Stubies Subie

I haven't checked with the dealer yet, but do have the part number for the kit, but I believe it's around $50 or so to purchase it from the dealer, so I figured I'd look in wrecking yards first, if I can't locate one in a wrecking yard, then I'll end up going to the dealer oh that picture .....um, well, I was having a personal bonding moment with my new engine at the time that photo was taken. it was one of those, "in order to understand the engine, you must become one with the engine" it's an ancient chinese myth I think yup, no covers on mine, I like it better that way, my intended use for this car is going to be a camping traveling car and I wanted something cheap, simple and easy to fix in the event that I broke down on the side of the highway somewhere.

Nope, that was the reason I went, I was looking for the retro-fit parts, but they didn't have them on anything, at least not in that wrecking yard. those parts will turn up, just gotta keep looking

Yesterday was my son’s birthday, (the big “21”) and his wife had a surprise birthday party planned for him and wanted me to keep him busy and out of her way until later in the afternoon. I seized the opportunity! Some say you might be a redneck if you take your son on an afternoon excursion to the wrecking yard for his 21st birthday, I figured I had a young kid that was able bodied with a good back, and I was gonna exercise my right as his dad to make him work on his birthday, so off to the wrecking yard we went. We scored to ….there was quite a few Loyales out there, and while I didn’t have a bunch of money to spend, I figured I’d make count what little money I did have. We had a fun filled afternoon checking out all the wrecked cars, and were able to pick up a few bits and pieces here and there for KC (My Loyale). I got some tailgate hardware as mine was rusted out, and the hose that goes from the passenger side valve cover to the intake, mine had a pretty good crack in it, and when I looked inside one car, it had a brand new set of Contitech (made in Mexico) timing belts for an EA82 sitting on the passenger seat, the belts still had the store tag on them, total cost for everything, $5.50 So now I have a brand new spare set of timing belts to put with my little tool kit in the back of the car, I thought that was a pretty good score. And my kids still think I’m nuts for dragging them to the wrecking yard

OK, I was wondering if you expernced the same problem I did, but yours being carbed and mine being SPFI, my problem may not be the same as yours. mine only sucks oil when you have the throttle shoved all the way to the floor. I'm going to find the parts I need to change mine over at a wrecking yard, and see if the oil sucking goes away:D

Thanks bigjimd, I'm excited to have it running normal now, and that grumble rumble from the torque cams is really nice, that's the first time I've ever had any form of custom work done to anything, so I'm very pleased. I want to inhance the grumble rumble a little more so I'm going to figure out some sort of custon exhaust. About the oil sucking Jeszek - Subaru has a PCV hose mod that looks like the picture: I’m going to try that first, and see if the oil sucking stops, then from there I can try an oil catch can. Jeszek – can you describe the oil burning experience you had that lead to you using an oil catch can? I’m really excited that the engine problems are finally working themselves out, I felt that I couldn't move forward with the car until I had the engine problems worked out, I don’t see the oil sucking as any kind of problem, just something that needs fixed is all. I have so many plans for this car, you’ll see a transformations in it over the next couple of years, I have ideas that are to numerous to list, but will be posting every one of them as I do them. Now that the engine problems are behind me (I hope/think) I can move on to the other stuff

thanks Jeszek, I stopped by GD's house on my way to work and he disconnected the sending unit, I'll have to buy a new one, seems this one went bad. and you bring up a good point about the oil being thinner raising the oil pressure, but it's my thinking that the thinner the oil, the lower the pressure, the oil pressure gauge worked normally all day until I hit the deep snow, so my first guess was that it shorted out the sending unit when it got packed with snow. the car's running really good now, and I'd say the engine issues I was having are now solved, I will however need to do something about the oil being sucked through the vacuum lines, but for now, as long as I keep my foot out of it, it does not suck oil.

How about you don't get back to this, it's been peaceful here since you haven't been posting, and I’d rather you didn't start again. If you have useful information, we'll be happy to hear it, but you will NOT be running anyone down, not in this thread. If you do, you will be reported for harassment. It is ok to disagree; it is not ok to degrade someone based on your feelings about their abilities or mechanical procedures. Thank you

Here’s a few more pictures of our trip – Here’s the bridge at the foot of the mountains, this is where I stopped to check the oil before we started the climb to the top, the oil level was full: Here’s a picture of the snow covered highway on our way up: This is in a parking lot where we turned around to head back down, I had to try out the 4WD and it worked just fine, this is also were we checked the oil level before we headed back down the mountain, we were down ¼ of a quart, I would of gone further, but my girlfriend said no, so we turned around here:

Here’s something else that happened on our trip: Check out the oil pressure reading in the picture: We got into some pretty deep snow while up on the mountain and it inadvertently got packed pretty good around the oil pressure sending unit. The car ran fine, it just showed high oil pressure, but I believe that the snow shorted out the sending unit.

I took a small day long trip with the car today, we drove up as high as we could (until we hit snow) on Mount Saint Helens in Washington state, the round trip was 340 miles, (we took a few side trips as well. the car is running 100% better, I ran a can of seafoam through the gas tank, as well as a quart of marvel mystery oil in the crank case, and this was after letting the passenger side cylinders soak in oil for a couple of days last week. The compression readings have been all over the place since we got the car running, but after doing a compression check tonight after I got back home from out tip, the numbers are looking much better. The compression check I did a couple of weeks ago read as follows: Drivers side back cylinder (closest to fire wall) 175 lbs Drivers side front cylinder (closest to radiator) 115 lbs Passenger side back cylinder (closest to fire wall) 125 lbs Passenger side front cylinder (closest to radiator) 135 lbs The new readings I got tonight read as follows: Drivers side back cylinder (closest to fire wall) 130 lbs Drivers side front cylinder (closest to radiator) 175 lbs Passenger side back cylinder (closest to fire wall) 130 lbs Passenger side front cylinder (closest to radiator) 130 lbs I have no idea why that front cylinder when up to 175 from 115, and I have no idea why that back cylinder dropped from 175 to 130, but given the fluxuation, and now the 3 matching cylinders, and the better running engine in general, I’m inclined to believe that the compression is going to stabilize between the 4 cylinders over time. I’m going to run the Marvel mystery oil in the crank case for a few more days to let it do a bit more cleaning before I change the oil. Speaking of oil …I discovered something else while out on the trip, I’ve been chasing the wrong oil burning problem, on this trip, I drove a total of 340 miles, and burned ¼ of a quart of oil. I found that while I thought the car was burning oil, (blow by past the rings) I was wrong, it’s been sucking the oil through the vacuum system and into the intake. I found this after I soaked those passenger side cylinders last week, after the soaking, the car had considerably more power, and I found that in order to hold any given speed limit, I had to push very little on the throttle, before the soaking, in order to keep up with traffic, I had to have the throttle floored pretty much any time I was on the freeway, and I always smelled burnt oil, and assumed that it was blowing past the rings. Since I’m no longer holding the throttle down to the floor to keep up with traffic, I’ve noticed that the burnt oil smell has gone away, and when I check the oil, the oil level hasn’t budged. So today while out on our trip, I put my theory to the test, when I got to the mountains, I pulled over before I started the climb, and checked the oil, it was full, I then kept it floored as much as possible over about a 10 minute stretch, when I got to the top of the mountain pass, I pulled over and checked the oil again, I opened the hood and smelled burnt oil, and noticed I was down ¼ of a quart. I finished the trip, without pushing the car, and when I got home, I checked the oil again, after 340 miles, and I’m still down ¼ of a quart, that’s the oil I lost going up the mountain when I had it floored. So, instead of addressing a ring sealing issue, I need to be addressing a vacuum issue, I’m not sure where to start with the oil being sucked through the vacuum lines, but I’ll have to find a way to stop it.

Just a quick update> I drove the car 50 miles today, it still has the marvel mystery oil mixed in the crank case, and it hasn't burned a drop of oil today at all, normally it would be half a quart low right now, so I'd say that to some degree, the cylinder soaking has been a success. Tomorrow is our road trip, to Mt Saint Helens and back, that will be the real test, but so far, everything is looking good and the car is running 100% better.

I'm guessing that the seafoam thinned the oil, when I started this soaking, it was down a half quart of oil, when I was done soaking, it was down 1/4 quart of oil, so I picked up some seafom in the crankcase from the soaking. I think the seafoam is working, but figured if it didn’t, I would stop by your house and pick up the acetone ATF mix and try that. I'm far from done, I'll keep going with it as long as I'm seeing some real progress, taking another compression test will really let us know if it’s working or not. I haven’t gone after the back side of the pistons and rings aggressively until now, so I’m sure I’m going to get some sort of effect, whether that be good or bad, But, from seeing the cylinders when we had the engine torn down, there was no sign at all that the rings were bad, no wall scoring or anything, as a matter of fact, the original hone marks where still there and very much intact, there was nothing there that would indicate we had a ring problem. It may take some work, but my guess is that on an engine with 123,00 miles that looked as good as this one did inside, I’m guessing that we’re gonna be able to save it. I may also feed some water down through some vacuum lines and let it vaporize in the cylinders, that may sound odd to some, but I can remember years ago when I owned an old Chevy Vega that had a ring problem and burned oil, I’d do the water down the carb trick every so often and it actually helped it.

I just did a 30 miles drive to work, it's running 100% better (so far), so smooth that you almost can't tell it's still running when you pull up to a traffic light, , it still has a ever so slightly grumble rumble idle, but it's a whole lot smoother then it was. that was was the good news .... the bad news is, it burned up a half quart of oil in 30 miles, that brought it down to exactly 1 quart low, so when I got to work, I added the quart of Marvel Mystery oil. I still think it's to soon to tell if the soaking helped or not, and I'm going to have to wait to see what the marvel mystery oil does. that's the latest, I'll keep Y'all posted

I decided to finish up the cylinder soaking today, after I sucked the seafoam out of the cylinders, I cranked in over a few times to make sure the seafoam was all out of there, I put the spark plugs back in and fired it up, the thing smoked like H_ll for a few minutes, then I took it out for a drive and it smoked some more. One nice benefit to using seafoam with all that smoking, it allows you to find any exhaust leaks you might have, I found this one: It seems to be running a little better, but time will tell, I still have some marvel mystery oil to put in the crankcase, and a full bottle of seafaom to put in the gas tank. I’ll run it this weekend, see how it does, take another compression reading when I get home, and cross my fingers in hopes that the compression came up on the passenger side. And then I’ll do the same thing to the drivers side

I looked up the megaSquirt, it don't look like it's all that expensive, that might be an option for mine when we get into the fine tuning of it. I just watched a video of a guy with an Opel with a built 2.2 with a reground cam and before tuning and it pretty much sounded like mine at idle. at least it sounded like it has the same idle grumble/miss I got here's a link to the video:

Jeszek - I got a quart of marvel mystery oil I was going to dump in the crank case when the soakings done, I also picked up 4 more bottles of seafoam, good things it's on sale right now at $6.99 a can. My plan is to go for a long drive on Sunday, pour a bottle or seafoam in the gas tank, and put the quart of Marvel Mystery oil in the crank case, drive a couple hundred miles and come home and change the oil. Rugby-subie, your numbers sound about like mine, it's interesting to note that yours runs fine even with those numbers, while mine has a grumble/miss to it (with about the same compression readings), which leads me to believe that grumble/miss isn't from the out of whack compression problem I have but from the torque cams which should mean that my grumble/miss should be perfectly normal given it's got torque cams. It would be nice to find someone else with an EA82 with torque cams so we could compare notes, but most people won’t go to the trouble when they can swap over to an EJ22

I checked the cylinders that I've been letting soak for the last 24 hours and they were low on seafoam, between the two cylinders (both on the passenger side) I added a full can of seafoam. The front cylinder was about a half a can low before it came up through the spark plug hole, the back cylinder I can't tell because a valve is open. The soaking continues, I was thinking of letting it soak until tomorrow, but I can just as easily let it go until Saturday. It’s such a slow process …. I know for sure I'm getting a really good soaking on the front cylinder, so if this works, and I get a considerable compression rise out of that front cylinder, I'll do the rest of them, one cylinder at a time with valves closed until the liquid comes out the spark plug hole so I know I'm getting a good soaking.

it wasn't that many years ago, you could buy a reproduction Ford Model A with all modern running gear, I think it had a Pinto undercarrage.

soak, soak, twiddling thumbs, soak, soak, soak, I wonder if it would go any faster if I quit standing there watching it

that's a good explanation, that works for me, I don't intend to get it at an angle like this again other then for soaking the cylinders. Oh yeah, I'm not real sure yet, but it looks like your last cylinder treatment might have helped to because it looks like the oil consumption might have gone down a little bit. Normally for every two trips back and forth to work I have to ad a quart of oil, but after these last two trips, it’s down maybe ½ quart. So I’m hoping the oil burning is starting to diminish.

I wanted to make a separate post for this one, this little incident has me somewhat baffled and don’t know if it has anything to do with my compression problem or not. Here’s what happened: As I was backing the car up on the angled incline in the back yard, and it was beginning to get a good tilt towards the drivers side, it began to smoke oil REALLY bad, I realize it’s dumping fluid to one side of the engine bt didn’t think I had it tilted bad enough that it would severely smoke like that, it started doing it as I was backing it up on the car ramps and I shut of off immediately and called that angle “good enough” Why was it all of a sudden start smoking so badly? It seems like it shouldn’t have done that. the car is at a steeper angle then the picture implies.

I got the passenger side cylinders soaking in seafoam, I’ll leave it this way until Friday. Here’s how I did it: I found the steepest part of my back yard, and with a little bit of help from some car ramps, I got the car at about a 35 degree angle: I did as TomRhere suggested and lined up the timing belt timing marks. My next problem was trying to figure out how I was going to get the seafoam into the cylinders. I have plenty of funnels, but nothing small enough to fit down in the spark plug hole. Than I was looking over in my RC airplane and car stuff and found an RC gas car funnel that screws to a plastic pop bottle top, it fit perfect: So if you ever need a micro funnel of sorts, go visit your local hobby shop. I filled the front cylinder until the seafoam came out the spark plug hole, the front cylinder is the bad one, so I know the whole piston is covered. I put a whole can of seafoam in the back cylinder and it never did fill up, but I’m guessing it went out through an open valve. But I had to have at the least, covered half the piston. I then inserted the spark plugs back in the holes to keep the debris out and will check and top off the cylinders over the next couple of days as needed.

I can use the hose off the old compression tester, I just need to figure out the fittings to the compressor, I'll look at it when I get home tonight but I'm thinking that I might be able to change the end fitting that snaps into the guage, and change that out to the the type my compressor takes

I've been running the air pressure idea through my head, I got the perfect compressor for it, (my little airbrush compressor) I'm just not sure how to make the adaptor that screws into the spark plug hole and connects to the compressor.

good idea, thanks, I'm going to wait until Friday night before I do the cylinders so I can let it sit all weekend, I'm only going to be able to do 2 cylinders at a time, so it's going to be a slow process, and the weekend is about the only time I can let the car sit unused. part of my driveway drops off into a field, and I'm thinking with a combination of the field, driveway, and a set of car ramps, I can get a pretty good angle, I'll have to post a picture, it's going to look kind of strange, but if it gets a couple of cylinders somewhat vertical, that should give me a good chance to really soak a couple of pistons. I’ll do a before and after compression reading. on another note, I racked up some miles on the car this past weekend, I had an old truck driving friend come to town, and we used the car to do some running around town while he was here. I am liking the car more and more, it's solid, and handles well, the cooling system filters seems to work well, after the 4th cleaning, they are staying relatively clean, and the heater blows so hot it will literally drive you out of the car when cranked on high. The stereo sux, but I'll take care of that problem in time. Here’s a picture I took this weekend of ol' KC (name of the car), next to my buddy's freightliner: