Syonyk

And, it's the rear main. Crossmember is coated in oil again, the cam cover is clean. *feels like just driving the car into a brick wall with him in it* Is a leaking rear main going to turn into a really bad leak, or can I drive on it for a while? It was sunk slightly past flush, so I'm not concerned about it trying to pop out. -=Russ=-

270 degree right hand sweeper? Cloud of white smoke? Yup. PCV system. You should be able to find a number of threads on it & the fixes, some with photos/diagrams. There was also a factory service bulletin issued on this, and I've seen reference to a Subaru kit to fix it. Nothing wrong with the engine, it's just taking a glug of oil through the intake. //EDIT: My thread on it from a while back, with the link to the service info: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40898&highlight=right+hand+smoke -=Russ=-

Well... I pulled the tube off, scraped all the gasket clean, and made a new gasket with some Permatex Ultra Grey. I then wedged a paper towel under the bellhousing, and went for a drive. It came out dirty, but not oily. I found a car wash a few nights ago with engine cleaner, so I went & blasted the engine bay out over lunch, to get rid of all the oil on the crossmember & the cam cover on that side. So far, there's no new oil on the crossmember, and the cam cover is dry. It may have just been that gasket leaking badly. One of the bolts didn't seem to be particularly tight when I took it off. I'll just keep tabs on it & see what it does, I guess. I really don't want to have to pull the engine again before spring. -=Russ=-

Yea. That's a good way of putting it. I can take the car to a mechanic, but to do the rear main & such, it'll be enough that I won't be able to pay tuition for grad school in a few months. So that's not really an option. I guess I'll just let it leak if I can't figure it out. I'm going to a carwash later today that I just found that has the engine degreaser stuff. I'm going to clean everything I can, and then hopefully get some clues as to what all is still leaking. I don't own an engine lift, either. :-/ I borrowed a friend's lift to do the reseal, and I could use it again, but... it was in his garage for a week, and I'm pretty sure doing that again might be pushing it. -=Russ=-

AND, my crossmember is covered in oil again. With puddles. I did notice that the top of the cam cover with the oil fill tube in it is a bit moist (read, covered in a layer of oil). Is it possible that I'm dumping enough oil out this to get the crossmember wet? Or did I screw up royally on the rear main install? -=Russ=-

Eh, a friend of mine & I have strap-towed probably 5 different cars/trucks around town in the past year. It's not that bad. But definitely not something to do a few hundred miles with. -=Russ=-

Fair enough. I'll get a truck if I need to tow it. :-) Good to know what they can do, though. -=Russ=-

So... My younger brother's Shadow has a blown head gasket. It's probably going to get driven a lot between now and the time I can get out there to work on it. That will probably involve the heads getting warped somewhat, and needing more than just a weekend to work on it. Is there any possibility at all of an EA82 SPFI wagon (92 Loyale) being able to tow something like that for a few hundred miles on a tow dolly? I'm not sure how much it weighs, but I'm pretty sure it's more than my Loyale does. I have 4 wheel disks, so I'm not too concerned about stopping things, but hills on the highway might be interesting. I know this isn't "recommended use" or such, and finding a place willing to rent me a tow dolly for that car may be a challenge, but is it technically possible to do this? -=Russ=-

'86... EA82? If EA81, ignore me. Are you sure you have the cam timing set properly? With the middle of the three scribe marks on the flywheel lined up with the arrow, one index mark should be pointing straight up, one should be pointing straight down. It's possible that you have both pointing the same direction, which would make the engine run on 2 cylinders, which would definitely explain the hard starting & complete lack of power. Does it sound like a lawnmower when it's running? -=Russ=-

Agreed. I did a writeup on the fuel pump relay check/replacement a while back. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=30258&highlight=fuel+pump+relay+horn -=Russ=-

Glad you got it fixed, and everything worked out well. It's always nice knowing exactly who to blame for things like that, isn't it? So much easier than trying to blame a shop/dealership/etc. -=Russ=-

Did you pull the pads off to inspect them, or just see that they were of reasonable thickness? Anything that causes a loud grinding should be evident in the rotors - deep grooves are generally the result. Do you still have pedal pressure? It's possible a brake line got damaged/crushed somehow. *ponders* I don't have much to offer other than that. Sorry. If they're grabbing & grinding, *something* should be pretty visibly wrong. -=Russ=-

The mark also lines up properly with the cam carrier/valve cover seam. -=Russ=-

The cost for all the rubber bits sealing the engine, as well as the oil pan gasket, was around $110-$120 at the local Subaru dealership. This included IIRC the following: Front & rear main seals Cam shaft oil seals Cam shaft front o-rings (related to the oil seals) Cam cover o-rings (metal reinforced) Valve cover seals Oil pan gasket Oil pump seals (both the "Mickey Mouse" gasket & the o-ring) -=Russ=-

Ok, I'll try that. It looks like based on where the leak is coming from (off the oil pan) that it's the oil pan gasket. Are there any tricks to getting it out other than "remove engine mounts, angle engine up, unscrew, wiggle"? -=Russ=-

EA82. Expecting to do something at least vaguely right enough to not have to pull the engine again is reasonable, though. It's leaking down the rear of the oil pan & dripping off the bottom of it. So... probably the rear main again, right? The missing bolt is on the side of the oil pan near the front. -=Russ=-

Yea, problem is that I need this car for work (the motorcycle isn't so great in the winter), and I'm going to be moving across the state with it in a month. So... I guess as long as it's not leaking too badly to drive, I can live with it & just throw cardboard under it. I'll see if I can find out exactly where the leak is coming from as I drive it today. The other thing is I've sort of worn out my welcome at the garage I did the work in - it was supposed to take 2-3 days, but as a result of Subaru giving me the WRONG REAR MAIN SEAL, and not having the right one in stock, it took closer to a week. And I won't have an engine lift at the place I'm moving. *sigh* I really hate being incompetent sometimes. Is it possible to replace the oil pan gasket with the engine more-or-less still in the car? Pull the motor mounts, lift it up, get at it from the underside? -=Russ=-

Yea, the rear main was leaking and I replaced it. For all I know, I folded part of the seal over when I put things back together. I haven't sorted out exactly where it's leaking yet. It didn't seem to be leaking onto the crossmember, though, but I haven't driven it enough to really find out. -=Russ=-

After pulling my engine, doing all the oil seals, cleaning it up, and spending 8 hours putting the engine back in... It still leaks. Badly. And I punched a hole in the radiator while putting the engine back in. I'm evidently incompetent. One possibility is that while misreading torque values late at night, I snapped off an oil pan bolt after having crushed the gasket pretty badly. Is this a possible place for a leak? I put Ultra Grey along the oil pan to help the gasket seal, and there does seem to be oil dripping off the bottom of the oil pan, which is an improvement from dripping onto the front cat. However, my driver's side exhaust pipe is still smoking pretty badly, and I don't know if it's just burning off old oil or I screwed up that cam cover when I put it back together. I'm REALLY not looking forward to having to pull the engine again, and I don't think there's room on the driver's side to pull that cam cover off with the engine in the car. So, would overtightening an oil pan bolt hard enough to snap it cause a leak? And, if so, how do I remove said snapped oil pan bolt? I've never had success with an EZ-Out or such, and I don't even know if I can get a drill in there. Also, with a small hole in the radiator, will radiator stop-leak work, or will that damage other things in the process? Finally, am I, in fact, a total moron for messing up a simple reseal this badly? -=Russ=-

I really think part of it is the whole "It's paid for" aspect. My Loyale is mine. I don't need to worry about missing payments & having it get towed off. Even with what I paid for it (~$2000 for a mostly rust-free Loyale with AC in Iowa), it's still a great deal, and as soon as I finish resealing the engine & a few other things, it'll be good to go for quite a while. -=Russ=-

Oh, I'm quite aware of the "Yea, that's great, make it!" "... eh, maybe next month..." effect. It's very prevalent in the 2nd gen RX-7 community as well (bunch of broke SOBs, mostly). I'm planning to make it a straight bolt-up replacement for the stock unit - I may sell midpipe/cat replacement pipes as well, but I'll see how things go. -=Russ=-

Nothing like hitting a corner to an onramp just right, clipping the inside apex, sweeping all the way out to the edge of the onramp to touch the gravel, tires making a bit of noise, winding out 2nd, and sailing past a much more powerful car that was halfway up the onramp when you started. It's SO much more fun to drive a low powered car hard, because you don't need to be going at felony speeds to do so. And did I mention they're light? -=Russ=-

A friend of mine & I were shooting around some ideas last week, and I realized there doesn't seem to be a good source for inexpensive catless EA82 Y-pipes. Would anyone be interested in EA82 Y-pipes, without cats, with an O2 sensor port? I was planning to do them in a variety of sizes (probably 1.25", 1.5", 1.75"). Is this worth looking into, or are EA82 owners, for the most part, broke enough that it's not worth the time? I'd need to do the math on the parts/labor for it, but I'd expect somewhere in the $100-$150 range, depending on size. -=Russ=-

I'm planning to try a heated sensor here in a few months when I have a garage again. -=Russ=-

Nah, a better response is, "Why do you think there's money *in* there? You don't get rich by spending money." -=Russ=-