Uberoo Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 So I had this "good" EA81 engine.I ran it before for a little bit but never with any coolant. yesterday I filled it up with coolant to drive it. took 2 gallons of antifreeze and 2 gallons of water.I never measured or paid attention to the coolant capacity,but 4 galloms seemed a bit extreme. so anyway I go to start it and water comes out of the intake,exhaust, and oil fill cap simultaneously. So after a few choice words.I drained the milkshake out of everything.not to mention pulling the plugs and cranking it over to get all the water out. before I ran it with no coolant it ran just fine for the limited time I had it running.after I drained everything and put some old oil in it ran fine after all the electronics dried out. Could a massivly blown intake manifold gasket have caused this?I just swapped on my SPFI manifold and I used new dealer gaskets,could one or both of them have not seated correctly or something? also when it ran after all of this it blew lots of emulsified oil out the tailpipe,I didn't run it long enough for the smoke to clear out so that may be related to water in everything,but I thought it might be worthwille to mention. I am at a loss as to what could have massively failed on the engine. it would have to have a massivly blown headgasket for the coolant to go into the oil and the combustion chamber that quick.A massive leak like that would certainly drop the compression enough to be noticable.The engine didn't run like it had low compression either before or afterwards. cracked block or heads? possible but a crack affecting the oil, coolant, and intake?seems a bit unlikely.Not to mention that such a crack would also cause a noticeable drop in compression. Badly blown or not sealed intake gaskets?seems possible, water would leak into the intake,fill the combustion chambers, then backfill up the intake until the top of the intake where the PCV hoses are and drain into the oil.Thats the only explaination I can come up with.Even then I saw no leakage occuring on the outside of the intake gaskets. In the times I ran the engine with no coolant it never got warm or even close. I would be very suprised if the total time of all the times the engine ran with no coolant added up to a minute -thirty.not to mention it wasn't reved during that time.Basiclly enough to varify that the spark plugs were set right on the distributor and to drive it on a trailer was all the engine ever ran.When it drove on the trailer it was -10*f outside.. any other ideas?Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricearu Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 the driving on the trailor could have warped the heads. not having coolant in it at all is worse than not flowing said coolant. it will never "get hot" on the guage without coolant flow because the CTS isn't at the heads. There is only airspace in the water jackets at that point. I would never start a car without coolant for more than a few seconds. That's just me. I am sorry to hear it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naru Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Maybe the crankcase plug visible w/the water pump removed is corroded or loose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caboobaroo Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Check to make sure the freeze plugs inside the heads haven't popped out. I've had one where that was the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naru Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 check to make sure the freeze plugs inside the heads haven't popped out. I've had one where that was the case. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hush777 Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 +1 also Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 1. either the motor was bad when you got it and running it without coolant didn't show any problems because, well it won't leak what it doesn't have. 2. The motor really was good, and against all conventional wisdom you ran it without it's required liquids and destroyed a perfectly good engine. I'm going with #1, start tearing it down, it might be simple, but we've had a pretty cold winter, so the case could have cracked if there was any water in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brumby420 Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 1. either the motor was bad when you got it and running it without coolant didn't show any problems because, well it won't leak what it doesn't have. 2. The motor really was good, and against all conventional wisdom you ran it without it's required liquids and destroyed a perfectly good engine. I'm going with #1, start tearing it down, it might be simple, but we've had a pretty cold winter, so the case could have cracked if there was any water in it. He got the motor from me and it had always ran great i used coolant in it and it never had any leaks. it did sit in the cold snap but i did drain the coolant from it so it should have been good. At my house we drove it up on the trailer with no coolant but it was -10 with severe winds and was only running for less then a minute so i highly doubt that caused it to fail. it possibly had a little bit of water in it from what did not drain but i wouldnt think that little bit left in there would cause a block to crack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted May 2, 2011 Author Share Posted May 2, 2011 that little bit of water did freeze the water pump solid though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricearu Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 hmmmm. if the water pump wasn't removed, the case probobly still had a good deal of water in it. also -10 or not, when you start it with NOTHING in the engine, the heads will hotspot at the combustion chambers, so -10* case, 200* heads.... :-\ I would tear it down... starting at the water pump, just check all the freeze plugs and galleys for cracks. then check the heads for flatness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 if one of the freeze plugs was cracked or broken how would that explain the water in the intake? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 You wouldn't get water in the intake from the freeze plug directly, but the plug being out will put all the coolant into your oil, and if you get enough crank case pressure, it could push it into your PVC system and into your intake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 Are there any other freeze plugs other than the 6 under the valve covers?Pulled the valve covers and one plug from the driver's side was popped out and two from the passenger side were popped out.So before I try to fill it with coolant again I need to know if any more plugs exist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caboobaroo Posted May 4, 2011 Share Posted May 4, 2011 Nope just those in the heads. If I were you, I'd get some new ones rather then trying to put the old ones back in. Even if they go back in, it's not going to seal 100% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted May 5, 2011 Author Share Posted May 5, 2011 so turns out that the block cracked as well near the disty.I ground out the crack with my dremel,and Im gonna try to fix it with JB weld.Hopefully that works, if I can ever get water to stop seeping from the crack... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 just fixed another crack on the back of the block,near the oil fill tube. Are the heads prone to cracking if water freezes? also what is the best way to drain all the water from an engine so I don't have to do this again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdjdc Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Just my opinion, but if you have cracks in the block, that engine is toast. Freezing water expands at a huge rate and breaks alot of stuff. If there are cracks that you can see, there are going to be ones that you can't. I wouldn't be a bit surprized if the heads were cracked too. This just reinforces the need to keep antifreeze in a car at all times. Sorry to hear about all of the trouble. If it were me, I'd be looking for another engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 EA-81's are a dime a dozen, replace, don't repair, or you'll have a headache later, Hate to say I told you so, but freezing water is, freezing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 Got all the leaks patched up now I can't get the damned thing in time so it will start.Closest ive gotten in about an hour of fiddling had it hitting on two cylinders, while the other two were fighting the other ones... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 YA ITS ALIVE!!!!! finaly got the motor running in my transfercase lifted rig. its wierd. I now have traction issues in RWD with the 31's,before I stalled in FWD with the 235's... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81EA81 Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 How did that JB weld hold up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted July 21, 2011 Author Share Posted July 21, 2011 Jb welded worked for a about a weekend then started slowly seeping water. I found a different engine because that engine wont stay in time no matter what I do.checked the distributor,the distributor drive gear on the crank,verified lock key is in place,verified rotor screw is in place and locked where it should be,etc. just picked up a long block that has 16 valves,displaces 2.2L,and only had 146K on it.Car it came out of slide into a ditch or something and bent 3 control arms and popped the air bag... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81EA81 Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 I cant find a good ea81 around here. I got one that I thought blew a head gasket maby 4 years ago before I knew anything about subarus or engines in general. I tore it out of the car about a month ago by hand, and carried it over to an old office chair and just used that as an engine stand:) And I found out it was just a freeze plug:mad:. There is also a little crack right above the EA81 Branding on the block that I thought about JB welding. Its all full of rust too. I noticed your kind of in the area, do you think you could help me find an other ea81 around here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superbrat84 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 car-part.com you can search nation wide i know there are some around the range of 300 bucks. hope this helps. some yards will even ship to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uberoo Posted July 31, 2011 Author Share Posted July 31, 2011 closest place i can recommend would be pull and save in spokane valley.Ea81's are a bit rare there.plus you don't know the condition of the engine.Best bet for a good engine is pulling the engine from something that got wrecked-something big enough to take it off the road.IE being T boned, or rear ended... straight cars are usually there because the engine or transmission died. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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