daeron

sonicfrog, i addressed the radiator already.. yah, new one. new to me anyhow, and new enough. my buddy has a coolant flush machine from his shop, imma get some solution to flush the block out with and get that nice and cleaned out.. i am still trying to determine if i am still losing water, and it looks like i might be.. must check in the morning once its cooled all the way off and theres light. i changed my oil today as well, its been leaking about a quart every 500 miles or so (and its visibly leaking, not burning.. visibly at least) and there was a bit of a rainbow sheen to it, but no water in it. there has never been oil in the water either.. also, i have COMPLETELY neglected to recheck the ATF level, i dont recall when i last did. i ALSO failed to mention that i have the crapezoidal 3AT too.... so thats one other thing to check on.. speaking of which, would it be a good idea to drain and refill my tranny? i dont have any problems with it.. it sticks on the shift into second the first time, when its cold... but after that first shift through, its golden. no slips no noise.

no thermostat. When i got the car it had a 160 in it.. i swear to god, 160 degrees fahrenheit. that at one point began to stick, so i replaced it.. the local stores only had 180, and i mean ALL.. and i live in a large area.. not backwoods, you know? anyhow, the car ran warmer ever since then. I think i may also have a slight maladjustment of ignition timing, but i havent been able to lay my hands on a timing light in recent months.. my uncle has been sick a few times, and i have been working far too much. anyhow, the new thermostat started sticking (which may well have been an unnoticed forerunner to all the problems ive had lately.. i had a rad hose blow, and a water pump leak/blowout. the pump was OK, but there was water a-spewing.. i didnt know how it was designed until i took off the AC compressor, but in retrospect i think it was the seal around the outlet pipe that goes towards the back of the engine.. (probably both at the same time, but i found the rad hose first) anyhow with the thermostat sticking, and my rad fins in a shambles, i did some JY hunting and found a brand new radiator in a loyale wagon.. single core, and non OEM but all metal and nice shiny black, full of nice shiny green antifreeze.. i wanted to save the antifreeze, it looked so good... got that, and a new clutch fan shroud and what looks like an original factory piece OEM elec fan to replace the aftermarket slim line thats on there now. I have concluded that I want to short out the thermoswitch plug with a jumper wire, and then install the stock elec.. and from there i am unsure. I could replace the clutch fan with the slimline, it fits in the shroud rather well.. or i might have another fan that would be a better option. Im trying to establish as much of a fan "footprint" on the radiator as possible. I may even leave the clutch fan in and put the slimline up front, blowing back across the AC condensor... two elec fans, maybe one on a switch? hey, how would that work?? replace the thermoswitch, wire the stock fan to come on a temperature threshold, wire the slimline to be on all the time, and leave clutch fan as is??? :mad: i dont WANT a gauge pod... i realize that functionality is important, but so many people look SOOOO stupid with their bloody gauge pods... i agree with you though. here you can read the full thread i wrote... which no one responded to for any details.. but i keep referring to the temp reading as third, fourth.. up to tenth.. etc.. i HATE not knowing what my car is doing.. and i want to switch over to an analog pod... but this car isnt WORTH all that, the trunk is about to fall off!!!! i need to find a nice, five speed pushbutton AWD that needs a motor.. or maybe not even that, screwit.. just gimme the turbo too, ill pay for it... but the cars dont even EXIST down here.. i live in south florida, about fifty miles north of Miami, and seriously.... ive driven the car for two years now, and seen MAYBE four or five other ez82s on the road.. far more than that in the boneyards, but literally none within 200 miles for sale (well, for less than 2,000) (yes i said 2,000, there are car delaerships down in miami and lauderdale that are just obscene like that... the sad thing is people pay it, because its asked...) thanks for the help everyone, and especially for the advice about the gauge pod. despite my views on aftermarket silliness, i have always wanted any car i had to have complete instrumentation.. my Zcar does. ammeter, fuel, oil press and water temp. those are the big four right? anyhow im sure we have a few of them lying around, i shouldnt _need_ to buy anything and if i havent actually been overheating.... i am going to be very mad.

well i have already replaced my radiator cap with one or two JY ones (just as a fersh*ts-andgiggles) and then a locking stant 13 pound stock one.. i think it was 13. well, i trusted what the parts guy sold me. i better go double check that. if its not that, its a higher pressure.. but i cant recall. anyhow, i have no problem at highway speeds... and at this point, honestly, the only time i have heat difficulties is if i sit and idle (like at a drive through or a gatehouse) shortly after heavy driving.. and thats not much. it rarely goes to the halfway mark or above. With the AC on it can be a whole nother story.. but usually, at night, the AC causes no problems.. unless preceeded by a highway-type drive.. you know, a good hard run, followed by slow-no motion with engine running. and AC on. oh and i changed the battery today, and at midafternoon (the car read 92 degrees in the bank drivethru canopy shade....) it was running warmer than ive seen it since removing the themrostat and replacing the radiator, unprovoked.. BUT when i tried turning on the AC it heated up.. rapidly. no big surprise that, although i was taken aback at how quickly it happened.. but when i hit the heat on, it REALLY went up again... the alternator was replaced about a year ago and i have no OTHER reasons to doubt it.. and my elec radiator fan is always on with the key, so the only electrical draw coming on with the heater is the heater/AC fan itself... Again, today, what i experienced was not problematically hot. it cooled adequately. but i was able to easily goad it into the red on the guage.. and i dont _think_ it was an erroneous reading... but you would know this voltage issue better than I. and i would KINDA like to be able to use my car to cool me off in midafternoon stop and go traffic......its rare that im actually out and about in such nasty traffic per se, but the humidity down here makes the heat utterly insidious, and the roads are just stagnantly hot, even if its just for a red light. the volkswagen AC system just cant cut it.. not when the real AC blows as cold as it does... Im thinking of retrofitting a superbig fan onto the thing.. gotta check the amperage draw though.. i might just leave the clutch fan in pplace and put the aftermarket fan on the front :- )

while youre at the store get ahold of a can of white lithium spray grease.. it is MUCH more useful than wd 40 for lubricating something like this... WD 40 might identify it, but itll dry up in an hour. the white lithium grease is FAR from an ideal lubricant for failing timing chain tensioner bearings... but its a damn sight better than WD-40.. PB Blaster and Sea Foam Deep Creep are both far superior to WD 40 in just about any way, anyhow.. at least, between the two. that sea foam stuff is worth the seven bucks a can they charge for it.. and worth it to a poor man, too.... ideally, you should get a grease gun with a needle tip, but i have had many occassions where nothing worked better than an aerosol can of white lithium grease. i am about the only person I know who ever buys a can... but i never have any. when i DO find a can, its USUALLY almost empty. somehow, no one else thinks to buy this.. just to use it. i guess theyre all lucky im around, huh? :- )

no thermometer available... and both times i did take it off the heat and stir it to ensure homogenous temperature in the water at least.. but before i read your post i realized i had neglected to factor in direct heat transfer from the metal of the pan.. and other holes in my testing process. I think i am going to hotwire the thermoswitch plug, put the stock fan back in place and plug it in, and use the thermoswitch to switch the aftermarket fan currently on the passenger's side once i get wiring to move that over to where the clutch fan is the aftermarket fan fits in the clutch fan shroud VERY well thanks, i do alot more work on my car in my head than in the driveway.. so the forum here is a good sounding board for me. I like to think things through before i make mistakes on my "first try...." ive found it cuts down on the number of "second tries" necessary :- ) :banghead:

THAT was an interesting point, and taken to heart.. so you would recommend tightening the belts tighter than one would ordinarily on say, a mazda or a ford, or whatever?? both of my belts are new, but i think they may want tightening.. sometimes if i turn on the AC at speed i get a good squeak, and they seem like they might be a bit loose.. ah well, thats mostly because somehow the crowbar here at my house, AND the pry bars at the shop, have ALL been AWOL and ive had to get creative while tightening my belts.. so sometimes i was working in less than ideal circumstances (requiring three hands and such..) to tighten these belts properly, i really need to loosen both, then tighten the non-alternator belt, then the alternator correct? My alternator is a recently replaced, rebuilt unit from Advance/Discount auto.. i havent had any problems with it, but i question my battery.... but im replacing that today. i never noticed any difference on the fuel guage, but with the digidash, i have a feeling that i dont see things i would see with a normal dash.. i dont think a wavering needle would translate into the gas guage acting like the tachometer... but i may be wrong. it just seems to me that they operate under a basis of constantly averaging readings at a given frequency, rather than an analog fashion.... so, a momentary wobble of a needle would be smoothed out. thanks for the answer, and the tip on the belt. good to know ive already got the part, just needs the foot-pounds. (i got a good alternator belt too.. im normally cheaper than that but something told me to get the gatorback.)

okay, the subject says it all. Im having several minor cooling issues that I am gradually tracing back to a bad headgasket.. but im not sure yet. Unfortunately, i havent had an opportunity to get up to our shop and do a compression check/leakdown test.. but please humour me. the cooling system on this car needs a few touches anyhow, so i am taking care of those now. Driveway work, not shop work. Anyhow, like i said, the subject says it all. MOST of the times lately when i have heated sharply over operating temp, and i resorted to trying the heater to cool it off, it had the wrong effect. When i turned on the heater, it usually RAISES running temp sharply.. and then it usually drops back down to at LEAST whatever it was when i turn it off...so why would that be?? before i started having any cooling issues, several months ago, i think i noticed some coolant on the carpet at the passenger's feet, but it has yet to become a problem.. and if i turn the defogger on when im running at normal temp, its not a problem.. Otherwise, i might think i have a heater core leak, and that every time i turn it on it has to fill it up again.. which would give overheating water an expansion chamber, and lower the pressure to allow it to vaporize... BUT i haven't had any problems with my heater "peeing" on the carpet since the one time, so long ago.... and that was TOTALLY isolated. Still, somehow I got antifreeze on the carpet, so that could be a problem.. But is this an indicator of a headgasket problem? or something else?? why does the heater make it hotter? thats supposed to be your emergency protocol when overheating, right??

well, quick update, i just went and checked for resistance at current operating temp (3-4 bars on the digidash guage, im imagining about 175??) but then again, i checked the other unit (out of junkyard radiator) at full rolling boil and it was good.. but not the first time i tested it, at 95% boil (large bubbles forming rapidly on bottom of saucepan..~190+?) SOO i went ahead and shorted out the plug that goes on the thermoswitch and, bingo, the plug for the stock fan is on.. so should I just hotwire the plug on the thermoswitch? i can make a jumper readily enough. i cant imagine the jumper would need to be a large gage wire, either.. but again, if i am wrong, please correct me. thanks once more

thanks for the quick info, this happened last night at the beginning of my shift and i posted early this AM, and i still have yet to take a good look at how its run, etc. I probly could have answered my question myself, but i wouldnt have been positive. much obliged.

well, i went to open the hood and the cable pulled out in my hand. I had to get to the battery to pump up my tire to run a shift of pizza delivery.. sorta important, i was down to about 5psi... so i fought with the grill and eventually unscrewed the retainer screw and managed to flick open the hood. questions, what donor cars will work? i am assuming anything of this body style should be the same... so if there are any sneaky differences, or if im just plain WRONG someone please tell me :- ) and, how straightforward is this? i dont need a how-to, but if you have done this, is it easy? is it a PITA but not insurmountable? or is it so difficult that i shouldnt even think about it, and instead just hook a piece of pull wire up to the latch, and bypass the in-car hood pull? i suppose security SHOULD be an issue for me, but i dont really care. i dont lock my car half the time anyhow.. thanks.

get the loyale.. as for "cool" its one of the bluntest, oddest looking cars i have ever seen.. but in time i have come to love it for its ugliness. and im sorry, but sharp rectangles, 90 degree angles and trapezoids abound in the shapes of this car... NOT exactly sexy. "Handsome," yes, but not sexy.. my point was, in MY eyes, the newer legacy would have a slightly LESS LOW (higher isnt the right term) "cool factor"... but the loyale would prove to be the more reliable car in the long run. how many loyale/GL/GL-10s are still on the road? and how many legacies? DESPITE the age difference? if the rust on the loyale isnt bad, go for it. besides, its a five speed. do you REALLY want to feed all that fuel to a torque converter thats just going to run a transmission with fewer gears? i dont know anything about the jeggy tranny, but its gotta be a four speed at best.. is it one of those overdrive trannies that has the differing shift point? or is it a simple 3 or 4 speed auto gearbox? because no four banger deserves to be coupled to a three speed. ESPECIALLY not an EA82... (sorry im looking for a manual trans to swap in in south florida, and when you are so isolated from the rest of the country this whole "community" thing kinda dries up... :( )

are you using a regular ratchet or wrench?? an impact gun would be more effective.. dont forget that an impact has more effect looseing tight bolts (especially with loctite) so, if you can immobilize the sprocket OK then try setting a good box wrench on it and smacking it with a hammer. If you have the option of using a six point socket or wrench instead of a twelve point, use that.. and of course if you are using a socket, use a breaker bar instead of a ratchet. you dont wanna break the mechanism in the ratchet.

holy freakin crap. i hate to sound so typical, but when i first saw the first picture my thought was "Well, he chose function over form," because honestly its a plain-looking girl at first.. but as soon as i really thought about that rollcage/cargo rack on there.. and of course once i saw the motor, that it was "form follws function"... and it is done spectacularly... standing ovation here, all she needs is a snorkel :- ) I live in south florida, and our average elevation here is about 25 feet or so.. we are talking low-lying swamplands, so most of the 'wheelers around here are into mud bogs and such, not dry sloped gravel roads.. which would explain why i feel a rig like that is incomplete without a snorkel, but man.. seriously.. that is something else. any interior pics?? what size are those tires? a buddy and i had a brat years ago.. we tried to hack together a carb manifold for a weber my uncle gave me, but then my buddy ripped all the ignition wires out along with the rest of the electrical accessories on the thing.. so it stopped being a four wheeler project and became an engine we had no clue how to get to spark. :- ( and it died, but we were going to strip it down to mnimum weight, and put the biggest tires possible onto it.. juust to see if we could make it float like a four-wheeler!! i think nothing would be cooler than a brat with an outrigger set up complete with propeller :- )

yah, fill it and bring it up to temp. it should start spraying long before the car gets close to overheating. i thought i blew a water pump a few weeks back.. almost dried my radiator out before i noticed anything. let my car sit for a few hours, filled it up and on the way home, i stopped at one point to ensure i had coolant in the reservoir.. and found it spraying out of a tear in the upper rad hose, just beyond the edge of radiator inlet tube. every rad hose ive ever had, on any car, thats gone bad ripped right there.

you might want to try heating the pulley a little bit, but dont go crazy, and for goodness' sake, do NOT strick the pulley with ANYTHING while its hot.. and it might be a good idea to have a blanket or a few layers of cardboard down for it to fall off onto.. because with heat it will get brittle and you can break it easily. Like i said, dont get crazy with heat, and once it cools it should be fine again.. but above all, what northwet said was the best.. be PATIENT, or else, you can make a stupid mistake and break the thing. and that makes you feel dumb. trust me. but aligning the keyway should not be a difficulty, and if the gap on the pulley is worn, or if the key is worn, then you need to replace them. If either is worn, its best to replace both just to be safe.

yah, power steering is something that it seems like you really want (kinda like power brakes) but in reality, its more like an automatic transmission.. yah, you COULD build a system that has minimal interference with real driving ability, but it at best is a thief of power and costs money. i hate to subvert your question into a statement that youre wrong, but i noticed that more drivers under the age of 20 are worried about their power steering than over 20.. which suggests to me that everyone seems to realize (probably like me, thru having a problem with their power steering) that its not all that necessary... so hey. try living without! its alot nicer, but i understand if youre using a depowerized power rack you want to connect the lines to each other to maintain static fluid level inside the rack, as the fluid is the working lubricant for the steering gears.... do a search, or ask someone who knows more than I. I know enough that I know what i dont know... yanno? so when i get in over my head, i immediately seek help. maybe i should go do that now.. :-)

OK.. so just to clarify, if i get no continuity across the terminals of the thermoswitch when it has been sitting in boiling water at sea level (212) then its bad.. and if i have a bad thermosensor, or if my car is not up to full enough temperature, then i will never see a completed circuit for the ground at the stock fan plug, correct? basically, i need to short circuit the plug on the car for the thermoswitch, and it should establish the ground at the stock fan plug that I am missing? if it does, it means i need a new thermoswitch, and if it does not, then i have "other issues" and should probably not worry about it, and just hack the groundwire on the stock fan, and ground it like i have it set up now. right? thanks again

okay, 87 GL-10, spfi EA82, non turbo, automatic if that matters... i got the car from my brother, he had at one point replaced the stock electrical fan with an aftermarket slim line.. this fan has the stock plug grafted onto it, but only on one wire. the hot wire. The groundwire coming out of the fan is currently mounted on the bolt that holds the vacuum lines down on the thermostat housing. My electrical fan comes on when i turn the key to accessories.. basically, when ANYTHING switched by the key is on. I recently got a stock fan to put in there (the slim line has a very small footprint) and when i plugged it into the cars wiring harness, it failed to come on.. not with the key, not when the car reached operating temperature, (three bars on my digidash) not with the AC. so, how does this system work? i am assuming that somehow the ground is switched by the thermoswitch in the radiator, but if that is the case then why is the power dependent on the key? I would like to restore the fan to factory operating conditions, just to make sure that box gets a check mark in the "correct" column. how do the fans on these cars operate? is it supposed to come on with the AC, or at a temp threshold? do they normally continue to run after the car is shut off, if it is hot enough? I got a new radiator out of a junkyard and it had a thermoswitch in it with a different plug than mine.. i dropped it in boiling water, but at no temperature (85-212F) did it register ANY continuity between the two poles of the switch. that means its bad, right? if i get zero continuity out of the one in my radiator, its bad right? the FSM .pdf i have has details on testing a "thermometer" according to resistance, but i think thats referring to the temp sensor connected to the guage on the dash. the big questions are 1. thermoswitch test.. zero continuity == bad, right? 2. STOCK configuration, fan is wired/switched, how? and comes on/shuts off, when? 3. am i fussing over nothing, and should i just cut the groundwire on my stock fan and wire it as the existing aftermarket one is? and 4. If i do so, i could put a thermoswitch into that bung to power a relay switching the slim-line, if i should opt to use THAT in place of my clutch fan, correct? anyhow, thanks for the answers. shawn

heh, sounds like me. good luck. if all else fails, try going into a junkyard with your switch unit (make sure they see it before you bring it in or they will try to make you pay for it as youre leaving) and see if you have any more luck in the junkyard.. you see my point? you MIGHT Not have the right switch.. there may be one that is JUST like yours that bolts in at a different orientation...

are those rims 13 or 14 inch? i have a set of five subaru alloys that were all same size, pair of one design and three of the other.. and one of the two designs is that one. Im curious to know what size tires are on them if they are 14s, and how they compare to the 17570R13s that are stock size on the 13 steelies..... because i have the steelies and wanna switch :- ) BTW, not to thread-jack, but how come the silly subaru hubcaps(the ones with like 18 spokes or whatever) dont actually go on the wheel without halfway mauling your tire stem?!?! am i doing something wrong?

LOL, thanks for the tip, GD.. I'll remember that next time i am having difficulties with my twine.. seriously though, i just _happened_ to read one of the first posts you had recently that you mentioned that in about two days before i needed to know that trick.. and it worked like a charm on two engines, one of which DID have to run again, so thats a big thank-you.. i had heard it before, somewhere, but never would have used it or remembered it if i hadn't seen it here..

sarge... it sounds like you want to go ahead and do a crossover/junction box/resonator/whatever (two in two out) and use a pair of 1 1/4 inch tubes. Those are just *slightly* bigger than a single 1 3/4 inch pipe, and thats good because in reality, two pipes that have the same flow area as one larger pipe, have more surface area to flow through, which minimally increases resistance in the pipe.. so that tiny bit will basically be eliminated. in other words, coming out of your cat with a pair of 1 1/4" pipes is the same as using a single 1 3/4" pipe.

yah that rope trick works great.. its best if you have somewhat stiff rope, it helps to feed it into the sprak plug hole at an odd angle.. (if your motor is still in the car, like mine.. I had limp rope problems. Yikes, i didnt mean that to sound so.. X-rated.. )

question.. could you please describe that sound deadening material? because i have some insulated bags i got working for a vet (for cold vaccine shipments..) they are like mylar on the outside, with what is almost a durable bubble wrap inside.. and i was planning on cutting them apart and using them as insulation and sound deadener on my Z underneath the new carpet.. they only have mylar on the one side, so i WAS going to apply it that side down.. but that stuff looks like about the same. Is there mylar on the bottom side of it, too? if so, then A) Did the directions said to mount it mylar-side up?? and what kind of surface was it on the bottom? thanks for the information, it will help me to be sure im making the right choice with my plan. Just seeing your "sound deadening material" was very encouraging.. was this a commercail product? its interesting (and frustrating) to see an idea you had independently being exploited by someone else for money, even if they did come up with it first.

do a leak down test.. do a search on the procedure because ive read its more than done it, but you apply positive air pressure into the aprk plug hole and see where it comes out. if it bubbles into your oil, your more liable to have ring issues, if into coolant then headgasket, if into intake or exhaust then its a valve seat issue. If you sprayed carb cleaner into a car then you MAY have dislodged something thats sticking in a valve seat?? i dont know if its that viable a hypothesis, but its possible.. the leakdown test is the way you isolate low compression into a subsystem of the engine.. unless you WANT to tear the engine apart, pull the piston, find a decent ring on it but have to rebuild the bottom end anyway and do all that over what may be a blown headgasket?? i mean, im saying its the next step, thats all :-)