evo Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 to start of Hello. I've been lurking here since june when I bought my 81 gl 1800cc wagon. I bought it with 123K miles on the stock engine. Been tinkering with it since. There seem to be lots of little things going on with it but overall it's a good car. I'm not the most mechanicaly inclined person and I'm needing help figuring out where to start, and to find parts... Oil is the biggest issue, its leaking all over the place. My mechanic seems to be frustrated with the car, and not very interested in working on it or spending much time figuring out what it going on. There is constantly a small puddle of oil sitting in the air filter / air intake area. Mechanic says that its blowing oil from the valve cover and thats just the way it is.. Any ideas...? I seem to be loosing quite a bit though there and it drips through a small hole onto the front of the engine and alt belt. Is this a sign of somthing worse going on? some thing just to live with? or a simple fix in the pcv system? The oil pump is leaking around the seals, and the mechanic is saying that I need a new oil pump since "they just never go back on right". He's a good guy and not looking to make a fast buck, he's done a lot of free work and help. What are the thoughts here? I've done the basics plugs, wires, air filter, and oil filter. I'm not getting very good mileage... well, it's all over getting 17-26 anyhing else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 (edited) All of those problems are easy fixes for someone that knows these cars. Where are you located? If you are near the Portland metro area I could take a look at it and probably fix it right up in a few hours. Very likely it just needs some cleaning of the PCV system - new valve and filter, and an oil pump seal kit. The mileage on your engine is very low and it's actually age more than mileage that's causing you problems. The oil pump should only be replaced if it's actually worn out - which is possible depending on the maintenance history, but not typical at all - and if it does they are about $75 give or take and they take about 15 minutes to change out. Bring it by if you are near and I can set you straight - probably very inexpensively. GD Edited January 29, 2010 by GeneralDisorder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evo Posted January 29, 2010 Author Share Posted January 29, 2010 I'll seriously consider that. I live on whidbey Is north of seattle a little.. I have alot of faith in this car, just need to find some one with the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 I'll seriously consider that. I live on whidbey Is north of seattle a little.. I have alot of faith in this car, just need to find some one with the same. That's not too bad of a drive - I've been there a few times for Subaru show's and such. Been a few years - I think it was about 3 or 4 hours. There are people closer that know these engines but most of them are busy all the time. You might contact Tubone (Rob) - he is in the seattle area and might be able to lend a hand. I'm not sure he knows EA81's like I do, but he definitely can handle it - he's built a number of EA82's and has some pretty custom turbo stuff. If you are interested in comming down it would make a nice day trip. And I won't lie - I could use the business as I'm laid off currently. I have some customer's from up north - one faithful gentleman brings me his '90 Legacy from Tacoma every month or two for one thing or another. I guess honest, knowledgable Subaru mechanics aren't all that common :-\. Or if you are willing to follow direction you could likely do most of it yourself. As I said most of it is pretty simple and frankly it's just common sense when you think about it. Your mechanic probably just isn't interested - sounds like he would rather work on something else and explain away your problems with "that's just how it is" rather than find out what is actually wrong and fix it. EA81's don't "just blow oil out the valve covers". It's getting sucked out because the PCV system is a mess. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evo Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 If I do come to pp town (lived there for 9 years, and know it very well) it wouldn't be for a while. I have to figure out a water issue it's having 1st before I can even take it to the store.. may be you can help with that? Part of the reason I got the car is to learn to work on it myself. Now it's the primary family car, and I just want it running asap. It's been getting hot every now and then when sitting at long idles. I thought it was just the thermostat sticking. It was only getting hot randomly. Last week after idling for a while it got really hot really fast and it wasn't being driven hard at all, it overheated and blew from the radiator cap. Drove it for a few more days and over heated agin, and blew the upper hose. I replaced the radiator hose, and thermostat. Drove it home and it seemed to do fine until it came into the drive way and started to get hot. Now it takes along time to warm up the temp climbs to normal and pauses there for a minute. It slowly climbs over normal temp and starts spraying from over fill tube with force. How do I check the thermo switch/electric cooling fans? Mechanic says that it's not warm enough to kick them on while driving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 The fan (passenger side primary fan) should come on with it just idling in the driveway. It should come up to temp - the fan should come on to cool the radiator and when the temp drops below the switch set-point the fan goes back off. It should continue cycling like that indefinitely. You should not have to drive it to test the fan. The thermo-switch is in the passenger side radiator tank - it's a single wire connection and it grounds through the radiator so if the grounding wire for the radiator (usually on the top near the center of the radiator and connected to the top of the core support) is loose, corroded, or missing then the fan will never receive a closed circiut and never turn on. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evo Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 finally getting somewhere! I'll check it in the morning and report back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evo Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 ok so I think I figured it out... Warm the car up and fan wont come on, gets warm/hot. Turn the A/C on and both fans come on, and engine cools down go figure huh? So I guess I'll start with the thermoswitch since the wiring is functional with the ac... Starting to come together, thanks for the advise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Yeah - the AC relay's bypass the thermo-switch and power up both fans. Sounds like you need a new thermo-switch and probably a new mechanic - if he couldn't figure that out then he needs to go back to first-year principles of water cooled internal combustion. And lets face it - this is very nearly a 70's vintage car - it's not like it's a terribly complex machine. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evo Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 Already have the oil pump seals, oil pan gasket, on the way. Diving down to pp-town just got more realistic, I'll talk to the lady and see about a road trip.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.