Idasho

I know you are burning e85. It is common though for people to forget how the gauges operate, based upon fuel used. I guess my next question is are you are using a wideband )2 and gauge that is specific to E85? If not, you should still be tuning as if it were regular gas, and doing the math to verify. If you are, carry on! And forget about all my ramblings about A/F ratios! Also, what kind of MPGs are you seeing at low boost (cruising)?

Ah yes, I keep forgetting about E85 And assuming you have real time data-logging with a real wide band, you should be nearly covered. 10.1 is very much on the rich side for WOT at full load, 14.1 cruising is a bit rich too. I tend to shoot for 12.1 under full load, and 14.7 to 15. cruising. Anytime you drop below 11.5 or so you are really loosing out. Power and fuel economy suffers bad. Do you have an EGT on it? Id lean it up to at least 11.5 or so, and watch the EGTs. If the EGTs stay in check, lean it up some more, and shoot for 12.1 You will most likely find more power and better economy.

Do you have a dyno graph showing A/F ratio? Even boosted I do not see a reason for it to be super fuel hungry. Power delivery and economy can be had at the same time if tuned well enough! Sweet build BTW

We had some crazy thundershowers last night. Wind, hail, lighting/thunder, and a good amount of rain. I woke up to the subaru covered in pretty much everything. So I gave it a bath this afternoon, rain-x'd the windows, checked fluids, and reinstalled the air conditioning belt and idler. I had the idler off to replace the bearing that was starting to make noise. Then I fired her back up to make sure the AC was working fine, and bumped the idle up a bit. Sort of funny to sit in such an old silly rig with ICE cold AC

Sounds to me like he dumped enough coolant into the heads when he changed the intake manifold gaskets that he hydrolocked the motor. He owes you a motor.

Im running a set of ITM SPFI pistons and rings in my fresh high compression EA81. Also purchased from Thompson from ebay. Ive got about 4k on the motor now, and so far so good. They seem to be a high quality, inexpensive route to go.

I found out that one of my gas cans in the shop didnt actually have clean gas in it.... Yeah.... The wife had been driving the subaru, and come monday morning she was running late, and the fual gauge was on empty. So I grabbed one of my many fuel cans and put 4-5 gallons in. She texted me later that day, asking what kind of gas I put in.... my simple question was.... "WHY??" Low on power, missing at low revs, and monster smoke show. Seems the can I grabbed was the 50:1 mix for the chainsaws. Aw well, subaru took it like a champ. I checked it over, topped it off from a station in town, and let her rip. Power is back, but still a bit smokey. It will take a while to work it all out. Proof positive that a EA81 will indeed run on 50:1 mixed fuel though!!

I may as well update this... I havnt driven the GL much lately. Just around town. I refuse to drive it out of town due to my oil pressure and temp gauge having issues. Ive been having some serious trouble getting Innovate Motorsports to send me a new gauge. The gauge is still under warranty, but it seems they took their sweet rump roast time to check mine out, and verify that it was actually having issues. They took long enough that they the MFG have NONE on the shelf. They have had my gauge since May 1st. 8 phone calls have been made since, and many promises have been missed. The story right now is that they will not me making another batch of them for 3-4 weeks. That puts me more than THREE MONTHS without a gauge. For the record, INNOVATE MOTORSPORTS HAS TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE The last couple of phone calls have become pretty heated. I work retail myself, so I know how much it sucks, but I also know how to play the nasty customer card. Well, I played that card, and I am supposed to get a "temporary" gauge this week. And they will ship me a new kit to replace the old broke one when they have some in stock. PITA, let me tell you!

You can run the solid lifter push-rods, so long as you run solid lifters. DO NOT mix and match.

You are correct in that I was partially incorrect I mistyped a bit. So long as you replace "friction" with compression, you would be more correct. And correct, the analogy I provided would be better suited when coasting, engine off. You are correct that the initial energy needed to turn the motor must overcome is compression.

Thats fine. Cold start you will see high pressures. Thats what the pressure relief valve in the pump is for. Dont worry about cold start pressure readings. Worry about HOT readings. At idle, and at revs.

Ill say it again.... the one primary variable is cam timing and overlap. That alone can and will toss all kinds of odd numbers. High and low. Even at a constant test RPM. Do the same test on two different size motors with similar cam timing/overlap and at the same RPM and the same compression ratios, and you will get the similar results.

I find it very hard to believe 160+ PSI out of any EA Id suspect the gauge. The math is simple. Obviously the main variable is cam timing/overlap

This thread needs to be renamed. You cannot effectively "compression brake" with any gas engine. You can however "engine brake" There is a huge difference. Compression braking is a mechanical method of slowing a diesel engine by releasing the compression on the up stroke. This generates a vacuum on the down stroke, slowing things down. It is required due to diesel engines not having a throttle plate. Actually on a gas engine it has little to do with combustion, and much more to do with the throttle plate, An engine is nothing more than an air pump. Keep turning the crank with a cork stuck in the intake (throttle plate shut) and you will create resistance in the form of a vacuum. This slows you down. Point a vehicle downhill with the engine off and your foot off the throttle and it may or may not move. Apply the throttle and it will start rolling.

Furthermore, With everything being perfect, it is a simple math problem. 14.7 x altitude correction x CR One atmosphere of pressure is 14.7PSIA The compression of a EA71 IIRC is 9:1 Now consider the altitude table I provided. Your at 8600 feet, so use the 8500 feet entry. 14.7 x .773 = 11.4 Now enter the supposed compression ratio. 11.4 x 9.1 = 104PSI If I were you Id be happy with anything over 95PSI on every cylinder, just so long as every cylinder is within 10% of each other.

Altitude does have an effect upon compression, and should be considered. Altitude Factor 500 0.987 1500 0.960 2500 0.933 3500 0.907 4500 0.880 5500 0.853 6500 0.826 7500 0.800 8500 0.773

That tuned out great! I pulled mine into the shop for a few things... including an engine oil cooler to cool the high compression EA81 down a bit.

Time for another update. As with all of my rigs, I dont NOT repair things. As things stack up I take note, and make time to get things taken care of. This week I have the little Subaru in the shop for a few things. Since the new engine, I have never liked just how hot the oil temps are under sustained highway speeds. 250+ degrees is not uncommon. So I am fitting the motor with a t-stat controlled oil cooler sandwich and a good B&M oil cooler. Today I got the cooler and lines installed. I wont have the sandwich for a few days. But at least Ill be ready for it. As with all subarus, rust is always the enemy and is always lurking. Even as clean as this Subaru is, it has developed a few small spots that I felt the need to address. Corrosion is ground away best I could, treated with Ospho, primed, and repainted. I also HATE fluids hitting the ground, and it seems that every time I flush the coolant system, I can never quite get the coolant level correct. So the system burps some coolant. Using nothing more than a stainless drink bottle, I made a simple overflow tank to catch it. If it works out, Ill fabricate an appropriate bracket for it.

I litterly said OOF when I scrolled from the nice pics to the passenger side pic. Poor car, at least its getting taken care of!

Too tight should be much more noticeable than too loose. Within reason, a bit loose is always better that too tight.

Nope. Though I wouldnt suggest traveling very far very fast until you get it fixed.

Those rings set the preload on the bearings. Knowing how many turns others have needed is shooting in the dark and will certainly end in a broke trans. With that said, with the bearings and races nested correctly when installing, the very last 180 degrees or so is pretty tight. If you are on the mark now and can turn it without the use tools, you need one more turn.

either will work. I chose to run the EA81 flywheel simply because I wanted to retain the factory timing marks.

There is a specific tool to do so. If the block is going to the machine shop to be shaved, just have them fool with the studs. That way if there is any problems with them or threading in the block it can be addressed at the same time.

Ah, adding a cam into the mix changes things. Sounds like you have the valve train geometry figured. And yes, SPFI pistons have reliefs. Slight, but there.