DaveT

Axle nut is 36mm on ea 82 era cars.

A 92 should have an EA82 engine. I'm guessing you want to swap it into an 87? Swap the intake, and all that stuff, the bottom, and heads should be the same. I swapped 86 and 90's era intakes / lower end / heads / etc. The EGR stuff you might have to figure a way to deal with.

It's not likely you got to around 150ftlbs without a big breaker bar or handle extender. It seemed tight, but with heating and cooling and the dynamic loads from driving, things shifted and the looseness became apparent.

Sounds like a switch engages the 4wd? If it's a switch, 4wd isn't engaged without the power on. I have to ask, because I am not familiar with all of the various versions, and that can matter. How far was it towed? Short distance won't likely hurt anything.

How many miles? What level are you going to [just headgaskets, or all the way to main bearings?] What's the history - abuse, overtemp, etc?

The axles are hardened, the hubs are just cast. For the splines to be worn like that, it was loose for a good while. How one gets looose, yeah, odd. There isn't really any normal way for anything to wear - the parts are all stacked and compressed by the big nut. If it was assembled correctly.

I don't think the oil you found in the spark plug holes has anything to do with headgaskets. Coolant consumptuous is a possible hint, but there are other ways for coolant to sneakily dissappear. Has it been run at over normal temperature while low on coolant? Low on coolant means significant air in the radiator.

Maybe recheck it in a week. If you got it before stuff started getting torn up, it should be ok. I had maybe 1 or 2 that made noise, and found loose, but I checked them right away, tightned, and they were fine.

If it's leaking coolant, you'll notice [or should be noticing due to regular level checking] that coolant is going away. Small leaks [internal or external] of oil or coolant have no effect on power, or anything related. Internal leaks would have to be pretty bad to cause noticeable effects. Visible smoke takes a *large* leak, Very large, into the intake or the like. You would notice oil or coolant going away very quickly if you had a visible smokescreen going on. I've seen headgasket leaks to the outside of the engine, that are very small - you can get away with running them as long as you monitor the coolant level closely to avoid running low. The beginning headgasket failure of coolant to combustion chamber, the gasses are pushed into the coolant, not the other way around. No noticeable effect on performance. Not until the car is essentially undriveable for anything more than the time it takes to overheat. Visual inspection of sensors is far from a complete evaluation of function. They can look perfect and be bad.

I'd put it in and see what happens. But to me swapping an engine isn't a big deal, so if it developed a problem, no big deal, I just lost some time. I've had engines I pulled sit around for years, and then put them in and run them. I didn't drain them of coolant though, just whatever was left was left, and then evaporation likely happened. I never head of any trouble from sitting dry.

Buy a good quality kit, not the cheapest. Change every 50 to 60 k miles to be extra safe. Far cheaper the the timing belt service on the newer ones, even though the change interval is about double the miles. I only use oem for the ej and newer engines. Number is thing to stay on top of is the cooling system. Checking level frequently, don't wait for the temperature gauge to tell you it's bad.

I've had more than a few break. Put on new belts, new idlers and tensioners, good to go. It's a non interference engine, so valves and pistons do not meet.

Every one I've had from 1974 through 1993 has that arrangement but they changed from a nut with a Ridge that you hammer to the castle nut cotter pin somewhere between.

There should be a cone shaped thick washer - more like a wedge. It fills in the chamfer on the hub, and provides a flat face for the spring washer. Then a thinner .2" ish. Spring washer - rounded convex side faces nut.

Loose nut can do that. Hub, bearings, splines, brake rotor can all move around in ways they are not supposed to ...

D'oh! Stupid valves.

What I would be doing.... swap all of the fuses around -they can fail intermittent and you can't tell by looking at them. Add a temporary pilot light / test light to likely circuits to monitor if the power drops when the event happens. I once had the wire in the engine harness that goes to the iac valve break - inside the insulation. The engine would shut off if I let go of the gas pedal. It would still run as along as I feathered the gas pedal.

That should be ok. All the roll pin does I'd keep the thing from sliding off the splines.

How much longer will if be up? What's the url? If there is stuff I could use, I'd be inclined to download it.

Hmmm.... I wonder. The temps vary pretty quickly with engine rpm and load. I'll have to check the temps with the new one. Also put the probes on my othe car in the meantime, see what it's doing. Yeah, that idle test is new.

Oh, the temperatures were read while driving with moderate load. Thermocouple probes clamped to the pipes. I've used this setup before, so I have an idea of what to expect. This system has passed more than one test since I built them in 2010. I made 2, one on each of my wagons. Oooh, no fluid consumption with the current engine, but this system was on another car for a good while with the engine that burned a quart of oil every tank of gas. It passed emissions twice! Then one of the heads began cracking, leaking coolant into the exhaust port on one side. I continued running it while rebuilding an engine, and it got to the point where water would drip through at a rate that I had to add a regular size bottle of bottled water before every drive. It was summer, so I didn't bother with antifreeze. I also ran it with a zero pressure cap to keep the leaking down. But wait.... it passed when I put it on this car 2 years ago... or did I run it through emissions with it's original exhaust? Damn, can't remember. I probably put it on this car when I had to swap the transmission. hmmm. I guess all that doesn't matter, as it's dead for sure now. http://www.dynahoedave.co.nf/exhaust.html

With those "regular " compression test numbers, I think there is a problem. What, you don't know until it's apart. Try for a swap / refund.

Exhaust gas temperature near o2 sensor, 500 to 600 degrees F. After the catalytic, around 300. Not a good sign for the cat. It's dead. It should be a hundred or two higher. Why it's dead? That's the other stuff to check, as mentioned above. I had a bad o2 sensor kill one many years ago. The good thing about my custom exhaust is the cat is an $80 part from a tuner car shop, it replaces the 2 very expensive oem ones that are part of the pipes.

If you replace the timing belt, replace all of the idlers and tensioner. When one of those fails, the new belt won't help. Oem only for those parts if long term reliability is a concern.

When it's running, poke around at wiring harness on the engine. Obviously avoid moving bits and spark plug wires. There are a couple of engine ground wires worth checking also. One near the thermostat, on on a tab on the coolant pipe that goes into the water pump. And the one from battery neg to the body. Intermittent electric problems are a pain.