quattroPilot

I got the RX... it's a somewhat happy Canadian now. Though I timed the purchase pretty badly because not long after I had her home the #4 rings & piston cracked on me. Horrible horrible power loss and oil guzzling anytime boost would come on. For the longest time I thought it was a nackered turbo, and even bought a second unit as a replacement. When that didn't fix the problem I had the original one rebuilt ($440 later) and reinstalled to experience the same phenomena. I then admitted defeat, and started chasing engine internals. Compression check revealed 130 on #1-3 and 60psi on #4. That was it, I've just spent the last 2months on complete motor teardown, and practically any wear item I could replace is now new, including 4 new pistons. Engine is back together and reinstalled into car (after getting the run-around from the stupid cam timing procedure... Thanks USMB for giving me the help for that non-sense). I got 170psi on all four cylinders now, and I opted to keep the motor with carbbed pistons; because there's nothing quite like 9.0:1 compression with a turbo, wheeeeee! That car sure does bark too, i love it. So now I'm in the break-in phase, and just making sure everything is hunky-dory. The oil pressure gauge was working before but now it doesn't indicate (needle moves very slighly though), so I'm a little worried something might be wrong with the oil system. I have yet to remove the sensor and fit an external gauge for pressure measurement. I also get this horrible howl/squeel from the front at the initial 1-2mins of startup... it comes & goes with revving engine. It's gotta be a belt or pulley somewhere, sounds like it's coming from oilpump vicinity. Anyways, yea, I have the car. The only two breathers I can recall on the motor are those that come out of either valve cover. Otherwise I can't picture any other breather devices on the backside by the bellhousing. An image of what you want would be helpful. If you see John any time soon, tell him Rob the Pilot from B.C. says his car is running well. as much as I love working on engines and having the opportunity to tear a "new" one down, I was a little annoyed to have it majorly break not even 100miles after I bought it.

I agree with Subarian's suggestion. When I just recently reinstalled my EA82, it took me a whole evening to mate the engine & tranny together... I found that having a floor jack on the tranny really helped, and I had to try many many different height positions of both motor & transmission before they would happily slide together. Keep at 'er, you'll get it eventually. For my clutch vs. flywheel alignment, I didn't have the handy-dandy tool. So what I did was have all the pressure plate bolts loose, and then mate the engine + tranny. This centered the clutch as needed, and then I parted the two just enough to tighten down the one or two upper-most bolts I could get at. Then pull the whole rig further out and tighten the remaining bolts. Ghetto I know, but it was a not bad method in the end. All of what you are describing sounds like clutch vs. imput shaft misalignment; even though you say you used the tool. for me the biggest hangup was that I would snag the motor mounts on the frame, and that would twist everything cockeyed a bit. Eventually, after many hours, I won... percevierance payed off. Just keep trying different height combinations, positions, and wiggling movements. I'm sure you'll get it eventually

DOH'eth!!

the car originally did have A/C, but the entire system has since been removed

i have the whole thing on a stand right now, I'll measure in the next day or 2 and get back to ya

agree on bridge crack issue.... mine are the same. however between almost all the valves I have a very small crack that continues down that inner sidewall into the port. Most of 'em didn't weave to far down the port, a couple went a fair ways in. BUUUUUT!!!!! i did extensive reading on this, yes the TSB too. The cracks in & around the immediate vicinity of the valves Do Not lead to internal coolant leaks. The jackets for coolant run more at the backside of the head, which is why you get bridge cracks in the first place (same with VW's). The dangerous cracks are those that can be found on the inside wall towards the outlet of the Exhaust ports. Cracks here will break into the water jacket and are what ruin the heads. Cracks up by the valves can't have this effect.. however I'm sure they eventually do have some ill consequence. To quell any doubt, take the head(s) to get pressure tested and that will determine the condition of your heads. If you can access the exhaust outlet ports, use a toothbrush + degreaser and scrub away all the carbon and grime buildup. Use a stong LED light and look VERY carefully for cracks in and around this area. needless to say, with me, I just punched down the topmost bridge cracks and reassembled the whole motor. I don't feel that they are gonna adversely affect operation, and sourcing new and/or better condition heads at this point wasn't an option. good luck. if you search this forum you can find all the same info I did

hey guys. first off, I am stupid so I took my EA82T all to pieces due to broken ring on #4 (which included a cracked piston), replaced every wear-item I could think of and am now putting it all back together. I have case + all guts together, full refurnished heads back on, cam carriers back on, and I put all the pulleys, belts, oil/water pump on the front. i HAVEN'T put any of the intake, throttle body, injection, alternator, etc. on yet BECAUSE there are some brackets that I don't know/can't remember where the heck they go. So having not taken pictures at this stage of disassembly is coming back to bite me. Does anyone have pics of the topside "undressed", or even Subaru parts fiches would help. I can't locate the following brackets (no laughing please) -Alternator mount (with the thru bolt) -Alternator slide -some strange bracket that is secured with 3 Torx bolts in a triangle configuration that's all (i think). To whomever decides to help me, Mr. Dimwit, out I am very appreciative.

although I have a turbo, I do have N/A pistons. To chase a major problem (which has resulted in engine extraction and FULL dismantle) I checked compression -cold engine, "dry"- and I got 150psi dead even across the board EXCEPT for one cylinder...it measured an astounding 60psi heheh, turns out this was the cylinder with cracked piston, one compression ring broken, and a severely mushed oil ring. Needless to say that was the causation of my performance problem (AFTER I'd accused the turbo for 3months, replaced it with a used unit, had the original rebuilt and then R&R'd back into the motor). So I'd say if you have a strong 120 then that's not too bad. Could be higher, but might just be caused by some trivial problem (especially if it's uniform across the banks), like disfunctional headgasket, valves and/or stem seals, etc.

alright, cool. I'll polish the surfaces then see what I'm dealing with fitment-wise.

was this a bad thing, or an indication of over-wear? Basically I needed (and used) a slidehammer to extract them. My book said it could easily be done with a small length of tube -hooked @ end-; well, no dice for me. Just wondering if this is typical for EA82's and whether or not I need to consider replacement of things.. also I am a bit concerned about having scratch & scored up the bearing housing that's integral to the piston for the wrist pin. I can see some light scuffs and scratches, but no trenches. Anyone have advice on this? thanks a lot in advance

workin' on it goody Subaru.. why can't it just be perfect

is it supposed to indicate when the turbo is boosting? in normal driving when do most see it illuminate and until what RPM? mine flickers on around 2k and will be lit until about 4000, then go out. Intermitantly it won't come on at all.

so in an attempt to figure out what the hell is wrong with my Rex, I ended up testing the cylinders. #1-3 were all bang on 180psi #4 however could only push it up to 60psi Basically my problem is that when I get into boost, or any sort of "power driving", car starts BELCHING blue (oil) smoke... like it's a smoke-screen, and follows me down the road. I get a power loss as well. I've always thought it was me wrecking the turbo (I have two VF7's at this point), but yesterday I installed a fully rebuilt unit and it still didn't solve the problem. I did some searching on here and found others who had same issue but were accusing rings instead. The one poster did a compression test & came up with 2 good cylinders (both in same bank) and 2 duff ones (60psi IIRC. #1+3) So that was the point of my test this evening, but it's strange I have such an intense problem with 3 good cylinders. Anyhow, if anyone reads this and wants to share their 2¢ I'd more then appreciate it. I'm *almost* at wits end trying to fix this silly engine. I'll plunk away at it agian tomorrow, but I really need this car to run so's it can take me to Northern Canada.

what years & Subes do you find the Spyder intake on? Anyone have pictures?

Alright! need larger injectors