was any time it's not snowing. Pretty tough and generally easy to work on, but I'd rather get a Legacy or Impreza for just a few more bucks.

Don't get one with an auto. Trust me.

Bryce

If it's a fuel injected EA82, it's worth it. I had a carbed EA82 for a while and it was slow, the FI version is much more peppier.

The timing belt was actually much easier to replace than I imagined and they aren't that hard to work on. I like the fact that the spare tire is in the engine compartment.

I would like to find another one some day even if the wife thinks there hideous.

When you say timing belt, aren't we talking belts? I thought it had two.

Yeah it has two little ones. Easiest timing belt job ever though, IMO. I've done them on the side of the road more than once.

Yeah I had to replace the water pump on mine and I was dumbfounded by how easy it was to replace the timing belts. The biggest pain was getting the crank pulley off, but a pry bar, pipe, and a tap of the ignition key took care of that.

Well, that little ride got sold off before I could sell my Camry. Let the impreza/outback sport/legacy wagon hunt begin.