skishop69

Take the fuel line off the carb and put it in a small container then crank the engine over for 10-15 seconds then go check for fuel in the container. If you have fuel, the problem is with the carb. If not, it's somewhere in the lines, pump or tank. Sounds to me like the anti-diesel solenoid on the front of the carb is not working. It's on the drivers side front corner of the carb and has one wire going to it. When the ignition is on, it gets 12 volts and opens to let fuel flow. When the ignition is off, it closes and stops fuel flow. It's not uncommon for the wire to break right at the solenoid. It could also just be bad. If it is bad, you can remove it, take the needle and spring out of it and re-install it. That will get you running again.

Funny this post comes back now. I just bought and rebuilt a second carb after doing the original one. I ended up with a total lack of power from off idle to basically 3/4 throttle.I monkey'd with it for quite sometime before concluding something was wrong with the power valve or the power valve plunger. Idled great and ran like a scalded dog wide open, but no so much for general cruising. I could get in and drive freeway speeds or regular roads fine as long as it was not stop and go. 5 or so minutes of stop and go and the whole midrange would go away. Put the freshly overhauled carb on and the same thing was happening.I finally started looking at the emissions/vacuum lines trying to figure out what had gone wrong. The high speed air passage and the atmospheric float vent are not that close, but have the exact same size and length hose with the same dog leg bend in them and come out of the same bundle of lines. I had switched them accidentally (actually more than once during the course of messing with this thing as the problem came and went). When the wall temp valve opened, it was applying vacuum to the high speed passage (instead of the bowl vent) which I assume is internally plumbed to the power valve plunger circuit and basically shut down the power valve.

Scott's old rig with the engine mounted transversely in the passenger area was a beast. Definitely off road only. lol

+1 on the o-ring. The push rods are really no big deal. A lot of guys will tell you they have to go back where they came from because they wear at different rates and wear to fit the lifter and rocker. There is truth to this, however, if there are no lips or scoring on either end, it really doesn't matter. If you do find a lip or scoring, take some 320 grit sandpaper and lightly clean them up. Follow that with some 600 to remove the scratches and then some 0000 steel wool to polish them. You'll be fine.

There is no piston other than EA81/EA82 that you can put in. The killer on these engines is airflow in the intake and heads. To make power gains, you need to install EA82 SPFI pistons which will bump compression to 9.5:1. Then, you need to do serious porting work to the heads and install bigger valves. As it happens, certain Harley Doucherson valves have the same dimensions except they have a larger face diameter. Along with that goes a custom intake to allow for more airflow into the heads. Now you need to retrofit Chevy small block roller rockers to the head using the 1.6 ratio rockers. Computer modeling shows this will net almost 200HP with EFI. I've posted this before and of course, I always get, "It's not possible." RAM engines has gotten 200+HP out of a turbo'd EA81, but they are constrained by safety factors since their engines go in experimental aircraft. Fact is, a usable, long life EA81 will never make more than 200HP without turbocharging due to original design constraints. Is it worth it? Depends. EJ swap is certainly cheaper and in the long run, probably more dependable. However, if you can do it yourself and you just want to be able to say you did it and you have the only 200HP NA EA81, it MIGHT be worth it.

It's in the PM I sent you.

PM sent.

RPMs are more important. You don't want to run it at 4K for 20 minutes.

After the initial test drive and oil change, yes. Just don't baby it or the rings will not seat properly.

I need an 84-87 EA81 non-CA emission carb for my Brat. The vacuum plunger for the power valve has given up the ghost so I either idle or go full pedal and that makes my 30 mile stop and go commute oh so fun. NOT! I don't have time right now to wire and install my SPFI conversion. Thanks!

Yep. If you go performance/race build like forged pistons, moly rings and such, you should actually drive it like you stole it. +1 on gauges.

For the initial run up, the cheapest oil you can get. It's not going to have time to break down and your basically taking it home from the store and throwing it in the garbage. You can pretty much go cheap on the second oil change too, then switch to good oil. Castrol, Mobile 1 or Valvoline. Btw, NAPA oil is Valvoline. Shhhh...

Ok. As long as you vary the load on the engine and the speed to a degree, you should be ok.

Yes, during break in, that would be considered too long unless you've got a lot of hills along the way.

You want the speed to vary for the best break in. Anything up to 70 as long as you're not cruising long distance.

Ok, since you're not installing a new cam, this is what I would do. First off, don't use synthetic oil to break in a new engine unless your machine shop has top notch honing equipment to knock the jagged ridges down during the process. Start the engine. If it doesn't fire in the first 30 seconds, find out why. You don't want to be pumping a lot of gas into a new engine. Once it's running, give it about 5 minutes at idle to build some temp. This next step is where things get sticky and there is a lot of disagreement. If you have a manual trans (which most of us do), you can't really do this step stationary and IMO it's too soon to be driving to do it. If you do have an auto, put it in drive, foot on the brake with the E-brake set and load the engine from idle to 3K RPMs. Do this 3 or 4 times per minute and don't hold the RPMs up. Do it for 10 minutes. This will help seat the rings. If you have a manual, raise the idle screw to 1500 RPM and give it 20 minutes like this carefully watching engine temp and oil pressure and checking for any leaks. Check regardless of what tranny you have. For both trannys, let it idle down to normal for 10 minutes after this. Auto: Place in drive, both brakes on again and load the engine as before but taking the RPMs up to roughly 5K if the engine will allow it. 10 minutes for this, and again, don't hold the high RPMs. Manual trans: Now go drive it for 10 minutes where you can stab the accelerator to run from idle to 3K in first gear. Do this 3-4 times per minute for 10 minutes then let idle down for 10 minutes. Repeat this after 10 minutes but go from idle to 5K RPMs. Either trans idles down again for 10 minutes after the last step. Always watch your gauges and check for leaks. This last step is something I do. Take either back up to 1500 for 10 minutes then let idle down for 10 minutes. Shut down, drain the oil and inspect for metal. Dump the oil, clean the pan and cut the filter open to inspect for metal. A little metal is normal. A lot can be ok depending on the size of the flakes. If you found a small to marginal amount, fill the oil, install a new filter then drive normal for 500 miles and change the oil again. If you found a lot of metal, fill and install a new filter and drive normal for 100 miles then change the oil again. Driving 'normal' means randomly accelerating up to 3K-5K RPMs but NOT over 5K and not holding anything over 4K. Avoid long freeway cruising at a stable speed or RPM for the first 1000 miles if at all possible. If you had a lot of metal on the first oil change, recheck at the 100 mile change. If it's minimal, then go 1500 miles and change it again. If it's moderate, go 500, change it, then 1500 and change it. If it's still a lot at the 100 mile change, you've got a problem. After the 1500 mile in either, is 3K miles then every 3K as normal. At the first 3K, you can switch to synthetic if you want to. I know this seems like a lot and I'm probably going to get some flack from others over it, but I've been building performance engines for over 20 years now and I've never had blow by, bearing or valve issues with any of my engines (excluding abuse, intentional or otherwise) after break in. Research engine break in and you'll see what I do is pretty close to what is considered a 'typical' break in.

Are you using the old cam or a new/reground one?

Define overhaul. There's a different break in procedure for different things. I disagree that splitting the case isn't worth it on a high mileage engine. True the cylinders themselves don't wear much at all on these engines. For their time and even today, they were one of the best for maintaining bore diameter. I can't remember ever pulling one apart and finding a ridge at the top indicating wear, but pistons do wear. You need to mic the pistons at 4 points below the oil ring and at the two center points on the skirts to determine wear. If you have low compression and you've ruled out head or valve issues, this needs to be done. Bearings will always wear. More so as they get older and faster as oil pressure declines or the engine is abused.

The first gen WRX aftermarket A-pillar pods are a very close fit to the XT pillars and that's what I'm using. It might work for you.

Good to know.

lol Happens to me a lot in the morning after I get up. So Bratman, does that still apply to the wagons or are w still in unknown territory? Anyone got a wagon they want to pull the C pillar trim off and confirm?

Really? Huh. I scrapped one years ago and all it had was lap belts in the rear. I did not know this. Of course, I've never owned nor driven one.

Quando omni flunkus moratati! For those not fluent in Latin, When all else fails, play dead. Literal translation is, When all fails, die.

There are no mounting points in the upper pillar.

Yes it is! lol