The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Well I know, I know.... Lots to do! I was helping a neighbor and inquired about her '87 Wagon that was just sitting collecting dust. Within a few days its now sitting at my house ready to be transformed! Not sure into what yet though!

She informed me it needs a radiator. I'm sure the list will grow quite a bit however. Joined this forum and have been reading a lot. My last Subaru was some years ago, an '86 Brat.

Well anyways, here are some shots I snapped of my starting point:

Hi and Welcome to AUSubaru mate

Yes you have got a bit of work on your hands but the L.Series is always a good starting platform. Keep us up to date of your developments

Cheers,
Paul

RSR 555 wrote:Hi and Welcome to AUSubaru mate

Yes you have got a bit of work on your hands but the L.Series is always a good starting platform. Keep us up to date of your developments

Cheers,
Paul

Thanks Paul, I will indeed keep the forum posted, and likely ask a few questions along the way! LOL

SubaruGL wrote:Thanks Paul, I will indeed keep the forum posted, and likely ask a few questions along the way! LOL

No doubt but this is the place to search or ask

Welcome to Ausubaru mate.. Awesome!
Cheers
AP

* UPDATE 11/20/2010 *

Changed oil and got the girl running! For a bit!

OK, so I've been lazy and crazy busy with work, but I finally got my wagon towed home after inflating the tire, and pulled the battery and charged it back up. Even though all the pieces Pep Boys pulled for me were incorrect, at least I had bought my own oil and filter previously.

So the first oil change in 5 years... Need your guys advice on how, and whether, to proceed..

Drained the oil as much as possible and ran an extra quart or so through to help get out brown (like coffee with milk!) sludge. It was the yuckiest oil I've ever seen. What scares me is I must have got a good 5 quarts out of it. There was some signs of a little water too. After cleaning everything I filled the new filter with fresh oil and then filled it up until the dipstick was happy. Took about 3 or so more quarts.

Got in and pumped the gas and she fired up on the second try! Running rough of course, great when I gave it some gas, but would die if I let the rpms drop. On the second round of running it my neighbor was scared he saw smoke, but it appears to only be coming from the open connection down off the catalytic converter. Should be easy enough to but some hose tomorrow at the auto store.

Now my main questions are.

1.) Does it sound like I have a cracked head or head gasket leak based on the condition of the oil? I keep fearing that but also am trying to balance that it has sat for a good 4-4.5 years. The radiator reservoir is empty. Tomorrow I'll drain anything in the radiator. The previous owner is an elderly lady who told me she thought it needed a radiator. I noticed a crack in the upper return line to the radiator however. So I'm not sure if the rad is bad, but assume at this age I will have to change it. I also noticed the two lines to the heater core are disconnected and the feed & return line to the radiator have been capped (see image at end of post).

2.) What would be the next steps you would take and check? I don't mind putting money into a car that will drive, but if the engine is shot I would be real mad to buy new tires, radiator, hoses, and so forth.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Tomorrow is Subaru day for me, finally get one day off so I'd like to make as much progress as possible!

1. The heater is stuffed/leaking, and the previous owner has bypassed the core under the dash. Instead of being capped off though, should feed back into itself with a gentle bend (engine side).

Would start with a radiator flush

2. A lot of info on oil here. Suggest you change this oil in another 1000km or so, and concentrate on the carby. 5 year oil cannot be considered a diagnostic tool.

Give it a decent service, and then just drive and see

Thanks Sven, good advice about the heater core bypass, I'll worry about that later. Also glad you agree not to worry too much about 5 year old oil. I did put a little Seafoam (A product I swear by) in with the oil and will change it again soon.

Today I think I should flush the radiator (and actually fill it!) and change out the power steering, brake, and differentials fluids and then drive around locally. Problem with that is one tire in particular. So I think I'm going to have to try out that little spare until I can figure out if its wise to throw money into new tires/rims.

Just fired it up and she started first try! Idles ok but when I rev it up and let off the gas she dies. Also I notice a crackling type noise from the exhaust manifold I think, when I let off the gas. Maybe that is due to the missing hose from the cat that looks likes it runs back up to the intake?

Off to the auto store now to pick up some supplies and maybe some beer too lol.

Worked a bit today between rain and here is what I am up to... specific questions are boldfaced. I did locate a service manual, but it is for an 1989 fuel injected model and I have the 2 barrel carb system. Sorry for so many questions in advance!

Still can't get this "assembly" to use the clamp under the spare tire. One of the hoses are likely shorter than they should be. Also, it would be helpful to see a picture of where the bracket attaches if anyone has a picture!


Changed the capped off heater core bypass to a gradual connection. The "tee" assembly is just to assist with flushing the rad, which proved unnecessary (see below).


Found an electrical connector just floating around near the battery. It would be great to know where it fastens to! Also, I am guessing these are fusible links? The leftmost wire appears to have just been twisted together. What is this wire for? I'm thinking it might help me determine the past of the vehicle.


Now the most important question!... Made sure the radiator was plugged and ran some water and some coolant into the rad through the filler neck... I see coolant dripping out of the plastic housing behind the fans, on the passenger side, in front of the oil filter. What does this "problem" point to? Cracked radiator, or worse?


Despite the dying upon quickly letting off the accelerator and a possible battery not up to par (I occasionally get all the lights on the dash coming on when the car drops below 12v.), my oil pressure is about in the middle at idle and goes up about 3/4's of the way upon revving up to 4000 rpm's. Is this correct? Trying to figure out of the oil system is good.



Thanks!

I went a little overboard positing my findings of the day LOL... the real concern/question I need to address first is holding the coolant. Judging by the 4th picture down I need to figure out if the water coming out from the low point in the plastic shroud is likely the rad (in which case I need to order a new one), or if a water pump or other cooling component in there could be leaking, in which case I must start dismantling stuff before placing an order.

Thanks

G'day
I may be able to help with prob in 1st pic. I will take a photo of how this should be and post it 2morrow evening (local time). As for coolant leak as shown in other pic, start looking around water pump and metal inlet pipe that joins water pump from lower radiator outlet. AS for dodgy fusible link not to sure.

Thanks FujiFan!

I'll tear into the car a bit more tonight assuming I can get out of work before it's dark! I'd appreciate a pic... I'm sure it's simple but can seem to identify it's location from any of the pictures I find online. Just frustrating.

FujiFan wrote:G'day
I may be able to help with prob in 1st pic. I will take a photo of how this should be and post it 2morrow evening (local time). As for coolant leak as shown in other pic, start looking around water pump and metal inlet pipe that joins water pump from lower radiator outlet. AS for dodgy fusible link not to sure.

Hi there, Here is that pic. Its called an Anti After Burning valve, And as such is not actually critical to engine operation. Its more of a emission control device. Hope you managed to locate coolant leak..

Thanks FujiFan! Big help!

Ah figured it was emissions-related! Might lose some of that stuff later but for now I want to get it running stock as well as I can. As for the leak it looks likes it is likely the water pump but I'll try to figure it out today for sure. Going to give the car new belts and seals and stuff also before I start it up too much!

BTW: That's a beautiful clean engine bay! Great work!

No worries SubaruGL

Yeah some of that crap can go (emission gear). Good call though changing the belts and seals. As for clean engine bay, It still looks to "busy" for my liking. Just picked up some chrome plated pieces today for car, wait till you see it when its all fitted!

Wow, very nice! Can't wait to see the chrome! It's almost so much nicer working on (and diagnosing!) a tidy engine. I cleaned my quick to help with the work on. I'll be cleaning it area by area as I replace stuff and service it. Got the timing belt kit and seals ordered, should be here in a week :S Now I'm going to order OEM for the intake gaskets, and thermostat.

Well I've been busy and trying to get this project going.... I got tires and got her driving around the neighborhood! Until she died. Thinking its more appropriate to post in the Engine forum, I created a new thread here: showthread.php?p=165248#post165248

I still have the hitachi carb... Anyone else? I just replaced my intake gaskets and can't figure out/remeber where the two larg hoses off the air cleaner go.

I have an 87 gl wagon with an hitachi carb... Just replaced the intake gaskets and having trouble relocating the two large hoses off the driver's side of the air cleaner...


Still can't locate a FSM with the hitachi carb section and my diagram under the hood doesn't clarify these...

I am reconnecting the air cleaner (still can't find an ea82 fsm for the carb models) and I have this hose left:


I know it comes off of one of the two large pipes on the air cleaner (top of photo). Right now the one shown here is going to the driver side head. It might be switched off the wrong port at the air cleaner, but I can't find where the other stupid port is?


Any out there can help before I lose light? :/ thanks!

I'm not totally familiar with the EA82, but the shape of that hose reminded me of the hose on the EA81 that goes from the rocker cover to the air cleaner, perhaps that is it (I circled it for you but I can't really tell if that's it)