EA81 Overhaul thread

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat May 21, 2011 12:38 pm

Finally! got enough bits together to start disassembling my engine. If you don't know already, I'm doing this because there is a terrible knock on this engine (because of my error) and I can't find a replacement (that would be used anyway) for less than $500 which is ridiculous money when the whole car with engine is worth less than that.

Just to let everyone know, I am not doing (nor can I afford) a full 100% top to bottom rebuild so I have a new engine at the end. I'm only going to be doing the necessary things to get it running and not knocking. So I will be replacing things like main bearings, big end bearings, piston rings, if I need to get oversized pistons and rings I will be getting those as well. If I can get away with just honing the cylinders for the new rings I will, not going to spend money getting them re-bored if I don't have to. If the bearing on #3 is spun or has failed, I'm guessing I'll have to get the crankshaft ground? I won't be replacing things like pushrods, valves or any of the upper engine stuff. Won't be getting the cam ground, not getting the engine sand blasted or any of that.

I haven't taken photos of taking the external parts off, they are pretty self explanatory. I've started with where I'm up to at the moment, which is stuck

As you can see I've taken the clutch, flywheel and flywheel housing apart, and am up to taking the pistons out. This is where I'm stuck. I'm starting with the problem cylinder (#3) and have taken the first circlip out from the piston/gudgeon pin. Now in the manual it says to use some heavy gauge wire with a hook bent in the end, put it down the pin to hook it out. Well it just doesn't work, the gudgeon pin refuses to come out. I can see down to the other circlip, does this hold the pin in as well? I thought the clips just prevent them from sliding out one way. And I would need a bloody long pair of needle nosed pliers to get the back clip out.

That's where I'm up to and that's where I'm staying until I can find out how to get the gudgeon pins out. Here's a few pics, there will be more at every step along the way, when I get there that is

Cleaned up the top of the block, ready to start disassembling

Clutch and flywheel out

Flywheel housing off

My system of keeping bolts and bits organized

Engine sitting on the bench in the shed ready for the next session

I'm amazed and surprised with how easy it's coming apart (apart form gudgeon pins) and how small and manageable the block is. In it's current state I can lift it and move it around by myself with ease. It's also such a simple engine with few pieces to go wrong, it's proving an easy way to get to know engines and I'm confident I will be able to do this even though I've never done it before.

Stay tuned

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat May 21, 2011 4:48 pm

No , circlip at other end just stops gudgeon from sliding in too far

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Apologies for no feet in the shot - they are camera shy

The gudgeon pin end was a head bolt from a Falcon OHC ? had a larger diameter just below the internal hex head. Ground it down to shape to clear everything

Also excuse the welding

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat May 21, 2011 4:58 pm

Ah yes a slide hammer, was thinking about that. Will have to go to supercrap tomorrow and get one

Cheers!

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat May 21, 2011 5:04 pm

Be aware there is a bolt between the two halves deep inside on one side. See if you can get a milk crate to sit block on with head studs poking through facing down as reassemble instructions say have one particular block face, face down.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat May 21, 2011 5:11 pm

you will likely need to custom make an end to suit slide hammer anyway, I made the lot as you most likely can tell from the skew whiff hole drilled and tapped to accept the bolt thread. Remeber I said before that I had to drag an EA81 around the shed floor as I pulled the bastards out. Some engines have been text book removal !

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat May 21, 2011 5:15 pm

while yer at SCA, some wax and greae remover to get the CV grease off the back of each block

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sat May 21, 2011 6:20 pm

Milk crate: check
Wax and grease remover: check
Custom end for hammer to pull pin out: check

Slide hammer: nope

Hoping my gudgeon pins come out a bit easier than yours did, don't like the sound of pulling the block around by the pins

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sun May 22, 2011 1:41 pm

Once again supercrap has proven itself to be just that; went in knowing exactly what I wanted (slide hammer and piston ring compressor, both things I've seen in there before and the website said they had) and they had neither. Walked up and down every bloody isle and walked away with nothing

That's the teardown held up for another week then at least

Post by **TOONGA** » Sun May 22, 2011 3:09 pm

you can make a slide hammer very easily all you need is a 10mm thick and 600mm long piece of mild steel rod a 200mm long by 25mm thick piece which has had an 11mm hole drilled right through it and a 25mm long by 25mm thick piece with an 11mm hole drilled in it ... see where Im going with this

weld the 25mm by 25mm to one end of the 10mm bar then slide the 200mm by 25mm on after it, then use your imagination for the end that goes in to the engine to hook onto the gudgen

TOONGA

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sun May 22, 2011 4:45 pm

TOONGA wrote:you can make a slide hammer very easily all you need is a 10mm thick and 600mm long piece of mild steel rod a 200mm long by 25mm thick piece which has had an 11mm hole drilled right through it and a 25mm long by 25mm thick piece with an 11mm hole drilled in it ... see where Im going with this

weld the 25mm by 25mm to one end of the 10mm bar then slide the 200mm by 25mm on after it, then use your imagination for the end that goes in to the engine to hook onto the gudgen

TOONGA

Yeah I can see what you mean, but I don't have the materials or equipment to make that sort of stuff

I've got some spare time up my sleeve at tafe tomorrow, maybe I can make something there.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Mon May 23, 2011 8:13 pm

Ah! what a relief

Managed to throw something together in the form of a slide hammer at tafe today, threaded one end of the rod and made a matching hook-like-thingy to go in. And after about 90 minutes of swearing, sliding, thoughts of impossibility I managed to get #3 piston and pin out kicking and screaming, hooray!

If you remember, this was the problem cylinder that was making all the racket. Since there was nothing apparently wrong with the heads I was expecting something that might indicate where the knock is coming from, but there is nothing

Wriggling the con-rod there is no slack in the up and down movement, and just a tiny wriggle if I twist it, with a very faint squelching sound. If it was a bearing knock shouldn't there be more than this? I can't upload photos right now as our internet quota ran out and our speed knocked down. I noticed on each side of the piston where the pin goes through there is some black and brown deposit on the other side of the oil ring. Would this indicate gas leaking past the rings? Other than that there is no damage to the piston as far as I can tell (no obvious cracks etc)

*Edit* Finally got a pic to work! just the piston showing the deposit on the side, it's the same on the other side as well.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon May 23, 2011 11:48 pm

Looks like oil burn residue - most likely from the rings not sealing properly...

You shouldn't be able to move the conrod from side to side much, I would say maybe 1mm at the very most if its in good condition. How far are you able to move #3 cylinder's?

I bet you can't wait to get the other piston heads out!

Cheers

Bennie

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Thu May 26, 2011 9:14 pm

Bennie, side to side #3 rod moves probably less than 1mm. Rings not sealing properly would explain the 155 psi compression I had, not the 170(?) it should be. Yep can't wait to get those pistons out haha

Bit of an update, pictures to follow tomorrow morning:
Spent about 2 hours out in the shed getting the remaining gudgeon pins out and removing all the crankcase bolts. Putting a service hole underneath the water pump was a terrible idea on Subarus' part; I had to clamp the block to the bench, put a 3 foot pipe on my breaker bar and it still took every ounce of strength to break that badly corroded plugs seal, and when it went I heard bits of god knows what hitting every corner of the shed

At first I couldn't even fit the hex key into the hole because of the rust

Also #3's pin turned out to be the hardest to remove. All the others came out much more easily. But still by the end my slide hammer end was bent like a banana, going to have to make another stronger one

I'm leaving the remaining pistons in until I part the crankcase, using the books method of putting the pin back in to push the piston out takes way too long.

Had to cut many holes even in the milk crate to fit the cylinder head studs through but managed to get it how I wanted it. To crack the crankcase bolts I had to put a piece of wood through the bottom of the crate and wedge it into the legs of the work bench to stop the crate twisting, push the pipe and breaker bar combo with my hips/stomach while I twisted the block in the opposite direction with both hands... a bloody workout getting all those loose I can tell you

Now everything is ready to get the block apart. I couldn't break the seal tonight so I sprayed RP7 all around the center line hoping it would soak in overnight and help release the block halves tomorrow.

Ah and one last thing, while I was pulling the lifters all the way up to secure them for the block split, I noted that the intake lifter on #3 (where the rag went in) came up most of the way but them got stuck, pushing hard upwards on it caused a loud "click" and it came up all the way. Maybe nothing but maybe what's causing the knock? Can't wait to inspect the camshaft and lifters for damage.

Cheers!

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Thu May 26, 2011 10:26 pm

Silverbullet wrote:Spent about 2 hours out in the shed getting the remaining gudgeon pins out and removing all the crankcase bolts. Putting a service hole underneath the water pump was a terrible idea on Subarus' part; I had to clamp the block to the bench, put a 3 foot pipe on my breaker bar and it still took every ounce of strength to break that badly corroded plugs seal, and when it went I heard bits of god knows what hitting every corner of the shed At first I couldn't even fit the hex key into the hole because of the rust

Yep.. shit idea but I guess they never expected some aussie would be pulling it apart after 30 years of service.

Silverbullet wrote:Also #3's pin turned out to be the hardest to remove. All the others came out much more easily. But still by the end my slide hammer end was bent like a banana, going to have to make another stronger one I'm leaving the remaining pistons in until I part the crankcase, using the books method of putting the pin back in to push the piston out takes way too long.

Yeah.. Only works good if you're not spliting the casings but I prefer the suction cap on top of the piston better.

Silverbullet wrote:Had to cut many holes even in the milk crate to fit the cylinder head studs through but managed to get it how I wanted it. To crack the crankcase bolts I had to put a piece of wood through the bottom of the crate and wedge it into the legs of the work bench to stop the crate twisting, push the pipe and breaker bar combo with my hips/stomach while I twisted the block in the opposite direction with both hands... a bloody workout getting all those loose I can tell you

Ahhh.. I remember those days

painful but worth it in the end.

Silverbullet wrote:Now everything is ready to get the block apart. I couldn't break the seal tonight so I sprayed RP7 all around the center line hoping it would soak in overnight and help release the block halves tomorrow.

Just remember to make sure you have all the bolts out.. been a while since my last EA81 build but I'm pretty sure there is bolts down inside the water jackets.

Silverbullet wrote:Ah and one last thing, while I was pulling the lifters all the way up to secure them for the block split, I noted that the intake lifter on #3 (where the rag went in) came up most of the way but them got stuck, pushing hard upwards on it caused a loud "click" and it came up all the way. Maybe nothing but maybe what's causing the knock? Can't wait to inspect the camshaft and lifters for damage.

Cheers!

Bent push rod maybe?? make sure before you put them back to run them flat along a bench

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri May 27, 2011 10:02 am

Tell us you found the hidden bolt between the two blocks - before you try to split! A bit of heat on those rusted bung plugs behind the water pump certainly helps too.

Post by **TOONGA** » Fri May 27, 2011 10:08 am

RSR 555 wrote: Bent push rod maybe?? make sure before you put them back to run them flat along a bench

+1 on the bent push rod and damaged lifter or lifters you may find your cam has a completely new grind on it for number 3

and yes make sure you have the internal bolt out as well

TOONGA

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Fri May 27, 2011 3:03 pm

By hidden bolt do you mean the one between the pushrod galleries on the 1-3 side? Got that, unless there is another internal one. Also checked the pushrods for bendyness, and they are all dead straight.

Pics of last nights work, all gudgeon pins removed!

Secured the lifters with wire to stop them all falling out

View down 1-3 side

What my slide hammer hook looked like by the end

Will do a bit more tonight and upload photos if I make any progress.

Cheers!

Post by **TOONGA** » Fri May 27, 2011 5:05 pm

I found this in my collection

SubaruEA81-ServiceManual

page 14 shows an exploded view of the block

TOONGA

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri May 27, 2011 5:55 pm

yep, you have done well, even getting the oil pick up out !!.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Fri May 27, 2011 6:48 pm

Thanks Toonga that will come in handy for when my printed version gets destroyed from greasy hands flicking through it all day

steptoe, that oil pickup was a real pain. Couldn't get it out without denting the tube, hopefully it will be ok. Just a thought, how the hell do I get it back in??