andrsn

Cool looking car for a great cause. Thanks for sharing.

I was in the same situation as you recently. I ended up going the parts car route vs. buying parts individually. I just kept my eye on my local craigslist and ended up picking up a 93' legacy with 120k on it for 400$. Car has some minor issues but has been well maintained and I prefer to build some confidence in the engine before I spend the time putting it in my BRAT. I should be able to sell some other stuff off the Legacy to recoup some or most of my 400$ investment. Its also nice to see everything come apart and know with confidence that at some point everything worked together (before I screwed it up). -just my 2 cents...

I really appreciate the advice! The procedure written in the FSM just didn't seem correct but I was kind of waiting to find someone who had first hand/better knowledge. I'll make the adjustment and hopefully all will be well. thanks!

The procedure as it is written definitely seems screwy to me too. I totally get that you want to compress the lifters to get them to a bled and compressed state, sort of a baseline. It also makes sense to me that Subaru would instruct readers to then loosen the screw until the rocker allows the valve to fully close and the lifer is able spin in its seat (zero point). After this I really don't know what to do... I might just leave it at the 'zero' point unless someone has any better advice. At that point the number of threads showing looks much more similar to my parts engine. I really want to get this figured out so I can confidently get back to cruising this sweet ride.

I've taken the last 2 weekends off form working on the Brat. I definitely followed the FSM, double checked my adjustments and its still much noisier than before the rebuild. I'm beginning to think I need to just run it until the oil becomes less viscous and/or the oil pump builds more pressure in order to fill the lifters. The procedure of backing off the adjustment screws 1.5 turns after the lifters/rocker arms hit 'zero point' seems really loose to me. When I look at my parts engine there are far fewer threads showing. If anyone has an ea81 hrydro lifter engine with the adjustment screws visible at the moment, feel free to chime in with the visible thread count.

I did the same with my distributor. The 'How to Keep Your Subaru Alive' manual has a great description and illustration on how to reset. But yes, TDC on cyl. #1, align gear at bottom of dist. with tick mark on dist. shaft, install and ensure dist. is pointing at cyl. #1 spark plug cable.

I drove it around the neighborhood a bit this weekend and its still noisy, maybe slightly less but the valves are definitely still tapping. The FSM states to do the exact opposite of what you're telling me (it states to loose 1 1/4 from 'zero point' or where the rods would just become spinable), not sure if you've done this with success but it seems wrong when compared to the FSM. On the other hand, it would cut down the noise I'm guessing. I'm also confused as to why it matter all that much since they should self adjust, seems like you should be able to just get them kinda close and the hydraulic pressure should more or less adjust it. Is driving the car with the valves miss-adjusted doing any damage?

They look much different than the EA82 lifters from what I've seen but they're still a hydraulic lifter pressurized by the oil system in the engine. If I don't think of anything else to try, I suppose I'll just cruise around the neighborhood a bit this weekend and see what happens, nerve wracking indeed! I do love that the most likely fix for this issues is just to drive it (possible hard) until it fixes itself... that's my kind of repair procedure.

I'd be interested to know if anyone has gained any leg room with a seat swap in a gen2 Brat. At 6'3" this car is just barely has enough room.

I did it in the 2 stages they describe in the FSM and double checked before installing the engine. I might just start it up and get the rpm's up high enough to raise the oil pressure and see if that fills the lifters but it seems risky.

I bought these recently and the lengths weren't perfect but they worked: Standard Motor Products 9488

Yeah, I've been reading a bit about hydro lifters in general. It seems common for other engines to need to idle at around 2k for a while to ensure oil is pumped into them and get rid of noise. I just don't wanna do damage after the rebuild. Hoping someone here has some direct experience before I start hoping for the best... I still think its odd that the adjustment on my rebuilt engine vs. parts engine is so much different (# of threads on rocker screw wise).

Background: I recently did a rebuild on my engine. While I was at it I mistakenly loosened all my valve adjusting nuts and screws when I disassembled. Procedure: I used the Factory Service Manual to get them re-adjusted as follows (and I did it in the 2 steps as directed). I also checked the adjustments twice and one of the valves again last night to ensure they're 1.5turns out from Subaru's 'zero point'. -"Loosen the valve locking nuts and screw in the adjustment screw 4-turns", since mine were already moved around I just screwed them in until they were nearly bottomed out because i had no reference as to what point i should screw them in 4 turns in from. -"wait 15min. and unscrew adjustment screw until valve stops moving and rod just barely has freeplay" I backed them out from borrom waiting for the rod to become spin-able in the rocker seat and the valve spring to become uncompressed. -"loosened the screw 1.5 turns further before locking into place" At this stage the valve to rocker arm clearance was like 1/2" at TDC but I wasn't overly concerned since the lifters had probably completely depressurized while the engine was being worked on but when looking at my parts engine the threads showing on the adjustment screw are far fewer (parts engine has maybe 1-2 visible threads while my rebuilt engine has 5-6). Currently: I started the engine up and its making a lot of valve noise. I've only run it for a couple minutes at a time, hopefully haven't done any damage. How long should it take for the lifters to pressurize or with that many threads showing have I just adjusted them completely incorrectly? Was I supposed to pre-fill the lifters before installing, the FSM didn't mention that? -I've got 25psi oil pressure at idle and it climbs as engine speed increases. -Timing is set to 9-10deg on a weber carb. -Car starts up great and sounds good aside from valve noise.

If you need one (the part circled in red), I believe I have an extra I can part with. PM me.

they're all for sale in the 'for sale' section of the forum. Send me a message if you're interested.

It is the factory location I believe. I figured that cylindrical thing was AC only and safe to remove, but I do wonder about all those relays... thanks!

Alright, got my engine back in, up and running finally! I've got 3 hoses I don't know how to hook up correctly, they don't seem to change much when I unplug them, are they even necessary? I've also removed my AC system and want to know if I can really get my engine bay nice and tidy. I've color coded it all to try and make it easy. Yellow - Is all this stuff related to the AC system? If so, I'm going to toss it. Blue - There is a little valve coming off the intake manifold here, it had 2 outlets one has been covered with some type of epoxy the other just vents to nowhere, does that need to go somewhere? Red - This red hose comes off the top of the intake manifold, I have it hooked up to a hose that t's into the firewall and into the back of the valve the pink line goes to. Pink - this comes off of the large valve on top of the intake manifold and I have no idea what it is.

I've got my engine back in the Brat after new head gaskets and she fired right up! I wanna get coolant in there before running it more than a couple seconds. I do have a question about the coolant lines going into the fire wall. There are 2 hoses and I don't know which goes where. Does the top hose coming from the firewall connect to the hose coming from the intake manifold or the hose coming directly from the water pump? thanks as always

I will definitely buy 1 or 2

I just bought a set of those 14" pug alloys from a friend. Now to just find some lug nuts....

I sent the individual who said they have the procedure in writing in that thread an email earlier, hopefully they are still active on the board. I feel like I could just snug them down then back them off a 1/2 turn at tdc then check after the engine warms up but I don't really want to risk bending one or damaging anything.

Does anyone have a the literature explaining the process of adjusting the hydraulic lifters on an ea81 handy? I've found multiple threads referencing the factory service manual but all have broken links. I foolishly loosened them all when I removed the head for a gasket replacement. thanks

As I mentioned before, one of my lifter passageways had a significant amount of carbon build up when I removed the head. I popped the oil pan off today to replace the gasket and clean. There were a fair amount of carbon pebbles in the oil pan as well. The pump screen was pretty clean and I just cleaned out the oil pan, put a new gasket on and re-assembled. Is any of that carbon build of concerning or fairly normal?

Thank You! I thought I was going bananas, now I should be able to get this engine all back together and in the car in the next week or 2. thanks

I'm just going to have to assume the ea81 doesn't have o-rings on the cam towers and everyone is thinking ea82 or maybe the non-hydro push rod ea81 have them? I took a picture of the mating surface between the head and what i'm guessing is a my cam tower and there isn't an oil port going between them. Although maybe I'm not even looking at the cam tower, I'm still learning.