GeneralDisorder

The gaskets are installed DRY. With proper preperation no coatings are needed. GD

Could be a combination of things - vacuum leaks, improper idle speed/mixture, timeing, bad accelerator pump...... The Hitachi's are notorious for the "bog" off idle. Rebuild the carb and check all the tuning settings. GD

Clogged radiator. GD

It is not a problem. If properly torqued no loctite is needed. I don't even torque them - I just put a ratchet on the bolt and smack it with a small sledge - poor man's impact. That's how I break them loose as well. On some of the early EA82's they did have a round pin that fitted into the front timing belt pulley and locked them down. But it was found they just didn't need it so '87 and up you likely won't see them. GD

I've seen that happen and I've repaired them before. You have to use acid flux and acid core solder and it has to be UBER clean. Be careful that you don't overheat things and melt the solder on the tubes or the tanks or the fillter neck. You have to use a propane torch..... it's kind of a dying art..... In fact I would just have a radiator shop fix it. It's a huge fricken hassle to fix that yourself if you don't have the right materials. They would probably only charge a minimal fee for it. GD

Unfortunately there isn't a lot of knowledge about those carbs - they were uncommon and generally are even more hated than the Hitachi's which were much more common. I don't know what to tell you other than you should probably rebuild it or swap it to a Hitachi manifold and a Weber. You might try to buy a book on carbs in general to get an idea of how they function and what the ports you are looking at are supposed to do. If it were in front of me I could likely fix it but working blind I can't do much to help you. GD

Last time I priced out the Fel-Pro's (there is no other way to go IMO) they were about $15 each from Autozone's web site. I had to bring that price into the store to get them to match it though as they wanted like $35 a peice in the store I am sold on the Fel-Pro's for the EA81's. I did them on my Brat's original engine years ago (before I was smart about this stuff ) and then on a long drive I blew a heater core hose and lost every drop of coolant. I was on a road that had virtually no shoulder so I had no real recourse but to drive it as much as I could without any coolant. I had to go about 3 miles. I made it but the engine got so hot it was into pre-det and couldn't go more than 15 MPH when I finally got to a parking lot. I thought for sure it was toast - warped heads and blown gaskets. It was in the 90's that day and it took nearly an hour for it to cool down enough for me to fill it up again. I had a friend bring me a section of heater core hose. I figured I would have to have it towed but after the repair it started up and drove home like nothing had happened and remained perfectly fine till I tore it down for a rebuild - which was YEARS later. Amazingly there was no damage to the head gaskets. This ability to withstand abuse as well as the lack of having to retorque them get's all thumbs up from me. I don't use them on EJ's but I won't use any other brand on the EA's. The cheap price makes it that much more attractive. GD

Yeah - it did sound strange to me given the mileage - that is very low for lifter failure but I figured the age had something to do with it. Glad you found the problem and it wasn't catastrophic fail..... which would have been highly unlikely given the mileage. GD

Well - I stay WAY clear of any Chrysler product unless it's old-school mopar stuff. Chrysler gets a free pass on the garbage they made prior to the early 70's since they just look so damn good and can be fast as hell - I dig the old school Mopar's and if I had the coin I would drop it on the new Challenger. And I would bend over and take it in the pooper every time it broke because that sexy car gives me wood. But there's nothing sexy about a Jeep. That's just a wallet humper. Anything Chrysler builds is automatically suspect simply because of their relationship with Mitsubishi - which actually IS the automotive anti-christ. They made a deal with the evil one and a little more of that evil creeps into their products every year. They actually made manual transmission Cherokee's? I figured them for pure soccer mom pavement pounders. Though sadly I see more and more of them lifted since they are so cheap. I can't imagine that's a good idea in the long run. Too many electrical "options" to cause issues when wet GD

Most of the stuff I have built is on a factory floor or machine room somewhere . Sadly all the pictures that were taken are still in the possesion of my former employer. Wish I had some of them to put in my portfolio :-\. I built a lot custom compressors and did a whole run of interesting stainless steel equipment for a food processing facility. Stainless welds NICE! GD likes..... I built a bottle cart for my torch set but it's nothing special. Found a defunct old (really old) hand cart and modified it to suit. Beats dragging bottles around individually though. Mostly I don't have the fricken time or capital to fab stuff like I would like to build. I have to make money and building crap for my shop isn't bringing in the green. Maybe someday I'll have peons that I can buy back my time from. GD

Probably 23 but if it came from a turbo it would be a 25 spline transmission. Those are rare though - D/R turbo 5 speeds are not a common thing to have on hand and not know about it. It would have a 3.7:1 rear diff and a 1.2:1 low range if it's a turbo tranny. 3.9:1 and 1.59:1 if it's a non-turbo (likely). GD

Yeah - Chrysler hasn't made a good automatic in decades. Purchasing a 14 y/o Chrysler product is a mistake no matter how you look at it. Might as well just open the wallet and empty the contents into the toilet. You can lead a horse to water...... tell her that you don't endorse that choice of autmobile and that if she buys it you will not be there when it breaks. That's how I treat family that disregards my warnings about vehicle choices..... except my Mom - she gets a pass cause of that whole baby carring for 9 months and raising me for 18 years bit . GD

Not all '87 4WD's were carbed. It was about 50/50. That is the one year you actually have to look under the hood to know for sure. '88 carbs were gone, and '86 only the 2WD's were SPFI. '87 is a grey year. GD

Could be the axles - especially if it's clicking on turns and you see blown out axle boots. Replaceing the axles is much easier than rebuilding them. Chances are good that you don't have the facilities to properly rebuild a drive axle and in any case a reman is cheaper than the individual joint components. I use the EMPI's - I get them at a local import parts house - they do a lot of EMPI VW parts and they also carry their axle line for all makes/models. Subaru axles run about $69 each. GD

Yep - flat or two up - doesn't matter in the least. Leave it in 2WD just because less stuff is turning but you can't hurt it anyway. GD

You just have to make SURE you set them back exactly where they were before or you will change the ring and pinion clearances. Which will damage the R&P over time - short term or long depends on how much of a change was made Once you remove the locking fork, a tap with a punch will get them moving then they should thread out easily. I've never seen one that was too hard to remove - the gear oil keeps them pretty clean and free of corrosion. The "cup" (with timken bearings you have a cup and a cone - the cone being the part with the rollers) is a sliding fit in the transmission case and the seal cap adjusts it's clearance with the cone which is pressed onto the front diff carrier. They will stay in place if you do one at a time and don't disturb the diff. Just make sure you mark the seal cap and the case and carefully count the number of turns, etc. I would mark the threads before removing it with nail polish as well and let it dry before you start. Nail polish is thick enough that it won't flow into the threads and will make a clear deliniation where the thread enter the case. GD

Yes - you have a ticking lifter. Change the oil. If it goes away then comes back in a few miles - you will probably have to change the lifter(s). They can be quite loud. So loud you will think it is surely a rod knock. But it's not. GD

Considering the bubbles in the coolant, the lack of a large blow-out on the intake gaskets (it would take more than a drip to cause the misfireing and large smoke clouds, etc), the slightly lowered comp. readings, etc...... My advice is to go ahead and pull the heads - it's easy enough to do on EA81's. Then you can inspect everything - might be a valve issue causing the low comp., etc. You have a nice low mileage unit so I would do a head job - even lapping the valves. See what you find and go from there. Pay close attention to the fire rings on the gaskets - that is usually where you will see "carbon tracking" from combustion gasses getting into the cooling system if the fire ring has let go of the block/head. Probably going to want to do a resurface if nothing else - take .020 off the heads on both sides and up your compression. Also check those freeze plugs as mentioned by Gloyale. GD

You should get it for the price being asked. You will not find a simpler, more reliable, go-anywhere machine than a 4WD EA81. My '83 hatch has somewhere around 260k on it and I drive it daily. The EA81 is BY FAR the easiest engine to work on that you could imagine. It takes 15 minutes to change the water pump/alternator/starter/front main/belts, etc. Any of those single jobs can be done it minutes. Swapped out to a Weber 32/36 carb and they run very hard for only putting out 74 HP. The SPFI is nice - but unless you are planning to do some serious off-angle wheeling it's not that much of an upgrade over a Weber - though it has it's advantages being it's designed for a 90 HP engine and capable of at least 100 HP with supporting mods like a cam and port/polish and exhaust. GD

I can't tell - the pictures are just too fuzzy . It's hard to say really - I don't see a major blow-out though. Most of the graphite looks present. If it was leaking it doesn't look like it was leaking a ton. But again - fuzzy pics. What's the red stuff? You didn't use RTV did you!?! How were the gasket surfaces cleaned? I generally have to scrape them and then take a soft wire wheel to them to get the rest of the graphite off. Then I clean with acetone or laquor thinner and install. The graphite needs clean dry metal to bond with - just like a head gasket. I give them the same level of attention and prep. It can't hurt to try. And yes - your lower comp. readings could easily be from coolant washing the oil off the cylinder walls. Try quirting a bit of oil in those cylinders and see if the comp. comes up a bit. GD

There is always Mega-Squirt. More expensive than the stock computer, true - but if you must have injection it will do the job - and changing out to an EJ later on would be that much easier since you just reconfigure the MS and change a few wiring connectors. GD

EA81's don't have the cam tower o-rings because they are pushrod engines. No one around here uses the cheap gaskets - especially for the intake gaskets. That's a well known issue with anything but the dealer gaskets. GD

The milkshake inside the valve covers is often normal on cars that are driven short distances a lot. Doesn't get hot enough to drive out the moisture. It condenses from vapor to liquid near the valve covers where it is being cooled down due to the air flow of the PCV system. It mixes with oil there and turns to that goo that you are seeing. If there's no mixing with the oil then the milkshake isn't a good indicator of head gasket failure. But the dissapearing coolant means it's going somewhere. I would pull the manifold and inspect the gaskets closely looking for any signs of wetness or fail - are they OEM gaskets torqued to 12 Ft/Lbs? How are the plugs? Have you verified spark at all cylinders? The rough idleing concerns me since you should have plenty of compression for combustion - that's why I'm wondering if one of the intake gaskets is sucking a bunch of coolant into the cyliner and causing a misfire..... GD

Really? Even with the LSD in them? I thought they were still pretty scarce as non-dually's with the Power Lok option, etc. It seems most came from dually F-350's. But then again it's not like I'm big into that market so I wouldn't know other than what I've read on a few sites while researching my truck. At any rate I don't think I'll ever break the thing GD

It probably doesn't need a rebuild. In any case used engines are cheaper. Buying rebuild parts is sort of a peice here and there kind of deal. I don't know anyone that sells kits that have all the pieces I would use though a lot of the stuff I use is Fel-Pro and Sealed Power, etc. Actually - if you want FI you can bolt on the throttle body injection from the later EA82 engine's. Here's my write up on it: http://home.comcast.net/~trilinear/EA81_SPFI.html GD