richieroo

Take off the timing cover and check your flywheel. Put a screwdriver against it(motor off) and use a slight leverage against it and see if it is loose! Then rotate the engine (motor off) with a 22mm socket on the front pulley and do the same with a screwdriver and once again see if it is loose. If it is pull the engine out and retighten the flywheel screws. That happened to me once. That is what I did. Carefull not to drive it right now until you make sure if it is the flywheel or what it is! Let us know! Rich

Think I will have to lean on the idea of taking off the heads and looking for abnormal scoring on the walls. Cannot hook up a starter to it, and that is a good idea! Thanks! Rich ')

I just put an engine in Saturday and never even gave it a second thogth about NOT hooking up the hill holder. Works great with out it. Rich

Yeh, but do I have to take it to someone for that? Who would do that? Rich

If I wanted to check the piston rings on an engine that is outside the car in the garage, what is the easiest way to do this without a "complete teardown"? I mean I want to know and see if one or more rings are broken. Can I just take off the heads and then remove the pin in the piston and pop them out that way? Rich

OKAY YA'LL I GOT IT FIXED! If I could do it you can do it! I split the case and got the right seal and put it in. but here is the biggest advice I can give to you. BE PATIENT! Follow the breakdown from either the OLD RED BOOK of HAYNES or a shop manual. BUT BE PATIENT! I am not a patient person by nature so it was more difficult because I put a time constraint on myself. Also, have plenty of room, get a helper and get a lot of rags that are CLEAN! Remember this is the guts of driving here so keep it very clean. I wished I had more time to go into the case and clean every corner of it, alas I didn't. I will try to find some additive that will clean it. I was going to post pics, but I didn't atake anything that was of of any importance. Best to all! Rich

Alex, and All, I looked closer and realized that the #3 plug wire was a ittle loose and that was giving me some stange noises, only running on 3 cyls was too hard for it and anything that was loose was rattling! Sounds wierd but that fixed it, by reconnectiing that wire tighter. NOW the stange thing is I am getting a slight knocking noise and and hoping it is just the valves. Adjusted the valves the other day on a cold (45 deg) day before I put the engine in the car. I am thinking I should have adjusted them on a warm day or at least when the engine was warm. SO I will adjust them tomorrow night after I warm up the car and then I hope the knocking will go away. I also had some bad gas in there for quite a while and just put in a half tank of higher octane hoping to balance out the gas octane. ALL IN ALL I can finally drive this thang! I bought it in 95 (87 Hatchback) and drove it till a cylinder head went sour and kept it in the backyard under NON-OP for 8 YEARS! Finally this thing will be driving down the road again! Thanks to all of you who gave me better ideas to combat the trials of getting this project up and running. NOW FOR THE 5 SPEED! Rich

I am gonna climb, or crawl, under that thing today and check for ANY LOOSE thing I can find. BUT what about valve clearances? The book says Hydraulic lifters do not need clearnaces, does my EA81? PERPLEXED about this, as right in the next sentence in the book they tell you how to adjust the valves. Rich

I will check after church tomorrow, I am leaning towards the exhaust area. BTW my bro said a exhaust leak could alter or damage valves, what think thou? AND I read in Haynes that hydraulic valves do not need adjusting, what about that? Rich

Well I have to say that it sounds more mechanical than anything. I guess it could be the connection from the "Y" pipe to the exhaust port. But it does sound kinda "METAL TO METAL". I don't think it is the ASV. My brother said he thought it might be a rod or something like that. (OUCH!) Rich

Okay guys, I just swapped out an engine in my 87 Hatchback. I put in a Jap engine that I bought out of an outfit in Texas. I did everything correct and it is making a glanging sound as I drive about. It has LOTS of power and the only thing I can think of is the flywheel. i ut is all together fine and I am at a loss as to what to do next. Anything like this happen to anyone of you before? Rich

That is pretty much what I did as well, just stay away for a few minutes and do it outside, NOT IN THE GARAGE! Rich

I did it last week and I am still here, but be very careful wait for a couple more replies as well! I don't want you to get hurt! Rich

I sure will, let me get some tomorrow. I sure hope this can get resolved soon. I ahave had this soobie for quite a while and I need to get it going for commuter reasons. Too much money, $2.75 a gallon mind you, to drive my big truck anymore. Let's put our heads together and get this going! I will probably try a little bit every night and let you know, show me what is going on with your delema as well! See ya Rich

I took out my engine to swap another engine in it's place and wow! The amount of oil, gear oil, was just too much to believe, so I really really need a 5 speed very quickly to put in it's place, or the guts to tear this one apart and replace that front main seal! Oh brother I wish I were a real mechanic! ha ha Thanks to you Shawn I will see about tearing this tranny apart but if you here of a good 5 speed then email me! Rcih mvcnc@hotmail.com

No I think some rock or something made a slight crack or .......I am not sure, I jsut know that I am going to go with a 5 speed as soon as I can. You got one lying around? ha ha Take care Rich

Okay i found the leak, and although it is a small one, it still contributes to the gear oil that goes down and out to the top of the muffler or Catylitic converter. Here are a couple pics my son took for me. Note how small it is and yet it can put out some oil, probabaly from the pressure of the transmission spinning all this around. I checked this by inserting a air nozzle into the dipstick hole and then gently added pressure and sure enough some came out of that! To all who have leaks try that, but DO NOT JUST BLOW AWAY AT 120 POUNDS! That is very dangerous! Turn down your pressure to around 10-20 pounds and STILL blow gently into it with a rag on the side of the hole to seal up the by passing air. BE CAREFUL WITH AIR! I left in the tranny and just decided to deal with the leak and get a 5 speed just as soon as I could. Thanks to all for your suggestions on that! Thanks Jerry! On top of this I had bought a used jap engine from a place in Texas and then decided to give my old ea81 one more chance. When I was going to trade parts to the jap engine I checked the PCV valve and it was absolutely clogged like I couldn't believe. So decided to get a new one form Autozone and try one more time (my problem with this engine was trusting someone who said they coud rebuild Soobies and it just smokes like a steel mill!) So after I put it back in (for the third time in 5 years!) I definately had more horsepower but it sTILL SMOKES! WHAT A VERY LONG DAY! After church tomorrow my sons and I are gonna try again! This time we will hopefully get it to work! Rich BTW Why can't I upload bigger pics?

Oh you can be sure I will post any cures for this! I gotta go see ya tomorrow and email me with anyquestions mvcnc@hotmail.com Rich

Yeh I agree, what do you think of the pics? Is the bell housing like mine, I mean pretty sperad out with oilk as well? Hav eyou contacted any trans shop? I am thinking of dropping it and having them look at it. I have the motor out right now and if I drop it maybe they will give me a break MAYBE NOT! Rich

My best guess is that it is coming from the mainshaft and the seal inside. UNFORTUNATLY we will have to drop the tranny and crack the case adn replace it that way! But tomorrow I am going to really look harder and see what else it could be, although I am pretty sure it has to be split. Are you sure it isn't the rear main on yours? I KNOW this is gear oil! Rich

Here are some pics for ya'll to look at and perhaps give me some advice! thanks! Rich

Shawn have you ever taken apart a tranny on on ea81 before? Or Do you think I can put that seal in from the front? Wouldn't make sense to go all the way through the middle to get to the end, does it? Rich

Shawn I actually found my OLD haynes book! My son found it in the garage on a bookshelf. (I did find the pic) I will research it a bit more with this book. Anybody else got any ideas? Shawn do you mind if I email you a pic of the trans? Rich

NUTS! Have you done this, is this pretty hard? SOmething I can do in half a day or about what time frame? Rich

Oil is too thick for motor oil, it is gear and is the seal replced for the inside of the tranny? Wish I had a better book than Haynes! Rich