markjw

I've been able to get motors that have been starved for oil to run pretty good again without any work at all to the engine. Usually they will smoke a bit,but occasionally they won't be completly ruined. Of course,that knocking thing ain't good,either. Maybe the knocking is the oil pump? And not a main bearing? Maybe? I'm not trying to give you some false hope,but If it were me,I'd be trying to get the motor to run and I'd find out exactly what the knocking is. There is certainly more than one motor running around that had previously been run dry of oil.

Yeah,that motor is more than likely damaged,but have you been able to drive the car around with the correct amount of lube oil in the engine? Do you have a oil pressure guage? What's it telling you?

Wow..All the sudden a broken timing belt and bent valve stems would have been Good news.

The "U-Pull-it" here charges $150 for any long block in the yard.Un tested,no warranty. The other yard I go to sells long blocks,too. Tested,to some degree,already pulled,30 day warranty. $350 and up.

Sawsall the core support out of the way,pull them together.

Couldn't have been more than 3 minutes,total from the time we started the car till our bucket had 2 gallons of old fluid in it. As far as the actual pressure,I can only say that out of a 3/8" I/D hose,it was squirting a stream about two feet out if held level like a garden hose. Very manageable.

I know lots of folks use the pump method in one form or another. I read a ton of threads about tranny fluid drain and fill. In fact,I got the idea to use the tranny pump here,on the board. But,there is little written about what actually happens when you turn the engine on. My first attempt at simply sucking the new fluid into the transmission with an extended,lower return hose,came from the board,here.But,this doesn't work. There is no "suction" in the lower hose. Only pressure in the top hose. I have no idea why the transition from pumping old fluid to pumping fresh fluid was interupted with air sputtering,but,it didn't seem like a problem. It was obviously a indicator that it was time to stop the engine and finish off the fill with all the hoses connected properly to the radiator. And,there was nearly 8 qts. of old fluid in the catch container when the sputtering started. I'm wondering why the drain,fill,drive around,drain,fill,drive around,drain fill method is the recommended process when this way seems so easy and thorough.

And,drive around and refill and drive around and refill and so on and so on. No thanks. In the end,your tranny still has old fluid in it. This worked slick. When the flow of old fluid started to sputter air,the level in the catch container was just below the 2 gal. mark. And,we had managed to add about a gallon and a half of fresh fluid at that point. The tranny,I believe,never had a dangerously low amount of fluid in it. From start to finish with the business of pumping old fluid and adding new with the car running took no more than 3 minutes. Here's a pic of the stuff I used. The bucket I found was already calibrated in 1 ounce increments up to 3 gal. I just hi-lighted with a sharpie to see better. The plan was to make sure we didn't drain more than we were able to add. Easily done with a clearly marked catch container. If we were not able to keep up,we were gonna shut the car off. We never had to. I'm sure this has been done before,but I searched and searched the archives and couldn't find a thread that outlined the scarry part. Draining and adding at the same time. The hose is 3/8"..fits perfect. Also,the Subaru dealer quoted me $170 to flush the tranny. I managed to do this for about $45 in fluid and $6 in stuff. And,I know my tranny has new fluid in it and,nothing got messed up. Peace of mind is Priceless.

I changed the transmission fluid on my "new to me" 1991 Legacy wagon. AWD,auto. I just wanted to share a couple things here. I was at first gonna do the drain,fill,drain,fill method. But,I wanted to try something diffrent. So,I went and bought two 5 foot lenghts of clear,3/8" tubing. I attached one piece of hose to the botton nipple on the Radiator tranny fluid cooling tank and,I attached the other piece of hose,by way of a short piece of copper tube,to the return hose that I pulled off the lower nipple. The hose coming off the radiator nipple was pointed into a large catch container. The hose attached to the return line was dunked into a new, very clean 3 gal. bucket filled with 8 qts. of fresh tranny fluid. The idea was to start the car and let the old fluid pump out of the lower nipple on the cooling tank into the catch container,and the fresh fluid would be sucked into the tranny by the return line. Well,it didn't work. The old fluid pumped out fine,but the fresh fluid wasn't being sucked in.Not at all. So,apparently,the tranny pump only pushes fluid into the top of the cooling tank, down thru the tank and continues to push the fluid into the return line and back into the tranny. There is no suction at all. We realized this instantly,thanks to the clear tubing,and shut it down. So,at this point,we just poured the fresh fluid into the dip stick hole,thru a long,narrow funnel,all while running the engine and pumping the old fluid into the catch container. It worked very well. Here's the interesting part.When the old fluid was done pumping out,the hose started to sputter air instead of fluid. We let this go on for a few seconds,then the tranny fluid started pumping out again,and, it was now pumping the fresh fluid.So,we shut it down. We button'd all the hoses up,and ran the car for a few minutes,letting things settle out.In the end,we had to top off with another quart and a half to reach full/hot on the stick. To summarize,If I was to do this again,I'd simply attach one lenght of 3/8" clear tube to the lower nipple,point that at a catch container,and, while running the car,pour fresh fluid into the dipstick hole until the solid stream of old fluid sputterd air. Re attach the lower return line to the nipple and top it off the correct way. Simple.

I don't think the u joints are made to be replaced. Seems like your supposed to find another whole,good driveline.

I just went through alot of what your going through. My problem ended up being bad head gasket's. I replaced them both and now my car is running fine. The most troubling symptom I was having was bubbles in the coolant reservoir tank. I was having intermittent hot/cold air from the heater blower,I was having random temp gauge spikes, I was also finding the reservoir tank fill completely up with coolant after a drive. And,I was having the lower radiator hose ice cold compared to the upper hose after a 5 or 10 mile drive. The one thing that was always constant was the bubbles in the reservoir tank. I tried 3 or 4 thermostates and a few diffrent radiator caps. I also changed the water pump out and burped the cooling system several times. Nothing would make the bubbles stop. Until now,now that I have replaced the HG'd,there are no bubbles and the lower radiator hose is luke warm at running temp. From my research,I found that combustion gasses may collect on the engine side of the thermostat causing it not to open. Apparently,the top side/engine side of the thermostat needs to be immersed in hot coolant,void of air and gasses to function properly. Also,this collecting of gasses on the top of the thermostat was what was causing my heater blower to randomly go Ice cold. I would suggest you go back to the dealer where you had your work done and have them do the hydrocarbon or whatever test they may perform to determine the problem.

The weber on my old ea81 would freeze up on me this time of year. It'd run like crap until I pulled over,let it thaw for a few minutes and it'd run fine again. It seemed like it would do that in valleys where the air was damp. Foggy ares were worse. I could actually see the frost on the carb if I got out fast enough and pop the hood. I never fixed the problem,I just dealt with it. It really only happend if the weather conditions were just right. But,the temp air outside did Not have to be anywhere near freezing. Just a thought.

It all went well. My brother in law stopped by at the perfect time to help me get the heads into place. It woulda been a real hassle without him there to manipulate the head bolts and stuff while trying to get the heads on the block. If the frame rails were another quarter inch closer together,I dont think a guy could do this job without pulling the engine. It's a really tight fit. I've put bout 30 miles on it so far. I see no bubbles in the reservoir tank,and the heater blower isn't going cold anymore. But,the engine seems to run a little too hot,still. I don't have a real temp gauge,or a lazer heat gun,but the needle on the dash stays rock solid at a little less than half. It gets there quick,and doesn't move up or down until I turn the car off. I'm thinking about getting a new radiator,but I'm wondering what everybody else's temp guage reads under normal operationg temp? Also,I just have plain H2o in there right now.Maybe when I add the coolant,it'l run a little cooler. 1992 leg. ej22

On the power steering issue,make sure the belt isn't loose/slipping.

I checked out they're website,Bob...I'll have to stop by there when I get up to Tacoma. Thanks for the tip. I can't get OEM intake gaskets till the end of next week. I can't wait that long 'cause I'll forget how to put the motor back together.So, I bought these over at Schucks. They are better quality than I expected. They are some kinda multi layer metal gasket. Should I spray the copper on them,or install them dry? What do you think?

The filter is forward of the rear,passenfer tire about 10 inchs. Inboard about 8 inch's. There,you will find a triangular plate secured with three 10mm bolts. On the plate will be the fuel pump and a filter. Also a filter in the engine room by the firewall.Drivers side.

I was hoping someone was gonna say that. I'll eventually get a oem rad cap,but I really don't wanna pull the intake off after I wrap this up. Wow! Much more involved than the ea's I have been working on. But,I like the fact there is no water passage in the intake. About those head bolts. Are we positive we can re-use them? I have done HG on other vehicle's where the general consensus was to Not re-use stretch bolts.

I took the heads to the machine shop today. They'll be ready on Friday. I went to the Subaru dealer,too. That didn't go so well. I could only get the Headgaskets, thermostat and exhaust gaskets. The intake gaskets are a week out. So is the radiator cap. I can't wait that long. I'm going to have to go with whatever NAPA can get.

Well,my cylinders don't look that bad. I can't detect the carbon ring. I know what it is,I've seen it before,just not showing well in these cylinders. At least I can't see them. I know that the subject of assessing head gaskets is a much debated subject,but I wanted to post a couple pic's,anyway. The lower portion of both HG's,around the water jackets are in Very bad shape,especially on the 2&4 side. If I had to guess,I'd say the gas intrusion is at the dark spot,on the metal ring,in the first pic. There are some dark areas within the cyl..They run lenght wise within the cyl. wall. (Pic #2) They are as smooth as the surrounding area,but I don't recall ever seeing them before in other cylinders. Any one have any ideas about them? Heat spots,maybe?

Hmmm....Nice place. I love the color of the Sedan.

Thanks,man...Good stuff. I have seen the carbon line you are talking about,but I had no idea of the significance of it. It makes sense that an uneven line or fading line would suggest ring damage. I intend to replace the radiator and the thermostat,too.

It's not using any coolant,but the expansion tank is showing a constant stream of bubbles after it warms up. I have burped it so many times now (following the recomended ways of the USMB archives) I lost count.All done on ramps. I have replaced the thermostat with three or four othere's with the same overheating results and I have tried three diffrent rad caps,all with the same pressurized,overheating,cooling system results. Initally,I replaced the failed water pump with a new one,and a new timing belt,so I think that part is Ok. I don't want to overheat the thing anymore.Really at this point,I've decided I'm going to re-seal the motor no mater what. I'm going to use this ride to get me to work and back. 240 miles,round trip.So,I need it to be reliable. I'll do the comp. test before I tear it down,but I wanna get some of the "stuff" out of the way. I'm kind of double posting here.I went over alot of this in my timing belt thread. My apologise. So,what I'm wondering,is this motor worth re-sealing with all the overheating that's been going on,or,should I find another? From what I've read,they are pretty resilient motor's.

I've been messing around with this '91 legacy wagon for a few days. It had a failed water pump when I got it.And,the PO said she defenitaly overheated it.To what extent,i don't really know. After repairs,I have driven it about 150 miles,mixed driving,and have overheated it twice.Both times the needle didn't reach the red,but got close,and I was able to turn the car off within seconds of the temp spikes. So,at this point,I am going to replace both HG's and all related cooling components with OEM stuff. I'll take the heads in for pressure testing and flattening. My question is,with this much overheating,might there now be other problems that a standard,quality HG job won't fix? Are there other things to consider,aside from normal HG work, now that the car has been overheated a few times?

That's the Same special tool I use. It works everytime.

$400...The CL ad started off at $600.By the time I got around to making a offer,she Really wanted it out of the school parking lot. She didn't even flinch at $400. Thats a heck of a thing trying to sell a broken car to a stranger from the place where it broke down. Doesn't really give the seller much negotiating leverage. I don't think I took advantage of her. By the time I'm done with the HG's and all the running around associated with that,I'll be into it for about $800 plus my time/labor.