mountaingoatgruff Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 84 spfi ea81 in the precess of eliminating my air injection system i noticed i have some savage exhaust leaks. both heads are leaking around the intermediate flanges. so i removed the pipes and intermediate flanges. one of the long studs in the driver's head FELL OUT as soon as i popped the nut and bolt loose! the threads were apparently stripped, repaired with a helicoil type product, and stripped again. the damage: you may be able to see in the pic that the metal is distorted around the stud hole. the dark line by the other hole at top of the pic is where somebody got happy with a grinder clearing out the bottom headbolt casting to make space for the a.i. port. nice, huh? the hole is stripped and distorted so bad that you can literally stick the stud in there to the bottom, wiggle it around, and pull it out easy. i'm pretty sure a helicoil won't fix this so i gotta replace my head, right? these engines like both head gaskets replaced if one is just like other engines, right? any other suggestions for repair? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferox Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 I think I would try to use a slightly larger helicoil and drill out my exhaust flange and gasket a smidge. If you do...be very careful not to drill too deep when you ream the old threads or you will definitely need a new head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted February 11, 2008 Share Posted February 11, 2008 If they heli-coiled them back to the stock size, you can oversize them to 7/16x14 or 7/16x20 without using a heli-coil, or if they are really far out of spec you can heli-coil them to 7/16 and you shouldn't have any trouble. Generally this doesn't even require enlarging the manifold holes. Make sure you buy/make a bottoming tap to get the last few threads as these holes are not real deep. I would also remove those remaining studs, wire wheel everything that's going back together and use plenty of anti-seize. While you have the studs out, use a sanding block and some 300 grit to clean up that mating surface and see what you really have there. The gaskets will handle quite a bit. The proper gasket for those plates is a thin 3/16" or so ring of cardboard coated metal....dealer obviously. GD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountaingoatgruff Posted February 11, 2008 Author Share Posted February 11, 2008 uh...gaskets? i had gaskets between each pair of the two flanges, but not between the intermediate flanges and the heads. another dealer only? maybe this time i can make one of my trips to the dealership on a day that i'll have time for some test driving.:cool: i figured i'd be alright to oversize the stud, but i wanted to see if anyone said anything about the structural integrity of the head/exhaust port after doing that. is it normal to see the casting of the lowest & rearmost 10mm headbolt of each head to be ground away so poorly. looks like it was done with a die grinder in about two minutes and you can see above where they nicked the exhaust port surface of the head. those guys must have been making like 12 cents an hour making these cars and i know that's how meeting production quotas can go, but is that factory work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 No - that's not factory. I've never seen shoddy assembly of an 80's Subaru. These were built entirely in Japan, and the Japanese people have an extremely strong work ethic. Their workers are very well paid, have many benefits, and strong profit sharing. Thus the reputation of Japanese cars. This was even more true in the 70's and 80's than it is today. This isn't China, Taiwan, or Korea we are talking about here - Japan is very much a first world nation, and they regard their employment as part of their "honor" and in many cases it's more important than their family. Be careful who's car's you insult around here. I'm not Japanese, but I know a few, and that kind of talk can be taken as an insult in some circles. Japanese auto workers are better paid than american auto workers if you take into acount their benefits and profit sharing. The gasket for the intermediate (ASV) plate is just a ring that fits into the groove on the top of the plate between it and the head. GD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[HTi]Johnson Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 ...is it normal to see the casting of the lowest & rearmost 10mm headbolt of each head to be ground away so poorly. looks like it was done with a die grinder in about two minute.... I don't see it in the pic? Are you referring to that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountaingoatgruff Posted February 12, 2008 Author Share Posted February 12, 2008 first - i'm not insulting anyone with mere sarcasm. if somebody feels insulted by that they're just being confrontational. i may not have accounted for the fact that japanese economic and working conditions put ours in the us to shame in many ways (not that its hard to be any better that this country is ending up), but that wasn't my point. point is, whoever did that grinding needs a slappin! second - what did the original assemblers do there? in order to fit the intermediate flanges in there, those castings have to be ground off. so what need would there be for further grinding after that? could it be that this was necessitated by the replacement of the heads/engine with parts that weren't ground? there's been a long trail of things that lead me to believe this engine is not original or ca equipment, the car's not build for ca market, and extensive work has been done to it. i can tell the dash has been completely removed (fortunately the wiring was properly reconnected), the engine&trans have both been pulled, and there's signs of repairs/tampering elsewhere. can you say "sloppy seconds" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 second - what did the original assemblers do there? in order to fit the intermediate flanges in there, those castings have to be ground off. so what need would there be for further grinding after that? could it be that this was necessitated by the replacement of the heads/engine with parts that weren't ground? Possibly. Some EA81's didn't use the ASV spacers. Others had only one. Could be an engine from a car that only had a single spacer. Or could be a head from one. No way to tell at this point. there's been a long trail of things that lead me to believe this engine is not original or ca equipment, the car's not build for ca market, and extensive work has been done to it. i can tell the dash has been completely removed (fortunately the wiring was properly reconnected), the engine&trans have both been pulled, and there's signs of repairs/tampering elsewhere. can you say "sloppy seconds" Yep - such is often the case with 20 year old cars. Many cooks with their hand in the stew. My co-worker just found the timing off on his Samuri. Drove it for a year with the valve timing off a tooth. PO's (previous owners) suck. GD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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