Tycho

I have seen it mentioned now and again on here that someone knows someone who still has a couple TWE headers kicking around for too much $$$. I may or may not have too much $$$ and would like to acquire one. If anyone can post the link/email/phone number of where the "leftovers" ended up I would appreciate it.

Got some fun bits for my EA82T Sedan recently. Along with a full standalone ECU, this stuff is on the agenda.

I am building up a D/R trans and associated rear differential and was able to find Timken parts for most of the main bearings/seals. It was not that expensive, tho I did not get all of them. I have four new diff bearings (for two new diffs) and three others which I believe are the input shaft bearing, tailshaft bearing, and outer input shaft bearing for the rear pinion gear. I'll make a list of part numbers as I go through the trans (and note the bearings I neglected to get). This project is just getting underway after months of accumulating parts. I'm not doing any of the shaft bearings or synchros. The trans has only 115,000 miles on it and shifts very smoothly still.

Just ripping the lifters apart and solvent soaking the pieces would be fine. Just as good as a rebuilt lifter. If it's sticking, you just need to get the grit out of the oil inside the lifter (which can only escape through a very small gap ... so if the grit is too big it never gets out). Once the lifters are out, it takes about 15 minutes to pop all the lifters apart, soak the parts, and put them back together. You don't need to re-crimp the retainer cap that holds the lifter "guts" in. Just use light assembly grease (like Mag 1) and it will stay together while you assemble (after which point the cams and rockers hold it all together). Thinner oil often works better than thicker on the top end as you have less hydraulic friction loss on the oil being pushed through all those passages ... so you have more pressure at the heads. If your pump is worn out tho, you will see significantly lower gauge pressure (at the pump) with thin oil.

Whew, which one is MLS? Sign me up!

Depends on how rough or smooth the ice is. Generally it will be pretty smooth, but you might get some overflow spots or wind whipped spots where you'd need the extra compliance at speed to prevent bottoming. Compliant suspension makes breakaway a lot more gradual (especially on rough ice), but stiffer suspension means the car will be faster when driven at the limit. Stiffer suspension will have less brake dive which helps tremendously. Seems that braking precisely (i.e. late late late) is worth a huge amount of time ice racing relative to any other single aspect. Cornering speeds in my Saturn SL2 w/ 17.5 mm rear 4-way adjustable bar on next to stiffest setting (vs 15.0 mm bar stock) were substantially higher than in my Loyale wagon with no rear bar (both running Blizzak WS50s). My '85 Turbo Traction with the 19 mm front bar and 16 mm rear bar is a lot closer to the Saturn's speed in the corners with a tremendous traction advantage under acceleration obviously. I would go "low" and rig up some sort of adjustment on the rear swaybar to dial in your oversteer/understeer characteristics to your liking. Can be a little tricky with the 4wd setup, but doable. My Saturn was cake to dial in as the rear wheels are just "along for the ride." Was able to get it to be neutral when coasting through a corner, understeer when accelerating, and oversteer when engine braking through a corner, thus allowing use of the throttle to "steer" the car. Under braking it would do whatever I wanted based on how hard I punched the brakes initially. Ease on them and it was neutral or would understeer a tad. Punch them initially and it would oversteer.

Actually the timing belts will know, and it will retard the valve timing slightly. Belt tension is only taken up on the "slack" side, so the "taut" side distance will be reduced, thus resulting in a tiny amount of retard at the cam relative to the crank (but as you pointed out lift and duration won't be reduced and there's no risk of running out of lash clearance like in the OHV EA81). All non-MLS gaskets benefit from a re-torque. Years ago on the ENDYN forums (or it could have been SpeedTalk) there was a FelPro engineer talking about the PermaTorque gaskets. He noted that while they do not require a re-torque, doing an overnight cold re-torque (much easier than a hot one) will increase gasket compression from 90% to over 95%. Definitely worth the small amount of extra effort, and still way easier than a hot re-torque.

Deck it. Great chance to bring the quench clearance down a bit too, which is good for power and reduces knock (with a slight increase in compression ratio). I've run .030" piston to head on two EA rebuilds and it's worked great. Zero problems with headgaskets when using a decked block and surfaced heads ... and a working thermostat and good radiator. You could use High Tack on a regular gasket on a fresh install. It probably wouldn't hurt, but if the warpage is bad enough for water passages to blow out, it's not going to be a long term fix ... will just work a little longer than otherwise. You can re-use MLS gaskets over and over and over with High Tack (as the viton coating usually peels off to some extent after the heads have been torqued). Too bad there are no EA MLS gaskets. Blue or black spray paint works fine too when re-using MLS gaskets. You just have to install/torque before the paint dries.

Old rubber seals not holding oil pressure anymore along with extraordinarily convoluted oil passages that go through pump seals, head gaskets, o rings, etc etc then arrive at the valvetrain. The engine being clean inside means the lifters should work great once taken apart and flushed.

That is a clean looking wagon! Jealous! None of my subarus tick when I am done with them. Had a ticking '90 Loyale with about 135,000 on the clock that I made silent and stayed that way till 185,000 when the frame rusted out. And my '85 RX with 104,000 when I bought it has been quiet to 116,000 so far (full rebuild when I got it). So 62,000 tick-free miles so far. I have this urge to get my box of o rings and tools out of my car when I hear a ticking EA82 at a traffic light. 1. Oil Pump re-seal 2. new cam carrier reinforced o rings 3. take apart the old lifters and soak them/clean out the spring loaded detent ball part all in a bath of carb cleaner 4. chase the oil passages in the cam carrier with pipe cleaner or similar when you have it out. I've had non-reinforced o rings get sucked into the passages in this part which will make your car tick forever. You don't have to reinstall the little crimp top on the lifters after you've taken them apart. It just aids in reassembly, which isn't a problem if you use some assembly grease to "glue" everything together. Once you have oil pressure back up (re-seal and new o rings), clean lifters, and clean oil, it will not tick. Just keep the oil clean-ish from then on out and you'll be golden.

Agreed, especially given that you are physically passing the axle through the bearings (not through a splined hub already pressed into the bearings). Ball bearings and lateral impacts aren't really compatible, so a tight fit that requires you to hammer the axle into place is bad news.

I've used emery cloth to make axles fit in the past. 10 minutes of work on an oversize axle end can save a lot of hassle.

Brilliant. Thanks for the pics. I have done 2 sets of EA82 heads (one MPFI one SPFI) and extensively worked the exhaust bowl/guide area. Interesting to see just how much it chokes things off! Shame you didn't get a cut showing the short turn radius of the exhaust port, but that's good stuff. With the 4 mm aluminum plate idea, I had that also. With the right torch, you could weld the whole thing in. With no cooling jacket I'm not sure how it would hold up over time tho. But with a D and reverse D at the flange (a bisected O) you could take two exhaust pipes of the right diameter, hammer the adjacent sides flat, and weld them into an EA82 flange. This'd give you a nice smooth transition in shape from the D to the O in the primaries without too much complication. Alternately, you could bisect a section of pipe with a bandsaw and weld a thin piece of plate in there to get the bisection ... then neck it down to say a 1.5" secondary where your bisection ends. Would be equivalent of a really short primary, but still worlds better. Thanks again for the pics!

Yeah it might be interesting. I have an EG33 that I yanked from an SVX parts car a friend and I bought years ago. It's been honed, decked, and has a pair of heads with freshly cut valve seats and a fresh surface along with 24 freshly cut valves ... but all the parts are still sitting in the big box I picked up at the machine shop years ago. Was thinking of dropping that in the sedan, but the EA82T is way lighter, and the one I've put together is really running quite well. I think there are some little areas to unlock that will yield reasonable power gains and make the car run more reliably with better mileage at the same time, so why not give it a shot? Plus I'm trying to talk a buddy of mine into building a Locost with the EG33 paired to a 5MT with an OBX diff stuffed in it for good measure. Surely that'd be a better use than a rusty '85 sedan.