Zorrro

Hey all, I know the clicky valve issue is a dead horse with lots and lots and treads started. I have looked at a few treads and see that most people recommend keeping your oil changed and adding a quart of Marvel mystery oil at one of the change intervals. I have clicky valves when cold on my '87 and it always goes away and sounds just fine after warm-up. I have put 14K on the car and change oil every 3K. The engine runs good and the oil stays clean between changes. I have added additives to engines that were about to die, and they have never improved anything. I will not add additives to this nice solid running engine. So I'm looking through my Chilton's manual under valve adjustment and see that the recommended tolerance in .014". I still drive air-cooled VW's (mostly my sooby lately). My bug has a bad valve seat on one of the cylinders and the valve gets "tight" every 500 miles or so. I'm limping it buy by setting my valve lash at .010" (.006" is factory). I say this because the clicking on my tin covered head on my bug is considerably quieter than my cold clicking Subaru. So am thinking that possibly the valve lash on the Subaru is now more than .014", possibly lots more. It therefore takes a long time for the oiling system to fill-up those "thingy madoos" Subaru uses for lifters between the cam and rockers. Has anyone eliminated the cold engine valve clicking by adjusting their valves to factory specs? It's just a thought. I've had my valve covers off to fix leaks, it looks like a fairly simple task to adjust them (don't know why I haven’t yet?). Thanks, Zorrro:cool:

I have this gas smell in my '87 wagon. EA82, Non-electric Hitachi 2-bbl. After the car sits off for a little while the passenger compartment and the area around the car begin to smell like gas. I have no leaks under the car or on the engine and all evaporative canisters are un-tampered with. I did notice that gas "wicks" out of the top carburetor gasket and into the primary venturi keeping it wet with fuel (when car is off). I'm assuming this is the smell? Has anyone had this happen? Can I just replace the top carb gasket without upsetting a bunch of tender components in an old and well-used carb? Is my float bowl possibly over filled (Car runs fine except for it's usual idle hunting)? The car has no gas smell when engine is running..... Thanks............Zorrro

Tom, "There's also one in the fresh air intake under the wiper cowl on the driver side. Pesky little varmits anyways....." Are you saying there is more outside air intakes than the one behind the dash? If so, I'm looking there! I have a mice problem too. We have a modern full size truck I don't drive, cause of the 11mpg deterent. Anyway the mice moved into that and shredded the insulation on the fire wall. Nuke em!!!!!!!

Hey guys/gals, I thought I replied yesterday but didn't see this in the tread? This is what's going on so far: I have flushed the heater core with vinegar and mouth pressure (Yuck!). I then flushed with water and mouth pressure until all vinegar was gone. It was too cold to get a hose de-iced and I didn't feel like defrosting one in the house. I re-hooked the heater core up, filled and burped the cooling system. I also replaced my broken controls, it is real nice to have buttons that work! I have put a few hundred miles on it and the heat is only slightly improved. Max A/C is the only way I get any "good" heat out of it. Driving is a back and forth effort of driving on max A/C (no outside air) and switching back to defrost when the window fogs and so on. I expect the heater to keep the cock-pit warm in defrost. Every other car seems to do this? At the moment I'm planning a day to dismantle the dash and replace the core (just because I'm there). During that process I will be looking for air leaks and damper problems. At the moment, all the 3 actuators work and seem to direct air where they are supposed to. The heater hoses are hot with one that I can squeeze and maintain a good poker face. The other is too hot to squeeze for very long. The engine temperature does not change when heater is on either. I would expect in this cool weather that the core would provide enough cooling to keep engine at 180F when at idle. It still warms up to cooling fan temp when heater on full and car at idle. As long as your driving a 3mph or so temp stays at 180F. I'm pretty sure the core is not rejecting as it should. Either because of internal scaling or bypassing air. If hoses were cold at the core and warm at the block I would expect a plugged core. If one hose was hot and the other cool I would expect low water flow. If one was hot and the other warm I would expect normal operation and mine both being hot I would expect poor heat transfer. Any input before I devote a day to dash dismantling would be helpful. Thanks, Zorrro

OK! I picked up my new heater control pack at the wrecker today. $25.00 and it was already pulled! I see now (I had no button labels before) that "Max AC" is the only way you are going to close the outside air flap. Once I get that in, I plan on back flushing the core with a hose. It's around 10F, I hope I can find a dry hose? My heater hoses have a nifty fitting just for the garden hose. One of the treads I read mentioned using vinegar to flush the core with. I have some old "apple" flavored stuff I think I'll use. I do not think my fins are plugged or bent as I get very good air flow, just not much heat. Thanks, I'll keep you posted.

Concerning my '87 4wd gl with no a/c: I am on my way to the wreckers tomorrow to get a new heater push-button control as mine is physically broken. It was broken when I got the car. The "covers" are all missing and I just have small clear plastic buttons to push. After trial and error I have found what button does what. Since it's been cold, I don't get the heat I need. I'm used to driving an air cooled VW in the winter (scraping ice off the inside while driving!). So I really feel there actually is a heater problem here. This is what it does: The outside air vent (behind glove box) opens on every setting except vent. For it to close on vent, I have to hold the button while driving, the air is a good kind of warm then. On defrost, feet or mix the outside vent opens and when it's below 30f it just doesn't cut it (Chills!). I have unhooked the outside air vent motor and found without the fresh air it doesn't defrost worth a darn, so I hooked it back-up. The T-stat is new and does maintain 180 F, Core hoses are hot and correctly hooked up, the mixing linkage moves from one extreme to the other. This is the first water cooled car I've ever liked and it's real practical, but I expect more out of the heater. My wife gets to drive the nice newer cars and they will "Melt your face off!" if you let them. Even on the cold days! What's with the Soobie? How can I get the heater to crank? Thanks, Zorrro

My father bought a brand new 4wd Justy in '91. During the test drive he pushed the button doing 50 mph on a very sharp freeway on ramp. That was a bad idea! The car locked up and slid until he managed to click-it again. The salesman said, "That wasn't a good idea........"?

So far things are looking better. This morning I had the chance to run to a house down the street. It almost started the first turn. Came up to a nice idle then died out. On the second turn it started and idled. It ran much better cold no giant flat spots between gears. I had only pumped the gas 2x on the first turn. I think if I would have pumped a few more times it would have came right up. This is a major improvement! The temp was just above freezing with snow on the ground. Yesterday I changed both the timing and did the EGR block-off. I have a gut feeling that most of the improvement came from EGR block-off. When I get a chance to make a few trips to work, we will see the "real" improvement. Just by the feel of the new gas-pedal to loco-motion ratio, mileage should be improved. Please do not get me wrong, I believe in clean air. What I do not believe in is 1980's emmission control systems. Corking and engine off is a lame attemp to improve tailpipe emmissions. I will consider a new EGR valve once I determine mileage has been improved by removing the old (possibly bad) EGR. I will also consider what is more important: better mileage or slightly cleaner emmissions and more gas consumption? Still looking for input..............Z

OK. I hope to still get some response as I've tinkered with the car since the last post. The car has acted this way for the last 6,000 miles (it's entire life with me). The plugs have been changed, timimg was at 5 BTDC I just moved it to 9 BTDC. I have run several fuel system cleaners, entire gas tanks (from empty) and drying agents through the tank in that time with no avail? I have one of the Hitachi carbs with no O2 sensor on the Y-pipe. In my Haynes manual I did not see this set-up. Things under the hood look real factory not all hacked-up. I don't know the history of the car. Things could be missing? I looked for the Engine Control Module above the gas pedal and found nothing. The car is an 87 and my Haynes manual claims that 87's are FI only? I bypassed the EGR with a piece of sheet metal. Idle improved slightly but still hunts around at idle. I checked vacuum with a guage and the dist-vac advances OK. Vacuum was slightly low, just outside the normal marks, when measuring at the manifold. The vacuum at the aux componants like the EGR and the Dist Advance was considerably lower. Is this normal? My goal is to keep things as factory as possible , increase gas milage, make cold starting a turn key operation and improve the idle to 2,500 rpm performance. The car runs great other than the idle problem and gets driven regularly for sport and transport.................Thanks, Z Oh, yeah. I did a compression test lowest was 132 psi and the high was 140psi. I'm happy with these numbers.

This was not entirely correct. after further inspection it does suck. I sucks real loud. Bypassing it doesn't help. I'll leave this alone seems to be doing what it's 'posed to....

I have the same question. Where is the O2 sensor on these carbed cars? I have wanted to check mine, looked all over the exhaust (like FI) and found nothing. I just assumed I had some bad info......Z

Thanks, I'm all over that. It doesn't suck, it blows exhaust into the air-filter area. If I find broken reeds are those available or is it a throw away?

Thanks guys, I changed the oil pump "O-ring" when I did the timming belts (6,000 mi ago). I did not change the shaft seal on the oil pump. Thought I was going to break the pump trying to get the little seal out. I'll try some additive next oil change. The noise only happens about 1 min after start-up and lasts for 2-3 mins after it starts..........Z

When cold: My 1987 (EA82) wagon starts nice and quiet, idles for min, then the vlaves tap really loud for a few mins and all is quiet. Is this normal? It seems to get worse in cold weather.

Question #2: My '87 carbed EA82 has a funny idle. It hunts around and is too low. I turned the idle speed just up just to make it easier to drive. Now that it has turned out to be a good car, I'd like to fix it more better. I have replaced some text-book looking cracked hoses and hosed the entire intake system with starting fluid in search of a leak with no results. The car runs real smooth over 2K RPM but lacks much below that. It is more noticeable on dirt roads and when doing a lot of stopping and starting. It requires some clutch-work, enough to make it smell if your not careful. When off roading it's almost no fun unless you are in low range. I've been getting 21-24 MPG. I removed the egr valve and tested it by sucking where the vacuum hose connects (using my mouth). It seems to open with little effort and close well enough? I've not adjusted any mixture settings on the carb (I suspect no one ever has) and think some part has failed to cause this condition. The auto choke closes completely when cold but still takes 3 tries to start and high idle. The choke opens up when engine has ran a few mins. Any ideas?