GeneralDisorder

Before you do ANYTHING, you need to test the oil pressure with an accurate gauge. The dash gauge is a useless device - and the owners manual even states that at a warm idle it is normal for them to read zero or very near it. The reality is that they just aren't accurate enough to base tearing the front of the engine apart on. Especially if it runs fine, doesn't leak, and the lash adjusters aren't ticking like mad. Test twice, wrench once. Dirk: Your EA81 is very little similar to the EA82 being discussed here with regards to the oil pump and lubrication system. Try to stick to what you have worked on when giving advice. GD

How did you diagnose a wrist pin without even pulling the head off? GD

I have no clue. If I were you, I wouldn't expect anyone here to know the answer to that so I would hit the junk yard and get dirty. Incidentally, that's basically how I know what I do - I get dirty.... a lot. Asking questions will only get you so far - sort of a "point in the right direction". At the end of the talking though you have to dive in as there are details that you won't get any other way. GD

Most ruler's aren't flat - even the metal "machinist" sqaure's aren't typically flat enough to measure the warpage of a head. If you *must* use one you will have to check it using both edges of the rule - you will probably get different results..... and there's no good way to split the difference. They are usually bowed one direction ever so slighly. Enough that you'll get .005" under it one way and no gap the other Glass will flex unless it's good and thick. Like 1/4" thick or more. Even then it's not a precision surface. If you must test this at home without a machinist's straight-edge, then run the head over some 600 grit paper on top of 1/4" glass. You will be able to tell by the pattern if there are any major low spots. And if they aren't too bad you can just keep going till it's nice and clean - lube and clean the paper with WD-40. As for what else to do with the EA81 - replace the valve cover and oil pan seals but coat them in a thin layer of RTV to prevent the cork from absorbing oil. Also replace the oil and water pumps with new one's (Paraut). New front/rear main seals wouldn't be bad - get them from the dealer as they fit better. Beyond that, unless you are splitting the block there isn't much to be done. GD

4WD makes it easier as there is no bearing components in the drums. EA82 drums are slightly larger. And if they are cheaper then it would seem like a good idea to aquire the backing plates and get some new drums and cylinder's. The EA82 stuff is self-adjusting too. GD

When I had a rod knock it was only apparent under load for about 2,000 miles. Then it got REALLY obvious for about half a mile. :-\ Ping can come from one or more cylinder's so it can come from just one side or from both. It depends on many factors, and each cylider will be slightly different and will ping at different timing settings. GD

Always a pleasure. Please tell us what you find. GD

Ping can sound very metallic, yes. For you (SPFI), the timing should be 20 DBTC at idle. If it still happens then try reducing your timing by 5 degree's and retest. If it won't go away you may end up with a rod through the top of the block because it probably wasn't ping in the first place . Subaru rod knocks sound a lot like pinging and also are most prevalent under load. Don't ask how I know this Sometimes exhaust leaks can sound like ping also. Often just fixing the leaking exhaust gaskets will get rid of the weird noises. GD

Pull the bulbs and check for corrosion - check for power back there and clean the ground connections. Could be something simple. Double check the fuses - the tail-lights are not on the same circuit as the head lights. GD

O2 sensor's only begin reporting when they have reached operating temp so the ECU will wait for a signal and if one never comes or it's way out of range.... up pops the code. Also if the coolant sensor should fail and only report that the engine is cold - that would cause a similar effect. Although they usually fail hot - telling the ECU the engine is warm when it is not. GD

The choke spring's on the EA82 Hitachi's have a bad habit of wearing through at the end with the hook in it that allows it to close the choke plate. Remove the top of the air filter and look at the choke butterfly when it's cold - if it's wide open then your spring is broken. Pretty common in cold climate area's or anywhere that an EA82 has been parked outside of a garage. You might be able to get a new choke from the dealer. I've never tried but that's where I would look first. You will have to drill the heads off a couple rivet's to remove the housing - just replace them with self-tapper's. You could also get a "manual choke conversion kit" from just about any auto-parts store for about $10 to $15. With this and a couple hours to install it, you can just have a pull-choke like you are back in the 1950's. GD

Remove the kick-panel under the driver's side of the dash. Drive the car till the lamp comes on and then read the codes flashed from the ECU's red LED. Probably O2 sensor, EGR/EVAP purge solenoid code's...... GD

And probably you would need longer trailing arms as well. So the EA82 stuff might not really help you much. Besides that, if you are going for BIG travel, then you have some BIG money that's going to come up with some sort of long-travel axle for us right? What most folks have found is that the stock torsion bar is easily capable of WAY more travel than the axles are anyway....... GD

Yep - jumper it directly to the battery. It's only 12v - it's not going to kill you. Either it will spin or it won't. In which case it's bad But - if you have 12v at the connector - do you have ground on the body side of the connector? Many circuits are "ground controlled". In other words there is a constant voltage supply, and the switch's or relay's only turn on/off the ground.... may or may not be the case here. GD

I know - and she's 5 years my junior and HOT too! I don't know how I do it..... truely I don't GD

Most people that have gone to coil-over's on the EA81's later regretted it. The torsion bar is nearly a perfect match to the EA81. And there are lots of easy options for rancho shocks and such. The coil-over's are a huge pain in the neck and they have limited travel. The torsion bar is less limited as you can put longer travel shocks on it and it will just work. GD

AFAIK, they are the same across all EA81's. If you are looking up parts for an '86 though you are probably seeing EA82 parts under wagon/sedan/coupe, and EA81 parts under Hatchback/Brat. For most things, you should lookup parts for a 1984 as that was the final year for the EA81 body style other than the Hatch and Brat. I think you'll find that '84 gives you fewer options and it probably IS the more expensive of the two you are seeing. You could go to the yard's and get the EA82 backing plates/wheel cylinders and the EA82 drums will bolt up and work fine. Or you can upgrade to rear disc's from any Turbo EA82. GD

I can get a kit off ebay with the belt, all idler and tensioner bearings, new cam and crank seals, and new water pump for $117 shipped to my door. As I am selling the car to a friend's daughter (he's a mechanic as well), I would rather just have it all replaced and new for that price. Yeah - maybe I could save $50 but I'll look like a total a$$hat if I try to save $50 and a bearing locks up before the belt is due..... GD

Excelent. I'm learning a lot about the EJ's now that I'm buying and selling a few. I'll order the 90 to 96 kit then. No need to replace the tensioner being it only has 113k. Had fun swapping differential gears today to get a 4.111 rear diff with "innies". Turns out you can just swap the new-style gears with the C-clip in them into the ring gear housing of the 4.111 diff. Thus I didn't need to buy another set of axles - already had both diffs - and by only changing the diff gears and not the R&P I don't have to set any clearances GD

The pinging most likely won't start till you reach close to max advance - which is somewhere around 25 or 30 degree's.... Thus you will only hit max advance when the engine is up around 2500 to 3500 RPM. And you won't be able to detect the pinging unless you are under load. Ping is when the flame front reaches the piston top BTDC - the noise is the force of the flame front trying to turn the engine backwards. Think of pushing your kid on the swing - you want to catch them right as they stop or very shortly after. If you catch them while they are still comming at you the force tends to try and knock you down, and if you catch them after they start to swing away you can't get much power with your push..... same idea. Try driving up a steep hill in 4th gear at close to the slowest speed of that gear. Pinging will really raise it's head when you are under a severe load condition - really lugging the engine down at around 2500 RPM will make it more noticeable. Full-throttle = more fuel = bigger, hotter flame front = more noticeable ping. That's correct. As for power loss - that depends on too many factors to judge really. Typically you should run the lowest octane fuel you can without pinging and it should give you *more* power to a point of course. You don't want something so volitile that it has to be ignited ATDC..... Premium fuels are generally for use in high-compression engines, or engines that run some kind of forced induction. In those cases the concern is that low octane fuels will spontaneously combust under the high compression and heat. This is called predetonation - it's like pinging but it's not caused by too much ignition advance. It can be massively destructive. Very high octane fuels are used in indy cars, etc where compression ratio's are in the 20:1 range What's important is to use the appropriate fuel for the appropriate engine. Using super premium, high octane fuels in an EA81 or EA82 (non turbo) is just silly. They don't require it and they don't benefit from it. GD

Yeah - I suppose so. "resident" is the key word. There's someone, somewhere, that designed the things for a living. I have endevoured to at least understand what's going on inside one as well as the feedback systems used on them..... in the end the conclusion I came to was there is just no good way, short of redesigning the linkage completely, to eliminate the vacuum secondary. Couple that with the small size of the bore's and the availibility of inexpensive Weber's (often cheaper than a commercially rebuilt Hitachi)..... and with a bit of work and a little imagination you could hide a Weber under the stock airbox. Tuned properly they can easily pass any emissions test. I am 100% confident I could take one through CA emissions and they would never know GD

Depends on the woman I suppose. Mine drive's an '86 sedan with a Weber so she doesn't expect a lot I guess. GD

Yep - low octane ignites easier and burns hotter. More BTU's per gallon. You should run the most advance you can without pinging. That is not an absolute number for a given engine model. Age and condition play a big role here. If you can run with 10 degree's without ping then so much the better. Timing is all about getting the flame-front to arrive at the piston top at the RIGHT time. Ping will tell you when it's arriving too soon. Just below the point where you get that pinging sound under load is where you want the timing. Thus NO ONE should be giving you a number - Subaru's spec is for a new engine and is designed to allow all fuel grades to work properly. After this many years and mileage you should be setting your timing by ear anyway. If you don't get any ping under load at full advance - hell go to 11 or 12. It's only a number indicating how many degree's before the piston reaches TDC that the plug fires and starts the burn. The objective is to get the flame front to meet the piston top at exactly TDC. GD

Sounds like the timing is off or it's extremely lean - maybe a bit of both. GD

So ultimately, this '96 engine is a strange animal. It's got single port head but it is NOT interferance? So what's the HP rating with the single port heads but without the valve changes making them interferance?? I should expect to see a tensioner like the 90-94 EJ22E (the log)? I've dealt with those before and from what I've read they are more reliable anyway..... never had to replace one. GD