daeron

just for the closure, the misunderstanding was mine, when I ordered the part. I could not (and still have not) find the metal reinforced O ring on the parts break down and I ordered the one I got... :-\ I wound up just using a regular O ring in its place. Yes, it was that rust bucket and that was the philosophy I followed.. Had I still had my internet access, I would have taken you up on your offer [hti] johnson.. but I coped for more info on my HG job, see my thread with the subject about the dirty rocker covers

I just managed to get the first half of that printed out to go with the printout of the second half. All hole-punched and set up in a binder.

I was looking at my SPFI NA cylinder heads while I had my engine apart, and it seemed to me that you could likely do a bit of cutting in the combustion chamber, maybe open the side away from the spark plug up a little bit into a kidney shape.. this would have two effects, the first being to increase combustion chamber size and lower compression to 8.x, and also it could be done in a careful manner to increase the quench design inherent in the head... which in turn allows for you to run less ignition advance without pinging, and give more power. I couldn't tell how much could safely be ground away, because I left my valves in and just had the heads decked 0.005 to get them flat.. BUT it seemed like a REALLY viable idea for the entire high comp turbo route...

well, let's see if i can cut through some confusion... If you have an 85 turbo that you want to try the newer tranny in, it should bolt right in. the only situation where it is much more complex than that is when the 4EAT is being installed into an earlier (pre 88?) vehicle; the trans tunnel was enlarged at some point sepcifically to be able to fit the 4EAT. The EJ swap is an engine swap. Nothing short and sweet about it, you are looking at custom wiring, FAR from a plug and play procedure. it is a relatively SIMPLE engine swap, but it is an engine swap, not upgrading your lightbulbs It requires a transmission adapter plate, some sort of crossmember work, the EJ's computer and wiring harness, and retrofitting all of that into your chassis. (never done it, but I have read alot about it) If you already have a turbo car, and the intake manifolds on the two turbo engines are the same, the rest of the stuff should be directly swappable as well. Hope this helps clear some things up

Pimpmobile FTW!!!

Okay, well, I am back from not having an internet connection.... AND I have achieved my headgasket change with minimal complications. I brought my camera with me the whole time, and took in excess of 200 photographs over th course of the entire process (including duplicate shots trying different angles and lighting.) I spent one day up at the shop tearing her apart, another day I did a little cleaning and decided that since I could get it done for free, I wanted to mill the heads. They each had a slight high spot in between the combustion chambers, and needed 0.005" taken off both. The head on the GOOD side had one worrisome crack between the valves, but it still narrowly passed the fingernail check. The other combustion chambers did have small cracks between the valves, with the most significant being the other chamber on the "good" side. Unfortunately, the day I went up and assembled everything, I totally blanked on grabbing my camera. I WAS planning on writing up the entire process as "How to change the headgaskets without pulling the engine for the compleat idiot" but since I neglected to bring the camera for the most important stage, I am unsure. I even got about ten minutes of (silent) video of my buddy milling the heads.. I put everything together in one day's work session, got it to a point with no radiator or drivebelts, and tried starting it. She fired right up on the first shot, as soon as i touched the gas pedal with my foot.. I was tickled pink. I literally let out a guttural scream of victory Reinstalling the ditributor was a little tricky, as it had previously been clocked 90 degrees off.. when I lined the engine up, lined the disty up, and dropped it in, it was pointing at the #3 spark plug on the cap rather than the #1.... I spent about thirty minutes making sure I was doing the right thing, and changed all my sprak plug wires to correspond.. When I installed the wires, they ALL fit MUCH better than they had previously, so I was confident I had done the right thing. I am still uncertain as to whether I still have my odd cold running issue that was causing my problem.. The night I put it together I couldn't fiddle with the timing because I forgot the exhaust manifold gaskets, I had no timing light so I would have had to do it by ear, and it was too late to make that much noise. The only problem I encountered during the ENTIRE disassembly was on each side, one exhaust stud pulled out with the nut instead of the nut unscrewing from the stud. EVERYthing else came apart wonderfully easy, and I labeled it all well enough that it was a breeze to reassemble. I had some old sheet-feed printer labels and a colored set of sharpie markers that helped with that :cool: I used ultra copper RTV for the cam case to cylinder head seal, I hope that was a good choice... Another odd thing, as I was re assembling, I suddenly noticed that the bloody intake manifold sits on the engine TOTALLY crooked.. Then I looked closer, and realized an entire cylinder bank was slighty further forward than the other. In retrospect, I suppose a flat engine HAS to be laid out like that, but it hadn't occurred to me before. *DUH* (we really need a "slap on the forehead" smiley) As you may have guessed from the subject line, my engine was COVERED in oil and gunk... it was disgusting. I cleaned a TON of sand and oil off of the shortblock while everything was out, and hot-tanking the cylinder heads REALLY made them shine. I only got a few fotos of the heads after being milled and cleaned though, the machine shop was dim and I was waiting until the next day (when the camera was forgotten) to get shots in the sunlight, and under the low fluorescents at my shop where I knew I could get good light and not need the flash. I also managed to get photographs of the turbochargers that we have in storage, as well as a bunch of first gen headlight bucket setups, a small hitachi 2 bbl carb, some seatbelts, some first gen radiators, an older gen gauge pod, and one passenger side XT power sideview mirror.. I think a few other things too.. ALL of this is NOS, NIB subaru stuff that we need to move. I will be posting in the classifieds about all that soon.. it is GREAT merchandise in perfect (i mean perfect) condition, so I want to get decent prices on it.... BUT selling it is as important as making much money off of it. Oh yah, while I am at it.. I ditched the front timing belt covers a LONG time ago. While I was putting the car back together, I neglected to install the rear timing belt covers... is that a problem???? (bear in mind that by losing my front covers I have staked my own position on the entire timing belt cover debate... ) ONE of the belts (the driver side) lost it's sticker indicating direction of travel, so I am unsure that it went on right.. Plus, they got taken off after 40K and re installed, so in MY mind, my timing belts are now a potential failure point. I want to keep my eyes on them. The cam case O rings I was so stressed out over I simply replaced with proper sized O rings... the ones in my engine were not metal reinforced, and one WAS kinked in a little.. again, on the "GOOD" head. I also discovered that one of the bolts holding the front cam cover (I can't remember what its actually called, the front retainer for the camshaft underneath the pulley) was missing on the "good" side too. The headgaskets themselves didn't REALLY look all that bad, but since I showed the compression differential that I had, with such a crack in the "good" head, I am not too concerned. I never did get around to a leak down test, though... by the time I actually got to working on the car I was far too impatient to let anything get in my way. Time shall tell if I regret that impatience.... but the bubbling into the radiator overflow has stopped. That tells me that the gaskets were needed in any case. Anybody considering doing this job, should. The ratcheting 10mm box wrench is DEFINITELY a must-have to do it in the engine, though... without that, and an air ratchet to spin the head bolts in and out to clean the threads, this job would have taken about three hours longer than it did. I mean that. Thank GOD for harbor freight, right???? The craftsman wrneches are absurdly expensive, even though they ARE really nice. Anyhow, if you have the tools, and you are thinking about trying to do this, chances are it is well within your scope. I will update the thread with some fotos.. how do I attach them as thumbnails, so I can just post like 20 or so without making everyone wait for them all to load? Yah, this was a book of a post... but i've been without internet for this entire process. I know you have missed me :-p

well as I had been araid, Ma Bell cut my DSL off.. so My 'net access is very limited. I might want to take someone up on the offer of mailing me two of the seals; I may also be able to source a seal like that through an old work connection. It is beginning to sound as if I should simply start tearing the car apart and see what I can do to improvise. This is not a full reseal anyhow, if it needs replacement sooner than it could, So It Goes. Thanks for all the help.

A few drops out of a bottle of southern comfort (nothing serious, alcohol isnt one of my better friends) and this post encouraged me to come VERY VERY close to laughing out loud... thanks for the perspective connie, and it couldnt have come from a better source. I know you can easily cope with what you've got on your plate; but I also know what that plate looks like.. and I am about in the same boat. that little support there came at just about the right time, thanks a million As I said, I needed to vent it somewhere, and screaming angrily into a pillow at "another stone on the back" wasn't cutting it; so I hollered and screamed while I was making my requisite posts here.. It helped add the urgency I wanted, and I appreciate everyone responding to that with information and help, and not reacting negatively to my negativity. (can you tell i am trying to master a couple of mad mental habits here?) okay, headshrinker mode off. So.. I am gonna go look for a diagram, but thats gonna take a moment. I guess ordering them first thing tomorrow is as good as last thing this afternoon, anyhow. im looking at some stuff, but I also have to meet a friend very soon here. Will post update within an hour or two.

Brutal honesty, I don't know. the best diagram I have seen thus far was the one on 1stsubaruparts.com from which I ordered the d@mn seals, and apparently that steered me wrong enough...... is he talking about what I am talking about? longevity be d@mned, if an O ring will work (Even for 10K miles, even MAYBE for that long) I am putting an O ring in there.

thats why i ordered from 1stsubaruparts.com, and even called them to attempt to confirm that this was the right part i was ordering.... apparently, i should have gone with the parts bin... but someone had called them into question, and the bit i got at the other place was a little cheaper anyhow, so i figured why not. Looks like I get to f#$%#$%^ing wait for another week or so, and spend my last couple bucks on f#$%&%#$%@ more parts... thanks for the help, whatever good its done....

well apologies for the venting but i gotta do it somewhere im basically f#cked... i cant fix this car because its gonna take over a week and the last couple dollars i have i got no family to turn to, theyre as broke as me ive been outta work now for just over a week i am f@#$^$%king screwed blued and tattood. nevermind the fact that my insurance lapsed last night. @#&^@$#%^@#%^$%&^@!#$%@$^&@#$%#$&

hells bells and cockleshells!!!! WTF can I do, I cant wait for this, and my local dealers are telling me its an obsolete part!!! Seriously, Ive got $30 bux left and nowhere to friggin turn!!!! I even talked with the people oin the telephone at 1stsubaruparts to make sure I was getting the "cam case O-rings" I am SERIOUSLY not happy, this is NOT going to mean good things. ANY CHANCE i can improvise this friggin thing???? words fail me, my lords. nothing I could possibly say could ever express the depths of my feelings in this matter.

Is that what a cam case o-ring is supposed to look like??? it doesnt look like a metal reinforced O ring to me...... after only a week and a half waiting for it, and TOTALLY not looking for a job due to the combination of an unreliable vehicle, and knowing I needed at least two days to do this... I simply can NOT afford for this to be the wrong part, period.. the LAST thing I can afford to do is take my car apart to discover that. can anyone give me a quick answer???

suggestion: get ahold of a $10 campbell hausfeld 12v air pump from wal mart. Properly inflated tires ensure maximum fuel mileage, and the pump will go with you everywhere.

you might want to try backflushing the heater core first.. I am not sure which hoses are which, but take the supply and return hoses off, clamp a short (~10 ft) length of garden hose on one, and hook a hose with water pressure up to the other, blast it out, reverse hose positions, blast it out again.. just be careful as you turn the water on/un pinch the hose, and do it gradually. you don't want to hammer the heater core with all that water pressure at once. From what I hear, this can clear a LOT of crud out of the system. If you run a radiator/block flush solution before you do this, it should work that much better. Just a thought.

Hmmm... you've seen my rust, Gloyale, havent you? mine is an 87... that got ziebarted, and still wound up that bad... 'twere also the first year for the green digidash. Interesting thought, you never know which of these "sooberstitions" might hold water until you subject them to analysis by the community at large, and then we can start gathering real data...

Whirring is not good, but play in the bearing is worse. Whirring, it depends how bad it whirrs.... and thats nothing that I can really help you with over the internet.. can you "feel" the whirring noise with the finger youre holding the bearing with? it is possible that your bearing could give you a lot more service before finally going or it might blow any time.. hard to tell, sorry. Many of us simply pick up a spare belt tensioner and keep it in our trunks. You might just want to wash the bearing out with some WD-40, and lube it up really well with some grease (I mean PACK it in there, spin it to distribute it around the balls and races, and then pack some more) and possibly adopt the same policy.. BUT the bearings are cheap. shouldn't set you back ten bucks. and most bearing places will have it, thats what they are there for.

I went through three or four different junkyard radiator caps before I finally got around to buying a stant vented radiator cap, rated at the proper pressure (i think it was 13.7 pounds but its been a while since I checked.) I jiggled the living hell outta the CTS connections, (and associated wiring, up to where it goes into the wiring harness [like six inches]) and they look like brand new (if only the rest of the car were so corrosion-free!) thanks for the differential diagnoses, parts are due at my door any minute now (online package tracking is cool :cool:) I plan on testing all my FI compoenets etc as I tear things apart, just to help avoid the possibility of putting it all back together and getting a no start. I may be losing my internet connection; IF that happens, or if I have troubles while at the shop (no PC) I may end up having family members use my username here to post questions. Please be patient with them, as they are not as well versed in this car as I am :-p rest assured that whoever you are talking to does know about cars. (I have read some of my dad's posts in the Zcar forums.. he can come off totally ignorant sometimes, but seriously, the old man knows whats up )

DUDE youre the bomb. Thanks!!! any chance of a photo? this is a quick paintbrush sketch of the two different bulbs.. the one, A, is the one needed for the trip computer display, and the other, B, is the standard in dash illumination bulb common to other vehicles.. (at least, there is a good selection of them on the shelf at Pep Boys) Bulb B has a solid extension of the glass down into a base, and one end of the filament is bent up along either flattened side of it; Bulb A just has two wires sticking out that get wrapped into a little plastic button thingy. I put all this here for future reference, as much to make sure you and I are talking about the same thing beataru :-p thanks again!

The above file holds ALOT of fidelity when it comes to the sound of the exhaust note.. with that glasspack, it sounds very close to what it sounds like unmuffled (ie straight pipes) but from what numbchux says its a tad quieter.. but especially at the beginning of that one, you can hear the nice, deep resonance along with an even note across the scale.. these engines sound like baby lions purring and growling

ROFL good thing it was night time, and you cant see all the foul nasty-assed discoloration and plastic oxidation thats going on around that thing.... my car needs to be crushed in a bad way. I hate to say it, but some of you out there have had old dogs, haven't you? I almost feel bad doing the headgaskets on it, because the chassis is SOO terminal with the cancer.. but opefully one day I will have another soob, and it will be worth it to have the spare engine and all the GL-10 computer & cruise control goodies :grin: I can build my own GL-5!

I've done my best to keep my eyes peeled on what other people experience with their motor oils, and you are among the first I can recall to say bad things about castrol GTX... BUT oils change, and I suppose they may well be different down under. If anyone else has anything bad to say about castrol GTX, air it out! I had always considered this one of the better conventional oil brands out there.

have you *tested* the cts at all? I may have asked or prompted you about this (I know I have emailed at least two board members on the subject in the last week or two) and if so I apologize.. but I have a 1 page .pdf file that is out of the FSM I could email you, that lays down a procedure for checking the TPS for proper function, and proper calibration. The TPS is basically like a volume knob attached directly to the throttle plate. Testing is simply connecting a multimeter set to read resistance to the right pair of pins, and slowly pushing the throttle from zero throttle to WOT, and watching for a smooth, gradual increase of resistance to correspond with that. The CTS is not *incredibly* failure prone, but it DOES happen probably as often as an actual failure of the MAF. DEFINITELY worth testing; something like the CTS is FAR more likely to have a bad connector than a bad component, hence just cleaning those contacts.. but sometimes, the TPS is bad, and wiggling won't help diddly... as for a tick coming from the TB... this is an RX, so is it turbo? if it is an SPFI car, then don't forget that the TB is where the injector is BUT if not, take a large screwdriver, stick one end in your ear, and touch the other end to the engine in the vicinity you are hearing your tick. Move it around to locate it precisely, and that will help you figure out what it is. good luck!

Nice setup, man! good to see somebody willing to spend the money on all that tech for the soobie. sounds like keeping the engine well bathed in fuel might help avoid any potential turbo engine longevity issues. Thats normally the case you are running stock CR for the ea82T, though, right? for some reason I had falsely fallen under the impression that you were building a high comp turbo.. And extra congratulations paying for (and building, for that matter) ALL OF THAT while working and going to school!!!! *I* couldn't pull all that off by a long shot.

SI!! necessitamos las fotos, por favor!!! (sorry, that was my first reaction when I saw the thread, and I figured that I would do it for loyale 2.7 turbo's sake :-p)