Is my car toast

[Subsforever]

I bought my 82 subaru gl about 2 years ago and since I bought it I haven’t had more than a month straight without having to fix something. I replaced the engine last summer with a 75 thousand mile engine, and last month the drivers side head gasket blew and created a milk shake in my crankcase. I drove it like that for two weeks before I replaced the head gaskets. Even before the head gasket blew I have started to notice blue smoke coming out of the exhaust when starting up in the morning but not every morning, the smoke goes away after warm up but it now smells like something burning coming out of the exhaust when I shut it down after a drive. I checked the plugs for oil but they where dry but looked like they could be fowled. Car is getting harder to start in the morning and idles at 3000 rpm when cold but when warmed up to operating temperature the car stalls when stopped. Engine doesn’t seem to idle very smoothly and the exhaust seems to puff a lot more that I remembered it. Strong puffs followed by almost no flow. any advice or opinions would be appreciated

If it’s the carburetor I will replace it but I don’t want to replace it and find out that the engine is going bad because I just when through this 6 months ago. I am seriously considering getting ride of the thing at getting an early legacy or impreza. I am in college and can’t keep spending a week every few months doing a major repair job, It hasn’t stranded me anywhere yet but I don’t want it to quit on me when I am driving 270 miles between school and college I have just about given up on the thing. If any one knows of a decent 1990-1994 awd legacy or 93 to 95 awd impreza for a good deal let me know I might be interested in getting one of those and getting ride of the 82 wagon

Sorry for the rant

[GeneralDisorder]

It's an EA81, and while they do last a long time, there are certain things that must be maintained. Driving it for two weeks with a blown HG likely destroyed your vavle stem seals - water in the oil will do this. Each time I drowned my engine with swamp water the oil burning got a little worse. I failed to replace the oil pump (digi-dash - didn't know the pressure), and it threw a rod eventually.

 

I would say that you definately need to rebuild that carb - sounds like it has some issues there. Probably replace your oil pump (easy), and perhaps the vavle stem seals as well (can be done without removing the head).

 

GD

[deerhunter]

I've got good news and bad. If you've overheated the engine too much, the heads may be cracked. A hot compression test will answer that question. If time and cash is short, these quick fixes may get you through until warmer weather comes. If you haven't already done it, change the oil. After you drain out the cheeze, an inexpensive way to flush the crankcase, is to put the drain plug back in, remove the coil wire and pour in 5 gal of diesel. Crank the engine over for a couple or five minutes, then drain into the catchpan. Keep the diesel for washing parts.

Take the hoses and end covers off of the engine.Wash the cheeze out of both with some diesel. Any cheeze left in the hoses will just get sucked up into your carb and foul things up.

If it's not too grungy, some of that diesel in a clean ketchup bottle will clean up around the valves too.

Using the throat method for cleaning your carb should do unless you happen to have a rebuild kit.

After all this, comes your cooling system. Drain out the coolant and flush out the system with water. If it's really full of stuff, there's drain plugs on the heads too. For years, I've successfully used Block Seal by Gunk to stop weeping head gaskets and cracked valves.It's really simple to use- just follow the directions on the bottle.

The hardest part of winter's over. When you replace the oil, use something thicker, maybe 10w40. This will cut down on the smoke.The smoke won't disappear right away, You've got crap blown into your exhaust, too.

This method should work and give you at least six months; unless the engine totally toast, or you're rally racing.

[zyewdall]

Wow, you've got a better (worse? ) carb than mine had. The really high idle can be caused by tightening the nut on top of the air cleaner too tight -- bends the piece inside the carb that it attaches to and somehow adjusts the idle speed. The stalling after its warm is probably internal vacuum leaks of some sort. Mine did this too. A new carb is the best way to solve all of this, but I was quoted $300 for a rebuilt one.

 

If the body's good, I bet someone on the forum will buy it for lifting and modding, and you could get an old beater legacy for a point a to b car instead. They're not guaranteed to be hassle free, and will actually be a little harder to work on some stuff if it goes wrong, but it'd be at least 10 years newer, so if you don't have time to work on it, might be better.

[idosubaru]

unless you plan on addressing brake calipers, wheel bearings, cv axles, tie rods, ball joints, radiator, etc....basically any car that old will need work at some point. great cars, great motors but after time it is what it is, and older vehicle. getting a newer vehicle might be a good option. but the 82 is probably salvageable if you have the time and patience. when you do a ball joint, replace both. when you replace or repack a wheel bearing do them all. rebuild your brake calipers. do a job a month as preventative mainteance and they are cheap and reliable. and after a few months most major issues are addressed.

 

you can pick up a good used motor for cheap. sounds like an EA81, shouldn't have a problem scoring a decent one on this board i'd imagine. EA82's aren't hard to come by at least. reseal the entire motor, repack any pulley bearings, replace the oil pump seals and water pump and all hoses and clamps and it should be golden. make sure the radiator and thermostat are up to par so it doesn't overheat again. sounds like a lot but isn't that much work for the result - a great motor that will last a long time.

 

always great to have two vehicles though i know in college that isn't such a smooth option.

 

good luck and have fun. keep your head up.

[Subsforever]

Thanks for all the posts. I think i will try replacing the valve seals and eventually the carborator when i find a good one. I inspected the heads when they where off and they didnt apear to have any visable cracks and i have driven it a month since changing the headgaskets and the oil is still clean and the radiator is no longer emptying its collant into the block in a 20 minite drive like it did before.

When i took apart my spare head to see what it would take to replace the valve seals i noticed that only the intake valves appear to have seals on them is this normal or should the exhaust valvles have seals too. also for changing the seals with the heads still on the block how do you keep the valve from moving with the spring. the on spare head i had to put somthing underneith the valve to keep it from opening when compressing the spring, maybe a spring compressor would work better than the die holder from my tap and die set.