SuspiciousPizza

Isspro electronic gauge. I'll double check my dipstick but I added 4 quarts and change. Granted I lost a bit between the pump plug leak and the head retorque but it can't be more than a few ounces lost. I do worry about an oil passage being clogged but I doubt it as the engine has ran completely fine and I took it on a very short trip into town (5 miles round trip, including a turn onto a 55 from a dead stop) and it hasn't done anything abnormal. Do the oil pump o-rings settle and the pump may just need a retorque? I haven't noticed any leaks from the pump body itself and the HLA's have quieted.

It runs and moves under its own power. However my oil pressure is jumpy. It never sits still and constantly fluctuates within a 5 psi range. As the engine warms up, it fluctuates less but it still doesn't sit still. I am still getting leaks from the oil pump. Oil pressure is within acceptable range though, it's definitely got decent pressure. I had to use a thread adapter for my new gauge and it's leaking from that. Maybe that's throwing off my readings? Meaning my pressure is steady but because it leaks so close to the gauge, that's throwing off the readings? My oil is clean but I need to flush it and change the filter to get all the old milkshake out of it. Perhaps the remaining milky oil is causing this fluctuation since the two liquids compress differently?

It was the throttle body gasket. After I installed it I pressure tested the coolant system. I also had a leak at the temp sensor but after tightening that I had no pressure loss at 10psi over 3 hours. It started up fine, took about 20 minutes of idling to blow most of the coolant out or burn it off. Idled nice and healthy, though it was noisy due to the HLA's needing to fully prime. I am about half way through the retorque and I have an oil pump leak to deal with. I used a plug where the old sensor was as I added an aftermarket one. But other than that she's ready for the road. Also, I noticed there's no pressure values for the cooling system in the FSM only head pressure. For that 20 minutes mine sat right around 4.2psi. Not sure if this changes with extended driving but I'll post if I notice a pattern. What a learning experience. It was quite disheartening at times. :]

Plugs pulled, no coolant, radiator and heater core connected. I disconnected the hose going to the thermostat housing, plugged the fitting and shoved an air wand into the hose. My regulator doesn't go down that low so I just took it slow listening to the radiator cap. I can hear bubbling from the intake. Putting my ear up to the intake manifold with the throttle open. I can hear it. I can only assume it's the intake manifold gaskets. This intake came from a running engine with clean oil. I did clean up the surfaces, no sand paper tricks or anything just a brass scraper and a light buff with a scotchbrite. EDIT: I am proud to announce I have won "Smoothest brain of the year" award. I forgot to put the gasket on that goes between the throttle body and the intake manifold. I'm going to throw that on and see if the bubbling noises go away.

Okay, I'm really in need of some advice here. I have no clue what I'm doing wrong but clearly I'm doing something wrong here. This is the second time I've had milkshake oil after replacing the head gaskets on first start up. This time it's both sides. Oil pressure was bouncing in 5 psi increment up and down but was at a healthy level. 0 coolant pressure. Here's the process I've been doing, someone please tell me where I'm screwing up. I'll start from the disassembled short block. 1: Clean the head bolts, threads, deck surface, and cylinder heads. Cams, cam carriers, rockers, and valve covers are cleaned. 2: Install the head gaskets on a clean and dry block. Head bolts are oiled and toweled dry, only a light sheen of oil on the threads. Oil is also applied under the bolt head and washer. The FSM torque pattern is followed and the 3-step 22ftlb-43ftlb-47ftlb process is done. 3: The OEM o-ring and sealant is applied to the cam carriers. Rockers are greased and installed. Cam carriers are installed. 14.5ftlb on the bolts. 4: Intake is installed with OEM gaskets. 16ftlb on the bolts. 5: Rest of the engine is assembled and hooked up. Turn the key, milkshake. Am I supposed to retorque before first startup, then do another retorque? That makes no sense to me. Maybe it's just leaking from the intake manifold? But I used OEM gaskets on clean and dry surfaces and torqued to spec. I'm off to clean this engine out again. I'm not giving up yet. :[

I was giving AI a chat, as much as I don't like to sometimes it dredges up useful information. AI kept telling me that the 3-step 22ftlb-43ftlb-47ftlb was an outdated torque procedure and that a service bulletin released 05/91 updated the procedure to a 2-step 22ftlb-51ftlb procedure. Bulletin titled 1.8 Engine Head Gasket Torque Change/Oil Leakage. No bulletin number I could find. Perhaps regarding pushrod engines? However, after a call to my local dealership. I got a service bulletin # 02-85-91 released 12/91 staying that the OHC EA82's had no change to their torque procedure but the Justy did. So the book procedure is the correct procedure. :]

Oh yeah coolant definitely was where it shouldn't have been. Milkshake anyone? I have plenty. I was extremely thorough with the head bolt torque. I always had a diagram with torque order and torque values written down. I seriously doubt I followed the directions incorrectly. That's not an ego thing, I make a lot of mistakes. I really don't think it was one of them. When I grabbed my set of head gaskets I mentioned my situation to my engine rebuilder (knowledge older gentleman) and he was very confused. Only thing that made sense to him was a defective head gasket. I'd cleaned, chased, and oiled all the threads. Bolts were wire brushed and cleaned. I have no clue what happened. And it was only the driver side that leaked (also closer to the water pump... Coincidence?) the passenger side was completely fine. I spent all last night tearing the engine down, I've spent all today cleaning the heads, cam carriers, cams, oil pan, and head bolts. It's basically ready to go back together but I'm going to spend some time with a coffee and a notebook going through the FSM to make sure I don't jump the gun. It's all a learning process. :] P.S. I took a look at my head gaskets (OEM) and I noticed they're slightly bowed. They're not bent or creased and I can flex them flat with one finger. I'd take a photo but I don't want to take them out of the plastic until they're ready to go on and you can't easily tell they're bowed when they're in the plastic.

My guess as to what happened are either of the two scenarios: 1: I installed the head gaskets by the book but the time between when I installed the head gaskets and when I actually started the engine was about 3 weeks. I work 6 days a week and I had to wait on parts I thought I had but I didn't. In that time the heads, head bolts, and gasket creeped at different rates. So when I started the engine, the heads weren't torqued to spec (because everything had relaxed before the retorque) and this caused it to leak. After removing the heads, I noticed a few of the bolts didn't make a "snap" when loosening. The gaskets weren't blown through anywhere. I measured the deck with a straight edge and a feeler gauge, within spec. The heads were resurfaced and tested and passed okay. 2nd: I used a non-oem cam carrier o-ring. This could have caused coolant to leak into the oil. But the engine was also burning coolant and a cylinder wasn't firing properly so I'm not sure what to believe happened. Could be a combo of the two. I have a spare set of OEM head gaskets and OEM o-rings so those will go in tomorrow. Actually today, it's getting late. Can I reuse the cork oil pan gasket after I drop the pan to clean it out? Or are they prone to stick to the block and split? I didn't use any sealant on it. Also the cam tower sealant was still wet in some parts. I used OEM sealant and the temps when I applied it was in the 70°F range so I'm not sure what happened there. This is really turning out to be a learning experience but I sure am getting more comfortable working on this thing. Only took me 3 hours to get it stripped down to the short block with the engine in the car. That's lightning fast for my pace. :]

Well I got it to run. Dizzy was a tooth off. But now I have a coolant leak I have to track down. The cars been sitting a few weeks between when the head gaskets went on and the first start so maybe the head gaskets need a retorque? EDIT: yes it 100% is a head gasket. Now the question is do I take off the head (only 1 side is leaking, driver side) to inspect the head gasket and replace it? Damn this really sucks.

After doing some thinking, a few things of note. This is a carbed EA82 that I've converted to SPFI. I know the cams between the two are different but I've always heard they're interchangeable, just the engine may prefer different ignition timing than a factory SPFI setup. Is it best to connect the test connectors to put the ECU into "learn" mode as I'm trying to start the engine for the first time? I'm really thinking it's just a timing issue since as I've mentioned it doesn't run off ether.

Timing belts were put on by the book. Driver side, rotate 180, passenger side. Check at 0 BDC if the pulley markings are facing "outwards" and dizzy is set to #1. It is. Plug wires are in the proper firing order to the proper cylinders. Belts were torqued with a homemade version of the factory tool and a beam torque wrench. Granted the belts were used for about 2-3k miles so I had to tighten to 18ftlb rather than 2ftlb if the belts were new. But I followed the chart in the FSM. If I had to guess it to be anything it'd either be a timing issue or a compression issue, somehow, but I'm more inclined to believe the former rather than the latter. Could also be bad gas, but it doesn't run off ether which is why I think it's a timing/spark issue. Even though I have spark. I seriously doubt a coil or dizzy issue. :]

Prepare your thinking caps. I've recently done a full rebuild (minus bottom end) of an SPFI EA82 and full reconditioning of the engine bay. The engine and manifold are a bit of a Frankenstein but both the engine ran, and all of the electronics (dizzy, throttle body, ECU, maf sensor, etc) came from a running engine. Air: I just redid the head gaskets (that's why I'm trying to start this thing up and clearly failing) the heads were fully reconditioned (valves and seats ground, new valve seals, new guides, new lifters, head resurfaced). Deck was meticulously cleaned. All new seals on the throttle body. All new hoses everywhere of the proper metric sizes. It definitely has compression. Fuel: Pump is noisy but it ran the engine previously. Injector is firing and spray pattern from what I can tell looks okay. I did have an issue of coolant leaking from the throttle body into the intake but I removed the plugs and cranked it over for a few seconds a couple of times to hopefully blow all that into the exhaust or out the spark plug holes. Coolant leak looks to be resolved (looking past the throttle plate with WOT and injector disconnect while cranking). Fuel has been sitting for about 10 months with a stabilizer added while I've been gathering parts and meticulously working on this thing by the book. But even when I spray ether into the intake, it doesn't fire. It sounds more promising with the ether. I let it air out with spark plugs removed, disconnected the injector and tried to run it off ether. It sounded like it really wanted to kick over (*faint* whomp-whomp-whomp-whomp). TPS is set up properly and tests okay. Spark: It has spark on all 4 plugs, proper gaps, tested body & engine grounds for resistance (0.3-0.4 ohm from the ground to the battery). No codes from ECU. Dizzy is properly phased with the cams, it should be in a good enough range to at least kick over, maybe not run perfectly but it's in the proper range to run. I'm at a bit of a loss here, anything stand out to anyone or any thoughts or opinions? I have an FSM and I can go through everything in the troubleshooting diagram. I'm just confused, I have all the ingredients for fire but success evades me currently. Thanks :]

@bushytails You could try running a few tanks of premium (no ethanol) through it. My gauge wasn't working and slowly over about 2 months of driving the gauge came back. My guess is the premium dissolved the varnish that was gumming up the sender float mechanism.

I did some more digging and it's apparently just an indication of what transmission and emissions system the ECU is set up for. It's a non-trouble code. :]

Engine's in, most of the small bits and bobs are done. Not out of the woods yet. Tonight I was using the test connector trick to run my fuel pump. I wanted to prime the system and check my fuel lines for leaks before I add a hot running engine to the equation. When I was priming the system, I noticed the injector was firing. Is this normal? I knew when you have all 3 test connectors (SPFI engine) connected, it ran the fuel pump. However I don't know if the injector firing at the same time is normal or not. Additionally I pulled the codes while I was at it and I only got code 5. I believe I remember reading somewhere that this is one of those codes that means nothing and goes away when the engine fires up. It's not mentioned in the FSM. Any ideas on what specifically this code means? Is it just an indication of what "mode" the ECU is in? Like it's saying "this is an SPFI engine with a manual transmission". Thanks :]