TheSubaruJunkie

Im a heavy equipment mechanic, i deal with coolant on a daily basis. I can identify the smell of antifreeze, and exhaust in my coolant. I also have a HC tester at my disposal. I guess i've just been blind to the whole ordeal. Usually, when head gaskets blow you burn coolant. Or your car overheats even with a full radiator. And there is almost always a miss-fire on the dead cylinder. However my car runs great. Never runs past normal on the temp gauge... until the coolant is gone. And it doesnt burn coolant as that would/should show out the tailpipe. So I've just been naive about the whole thing and hoping it was just something stupid. Looks like I got a weekend full of work ahead of me :-\

Raveen, the origin of this post is much more than "how to determine wether i have a blown headgasket" It started off with blowing coolant lines left and right. After blowing my heater core. Now my tank is split, and its obvious it was under pressure cause of the bowing involved. Replacing the part and continuing on will not solve my problem... the next thing to blow will be my radiator, or another hose. I guess Im just going to do the gaskets and be done with it.

Whats a ROL head set? And I'd love to have you work on my heads, but I dont have an extra grand to drop. I dont even know how im going to come up with the $300+ to do the gaskets (and timing belts cause im not pulling the motor again after this)

cant do a coolant pressure test if my coolant tank is split. That would give me bad readings. And if compression is making it past the gasket into my coolant, wouldnt that give me a low reading on that cylinder? Not sure why a compression test wouldn't work.

No, wondering if the gasket kit SubaruParts.com is a SOA kit or what? And yeah, LegacyCentral.org confirmed the EJ22T is a different block than EJ22 and needs a different gasket. Im also wondering, if the EJ22 doesnt show typical symptoms like EA's when they blow, can I still determine with a compression tester? I mean, a leak will still show a weak cylinder am I wrong? I just wanna be absolutly sure before I go and drop $300 on this job. -Brian

I have a EA82 wagon wheel on the front of my '79 and it rubs the caliper. So yeah, there are differences. Its also known that the EA81 wagon wheel wont clear a EA82 caliper either. Hope these enkies I got will work. -Brian

Well Napa wants $221 and thats just a head gasket kit. Subaru Parts has the entire engine gasket kit for $218. Anyone know what gaskets they use? SOA parts?

The EA82 is not much better than the EA81. It's actually alittle less dependable than the EA81, but the turbo on the EA82 helps it make a tad more power. Alot of people here go for the more dependable EJ22 swap's. I think they fit alittle better, they are more reliable and they definatly make more power. But since you already have a complete Turbo EA82 parts car, this maybe a fun project and you could be the first to pull it off.

I get a pretty hefty discount from napa through work, so I wanna see what our cost on a gasket set would be. My car has been burning oil off the exhaust since I bought it via a leak in the valve cover. So I think a head gasket kit would be a good way to go. I don't think i can afford to have the heads rebuilt And i would hate to do all this and then have a valve seal go bad so I don't know. this really couldn't have happend at a worse time. Im so strapped for cash its not even funny.

I usually tap into the cigarette lighter's power source for most my accessories. I never use the lighter anyhow and never miss it.

TTIWCTINTTRTJABOUJ -Brian

Do I need EJ22T Specific gaskets? Napa's site lists the Gasket set for $269. Found a set on ebay for like $35. Definatly dont want to buy el'cheapo gaskets for sure. But this couldn't have happend at a worse time for my bank account. -Brian

Great... well, looks like im going to be buying a HG kit here soon.

I know where its leaking now. Just wondering why things keep blowing.

The EJ22T does not have a radiator cap. It has a coolant tank that is detatched that the cap is on, and you fill from there. Its nowhere near the radiator, and makes that trick hard to pull off. The car doesnt run like bad at all, and it doesnt overheat until its out of coolant (of course). When its full, the temps stay normal no matter how hard I drive (and i tend to drive pretty rough on it). And I never have heat, as the heater core started to leak before all of this started... and I bypassed it. I dont have time to tear the dash apart and replace the heater core, so ive been dealing with no heat all this time. Im wondering if i should add that into the mix. SO thats a heater core that blew, then 3 coolant lines, now the coolant tank. I was thinking if the HG blew, i would be burning coolant through the exhaust. Or coolant in my oil. -Brian

I hate cross linking threads. But this has been an ongoing problem, and Ive started a thread on Legacy Central. Would love it if maybe some experts here can glance at it and shed some light on my problems: http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?p=236952#236952 Thanks in Advance. -Brian

22B is correct. The EA82 is much wider than the EA81. Because of the cams being in the heads... it adds quite a bit to the width. However, the lack of space is the least of your worries with a project like this. A hammer and torch and welder should be able to fix those. Its the wiring that will kill you. Hope you really understand what you are doing. Oh, and umong all the other things (the cross member, the exhaust, the transmission) You will also need to install some higher pressure fuel line because the lines for a carburated car are not rated for the increased pressure a Fuel Injected car requires. That, and the fuel pump. -Brian p.s. The turbo is not controlled by the computer. The computer controls things like ignition timing, fuel injector pulse and monitors the knock sensor, air temp sensor, coolant sensor and air flow meter. The turbo is controlled by intake manifold pressure. Hope you understand how all these things work, or else you will take 2 running cars and turn them into 1 big pile of parts... then you'll be back here wondering why things don't work.

Looks like you found the fix already

This is what I had for my RX. Never installed it, sold it to Subaru_Styles after I sold my RX. It was custom made by an old member who no longer frequents here. Sure wish I had a chance to see what it could do:

The turbo motor is a OHC MPFI Motor. The Hatchback has a OHV Carburated motor. The turbo will not "bolt on". You can do an engine swap, but you will need to swap the ECU and all the wiring. You will also want to use the 5speed as the hatchbacks 4 speed will be no fun with the turbo. Good Luck with it -Brian

No fan. I did stack some washers between the bolts on the hood hinge. Both between the body and the hinge, and the hood and the hinge. It raised the hood alittle to help air flow. Not sure how dramatic the difference is cause i never got to put a scoop on my RX, but im sure it could only help. The Saab 900 mounted their IC in the fender originally. Thats an option i was knocking around, but I wanted the least amount of pipe as possible. Another reason I didnt do TMIC.

I dont need a reason. I also dont have to climb on my back to get this. This was a pic taken the day I bought my RX. My buddy climbed on the ground to take it, so you can thank him. -Brian

He probably added it. Or he bobbed a brat.

I ran my RX with a TMIC and no scoop. I could still tell a difference. I would definatly recommend it, its better than nothing at all

Dr.RX had a scan of the sticker somewhere.