Flyerborn

Kind of a late reply as the ol' Soob took a back seat to my 1st Gen RX7 project in October, but got some time to play with the wiring again and found my issue but cannot tell you exactly what happened. There is a blue and yellow 2 pronged connector on the passenger side of the radiator that was blocking the power from wherever it was coming, heading up to the relay mounts on the passenger shock tower. Some dirt had gotten in there pretty good and caked the connection and I ended up having to cut it out of the system.After wiring it all back up I cleaned the yellow wire going to the thermo switch, grounded it, and lo and behold the fan kicked itself on! I put everything back together and decided to try and test it again, but.... nothing! Long story short, there are two relays that seem to be controlling the fan in my car. When I ground the thermo switch connector, the center relay in the tri-stack on the front of the shock tower *clicks* and the fan will come on, BUT there is also a relay on the back side of the passenger shock tower with a 4 wire connector going to it. (2 yellows, a blue, and a black ground strap.) If I mount the ground strap on to a grounding point and trigger THAT relay, the fan will not run at all. Basically, if the relay behind the passenger shock tower is triggered, that center relay on the front of the shock tower will still click, but the fan will not power on. Haven't exactly figured out what each relay is yet and my wiring diagrams don't show that relay behind the shock tower for some reason, though it looks factory. Not sure what that relay is all about yet. Basically, the fans work fine now, I've just got a little more troubleshooting to do. Best of luck to ya! Wanted to follow up since I hate leaving threads open in case others stumble across it.

The operation of the system seems very rudimentary for the most part. I'm just having the worst time tracking down where my voltage is dropping out. As far as I've diagnosed, all of my fuses and fusible links are in good working order which I guess leaves only the headlight relay the missing link I suppose, but the spaghetti of wires on the passenger side fender/bay makes it very difficult for me to physically trace wires to where they're supposed to go. Does any of the fan's wiring go directly through the firewall at any point during it's circuit? And if not, which relay is the headlight relay? My only other knowledge is that the headlights turn on without issue which I suppose would mark it off of the list of things I need to check, unless I'm missing something entirely? George - Thank you for the heads up! I did find and download the service manual that it on that post. I will scour through it to locate a better wiring diagram. Thanks!

Whoops! Completely forgot to put year, and model. It's a 1982 GL Wagon. It's really in pretty terrible shape but the engine fired right up once I got the fuel pump working. I've looked around a little for a factory service manual, but haven't had too much luck. I'll keep looking the interwebs for them though. Couldn't be that difficult, right? For now, this is the Wiring diagram I've been trying to work from....

Hey everybody! I've tried to do my due diligence to track down this little wiring gremlin I've been dealing with, but I think I'm finally to the point of requiring help as my searches have led me to a dead end. Got this car for $200 and have been slowly going through it bit by bit and I think the final issue I'm running into is that the electric fans don't work. The A/C fan is shot entirely so no surprise why that one doesn't turn on, but wiring up the passenger side shrouded fan to 12v shows that the fan will indeed run, my issue is that I've got no power to the positive terminal of the fan connector next to the radiator. (somebody has obviously run into this issue before because whoever the previous owner was ran a toggle switch to a permanent 12v.) Possibly explains why it's needed a headgasket before too, but I digress.... I'm trying to track down where the voltage is being lost as from what I can tell in the wiring diagram of my Haynes manual, the fan receives power from the battery, through a fusible link on the passenger strut tower, and then through a 'headlight relay' directly to the fan motor, which then grounds through the radiator via a thermo switch. Is that correct? From my interpretation of this shoddy diagram, it looks like the fan should have constant voltage with the ignition turned on, and I have voltage on both sides of the fusible link, but I do now know which relay is the headlight relay. I do know that the headlights work without issue, but I suppose it could always be a double pole relay and one side is not working properly. If anybody can tell me which relay to look for and which wires to trace or other components that could be causing this, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks guys!

I have a bit of an update but I really haven't had too much time to work on it as of late. I believe the car must've been sitting for at least a few years, but I could be wrong. I came across it's craigslist add from a guy that owned a wrecking yard who traded it for a 50cc dirt bike a year or so ago, and it sat before that point as well.. It's got 236K miles on it but it still seems to start up and run like a champ. Obvious tweaking will be needed, but overall, I'm very lucky. It idles and throttle response is surprisingly crisp considering I'm used to my 347 with a big Holly DP in the Maverick that usually takes the Sooby's spot in the garage. I changed the oil, and it got milky almost immediately again, but the coolant level hasn't changed or bubbled so I believe I may need to flush the oil once or twice more to get all of the condensation out of the crankcase. That's more of a time consuming task than anything else and I just haven't had the time to run to the store and pick up oil for it. Otherwise the car seems to run pretty damn good for the most part. Unfortunately I've taken the suspension pretty much all apart so going for a short drive is a little out of the question at the moment since it's going to become somewhat of a Frankenstein lift conversion soon. But it appears the transmission shifts through the gears fairly well and all the ranges work as they should. Even the range selectors in the dash light up accordingly. I'm quite surprised with how much on this car still works despite it's condition. Once I get more time to work on the engine and get it up to running temp I'll have more of an update for everyone. As for how it sits currently I don't want to run it extensively due to the fact that I have no real way of knowing reliably that it has sustainable oil pressure. Or at least until I can guarantee that coolant is not fouling the oil and that all the current milky substance it out of the crankcase. BTW: Any tips for completely draining and flushing the oil pan during oil changes? Seems like there's still just a small amount of oil that sits in the pan after it stops draining. Seems like these engines tend to hold oil in a few places throughout them instead of all draining back to the pan?

Okay, so another quick update. Set valve lash on both sides of the engine and put the carburetor back on before rebuilding it just to see what would happen. Hot-wired the fuel pump and cranked it over. After letting the fuel system prime for roughly 5 seconds I hit the starter and about 2 cranks in it fired right up, but idle was super low and oil pressure rose to damn near 70psi... Adjusted the timing and now it seems to idle surprisingly smooth at a steady 900rpm for not having been run in several years. Unfortunately there is a massive exhaust leak so it's hard to listen closely for a misfire, but there was no apparent miss or vibrating of the engine. Held a relatively clean idle and throttle response really was *much* better than I had expected. When I got it, the radiator was half way full and I thought immediately that was a sign of a leak somewhere internally on the engine from sitting so long, but upon filling the coolant I found the hole in the upper radiator hose very quickly, and now the coolant seems steady. No bubbling yet, but I haven't run it long enough I don't believe. I stopped it because I was monitoring the oil closely and noticed it get milky immediately, but I suspected that would be the case since it had gotten milky under the valve covers and I think it might've just washed down into the pan. So, before I start it again I plan on changing the oil and filter. Initial thoughts from everyone? I just cant believe it started, let alone idle right off the bat at a steady 900rpms. Seems maybe a tad high, but when I let out the clutch it appears to drop to around 700. Should I change the oil, run it up to temperature and do another compression check? Side note: Does the starter not disengage until it detects voltage or something because when the engine wont start and I try to crank it over it gets hung up, but when it actually does start, the starter disengages immediately.... ?

Okay. Updated progress report: Adjusted the valves (int. .010 & exh. .014) and I've got compression now! 90psi in cylinder 4 and 110psi in cylinder 2. Both considerably lower than the passenger side but much more progress than I had expected. Now what do you guys think? Both intake and exhaust valves were being stuck open which seem to move fairly fluidly. Surprisingly no rust under the valve covers that I could spot and a quick glance with a bright light in the spark plug holes reveal a shiny surface as I turn this little thing over by hand. Trying to be as realistic as possible in this scenario, but at this point, im leaning somewhat towards a head gasket. The oil in the pan and stick is very clean, but inside the valve cover I see a milky substance possibly that had been sitting from before. I know at one point the passenger side head gasket had blown, but what are the chances both blew simultaneously?

A viable bottom end? Oh boy. Makes me worry about this one a little bit. What's wrong with their bottom ends? As for valves, is it possible to get similar sized valves and machine down their stem to the desired installed height or is that more work than its worth? I'm trying to avoid swapping this engine as I'm trying to keep the build as inexpensive as possible (willing to spend where required of course) but if the EA81 won't be possible to repair I may need to think of other options for an AWD powertrain.

Going out to check on it now. If the valve is indeed stuck, is there anything I can really do about it to get them unstuck? Seems like if they're stuck that may be a valve guide issue that'd require a head rebuild anyway. Are these engine interference engines? Could the valves possibly be bent by the pistons if they get stuck open? If so, where would I get new pistons and valves. A quick search on rockauto and summit racing really doesn't show me a long list of available parts for these things...

Well would you look at that! I havent noticed any sort of sticker on mine, but is there any telltale sign to look for on these engines to differentiate the two? I'll double check if I have a little gold sticker, but if not, I suppose all I can do it rotate the engine by hand and see if I see the valves move and the pushrods go from tight to spinning with my fingers?

Okay. I might as well pull the cover and check. Is there a factory spec valve clearance to go off of for these engines? Are they solid lifter cams? Or hydraulic? I'm not new to working on and rebuilding vehicles, but I'm definitely new to these subaru engines, so please pardon my noob questions. I try to do research where I can, but sometimes it's much more helpful to just ask. As for the needle moving. As far as I can tell, the needle doesn't move at all. Literally 0 psi. If there was something like 40-50 or something like that I'd lean towards a head gasket more, but zero seems like a rather large leak..

Hi everybody, this is my first post and I apologize if this scenario has been talked about before but for the life of me I cannot find anything in the search option.. Anyways! I bought an 82 Subaru GL Wagon for $200 not too long ago that had been sitting for a while because somebody couldnt figure out why it wouldn't turn over. Assuming it's got an EA81 in it? Fixed the fusible link issue, had to bypass the Fuel Pump Control computer, and finally got the thing to crank over with constant fuel delivery. Only, when it does, it tends to backfire through the carb once per crank attempt. No big deal, probably needs a carb rebuild. Pull off the carburetor and while I'm at it, decided to pull the plugs and do a compression test to check the overall health of the engine. Primed the cylinders with a little oil, and on the passenger side I get a consistent 180psi (cyl. 1) and 175psi (cyl. 3), but on the driver's side I get a big fat 0.. For both cylinders... Seems very odd to me that 2 cylinders would push absolutely no compression at all unless maybe a valve was hung open? Perhaps that's why it backfires through the carb and the plugs are wet?? At this point I haven't had time to remove the valve cover and check the valve train, but as this is my very first Soobie ever, I wanted to consult some of the experts before diving too deeply into this engine. I'm totally fine with having to rebuild the engine if that's the case, but I would rather not if I can help it, so are there any common symptoms with these that I should check for first? My only other speculation would be the possibility of a blown head gasket, but before I went that far I wanted to ask. Many thanks in advance!