So...yeah...My engine is screwed!!!

[4WDFrenzy]

Sup everybody! Well, I just got a bad bit of news. For those of you who may remember my post from late last year about my car making not so nice noises, well I got some confirmation on what is wrong with it. It appears that the engine in the ol' Draggin' Wagon is, well, in nice terms, screwed. Seems that it decided to rebel when I left, and spun a bearing just to add insult to injury, which resulted in a nice "metal on metal" clunking while the engine is running. So for those who have rebuilt EA82Ts, how bad is it going to be? Am I basically looking at a new(new to me) engine? Any "positive" advice would be very helpful and much appreciated considering how far my morale dropped after getting the news.

 

Patrick

[Andy FitzGibbon]

Others with much better knowledge will come along and confirm- but I think you can take a N/A block with a good bottom end, and swap in the turbo pistons.

Andy

[Turbone]

Better off getting ahold of Emily at CCR and getting a rebuilt short block.

[Gloyale]

Better off getting ahold of Emily at CCR and getting a rebuilt short block.

 

 

5 times the money of just buying a wrecked NA GL/Loyale motor and swapping heads and pistons. With only 80 some horsepower they're bottom ends haven't suffered much yet. I bought an 88 GL motor (told has bad HGs) for $30 bucks last month.

 

Although clearly the CCR motor would be a superior replacement, but is the cost really worth it to you?

[Turbone]

5 times the money of just buying a wrecked NA GL/Loyale motor and swapping heads and pistons. With only 80 some horsepower they're bottom ends haven't suffered much yet. I bought an 88 GL motor (told has bad HGs) for $30 bucks last month.

 

Although clearly the CCR motor would be a superior replacement, but is the cost really worth it to you?

 

A 3yr/36K warranty is worth it to me.

[Gloyale]

A 3yr/36K warranty is worth it to me.

 

Ah,,, but is it worth it to him?????

 

 

I'm sure they have great engines, Just is it really worth it for 20 year old cars when good condition bottom ends are so easy and cheap???.

 

It's not to me. If anything, I would split the case and install the new bearings myself if I were going to go "rebuilt". Same end result, 1/4 of the price.

 

With EA82s being literally thrown away daily, I can't justify $2000 just to have a warranty.

 

I mean, what decent condition EA82 won't run for 3 years???? I've been trying, hard, to kill an already questionable turbo motor for almost 2 now.

 

It was pieced toghether from 3 rusty motors sitting in the back of the Junkyard as a temporary solution. But it keeps rockin, even as a 4 wheelin rig.

 

I have a completely rebuilt engine ready to go for it when this one finally croaks. It cost me about $800 for maching and parts(reusing old pistons), plus welding the cracks in the heads exhaust ports. Of course I am doing all the teardown/reassembly labor myself.

 

I used a low mile (70k) carbed block and crank, so all that was needed was a very light honing of the journals for the new bearings, and a light honing in the cylinders to seat the new rings. That kept maching costs and complications(finding over/under sized bearings and pistons) down signifigantly. Most of the money I spent went to the heads. I'm sure I could have just swapped pistons and the bottom end would still have been fine.

[Turbone]

Ah,,, but is it worth it to him?????

 

 

I'm sure they have great engines, Just is it really worth it for 20 year old cars when good condition bottom ends are so easy and cheap???.

 

It's not to me. If anything, I would split the case and install the new bearings myself if I were going to go "rebuilt". Same end result, 1/4 of the price.

 

With EA82s being literally thrown away daily, I can't justify $2000 just to have a warranty.

 

I mean, what decent condition EA82 won't run for 3 years???? I've been trying, hard, to kill an already questionable turbo motor for almost 2 now.

 

It was pieced toghether from 3 rusty motors sitting in the back of the Junkyard as a temporary solution. But it keeps rockin, even as a 4 wheelin rig.

 

I have a completely rebuilt engine ready to go for it when this one finally croaks. It cost me about $800 for maching and parts(reusing old pistons), plus welding the cracks in the heads exhaust ports. Of course I am doing all the teardown/reassembly labor myself.

 

I used a low mile (70k) carbed block and crank, so all that was needed was a very light honing of the journals for the new bearings, and a light honing in the cylinders to seat the new rings. That kept maching costs and complications(finding over/under sized bearings and pistons) down signifigantly. Most of the money I spent went to the heads. I'm sure I could have just swapped pistons and the bottom end would still have been fine.

 

Your not doing it right :-p

 

Alot of people dont have the ability/know how/time to do it themselves.

Your one of the few capable to do so. I would do it, if I had the place to tear a engine apart. If you look at my photo gallery where I show my cars in the driveway, its dirt. Thats a place I wont be doing engine internals at.

[Gloyale]

Your not doing it right :-p

 

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

 

I just upped my boost to about 12 psi. That should help it along.

[Turbone]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

 

I just upped my boost to about 12 psi. That should help it along.

 

Retard the timing a little and use regular gas. That will help :-p

Guaranteed to blow some ring landings off

[4WDFrenzy]

Well, Thank You very much for all of the replies. I would absolutely love to get a rebuilt engine from CCR, but $2000 is more than I can swing at the moment. I'm not saying that I wouldn't seriously consider it(because that 3yr/36K warranty is really appealing IMHO), but I would more than likely wind up a headline in the local newspaper if I spent that kind of money, as the wife is already not too happy about all of the mods and such that I have made to the car at present. Not to mention the fact that she is upset by the fact that I may have to get a NTM(new to me) motor.

 

Considering that I have never disassembled an EA82 of any kind, how difficult would any of you speculate that it might be to go in and replace the bearings myself? I am mechanically inclined BTW.

 

Patrick

[4WDFrenzy]

Another thing, I know that spinning a bearing can be caused by over-revving(which I am guilty of doing twice), but can running the wrong fuel(regular unleaded) be a contributor to the problem? I didn't run regular in it, but my dad did while I was here in Okinawa during his short "car sitting" stint. It is now in the care of a trusted friend.

 

Patrick

[GeneralDisorder]

Another thing, I know that spinning a bearing can be caused by over-revving(which I am guilty of doing twice), but can running the wrong fuel(regular unleaded) be a contributor to the problem? I didn't run regular in it, but my dad did while I was here in Okinawa during his short "car sitting" stint. It is now in the care of a trusted friend.

 

Patrick

 

Speculation of that nature is frivolous and nothing more than lawn chair mechanicing. You haven't even pulled the thing apart to verify the failure, which I HIGHLY doubt is a spun bearing insert. I've seen internals with NO lubrication - so hot they melted the nylon out of the nylock rod cap nut's and seized the engine... still didn't spin. It would likely throw the rod right out the block before it spun the insert inside the aluminium rod. They are notched and compressed in such a way that they almost become one with the rod when installed.

 

It might not even be internal - you might have a timing belt tensioner or idler that's gone south.....

 

Yank it out, pull it down. THEN speculate.

 

GD

[JWX]

Another thing, I know that spinning a bearing can be caused by over-revving(which I am guilty of doing twice), but can running the wrong fuel(regular unleaded) be a contributor to the problem? I didn't run regular in it, but my dad did while I was here in Okinawa during his short "car sitting" stint. It is now in the care of a trusted friend.

 

Patrick

 

 

To add to what GD has said. No, running regular gas won't magicly spin a bearing. It will cause you to det, and eat your pistons for lunch. Unless, of course one retarded the timing to let it run the lower grade gas.

[MilesFox]

your best bet is to go find a junkyard motor. you could have one for as little as 100 bucks

 

if you take apart your motor, tou have time and tools involved to split the case and pull wrist pins. you will need the bearings and head gaskets and engine seals.

 

if you find a junkyard motor(carb motors with 8.5 compression, 85-86 nad some 87's) you will only need to take the heads off, basically a head hgasket job as it would be, swapping all the turbo heads and intakes.

 

find the ones with broken timing belts. this means that is why they are junked instead of bad head gaskets. running ea82s get junked over broken axles and bad clitches, check FWD's and manual cars

 

you could probably gety away with an spfi block (9.5 compression) but you will have to make sure the knock sensor functions and the timing is not advanced, and better gas.

[Gloyale]

 

if you find a junkyard motor(carb motors with 8.5 compression, 85-86 nad some 87's) you will only need to take the heads off, basically a head hgasket job as it would be, swapping all the turbo heads and intakes.

 

 

EA82 Carbed blocks have 9:1 compression.

 

Swapping the 7.7:1 turbo pistons in would still be advisable. But that can be done by simply pulling the wrist pins. No need to split the case.

[4WDFrenzy]

Speculation of that nature is frivolous and nothing more than lawn chair mechanicing.

 

Yank it out, pull it down. THEN speculate.

 

GD

 

Thanks GD. The only reason I am making a speculation as to the nature of the problem is because I don't have the car physically in front of me where I can work on it. Unfortunately for me, I am still in Oki and my car is in Texas. The friend of mine that is "car sitting" for me, was telling me of this "metallic, knocking noise" my engine is making. Well, long story short, there was a guy who posted a vid on good ol' YouTube(he says that he spun a bearing on the vid) and his car was making a similar racket. So I forwarded the vid to my friend Jason, and him and his wife both said that was exactly how my engine sounds. So of course, that brought about a whole new world of headaches. So as you can see, all I can really do is speculate at this point, and try as best as I can to prepare my wallet for whatever contingency is called for, be it expensive or not.

 

Patrick

[4WDFrenzy]

To add to what GD has said. No, running regular gas won't magicly spin a bearing. It will cause you to det, and eat your pistons for lunch. Unless, of course one retarded the timing to let it run the lower grade gas.

 

Thanks JWX. I wasn't too sure, just looking for some re-enforcement. I ran nothing but high grade(super unleaded/93 octane) fuel in my GL-10 when I was in Texas. When I left it in my father's care, he filled it up with regular 87 octane, because "it was cheaper." To make matters worse, I had advanced the timing a bit(can't remember how many degrees off the top of my head) after I installed my intercooler, and it has been ever since. And I know that pre-det can do some bad things to an engine. That was my reason for asking.

 

Patrick

[4WDFrenzy]

Oh Yeah, BTW, here is the video that I was talking about in case any of you were wondering. The way the guy explains what happened(please see info box in top right corner next to vid), is identical to what my friend Jason described as to what happened with my car.

 

 

Patrick

[cap86]

That thing runs pretty good. (in the video) I'm with GeneralDisorder verify. If you can, pick up a engine (cheap) in the northeast where the bodies rotted away but the engines are still good. PS ever get up north to OKU? nice little town.

C.

[4WDFrenzy]

That thing runs pretty good. (in the video) I'm with GeneralDisorder verify. If you can, pick up a engine (cheap) in the northeast where the bodies rotted away but the engines are still good. PS ever get up north to OKU? nice little town.

C.

 

Any ideas on the source of clatter in the vid? I would very much so like to pinpoint the problem, but like I said, there is a distance issue, so I can't disassemble it to find out. My friend is afraid to do any disassembly because he is afraid of screwing something up(he has never worked on Subarus before, so the engine layout is rather "alien" to him).

 

As for northern Okinawa, yeah, acutually I was up that way last weekend with the family. We took the kidos to the aquarium and did some general sightseeing. Very scenic and peaceful up north. Thanks for asking.

 

Patrick

[cap86]

It's been a while, but I had a couple of noisy engines that sounded kind of like that (like I said been a while & can't remember exactly... should've put it on youtube) one was a frozen idler pulley and the other was I think the bearing on the timing belt cog/gear... you might be able to find a clue if you have someone look into the inspection hole in the front timing cover (drivers side) any problems would leave some debris/clues there.

C.

 

Any ideas on the source of clatter in the vid? I would very much so like to pinpoint the problem, but like I said, there is a distance issue, so I can't disassemble it to find out. My friend is afraid to do any disassembly because he is afraid of screwing something up(he has never worked on Subarus before, so the engine layout is rather "alien" to him).

 

As for northern Okinawa, yeah, acutually I was up that way last weekend with the family. We took the kidos to the aquarium and did some general sightseeing. Very scenic and peaceful up north. Thanks for asking.

 

Patrick

[4WDFrenzy]

It's been a while, but I had a couple of noisy engines that sounded kind of like that (like I said been a while & can't remember exactly... should've put it on youtube) one was a frozen idler pulley and the other was I think the bearing on the timing belt cog/gear... you might be able to find a clue if you have someone look into the inspection hole in the front timing cover (drivers side) any problems would leave some debris/clues there.

C.

 

Okay, well have my friend take a look, and a listen. I appreciate all of the help. It is really hard to determine the cause of a problem when you haev to use someone else's eyes, ears, and hands. Thanks again.

 

Patrick

[cap86]

Do itashimaste! keep us informed of any progress (or problems).

[4WDFrenzy]

Do itashimaste! keep us informed of any progress (or problems).

 

LOL

 

I will definitely do that. Domo Arigato Gozaimasu.:cool:

 

Patrick

[Turbone]

Patrick, that sounds just like Psyko's engine in his XT-T. It went south last week sometime. But yours does sound a tad worse :-p

 

It certainly sounds like a spun bearing, on both engines.