EA82 + Hills = :(

someguy · Post by **someguy** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 6:14 pm

Hi all.

I am just wondering if this is normal for the EA82.

On a flat road I can sit comfortably at 120-130km/h (around 3700RPM) (topped it out at 154 on a private road at my uncles farm a few years back)

But when I jump on the freeway and I get the slightest gradient/incline my engine just bogs down and won't exceed 80 no matter how hard I push it, as soon as I hit a flat part again it goes like a rocket back to 110.

Does anyone know what could be causing this, I swear it never used to do it, it only seems pretty recent.

I have tried a different air filter & fixed any leaks in vacuum lines.

I know the EA82's are very underpowered but I get overtaken by stock beetles, trucks & busses and its pretty embarrasing.

(Please no suggestions to do an EJ conversion, I am not doing an EJ conversion unless I can get my hands on one of the carbied EJ engines, I am a carby enthusiast :P)

sven '2' · Post by **sven '2'** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 6:47 pm

I know your pain well - Willunga and Cement Hills are a killer. Was overtaken by a fully laden Kombi once...

Usual tuning/engine condition suggestions - in good nic, compression, filters (incl fuel), carby, *cat*?

What fuel are you using? If not PULP, you should be

Sven

someguy · Post by **someguy** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:02 pm

sven '2' wrote:I know your pain well - Willunga and Cement Hills are a killer. Was overtaken by a fully laden Kombi once...

Usual tuning/engine condition suggestions - in good nic, compression, filters (incl fuel), carby, *cat*?

What fuel are you using? If not PULP, you should be

Sven

I am doing a full service in 2 weeks (fuel filter, dizzy cap & leads, spark plugs, oil, trans, diff oil etc etc) so hopefully that should help.

I am using 98 Octane fuel (always have) and I know how much of a difference it makes on subie engines, when I ran it on 91 for a couple of weeks it felt slouchy and pinged its guts out.

spike · Post by **spike** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:24 pm

mmm mine goes alright when its warm
but ive noticed its playing up atm i think its spark or somthing to do with that will have to sort it out

anyway
up my road its about a 20 to 30 degree incline at a guess (i could be totally wrong and pulling numbers out of my A*S) its happy to run at 80 in 4th hit fith and it struggles and wont get the revs again.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 10:54 pm

someguy wrote:(Please no suggestions to do an EJ conversion, I am not doing an EJ conversion unless I can get my hands on one of the carbied EJ engines, I am a carby enthusiast :P)

Yep fair enough. But I must say that factory EFI will always be best IMO. Its just a case of getting it right - then it pretty much looks after itself!

As Sven said - check your compression as this will tell you a lot about the engine's condition.

I'd also try and find out if your cat is blocked - look into increasing the size of your exhaust to create a freer flowing exhaust, you should be able to get some of that subi beat goodness too.

Check your spark plugs. I had a mate's L that died on hills but would rocket along on the flats. I did a service and found a spark plug lead that had almost burnt clean through itself. This allowed the spark plug to work on startup and light load such as cruising - but as soon as you needed some power it was gutless yet didn't surge...

It pretty much comes down to the engine's condition and that fact that it is an old engine, just make sure you keep on top of maintenance issues and don't give it a flogging by dropping a gear just to get some where a little faster!

Cheers

Bennie

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 12:32 pm

compression test, timing, carby cleaner, fuel used, shift down a gear, spark gap, oh yeah cat converter as someone said are my suggestions too, oh what about the much claimed tune up from the dealer $17 for the manifold foam stuff

GTlegs · Post by **GTlegs** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 12:51 pm

Sounds like your compression is up the sh*tecreek. I think you should do a compression test on all four cylinders - most mechanics can do this for chips (they just insert a compression gauge into a spark plug hole and run the engine).

MidcoastScooby · Post by **MidcoastScooby** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 2:53 am

GTlegs wrote:Sounds like your compression is up the sh*tecreek. I think you should do a compression test on all four cylinders - most mechanics can do this for chips (they just insert a compression gauge into a spark plug hole and run the engine).

What is the accepted psi for a "good" EA82 motor? What is 1128kpa in psi? I can't find a conversion for it.

BTW all you need to do is turn the motor over with the key around 5-7 rotations to get a good reading. Compression gauges are a handy and very cheap addition to your toolbox, useful from mowers to truck engines.

But if you really wanted to get serious a leak down test will tell you more about your engine. This test will tell you if you are losing pressure from valves or rings. It's cheap to make and if you have an air compressor you're already just about there and ready to use.

Pootcrum · Post by **Pootcrum** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 12:23 pm

Online pressure conversion: http://www.onlineconversion.com/pressure.htm

Use it all the time at uni (use a lot of UHV equipment).

Anyways, I have exactly the same problem as someguy, and the two roads that Sven mentioned, including the southern expressway are my Achilles heels at present. I find that when I try to give it any juice on an incline, in 4th, it just starts to shudder and die off, so I have to drop it into 3rd to maintain speed, but then revving its tits off, don't if similar happens to you someguy? Doing the service today (plugs, filters, etc etc...) on an EA81 to try and nip it.

Never thought of compression test though, to be honest I have only just starting getting into doing work myself on the ute after being screwed a few times by mechos. Are these gauges an easy enough item to find on the shelf? I am assuming they are essentially just a pressure gauge that fits into the spark plug thread?

Regarding the cat and indeed the exhaust in general, aside from making it louder would dropping the exhaust from the y connector help to indicate issues for both of us?

someguy · Post by **someguy** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 9:05 pm

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

New development.

Its still runs perfectly through the city but whenever I put my foot flat to the floor on a high speed road it starts missing and then just looses all its power.

Any ideas?

I am thinking of replacing the plugs and leads, could it be those? (tight on money for the next couple of weeks, so I don't really want to replace them if I don't need to)

btw my EA82 had a full rebuild around 150,000km ago so its probably less likely to be compression.

also to elfreddo, I had already done the exhaust, magnaflow high flow cat, 2.5" catback system with center high flow/performance muffler and 4" canon muffler at the end. (and yeah it does give it that great boxer noise).

spike · Post by **spike** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 9:21 pm

same thing happend to me
phone the old man up, check the air filter, oily, check the oil filler cap slightly loose

backthe oil filler cap off, tightens
fixed absolutly everything

GTlegs · Post by **GTlegs** » Sat Jul 17, 2010 10:06 pm

Sounds like it may also be the fuel (this means both the fuel and the air) or electrical.

For air make sure the airfilter is good. For fuel make sure your fuel filter (next to fuel pump in front of RR wheel) is good. Once you are happy with the fuel filter, next is fuel lines - make sure they are clear of any gunk. If all is good next is the carburettor - make sure there are no gasket (both carb manifold and bowl) leaks, the accelerator pump works, and the adjustment screws (idle and mixture) are correct. Finally check the vacuum lines - make sure they are all connected and dont have any damage.

Could also be a failing fuel pump. One other thing could be your charcoal canister - it may be blocked and starving your engine.

In terms of electrical, it could be a number of things. Make sure you coil is good. Coils are aroung $30-$50 so it may be worth it to upgrade. Then make sure your battery is fully charged - low charge in a battery can lead to bad spark with older carb cars. Make sure your leads and spark plugs are OK.

Cant think of anything else at the moment.

someguy wrote:Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

New development.

Its still runs perfectly through the city but whenever I put my foot flat to the floor on a high speed road it starts missing and then just looses all its power.

Any ideas?

I am thinking of replacing the plugs and leads, could it be those? (tight on money for the next couple of weeks, so I don't really want to replace them if I don't need to)

btw my EA82 had a full rebuild around 150,000km ago so its probably less likely to be compression.

also to elfreddo, I had already done the exhaust, magnaflow high flow cat, 2.5" catback system with center high flow/performance muffler and 4" canon muffler at the end. (and yeah it does give it that great boxer noise).

someguy · Post by **someguy** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:07 am

Thanks.

It actually has an aftermarket chrome air filter which is only a couple of months old, it breethes fine but some of the hoses (e.g the valve cover hoses and blower hose were left disconnected as obviously they don't have anywhere to plug into with the new filter, but the car was running fine up until two weeks ago).

Would any of those make a difference.

I have checked for vacuum leaks and things seem ok.

I thought about the coil, might try a new one if I can get my hands on one during the week.

Will take the fuel filter out tomorrow and have a look (not very old).

The problem also seems to be occurring more when the engine is colder, if I sit on the freeway for half an hour or so it gets better.

Will take all your suggestions and have a good look tomorrow, if anyone gets any other ideas let me know as I am driving the car on the freeway for work each day and its getting pretty dangerous (e.g overtaking then loosing power during that and having to pull back in)

Pootcrum · Post by **Pootcrum** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:50 am

Coil is probably more likely, and easy to test with a multimeter provided you can find the resistance values when it was new (and if you do, post it up here because I'd be curious to know and can't find that information myself), but what about something obscure like the EGR valve or charcoal canister. I believe that if the EGR valve is stuck open it essentially becomes a vacuum leak and can affect combustion. And I think something similar can occur if the charcoal canister is blocked, although I may have misread that last bit.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 3:35 am

never seen coil do this, what about look at carby throat as you squeeze accelerator quickly to view good squirt and spray of fuel from acc pump plunger. can you do qik takeoff from stop and maybe squeal wheels ?

someguy · Post by **someguy** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:35 am

steptoe wrote:never seen coil do this, what about look at carby throat as you squeeze accelerator quickly to view good squirt and spray of fuel from acc pump plunger. can you do qik takeoff from stop and maybe squeal wheels ?

Yea i can dump the clutch and spin the wheels and take off pretty fast without a problem, it only seems to be happening on the freeway when I am trying to get to 100 and i have my foot planted

Pootcrum · Post by **Pootcrum** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 11:32 am

someguy wrote:Yea i can dump the clutch and spin the wheels and take off pretty fast without a problem, it only seems to be happening on the freeway when I am trying to get to 100 and i have my foot planted

Hmm that sounds exactly like what happened to me when my fuel filter was blocked. Got some bad fuel from a drum (ute used to be on a farm), and by the time I got to the city I could barely get above 80 on any sort of incline. Took the filters out and they were full of rusty crap.

GTlegs · Post by **GTlegs** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 1:07 pm

someguy wrote:
The problem also seems to be occurring more when the engine is colder, if I sit on the freeway for half an hour or so it gets better.

This just made me remember that it could also be your choke. If its a manual choke, make sure it gets pulled in when the engine is warm. If its auto choke, make sure it opens as soons as the engine is warm or conversely is closed when the engine is cold.

someguy · Post by **someguy** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 6:24 pm

Thanks for the tips.

Carb is fine.

Will check out the fuel filter/lines one night this week when its less wet :P

Does anyone know what model/part number the fuel filter is incase I need to pick one up during the week?

MrRocky · Post by **MrRocky** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 7:57 pm

check vacum lines to the carby for splits and leaks by spraying carby clean around the carby while its running, should idle higher if theres a leak.
also try advancing the timing to 12 degrees and running on premium fuel.