Subaru_dude

i don't have any experience with the permatex... but i know the shellac seems to be pretty good stuff.

wasn't mudrat from Oregon or something? these guys are from Australia.

recently did a weber swap... but for some reason it SEEMS to be running very rich OR very lean. I think it may be jetted for an EA81, but it seems like it would at least run halfway decently. i don't think it's running too rich cuz i don't really smell any gas... if i'm correct, the mixture screw is at the front of the carb. turning that all the way to the left and right doesn't seem to make any difference. doesn't matter which direction i turn it, it just runs crappy (misses, sputters, won't idle, but doesn't backfire). new plugs, wires, disty cap, freshly rebuilt carb (not by me though), new fuel pump/fuel filter. the primary and secondary jets are 160. where is/are the air jet/jets? checked the timing, 8 deg. pulled the plugs, they look good. engine seems okay at higher revs... let it idle won't do anything. choke's hooked up... and as far as i can tell adjusted close to where it should be. any feedback welcome, thanks. -jordan

i coated the gaskets in shellac... shaved that little piece of tube that sticks up off the manifold flat (just stick a sock or something in the intake manifold hole to make sure no debris get in), put a ring of permatex around the coolant hole before putting the adapter plate and it's gasket on, disconnected and plugged the coolant hose, and it's all good.

yeah that must be what i'm seeing. i guess it just freaked me out when i first saw it. i'm such a novice

yeah, you can see into a cavity, but it's like that up the front of the engine too and the oil is absolutely CAKED on. i couldn't fit the camera there to take a pic though.. i'm assuming that's where it was actually leaking oil through the headgasket. but i just can't figure out why that part of gasket is just GONE. I guess that just happens sometimes? the fel-pros aren't designed like that, and the driver side head obviously has a gasket there. so it musta just fallen out as one big chunk. and i'll make it a bit clearer what we're seeing here... the exhaust manifold is just to the left... and the round thing to the right is a... coolant plug I think? that's on the block. just to the left of the crack is the passenger side head. pic was taken head-on. oh yeah, my dad's working in Wisconcin right now. he likes it there. he MIGHT be going to Washington straight from Wisconcin to work. man he's lucky, gets to see so many soobs

i think it's because i had a bad headgasket! you can actually see INTO the engine. but i think there was only an empty cavity there. but still... wow. passenger side head to the left... block to the right. there's NO headgasket there. http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q200/SMASHmySOOByDONTya/DSC_0186.jpg i drove it to atlanta like that. that must be one degraded headgasket.

sweet lookin soob and LOTS of mud. i think the song is "real solution" by white zombie, and the second song is "electric head" by white zombie also. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO0Vv2mKuRQ

i tried to look down into the crack with a flashlight, but couldn't see anything. the exhaust ports looked fine so i'm not gonna worry about it. getting the heads resurfaced tomorrow, the block is nice and clean. couldn't get much done today cuz there was alot of yard work to be had.

i'm assuming a pitted cylinder wall is obvious, so i'm gonna say they looked good cuz they were smooth. i did notice a small crack inbetween the valves... i believe that's normal right? as long as there's only 1? do u guys need to see pics of them to judge for yourselves? thanks for the help guys.

ok... after taking the timing belts off, covers, oil pump, and water pump... I noticed the back of the timing belt covers were MELTED and it was definitely because the headgaskets were blown. and he told me it ran nearly perfect before the motor got pulled. what a bunch of crap

i bought an engine from a junkyard that was kept in a pretty well-sheltered garage. has 100,000 miles on it and i think it's been sitting for a couple years. I asked the guy I bought it from (who i've been buying parts from for about a year) if he thought I should change the headgaskets and he said "no don't worry about it, they got a long ways to go." how much longer do you think these babies have? he said the car ran cool and had never been overheated. it wasn't HIS car, but he always worked on it and pretty much knew every problem that it ever had. I trust his word, I just want to know how long the factory headgaskets are expected to last. thanks guys. -jordan

isn't that TOO cool for the engine to run at? it seems like the engine wouldn't operate as efficiently as it normally would because it wouldn't expand as much as it would at full temp. and the oil does it's job best at full tempt too doesn't it? correct me if i'm wrong.

when my dad was working in Missouri Valley, Iowa, I decided to go visit him and spend a few days with him to see what his work was like, what iowa was like etc. etc. '87 ea82 4wd d/r wagon. made the 900 mile trip to Iowa the first day, 13 hours of straight driving. spent a day there and decided while I was that far West, might as well see the Rockies. drove another 400 miles to Golden Colorado and met up with some fellow subists (Dr Krazy, ShawnW, and some other guys) had some fun, toured around Denver the next day.. and made my way back to Iowa a day later. it was raining, and there are ALOT of dirt roads in Iowa. found a non-mantainance road, and guess what!! the first run went without a hitch, got high centered the second time. took till the next day to even find anybody to pull me out. it took a very large tractor to get me out. nobody else would even touch the mud i was stuck in. it was some really thick mucky CRAP. so that was over with, went to Omaha zoo with my dad and left that night. 900 more miles back home. in all i put 2800 miles on the car on that trip. it did REALLY well too. felt really solid then entire time and never gave any signs of trouble. averaged about 28 mpg, I had about 100 pounds of stuff with me.

I say he pulled over to get a better look at YOUR wagon. from the front he probably saw it and thought "damn, look at those wheels. I gotta get a better look at that."

here's a TON of carb info. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=29778&highlight=weber+jets

they tend to rust to dirt around here. yes there's worse places for subarus, but there are definitely better.

you sound like you're on your death bed, lol. i hit an '05 taurus at about 30mph? around there AMAZINGLY... barely did any damage to the taurus, i think because of the angle. here's a pic of the damage. may be a little hard to see, but the windshield's spidered cuz the idiot in the passenger seat wasn't wearing his seatbelt. he was fine though, other than a concussion and being soar all over. you shoulda seen the steering wheel... i COMPLETELY folded that thing against the dash. i like the way the steering wheel's designed though, you can tell it's meant to callapse if you hit it.

this is the first car i bought with my own money. i paid $1000 for it, which was WAY too much. it was a $400 car. it was also the fist car i did ANYTHING mechanically too. i did a complete reseal, headgaskets, water pump, oil pump, belts hoses, radiator, shocks and struts, all new. drove it to colorado and back and did great. about a month after I get back a lady pulls out in front of me while she's putting her makeup on and totals my car. had some NASTY rust on the frame-rails... but I really went through hell with that car and beat the CRAP out of it and it never ONCE complained. '89 gl fwd 5spd. GREAT gas mileage. overheated it and blew the headgaskets.. and the oil pump is aireating like crazy. paid $700 for it, was a good car. nice cd player. it's hibernating right now... but it'll be back on the road sometime this year. don't know where the car is from, but no rust. this car up until last year was in Arizona and was originally from washington. very little rust around the windshield... undercarriage and everywhere else is solid as a rock. s/r 4wd 5spd with weberized EA82. needs tires before i can drive it on a regular basis, and it also runs a little warm even with a new rad. on the way back from nasheville (where i bought it) the cat clogged up about 20 miles into our 160 mile trip. yeah, it sucked, lol.

okay, i think all is well.

okay, pulled the plugs, #3 combustion chamber full of coolant. so i go to crank... and voila!! spats out all the coolant and keeps cranking. I now fully understand what hydrolocking is. For those of you who DON'T know what it is... I will explian. At some point in the running of an engine, the piston comes up to compress the gas/air mixture in the combustion chamber. BUT, if there is an uncompressable SOMETHING in there, like a liquid (coolant or water) the piston will stop dead because it just can't compress it. pull the plugs, crank it and voila it's fixed! and here i was thinking i had to pull the engine. well needless to say i feel better about fixing it now. thanks for helping me solve my problems everybody. my subaru shall live on to die another day.

oh I feel your pain. I got a hydrolocked engine because of my ignorance on the Weber swap, and another with a rod knock and now, because of several overheats, blown headgaskets. 2 dead cars.

check the underside of your car and make sure it's still there, lol. sounds like you got some body flex going on maybe? how rusty are the frame-rails?

i guess i should have specified that it wasn't even cranking. you can hear the starting trying to turn the engine, but nothing's happening. won't turn over at all. it was a pretty violent jerk... so i got out and checked for about 10 mins to make absolutely positive nothing was left anywhere where it wasn't supposed to go... i'm guessing the combusion chambers being filled with coolant for the week it sat there wasn't good. i'm gonna take the cam sprockets off the carbed engine that's in the car and put them on the spfi motor that's in the rear, and swap out intake manifolds to keep it carbed. is there anything else I need to swap? I'm pretty sure that's it. but just IN CASE... i'll ask you guys. thanks a million -Jordan

put the air filter on it today (came from washington) and tried to start it. cranked for about 2 seconds... then "bang" and no more. won't even turn over. hydrolocked? if so... taking the fuel injected engine out of the back and putting SPFI on this baby. this has turned out to be alot more trouble than I ever could have imagined.