So, what's considered a "healthy" compression test reading on an EA82T? I've never tested a car with such low compression before, don't know what to look for.

 

Suspecting head issues on my XT, clouds of white smoke+temp rising at idle+bubbling coolant=not good.

It sounds like you have a cracked head. It’s pretty common on the turbo EA82 engines. The heads crack where the exhaust runners come together in the head and there just happens to be a water jacket there. Subaru did fix this problem with the 3rd generation of the heads. To check for the crack, take off the crossover pipe; look at the ridge in the center of the exhaust port for a crack.

 

To tell which heads you have, crawl under the engine and look at the bottom of each head. Find where it says EA82 in the casting.

 

If it just says EA82 it's a 1st gen head

If it just says EA82 with a line under it's a 2nd gen head

If it just says EA82 with a box around it it's a 3rd gen head

 

Someone here has a good diagram explaing this but it's not in the USRM for some reason

Sorry, I just realized I may have worded that kinda funny. What I meant to ask was, I've never tested a car with anything lower than 9:1 compression, what readings should I expect on a healthy EA82T with 7:1 compression?

 

I'm worried about having cracked a head, no matter what I end up doing it's going to be a pain in the arse.

 

If I remember right the car has Gen 2 heads on it.

 

Oh, and Skip is the one with the diagram.

compression is usually contrasted between individual cylinders, rather than seeking a specific numeric value.

 

ya want em all to be within about ten pounds of each other

if i remember correctly....