Non obvious coolant leak EA82T .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 11:58 pm

It appears I'm losing coolant but can't seem to find the culprit yet .
It doesn't seem to be the radiator or main hoses/turbo top hose/small hose from middle engine case to thermostat bowl or the thermo housing .
Can't see any coolant on the front or top of this motor at all .

I suspect the turbos lower or inlet line hose may be the one but the leak was noticed late at night so no time to remove upper heat shield till tomorrow .
V lucky it hadn't been raining or I wouldn't have seen the trail of drops after it was parked at home .

These engines seem hell bent on springing hose leaks so it's not surprising that they overheat and blow head gaskets .

Ideas ?

Cheers A .

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:43 am

It sounds like a turbo hose to me. Either of them can get a pinhole that may only leak when the water is hot. Then because of the hot turbocharger the water vaporises which hides the leak.
They are a PITA to replace as well. Considering the serious consequences of their failure, it's a good idea to replace both turbo hoses at least every couple of years.

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:38 am

Yes I had a feeling that the lower one to the head would mean either turbo moved or the banjo bolts and steel fittings removed to get at it .

Cheers A .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 3:13 pm

This is a quite fiddly job on this car , in my case the dump pipe had to be removed to to get one of the up pipe mounting nuts and the turbo itself has all but been removed except for the oil feed line .
I've tried through Tynan Subaru spares but it seems the genuine hose is only available ex Japan .
I'm also up for a banjo bolt washer as the lower inner ones gone postal god knows where .

Have domestic stuff V soon I can get out of but may drop into Repco under sufferance to see if they can supply a generic hose and a set of copper washers for the banjo bolts . Oh and some real hose clamps as well .

I sort of wish I'd just bypassed the turbo water wise or plugged the supply and return because at least it would have been temporarily drivable .

I really could kick Subaru for not specifying a turbo with the water inlet on the other side of the turbos bearing housing , at lest then a consumable part would have been accessible .

Probably working in the dark later or later in the week , trains to work north and back .

I shouldn't whinge , it could have happened far from home and or cooked the engine somewhere .

Cheers A .

phillatdarwin · Post by **phillatdarwin** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 3:47 pm

go to a hose suppler and just but some very good hose and it will last a long time as i had the same with me red hoses blowing and just replace them with some HD hose the same as thay used on trucks

Suby Wan Kenobi · Post by **Suby Wan Kenobi** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:33 pm

If you have a couple of spare turbo's. I used the top metal hose outlet from the turbo and fitted it with the tail up and then just used normal hose to loop the water hose over the compressor of the turbo. I havent had it fail but its only a 5 minute job to swap it should it fail again.

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:23 pm

Yes SWK that's not a bad idea , ideally the water inlet and plumbing needs to rise from the supply and not have any air traps so the system can thermosyphon after shut down .

One maddening thing is that the lower banjo bolt hits the engine case before it's unscrewed far enough to get the #%$@ out . This means removing the turbo mounting nuts (and the dump pipe) just to get the dryer far enough away from the engine to get the bolt out .
What the silly cork heads should have done was have the water feed pipe pass back under the turbo , supported somehow , and then revert to rubber where it could be got at .
When I was interested in early IHI turbos I noted that some other brand cars had early IHI turbos with water outlets on either side .

Anyhow my mechanic friend gave me a supply of crush washers so now all I need is a replacement hose and the will to skin knuckles again .

Might look into something better for the rebuilt engine .

Thanks all , cheers A .

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:33 pm

the hose you want is CH3226, out of the rear heater, Landcruiser HJ60 2H Diesel

EDIT 2 years later specs of CH3226 is 13mm ID, steel pipe is 12.10mm OD and was nice enough fit. Now +2years I order another to find the CH3226 ID is over 14mm ??

Get it in Gates part # 02-0658 (bar code 9 314693 469350) as it is more match wall thickness, Mackay or others have been thicker wall. About $20, genuine Subie is $76

Another candidate is Nissan Diesel Motor Co water hose21417 D9901
ID of this hose is 9mm so not best fit

Further suspects could be the welch plugs at the rear of the water log on manifold visible when viewed from gearbox side through timing aperture, the turbo also has a welch plug. A good source of copper washers would be your friendly Diesel pump tech. These EA82Ts are intent on losing water via rusting metal tubes too. Tighten all previously though tight hose clamps too

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:56 am

discopotato03 wrote:Might look into something better for the rebuilt engine

What about a braided steel (or s/s) hose with crimped banjo ends? Any decent hyd. shop could recommend the right size and temp rating and make it up.
It's something I wanted to look into but never got around to it.

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 10:00 am

Thanks heaps fellas for the feedback , this is just another L RX turbo drama to have to work around , like the silly clutch linkage debacle etc .

This time round I just need to make a reliable repair because like I've been saying for the last 20 000 kays the rebuilt engine is going in - soon ?

Brumbyrunner that's also a good idea but ultimately I want to run a smallish Garrett BB turbo and you can put money on it being designed to be fitted in such a way that consumables can be worked on reasonably easily .

Once I have a suitable hose and clamps it should go back together reasonably easily with a bit of swearing .
Will be checking the aged steel pipe which already is a bit average to the top horizontal hose because I don't want to be pulling it down again .
Not looking forward to getting the oil drain line hose lined up and don't like my chances at getting my fingers onto the spring clamp thing .

Anyhow its in the rarge till Friday when I'll have time to work on it .

Cheers and thanks , A .

Suby Wan Kenobi · Post by **Suby Wan Kenobi** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 2:08 pm

On the oil drain, put a propper hose clamp on the lower part of the rubber that way when you push down to line up the drain the hose cant slide any further down. As another note the reason i did the hose over the top of the turbo was because you couldnt undo the banjo fitting with the turbo bolted in place. Make it easy to swap as if its gunna fail it will do it where there is no one and you have a limited supply of tools

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:35 pm

Just on that oil drain hose , I gather it's possible to push the hose further down and not have the turbo side push into it ?
I haven't got that far yet (tomorrow - maybe) but I would have thought that they would have had a step on the lower or engine side so it couldn't do that .

Think I'll have to remove the oil inlet banjo and remove the turbo completly .
I also suspect that the gaskets will be a bit how ya goin so will have to temporarily re seal them with some kind of catalyst safe silicon sealant . Actually may have usable gaskets from that Vortex I pilaged at Pick and Payless .

I don't think I have any spare banjo pipes at home though I do have someones elses VF10 and VF8 here soooo ...

A .

Suby Wan Kenobi · Post by **Suby Wan Kenobi** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 4:34 pm

If you still have the original drain rubber hose on then it shouldnt be an issue but if you have had to replace it with new line then they do sometimes want to slide down when you fit the turbo. You can fit a longer piece of tube there but unless its clamped well they will leak.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 11:21 pm

the drain hose is 100mm long, oil resistant hose 16mm or 5/8" ID. About 38$ metre

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:39 am

Yes I was wondering about the dimensions of the drain hose , thanks for that .

Cheers A .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:17 pm

SWK I'm going to have a good look at trying to re route that lower hose so it can be got at .
My engine has a Spider inlet manifold on it so I may have places for the plain 12mm/0.5" hose to go .
If it can be laid out horizontally then plumbed into the lower hard line it should still work (thermosyphon) because the water rises inside the turbos center housing .

Fingers crossed it was the hose to start with , cheers A .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:01 pm

Car is about 75% back together now . I'm 99% sure that the problem was not the lower turbo hose but the steel hard lines . The turbo end had the makings of a pin hole on its inside bend radius and the lower pipe was rotted away about 1/3 of the way around or about where the clamp goes over the lower end of the hose .

My fix was to pinch the lower banjo and hard line off a JDM Legacy GT's VF10 - which is also a RHB52 series turbo so in the family .
The lower turbo steel line is longer than the EA82T's one and actually pokes out on the outer side of the turbo - where you can see and get at it .
I had to progressively shorten a piece of new 1/2" hose I bought to make it fit and not bend flat . This hose was simply pushed a couple of inches down the lower steel line , past the holes , and clamped up .

I had to leave off the up pipes flange brace , lower hard line hits part of it , and because this is a temporary fix , my down pipe is pretty rigid anyway and uses all the factory gearbox anchor points .
I also renewed the top water line because it's easy to fit as the turbo goes back in .

Just have to refit the dump pipe and prime the cooling system .

Fingers crossed no leaks , cheers A .

phillatdarwin · Post by **phillatdarwin** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:29 pm

i are in the process of doing it now on my 82t and i are useding hitemp red hose fuel line as it will do the job i think so as it is all i can find.
Or if u can find some of that blue silicone hose that is the best and it is around $20 meter and it is good for about 350c as my supplier tell me.

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:11 pm

i think i used power steering hose as my turbo drain

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 11:09 pm

The VF10's lower pipe fits up well and provided you fit the hose clamp the right way around you can even get in there to tighten it up from above .
I got in there with a set of Snap On 1/4 drive sockets and extensions - 7mm .

Got everything back together and fires it up to find it clattering away and running fairly rough , no water leaks .
I let it warm up and the knocking sticky lifter noise didn't go away like it has lately .
I ran it round the block and noticed a twittering noise coming from the turbo as it came on boost . I went home and tightened the turbo to up and down pipes fasteners to see if that did anything for it . Suprisingly the knocking noise is less but still there a little .

About the only thing I may have done wrong was to use Loctite orange sensor safe silicon on the up and dpwn pipe gaskets and it may have partially cured before I tightened everything up .
For the record what kinds of noises do these engines make if the up and or down pipe joints don't seal properly ?
Actually also need to double check the breather lines that connect up to the spiders crossover and AFM to turbo inlet pipes , I wouldn't think they'd fit the wrong way round but need to make sure .

Cheers A .