Ross

Just noticed in my owners manual for an '84 that all European/Austrailian/New Zealand ea81s had a compression ratio of 9.2:1, which i believe is higher than the US ones..... The ea71 twin carb had a compression ratio of 9.5:1 in that year too..... Whether we got different heads or pistons, who knows..... Bt that certainly indicates that you'd be fine increasing your CR to at least 9.5:1

Actually, on the older motors the "knock control" system is barely one at all, and isn't terribly important.... just dont advance your timing too much, leave it at 15 or something. All that knock control unit does is retard the timing slightly if it hears a knock, it doesn't change mixture or anything like that. Plus, it is a terribly slow reacting thing from the tests i've done on it... In saying that, youre definitely better off with one than without....

That might be a problem, the ea81ts dont store the codes (as far as i can find....) :-\

On point one, down stream does have an effect on the reading - hydraulic pumps deliver a set flow rate, therefore a change in the downstream resitance will change the pressure at the pump outlet correspondingly. As you say, small amounts of bearing wear don't affect the pressure noticably , however, very worn bearings such as were in my engine before the rebuild do. It ran with a hot idle pressure of around 1-2psi with a brand new, oem pump. If you run contaminated oil through your engine, the bearings can suffer just as much as the pump, since oil supply is restricted by the oil filter getting blocked up. Its not really the pressure thats causing the problem with worn engines - its the increase in gap size. The bearings used on these engines dont rely on pump pressure, they operate using pressure created by viscous forces within the very small gap, which acts like a wedge since the crankshaft sits very slightly eccentrically within the bearing shells. The pump presssure simply has to be large enough to provide adequate supply to all parts of the engine. The pump i have is an oem one.

Hmm, sounds like you doing everything right, only thing i can suggest is to beat harder! I would guess that you've already done that tho.... You'll need a balljoint puller to get the tie rod off, with one of them (they are cheap if you buy a crap one, and they do the job fine) you shouldn't have too much trouble with that bit....

Interesting you should say that...... my ea81t, which has done a total of around 5000kms since a complete rebuild idles at more like 10psi (measured with mech gauge). Main and BE brg clearences are at the lower end of specs.... Cam brgs are towards the upper spec limit but not excessive..... has a brand new oil pump. I have four hypoheses as to the cause of this: 1- Its just the slightly large clearence in the cam shaft bearings. 2- the hydro pushrod/rocker arm assembly provides less resistance to flow than the solid ones - i'm using solid lifters with the hyro rods/rockers. 3- Its just the effect of the additional direct oil feed to the turbo 4- Something is seriously wrong and the engine is going to fail, probably in the middle of nowhere Heres hoping its not the fourth one ay.... I don't think it is, since the engine runs cool and smoothly, and the presssure has been consistent since i first ran it. So, maybe its not such a big deal for the idle pressure to be below 20psi...?

My only suggestion would be to check and double check that the shoes are in the correct way, with all the clips fitted correctly, and that the self adjuster is working correctly (if fitted, if its a manual one, check that its adjusted properly). Do you file away the leading edges of the shoes before fitting them? Although i can't see how it would cause a problem like yours, not filing the edges can cause the shoes to self actuate...... An improperly fitted shoe could load the wheel cylinder differntly than it was designed for. Other than that, maybe its just a coincidence and you happened to get a bung wheel cylinder - they are pretty cheap and crap from the ones i've seen lately.

I'm using a mechanical gauge.... I'm thinking my pressure is lower than a standard ea81 or an ea82 because of the way the turbo oil supply is hooked up - staight off the pump.... but who knows, as long as it stays above 10psi i'm happy enough. Yeah it was knocking quite a bit, mainly a bad rod knock but i thought i heard a deeper, main bearing sounding knock on a few occasions.... I don't blame it tho with such poor oil presssure.....

Hmm, they're some fairly nast clearences...... You'll want to check all the oil galleries well - 20psi at hot idle sounds suspicously high for an engine in that condition - when my ea81t was in similar condition it ran at about 3psi hot idle with a new pump. Even now i've rebuilt it it doesn't sit that high.... although cant really compare the two different engines.

Regarding the clearences, the only way to check them is using a telescoping gauge and micrometer - which if you ask me is easier than messing around with plastigauge anyway! This is slightly more difficult for the mains than for thei big ends, although from memeory, wont the green plastigauge do the mains, just not the big ends?

Dunno what kind of ignition your cars have over there, but if its points ignition you may want to try replacing the condensor, i had a very similar prob with my '81 and that turned out to be the culprit...... Could also be the ignition coil.

yeah and in some parts of the world (ie here) "central locking" is the normal way to describe any car with "power locks"

True but just a note - the blocks are fully interchangeable, the ability to remove the lifters on the hyro engines is the only difference (unless its a turbo).

Uhhh, i see no pics.... Only differences are the lifters, valvetrain, and heads - gaskets/bearings/rings are teh same.

Most probably the hub nut is coming loose because the washer under it has been installed backwards. Try taking the nut off and turnign it around - notice that it is'nt just a plain washer..

Eh.. I have two solid lifter motors and two hyd lifter motors, they all have five side valve covers....

Solid lifter engines have big end caps on the push rods (look like they are pressed on). Hyd lifter motors the push rods are very obviously one piece. Thats prob the easiest way to tell if your taking it apart. Hyd lifter engines have a boss on the top of the engine block on the 1-3 side near teh split near teh rear where a hole is drilled to put a knock sensor on the ea81ts.

It was factory turbocharged! True, it was factory auto too, but im trying to keep to parts of the same vintage at least. Plus, i have a 4dr and no money, so....yeah.

If you can't find replacement hoses and its going to kink, you could make some copper elbows or something....

You might want to check that you definitely cant get further undersized bearings.....When rebuilding my ea81 i found my CS was outside limits for subaru's recomended undersizing..... I had decided to find another crankshaft to use, however when i talked to the local soob rebuilder who was doing a bit of machining for me he said it was not unusual to go beyond that limit, and bearings were readily available.... I ended up getting a 0.5mm undersize, apparantly with the ea81s bearings are available for up to -1.0mm!! Something to look into anyway, much cheaper (and more reliable) than welding if possible.

You should be able to buy vacuum line in various sizes from any parts shop by the meter (or foot i suppose). You may find you'll have problems replacing the timing belts!!

Na, thats cheating.

Yeah... just wondering how much play is normal, i got another gearbox for the ea81t (an '84 4dr to replace the '814dr) and while it seems much tighter than the one thats in there now, it does still have a bit of play there.......i'd say i can move the end of the shaft about 0.25-0.5mm or so..... I don't think this is a problem at all, since the one thats in there has more like 1-2mm of play, i'm just wondering really... Should be good anyway, the outputs have no play (unlike the current one) and it has no leaks!!!

The thickness of the pump to engine block gasket is not critical, within reason. When i got my new pump it cam with one, but when i went to get another one after the engine rebuild it would have had to come from japan so i cut my own..... i used gasket sealent where the block halves meet, but i wouldn't use rtv either, it does have a tendency to dissolve in oil.....

What kind of soob you got? An old one by the looks of your avatar pic!!