saltytheseadog Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 I 'm having troubles with the cooling system on my 91 Loyale. It started after I had pulled the rad to get at the oil pump to try to quiet down the TOD. I must have jarred it handling it because it developed a leak where the end frame and first tube enter the tank. This caused some overheating before I realized I was losing coolant. I've temporarily solved this using epoxy and tested to 15psi. Also put some rad sealant in to be sure. It still isn't operating properly. There still seems to be a loss of coolant say a cup or two per hour. The temp guage goes higher than normal before settling down. The heater will blast and then go stone cold. I removed the thermostat and checked it ok , but put in a new one I had. Pulled the plugs, color looked normal. The water pump looks ok but not sure whats going on inside it. I still have the tick of death to deal with. Thought I would try new oil pump seals as my third attempt. (1. mickey mouse seal 2. Rislone oil treatment) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT Posted January 8, 2019 Share Posted January 8, 2019 Possibly just didn't get all the air out . Also, this is symptoms of headgasket beginning to fail. Over heating, or even over normal temperature , while low on coolant is very bad for headgaskets. There are a lot of threads about this on this forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jono Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 That hot cold heater sounds like an air lock in heater core. Do t risk killing it. I run EA81 twin core in front of my EA82T If you go for new and like a fitment challenge.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saltytheseadog Posted January 9, 2019 Author Share Posted January 9, 2019 I did try jacking the front of the car up when I filled it with water. If it were a small head gasket leak could it be causing combustion gas into the coolant but no coolant into the cylinders, no indication of that on the plugs. Any way of isolating which cylinder. Drivers side means engine out, passenger side I can do in the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el_freddo Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 If doing head gaskets do both. What if you get the wrong one? Or you replace one only to have the other pop a few miles own the road? Another trick for the TOD is to add a small spacer behind the oil pressure relief valve’s spring. 3mm is probably about the most you’d want to go. Even a clean out of this area could help. There may be decades of crud stuck in there stopping the valve ball from closing completely. Cheers Bennie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Yes, the typical beginning of head gasket failure is small amount of exhaust gas injected into the cooling system. When it first starts it is so small that the tests don't detect it, but you can by monitoring the coolant level before every drive. Once you have experienced this a couple times, you know.. BTDT. It slowly gets worse, until coolant is spewing out and you can't go anywhere before it's overheating. More over normal temp excursions while low on coolant accelerates the failure. By this age and likely mileage, it is due for new head gaskets & up reseal anyway. No way I know of to determine which cylinder is leaking first. No evidence of coolant into the cylinders until much more blown, and you won't be able to drive by then anyway. Only once did I have a head gasket fail so bad as to leak coolant into the crank case, and that was a bad overheat, and likely a few mild ones before. Replace them both, they have been compromised already. Resurface the head is a must. Be sure the radiator is in top condition - especially that all of the fine fins are connected to the tubes, and not blocked by dirt on the outside, or good for nothing [causes more trouble than it fixes on these engines] stop leak on the inside. Make sure all 7 cooling system hoses are not close to 30 years old.... Yes, 7 hoses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 (edited) Yep sounds typical. Technically the intake manifold gaskets can leak coolant internally as well. they have a shared coolant and intake air port next to each other. But that’s far more rare than Headgaskets and Id expect slightly different symptoms. resurface the heads for sure, they’re pointless to even check. all the EA ER heads I’ve done have obvious high and low spots and fire ring markings EA82 drivers side heads are easily done in the car as well. They’re small and easy enough, that’s how I’d do it if I wasn’t stuck with contemplating high maintenance MT woes. Its exactly the same as the passenegers side - pull valve covers, cam carrier then heads. The valve covers are just a little longer and a couple more bolts than the passenger side. Otherwise its identical. Those few extra valve cover bolts are close to the frame rail and a socket doesn’t fit, A good ratcheting 10mm wrench is the ticket to making those bottom valve cover bolts easy. They’re a time sucking blind hole frustration with a regular wrench. The drivers side looks worse visually with AC hoses and fuel lines and charging cables on that side - but that’s all easy and gotta come off to remove the intake anyway for either side. Edited January 9, 2019 by idosubaru Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saltytheseadog Posted January 9, 2019 Author Share Posted January 9, 2019 Thanks for the information. Practically speaking if it is a case of leaky head gasket then it may spell the end for this car as it has rust issues and may not be worth the investment in parts. I did the passenger side Head gasket about 50k ago (resurfaced head OEM gaskets) so I may be able to get away with doing one side. Just don't know which side or both are bad. Do you think compressed air injected through a modified spark plug, wheels locked , cylinder at TDC would induce some gurgling in the coolant? Or just drive it till it starts belching steam? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 1 hour ago, saltytheseadog said: Do you think compressed air injected through a modified spark plug, wheels locked , cylinder at TDC would induce some gurgling in the coolant? Or just drive it till it starts belching steam? Give it a try, I've never tried to determine which cylinder. Compression, leak down tests are easy to do on that engine as well. Compression tests aren't often conclusive but worth a try for sure. Some people like to pressurize the coolant to look for headgasket leaks on Subarus. If that works, then maybe there's some way to monitor which cylinder is receiving the pressure loss? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 It all depends on how bad the damage is. I had tried the air spark plug thing, long time ago. Nothing conclusive. Same with the pressurising the radiator. The pressure of the fuel exploding is far higher than an air compressor. Thats why the first sign is bubbles in the coolant . my leaks were just beginning at that time. Yes, eventually when the failures are bad enough, you will get a detectable result. By the time one spot has failed to that point, it would not suprise me for other failures to have begun. You can try lot of things. The risk is loosing all the time and have to do it all again. I have limped one along for as much as 6 months by using a zero pressure radiator cap, and adding water before every drive. And no long dtives. The leaks slowly got worse. In the end, they have needed new headgaskets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jono Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 DaveT sounds like a serial head gasket offender doesn't he? What about a random cooling system leak sealer as a preventative measure? Steam out exhaustI pulled and serviced heads, new genuine HGS and still blew steam! Trusted for 25 years machine shop guy(still going today @ 71 years of age) calmed me down and handed me a Sealwel block with verbal instructions.That EA82T gave no trouble gor next 80,000 km until i pulled it for transplant. Sealwel has done some marvellous fixups for me in hg dept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Yes, the first couple times many years ago I let one get low on coolant. Learned the hard way. I've owned several EA82 powered wagons now. Some came with existing issues. Been there done that as far as not wanting to give in and do the headgasket job. The limp mode has been used to buy time while resealing a spare engine. That good engine eventually is moved to a body in better condition when the original gets too far gone from rust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkyboy Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 (edited) @jono Could you elaborate on the sealwel block thing you are talking about? I am going to try to get my ea82t as many miles as possible, and hopefully crank the boost up within an inch of her life before i take it out for my ej and sell the engine. She runs well, 100,000 miles only and no ticking. But looking at the head for cracks will determine the plan. Has the situation with the oil pumps changed? And does anyone make a good t belt kit and hgs? What else can anyone tell me about the ea82t? I messed about with a carby ea82 but i pulled that anchor at the first sign of weakness after she skipped timing about a month after my bro and his gf changed both t belts. I sold the engine to a local sube guy and he gave it to his kid for xmas a few years ago :-) Edited January 9, 2019 by sparkyboy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saltytheseadog Posted February 9, 2019 Author Share Posted February 9, 2019 Update; Pulled engine and did one side that was suspect, the other had been done 50k ago, head gasket looked bad with obvious breach in it. Resealed the pan with Rightstuff again, and put a seal kit into oil pump. Haven't been able to road test it yet but runs nicely in the shop. Thanks for the advice from this forum. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkyboy Posted February 9, 2019 Share Posted February 9, 2019 Nice work, man keep munching those miles, mat that old girl and shake the pavement with all 83 horsepower of ea82 and don't shift till 7,000 rpm! Or putt her around and until she can't take it anymore and leave her in a field folded in half after one more epic off roading trip, bring a friend and a 12, 14, and 17mm cause I bet you the engine survives... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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