EA81 Rockers

naftarsun · Post by **naftarsun** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:31 pm

Hi All,
My '83 wagon is headless. Hopefully not for too long. Had the valves done up.
I've searched and searched but can't seem to find the info to ease my worried mind. I can't make sense of Rocker identification & position.
Rockers seem to be identified by letters in the casting, either J, H or F.
and some of the holes, on top of the rockers, at the very end of the oil passageways are blocked up.
Mine came out as follows:-
Right Hand rocker shaft -
Cylinder 1 -
Inlet. id J, hole open,
Exhaust. id H, hole blocked,
Cylinder 3 -
Exhaust. id F, hole blocked,
Inlet. id F, hole open,
Left Hand rocker shaft -
Cylinder 2 -
Inlet. id H, hole blocked,
Exhaust. id H, hole open,
Cylinder 4 -
Exhaust. id J, hole blocked,
Inlet. id J, hole open,
I'm thinking....possibly....maybe it's been re-assembled wrongly in the past? Maybe all the Exhaust rockers should have blocked holes? (due to running hotter, therefore needing more oil pressure?)
Maybe all the Inlet rockers' holes should be blocked? (can't think of a reason why.)
Also....why does cylinder 1 have a J and a H, while the other cylinders have a matching pair of letters?
If held beside each other the complete rocker shafts do seem to be symmetrical, and the contact point between the rocker and valve stem seems to be evenly worn and centrally (more or less) located on the rocker.
Any light that can be shed will be gratefully appreciated.

revmax · Post by **revmax** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:43 pm

Welcome Naftarsun.
From memory the assembly is stamped with numbers also.

Photo from Gregorys.
Some washers are spring style and some are just flat

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:48 pm

thinking they were made as left hand or right hand side bends in them ????

Reassemble as you have recorded and stick on head, take a pic and come back and show us if you thnk its not correct. Hard to think it would run right if not in correct order etc....

There are differences in hydraulic tappet or solid tappet in the rocker gear and or push rods - oil gallery / delivery sizes ring a bell

naftarsun · Post by **naftarsun** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:46 pm

Yes, there are numbers cast into the other side of the rocker arm to the letters, (they are fainter though)... I will try and edit them into my original post.... But what do they mean?

Have seen a couple of diagrams re flat and spring washer position, I'm happy with that. The spring washers seem quite worn, will investigate new ones.

The assemblies are marked as LH and RH , the shafts, and bases for head are straight and flat. I can only presume spacers with LH & RH markings, are on their proper shaft.
There are solid tappets in there, the pushrods all seem to be the same.

It all looks OK, rockers contacting valves evenly, seems to be getting enough oil, maybe I should just put it back as it was and not try to understand the identification system or the positions of the oil relief holes.

Having said that, I know I won't be happy till I get to the bottom of this.

I have seen a diagram in a manual that numbered the rockers as diagonal pairs, ie same number for cyl 1 inlet & cyl 4 inlet. same number for cyl 1 exhaust and cyl 4 exhaust. same number for cyl 3 exhaust and cyl 2 exhaust.
and the same number for cyl 3 inlet and cyl 2 inlet.

After more measuring, have found that the rockers on cylinder 1 and cylinder 4 are raked at the same angle, which is not as acute as the angle on rockers for cylinder 3 and cylinder 2. So that seems to make sense at least.

Will visit Subaru tomorrow. (Not during lunchtime as I did today).

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:43 am

Visit Subaru ? You might need to find an old man in the shop for info on the EA81! Wonder how many of their mechanics know or want to know EA81 !?

naftarsun · Post by **naftarsun** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:24 pm

Yeah, they could only show me diagram in parts manual - no explanations of different numbers.