iceageg

Installed the rebuilt engine with new clutch last night. This morning I tossed in the battery, fluids and started her up. Ruby Sue is back on the road!

IT'S ALIVE!!! Ruby is back on the road. Ran into a few hiccups with the parts but that's no uncommon in my experience. Can't wait to go stretch her legs and see if there is a noticeable difference with the new cam and shaved heads.

Photobucket holds the images hostage, but here is the link you are looking for. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/122888-tech-tip-ea81-4-speed-sloppy-shifter-bushing-fix/

Block is back together, heads are on. Tomorrow the EGR system, intake manifold and carb then into the car. HURRAY for 3 day weekends!

Heads returned and reassembled. Block has been pressure washed. Cam is back from Delta. Let the assembly finally begin.

I believe my father still has a couple complete sets out in western Washington.

Cam arrived last week, heads get back today. Let the reassembly begin!!!

A couple of ideas to help diagnose/monitor this as a potential cause. 1) Pull the spark plugs and inspect them. A coolant leak into the combustion chamber will result in a distinctly different color, look possibly smell of the plug when compared to the others. 2) Check your oil often, particularly after shutting off the engine. Coolant mixed with oil looks like chocolate milk and is an extremely bad sign.

I have swapped XT-6 seats into an 84 hatch with great success. no chopping of the rails but I did have to use some bar stock to fabricate brackets so the rails would mount to the wider seat frame. I also had to remove the forward assist spring from the passenger seat. My current hatch has seats from a 89 Honda Accord. Same story with fabricating brackets to mount up the stock seat rails.

16" from the Honda Passport fit perfectly. I would have preferred 15" for more potential tire sidewall but beggars can't be choosers. Pics in the build thread in my signature.

Head gasket blew and I ended up with chocolate milk in my oil pan. My original plan was to casually monitor craigslist for a viable complete EJ donor car, rebuild that engine and do the swap casually during the summer. The cost difference between the EJ swap and EA rebuild was going to be almost negligible doing it myself. The only reason I settled on an EA rebuild was that with a little digging I knew I could get the parts on an acceptable timeline while I may still be searching for the right EJ donor car months later. With that decision made the relatively low cost of the Delta cam upgrade seemed like a well documented no brainier as well as going with a Weber. My son also got to do his 8th grade final paper on how to pull an engine (which he got an A on ). In the end it wasn't a specific passion for the EA that made me stick with it. Rather a practical timeline based on need. I know my EA build won't be as fast or fun as an EJ swap would be, and the long term potential is reduced but I maintain a simple platform that should be reliable for a long time. Just knowing what the limitations are and being happy with the compromises I make for the benefits I get.

This is in large part why I am currently a month + into my EA81 rebuild. Finding parts, deciding to send the cam off to delta, weber or not, etc. Hell, I spent a week just working on two of the rusted intake manifold bolts and one of the egr bolts in hopes (successfully thank the gods) that I would not strip or break them off. It's not a matter of if it can be done or not. Just need to be honest with yourself about the cost and effort involved and plan accordingly. Especially if you are venturing into uncharted water.

Check out post #18 in my Ruby Sue build thread. 16" steelies off of a Honda Passport. I drilled the wheels for 4 lug instead of the hubs to six but that shouldn't matter for a reference picture.

The single biggest factors for mine seem to be highway speed and throttle position. That is, if I am trying to maintain 70+ there is no way I can get 30mpg. The closer I get to 55 the higher my mpg gets . . . and the angrier the traffic around me gets. Also, the difference between 90% throttle and wide open is about 2hp, and 2-3mpg. If I can remember to keep my foot just a bit off the floor I get noticably better mileage with no functional loss in performance. Just difficult to remember when all of the traffic is zipping past me.

I will need to call them back next week before I actually ship it, but I believe it was $75 + shipping for the single EA81 cam. EDIT: $72 + shipping. Cam and lifters on their way back now. Reassembly is eminent!

Been super busy all week so progress was zero until today. I only stopped a couple times each day to spray more penetrating lube on the intake bolts. Two of them took some heat from the torch to get out but the manifold is off and nothing has broken thus far (knock on wood). Tomorrow I will pull the heads and we will find out if they are warped or not. Turns out the previous owner was either very hard on clutches, or was not honest about the age of the clutch so a new one, pressure plate, bushing and bearing are all on order. On a whim I called Delta CAM. At that price I can't not send mine in for a torque grind so that will go in the mail next week. Everything is covered in a frothy oil/water chocolate milk substance. Clean up is going to take a while and be ugly but worth it. I am still hopeful that there is no damage to the rotating assembly or cylinder walls.

The two frozen bolts in the intake came out easy after soaking in penetrating lube for a couple days and some direct heat from a torch. I may replace them with studs and nuts instead of bolts for reassembly. Heads will come off tomorrow and we will find out if they are warped. Called Delta Cams to see what they had to offer and can't not send mine in at that price. On a down side, the clutch most certainly was not replaced recently as the previous owner told me. So I have a new one on the way.

Engine is out and swearing at frozen bolts has begun!

The engine is officially out and on the stand. My son and I got it pulled in a few hours (his first). Lots of "We are taking of the hood!?!" and "There are only four bolts that connect it to the transmission?!?" moments for his 14 year old mind to process. The sort of stuff that make parenting such a wonderful experience. The puddle under the car in it's parking spot was substantial when we moved it into the garage. In addition to the 31 years of caked on road grime everything on the bottom side is freshly softened by a newly applied generous layer of oil and/or chocolate milk. We will start disassembly tomorrow. I called Delta and the price of a regrind is too good to pass up, so that will delay re-assembly. I still fear the heads may be warped by the previous owner so that could also cause delay. We'll see soon. On a bright note, there have been no snapped bolts/studs or stripped threads yet. Fingers are still crossed. More to follow as progress progresses.

Got the engine pulled today. Ruby is officially in mid transplant. Disassembly starts tomorrow. Called Delta and the price on one of their regrinds is too good to pass up, so I'll be delaying reassembly for a little bit at least. Progress is finally being made.

Duly noted GD. While I have not had a subaru engine case apart (a testament to them since I have owned so many) most aircraft engines are aluminum cased opposed 4 & 6 cylinder engines. I work with those every day and am familiar with the struggles unique to the engine layout. If I can find a way to not crack the case open I would prefer not to but with it having run on a water/oil mix I am inclined to replace the main and rod bearings.

It does run but it has chocolate milk now (oil/water mix) instead of just oil in the pan. I don't want to run it any more than absolutely necessary. It isn't making any angry noises yet but it has been run at least a few miles in that condition before being discovered and I don't want to push to the point of un-rebuildable damage if it hasn't occurred already. As you pointed out, doing a complete reseal grants me the privilege of not caring if i damage existing seals and gaskets. Hopefully this will give me an edge on the stubborn bolts and studs you guys have been kind enough to warn me about.

Torch on the aluminum to get the metal to expand often loosens up around steel bolts as well where possible. Never tried a meat thermometer though.

Thanks for the heads up GD. The plan at this point is to tare it down completely and rebuild it as a project with my son. Hopefully he won't have to learn the misnomer "Eazy-Out" yet.

As of yesterday afternoon, there is water in the oil. Ruby is parked. Only drove a few miles in that state, no noises and no overheating so hopes are high that there is no permanent damage. As much as I would like to do a full EJ swap timing makes that option a last resort. Time to rebuild the EA. I'll be ordering rebuild parts this week, pulling it next week and hopefully have it back on the road a few days later. "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans." -John Lennon