Snowman

Oh, my bad.... I guess the best of my knowledge wasn't that great after all:rolleyes: .

Yeah, ditto on being very careful with that oil pump removal. I busted one last summer when it jammed in there while I was attempting to pry it out.

That looks like way too much fun! I am so jealous!

To answer your question Erik, these are dry sleeve (also known as parent bore) engines. All automotive engines, to the best of my knowledge, are dry sleeve. This is where the sleeve itself never touches the coolant, as the water is sealed in the block. The sleeve is also permanently (well, until it's machined out) in the block. Wet sleeves are used in HD diesel engines. They can actually be removed from the engine block with a puller, and the coolant circulates around the sleeve in a cavity inside the block rather than through coolant passages in the block. These are especially advantageous because they can simply be replaced during a rebuild rather than performing extensive machine work on the block.

He he, that's a bit of a problem in AK where we don't have ANY good yards. Also, since aside from two cities that do I.M., there are no inspections here, cars don't end up in yards until they are absolutely worthless (you should see some of the stuff running around up here, it's hilarious). I'd be better off putting it together with the old rings and bearings than trying to find a motor for it at the nearest junkyard, which is 750 miles away.

CV axle, at least for the front, as the rear can run without axles. It'll be 2wd, but at least you can go somewhere. Also carry a set of spare front wheel bearings and seals. These things necessitate bringing a 36mm socket and a large drift punch. I also highly recommend finding a piece of aluminum pipe a couple feet long that is the same size as the inner race on the wheel bearings. This is helpful in getting the axle back through the bearings (just tap on the pipe rather than the hub, which avoids putting that shock load on the bearings), and doubles as a cheater bar with the added bonus of being really light. Take a BFH with you. You never know when this will come in handy and if you don't have one, you'll need it for sure. Also, bailing wire, duct tape, and a big bag of zip-ties.

I'm not sure what's going to happen with the car. I might keep it, but that's kind of a tough decision. I can make at least several hundred dollars selling it (pretty good market up here if they're in decent shape), or the previous owner might want to get it back after paying me for my time. I really don't want to pay to insure two cars right now either, but I suppose I could switch back and fourth with my current Subaru on that. Yup, those heads are TOAST! Any ideas of something cool I could make with them? As to the cam being frozen, for clarification the cam tower unbolted from the head fine, I just can't get the little piece out of the front that holds the cam seal, and the cam still wouldn't turn after putting penetrating oil on it. I think that it starved for oil during the overheat, as the oil pressure probably went way down when it got hot.

What kind of conditions does it overheat under? City driving? Highway? Does it lose coolant at all?

You could probably find the entire throttle body assembly at a JY pretty cheap.

Yes indeed, I am continually amazed with the people I've met and/or dealt with so far. I often forget to mention how grateful I am, but here's what comes to mind. My trip to WCSS6 would not have been possible without the help of Hondasucks, Caboobaroo, Jon of Scio, Bajavwnsoobnut, and others. Big thanks to Edrach for all your help there as well (the LSD is almost ready to go in!). And of course thanks to Northguy and Torxxx for offering your help when Roxanne was a bit ill last year (lucky I didn't need it, but thanks anyway). You can count on my assistance any time as we all know the hazards of travelling in the subarctic during the winter. I've also made some great online deals with Edrach, Austin and others.

After worrying about the condition of the internals for most of today, I went ahead and ordered rings and bearings as well as a new oil pump. Checked the mating surfaces on the block with a "precision straight edge" I borrowed from work and the block is still true. Hopefully I can get all the parts here in time to get it together before I have to leave again. Checked out that Timesert website. Looks pretty cool. Is installation similar to a Heli-coil?

From what I know, the engine didn't have that many miles on it. It was a low-mileage Japanese pullout engine put in somewhere between 80k and 100k (can't remember exactly what the previous owner said) and the car has 130k on it now. Hrm.... If I have to rebuild it, I could use the carbed short block sitting in my garage right now, he he he. I think I'm probably going to roll the dice on this one though. Seems like no EGR is necessary, so I'm not gonna screw with it. Calebz, what is this timeserting that you speak of? Some way of reconditioning the threads? I remember you talking about stripping one out a while back...

Hey everybody, it's story time. So a friend basically gave me his 89 RX this fall after it SEVERELY overheated and would not run afterward. I parked it until this last week, as I had to go off to school. Got back, pulled the engine, and stripped it down to the shortblock. What I've found so far that was fubared (in order of appearance): -Oil had no coolant in it. Smelled like it got hot but not really hot (at least for very long). -Timing belt covers melted from heat badly enough that I had to break some of them off. -Passenger side cam FROZEN! The crank pulley chewed the teeth off of the T-belt. I could not turn the cam with a large wrench and couldn't get the cam tower apart either. WTF? -Driver side cam turned fine but the sprocket was off a tooth or two (haven't looked at the bearings yet). -Head gaskets looked fine. They could have been leaking a little, but I couldn't find any evidence of it. -Heads slightly warped with cracks in exhaust ports that reached around the valve seats and joined with the usual cracks between the valves. Exhaust valves had white residue on them? -A tiny tiny bit of surface rust in cylinder #3 that looked more like it was caused by moisture in the air coming in through an open intake or exhaust valve than any coolant sitting in the cylinder. I also took the heads off of the spare turbo motor, which need two new valve guides and some minor resurfacing but are otherwise in good shape so I'll use them. They have the EA82 with a line underneath casting (which gen is that?) I'm also taking the cams and cam towers off of that engine as they are in good shape. So the first question is, what kind of shape do you think the shortblock is in? It turns fine by hand and it cranked over in the car without making any strange noises. Am I wasting my time if I don't rebuild this engine or is it reasonable to think that the rings and bearings are okay? The second question is about the EGR system. The engine that was in the car had an EGR valve, which took the exhaust gases from what I'm used to seeing (this is the first time I've worked on a turbo soob) as the ASV port underneath the driver's side head. The heads I am using do not have this hole drilled and tapped out as that engine had no EGR valve. Is it worthwhile to modify that head so that I can keep the EGR on there, or is it not needed? Also, will the computer be confused if it doesn't have a functional EGR valve? Your thoughts please.

I agree with Northwet there. The rising and dropping is most likely a thermostat problem. Mine had similar issues where it would go up farther than normal then drop down to where it was supposed to be. Went away with a different T-stat. The whole bubbling thing is rather worrisome. What's the history of the HG's and heads on the car? Have the gaskets been done without resurfacing the heads? Been noticing any coolant in the exhaust? How much coolant does the car lose under normal driving?

Hmmmm.... so maybe it was actually a GOOD thing that my car took like 30 seconds to cold start when it had that POS Weber carb on there!

That's awesome!! And to think, I was told by a mechanic that an ER27 wouldn't fit in my EA82 wagon! Way to go.

Right now the manual is in paper form due to the fact that a lot of the stuff is photocopied pages from my FSMs, Haynes, HTKYSA, etc. I suppose I could scan the thing when I'm finished if I can find a scanner. Initially I hadn't planned on doing so, thinking that there wouldn't be a terrible lot of demand for such a thing, but now that I've got a total of three people interested, I think I'll try to scan it. If I can't get to a scanner pretty soon, would you be interested in paying shipping and a couple bucks for a paper copy so you can get it sooner?

Sounds like a great excuse to me!

If the axle nuts weren't torqued properly, it is entirely possible that one or both of the hubs got chewed up. This happened on a friend's car this fall. put the car in drive with the rear wheels chocked and preferable with an assistant to sit in the drivers seat and observe the front axle nuts to see if they are turning while the wheels sit still.

I too now fully agree that there shouldn't be any quirky issues with running this setup. The lower compression will result in less power, but that's it. As long as the engine isn't too big for the fuel system to handle, it should be able to adjust accordingly to any differences in need via the the oxygen sensor and the learned memory which is designed to compensate for the MAF and the injector getting old.

That's gonna be freakin' awesome!!

This is the best modification you can do to that engine, and it's not that hard. I converted mine in a couple of days over my Thanksgiving break and I love it! Your list doesn't include the distributor or coil assembly (including the ignition amplifier and the condensor). Also make sure that you grab the fuel pump relay and ignition relay from under the dash. Does your Y-pipe already have an oxygen sensor? If you would be interested, I am right now working on compiling an "SPFI for dummies" manual on how to do the conversion (no, I'm not saying anything about your intelligence, I promise:lol: ). This will include the section from the FSM covering the SPFI system, as well as my step by step instructions for everything, and wiring schematics showing which connections go where as far as power and stuff. I would give you a copy as soon as I'm done with it (should be this weekend) in exchange for a couple of parts or something.

Do a search for "rebuilt lifters" and it should come up with a thread containing the name of a company that remanufactures lifters and sells them for just a few bucks, which is much better than the $60 a side that subaru charges. As far as other stuff that you need. Order the O-rings that go between the head and the cam case, as well as the new cam seals and possibly timing belts that you should put on at the same time from www.1stsubaruparts.com. Call them rather than ordering online. They have genuine SOA parts, often cheaper than you can buy knockoffs at NAPA. For sealing between the head and cam carrier, pick up a tube of Permatex Anaerobic Sealant. Either the red stuff or the "Ultra Gray" is what you want for this joint. DO NOT use plain old RTV. Now, how do you know that the lifters are in fact bad? On these cars, it is more often the case that the oil pump needs resealing because its gasket is faulty and it's sucking air. Does the car leak oil from that area? If so, it's probably time to reseal the pump or just get a new one. I would recommend going with the latter option, as these pumps tend to wear out and not produce the pressure that they used to. It is also virtually impossible to get the oil pump shaft seal to stop leaking if the shaft is worn very much. New pumps can be had from 1stsubaruparts.com for around $130. I would recommend doing the oil pump first or doing all of this repair work, but not just replacing the lifters, as just doing that may solve the problem temporarily at best.

That sounds pretty worthless to me too. What happens every time you start your engine? The oil in the bearings doesn't drain out when you change the oil, and if the engine is not loaded, that little bit of oil that remains will be more than enough to keep everything lubed up until the new oil can get there. If you prime the filter well, the pressure buildup time will be a couple of milliseconds longer than on a normal startup, and if you make sure that both then engine and the oil going into it are warm, the time will probably be significantly less than during cold starts. Where did you hear such a theory?