EA81 Overhaul thread

Post by **TOONGA** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:55 am

do the break in procedure first otherwise all you hard work will be destroyed at idle

TOONGA

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:27 pm

That might be a bit tricky, it dies as soon as the choke pops in

I'm stuck in an annoying place at the moment; don't want to idle it too long, but need to idle it to adjust timing/idle mix etc. I quickly hooked up the timing light on #1 and it was way off, past the 20 deg marker. Distributor on the wrong cog perhaps?
As for dying when choke goes in, could that be timing related? or choke adjustment related. Also think I must have an air-lock in the system somewhere; The engine block warms up and choke pops in, but the top hose is still cool.

Can't do the proper break in either until I replace the accelerator cable and get the car regoed again. I won't be running it again until that's all done and I can get it to warm up without stalling, and burp the water system.

littlewhiteute · Post by **littlewhiteute** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:41 pm

Hmm, some little issues.

I wouldn't have started the engine until I knew I could drive it.

7-10 degrees at idle shouldn't take long to set up, you must be a tooth out on the dizzy.
Sounds like you have a carb issue as well.

The engine needs to see some load soon.
Sort the carb, throttle cable, ignition timing and cooling system.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:49 pm

Agree, like I said I won't start it again until I know I can drive it.

littlewhiteute · Post by **littlewhiteute** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:57 pm

Some engines jobs will have some little issues.

You must be very happy with your outcome.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 10:00 pm

Don't panic too much - should see what some engines go through before they end up back in the customers hands after a reco has been fitted.

Tweety · Post by **Tweety** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:54 am

I'm a new member. I'm about to convert my Vw trike to Ea81.

I've read all 17 pages of this thread and I'd like to congratulate silverbullet and his helpers on a fine effort on this forum. You guys should be assured that all this information is invaluable to those like me that are new to the Subie boxer engines. Not that I will ever attempt such a rebuild cause my back would cave in!

Thanks.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:32 pm

Hey Tweety, I saw your thread about the trike and wanting to put an EA81 in it. That looks awesome as it is, if you can get an EA81 looking that good I'll be very impressed

Thanks for the kind words, glad the thread helped someone besides myself

Now where I'm at right now: Need a throttle cable quite badly, autopro didn't even have the part listed in the book

. Going to try and call up the Subaru parts dept sometime this week.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 10:34 pm

They are about $45 from Subaru.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:08 pm

Went to Subaru today, they said their system didn't recognize the number because its too old

He said an EA82 cable should fit so we agreed on that, picking it up Friday hopefully. If it's not right we can take it back.

Bryan1 · Post by **Bryan1** » Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:28 pm

Central Hills wreckers in Littlehampton have several L series subi's with EA81 motors in complete. Also we have found they are cheap and very helpful. The only EA82 they have there the motor is nearly fully stripped with didn't help me but I did find 3 earlier model subis with the EA81 motors in.

It may pay it check them out as they are just off the freeway on the Mt Barker exit so they are easy to find.

Regards Bryan

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:14 pm

Thanks for the info I might check them out one day, but that was too far from me for a cable

Got the L series throttle cable today, fit's fine they must be the same cable. Even had the same size/shape plug for the firewall! Fitted and working in about 5 minutes

So tomorrow it's all systems go; going to turn the car around in the driveway so it's facing uphill to try and burp the coolant system. While that's happening I'll be doing the timing as quickly as possible with minimum engine-idling time. I know the manual says engine must be warm but I just want to get it in the right ball park so I can go for a drive to put some load on the motor, then I'll time it again properly later. Any other tips for getting air out of the coolant?
Car is registered again and has about half a tank of fuel. Taking the mobile and a whole pile of tools and RAA card, just in case

Excited but also a little nervous; could be going for a nice trouble-free drive, might also be pissing about in the driveway and not going anywhere...we'll see.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 3:16 am

I wouldn't worry about burping the EA81 - the radiator sits high above the engine so if you've got it full it will drop a little on your first drive. Top it up, give it 5 minutes of sitting there while you get other things ready then do a final top up, making sure that the radiator cap is fitted properly.

Then time it and go for a drive loading the rings to help start the bed in process, I wouldn't be too fussy over the timing as you can adjust it later on. Others will have more about this

Cheers

Bennie

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 1:54 pm

Well since the forum seems to have gone back in time, I should probably re-write some of what happened the last two days...

Most of yesterday was spent fiddling with the timing, after having stalled at the worst possible place on the first drive (line of traffic beeping at me at a big roundabout) Limped it home and spent 4 hours getting it on the right tooth and timing it. Turns out the Carb idle mix and speed screws were way too far out, which mixed with the timing issue made it stall as soon as it warmed up.

After much hair pulling I got it timed, figured out the carb and it drove much much better, no stalling at all. That was yesterday, but today it seems I have ignition lead issues again

These leads and plugs are less than a year old, but wriggling some leads makes that cylinder drop in and out constantly. Car is almost un-driveable.

Tried Jonno's advice of adjusting tappets while hot, didn't make much difference to the noise though. It's only one valve but it sounds like a chaff cutter alright.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 11:15 am

Take ya timing light and tools with you - just in case you wanna do a quick roadside adjust

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 5:08 pm

Won't need to now, she's all sorted

Managed to drive the car to the local flying group (R/C flying that is

) One of the guys there has rebuilt plenty of motors in his time and knows just about everything about everything, I spend a lot of time once a week talking to him about motors and engineering etc. I let him hear the engine, and he was adamant the tapping was not a bent pushrod as I suspected. There was also the ignition problem, got lots of useful advice from him as always...

Anyway, got it home (just) and decided on what I needed: All new leads and plugs (again), dizzy cap, points, condenser and fuel filter (old one was black with crud the Morey's cleaned out of the fuel tank) I wasn't going to mess around trying to find the broken link, just replace the lot.
Got those things today (just under $80 all up, not bad!

) and replaced everything.
You wouldn't believe what all new ignition parts can do to a car, still tapping but not a misfire in sight, and plenty of fuel supply.
Then for the hell of it I pulled the 1&3 side rocker cover off to check the tappets. I must have spent all my time looking at #3 valves, completely missed the #1 exhaust being TWICE the clearance is should be

Tightened that up and whadda ya know, no more tapping!

From that side anyway, there is still a miniscule tap from the other side but that can wait.

Finally, for the first time since easter weekend, I have my own car to drive around in

:mrgreen: She runs sweet as a nut, carby not running rich or anything, good throttle response and power...couldn't ask for much more really

Video to come...

Post by **TOONGA** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 8:47 pm

well done glad you sorted it out

if you sort the clearances on that remaining noise you may find it runs even smoother

TOONGA

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 9:13 am

SWEET! and those EA81 tappet adjusts can be like that. I assume everyone treats their cars engine rebuilds to new cap, rotor, leads, plugs etc but now aware some don't due to re$triction$ , always seems to be a good idea though eh? Nothing seems to beat genuine plug leads for longevity

Easter? That far back ? and 18 pages !

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:19 pm

I guess I should update, since it's a big one;

Drove it to work for the first time yesterday. Didn't miss a beat, a bit tappet noisy but nothing too bad. Was looking forward all day to the drive home, decided to go the long way to give it a longer drive (up a longer but shallower hill)
It was amazing, never had it drive as well as it did for those 20 minutes. Got to the top of the hill, turned off south road to get home. I had the window wide open so I couldnt really hear the engine. But I could hear something, and it wasn't right...

:(
Closed the window to get a better listen...uh-oh...that is NOT good
Pulled over, clutch felt really weird on down-change, engine not sounding right at all by this point.
Popped bonnet; nothing leaking, nothing amiss on the outside but the sound made me cringe.
Shut it off, pulled out he mobile to call dad who was home: LOW BATTERY!

Managed to get a few seconds of call out to tell where I was.
Car came home on the back of a tow truck yesterday evening

Today I did a compression test: all ok, some nice news but I knew it was deeper than that. Engine turned over by hand smoothly, no clunks or anything. Started it up again...

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK RATTLE RATTLE

:(

You can probably guess by now; something has let go deep inside. Could be big ends or mains...I don't know. Engine still idles fine but the knocking/rattling is very depressing.
I hate to say it but I give up on this engine. I've already contacted Subareck, Paul has an engine for exchange, and I'm going to take it.

Guess it was too good to be true, and the car is stuck in the car port again

ashleyn · Post by **ashleyn** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:57 pm

Been through a similar exercise, heart breaking. Still an amazing story all recorded so look on the bright side I suppose.

The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

EA81 Overhaul thread

I feel for you