Ross

Sorry Dirk, don't think there is much I'd want for a trade at the moment.... unless you have lifted rear leaf springs for a suzuki samurai . They're 13x6JJ rims.

I've held on to these for ages, but it's looking less and less likely I'll have any use for them any time soon. Someone should put them to good use.... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=414086370

Yes I suspected I'd have trouble reaching the seals..... I will probably just keep feeding it oil for the mean time, I just had it out to re-seal it a few month ago and I'm not overly keen on doing it all again right now. I suspect if I had a more reasonable cruising rpm (It's got a 4.44 manual 5 speed in it, sits at 3000rpm @ 100km/h, perfect for towing my suzuki on it's trailer) the oil consumption would be significatly lower. I've all but ruled out the PCV system being the culprit -- I cleaned all the hoses when I had the engine out, and I have in-line filters/catch cans in the system, which seem to pick up mostly water (condensation) rather than oil -- certainly not in the amounts I'm losing. However, since I have nothing to lose, I will try removing the whole system and replacing it with an open air filter. I do know that the previous owner overheated this engine quite seriously on at least one occasion. My suzuki samurai, which I unfortunately had to drive for about 4 hours off road with no radiator fan and a crap radiator cap (temp guage near max the whole time!), survived with no issues except ruined valve stem seals and front crank seal from the heat. I suspect the same may have happened here. We'll see.

Well on flat fours it's pretty trivial to get the seal off once the valve springs are removed -- pliers, lever, whatever. I've never been further into an ej than replacing cam seals though, so I'm not sure if this will be possible or not...

Interesting..... Actually, I'd probably just take the engine out anyway -- it'd have to be easier in the long run. But if I can get away without pulling the heads off it'd be nice -- using compressed air in the chamber seems to work well to hold the valve in place...

Hi, I've got an EJ25D that likes to drink an awful lot of oil on decel -- going down steep hills it absolutely pumps out the blue, and as such it can go through almost two litres of oil/1000km sometimes (i.e. on very hilly drives). I got this engine with a blown headgasket a few years back, and I know it had been overheated, so I'm assuming the valve stem seals have hardened due to the heat. I've already gone down the replace the PCV valve route -- no change. Now, I've done valve stem seals on other engines with the heads in place, but it seems it would be difficult (or impossible) on an EJ. Anyone have any input on this?

Essentally you want to try maintain a similar cross sectional area along the runners. Concentrate more on smoothing out where the intake meets the heads -- I have found this area leaves much to be desired. You'll need to cut the intake gaskets to match -- again, these are terrible as standard. Areas of larger cross section encourage the fuel to condensate out of the air -- not good. Best to leave things similar to factory unless you have a very good reason not to....

The intake takes air FROM the brake boster, not the other way around. A leaking brake booster would result in a lean burn by letting unmetered air into the system. However, I'm not convinced a brake booster leak would affect clyinder four in isolation anyway, since the plenum/runner assembly is all open....

It's very likely that it's the cable to a rear wheel sensor causing your trouble. Where it comes off the suspension arm and onto the car body it bends with every bump and eventually fatigues -- seems to be a common problem with cars with over 200,000km. As soon as I put people or heavy gear in my car and go over a bump, my ABS turns off for this reason -- the cable is bent and contact is momentarily broken.

New PCV valve helped, but not a lot. The PCV hosing is still full of oil, and it's still burning at least 1l/1000km. There are no leaks. Never see any blue smoke. Is this engine just breath-ey due to it's old age, or could something else be going on? I'm going to try a catch can in the PCV system next.

Niiiice. So you found some wheel nuts? You still need another set?

Oversize bearings shouldn't be hard to get, any parts store should do them -- this was the case when I rebuilt my old ea81 anyway...

I also have a set of genuine (i.e. not subaru copies) cheviot turbos. 13", maybe a bit wider than stock wheels (not sure) and definitely offset out further. They look really good, much better than the subaru copy turbos. I'm not really keen on selling them, but if someone has a nice project that they'd be good on I could be convinced....

Yep I'll be down Wanaka way from about the 30th till the 9th....

Hey, I have these wheels for sale: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=342497518 I'm not really that keen to ship them, but I will be galavanting around the south island quite a bit in the next few weeks so can possibly deliver, particularly anywhere south of christchurch.

OK, so the hose going to the PCV valve is full of oil, so it does look likely that it's the culprit. I'll replace the valve before the next road trip in a week and see how it goes....

10-15 mins is probably excessive, it may well cause more harm than good. Engines don't like sitting idling at low revs for long periods, often oil circulaiton is poor. Just ask anyone who has owned a buick 3.8.....

Yep, I've had trouble with these in that way before too -- they do seem very sensitive to changes in angle etc. But I've checked this multiple times on a number of level surfaces with the same results. And we're talking about nearly half the entire capacity of the engine oil going missing too, not just a few hundred ml.....

It's really not leaking. I have checked the bottom of the heads, the oil pan, and the front face of the flywheel, and they are all totally clean. So is the engine cross member. If it had leaked out two litres it'd be very noticable.... If a PCV valve can indeed cause such significant consumption, I'll certainly go ahead and replace it. Just don't see much point if there is no way it could cause it......

I've just taken my 250t (1995 EJ25D) for it's first big drive after sealing it up and putting a manual trans behind it. Did about 1000km (~600miles) and it went through about 2 litres (~~2quarts) of oil!! (of course I was topping it up along the way!). I steam cleaned the engine & surrounding area when I had the engine out, and everything still looks clean. It used to go through a fair bit of oil, but I attributed that to teh leaking cam seals, which were leaking all over the exhaust and making a big mess. Looking out the back when driving, I haven't noticed any smoke, but I haven't got someone to drive behind me yet. Could a bad PCV valve cause this much oil consumption? Seems excessive to me...

Oh OK, maybe my mileage expectaions are a bit low then. Taking it on a trip tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. Yeah I'm thinking it may be that the flywheel is lighter than what would normally be used on the 2.5. It's quite possibly a lighter than normal flywheel fro the ej20 since it came off a 206kW version. The engine is very rough below 1500rpm if it has any load on too (yes, I know that's quite low revs) -- more so than I'd expect. This also points to a light flywheel. If this is the caes then I'll leave it be and not worry about it. Yeah it has a 4.44 fdr. I wanted the low ratio as I'm setting this car up to tow my suzuki samurai on it's trailer on long trips. Should purr along quite nicely at 2900rpm. Just need some heavyer springs and new struts for the rear now.....

It's quite a heavy shaking, like a misfire but not as 'sharp'. But definitely a shake rather than a buzz. Yeah those bushings looked pretty good. Everything else with the engine seems fine, other than a suspiciously good fuel economy figure... 10km/l (23.5mpg) for mixed city/open road with a fair bit of AC use, roof racks, and a 5th gear that puts it at ~2900 at 100km/h....

Trans mount and crossmembers are all from the manual car. Pitch stopper is installed correctly and in good condition.. There is good clearance between everything....

Stone guards are silly things anyway. I run my suzuki 4wd without them, otherwise they pretty much constantly get stones stuck between them and the disc! I'd say they might help prevent water getting splashed on the discs too though, which may be something worth thinking about on a road car -- My suzuki goes everywhere on a trailer, so I'm not so concerned.

Are the engine mounts different between manuals and autos? They are the factory auto ones at the moment, they look OK but are certainly not new -- the car has done about 200,000km. The pulley damper rubber is a little cracked looking. Do these casue a vibration that can be felt when the rubber goes bad? The intake system is all standard.