NorthWet

Another recent thread talked about Centerforce clutches. The design of the pressure plate should suit the turbo vehicles really well: They use "finger" weights to keep low speed pressure reasonable (stop and go, 'round town driving), but really boosts (pun!!!) the clamping pressure as revs rise. Prices looked reasonable too. I think the only prob was finding the right part for 4WD subes.

There is also the issue of the oil pump drive needing more energy to create this pressure, which will stress the t-belt. What torxxx wrote covers it: The engine seals and orifices were designed for certain conditions, and exceeding these conditions can be damaging.

I can't imagine that the rear brakes are going to make much of a difference, since you not adding any significant weight near them, and on a basically FWD vehicle the rear acts more like training wheels (different name in your vernacular???) than anything else while stopping. Seems to me that the problem would be more front tire (tyre?) and front brakes. Is the reported difficulty stopping at all, or with brake fade during hard and/or repeated braking? Might try vented front rotors, and/or larger front rotors (like mentioned for the rear). If you are truly desperate, maybe someone over here (or closer) could ship you some brake components. Might be cheaper than custom brakes.

It probably was. It was supposed to be a true story, and was told to me by a GM assembly line worker. BTW, it was a GM car...

DITTO, DITTO, DITTO!!! My wife got backed over by a delivery truck. She was stopped, as was the truck before it backed up in rush hour traffic. My wife got "hit" at 2-4 MPH. This was Halloween a year ago, and she is still having significant back problems. Her main "mistake" was being tensed (pressing hard on clutch and leaning into the steering wheel/horn). If you didn't see it coming, if you were relaxed, and if you were sitting straight upright and looking forward, then you may have escaped significant injury. And soft-tissue damage often takes 24-48 hours to manifest.

OK, not sure what you mean by one-piece knuckle/housing, but it does come apart at the upper pinch-bolt after removing the 2 bolts. Might have to wedge something into the pinch gap and GENTLY pry open. To remove the lower ball from the knuckle you just need to do the same as at the upper pinch-bolt. You don't need to mess with the balljoint's castlenut unless you are replacing the balljoint. If I recall correctly, to get the wiggle room you can take the knuckle loose at either pinch bolt. Alternately, you can pull the control arm pivot bolt. As far as not getting enough room to get the strut or balljoint out of the knuckle, you can loosen the bolts on the brake reaction rod (rod bolted to control arm with 2 bolts, heads back to 2 rubber mount donuts). Even loosening these bolts can give you enough room. Then, press control arm downward with hand or a spare foot, and out it should come. I can't remember if I've ever pulled just the control arm pivot bolt to do this, but that might be easier unless your aim is to remove the knuckle from the car.

I do not know if anyone has done this with and EA81t, but ICs are often put on the EA82t. Some people have posted after-turbine temperatures from stock boost of 200-250 deg F (95-105 deg C ?). Dropping the temp down to near ambient is worth doing alot of work.

Sounds like his car uses a road draft tube. This was used in the USA prior to the Positive Crancase Ventilation (PCV) system. It sounds a little more sophisticated than the 1950-1960s road draft tube.

Another thought might be to use a transverse engine/fwd-transaxle. At the risk of heresy, perhaps a Toyota or Nissan, 4 or V6... ... or how about a Honda?

I think that the only steel driven gear is from the turbo, but could be wrong. If the gear is not damaged, don't worry about it. But I would disassemble and properly rework the governor valving. I am beginning to think that this is where the problem starts, and that the coring is a symptom of the out of balance stuck valve.

Automatic transmissions only prevent the car from moving when they are in the "P" (Park) position. This position has a special locking mechanism, similar to pressing a bar of metal into the teeth of a special gear. All other positions leave the transmission unlocked, with only internal resistance to overcome.

You guys in the PS convergent zone are having all of the fun. Just wet here, and not really very cold. On the other hand, we didn't have to put up with the endless news stories (yet!) about tire stores getting swamped with studded tire sales. When it comes to snow, we seem to be as wimpy as the OTHER Washington! I say, "Bring it on!!!"

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Reminds me of the story of the owner of a new car that had a rattle in his new car. Drove him nuts. Finally started to tear things apart; kept tearing but couldn't find it. Finally cut some sheet metal off and found a nut dangling from the end of a string, with a note attached: "Hard to find, wasn't it!"

Totally agree about being VERY careful with water pressure! Residential water service can have pressures from 35 to 100-ish PSI, far more than the 15 psi that the heater (and radiator, etc) were designed to handle. The heater core is essentially sheet-brass Origami that is heated until the solder coating melts together. Unlike standard radiators, it doesn't even have the strength of tubing running through it. Overpressure it and the solder seams come apart and the sheet-brass Origami returns to being just sheet-brass. In general, they are just awaiting their time to fail. No water-valve on the EA82s, they control temp using an air mixer. Best bet to buy a replacement might be to find an independent radiator shop. They should be able to fix you up with either a complete heater or a core that they can solder your tanks to. (No reason for it to cost more than $35-65.) I used to work for one of these some decades ago, and one of my least favorite things was R&R'ing heaters. The EA81 that I helped tear apart recently really wasn't that bad, and I think the Loyale should be easier. Tedious, but not really difficult. I do agree that $1000 bucks is outrageous, but so is shop-rate.

Funny coincidence today... I was driving home in the rain, approaching the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (you might remember its predecessor from the old black and white film of a bridge twisting apart in the wind, dumping a car into the water as it collapsed?), when I decide, OK, I'll pushbutton into 4WD for the trip across, given the crosswind and metal grates. GGRREEEEEECCCHHH!!!! Slow speed got even slower suddenly, accompanied by horrid drivetrain noise and binding. Hit the button again, and after several seconds it came out of 4WD with a loud CLUNK! OOOPS! I forgot that a couple of days earlier I had swapped out the front, balding tires for another pair of wheels with more tread. That difference between the tire types and wear between front and rear was almost enough to do me in on a flooded highway.

My guess it that it is not related to the vacuum modulator. More likely the governor or fluid pressure/flow issues.

RE: Cryo treatment - When I first heard about it, it kind of sounded like voodoo. The recommended site talked a good talk, though. Given that if you didn't know how heat treating works that it would also sound like voodoo, I decided to keep an open mind. Just thought it was worth throwing out to see whether the idea crashed and burned or not. Second thought: How about a good grade of stainless steel? Again, not necessarily an improvement as far as modulus of elasticity, but should be in tensile strength and corrosion resistance. Re: Timeserts - Maybe a consortium of people wanting to go this route could pony-up a pot of money to buy the tools. Prob a pain to organize, but could amortize the expense.

The short answer to your question is that very high oil pressure is a bad thing. The real answer is that, as the others said, that the reading of the oil pressure gauge is not very reliable. One of mine reads negative when warm.

I would think that (almost) any studs would be much better than bolts, and the heat treating is somewhat an expensive luxury needed mostly by those living on the edge. I would like to have studs that had limited stretch, but would settle for consistant, and possibly extra, clamping force. Just a weird thought from a tired brain: What about cryo treating?

If you are looking from the very back of the transmission along its length, it will be on the back surface of the tranny (just like the output shaft), and above and to the right of the output shaft. It should look like most other screw in sensors/switches: A large "bolt" with a couple of wires coming out of it.

If not a FT4WD, and 4WD not engaged, you should not notice any difference. You would NOT want to run this in 4WD, except maybe on totally loose surface. And even then, you would probably get either a strong understeer or oversteer, depending on which end had the higher (lower numerical) gearing.

So, what are you after? A smaller displacement engine that won't rev any faster than the EA81? The EA81 already has a pretty short stroke, and the crank and rods (with attentive prep) should be good for 9K rpm... more than you are likely to get out of the valve gear without significant work. * Edit - I wrote this in early morning after work. Reread it after some sleep and it sounds too argumentative/attacking. Definitely NOT what I meant, Charlie. The EA81 already has a pretty good setup for high-rev'ing, though I haven't looked closely at crank oiling. Need lighter valve retainers, dual/triple valve springs... ought to scream! Oh, and solid lifters, guy. - end edit *

I haven't done the math, but I imagine that it has about the same effect as removing an OUNCE from near the rim of the flywheel. Weight isn't important; Polar Moment of Inertia (PMI) is. Pretty pulley, though. And it would be prettier with a 36-1 ring.

"The Cobbler's kids..." Might actually run better at some speeds. An old tuning trick was to set the valves "loose" to change valve timing and forestall valve float.

The secret was that engine in the trunk!!! My new-to-me '90 T-Loyale AUTOMATIC with broken uppipe got 35-36 mpg on its drive home to me. But my '87 T-wagon w/5spd doesn't get above 25mpg. :-\ Maybe if I carried a longblock in the back...