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Mate. I keep thinking of it, never got around to it. I've always been in the minority category

Watch the"what have you done to your Subaru lately " for developments

steptoe wrote:I was wondering if you wanted the loner for the spare

Yeah mate I was just having a dig! I'm scheming a set of sunnies for Dirka at the next tyre change... maybe, dunno yet.

I don't want to advertise this car being a really good unit for those bastard joy riders to ruin!

steptoe wrote:Actually, got me stuffed why none of us have started a cut down of the hold down screw so to turn the buggers upside down and store all our breakdown tools and bits in the bigger bowl !

This engine bay is already pretty tidy - no AC!! You'd be surprised how much room that gear takes up and how untidy that wiring makes the engine bay look in general!

And as for the tyre trick, I'm pretty sure you can't close the bonnet if you invert it due to the rise in the retaining bolt mounting bracket. I'm sure I've tried it and found that it didn't work!

Oh, and in other news, after asking Sis how her first drive went I got a thank you text. I know, I know, it was a text but I'll take that

Stoked.

Cheers

Bennie

El_Freddo wrote:It's Dirka...

Ok, so after the rest of the family bagged out Dirka it's now SHELDON - similar to Sheldon from B1g B4ng The0ry - he's neat and smart but not all there socially. There's no AC on this touring wagon which is very different to how I've known touring wagons previously - I thought it was a factory option!

Cheers

Bennie

Sheldon had his first major hiccup. My sister rang me on the 24th worried about some white smoke coming from under the bonnet after she drove him for a small distance.

What I found was coolant leaking from the LH (passenger's) side head off one of the exhaust bolts. Very strange. So he got trailered home.

After the Anzac dawn service on Mt Macedon it was home for breakfast with some family, an early nanna nap then we got stuck into checking out Sheldon.

After removing the exhaust this is what we found:



To inspect it further and to also fix the issue we removed the engine and then stripped it down to the block in about 3 hours from the initial start of the whole inspection etc. This is what I sent to my sister on bookface:



^ I told her we'd give her the manual and she could put it back together Yeah, that hasn't happened!

This is what the issue was: (That little white ring with the brown dot in the centre)



Probably a poor casting which created a thin wall that retained the coolant jacket from the outside world. This is how we fixed it - $30 and half a day later (local engineering joint shoved it in between jobs):



We ordered a head kit from our local to get a couple of seals we needed and I'm going with non genuine inlet gaskets due to time more than anything. I figure it's easy enough to do if we need to replace the gaskets.

Dad and Bros got to this point on Sunday after Dad and I spend a couple of hours late in the arvo on Saturday to get it to the long block stage with cams belts fitted:



Ironically, the kit we got (massive discount too) almost made us fall over at the cost - more than twice what I paid for this L series! Anyway, the ironic bit is that this kit that's got "everything in it" including a turbo up pipe exhaust gasket doesn't have the MPFI inlet manifold gasket, just the carbie's units. So they should be here tomorrow and Sheldon back on the road Tuesday night. That's the plan anyway.

I'll drop this in here too - Ruby Scoo and Sheldon:



Looking forward to having him sorted - this should also clear up some oil leaks too Always a bonus!

Cheers

Bennie

El_Freddo wrote:
I'll drop this in here too - Ruby Scoo and Sheldon:




Cheers

Bennie

Love the height difference:)

guyph_01 wrote:Love the height difference:)

Me too. It's the gearbox difference that I like the most! And the EJ difference, the seat difference... I think I'll stop there!

Cheers

Bennie

El_Freddo wrote:Me too. It's the gearbox difference that I like the most! And the EJ difference, the seat difference... I think I'll stop there!

Cheers

Bennie

Mate, you should of just bought a Forester to begin with It's got the comfy seats, the EJ (gutless as hell though), and the gearbox (whihc like all Subie gearboxes needs modifying )

not knocking your repair method Bennie, but was there enough meat to drill and tap to say M6 and shove a bolt in hole ?

And you thought you had done your last EA82 cam box seal groove clean when you went EJ

taza wrote:Mate, you should of just bought a Forester to begin with It's got the comfy seats, the EJ (gutless as hell though), and the gearbox (whihc like all Subie gearboxes needs modifying )

Can you get a forester for $99?? Or the likes of Ruby Scoo 7 years ago at $500?? I think not. Plus they're not an L series - I love the shape and character they've got.

And if I got a forester I don't think I would have done or learnt as much about subarus as I have through my L series. I can't just get a car and leave it stock unless there's some value to it

steptoe wrote:not knocking your repair method Bennie, but was there enough meat to drill and tap to say M6 and shove a bolt in hole ?

It was on an awkward angle and that didn't guarantee a complete seal. So welding it was, quick, simple and cheap - it should last as well!

steptoe wrote:And you thought you had done your last EA82 cam box seal groove clean when you went EJ

Yeah I know!!

We got him going last night. We used the old intake manifold seals as the new ones hadn't arrived and time was against us. He started alright and ran fine. We had two issues to deal with: the first was a damaged auto cooling hose to the radiator which was leaking all over the place on warm up. Not having any hose available and sort on time we cut it behind the engine, slotted in a piece of "bundy pipe" (that's what dad called it anyway) and two clamps to give us the required amount up front to sort the issue. Worked a treat.

The next issue was about 5 minutes down the road while dropping off a car we borrowed. All the warning lights came on at once. I knew this was the alternator so pulled over thinking it was a quick fix. Turned out the crank pulley had come loose and lost the bolt. Went home, got another and tightened the crap out of it.

Sheldon went back to benders this morning, must have got there without an issue as I've not heard from Sis or Dad

Cheers

Bennie

Well, now it's time to pull the engine again... and change the bearings! Looks like the lack of oil by the previous owner has finally caught up with us. It's not real bad yet but we don't want it to go any further.

So over then next two weeks we hope to pull the engine out and apart, swap the bearings on the mains and big ends then "slap" it all back together again for it to run on for many years to come, hopefully without anyone running into it!

Pics to come as the work's done. Plan so far is to have the engine out and at some stage of "apart" by the end of saturday.

Cheers

Bennie

Well, the engine is out, ready for strip down:



I found this to be interesting:



^ Looks like there's already been a coolant leak in the HG - something I've never seen before with a head gasket, especially since they're so new.

Dad's now thinking of measuring up the bore to see how much it's worn. If it's still within spec we reckon a honing job and a set of new rings will also go into it - we're that far into it we might was well go the whole hog.

The other thing I want to work out is why the driver's side cam belt is chewing itself out on the crank pulley. I've replaced both the cam gear and the crank gear as well as the belt, which isn't all there anymore:



The only thing left to replace in this system is the tensioner. I'm going to dig up one in the shed from another EA82 that didn't show signs of chewing out the cam belt.

Looks like I'll be cleaning up those bloody cam box seals again!

Cheers

Bennie

Rmember I found best way to clean up the cam box seals was to leave flat face down in a .....anyone looking ...???? a flat baking tray with a bath of degreaser SCA $2.19 spray can stuff and just let it do its stuff over night.

steptoe wrote:Rmember I found best way to clean up the cam box seals was to leave flat face down in a .....anyone looking ...???? a flat baking tray with a bath of degreaser SCA $2.19 spray can stuff and just let it do its stuff over night.

Or if the Mrs isn't home, throw them in the dishwasher. Dishwashing powder is actually really good for cleaning engine grease off parts, and hands.

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Gannon wrote:Or if the Mrs isn't home, throw them in the dishwasher. Dishwashing powder is actually really good for cleaning engine grease off parts, and hands.

I've tried to convince dad that this is a good way to go... but for some reason he didn't buy it

So we've pulled the engine down and found this, here's the crank main bearings:



Main bearing journals:



Piston rings - possible oil burning yet no blue smoke out the back. It was using oil slowly:



And the surprising find:



^ This is the front main bearing.

All main bearing faces are only *just* out of spec. Now we're trying to work out what to do as we've got another EA pulled down to hopefully use the crank out of that, but it's pretty much the same from memory.

Not 100% sure what we're going to do as of yet. This is a budget build with minimal funds - so where we can re-use serviceable parts we will. Things such as re-bore or honing will be done properly as required, this is one thing you can't skip on IMO.

For now enjoy the pics, I'll let you know what we do

Cheers

Bennie

I've seen motors with similar wear, checked the wear on your valve guides?

Haven't done that Tambox.

We were going to use a set of oversized pistons from another engine I had that got me on the road with Ruby Scoo years ago. These were to be matched to the particular cylinder it was going to go in. But that didn't happen. This is the reason why - after removing the rings on one piston it was useless:



These are certainly no good. Now we're looking into using my old MPFI, replace a couple of threads and hopefully it'll all be good. We'll see.

Cheers

Bennie

El_Freddo wrote:Now we're looking into using my old MPFI, replace a couple of threads and hopefully it'll all be good. We'll see.

Well, replaced two threads and a third one has pulled out. So this is a no go...

Dad almost got an EJ conversion on the for this L series - but I don't have the time to do all the prep work of the wiring etc.

Now we're on to engine idea number 4 I think. We'll be converting an EA82 carbie block to the MPFI with the use of the MPFI heads and intake. The only thing that will be different is there won't be a crank housing ventilation pipe behind the intake mainfold - I figure we'll plug the one on the intake ducting - the two from the heads *should* be sufficient to do the job.

Fun fun!

Cheers

Bennie

Bit of a thread dig, but I wonder what happened to this ?

Cheers, Bantum ...

Bantum wrote:Bit of a thread dig, but I wonder what happened to this ?

We went with the carbie block with the MPFI heads on it. Going very well.

There was a nasty sound from the gearbox some time ago - turned out there was little to no gear oil in the front diff (it's an auto). It was topped up and still going, although it apparently makes a bit more noise than it used to - the dodgy stez looks after that.

I'm thinking this might need some AC though. I've only seen two touring wagons without AC - this one and recently one of the rare gun metal grey touring wagons. I was under the impression that touring wagons came with AC...

So this wagon, Sheldon, is still going. Tomorrow he's off to Yarrawonga for a week with my brother...

Cheers

Bennie