the sucker king

Sounds like this has already been hammered home, but for what it's worth, I have done two clutch jobs by dropping the tranny, once for ea81, and once on a gen one ea71. Both times big pain in the rump roast. Even if you don't "have to " do things like remove sway bar and exhaust, You will wish you did. I have done clutches since by pulling engine. much easier. But this is redundant redundant.

Today I ran the car with the exhaust unbolted from the heads (it is a one pisce custom exhaust), and the same thing, blowing OUT both valve covers at idle and any other RPM. So I rule out the exhaust being clogged or too restrictive. Here is the FSM page: Can anyone with a good running stock ea71 or ea81 pop the hose off of their passenger side valve cover while the car is idling and report here if it is taking air in or out of the engine? For that matter I would be interested with both valve cover hoses pulled, are they doing what they should. I thought about this. Is it possible that the rotation of crank and cam direct the airflow from the right to the left side of the engine? I bet it is. .............

Yes that is true. it reflects what should happen with everything hooked up stock. I don't know about the mod you speak of, the breather from the air filter to the pcv side is supposed to eliminate oil into the manifold as mentioned in my first post. Still, with the pcv side hooked up, both sides blow at idle. So it is not working right and the fact is, there is pressure inside the case. I am also familiar with these engines, I've torn down a few. Didn't meen to be snippy, I'm just trying to fix a problem. I will explore the exhaust possibility tomorrow, and I'm wondering if that is the case, what roll did it play in the engine I blew up? should have mentioned, this is an ea71.

It is not normal, and there is something to worry about as the pressure in the crankcase at speed is blowing oil out all over the place. At partial throttle, air should be taken IN on the passenger side valve cover. Only at full throttle should it be going out. That's according to the factory service manual. So try again. Now your talkin'. I didn't think of that. the old intake and all bolt ons etc were swapped over from old engine. I was thinking that, and clogged exhaust was not on my mind. It is an exhaust that was done up front to back at a local shop. All just custom bent pipe. Would it be fair to say if the exhaust is too restrictive, I should be able to unbolt it at the heads, run the car and the engine should behave normally (as far as air flow from valve covers)?

Hoses are clear. With both hoses removed from valve covers, both valve covers are blowing air. Why would that be?

Valve covers are clean, I will double check that the hose is not plugged. suppose it would be drivers side plugged if so. Hose is stock, I believe. Gonna go check it now.

go here: http://www.indysworld.com/80s/general/haynes/haynes-weber.html If that is not what you need PM me and I can scan step by step instructions, But I think that is what you will find by following the link. Good luck.

please help me figure this out. I seemed to have pressure building up in the crankcase of the engine that I just replaced, and again with the new engine that I replaced it with. The PCV valve seems to be working fine. The car has a weber on it and the PCV system is set up a little differently than stock. It was suggested that I need to set it up just as stock for it to work right, and I certainly am willing to change it, but I don't see why it's going to help in this situation. I just read the FSM crankcase emission controll system page and I understand the system. I have the passenger side valve cover hooked up to the air cleaner. I have the drivers side valve cover running into the PCV. To make it same as stock, I SHOULD have a line running from the air cleaner to a T above the PCV. At part throttle the passenger side valve cover SHOULD be taking air INTO the engine. Instead it is spitting air OUT. The other side is also spitting air out as it should be. Passenger side is supposed to only spit air out at open throttle when there is more blow-by gas. Both side putting air out indicates pressure, If it was all blow-by, I wouldn't think the car would run as good as it does. When driven at speed, the pressure is blowing oil out front and rear seals, which are both brand new. As far as the missing hose from the air cleaner to drivers side hose, according to FSM, That is only to releave pressure so you won't suck oil into the PCV when you take a hard right turn, So I don't see how that would help this problem.

Okay, now I'm freakin terrified. Heres the deal, regardless of why the initial catastrophy happened, what was said in this post makes a lot of sense. There was a lot of aluminum debris in cylinders 2 & 4 as well. I had initially thought that this mashed stuff had squeeked past the piston rings. Looking at it again, some pieces seem too big for this to be possible. Therefore they went all the way across the intake manifold. Surely there was debris left in the intake manifold, And I never thought to look in there and clean it out, as I hadn't seen what this engine looked like inside. That intake is now bolted to the new engine and the car has been run for an hour and driven a few miles. There is a good chance I have screwed up the new engine. What would you do at this point. I hardly want to pull this motor and take the heads off. I suppose I could take the manifold off, clean it out and pull the plugs and blow the cylinders out. What a freakin mess this whole thing is. The worst is that the new engine is from an FE and I really don't want to destroy it. Not exactly common. So what would you guys do from here?

The FOD is definately piston ring. I have nearly recunstructed the entire ring! Shawn, the bellhousing is off, But I can't get the case apart. I don't think it's neccessarily true that the piston and valve met while both intact. Couldn't be as simple and unpredictible as a flaw in the metal of the piston. Engine sat for 10 years plus and was than run at 80 mph for over 200 miles straight, piston cracks, flies and hits valve. I will open the case in the next few days. Can you do that w/out pulling the wrist pins? also I can't get the oil pump off.outer shell came off but left the base plate and such on the block.

Here's an update. I take back what I said. The object that subymech pointed out is not part of the piston. It is not alluminum. I had noticed the piece (we will call it FOD since we are calling it FOD!) and it looked like aluminum, I figured it to have been a piece of piston that exited #1 via vacant intake valve and into #3 via working intake valve. This piece is definately steel, it sticks to a magnet. There are only 2 possibilities. This piece came through the intake, or it came from the crankcase via vacant #1 intake valve. I need to crack the case and see where this came from. I have a broken down engine in my shed I will look for where this piece came from, barring that I will need to take the case apart, If I can't rotate the crank enough to pull the pins, can I just Pull the case apart with the pistons still attached to the crankshaft? I will post pics of FOD removed from the piston. The plot thickens! A couple things bother me, one is Abog posted that pieces of crap were found under his carb after such catastrophe. I have already installed the intake with carb on the replacement engine. Never looked for debris. Been running the car. Also, if FOD came down the intake, what is to say there's not more where that came from? I'm running the same intake. We'll see. For those that didn't read the seized engine thread, This was a newly installed 63K engine with a new out of box weber on top. Engine sat for 10 plus years, and I do think there was pressure built up in the crankcase. see the seized ea71 thread for details. Any mistakes were most likely mine, ie, tools etc. unless the guy I got the engine from hucked a nickel in the head for good luck...... But I honestly don't think I left anything to chug down the intake.

"My dad's a television repairman....He's got the ultimate set of tools.....I can fix it."

The piece in question is a piece of piston I believe. It is aluminum and it looks just like a piece of piston. I think we're on the wrong track there.

All I can see is the thumbnail. It just spins when I click it. What is circled? If it's the thing lodged in the #3 piston, I think thats a chunk of the #1 piston. Can you post your pic some other way?

Here's the ea71 I seized. I still want to know why this happened.

I put an FE engine in my 77 wagon tonight. I have heard that they were supposed to have different heads, maybe different cam and bigger valves. Was gonna tear this engine down to compare, but needed something to drop in my car badly. The thing runs really good, I only drove it a couple miles, but it seemed quicker that the other ea71s I have run. I had been sceptical of the FE myth, I figured the FEs performance was due to it's tranny, But now I'm not so sure. Mine is mounted to a 4wd trans, and it seemed quicker. Has anyone torn one down and compared the engine parts to other ea71s?

put a junkyard FE engine in my 77 wagon today, this was the same engine I asked about metal in the pan. It fired right up and made this awefull loud knocking noise, I thought oh crap, what a waste of time. I let it run for about a couple minutes then revved it and the noise went away very quickly. What was it, did it just need to get some oil flowing? The engine has been sitting in my shed for a couple years, who knows when the last time it ran was. I drove it a couple miles and it ran REALLY good. pretty zippy.

most everyone uses a 32/36 dgv. My guess is that 38 in front is a barrell size. If the carb is a double barrel, look on the base of the carb on the secondary side, DGV should be stamped on it with barrell sizes above that.

I could probobly scan some stuff that would be helpful to you. Will try tonight. Is she cute?

Hey Shawn, yeah and yeah. I 've decided to throw it in. Should be tomorrow night. I was putting new gaskets and seals in it last night when I found the metal in the pan. All I want is to get that wagon running. This engine is from that FE at pull n save that you helped me pull a couple years ago. We'll see.......

There is a little bit of ground metal in the oil pan of a junkyard motor I am about to install. Maybe 1/4 of a dimes weight total. I know it's not good, but is it somewhat typical or should I go with another engine?

Having fun yet? the piston removal thing is that you need a special tool to pull the wrist pins out through little access holes. The tool is like a puller with a slide hammer. Some guys on this board have made their own tools to get out of tracking down the real deal, with great success. perhaps somebody will post a pic of a homemade wrist pin puller? No hyrodrolic lifter stickers means it should have solid lifters. The significance of the location of the ea71 stamp is that the ones stamped on the front of the block are year 1980 and newer. Before that they were stamped on the block above the #4 cylinder. Also significant is the location of the starter mounting hole on the bellhousing. Is it Center top or more towards the drivers side? The latter has a larger flywheel and can be mounted to newer transmissions. Keep us posted, we are full of advice, or at least full of something....

I got it into the garage, pulled plug #1 and it was completely smashed, so it looks like a piston went flyin'. I will be tearing into this this weekend, might go back to the shop tonight and prep the engine for removal. Thanks for the help, I'll post carnage pics after I crack it open. it would go 1/6 turn or so and hard stop

You guys may be on it with the water thing. The coolant is down a couple inches, I will probobly pull the plugs and see if it turns. I should have the car in the garage tonight, but it looks like the hoist I was borrowing is not coming through for this weekend. I will probobly drain the oil and see if there is coolant in it today. Yes the manifold has the carb preheat passage, I have heard of people jb welding it when putting the weber on, I never have, I used a little silicon gasket sealer around the passage. I have run webers for yaers now, never had coolant leak there before. Will pull the carb and adapter plate to confirm if that is the direction this leads. Thanks, John

McBrat, you asked me in PM if I pulled the plugs and tried to turn it. I have not, but what is the thought behind this? Don't forget to adress the PCV issues I mentioned in previous post. Tomorrow I will drain the oil, pull the pan and I'll try the spark plug thing. I'll crack the case once I get my other engine in and running.