Doug's EA81 Rebuild stuff.

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:02 pm

Hi Everyone,

Got me a second engine from Paul at RSR Performance (MASSIVE THANKS!!!), will be rebuilding it over the next few months. I plan on buying parts for the engine monthly. There are a few reasons for this, mainly so I dont rush but also this method doesnt put a dent in my bank account, only some small ones over time, and the beauty of this is my wagon isnt going to have any down time until I swap the motors over

.

First things first though. Got a new coil today for the wagon. Figured if Im going to do a fresh motor, I want some fresh spark to go with it. This MSD Blaster 2 seems like it will fill the position nicely, and it says High Performance! That must be good!

.

So here's the motor, threw it into the back of the wagon to move it around the back.

Gave it a bit of a clean with the pressure cleaner. Just got most of the loose crud and oil off as to keep it out of the motor. The motor will be getting sand blasted and repainted before re-assembly anyway. I want it to look sexy!

So I cleaned down the bench, threw the engine up on it and got the tools out ready to strip it down.

I dont usually use any special or fancy tools. Just these sets. I do believe you could dissasemble this motor with two shifters if you had to, but thats butchery

.

OK, the plan. I have a few days off next week. If I can strip the motor down during the week after work, Il head down on the weekend, whack the heads on the mill and deck them to give me a little more kick, Will also recut the valves, most likely to a 3 angle job. Depending on the condition of the valves I may use them or get new ones. Given that they are going to need turning down in the lathe anyway the old ones should be fine. Turning them down will also help restore the rocker geometry from decking the heads.

Still pretty unsure on the condition of the block, will know more this week as I pull it apart.

More to come.

Regards

Doug

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:12 pm

Have a look see at the heads, are they the same as running at the moment ? It is about the webbing/bracing look above the plugs. I suppose black rockers says later EA81 and the bigger valves , should be OK. Shall we ring Guiness Book for the time it takes to get the gudgeon pins out ??

Post by **TOONGA** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:17 pm

That looks very much like my old brumby motor and from memory one of the cylinders was down to 90-100 psi when it was taken out of my car.

Have fun and I will be watching this with interest

TOONGA

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:32 pm

Arh, so I can blame all its wear on you ay

. It looks pretty tidy to be honest. Will deffinately be taking pics of its guts as they come out. New pistons and rings will be on the list and most likely a rebore if needed. How many miles are on it then?

Regards

Doug

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Mon Feb 25, 2013 10:40 pm

steptoe wrote:Have a look see at the heads, are they the same as running at the moment ? It is about the webbing/bracing look above the plugs. I suppose black rockers says later EA81 and the bigger valves , should be OK. Shall we ring Guiness Book for the time it takes to get the gudgeon pins out ??

Paul informes me that its a late model Brumby, so yes it should have the bigger valves and hydro lifters. Il most likely split the halves with the pistons still on the con rods. Then I can just tap the gudgeon pins out with a normal hammer after I dis-assemble the big end.

Regards

Doug

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 1:10 am

No probs Doug, hope you have fun with it and glad to see you started a 'bulid thread'

Jules, I don't believe this to be PJ's old engine, as I'm 99% PJ's engine still has the manifold and carby on it.

Oh and Doug, it is a late model EA81 but as for Hydraulic Lifters, I can't be sure of until pulled down. I used to use a dynabolt to remove the gudgeon pins

555Ron · Post by **555Ron** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:30 am

Subydoug wrote:Il most likely split the halves with the pistons still on the con rods. Then I can just tap the gudgeon pins out with a normal hammer after I dis-assemble the big end.

Regards

Doug

I've tried that on a junk motor. You won't get a spanner on the big end nuts. You will need an angle grinder for it to work and you'll ruin every connecting rod, and shower the engine in metal shavings. Plus it won't split very far with 4 pistons on it. I.e. don't do it, get the gudgeon pins and pistons out before you split.

Pretty confident after stripping 3 late model engines that no Australian ea81 has hydraulic lifters. You would need to import a block from America.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 6:59 am

My hydraulic EA81 was suposedly a low km import from Japan in late 90's.

Splitting halvsey then get pistons out ? Pistons have to come out the top end ... but, seeing is believing, and Paul has more

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:53 am

Arh ok. Didnt know that. I though all 81's after 1984 had hydro lifters. Dynabolt is a clever Idea. So you guys are saying that, A) the pistons dont fit out the bottom of the block, and B) its impossible to dissasemble the big end without destroying it? Seems pretty unlikely that the bore doesnt go all the way through the cylinder.

555RON is the piston skirt in the way? Im pretty confident I could remove the pistons with the crankshaft still assembled.

I have no problem having to pull the G pins out through the block....just seemed unnecessary as Im pulling the case apart....thought the holes were mainly for if you only wanted to rebuild top end without splitting the block.

Regards

Doug

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:10 pm

My best friend who got me into Subarus, rebuilt his engine by pulling it apart via the crank case, by undoing the big end conrod nuts with a spanner, but he said it was painfull. I said, why didn't you pull out the gudgeon pins and he said he didn't know they cam out the side

So it can be done but I wouldn't recommend you do it this way.

The skirt of the piston will hit the bottom of the bore and stop the piston from coming out the bottom and also make is hard to split the block.

As these big end conrod nuts need to be done back up with a tension wrench, then you'll need to assemble the conrods on the crank before putting them back in the block.

I would recommend you have a read of the gregorys manual about the splitting of the block.

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:28 pm

Arh, ok, but anyone can do it the easy way

. What size dynabolt works best?

I got a torque wrench. Theres no way in hell im assembling the rods while the case halves are around, that will be done before hand. I do have a engine manual somewhere on my pc for reference.

heads off tonight.

Regards

Doug

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:47 pm

Can't remember now what size that dynabolt was, but 10mm comes to mind. Once you remove the gudgeon pin plugs, just use a range of drill bits in there to work out the correct size.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 3:45 pm

and i often needed a bit more than a candle flame against the 14mm hex plugs before they'd come undone

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 5:16 pm

Ok, well I got some here at work Il grab one. Worst case senario is I use a slide hammer

. Well I should have them out tomorrow then. Maybe tonight if your lucky

.

Not to worry steptoe, I do have a blue torch, though might need some gas after them bloody cv cups.....Il stick it in the oven if I have to

.

Off topic, just did a service on the shop compressor, poor bloody thing rarely gets any attention and is used near on every day. both laser cutter and csm84 need air.

This is what the oil that came out of it looked like,

Not only is it about an 1/8th of whats meant to come out, but its severely broken down and is thick as syrip. The compressor got so hot everything plastic on it has melted and fallen off. So a word of warning, DONT DO THIS TO YOUR CAR!

Regards

Doug

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 10:39 pm

So, got home thisarvo and started pulling some heads off. Had a bit of a wavery start,

Silicone?? Does this look like a gutter? I HATE silicone on engines!

Anyhow...after I got over that, cracked the heads loose and pulled them off. 1-3 put up a bit of a fight where the water jacket goes into a stud. Resistance was futile though.

Other then having lots of baked on carbon on everything, the heads look in pretty good shape. These heads are better then the ones in my current ea81.

A tip for anyone doing a head gasket or other motor work which requires removing the pushrods, before just yanking them out, rattle them around. This Un-sucks the pushrod from the lifter, so when you pull the pushrod out, thats all you pull out

. Saves pulling the sump cover off and putting them back in if you dont plan on splitting the cases.

Had a good inspect of the bores, hard to tell too much without a micrometer, but there's deffinately ring marks there and a distinct rise where the stroke ends. May need a rebore, may not. Il need to measure it to be sure.

Just a pic of the block, looks good.

I then spent a bit of time pulling these exhaust spacers off. I dont need them as im not running the stock airbox, and my current exhaust is designed to bolt straight to the block. Took my time and all bolts came out eventually, in one piece and leaving the thread behind. Always a bonus.

If anyone wants them, you can have them.

Thats about all I could be bothered doing tonight. Il clean up the heads tomorrow with some sandblasting and start pulling the block apart.

Talked to the boss earlier. Will probably get someone else to do the valve seats instead of doing in myself. As I figure it, Its probably most of a day making up the tooling, then another good part of a day cutting and grinding them.....or I can give them to someone who has the tooling and they can do it for a reasonable price

. Will be calling around tomorrow chasing quotes.

Will still probably deck the heads myself.......Might just play this one as it goes for now.

Regards

Doug

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 2:26 am

Looking good Doug. I'd look at getting the block and heads put in an acid bath, that will bring them up nicely and even clean enough to lightly sandblast, for that pro finish

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:53 am

and a tip before splitting block - if any inkling you are gonna rebore , those healthy looking head studs need to come out for most machine shops boring bar as far as I know. Hell of a lot easier trying to wrench them out of two halves still stuck together with sump on. Should be easier more if block was still bolted to a car

M11 thread too on them !

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 8:57 am

RSR 555 wrote:Looking good Doug. I'd look at getting the block and heads put in an acid bath, that will bring them up nicely and even clean enough to lightly sandblast, for that pro finish

Will look into the acid bath. Could probably just use caustic soda like I do to prepare ali for anodising (Now thats a cool idea, anodised block!)

Steptoe, thats a good Idea. I plan on removing the studs anyway to clean up the mating surface

.

Regards

Doug

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:05 am

Anyone bored these out to suit bigger subie pistons? ej22 or ej25? Just a question. I realise those motors have a longer stroke.

Regards

Doug

555Ron · Post by **555Ron** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 5:57 pm

Subydoug wrote:Anyone bored these out to suit bigger subie pistons? ej22 or ej25? Just a question. I realise those motors have a longer stroke.

Regards

Doug

they are a different breed of engine, the gudgeon pins are a different size so to the best of my knowledge it hasn't been done. Gregory's states max oversize bore is 0.5mm but I stripped one that had done a lot of work with 1mm oversize bores.

You can run ea71 pistons for a higher compression. Ram performance engines make pistons and other goodies for the ea81. Some say the ea82 spfi will give higher compression but my engine builder looked into it and disagreed but I can't quite work it out. Perhaps the aftermarket piston manufacturers do not include a different design for spfi vs carb where as Subaru did. Not sure, just a theory.

I'm guessing someone has piped in and suggested a weber upgrade by now? Worth looking into if you want some more power from your engine. If you search ea81 rebuild you will find my thread which has a link to Idasho's thread over at USB with lots of good pictures of his ea81 rebuild.