DaveT

EA82s almost always have a hairline crack between the valves. There is a tsb about it, it's normal. Bad overheat cam make a big one that causes coolant leaks. Turbos are at higher risk and more troublesome than spfi and carb.

I've had these ea82 wagons since 1988. Some I got middle aged, one I got when it was 2yrs old. One I got quite old, but we'll cared for low miles. I bought that 87 one because it had no rust, and the beater I was driving was very rusty. The 87 sat in my garage for a few years, until I added 4w, and the beater was too far gone. They all got leaky and needed a reseal around the same time and or miles, whichever came first. The 87 was leaky when I got it, it got worse when I started running it. The newest ea82 out there was made in 94, well over the time for a reseal, regardless of miles or sitting, going by my experience with several of them. Lifter tick tends to be random and vary.

Tod lifter tick is a thin light sounding metallic tick. Rod knock has a much deeper note to it. It's due for a reseal just by years. That's headgaskets up. IncLuding the shaft seal on the oil pump. This usually fixes or dramatically reduces the oIL leaks. The shaft seal usually fixes the lifter tick.

Set aside some cash every month, that is your extended warranty. For most Subarus, miles are not that big of a deal, and lots of people pay a lot of cash for low miles when the car with 150k is still fine. Get one with about 100k on it. Maybe drop a few hundred or so for new timing parts, or extreme case, do a reseal, but then good for another 100k. Be sure to check out threads on here about which engines to avoid and prefer first.

Oh, side note, you'll see more traffic for these kinds of questions on the old gen forum for the 87 wagon, new gen for the impreza

I never saw a discussion about ac swap along with the ej swap. It should be do able. Have to decide if mounting the ea compressor is easier or adapting the lines for the ej compressor. I'm not sure how different the systems are capacity wise, which if they are close it should be ok. Need fsm for both models to compare stuff.

Wow, that's low miles.

The alternator Lasting that long is a fluke. Every one of several I have had wore out a brush around 150k miles. I also have seen regulator and diode failures. Pumping the pedal before cranking doesn't do anything as there is no accelator pump in a throttle body.

Sounds like more than 1 problem. Electrical stuff: Weak battery. Failing alternator. Bad connections. Running poorly stuff: Coolant Temperature Sensor. Idie Air Control valve.

I'd take it apart first. See what's wrong / why it stuck.

Check the cooling system. Gas may be stale. If it's less than half, add a few gallons of new. Sitting outside or in a garage?

It's tough.... my solution to allow me to drive and afford 30 year old daily drivers is to have 2 of them. Do all the work myself. Most of the tine, when one is down with areal problem, I have the other one. Only catch is if I slack off and end up with 2 projects simultaneously. Came close once.

Bad idea to drive it like that.

I looked at my fsm, there are a few indications of differences. I'm not 100 % sure what they do, and I don't have both cars to cross check. Th= fsm is lot better than the after market service books. Someone may have a link to the ecu schematics.

There is also 1 wire on the ecu that tells it what kind of transmission it has, manual or auto.

The stock idlers are press fit. If the 6005 goes together with similar force that the original came apart with, I'd think it would be ok. They could have the 2 bearings very close, or maybe a spacer. Have to measure stuff, etc.

I am not sure about the 6. Ea82s are non interference. Somewhere along the timeline ej2.2 went from non. To interference. In electric motors, the bronze sleeve bearings are typically used when there is no or very little side loading, or low speed. At least where long life is a factor.

They have to spin very fast. Over crankshaft rpm by a little. They have side loading, unlike a pilot bearing. They are 6301. The gear idler is 6203.

That sounds good. One thing I have changed about first run testing is that after the initial run and top off, do one additional cold to hot cycle only idling. Not driving. Easier to catch that run away caused by air pocket getting into the water pump without cooking the brand new headgaskets.

Now that you mentioned it, Kaman was the first place I found I could get bearings with high temperature grease and contact seals to rebuild the idlers on my ea82s. Regular electric motor sealed bearings didn't hold up.

Swap the transmission. Maybe have to reconfigure a couple of wires. People have done it. I know the 3ATs, not so much the stick shifts. Bad knee took me out of them.

It might be worth a try doing this - once it sucks in, top off and close before it bubbles out? I'm close to sea level, don't have experience at altitude, but it could make a difference in the boiling point. If it were bubbling from cold, that's a sign of bad headgaskets.

That is a weird number. I'd try measuring and see if a standard 62xx or 63xx fits at least some of the dimensions.

Staring from cold. Open cap. Fill. Start engine. Level may change. Rev engine a few times. It may draw in some coolant or push out some air. Top off. When the thermostat opens, it may cause some to overflow. It is not normal for it to push out lots of air or coolant during all of this. Opening when hot may cause a gyser effect, if some coolant boils in the block. More chance of this if you are at high altitudes.

The big nut was probably loose. That lets the spline get torn up.