I finally took apart the EA82 that had been in my loyale. I had drowned it in a pond at 4,000 rpms, then used the starter to bump it slowly, a few degrees at a time untill the water leaked past the rings. Once we got the water through, it started up again and I drove it out. Drove it for a couple weeks after that, it sounded like hell, was down on power, but it ran.

 

Well, here's the pics of the rotating assembly:

 

The shiny marks on the bottoms of the pistons are where they were hitting the block at BDC, or hitting the cranshaft counterweights. That was the bad rapping noise it had. 3 out of 4 bent rods.

That's impressive! But it still ran! Gotta love Subarus!!

doh, bent rods and bent wrist pins and carnage all over that lower end.

and yet it ran and got back home... amazing

You could be a spokesperson for Subaru durability. Kind of like Jared and Subway lol. Think of the sponsorship benefits that would get you. A new Subaru every year for life.

next time pull the plugs and let it crank out the "water"

 

it may last longer

 

new set of rods and pistons = good to go

I was planning on EJ swapping it, I already had the motor ready, but I was still working on the harness. This incident kinda forced the issue.

 

The damage was done as soon as the water was pulled in. The intake was full with water to the top of the throttle body. 4k rpms to 0 in one crunch. No tools, middle of the night, couple miles out in the woods, you do what you have to. And at that point, who cares if the oil is diluted with water, the engines junk anyway.

Good job for at least getting it to drive home! Keep us updated on the EJ swap!!!

What I was most surprised about was that the rods didn't snap. I wasn't easy on the motor for the couple of weeks of driving after that, I couldn't be, big tires and and a motor way down on power meant you had to beat on the motor to keep it moving. I gave it the ol' redline test before I pulled it out, it used to be able to free rev to 8,200, but I don't think it could go much past 6k. Lot of internal friction and lost compression I'd say.

 

Oh, and I drowned the motor back in 2005 mabe? Then I ej-swapped the car, drove it for a number of years, and took it off the road this december, too much rust. Had a lot of fun with that car. I finally got to see inside the engine because one of my friends showed and interest in seeing what an engine looks like inside, so I let him take it apart. we had to split the case and take the rods apart because you couldn't pull the wristpins out through the access holes anymore.

Edited January 8, 200917 yr by WoodsWagon