Snowman Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 It is a dark day in the history of my subaru. I left Anchorage for Haines (750 miles) this morning, worrying a bit about the right front wheel bearings, but I had replacements just in case. That part was fine, however, some other little issues came up along the way. Just outside of Northway (roughly half way there), the crank pulley bolt came loose. Before I could tell, the engine temperature had gotten nearly to the red zone. I put the pulley back on, refilled the water that had boiled over and started her up.... knock, knock, knock, knock.....OH S***! Praying to the internal combustion gods, I checked everything over real well and headed off down the road, with at least one rod making copious amounts of noise. I was hoping that I could at least get home before it kicked the bucket so I could rebuild it (well, rebuild it again, it only has 4000 miles on it since I put that engine together), but that was not the case. The pulley slipped off again, it boiled over, and the knock got worse. Thinking that no further damage could be done, I took off once again, babying it as much as possible. Lo and behold, going up a long hill, there was a bunch of metal-on-metal noise, then a big bang and a cloud of steam/smoke from behind. I coasted to a stop and after the smoke cleared, I found the small part of the rod that bolts on sitting on top of the engine next to a very large hole. A passing motorist helped me tow her off the road into a hidden place (most of my belongings are in the car) and gave me a ride into Northway. I am currently at a friend's house, waiting for a person I sort of know to give me a ride home tomorrow afternoon. Then I can get my dad's truck and a tow dolley and come get my poor soob. I think I've pinned down what the cause was. When assembling the engine, we nicked/scraped up one of the rod bearings. We measured it and deemed it okay so I put it in and assembled the engine. Until today, it seemed fine, but I think the overheating and the thinner oil/lower pressure that comes along with it did that bearing in, then it was all over. My plan is to, once I get Roxanne home, take the shortblock from my 89 SPFI parts car, with new rings, bearings, and seals, and use the heads and valvetrain from the dead engine, as they should still be fine. Of course I will thoroughly inspect the heads for warping from the overheating, but it wasn't in the red zone, nor was it hot for very long. I'll also need to check the cams and followers for oil starvation damage, but it was run in that condition for so little time that I doubt any damage occurred there. For the time being, I'll fix the fuel leak and tune-up Alice, the 91 loyale (yuck, 3AT) so I can have a car to drive while putting this engine together. So there is the epic, so far of course, of Roxanne's rebuilt engine doing itself in. Before I get too far into this project, is there anything I need to know about combining SPFI and carbed ea82's? As far as I know they are identical, except for higher compression pistons (hey, at least something good is coming out of this), but I've never really compared the two side by side. See Matt, I told you I'd have a good story on the board:rolleyes: . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Svengouli7 Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 Whoa. Sorry to hear this man! I just sent you a pm about other things- lemme know if this changes things ($$$) for you and you want out of our arrangement. I have learned the cams are slightly different between SPFI and carbed. Maybe a search for details is in order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torxxx Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 Kelly That sucks she broke down. Makes me wonder about my car. I'm gonna double check the pulley nut, cuz I didnt flywheel tighten it last time. I talked to a few old timers and they all swear that bolt will self tighten with the rotation of the pulley so I'd check the threads on the bolt and the crankshaft. As for combining the engines, I just turned a carbbed to SPFI this last week. The only difference that you will find with the SPFI block is there isnt any sideburns on the engine (air exhaust suction whatever it is) And the EGR air seleniod is on the fender on a carb'd setup (SPFI is on the intake) there is also a few other small differences but everything should go alright You have my phone number, so give me a call if you have any questionsabout the swap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northguy Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 The uncanny thing is that last evening I was going to post on the board to see if you made it home all right, but thought better of it in the event that I might jinx you. WOW! Looks like you've got your work cut out for you. It's probably a good thing that you've got a few backups in the stable for situations such as this. If there's anything I can do for you, let me know. I don't know what shape Jon'smotor was in when he pulled it out of his white loyale, but that may be an option if things don't look good with your plan for the swap. Sorry to hear ofyour misfortune, but at least you've got a little time to deal with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted April 28, 2004 Author Share Posted April 28, 2004 Thanks for the info Torxxx. Assuming that none of these parts have been damaged, I'm going to take everything from the heads out off of the blown engine, as I just had those heads resurfaced, ground the valves and seats, new springs and seals, and custom reground cams. As long as everything inside the short block is the same. Svengouli: As much as it's going to suck to have to redo my engine and everything, cash isn't going to be an issue, so the deal's still on for the rims. I'll just take on a couple more projects to pay for everything. Matt: Thanks for your support. If I do need to get Jon's motor for parts or anything, I'll give you a call. I think the only possibility there is if one or both heads are damaged, I'd want to get a set with lower miles than the engine the short block is coming from (200k). That pulley bolt thing just wierds me out. I tightened it to spec, which if I can remember is 75 ft-lb, less than two months ago. The freaky thing is that after I put it back on the first time, it came off again after just a few miles. If it wasn't for that second time, she might have made it home at least. Oh well, I'll definitely use some loctite on that one now. It's times like this that make me almost consider getting a different primary car, seeing how much money I've thrown at Roxanne. But then I realize that an almost totally rust-free, otherwise in great shape, 86 soob in AK is something to hold on to. C'est la vi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northguy Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 Kelly, you just need to adopt the Q-man point of view: one for the street, and one for the woods. You need a Legacy to commute to and from Haines - 70+mph for 750 miles - and Roxanne all tricked out for the mud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddcomp Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 i think the one reason those pulleys come off is the stupid little pin that fit into them and also one of the timing gears and mechanically mate them either gets lost or forgotten to be put back in and without it the pulley can and most likely will spin under load just all theory of course but good luck in your re re-build Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northguy Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 Kelly, have you made it home yet? Is Roxanne safe and sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted April 28, 2004 Author Share Posted April 28, 2004 Bit of an update: Right now, I am typing this at my friends' house in Northway. This morning before they went to school, we towed Roxanne up here so that she would be safe (No looting or vandalism). My ride left Tok on the way here about half an hour ago. There is probably a 30:70 chance that I'll get to Haines in time to head back up with the truck overnight, as the Canadian border on that end closes at 11 pm. If not, I can leave tomorrow morning at 6 am. Either way, I've got a long drive ahead of me, as each way is 6-8 hours and I'm doing it three times in a row. I briefly examined the damage today. I'm not sure where a lot of the #3 rod is. I can clearly see where it's supposed to be, and I found the smaller part, sitting on top of the engine, as well as a small section attached to the piston, which I am praying came disconnected on the power or intake stroke and didn't squash the valves. There is a gigantic hole in the top of the crankcase. It even broke the cylinder liner about an inch up. Chunks everywhere. It's nasty. Ordered parts today, but my debit card was right on the edge of being able to cover it, so I may have to transfer $$ tomorrow, which would mean a slight delay. Rings, bearings, and all gaskets: $518 shipped from 1stsubaruparts. I should have all the "franken-engine" parts amassed, cleaned, and ready to assemble when that stuff gets here next weekend. Gotta go, and I'll post when I get to Haines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted April 29, 2004 Author Share Posted April 29, 2004 Update: 11:30 pm, made it Haines riding with a friend who happened to be coming back from Tok. I've got a tow dolley and my dad's truck, and will head out at about 6:20 am, in order to get to the border when it opens. If all goes well, Roxanne and I should be home by this time tomorrow night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northguy Posted April 29, 2004 Share Posted April 29, 2004 Good luck with the haul; take your time and be safe. Keep us posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted April 30, 2004 Author Share Posted April 30, 2004 Well, I just made it home. 15 hours in a truck is something I don't want to do for a while again:drunk: . The roads were pretty good, and Aragorn, my dad's Chevy, was running quite well, so I made it there in 6.5 hours and back in 7.5. Not bad for 390 miles each way. I was amazed how well the truck/dolley/car behemoth handled. The only thing that gave me trouble was loose gravel in the construction zones, where I had to slow down to about 40 mph to keep the car from going all over. I should have the engines out of Roxanne and the parts car by saturday, and I'll post pics of the carnage when I can get some. I never would have imagined that an engine could have THAT big of a hole in the top of it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torxxx Posted April 30, 2004 Share Posted April 30, 2004 glad to hear the haul back was uneventful. I want pics of the hole... kinda scary. how many miles did you have on that engine? I'm at 128,000 and she's tickin pretty bad.... hope I make it back home next week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam N.D.J. Posted April 30, 2004 Share Posted April 30, 2004 I can feel your pain, and know exactly how it is. I had the same problem a few years ago, #3 rod decided that it didn't want to hang out in it's hole anymore, and went for some fresh air!!! Here's the pic that I got of mine, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerFahrer Posted April 30, 2004 Share Posted April 30, 2004 Poor Roxanne! She'll make it, she's tough That pulley bolt thing just wierds me out. I tightened it to spec, which if I can remember is 75 ft-lb, less than two months ago. The freaky thing is that after I put it back on the first time, it came off again after just a few miles. You should tighten it more than that. I'm not sure about EA82's (I will find out soon though :\) but MANY 90-94 Legacies have wobbled crank pullies loose, eaten up keyways and ruined the cranks, deeming the engine worthless. All because some schmo that wrote up the manual said 80ft/lbs instead of 110ft/lbs. I didn't have a torque wrench when I did my Legacy's timing belt, but after reading the harrowing stories, I went back out and gave it one last good hard tug to be 100% positive. They're pretty beefy bolts, so I wouldn't worry a whole bunch about breaking it off. Good luck with the rebuild! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flow Posted April 30, 2004 Share Posted April 30, 2004 Yeah I had the same problem as well. Right after a rebuild too. Good luck Brother! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northguy Posted April 30, 2004 Share Posted April 30, 2004 Kelly, not that it'll make you feel any better, but I burned the same snowmachine motor up 3 times in less than 500 miles total. I bought it with a fresh rebuild on it which lasted about 200 miles - burned out the #1 cylinder - rebuilt it - burned out the #1 cylinder in about 70 miles - then rebuilt it again and burned up the #2 cylinder about 200 miles later. Three strikes - you're out. Put in a different motor and it runs great. Maybe you should look at the EJ mod for all of the long distance/high speed driving you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddcomp Posted April 30, 2004 Share Posted April 30, 2004 just a suggestion... on your next rebuild maybe a nice shiny set of new rod bolts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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