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EA82 drinking oil


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'94 loyale, 220k+ miles. Just went through 3/4 of a quart in 221 miles.

 

Last summer I pulled the engine and resealed everything but the HGs.

 

Last week I put a new (SOA) PCV valve in. The old one still moved, but didn't have a good clunk to it. The above oil usage is after the new PCV was installed.

 

It does drip a little, but not enough to lose a quart in a few hundred miles. It does smoke off the cat converter pretty good though (sometimes). The front of the engine is actually pretty dry.

 

It has the blue PCV bypass update thing done. The old PCV hoses were brittle and cracked so I replaced them with 5/8" heater hose + hose clamps.

 

As a test, I disconnected the passenger side PCV hose and hooked up a vacuum gauge to it. I plugged the hole in the intake, and plugged the hose from the intake to the drivers side. With the engine running, after a few minutes it built up almost 1"hg. Everything I've seen online says this should build up to 3-5" pretty quickly.

 

I can squeeze the hose coming from the driver side valve cover shut and the section of hose to the PCV valve sucks shut pretty quickly. That vacuum just doesn't transfer to the other side of the engine. Oil cap and dipstick are pretty tight.

 

Any idea why it's using this much oil? :rolleyes::horse:

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Hopefully not too insulting but just in case, make sure your on level ground and the motor is cold when checking the oil.

 

theres a seal in the back of the engine that can leak it into the bell housing. pretty classic way to lose oil without seeing where its going. not a terrible idea to check the seals in the front either, the oil could be building up in the timing cover or something.

 

i don't know what the blue pcv bypass is, but heater hose can be sucked closed by a strong pcv system, and from what I can remember the passenger side is supposed to be supplied with fresh air either through a breather cap or from the air box or something (assuming lefthand drive). make sure this "passenger side hose" is getting fresh air. From what I understand, fresh air into the passenger side head, and a hose from the driver side into the pcv valve in the middle. might be able to be reversed, I don't know, but you need a fresh air inlet somewhere in the system.

 

Come to think of it I think a strong pcv system can pull oil out of the heads as well. seems like a long shot but sucking oil and spraying it back towards the cat?

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Yep, I know how to check the oil, lol. This has been a constant issue for a couple years now. He hasn't kept real good track of usage other than 'it uses a lot'. But I know it was full a couple hundred miles ago, and now it's down 3/4 of a quart.

 

Rear main was replaced when I pulled the engine last summer. Doesn't mean it isn't bad though.

 

Timing covers are off, and the front of the engine is dry. A little seepage around the oil pump, but not enough to drip.

 

PCV system is otherwise set up correctly.

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I have 3 ea82 cars that get regular use one has 60,000miles, one has 180,000 miles , and one has over 300,000 miles. They all burn oil at the same rate 1-2 quarts between oil changes. These motors get thirsty

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my 90 3dr i had would do this too. only with mine, it would start to run funny and if you looked in the rear view mirrow you would see james bond 007 smoke screen! it would literally burn a quart of oil in a matter of seconds.

 

i would pull over, put a new oem pcv valve in, and a quart of oil, and it would be good to go for another 3-4 months. then do it again, was weirdest thing i ever seen on a car. i kept a new oem pcv valve and wrench right in the glove box LOL. never did figure out wtf it was that was causing it...

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Years ago (in 2005), my Subaru BumbleBeast was wasting oil and blowing a small amount of white smoke, So I removed the Engine with the Idea of doing a complete reseal, but after looking at it, I Found that the Culprit was the...

 

...valve stem seals...

 

...yes, the Valve's Seals.

 

The Original ones in my Subie's 1985 EA82 came made by Rubber only, while the Replacement ones that I Found at the Local Subaru Dealer, came improved, because they have some sort of metallic core covered by Rubber.

 

I Just Installed them and serviced the Valves; then put new Head Gaskets and placed the engine back in the Subie again; filled with fresh oil & Coolant and my BumbleBeast doesn't waste a Single Drop of oil nor blows any smoke since then.

 

Maybe those Valve seals are all your subie's engine Needs.

 

Kind Regards.

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I was actually going to ask about that for another one of my cars...

 

How hard is to do the valve seals without pulling the engine? I know the cam towers would have to come off, and enough compressed air in the cylinders *should* hold the valves in place. Otherwise it's just compressing the springs, removing the retainers, the replacing the seals.

 

Or is it easier to just swap it for another engine :rolleyes:

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