Ross

Intercooling wont help. It would probably be alright if you drive it carefully...... but i would be inclined not to risk it. If you must, i would recommend using a high end synthetic oil.

Who does? but thats what we've got, not matter how hard you try! The ea81/ea82 comparison was just something i heard.... haven't compared them myself....

For starters an ea82, and many other passenger vehicles. There is a slight difference in purpose between an engine for an italian supercar and one for a japanese passenger car..... Lightening your flywheel can turn the engine into a pig without giving any huge benefit....

Hey, sounds like you're on the right track, apart from maybe shaving heads.... you can't really reduce their height by much without having to modify or make a new intake manifold... You can put pistons for other engines (I think ea71 pistons will give you higher comp?) in to do the same. Definitely do the cam, thats one of the cheapest bits to do.... "Port" the intake manifold gaskets a bit to match the holes in the head and intake manifold. Should go well.... Keep in mind that the ea81 flywheel is resonably light to start off with.... Thought of finding some ea81t heads etc for it? I rebuilt one last year for my 83 wagon, they are a nice wee engine once you've got them sorted...

Have you had a look at this yet? Id quite like some figures from other ea81s (turbo or non turbo) for comparison too.... I am thinking my low pressure is caused by too hot oil (makes sense it would be hotter, same setup as ea81 with a big oil heater (Turbo) on it...) but would like some more numbers to compare to.... Also, has anyone noticed how long it takes for your oil to come up to temp (ie oil pressure stops dropping)? My pressure will continue to slowly drop over around 45mins of around town driving....

and my 83 turbowagon has power mirrors, fancy up/down moving seat, and headlight washer, but no power locks or windows, and no voltage/oil pressure gauges!

I Heartily agree, have done it both ways quite a few times, definitely much easier with pp loose.

Hey, whats with the solid lifter bashing! Come on, they're not that bad! You do want an enigne '83 or newer for sure tho, since they have larger valves... whatever you do, do it properly, and don't leave bits out, do everything while you have it apart. I hear too often people saying "the bearings were ok" etc - its not worth tearing the whole thing down and not doing everything. Make sure the block you are using isn't too bad - the cam shaft bearings in particular can't be replaced, so you want to make sure they're alright before proceeding (they usually are, but best to check).

Exactly, and i guarantee that if you fill up the whole housing with grease, your bearings will be very short lived indeed. 1/3 - 1/2 full is plenty, any more just heats the housing up. Do you fill your gearbox to the top with oil? Ah, no.

Dangerous idea - overpacking the bearing housing with grease will cause overheating, severely reducing the life of the bearings, not to mention spewing grease everywhere through the seals. A good general rule for bearing housings is to fill them about 1/3 with grease. Over 1/2 will generally cause overheating.

That is very interesting.... I suspect that new zealand ones might be the same....

Not looking good for finding the factory one, so looking at gettting an aftermarket adapter and oil thermostat etc. Anyone had any good/bad/average/fatal experiences with these?

generally all '80 to '84 4wd wagon will have the gear you are after..... the ea81 is an 1800, just make sure you dont find a 1600 4wd, apparently they do exist.... thats an ea71.

Supply comes from 1-3 head drain hole (banjo fitting), the return goes into the thermostat housing, where the dash temp sensor usually goes. The dash temp sensor is relocated to the heater (not sure if its supply or return) hose.

Lift it up, use a prybar to see if there is any play anywhere. With the tie rod ends, you will be able to feel if they are sloppy once you take them off. Only replace if they have play, since they are easy to get off later.

And you need the bracket off a hyro lifter engine ('83+ auto, 85+ manual), if i remember correctly....

Originally it was hydro. Someone before me rebuilt it (did an awful job) and replaced hyros with solids. Left hydro rockers and push rods in. When i rebuilt it, i kept that setup. It got terrible valve tap when hot. What i've said below explains why you shouldn't use this setup - the different metals expand different amounts as they heat up, causing the tappet clearence to INCREASE as the engine heats up. 0.47mm is far too large a valve clearence. They should slightly decrease with aluminium push rods due to the steel valve stem and the higher temp of oil than coolant. Thats what you want - the engine is a bit tappy when cold but quietens out as it heats up.

Push rods for solids are aluminium, just like the block. Push rods for hyro lifters are steel! Al has roughly 2x steels coefficient of thermal expansion. After some quick calcs.... With steel push rods, The cold intake valve clearence goes from 0.25mm cold (as per factory specs) to around 0.47mm hot!! (i.e. the al block expands twice as much as the steel push rod as it heats). Hence why my engine was so noisey when hot. Changed the lifters over (not a fun job) and its 768% less noisey, 457% nicer to drive in, and 3% less likely to wake me up if someone is stealing it.

Try not to exceed mach 0.95, you might run into handling problems.....

You can drift them out fairly easily, since you dont mind dmaging the old ones... Putting the new ones in, be careful, and only hit the outer race.... I fashioned up a drift from a piece of timber that sits against the outer race, with a cut-out in the middle so that it doesn't touch the inner race. Then just tap in lightly with a hammer, making sure that it goes in straight. If you only tap the outer race, and you use a soft drift (or soft hammer), then ,no, it doesn't make any difference. Other way to do it is clean the knuckle and put it in the oven for a while, then the bearing will slide straight in. Haven't tried it, so don't know how hot you'd have to heat it to though. Might cause mrs. probs too!

Is all this really worth the effort, when the bearings (well, the front ones anyway) dont cost much more than the grease you're using?? Personally, I wouldn't go to all the effort of stripping it down and not just replace the bearings. Unless you are using fancy explorer bearings or something.

Not to mention almost impossible to transport - You have to put so much energy into it to liquify it its never going to be econimical, and if you dont, you can only fit, like, 400kg in a whole tanker!!!

Aluminium wire is used very extensively - especially in transmisison - , due to its low cost compared with copper. While it doesn't conduct quite as well as copper, the difference is negligibile for your application. To answer your question, yes, if you wire it in paralell with the other one, it will decrease the resistance. Certainly cant hurt - if it breaks you're just back to where you started from.

Maybe why so many of you have HG probs with ea82t....... Unless you're using a metal HG, a smooth finish is not required - obviously it must be flat though, and when i say rough i dont mean pitted or corroded. The head should be fine straight off a mill - no further machining required.