Steptoe's photos

I know a fella who has a set of fog lights with working, motorised covers, hoarded down under. Are they a hot dollar item in the US yet ?

that is likely a price per piston - nice , easy find . The shop should have some good sources and be willing to help get the correct pistons

I have or had some heads that look like this. That "webbing" with grid line squares style embossing between head bolt holes is what makes them stand out as not so common among the EA81 stuff I have had. If I have one set, it might be they were my only hydraulic liftered EA81. The push rods are all mild steel whereas solid liftered have alloy rod, steel end caps. I also suspected these heads were the smaller inlet valve version. Peeps might say get the bigger valve heads, but 1.0mm increase? Really ? Can 1.00mm make all that much difference ? If you have hydraulic, it may be worth sending to Mizpah Engineering to get them reconditioned. I have a set of their work in one of my EA82 engines, great stuff

They what ??!! My understanding is that rather than bore to a standard measurement say a known size for our 92.00mm bore or piston size plus the oversize requested/required - boring really only done to match pistons supplied so they can be measured up and IF any slight change be made to suit them. I have a few spare sets of new, oversize pistons in storage um...down under.... The pistons normally bought in past twenty years are marked as EA71/81/82 so are a one piston part number does the three generations delivering a compromise compression ratio I suppose between NA MPFI/carb and spfi - I suppose. My sets were sourced based on EA71 1600cc in order to build higher compression EA82. istons have a flat top, no dish, no recess, no room for broken timing belt ...

I wonder what is in the 440 - probably optical like 410 and 450 440 being from 90-94 will not be same as our 4 pin module equipped mechanical advance and vacuum cannister that does vac advance and boost retard for us

The Nissan component is found on a business called DIY autotune I think they are, just been taking notes recently. They do a slotted disc for Nissan distributors to change the slots to suit other ECU installations so, I think the wheel contains 60 slots minus two slots not cut out so call it 60 -2 , 60 minus 2 I am learning on a 36 tooth crank fit wheel that has one tooth deleted, so they call it a 36-1. The missing tooth is a signal for ECU. If you send an email to speedy efi asking for Isaac Dalton tell him what you have and concerns and he can take it on from there with you hopefully. I think it is a total ECU change

Oh, Torpedo, while I think of it, watching the vid where he is turning it over to prime the oil galleries. I have found some builds do not like to suck oil up the pick up, so when ready, oil filter off, the port NOT in the middle of the spin on thread - I shove a clear PVC hose in it with a funnel and pour oil in and it should flow down to the pick up. Also fill filter before spin on also helps.

I feel sorry for these EA81 pushing a microbus around but a 5 speed has to be it's reward

Oh, was the Kennedy adapter plate the only piece here then, doing away with the Subaru bellhousing? I am trying to think of the OD of the rear main oil seal as that should also help you zero in on the right bellhousing Aha, I was thinking 92mm, just looked up rear crank seal on ebay OD is 93mm and factory bellhousing is a straight through bore, no inner ledge to stop the seal being pushed in too far. Factory BH should also have two studs either side of the bottom holes to transmission - not taking into account your Kennedy adapter plate. M10 about 70mm long

nice. I must also be trivial matching the "signature" across the two pieces. Now, you have tested the rings in the bores to measure gaps up and down the bore ? If so, what gap did you find or need to adjust to ? I have only this week found my engine building guide on ring gaps through various performance stages. They used 3" and 4" as examples so lazy me who forgot to write up what 92mm bores gaps need at each level, is gonna have to work it out again The pistons I bought came rings fitted. I hate removing rings, scratch, break Got them off one so far. I like how you used marker pen to save brain space on assembly. Must do myself

fit that head with broken boss on the left #2 and #4 as they will then go to the rear. Only for mounting PS pump bracket and maybe Earth cable Our later EA81 used a cast iron unit that bolted to exhaust port. This went between head and exhaust pipe flange and contained the hole for EGR

nice. Not sure if the con rods can actually go in the wrong way, think it is all boomerang logo to the front. The ring locator pins facing their paired mate is new to me, thanks for sharing and updating.

You are mistaken on this one mister, sadly.

Don't you wish you bought one or two modules when Rock had them at $300 a piece ?? When I asked about them, someone kindly offered used for around US$150 plus necessary postage. I declined the offer figuring these 37 year old now modules need some consideration .... working on an EDIS4 and Megajolt thing. But Speedyefi may have a solution for you using the Series Two optical distributor and the DIYautotune Nissan wheel inside replacement for VG30 and was it ET28? I had one fail on me in 200,000km and 15 years, but it failed on me at a most inconvenient time ! Fix was easy though Swapped in a spare, near enough donated to me I had been tinkering to make, by hand, a mounting block to install a standard two pin module as a basic rescue part, just to get some spark. The 4 pin and two pin modules do not use the same mounting hole centres, for a first problem.

16 years of mild turbo EA82 and nodding head. I prefer them over non turbo EA82

Normally, yes. Good question on the values. If you had a resistor wheel or decadic wheel tool with loads of resistor values inside it, you could intercept the wire to ECU and feed it various Ohms to see if you get a change in engine behaviour at rest/idle etc.

sorted? How is this build going ? I recently pulled rings from my new EA71 oversize slugs in order to measure up the ring gaps up and down the intended bores. The scraper rings are identical, no tabs/tangs at all. And just a short 4? mm step on the lower land to stop the scraper ring ever rotating. That is as far as I got ! Luckily I remembered/worked out how to remove the lower comp ring without breaking it

you guys got EJ22 in Impreza in the 90s , have a look for them.

my best performing, longest lasting pair of front shafts in my Brumby were assembled from a mix of five shafts spread all over shed floor and pieces picked and examined before assembly. Cost me time only

IONSTORM66 - have you got p56 please ?

and can you do a compression test and give us the result? Comp tests are a basic starting point even up to today's modern stuff. Had a BM guy chasing his tail with all sorts of theories and histories of what can ail modern sensors - then we went back to a comp test. Game over, the thing got towed away. Low comp in a few cylinders was telling us things like exhaust cam sensor, swap intake with exhaust and vice versa to see if error followed sensor - nope - still exhaust. Motor was shagged.

don't you love it when diagnosis says something, you resolve and codes go away so, does it start now, even though you have the injector code 14 ? How far can you go along the flow chart above for code 14 ?

doubling up on grounding connections cannot hurt either. I did that with an electronic ignition conversion I did in an old Ford. Kept my pants a bit cleaner after

From memory - I tossed instructions that came with one set of rings as they conflicted the non Subaru workshop manual that went to more effort than Subaru to describe gap placement and tangs and tabs. Whoever assembled rings to my pistons I have sitting ready for EA82 assembly - set the gaps of the oil control rings 180 degrees apart. I have followed that description I gave you above on countless EA81 and EA82 with no troubles. Did you check gap positions of all the rings when you pulled last EA apart ??

I think you are correct in the break/ butted join is intended to be at the pin. Firstly though, have you fitted the ring to the bores to measure your gaps? I bought some AE branded British made pistons that frustratingly came with the rings already fitted up. Now, I need to hold my breath and remove them, size them up in the bores then refit. Have you got any Subaru instructions at all ? The expansion ring, the wriggly thing needs to NOT overlap at the join, just to butt up to each other. Well, that tab has to at least point towards it's brother rail . If the piston groove has a pin in it, that is a help, but not having done this in a while cannot say how and where it should be in relation to things. The gaps of the rails are supposed to be far apart from each alignment and the gudgeon pin location gets a say as to where your compression rings need to be. I have some ring info, just not handy. Please tell us how you go. Just looking at my piston mentioned above, it has a flat point in the lower groove low side to locate the lower rail. None for the other. I found some instructions that mention that the gaps for each groove need to be 120 degrees apart from each other. I have some recollect that the gaps of both rails align with each other. Could be wrong , I do recall generic ring instructions may conflict with Subaru specific instructions. I just looked at my EA81 series FSM and surprised no mention of what you ask at all !! Nothing on where the gaps are to be, not even a starting point . I don't know how many others do what I did on one dismantle...used tape to stick rings to a sheet of paper, marking which ring was top or lower, next to the top compression ring is the top rail with tab on it. That tab has to point inwards (but I taped it tab up, just to confuse myself years later My Australian Gregories manual describe that ring with your tab as "the upper rail tang" Draw yourself a clock or compass Looking from the top , put piston so locating pin in piston at 9 or West. 30 degrees down at 8 o'clock is where oil ring lower side rail gap and lower compression ring gaps are. 30 degrees below 3 o'clock , so 4 o'clock is top comp ring gap Tang faces down on top oil rail ring about one hump to your left That locating pin should be dead centre above gudgeon pin centre ?