Which parts total seal and clutch, water pump

[jazzmandolin]

My 92 loyale wagon has gone from oil drip to oil puddle to oil LAKE!!! What I think is the throw out bearing is grinding when letting out the clutch leaking small amount of coolant from water pump Other than these issues the motor runs like a champ with only very slight lifter tap at start up that goes away almost immediately. Due to the mess and head aches caused by smell of oil burning on exhaust the car is parked until all this work is done!!! Clutch, seals, timing belt kit, waterpump, pretty much the works. This will be the most work I have ever done on a car and luckily a friend has offered me his garage to do the work! SO MY QUESTION IS: Which parts should I buy? I see clutches Borg Warner on ebay for 50.00 ive heard the ebay timing kits ar OK? How about water pump. Which parts should I buy directly from Subaru and which can come from ebay-advance-autozone-napa etc. Any and all input greatly appreciated!!!

Edited January 21, 2011 by jazzmandolin

[idosubaru]

is it worth investigating first to make sure what you need to replace? generally the headgaskets might be fine, but of course with it out and apart maybe you want to do them anyway but you could save a lot of time, work and parts to skip that step too. i can almost guarantee most or all of your leaks are from the front seals (cam/crank/oil pump) or valve cover.

 

aftermarket parts:

Fel Pro Permatorque headgaskets for sure (add 5-10 pounds to the final torque value).

Get the ebay timing belt kits (theimportexperts are often used by folks on here). They come with the belts and all new pulleys and they're really cheap like $60 for everything.

 

Use Subaru parts for the intake manifold gaskets (they carry with them a coolant passage and are prone to leak) and seals (cam seal, cam oring, crank seal, oil pump seal/oring/gasket). Get the cam carrier orings from Subaru as well, few other places carry them (you'll need 2 total). The subaru exhaust manifold gaskets are a lot better, but they're so easy to replace it's not a big deal either.

 

I'm indifferent with valve cover gaskets but get the valve cover kits that have the cover bolt washers too.

[Tycho]

I think the most important thing for me with EA engines (and something they MAKE you learn if you want them to stop leaking) is proper application of RTV.

 

Apply a small amount to both surfaces, finger tighten the part, let it semi-cure for 30 minutes to an hour, then tighten to spec. All the tubes say this, but I used the stuff for years without reading them ... just applying it and torquing it. By letting it start to harden before the final torque you end up with an actual layer of the stuff between the two parts rather than just squeezing it all out. This allows the parts to "walk" on each other without losing their seal. Important in an engine like the EA82 with a million dynamic surfaces, all of which are exposed to some sort of fluid as well as large temperature swings. Doing it right, you can get away with a lot of re-sealing with RTV alone. I've successfully done water pumps and t-stats with no gasket and had them stay sealed up for a couple years so far. Also, my cam carriers don't leak anymore (which is half due to using RTV right, and half down to using the OEM reinforced o-rings for the oil passage).

 

Once I started doing it RIGHT ... leaks stopped appearing on parts I'd re-sealed (but have continued appearing on every part I haven't re-sealed yet). I'm finally winning the battle tho. Never could get ahead when I had my '90 Loyale because I was doing it wrong the whole time.

 

Also, as General Disorder has noted, it's also useful to coat the paper and cork gaskets with a thin layer of RTV, then let it semi-cure or fully cure depending before installing. This keeps the gaskets from saturating and rotting over time.