what makes a ea82t engine die?

[subiemech85]

dad keeps saying you're going to blow the engine if you keep driving it like that

I keep thinking I'm not running enough boost to do that

 

 

 

brian, what was the final verdict on yours?

[samo]

I think it's the 'T' on the end of the 'EA82' that generally kills it .

[blownbimer]

For me, It was 25psi of boost, which made the impeller grind on the housing via 1/2 inch of play, which led to metal shavings which led to the rod feeling the need to tell me how unhappy it was to be inside the motor....

[[HTi]Johnson]

Samo, I believe you are right. Man these engines take a alot of crap...but the turbo seems to kill the 3rd cylinder. I have two ea82ts with the same exact problem with the 3rd cylinder...it's the closest one to the turbo and isn't it the furthest in the fuel rail?

[4WDFrenzy]

If you're talking engine longevity,

Lets see, Hmmmmm.....:

1. Heat

2. Turbocharger location

3. Restrictive exhaust

4. Lack of intercooler

5. Lack of BPV

6. Thin cylinder walls

7. Revving engine to redline

8. Only 36psi max of fuel pressure stock

9. Overheating the motor

10. All aluminum block

11. When your mods overtake what the fuel system can provide....

Etc., etc., etc.............the list could go on forever.

 

Basically, abusing these engines without the proper maintanence or tuning will kill them, with the quickness.

 

Patrick

[TheSubaruJunkie]

Mine was the lack of oil. Probably the high boost that blew a ring... then after the ring went the bearings then rod.

 

-Brian

[Steveman09]

My First EA82-T with 100k on it when I bought the car blew up after :

 

 

25-30psi repeated pulls, made over 10 pulls before it gave up, blew the ringland right off the piston

 

Also the motor was run out of oil before that, put 4qts in and drove it for another 6 months!

 

LOL these motors are very strong and dont die easily.

[85Sub4WD]

to extend the life of your engine, you will first want to start running a high-quality synthetic oil - probably 20w40 or 20w50 - change it frequently too, my preferred oils are Castrol and Mobil 1

 

the engine block design is quite good actually (the same block/engine is used in some custom aeroplanes, in stock turbo form) - cylinder walls are consiterably thicker than most other cars of that era, and the block is aluminum alloy, not strait aluminum (that simply wouldn't work due to aluminum's thermal expansion rate) - the problem is that the turbo takes all its coolant/oil from the #3 cylinder instead of from a centralized point, like later turbo soobs - it might be good if you could plumb the coolant into the heater circuit instead of the #3 cylinder

 

NEVER OVERHEAT THE ENGINE - if the cooling system dies, so does your engine - because of the afforementioned coolant flow issue, the headgaskets will blow due to the excessive heat on #3 in very short order - HG's are the biggest problems on these engines

 

intercooler would be good for the engine - FI pressure & all is a nonissue if you injectors/FI system is stock (intercooler won't make a difference in the FI system) - and don't hit the fuel cutoff point (the overboost protection system) - a good idea would be to idle the engine ~30 seconds or more before cutting it off to allow the turbo to cool down and prevent "coking" of the oil in the turbocharger - subaru actually recommends this in their owner's manual

 

BOV is an OK idea, just make sure it vents to the intake duct between the MAF and turbo intake rather than the atmosphere - sometimes it does work venting to the atmosphere, but usually it will confuses the computer and make it go super rich and stumble... besides, it is sloppy to vent it to the atmosphere as the intake is supposed to be closed after the MAF - BOV's protect the turbo, when the throttle is released quickly, not the engine itself - and they make ricers happy (along with their plastic bodykit) - the engine itself will not see any difference one way or the other, at a MAX of 9psi boost stock, I am not sure how important it is for the turbo anyway, unless you add a IC, then it will probably be more important

 

if you search EA82T, you will probably find more info that you can sort through on this subject

[SiriusBlack]

From all the research I've done, these engines wind up getting killed due to the owner trying to squeeze more power out of it by simply increasing the boost pressure. This generally results in blowing the head gaskets which overheats the engine. Biggest thing about these engines is that they overheat, if you want to prevent this I highly recommend installing a dual core radiator, oil cooler and an air charge cooler. If you have an auto tranny give it a separate cooler as well, so the radiator doesn't have to deal with the heat. Apparently the dual core radiators for a modern BRZ will fit these with minor modification. Also keep up the regular maintenance on the cooling system, run some radiator flush every other year to clean the radiator and coolant passages. As for the getting more power, it can be done but don't just crank up the boost. If you can, just leave the boost at the stock 7psi. Injectors from a Nissan 280ZX are direct bolt in with double the flow capacity vs the stock injectors. Hook them to a megasquirt ECU for better tuning. Change the air filter housing for better breathability. Some people have said that advancing the ignition timing to 28 degrees was good for adding power too. All the little mods add up. I'd bet you could get this engine up to 150hp without ever touching the boost. 

Hope some of this info helps, best of luck.

Edited September 8, 2020 by SiriusBlack

[Step-a-toe]

Someone has been digging deep!

Note one poster says coolant for turbo comes off #3

Wrong . Comes off up front below #1

I wonder if anyone ever hooked up a trans cooler as a precooler from head to turbo line? More messing about, bits to undo and fit for engine out times

So many EA82T have had blocked coolant pickup at the banjo, blockages in the turbo coolant chamber, rotted out banjo fittings on the turbo besides all the other rotating coolant pipes and hoses. If I have bought either car or engine it has never had non genuine parts, suspect all original from factory, or someone's bodged something.

Why Subaru allowed the EA82T to go single core , I don't know. Best thing for cooling my EA82T is EA81 radiator being twin core. Even found one EA81 radiator 40 mm longer than others.

I wonder the pro's and con's of more boost versus extra initial timing?

I used to run mine at26° normal boost. Went back to normal 20° for summer.

I had run another at 12 psi no worries.

Think I might try 26° std boost again see if I notice anything. Now been running knock sensor monitor for a year or so, reading it may assist query

Edited September 6, 2020 by Step-a-toe

[SiriusBlack]

@Step-a-toe yeah I did dig deep again. I got my EA82T running like a dream today except for the idle. It wanders when idling and in gear, if I put it in park it stays solidly at 900 rpm. Main issue is it likes to die occasionally as it wanders. I was digging around for a solution.

[Step-a-toe]

Idle problems , flat or spider manifold?

If flat, the short black hose from thermostat housings FICD get hard, crack possibly leak air in variably. If not looked at this, try temporarily blanking cap on the manifold side. I plug mine up, pull the pressed steel tubes, tap and threaded plug or drill and Welsh plug, never to annoy me again. 

[SiriusBlack]

The rubber line from the air control valve on top of the thermostat housing is brand new. The one that runs to the barb on the underside of the turbo intake plenum. No clamps though...

[Step-a-toe]

No clamps ex factory so I suppose that is not your problem, but I wonder if it is in the device? Capping off eliminates from your enquiry

[SiriusBlack]

By device I assume you mean the actual air control valve on top of thermostat housing?

[Step-a-toe]

Yes. It has an electro mechanical air valve, so two aspects to play up. If it does not close off when it should it will keep feeding air bypassing your throttle control

[SiriusBlack]

Alright I'll check that. I also had to replace the fuel pump and the new one lacks the fuel damper. Can you tell me if that would cause my idle issues? I have to suspect that it would since without the damper the fuel flow would be less smooth.

[Step-a-toe]

Yeah,nah not read of anyone saying damper delete due to new pump causes problems. Did this on carby and turbo EFI with generic pumps sans damper - same concern, no problemo

[SiriusBlack]

Can you tell me exactly what that air control valve was originally for? You said yours runs great with the one line to the intake plenum pulled and plugged.

[john in KY]

I put 100K on a turbo wagon running 12 pounds of boost along with other modifications. Never had a problem with it. When I sold it the young man that bought it managed to destroy the front differential. 

[Step-a-toe]

3 hours ago, SiriusBlack said:

Can you tell me exactly what that air control valve was originally for? You said yours runs great with the one line to the intake plenum pulled and plugged.

Think about it a little. Old style car with carby and choke.

Choke pull also ramps up on throttle for more air for faster idle speed to cope with richer mix choke on causes.

Fast forward to fuel injected. On cold start up you get a faster idle speed. Need more air for faster speeds. No choke. No choke cable or smother plate, no fast idle acting on throttle plate so EFI uses few other means of adding air

This one for cold start only and uses electric thermal control inside to close off extra air at operating temps

Another smaller solenoid switch on or off on back of throttle body adds air when air con on to cope with compressor load.

If you block off thermostat mounted air bypass FICD

Fast idle air control as Subaru call some of these things

And have problems cold start, a manual switch to supply power to solenoid on back of throttle body may help.

If you demand performance from start up, block off may not work so well for you. Ambient temperature may also restrict how you modify things.

I use propane now and use a momentary squirt button if rich propane on first cold crank to get going. In colder months I also use my solenoid manual switch for assisted faster idle drive away

You will find the thermo mounted fast idle gets its air after the filter and AFM so ecu knows engine is getting it

Edited September 10, 2020 by Step-a-toe

[Step-a-toe]

I like to think having a monitor for my flapper era Series One turbos knock circuit helps also. Seeing the indash readout reading ~5.0V IGN on,~1.7V normal running and seeing it read up to 4.5V when being driven under boost and hearing ping start and stop - confident things are working as designed.

I am thinking if adding in a frequency switch to divert boost pressure to factory setting above about 5000rpm where I reckon pinging seems to start @ 12 psi

When the boost light in dash us on, the O2 sensor gets a holiday, has no say in fuelling trim

Overboost circuit cuts in at either 9 or 10 psi depending on market. I think this can simply be unplugged or does ecu report unplugged?

[SiriusBlack]

@Step-a-toe when you break it down like that, it makes sense. I still need to test it and see if the air control valve is actually bad, then I'll go from there.

[Step-a-toe]

1 hour ago, SiriusBlack said:

@Step-a-toe when you break it down like that, it makes sense. I still need to test it and see if the air control valve is actually bad, then I'll go from there.

My one finger typing efforts not wasted

[SiriusBlack]

Well, I tested the air valve. Blocked both sides off and ran it, didn't make a lick of difference. I thought that it might have a bad brake booster that was causing a vacuum leak, since the engine seemed to struggle when the brakes are applied. I tested that too though and it passed, not to mention I was fiddling with it today and as long as the car was in park applying the brakes didn't make it die. Putting it in gear (auto transmission) made it die without pressing on the throttle. It also gets kinda hot sometimes despite an upgraded cooling system, which makes me suspect a vacuum leak as well. Now that I eliminated both the booster and the valve I'm really rather stumped. Any help would be greatly appreciated. PS my digital fuel gauge doesn't work either, it says the tank is empty all the time.

Edited September 22, 2020 by SiriusBlack