Nickoli

You scared me there, but I looked up the permatex anaerobic data sheet and it's solvent resistance. https://441py33rout1ptjxn2lupv31-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/tech_docs/tds/51813.pdf It says after 500 hours exposed to coolant and gasoline, it retains 65% and 70% of it's initial strength. Seems good enough for me. I couldn't get the JB weld to completely block the coolant passage under the carb, even putting a stud in the line some still gets through from somewhere. Paper gasket coated with shellac lasted over a year and like 10,000 miles, but eventually coolant was seeping out of the base.

One last--hopefully--update on this situation. After cooling down when we arrived in NC, I noticed wetness on the carb base gasket and the thermostat housing gasket. On the 500 mile drive back down to Florida it settled in at about halfway on the gauge, but slightly hotter than it was on the first leg of the trip. I figured some air got in the system. Then it started raining and I turned my headlights on, gauge went over halfway just a little, headlights off, back to half, headlights on, over half. Interesting. We made it back to FL with no issues, and I started to think about adding an aftermarket gauge so I could trust the temp a little better. Continued to run hotter with the headlights on, so I started investigating grounds and cleaning contacts. I also kept seeing a small amount of seepage at the carb base and on the thermo housing, so fixing those became priority. Yesterday I took the afternoon to drain the system and address those leaks. Head a small issue when one of the carb stud nuts was stripped and wouldn't come off. Drilled it, cut it, and ran to the parts store. They didn't have any stud that size available so I bought a bolt of the correct thread and cut it down to fit. Ditched the gaskets all together and used anaerobic sealant instead--that stuff is awesome. Also went ahead and put a new Stant XACT thermostat in that I watched open smoothly and fully in boiling water. The old one was OEM, but I had suspicions it wasn't opening fully or on time. Also pulled the gauge water temp sensor and shined it up. The brass was basically black. Cleaned the contact good as well. Got it all burped with one of those no spill funnels--which are also awesome--and got on the highway. The gauge never changed readings between city/highway like it normally does, and it sat firmly at about 1/4 of the way up from cold. Drove it hard and it never moved. Hopefully that is finally solved now. Going to watch the coolant level carefully over the next few drives and make sure there are no more leaks. I think there were multiple issues going on, but it seems as if they are all fixed. Thanks again to all the info and people here!

Thanks for everyone's help! Running like a champion again.

I got on a really steep hill the other day an got a handful of stubborn bubbles out with one of those funnels. Still kinda got warm at 70mph until I had an epiphany reading some old threads. I removed this light bar I had on under the bumper that I thought was not blocking airflow significantly...apparently it was. Drove it 500 miles of interstate at 70mph to North Carolina yesterday through 90+ degrees and it never even reached halfway. Not sure why it took so long to cause an issue because I put that light on there last year, but I'm absolutely thrilled. No bubbles, no airflow blockage. I also think the "leak" I saw on the heads was coolant that got trapped in a channel during the engine removal or something, because it hasn't showN up since. Success!

Running at 70mph and 3500 rpms on the interstate an it got warmer than half after about 10 mins, but then dropped back to half for the rest of the 20 min trip. I'm thinking maybe this oem thermostat is stuck halfway open or something? I also noticed that the upper hose gets pretty warm quite a bit before the thermostat is supposed to open. The jiggle pin shouldn't let that much coolant through should it?

Thanks Dave. I'll check every morning before startup and see what happens. No audible gurgle this morning.

Alright, maybe I should start a new thread, but I'll just continue here for now. All of this searching for a coolant leak started because after I pulled the engine and did the clutch, it got warm on the interstate on the return leg of a 200 mile trip. Just barely above half on the gauge, when it normally sits at half. It was perfect on the first leg of the trip, so I figured there were air bubbles in there since I had just opened the system. I pulled off at the next exit to check things out and it immediately returned to just below halfway. The next 20 miles home it seemed just slightly warm, but never got too much hotter than normal. I figured the bubble moved on when I reduced speed. I also cleaned the terminal and the plug on the temp sending unit by the thermostat just incase. This warmer on the interstate incident was this past Sunday. The past few days I have been parking it with the nose in the air and letting it cool with the overflow full hoping that would get any bubbles out, but to make sure, tonight I used a Lisle no spill funnel to burp the system good. Idled until the thermostat opened, no bubbles. Ran it at ~2000 rpm for like 20 mins, no bubbles. Not a single one. It also hasn't lost a visible amount of coolant in the radiator or the overflow in 500 miles. I've been carpooling to work this week, but I'll find out tomorrow on my way to work if it's still getting warm on the interstate or not. If it does, I'm not really sure what it could be. The radiator is new, less than a year old. No cold spots to the touch, but I haven't used a laser thermometer. The thermostat is OEM just over a year old, but I guess it could be sticking. The water pump is less than a year old, Aisin brand. All three of those seem unlikely to be the issue, but definitely could I suppose. The water pump pulley is immovable on the v belt, so I really don't think it could be slipping. Would a small head gasket leak have shown up as bubbles in the coolant when I was running it tonight, or maybe it would only show up over extended 3500 rpm runs on the interstate? I figured I would've seen at least a small bubble every now and again after almost 20 mins of running it with the funnel on. It absolutely never runs hot around town or at idle. Rarely even gets to halfway on the gauge. What else would cause a uncomfortably warm on the interstate situation? It's not like I was fully loaded climbing a mountain pass. I'm down in Florida now, and it was night time. Hopefully it was a bubble and now it is gone.

Also, this may seem like a dumb question, but how exactly can I tell how much air is in the upper hose? Should it be very firm before startup in the morning and any amount of give in the hose is air? I can always hear the jiggle pin, but I think that would be true even if there's no air.

True. I read a few old posts by GD that said he has basically never seen an EA82 headgasket leak externally. Hoping that's the case and it's just running from somewhere else and settling on the gasket. Time will tell!

That's what I thought after reading up on them. Seems like if there was enough coolant in there to weep out, I would have some major issues. I know it was coming from the head drain plug and settling on the gudgeon, but I fixed that. Now it's still accumulating there slightly. The way it's mixing with the oil on the threads of the gudgeon really makes it look like it's coming from there, but glad to know that's basically impossible. Time to track the leak... There's also a tiny tiny bit of coolant accumulating on what seems to be the bottom of gasket that I'm pretty sure is the drivers side head gasket. Slightly to the right--when facing the engine--of the water pump. Seems to be starting there with no visible white evap line leading anywhere else, and no wetness tracing it to the water pump. Although that too seems unlikely. I haven't lost any noticeable amount of coolant in 500 miles, so the leak is very small, but I think it could contribute to introducing air to the system. I cleaned everything up good tonight and will try to get some pictures tomorrow. She's slated for a 1k mile road trip this weekend. I'd love to nail these down before then, but they're not big enough to worry me even if I don't.

New mounts on. No more clank. I think it was the radiator shifting on it's mounts... In other news...my wrist pin plug on the passenger side appears to be leaking coolant. Me thinks this is bad news..? That plug leads to a part of the engine I know the least about, and searching the forum hasn't given me anything about coolant ever leaking from there. It's ever so small, but it's definitely coming from there.

Junkyards and parts cars saved from the crusher are the pretty much the only source for some parts. More and more things for these old soobies are NLA from the dealer.

The best thing would be finding a OEM one at a junkyard and regreasing and rebooting it. The OEM ones have a green cage on them if i remember correctly. All of the ones at my junkyard were non oem, so I purchased a few random brands online. I went through three front passenger axles in like 12k miles with the randos. All of them blew their boots on extended road trips across the country. Most still functioned for quite a lot of miles after the grease went bye bye luckily. Then I finally decided to go to Autozone and get one of theirs with a lifetime warranty. Free replacement when the boot blows seems like a good deal when you were going through them like I was. Now it is going on 20k and has made it across the country twice with no signs of the boot cracking at all, but when it does, I'll get a new one for free!

Well shoot dang! Seems like I fudged up my motor mounts. Getting a clunk clunk clunk when turning it over to start or shutting it down. Definitely not internal engine sound. Reminds me of the sound when my old one would take off from a stop and it had shot mounts. Engine noticeably rocks left/right ever so slightly when I have the hood open and gas it hard. I tightened in the order the FSM said--bottom two nuts, then the pitch stopper--and made sure they were torqued right. Did I maybe mess up the tranny mounts when I was raising it up? Something I should fix ASAP?

Welp, should've listened to my gut, but once GD chimed in with the same opinion I had a good feeling it was right. Pulled my first engine this weekend, and found the pilot bearing was completely seized. Not a single bit of motion. New clutch, new pilot, new throwout, new dealer clips for the throwout--the clutch fork clip was ridiculously tricky to reinstall...there's gotta be a easy way that I couldn't figure out, but eventually got it. The rear main had dried oil below it, but nothing wet or fresh looking. Maybe the last repair didn't clean it up? I left it alone. Not sure if I should've replaced or not, but oh well. Also did the oil pan with anaerobic permatex. Holy crap the old cork was caked on and ridiculously time consuming to remove. Wire brush on a drill would've helped a lot. Also did oem exhaust header seals. Went ahead and did timing belts and tensioners too. Oil pump/cam seals are about 30k miles old and aren't leaking so I left them alone. Easy enough to do with the engine in anyhow. All in all, a good weekend. Took all of Saturday and half of today working fairly leisurely. Very pleased. Started back up immediately, and now I can downshift again without sounding like a pig! Shifts so smooth. Thanks to the wealth of knowledge on this forum I was able to pull my first engine with relative ease!

https://www.subarupartsdeal.com/parts/subaru-seal-ring-camshaft-case~13089aa010.html just ordered two from here last week. they came super quick and were in OEM dealership packaging.

Also, you say you put it centered on the cam pulley. Is it actually coming off the back of it, or is it just flush with the back? Mine rides comfortably flush with the back of the cam pulley, not in the center of it.

Where in florida are you? Why'd you ditch the AC?!?!? It's almost summer!! I'm in gainesville and would love to snag the ac stuff from you if it is complete and all works!

Thanks for the info Dave. My EA82 config seems to be a little less common, so finding the right belt size took me a little bit. It has no AC, and manual steering. Single belt, ~35.5 inches long. The 9350HD looks like it would do the trick. If it works for you being a hair above the pulley, I'm sure it will work for me! Plus, amazon has them for 7 bucks right now instead of the 25 at napa. May snag it as we speak.

The only fleetrunner belts I could find were 1/2 inch in width, which I didn't think fit down in the pulley correctly. The last 1/2" one I bought seated with like 2mm of the belt above the pulley. Do your fleetrunners sit flush or below? Maybe I was searching the wrong places. I have one in my "save for later" amazon section that I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on because I have cracks in my dayco after like 5k miles.

How about just a drivers side headlight that is clear and doesn't collect moisture. The two that I have both fog up. I also would love to hook up my stock radio, but the previous owner cut all the wires and left them hanging. I am looking for a stock radio plug, car side, to wire back into place. If only the trailer hitch were easier to ship... Thanks again for the pulleys! It solved my one squealing problem, but I believe the pilot bearing is making noise as well. Time to pull the engine.

++ this

I've driven both my 86 3 door 5 speed and my 85 wagon five speed fully loaded back and forth across the country--from colorado to florida--two times each with zero issues. I also don't rest much so it was like 2-3 12-18 hour days of straight highway. One time I had a partner and she went literally nonstop. They are well maintained with great tires. I usually cruise at 72 as well, for gas mileage maximization, but have no problem doing 80 if needed. I usually cruise at like 3500 rpms and run 10w40 in the summers. She seems to love it.

10-4 I was leaning towards clutch/tranny bearing to begin with. I have a new pilot bearing and LUK clutch kit sitting here, may as well just stop putting it off and do it. I also noticed today a small, almost inaudible squeal as I was actually selecting second gear with the clutch engaged, then when I disengaged the clutch it did it's normal loud squeal. Had never noticed it before. I'm pretty certain it's the bearing now that GD mentions it. I also think maybe I was hearing two noises. One from the alt pulley from a loose belt, and the other from the pilot bearing. Then having a glazed alt pulley sent me chasing that as the only issue. Just to make sure I'm going to drive it shortly with no v belt and see if I can get it to squeal. Then I'm going to stop chasing the belt problem and let you all know when the clutch/pilot bearing job is done.

I plan on doing the clutch and TO bearing very soon because I was hearing the standard chiming/singing TO bearing from time to time. It's tied to rpms, idle or in gear, and goes away completely when I barely tap the clutch. I temporarily tightened the clutch cable ever so slightly and the sound is no more. That was happening before and after this squeal I hear now. Maybe this is all part of that as well, and I'm going crazy chasing the wrong issue. The current sound never lasts long, and the direction of the sound seems to come from both the center and the drivers side of the car--I assume that's from both pulleys. Originally I thought it was the TO bearing because it happened when I was shifting gears or downshifting. I have the parts, but was just putting off pulling the engine to do it all.