EA82T - Blown Headgaskets?

[torxxx]

Alright so after spending 400 bucks on getting it titled and registered and insurance, I took it out for the afternoon drive. I did get on it pretty hard, nothing over 5500 RPM, temp guage stayed below 1/3 of the way up. Had great oil pressure. Drove it to a buddies house, let it idle for a few min, shut it down, came out and started it back up and boom, solid white smoke out the exhaust. Ripped it down the road a lil bit, got a bunch of antifreeze out the poop chute. I'm assuming head gaskets, but I talked to a few board members and they suggested checking the intake gaskets and doing a compression test. I borrowed my buddies compression tester and I got 47 psi on every cylinder. I asked him if it worked and he said oh yea, its broken. So I have at least 47 psi in each cylinder.

 

Blown HG is 0 psi correct?

 

So then I pulled the intake off. Gaskets were cooked on the intake so it was hard to tell if they were cracked. The look like they were reused a time or two. The thing that I noticed was that the 2/4 bank had coolant topped off in the coolant port. 1/3 had nothing in the cooling port. I swapped each cylinder and tasted for antifreeze. #3 had a antifreeze taste to it. I'm guessing its the intakes for now. I'm going to try to get a good comp tester tommorow and test it again.

 

What do you guys think?

[Turbone]

Usually when a intake gasket goes the engine will hydro lock. Due to one of the cylinders filling with coolant. Check the oil to see if theres coolant in it and vice versa with the radiator. Is the car a AT?

[Sonicfrog]

Probably # 3 head seal gone boom. I just got done replacing my HG's. Before I did, I used Barrs Stop Leak to get a few more miles out of Murphy, the $500 87 T-Wag. When I finally dug into the engine I saw evidence of the Stop Leak sealing that section on the block. Also, I have read more than once on this site that # 3 cylinder is an accidental engineered weakness on this engine design, especially for the turbo model. Two tips if you indeed have to replace the gasket. Do both sides at the same time. Even if only one side seems blown, changes are, since they have been on the engine a long time the other is weak with age. It would totally suck if you only change one, and the other one blows a few months later. The other reason is that the newer gaskets are made out of better materials than the old ones, so it would be beneficial in the long run to do both. Oh, if you do end up replacing the HG's, watch out for the bolts that attach the cooling tubes from the turbo to the passenger side head. They are hollow bolts and break easily.

 

 

Here are some pics of the # 3 head and the Barrs Leak residue at my blog.

[torxxx]

Its a 5 speed turbone. No water in the oil, no oil in the coolant, but its hard to tell cuz it blew out all the antifreeze in 5 minutes. The engine diffenatly didnt hydro lock because it still boosted up and hauled rump roast. I did notice some antifreeze on top of the up pipe flange where the turbo bolts up to so that kidna made me wonder. seems like the coolant passage on the #1/3 blew out both sides.

 

Compression test tommorow...

[northguy]

Brad, if this one is going to be your baby, why not just tear it down and build it back up right? Then you'll know there are no potentialities for failure.

[idosubaru]

bad headgaskets can give varying compression readings. if they are completely blown and venting to atmosphere then you'll get 0 psi. but it's also possible to get compression readings with bad headgaskets. you can even get really high compression readings. i'm not sure if this is caused by liquid in the combustion chamber displacing air or what but it can happen. i've seen 175 psi before on blown cylinders. unless it's really bad i'd expect a low reading, not 0.

 

intake gasket leaks can be slow enough to keep from hydrolocking.

 

while you're sourcing testers and such if you can find a leak down tester or spark plug threaded adapter for an air compressor to pressurize the cylinders i'd jump all over those items as well to help track this down.

 

definitely replace both sides. i replaced one on my XT6 a long time ago and i wish it was monthts later like the poster mentioned. it was the same day after getting it back together i realized the otherside was lhad a small leak. whoops.

[torxxx]

well I went out and bought a good comp tester today

125/125 on 2/4 cylinders.... big fat zero's on the 1/3 bank. they push up to 40 or 60 PSI on the gauge, but it doesnt hold pressure like the 2/4 bank. I'm ordering OEM gaskets tommorow for it and its gonna get done right.

 

Delta cams make that much of a difference??

[twobirds]

i also have problems w/ my ea82t. i was experiencing oil droplets in the coolant overflo container but nothing worth stopping over. but then a broken idler pulley forced me to pull it. What should I check for these oil drops while it is out??? P.S physically everything seems fine outside. oh yeah, also a blown turbo cooling inlet hose had gone a few months earlier. anyone with turbo ea82 experience out there. suggestions please... quick..

[Snowman]

Brad, if this one is going to be your baby, why not just tear it down and build it back up right? Then you'll know there are no potentialities for failure.

 

Very good point. If it was my car, I'd pull the engine and do both HG's as well as all the oil seals and stuff just for good measure. That way, it should be dependable for quite some time.

[torxxx]

yea as soon as I get the crap straightened out with my apartment, I'm gonna start working on it.

 

I came home to standing water in my bedroom last night. The water was 2 inches from hitting my computer case and burning this place down. I spent 4 hours ripping up soaking wet carpet padding and nasty carpet.

 

What a week. blew the RX up, apartment flooded, whats next? T-bone by a Semi truck with dual 18 wheel trailers? I better wear my helmet today

hahaha

[BoostedBalls]

Could be HG or intake gasket or crack in exhaust port.

 

Spark plus should give the best clue. If one is water damaged or way cleaner than the others, that would rule out exhaust port crack.

 

You can make a ghetto coolant plumbing pressure tester out of a rubber stopper, one way valve, hose T, vacuum/boost gauge, and a small bicycle pump. drill a hole through the stopper and insert the hose T with a little superglue or something. Put the stopper in place of the radiator cap real tight. The one-way valve goes on the pump so the pressure won't bleed out of the pump when you stop pumping. Pump that sucker up to about 20psi and listen for a leak. Make sure you have the plugs out so you can listen in the chambers with a small vacuum hose inside and up to your ear.

 

This sounds crazy but it really works.

[torxxx]

#3 Spark plug was white and had chunks and what not on it. All the other plugs looked normal. I'm wondering if I should use my carb'd block with the turbo heads and the carb'd cams... would that convert over?

[torxxx]

Well I got her yanked out. all I have to say is that the Old business J&D Auto in Fairbanks alaska does rip off work. Avoid this business by all means neccesary. He now supposedly has a shop in Wasilla, Alaska so you have been warned.

 

The only nuts and bolts that were right on my engine were the engine mount bolts and the two top bell housing bolts. the bottom stud nuts were finger loose, 2 or the 4 downpipe bolts were loose. The airpump had a 1/2 of play in the bolts. Pitch stopper bolt was threaded in maybe a turn or turn and a half. Not to mention the JDM motor was dropped and smashed the oil pan in and reduced the oil capacity to about 3 quarts.

 

I'm ripping this engine down to the block and am starting over with it because I think my head gasket was blown because he didnt torq the headgaskets down. prolly just impacted them in.

 

What do you guys reccomend to have my heads decked down to? I think I'm goin delta cams, TD04, intercooler the works

[Jerry DeMoss]

Head should be decked .005-.010".If you want some performance then now is the time to get the heads polished.I know that wjm said there isn't a whole lot of room to do major port work so if you decide to do this be careful.Also I have a turbo spider intake of a 87 xt turbo if you need one.Good idea to do the build up yourself rather than to find out later what else went wrong.

[torxxx]

is a spyder from a N/A MPFI do-able? I have one sittin in my entry way

[Caboobaroo]

yup, I worked one onto my '89 RX. All I had to do was add in a fitting on top of the water passage right about where the stock turbo pipe would poke out to go to the turbo. I drilled a hole and with the aluminum being so thin, I used some JB Weld and make a nice seam all the way around the fitting. No leaks that I can tell....

 

yet:-\

[torxxx]

hmmmm. I don't know about sealing it that way. I drive my cars too hard to have JB weld that would blow out and cause a bad overhead.

I guess I will stick with the stock intake and just remove teh fuel rails and make the equal length ones that I've wanted.

 

After looking at my engine and the parts for the last few days, the EA82T is a horrible design. I mean the EA82 is a great engine, but the way they designed the turbos and smog crap seems to make them 150,000 mile engines instead of 250 to 400,000 mile engines. just like what everyone says about #3 cylinder. farthest from the water pump, longest fuel rail and a turbo sitting RIGHT on top of the engine. With the spare tire rack, the turbo could have easily been raised up a lil bit and over towards the tranny (manuals wouldnt be affected too bad, autos would suffer from the heat).

 

I might try to design something that would work, like turning the turbo on its side, mounting it up above the tranny/pitch stopper. A hood scoop placed dead center in the hood would also help with the turbo head.

 

I'm definatly getting that special heat dissapating coating for the turbo and also apply the coating to the heads. Less heat means longer lasting headgaskets (cept for you boost freaks).

 

Give me some ideas guys, I love my RX, but the EA82T needs to be more dependable. I dont need 200 hp+ like WJMs soob. 140 or so would be great, hell stock would be great if it had the dependability of a N/A engine

 

I'm not sure if I mentioned earlier, but I found head gaskets that are the style like the 2.5L DOHC style headgaskets with the black sealant stripe around the whole thing. Should work a lot better than the old OEM Gaskets. So what are we torqin the head bolts to now for boosted engines? 47 ft/lb is what the manual says, I'm thinking 55 ft/lb might help out a lil.

[idosubaru]

there's mention of other tightening down more on the head gaskets.

 

to use the spider, have a shop weld a fitting in place on the intake manifold or drill and tap it as opposed to JB weld. i agree, i've had bad experience with that stuff as a long term solution. it's usually fine for a long time, but for 50,000/100,000 mile life of the vehicle type stuff it doesn't cut it. but lots of people do get it it to work for some situations.