mka

Having just gone through an EA82 rebuild myself (the cause of which was mostly valve-related), i would highly recommend you make sure that valve is not bent, sticking, or mis-seated. There's a chance that can start a cascade of pretty gnarly failures. Easy enough to take the springs and keepers off to see how the valve moves in its bore. That being my $0.02, i'd also wait for someone with more than one rebuild under their belt to chime in.

Those part numbers appear to be what i'm looking for, thanks freddo! Tried emissions with the drip, no one said a word. Any chance that this is something I can do without yanking the trans or engine? I literally JUST put everything back together . It looks like i can just put her up on stands, pop the driveshaft and exhaust out of the way and pull the seals in question.

Hi Folks - you've all been stellar helping out with my '87 rebuild. Good news in she's running again, like a sewing machine compared to the last go around. Bad news is that now that I've been able to get things moving again, i've found an oil leak out of the rear transmission seals. (All of them.) My question however, is this - It appears there two shift shaft seals on the dual-range 5MT transmission (one for the gears, another for the 4wd, i presume). Are their respective seals the same part numbers? (Cruising RockAuto and hoping I can just grab two of them from there, but they don't have a distinction between the seals). The output seal seems okay-ish but what I assume to be the shift seals are dripping wet and sit straight over my exhaust. They're leaking so constantly I'm wondering if i'll pass emissions this way.

Scratch the last post - answered my own question. It's labeled. The good news is the valve wasn't bent. The bad news is that it was completely snapped, and has been rattling around the cylinder for quite a long time judging by the carbon buildup on it. Also the previous owner had installed a spark plug about a half inch too long, which i think might have been my precipitating problem: Long spark plug -> Stuck open/broken valve -> dropped rocker -> disintegrated lifter. Surprised it was still running when i pulled the engine out.

Update to this project - Got my new cam, lifter, and some other misc. bits. assembly lubed and reassembled everything. I did the timing (not in the car thankfully) and when giving hte engine the cursory check of turning it over a few turns by hand, i heard the now-distinct click-clack-clunk of the rocker falling off the valve again. Cracked the cover back open and the same valve is sticking. I think this may have been the ultimate root cause. Sticking valve due to sitting for who knows how long-> running like a dog on a dropped rocker for who knows how long -> mangled lifter in my oil pan for you guessed it, who knows how long. Here's hoping there's no major cylinder damage. As a semi-sidebar, the frontmost valve on the right-hand side (US passenger's side) of the engine - is it an intake or exhaust valve? Chances are i'll need a new one.

From what I understand it's with the cam roll pin at 12 o'clock. I figure I'll find that out when I get to it. It's a bit late for me to get the pair, the other is already on the way. If it runs oddly I'll swap out the other side but at this moment I don't see a pressing reason to do so (best practices aside).

Will do, thanks to the both of you. I poked around and looked at how the other lifters sit. I'll do the bare minimum to get the lifter to fit back in nicely but otherwise leave it be.

That's the plan thus far, but I found another hiccup, sadly - It would appear the lip of the bore for the offending lifter has been beat up a bit, but only just the lip. Additional plan on that is to *carefully* clean the lip of the brass(?) bore insert with a reamer/burr removal tool and then potentially hone it with a ball hone. I seem to recall reading that those bores are not a serviceable item. Is that indeed the case?

Sorry, if i wasn't clear, i will either be using a borescope to inspect the cylinder through the spark plug holes or removing the head in its entirety. The sump needs to come off because I have to get the remaining pieces of the lifter out of it as they're too big to pull out through the bung by magnet fishing . The other cam lobes are (at least to my eye) pristine. Crisp corners, no scratches.

After digging into it a little further this afternoon, I agree that a reman head is - like you said - not the way to go. That being said (read: you're probably right... BUT) - I have so little into the car and there is negligible zero to anything other than that one lobe of the cam that I'm willing to roll the dice against that probably very sage, obviously much more experienced advice. I've (finally) managed to source replacements for the parts that appear nicked up, including the camshaft itself (surprise surprise, deltacam.com out of Washington will send a fresh one out for $65+core charge). My intention is to pop the oil pan to clean out the bits of lifter, and scope the cylinder or remove the head to inspect it. If it's not too too bad, I'm going to try to rebuild it. If it's trash, I'll be doing a swap of some kind or another.

I think I got a good read on what I have to do to check up on the state of the engine, after a lot ( A LOT) of google-fu i found this thread: https://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/97832-valve-train-problems/ And I think something similar has happened in my engine. Gotta check out my valve motion and find my rocker + retainer keepers, or whatever is left of them, and triage from there. I suspect it wasn't maintained pretty well, ran low on oil and siezed up a lifter, ultimately causing this somehow? What little is left of my lifter assembly is pretty chewed up. The frontmost cam also looks pretty trashed, moreso on the non-lobe face - like it's been run like this for far too long. It may barely still be runnable if i can manage to find and/or replace all the parts aside from the cam (You're right, DaveT, parts are like hen's teeth). I'm hoping that's the case - a new reman head costs almost as much as I paid for the car. I'll check valve motion after yanking the cam carrier, I'm hoping the non-interference nature of this engine saved it from the worst of it. If it's too thrashed it may either be time for an EJ swap (or even better, an EV swap).

Hi Folks - hoping I might be able to glean some help here. I'm trying to force an 87 GL EA82 back to road life, 280k miles on the engine. When I bought her she had a hell of a tick of death, so I did the standard oil pump O-ring and seals replacement, along with all accessible seals on the front of the engine. Drove her around a bit more, TOD slightly better but still very very apparent after a few days, so I popped open the valve cover (R hand side, it's a left hand drive as I'm in the states)to take a look while also addressing a pretty good oil leak from the cover gasket. Clink, clank, out falls what appears to be an (extra?) valve spring, a valve spring retainer, and the bottom half of an HLA. I'll be damned but it appears there is NO rocker on the frontmost valve (#3 intake?). None. Nada. Zilch. Long story short, my questions are as follows: 1) Are the oil ports in the cam portion of an EA82 head big enough to Houdini an entire rocker arm along with the retainer keepers (which are also notably missing from this particular valve)? 2) Why in the world would there be five valve springs in a head that only has four valves? It's a large spring only slightly smaller than the remaining valve springs, and was rolling about in the bottom of the cam area just like the half of the lifter. 3) Where in the heck can I source another rocker at least if I cannot locate the missing link? I know where I can get lifters, no biggie, but the rocker (and potentially a cam) are what elude me at the moment.