Big engine probleme, need some advices

[stickedy]

Hello!

 

Bad news from my broken EA82 engine. Never lend a car to a girl... OK, I guess it would have happened also if were the driver. Too make it short: Failed head gasket or crack in the head. My brother and myself took the engine apart, the head seems to be ok, so we installed a new head gasket, but that wasn't the problem: We made a quick test and there pours cooling water out of an oil passage (lower left)

 

Am I right that this is the sign for a cracked head? (I guess, it's possible that the other head gasket or head could be damaged, but compression is ok on that side).

 

OK, so we have to choose what to do next. A few advices and tips would be great

The engine is a MPFI one, I have two fine carbed ones and a damaged Turbo engine here.

I guess there are the following possibilites:

Take the head from one of the carbed engines and install ist (if it's possible?)

Put the carbed engine in the car and - since it's not that easy here in Germany to keep the carbed version - switch the whole injection system from the damaged engine (if it's possible?)

 

Is must say, changing the engine is perhaps the best version, since I know that the carbed engines are fine and I don't know the real condition of the MPFI engine at all. But that only would make sense If we could easily switch from carbed to MPFI?

 

Thanks in advance!

[idosubaru]

so you're not sure if it's the heads or the block that's hosed are you?

 

the heads are turbo specific, not sure if you can "make" the carbed heads work with some drilling and tapping for the oil/coolant ports for the turbo but the carbed versions only have single port intakes so that might be tricky.

 

best to know exactly what is wrong, it could be fixable.

 

if the block is bad i think you can install all the turbo stuff inside the carb block - pistons and all, then bolt the turbo heads to it. so basically you'd only use the carbed block.

 

the carb block won't have the knock sensor port, but usually the boss is there. the one SUbaru engine i did that didn't have a knock sensor even had the hole and threads there, i just had to screw the knock sensor in when I used it in a car that had a knock sensor.

[stickedy]

The engine isn't a Turbo one, it's a standard MPFI! I guess I wrote it a bit difficult to understand. I have another "spare engine" here which is a Turbo, but this one is also somehow damaged.

 

To be honest: I currently have neither the time nor the money to play around with that engine Swapping both engines would take about a day (oh yeah, there's experience on that), rebuilding the engine much longer.

 

So, the intake of the MPFI and carbed versions are different? That's bad...

 

The MPFI version has no knock sensor, so this wouldn't be a problem (in fact it would be simple problem to solve ).

[stickedy]

I've checked some documentation today and it seems to me that the intake of carbed, SPFI and MPFI versions are identical? Can anyone please confirm that?

 

If so, we will make the engine swap and interchange the intake manifold / fuel system.

 

Oh, because the engine is out of the car, what jobs should I do?

Timing belt and water pump? What else?

[idosubaru]

i'm sorry stickedy, i was thinking you had the MPFI dual port heads. only the later XT Turbo's had those and i was thinking that's what you had for some reason.

 

it may be that yours are the same, i'm surprised someone else didnt' chime in. i can promise this information is already on the USMB, a search would tell you if heads are interchangeable and differences.

[NorthWet]

The MFPI heads/intakes are different from the carb and SPFI versions. The MFPI, in both turbo and NA forms, use dual intake ports. (You can't squirt fuel into a siamesed intake port once per cycle and expect 2 sequentially firing cylinders to get the right mixture.)

 

So, the MPFI engine/heads/intake are interchangeable, allowing for the lower compression of the turbo pistons and the extra drilled/tapped oil and coolant passages in the turbo's non-distributor side head.

[stickedy]

Argh, that's logic! I've looked at an 1989 service manual and that was for the carbed version A look at the XT manual clearly shows the difference... Thanks!

 

Hmm... That's bad Really bad... I'm a bit undecided what to do now. Perhaps I should rebuild the Turbo engine... Hmm, or have a look at ebay for a MPFI engine...

[NorthWet]

Regarding whether the head is cracked, although most anything is possible, the MPFI heads usually crack into the exhaust port (a crack appears in the "divider" section between the two exhaust runners that feed the port) or between the valve seats if the ubiquitous crack there runs too deep. Cracking between the coolant jacket and the oil passages seems a little unusual; I would suspect the other head gasket first.

 

You can have the head(s) pressure tested to check for cracks. It is somewhat pricey in my part of the world (and by my cheap standards): 10 years ago, I was quoted US$65 per head for pressure testing. But it should tell you if the heads are usable.

 

What is bad with the turbo engine? If the heads are still serviceable, you can swap those onto the NA MPFI block. You would need to block the coolant and oil lines for the turbo, but otherwise should work.

[4x4_Welder]

The EA82 engine has a freeze plug in the head between the coolant passage and the open interior of the cam cover, if that pops out you get water in the oil.

Last time I got heads checked, it was $40 for the pair, but that was in Connecticut also about ten years ago, in the smallest, dirtiest little hole in the wall of a shop you've ever seen.

They did some of the best work I've ever seen, though.

[NorthWet]

The EA82 engine has a freeze plug in the head between the coolant passage and the open interior of the cam cover, if that pops out you get water in the oil...

I forgot about that one...Thanks.