Case of te EA82t drinking coolant?

[milestoempty]

So I agreed to but this 87 RX for 400bux. Havent paid yet, guy is holding it for me to get next monday or so.

 

Says I can drive it from PA- Md with no problems, other than filling it up with coolant ever 45min or so:burnout:

 

 

So,

 

Only problem is it drinks coolant.

 

In an RS you run low on coolant, your either leaking, milky oil, or smoking. He said this does none of the above. Teh motor was replaced at aroun 3 months old because of a cracked block. Subaru genuine motor installed. But the past year it started doing this. The guys father-in-law even replaced the turbo on it because they thought that might be the problem.

 

Any ideas on what I should look for? I bought it for a car to drive and drive... Dont care about performance lol

Thx!

[hatchsub]

Head gasket for sure. If its drinking that much coolant then its the head gasket. Its not uncommon for the gasket to blow in an area that will not contaminate the oil but will burn off the coolant. Someone who has actually owned an EA82 will chim in here soon im sure.

[idosubaru]

probably a headgasket, but it won't take long to verify. i would do some checking to make sure it's not something simple. thermostat, leaks, compression test, leak down test, etc. all the way from allentown to baltimore, take lots of coolant! the passengers side is typically a problem area with the heat from the turbo i suppose contributing to that. external leaks or headgasket problems around that area. look for external leakage or pull a spark plug, on real bads one you can see the coolant laying in the bottom of the cylinder.

 

fix it quick and change the oil quick. these are great motors, but if even small amounts contaminate the oil you will compromise the bearings of a block perfectly capable of a lot of miles. coolant and water ruin bearings, sometimes takes a long time to finally show up, but it will.

[milestoempty]

Should I look at doing this myself or should I jsut take it to get done?

[Sonicfrog]

Do it youself will probably be the only available option, as many mechanics just won't touch a Subaru (fear of the unknown). We will help with any questions, as many of us have had to replace the head gasket on this engine, it's the EA82T's achillies heal. Do a search on the topic and you will see me and my car Murphy, the $500 87 T-Wag, hogging up a good portion of the comments:lol::lol:.

[MilesFox]

if the car runs fine i would suspect the INTAKE GASKET as i would think that is more likely, and easier to fix!

 

sure the motor looks complicated but all that intake comes off in one piece! the turbo can stay where it's at, just remove the "subaru 4wd" plenum and undo 6 bolts. there is a little more to it than that but the point is the intake comes off in one piece, hoses and all

[milestoempty]

Well I moved the car into the driveway today (steep uphill) and smelt something horrible and looked at the cloud of smoke I was making. Im not sure it was coolant, could have been the seafoam in the gas working its way through the 2yr old stale gas.

 

So I poped the cap of the radiator, heard a gurling noise as some spilled out, and was greated by foam. Only about the size of a pencil eraser.

[milestoempty]

I reved it standing in front of it and got sprayed in the face with coolant. Its coming the top of the motor, under around the center of the intake manifold.

[Prospeeder]

Ha its probable that little hose that runs across the intake manifold has a pinhole in it, that happend to me, it sprayed hot coolant at me.

[4WDFrenzy]

Ha its probable that little hose that runs across the intake manifold has a pinhole in it, that happend to me, it sprayed hot coolant at me.

 

I second that. I had almost the same thing happen to me, only it let loose while I was doing 60mph on the highway. It didn't blow until I went to pass a slow car and got an intense antifreeze smell inside of the car. It's not an easy hose to replace without taking the intake manifold off, but it can be done with a long pair of needle nose pliers, a length of the correct size hose, and a little bit of diligence and gusto, all while the intake manifold is in place.

[milestoempty]

Can someone direct me to what size hosing to buy? Im still not convinced thats the only problem along with the turbo leak. There is smoke that comes out of the turbo and minor that comes out the exhaust, cant really tell what it is. The exhaust side of the turbo seems to have what looks like an oil stain on it. But its defiantly not black smoke....

[The Bigfella]

Take the coolant cap off (when the motor is cool) start it up and see if you can smell a fuel smell in the water - if so = a blown head gasket. If that is what it is don't ignore it - as the car can suck coolant into the engine as it cools down.

 

I rebuilt my BMW M5 engine which blew a head gasket at a race track earlier this year. My first full engine rebuild - not too hard to do if you follow the book.