scrap487

yeah... well he's had a lot of problems for only 20k... driving habits or his car was made out of all the throw away 2nds...

yes, I'm more interested in the turbo than I am spfi... right now I need to get my car running a little bit better but I am definately interested in what you have to know about a turbo carbed ea81, as I will probably do this before I do any other modification to my soob. trevor

thanks jerry, I will check all of this tomorrow... I'm not quite used to the whole working on my car in near-freezing/subfreezing + windy conditions yet like I should be. also i was thinking the whole vacuum leak/choke problem might be it, but that would affect the whole motor more than likely rather than just the drivers side... so I'm not so sure. ok, so my list of things to do tomorrow on this car so far includes: Check for vacuum leaks(spray bottle with atf on one fitting at a time w/ vacuum tester?) Check for intake manifold leaks(spray carb cleaner around gaskets and if idle improves replace gasket?) Seafoam/oil sludge cleaner(not sure what to use, schucks by my house only carries 1 brand and I've never seen seafoam there before) Check breaker points Check oil pump/gaskets? anything else I should add to my list to check for and/or do so when I go out tomorrow I can pretty much just go out and do a majority of everything I need to do at once? in the last week I have already changed the oil + filters twice, ran mmo through it when I got it, and right after I first changed the oil, new plugs wires distributor cap, cleaned carb(might need more though and/or rebuild...), right now it has 20-50 in it, I will be change to 10-30 next time I change oil(probably a couple days from the looks of things...).

welcome to the board... most frustration saving thing when it comes to crap I dont know(virtually everything...) I cant really give you too much advice... but from what I've read, what causes a lot of noise in these engines can be the HLAs(hydraulic lash adjusters), and the oil pump being really gummed up and/or going bad. I have no idea what compression should be with these motors... my jeep had just under 100 psi and it was in good shape, and my nissan 720 4x4 w/ the z24 currently has 65-74 psi(but it has 320k miles on it). I dont know much about turbos either, but I've read alot on the board about it today, and I believe the fuel injectors are a HUGE bottleneck. oh yeah, the stock oil pressure gauges are notoriously inaccurate in these cars

thanks... I dunno what I'd do without this board I also just talked to a friend, and he said it could possibly be a stuck lifter, or the breaker points are set right... so far my theory is now stuck/gummed up lifters, and probably a gasket leak, since I did have the carb off, and I did reuse the original gasket and spacer, and I realize after I was done I didnt run it enough for it to actually warm up... edit: my oil pressure is kinda low but I was told it was about normal for subes, 30 or so when cold and while driving, and 10-20 at idle when warm

sorry its not fixed, the reversal of the plug wires was a previous problem I had yesterday and tracked down and fixed very quickly... I still have a problem...

OK... update on my problem, drivers side does actually run, and it runs FINE when cold, but when it warms up it loses power and becomes very weak... could this possibly be a compression problem? what should I test for? ... have also had a bad knocking/clicking... ? ugh I'm frustrated and tired and need to get this thing running so I can stop driving my heep

its carbed, and yes it has, I accidently reversed the plug wires on the drivers side when I replaced the plugs wires and disty cap yesterday, it ran like ************, and then when I found out what I did and switched it back it seemed to run fine. edit: also the answer to everything you asked is in my first post

any other suggestions of where/how to start looking? thanks

nice.. will most places take the original ea81 core, even though its differant from the alternator you bought?

check the clutch rump roast'y, check the gear oil, both the level of it and the quality of what comes out, if the oil is murky, speckly, has tiny little metal flakes, appears gray in color or otherwise does not look like normal new gear oil, something is definately wrong. also if there is a bunch of metal shavings on the magnet. As far as driving goes, learn how to double clutch, especially when at higher speeds/rpms, it will save you ALOT of wear and tear on the transmission and clutch. also shifting at high rpms, especially without double clutching, will cause parts to wear much faster.

I removed the plug wires from the drivers side one at a time, no change, put them back on, no change, I even swapped em at the cap just incase they were backwards, no change... the second I moved 1 plug wire away from the cap for the passanger side, the engine would start idling worse, and would die after a lil bit... and it wouldnt even try to start if I tried starting the engine with the passanger side plugs disconnected... ugh i'm frustrated... btw this engine is one TOUGH engine, running as long as it does on one cylinder...

cool... sounds fun

ok so, here is my problem. I have an ea81.. and the drivers side of the engine isnt working... theres spark and I'm pretty sure theres fuel but neither of the 2 cylinders are firing or whatever... both cylinders on the passanger side are working fine. I put new plugs, new wires, new dizzy cap on, and it worked great afterwards. today I had the carb off and didnt take it apart but I did my best to clean all the gunk out of it because it was dieseling a little bit and it hesitating really bad, put it back on after cleaning and everything worked awesome, this was 3-4 hours ago. now I went out to start it up, let it warm just a lil and then drive it out of my driveway, and then it starts idling really bad as I get to the end of my driveway, it revs just fine(I havent had the car long enough to know what it should sound like when nothing is wrong with it tho..). I was thinking maybe um... timing belt or something? and then I searched and I found out ea81s dont have timing belts... does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be wrong and/or how to check/diagnose this? would anyone be willing to come out and take a look at it tomorrow who knows ea81 engines to help me get it running the way it should? it has after all been sitting for at least 5 years, probably more like 9...

depends on what is wrong... might only need a couple syncros, I wouldnt worry about gears unless they are worn and/or have broken teath. if you have to pull stuff off I'd put in some new bearings on whatever you have off, other than that maybe new seals. if your gonna bother replacing most of the guts in the transmission, it'd probably be way more worth your time to just replace the whole unit.

double clutching is what you had to do before syncros were invented. pretty much the theory of it is to get the input shaft spinning at the right speed to get the gears on the output shaft to match the speed of the(forget what its called... think that the shift fork attaches to that locks the gears in with the outputshaft...). double clutching will also make your syncros last quite a bit longer, and slam shifting will tear your transmission up in a couple days(shifting without fulling disengaging clutch, or even disengaging at all). if your driving habits are really nice and easy on the car, something is probably wrong with your clutch thats causing it to not fully disengage, I would check to see if it is adjusted correctly to start off with. anyways, if you dont know how to double clutch, when down shifting, pretty much what you do is you disengage the clutch to bring it out of gear, then engage it when in neutral and then rev the engine so the input shaft is spinning at the right speed, and then with it at the right speed you disengage the clutch and put it in to gear, it should slide right into gear VERY easily, and then engage the clutch and you're good to go. when up shifting its the same, except its not quite as needed as the inputshaft will slow down normally and be closer to the right speed when you put it in gear.

probably not, anything thats gonna fit is probably gonna be something OE and from a dealer or JY. the lights he got are probably fairly large and rectangular and he probably drilled holes in his bumper or something and just bolted them right now. can get a set of semi-decent lights for 15-25$ at harbor frieght or walmart or similar places.... if you go that route, get the bigger ones, the slimmer ones might look better, but they dont put out CRAP for light, regardless of price.

ok, I found the guide for converting carb to spfi on my ea81, but I'm curious if theres any easy bolt on turbo mods that dont take too much work? what parts would I need to find and could I get them from a JY for not too much money? whats the best thing to do to this engine to get more from it? thanks.. carbed 1981 ea81 wagon GL 4x4 manual 4spd d/r... um... brown?

wow thats a neat trick.. thanks I'm gonna remember that next time I replace my clutch.. :-)

yeah I dont drive it in the snow.... I've never had a problem with my cherokees engine, the original tcase took a crap on the beach after I got back from LA, but thats cause the rear seal was trashed and it had been driven dry the whole time down to LA and back before I realized everything else on that pos has fallen apart at least once tho.. cant wait for my subie lift and tires... anyways I'm done hijacking this thread so let me see if I got this right, your sube which is probably 1/4 the weight of that truck, pulled it up a driveway? thats amazing... do it again and get pictures or a video :-D

yeah I love my sube too... I'll drive it in snow for sure, but off road... I'll drive my cheep cherokee(untill it sells...). breakover angle = killer

ok thanks... I'm use to seeing oil pressure on the vehicles I normally drive around 45 idle and 60-70 while driving so 25 kinda made me hesitant to take it around the block.. belt DEFFINATELY needs to be changed, its so brittle and dried out I'm amazed its still on there... I got one other question and I know it could be any number of things, but my fan(for heater/vents) blows really weak, it makes a lot of noise like its actually blowing hard, but hardly any air comes out the defroster and virtually nothing out of floor and dash vents... is there something that typically goes wrong with this in these cars? this is gonna be my daily driver and snow machine and a heater is kinda essential to keep things dry warm and not smelling like wet dog.... thanks guys

I'll try that.. 20-50 is just what i got sitting around by the case, cause my nissan 720 4x4 has 320k on it, and my moms 2wd toyota has 230k...

ok, so heres the whole story. I bought two weeks ago an 81 subaru GL 4x4(4spd manual w/ d/r). it ran, but not very well, figure it wouldnt take too much to get it running good.... ok now, I get home, swap the bad axles out, change the oil and filters twice after running mmo through it first, havent done ignition work other than timing which is OK, I took some carb cleaner to it but it carb could benefit from rebuild(runs rough at start up but when warm no hesitation). now, it runs quite a bit better, but there is still more to be done, and I'm at a loss of what all I should do and in what order. when it starts up cold, the highest the oil pressure gets is about 40psi according to the guage, and then when it warms up it sits around 10psi at idle and goes to 15-25psi when loaded, is this acceptable? the oil that was in the engine originally for the last 5-9 years, while on the dipstick looked GOOD, tho the viscosity was totally gone, but when I drained it out, it was dark black watery sludge. right now it has 20-50 in it. what kinds of signs should I listen/watch for from the engine if its not getting enough oil or anything? it sounds like a rod bearing is trashed on the drivers side sometimes, really REALLY loud clacking/clicking sound, but i've read that this could be the HLAs when they dont get enough oil, or are worn out. I'm guessing its probably not getting enough oil. I was thinking maybe I should take the oil pan and valve covers off and clean everything up good and replace some of the easier to get to gaskest? but really I'm at a total loss of 'knowing' what should be done regardless, and I'm really handy with a wrench, but I lack a lot of knowledge.

I'm not sure how to answer you're problem, because I honestly dont know, but it makes it a LOT easier to read and understand your post if you Don't Capitalize Every Friggin' Word Cause It Makes It Damn Hard To Read ITS EASIER TO READ ALL CAPS or all lower case with good grammer. Thanks!