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EA81 valve adjustment issues


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ive been fighting my engine for nearly a week now. problem after problem, fix after fix, and my latest issue is valve adjustment. on the passenger side i got them adjusted as per HTKYSA: .010 on intake valves and .014 on exhaust valves. they all had to be run back pretty far to get the cleaeance to open enough. but on the drivers side i could only adjust the from intake valve to the proper clearance and just barely at that. had to turn it out all the way till the pushrod cup was about hitting the rocker arm. the other three i couldnt even get any clearance with the cups firmly against the rocker arms. anyone know of what could cause my valve clearance issue? car souns like im only running on 2 cylinders. engine is an 84-85 ish i believe with hydrolic lifters. not sure the year cuz its not original to the car.

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I think the adjustment specs your using are for a solid lifter engine. The hydro motors have little lock tabs for the nuts and the push rods look very different. What you are describing makes me think your not getting the cyls in their firing positions. Take the plugs out and make sure the cyl is all the way up/out on the compression stroke, use a pen or a screwdriver if needed. Confirm the rotor is in firing position for the cyl to be adjusted.

Edited by ihscout54
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one method mentioned in the HTKYSA is to mark where each spark plug wire comes out of the disty on the side, and hand spin the engine till the rotor botton is at a mark. each one is roughly TDC for its corresponding cylinder. does exact TDC matter for valve adjstments? i would think it only has to be somewhere within the compression/ignition strokes when both valves are fully closed.

edit: so upon reading a bit deeper it did say to not gap hydraulic. so now how do i adjust them back? or do i just put the adjustment somewhere in the middle and let the hydrolic lifters do the work?

Edited by zmarrott
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The cam lobes leave more than 1/2 of the rotation where there is no lift, so being dead on TDC shouldn't be an issue for closing.  Just turn a bit past when both valves are closed.  That's what I did with my 1976 when I adjusted the rockers.

 

I never had one with hydraulic lifters and adjusters.  Theoretically, just roughly back where they were should be ok.

 

It seems odd to me that you could not get both sides to be similar, even using an incorrect procedure.

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If it ran good before chances are you are still fine and you just adjusted it incorrectly.  I am not looking at the HTKYSA manual right now but there should be a writeup in there about how to adjust hydraulic lifters.  If not....im going to tell you how its done on small block chevy and make a educated guess that its the same principle for a subaru (double check this before continuing however!).  On a sbc you set the valves so they are both closed (TDC) and then you turn the adjusting nut until there is no play in the pushrod.  At that point go 1/4 turn past that and lock it down.  Move onto the other valves doing the same procedure.  

 

Your car is probably running like poo because the valves are not opening all the way.  

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I had the same problem about 20 years ago when I first got my Brat. I changed head gasket to get it running and adjusted the valves and it would not run right. I went back to the manual and all it says is DO NOT ADJUST and it does not give a procedure it you move them. Even the Subaru dealer had no idea what to do except to set each cylinder at TDC adjust the valve till the pushrod drags then 3/4 of a turn further and lock it back down.

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while my engine is a mutt, it does still have the do not adjust stickers. i figured it being 30 years old might give reason to adjust. unfortunately though ive reach a point where i have to financially give up for now. im leaving the car to my friend who is 60 miles away while i catch a bus home 1400 miles away

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while my engine is a mutt, it does still have the do not adjust stickers. i figured it being 30 years old might give reason to adjust. unfortunately though ive reach a point where i have to financially give up for now. im leaving the car to my friend who is 60 miles away while i catch a bus home 1400 miles away

 

Well, that sucks.  Good luck!

 

Emily

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yep. really hate leaving my car. if i could i would pull the engine and rebuild it. ill get it from my friend sometime in the future after im back on my feet. in the mean time ill get my other two subies brought to my home state. gotta put some tlc into my brat and other gl

Edited by zmarrott
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1 and  2 should be easy, set them with TDC mark on flywheel. The other two you need to watch the rocker action as you turn over in engine rotation direction, and mark flywheel with some white out or corrector and return to same mark for second of the 3 and 4 pots. Most hydraulic lifters are adjusted on other engines by using fingers to rotate the rockers push rod as tightening and when tightness grips on pushrod to restrict it turning in n fingers nicely, back off 1/4 to half a turn on rocker adjuster. This obviously has to be on a cold engine coz you cant run it and may have to repeat on warmed up engine once you get it going and lifters pumped up. If lifters bled out while you did the gaskets they should sort themselves out once oil pressure gets in and up.

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  • 1 year later...

PM me an email address and I'll send what I have on the procedure.

hello, would you mind posting the procedure for adjusting the hydraulic lifters? I had my engine rebuilt (EA81 1800GL, 1984) and since it's been rebuilt, the valves make noises...

thanks for your help

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