New member hello and questions

[Dylan86GL10]

Hello!

 

I just joined the board and am new to the subaru scene. My previous experience has only been through a former room mates tribulations with a Loyale.

 

I picked up a '86 GL-10 Wagon 4wd Turbo 178k for $150. The previous owner was moving and needed to get rid of it. They said it had a leaky oil pump and perhaps some other problems. This has got to be the grimmiest motor I have ever seen! Who knows how long this thing has been leaking oil. It has coated the hood with a layer of slime.

 

Anyway I finally got the thing running, even with the MAF disconnected and it seems to be somewhat noisy and it probably has an exhaust leak pre and post turbo. Know I have started off by ordering:

 

Timing belt kit off ebay

Cam and crank seals local

Oil Pump seal and mickey mouse off ebay

New NGK spark plugs local

 

Is there anything else obvious that I should get? I already have it tore down to the front block (damn those cam covers!). Its good I ordered the timing kit as one of the tensioners literally fell apart when I took it out.

 

Now for the questions, I am used to the nooB sarcasm as I am a veteran of neons.org and the SEARCH function replies so take it easy on me, I am very new to this flat motor thing.

 

What is the typical cold compression for a turbo motor? My neon got almost 200 psi (pre turbo install) and my old 2.2 charger turbo got around 130psi. I'd like to see what kind of shape this motor is in (no leak down equipment).

 

How is the fan setup on these cars? I see I have 1 mechanical fan and 1 electric fan. Is the electric fan full duty or an a/c on thing? I bought a 10" electric fan from Advance that will hopefully fit between the rad and the crank pulley. Can I just wire a relay of the other fan circuit or install a thermostat switch?

 

Does this motor have adjustable valves, and what kind? They could lead to the noise I heard during the brief run I did. I seemed to remember that my room mate's Loyale maybe had shims (was fairly expensive servicing). Now have dealt with replacing shims on my motorcycle so I think I could handle these if that is what I have.

 

What is the highest boost these motors can take in a relatively stock form? I would assume the ECU or MAF would only read so high or that the injectors/fuel pressure would be a limiting factor. I have never dealt with a MAF before, only MAP.

 

Thanks for putting up with me and I post some pics of the wagon tomorrow.

 

Dylan

[scrap487]

welcome to the board... most frustration saving thing when it comes to crap I dont know(virtually everything...)

 

I cant really give you too much advice... but from what I've read, what causes a lot of noise in these engines can be the HLAs(hydraulic lash adjusters), and the oil pump being really gummed up and/or going bad. I have no idea what compression should be with these motors... my jeep had just under 100 psi and it was in good shape, and my nissan 720 4x4 w/ the z24 currently has 65-74 psi(but it has 320k miles on it). I dont know much about turbos either, but I've read alot on the board about it today, and I believe the fuel injectors are a HUGE bottleneck. oh yeah, the stock oil pressure gauges are notoriously inaccurate in these cars

[Syonyk]

I can help with a few things, turbo & ECU specific stuff is out of my realm (I haven't delved deeply into Subaru ECUs, I know RX-7 ECUs fairly well, though).

 

The valves on an EA82 have hydraulic lash adjusters that tend to build up gunk and not work properly. A ticking noise (or tapping, or in some cases louder) from the engine that's purely RPM-sensitive (not load sensitive) is the lash adjusters. Seafoam in the oil and some high RPM love often quiets these down. Low oil pressure or a leaking cam cover oil passage o-ring can also cause loud lifters.

 

The o-ring between the cam covers & head often gets hard and starts leaking. You can do this with the engine in the car, but if it's leaking like you say, you might be better off pulling the engine & doing a full reseal on it.

 

-=Russ=-

[NorthWet]

The CR on the turbo motor is 7.7:1, so 130-150 is probably a good range... my personal belief is that these figures might be greatly affected by the funtion of the hydraulic valve lash adjusters (aka HVLA or HLA); more later. Max boost that the engine will take depends. If the headgaskets have never been replaced, stock boost might do them in pretty soon. If new HGs, resurfaced heads and properly torqued head bolts, who knows for sure... 15 maybe 20 psi? With the 86, you have the earlier MAF and fuel management; I don't think that there was a fuel cut built in, or if so I think it is external to the ECU and defeatable. Fuel management is fairly primitive.

 

The valves have hydraulic valve lash adjusters: Stationary rocker pivots that use hydraulic pressure to take up the slack. These tend to get stickyand not take up the slack properly, making mild to intense ticking noises. (One car I bought sounded like it was about to throw a rod, and 5 minutes later purred like a kitten.) Various people have various pet ways of quieting the noise, but it all seems to start with making sure the oil pump is sealed properly so that it isn't sucking air.

 

The electric fan is controlled by a thermoswitch mounted on the radiator tank closest to the fan. These t-switches carry the full current of the fan and tend to have issues. The engine driven fan is used on A/C equipped cars.

[jeffast]

if you're going to mess with boost you need to intercool it first

also welcome

finally try a can of seafoam it should get rid of the ticking

[nkx]

see if you cant find an exhaust gasket kit. new gaskets at the crossover pipe should fix your preturbo exhaust leak. the gasket for one of my exhaust ports was shot when i first got my wagon.

 

as far as boost, i wouldnt run any more than 10 psi. after i get my intercooler installed, ill probably kick it up to 12 or 13 psi.

[Dylan86GL10]

Thanks to everyone for the great replies!

 

I do have a 1st Gen DSM sidemount intercooler that is screaming to go on this once its running right. What's the flow rate on these injectors? I assume their is a boost referenced fuel pressure regulator somewhere?

[edrach]

One thing not mentioned by others; the turbo engines run quite hot under the hood and the rubber hoses tend to fail. If you plan on keeping the car and doing a full rebuild, order all the hoses from Subaru (www.1stsubaruparts.com is a good source of OEM parts at 35% off list price; call them and ask for Jason in parts....he's most helpful). Welcome to the Board. The turbo is a fun car to drive even without increased boost, but watch out for overheating since it will kill you head gaskets.

[hatchsub]

Hey welcome to the board. I dont think anyone is really going to give you a hard time on this board. Subaru people are a different breed than other car followers. Nice find for 150 bucks. Good luck with it. Most of my knowledge is of EA81's (earlier than your car which is an EA82T), but i just wanted to say hi.