CornerHard

I didn't have time to do too much troubleshooting myself, so I dropped it off at a shop, and they verified exhaust gas is pressurizing the coolant. Sad times!

Hello, I have an 83 Subaru GL with EA81 that's been overheating recently. The issues started with leaking coolant, which I narrowed down to a hairline crack in the radiator close to the lower radiator hose connection. After sealing it up with JB weld, things seemed fine, but a short trip to the library saw my engine temperatures rising above normal (about 3/4 of the way up the temp gauge), and coolant started exploding out the top of the coolant overflow container. Every time the car gets up to temp and I start driving around, coolant starts spurting out the top of the reservoir, even though the top driver's side of the radiator is cool to the touch. A couple details: - I just replaced the thermostat after the issue started, but it didn't change anything - Compression is between 160-170psi for all cylinders - Since this issue started, I've noticed that the intake manifold gaskets appear to be leaking a bit of coolant - When the car gets to the point where coolant is exploding out the coolant reservoir, I also get lots of steam coming out the engine exhaust - If I take the oil dipstick out while the engine is running and the car is warm, I can see steam come out My guess at what is going on: The water pump is bad, so the coolant just builds up in pressure on the driver's side and pushes coolant out the reservoir, despite the radiator being cool to the touch by the radiator cap. The extra pressure has caused the intake manifold gaskets to start leaking, which is making steam come out the exhaust. Am I on the right track here? Any other suggestions as to what's going on?

Initially the distributor was just really old and worn out (280k+ miles on the car). The shop mentioned that the brushes and various electrical stuff inside were all shot. When it came back from them the first time, something must've come loose during transit, because it wouldn't work at all. The second time was the charm however My subie has been working great ever since.

If I corner really hard in my 83 Subaru GL, the engine bucks and loses power, and I get a big blue oil smoke cloud behind me. After searching on here, it looks like EA82s have this issue when the PCV system is bad, but I haven't found anything about the EA81. Is this something I can fix, or do I need to keep my high G antics for my other vehicles?

I'm still not sure why the fan affected the tach functionality, but replacing the distributor fixed the tach issue.

My Subaru finally works! Despite generating spark and appearing to be fine, my distributor was in fact bad. Once I had Philbin do a complete rebuild on it, the car started working great again It now starts instantly, hot or cold. Thanks for all the help everyone!

In my case the fuel pump wasn't working because the distributor wasn't sending an RPM signal. Apparently, the car won't even prime the fuel filter unless there's at least some signal. Once I got the distributor working, everything was good again.

Yep, the shop warranties their work, so I may end up sending it back. So the yellow wire on the distributor is the one that has its ground interrupted by the reluctor, correct? That would cause the current to stop flowing through the ignition coil.

Thanks for the help, Cougar. I suppose I don't really know if it's the same one or not, since they rebuilt just about everything in it. I'm trying to understand what's going on here, though: The wires coming from the car harness: Black wire (power supply): +12v and almost perfect continuity with ground Yellow wire (tach signal): No voltage or ground The wires coming from the distributor: Black wire (+ terminal): some continuity with ground Yellow wire (- terminal): slightly less continuity with ground The ignition coil fires when there's a change in the current flowing through the two terminals. The distributor either causes flow through the coil periodically or interrupts flow through the coil periodically - I've heard conflicting reports as to which way it works. What I'm wondering is, why is the power supply wire also a ground? It seems like almost all the current is just going to flow through that circuit and not go through the coil at all. Is the power supply wire supposed to be a ground? What changes about the distributor wires as the rotor goes around? Could I wire a straight 12v to the positive terminal or is that where the external resistor is needed?

It looks like that's what it is - if I turn the ignition to "on", then take the black and yellow harness wires from the ignition coil and tap them together to create a fake RPM signal, my fuel pump and tach start working again.

Thanks for all the tips guys (and GeneralDisorder - I'm amazed that you always have something useful to say in every one of these troubleshooting threads I've posted on ) I have 12v at the coil, but I'm not getting any sort of tach signal or spark. I just got my distributor back from having it rebuilt at Philbin, and now it doesn't seem to be working Before it would work, but the car just wouldn't run. Now I have these fuel pump problems as well I was under the impression the fuel pump should get full voltage if I'm cranking, regardless of the tach signal, though?

Ok, I traced the fuel pump wiring back to the FPCU, and it was having the same issue at the source - the voltage blips to about 3v when you start cranking the engine, then it goes back to 0v. I tried wiring the black power wire from that connector directly to the fuel pump wire, and with 12v, the fuel pump started working normally again. I assume this means my FPCU is bad?

Sorry, it is indeed the 83 GL wagon listed in my profile, and no, I don't have a timing belt I thought the FPCU was a black box above and behind the hood release?

A bit of a dumb question, but I haven't found the answer yet by scouring the FSM or searching around here: Where does the power wire to the fuel pump come from, and how is it wired? Today my fuel pump stopped working, and testing voltage at the fuel pump showed that it would get just a tiny blip when starting to crank the engine, then go back to 0V. Does the power come directly out of the Fuel Pump Control Unit?

How do I test mine to make sure it's working? I haven't seen anything about it in the FSM. Check the voltage on the yellow wire with the engine cranking/running for blips? Check voltages/resistances of other wires? Thanks