EA81 valve stem seal replacement, heads on?

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 8:42 am

try plain old water for an experiment in exhaust smells then?

RatCamper · Post by **RatCamper** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 10:31 am

steptoe wrote:try plain old water for an experiment in exhaust smells then?

That's a pretty good point. Unfortunately I wasn't paying due attention when I switched from water to coolant so I can't say whether the problem started then. I was using water for the early pre-fitting and test fit stages of teh cooling system because I can dump as much of that on the ground as I like. Just helps the grass grow.
there will be more butcher work happening shortly which requires draining the system so I might as well temporarily revert to water then. if the smell changes I can ...I can ...get miserable probably and start swearing at it.

RatCamper · Post by **RatCamper** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 7:34 am

This may sound silly, but what if its dipstick were wrong for some reason and it was overfilled with oil?

I pulled a plug a few days ago to double check I didn't have timing 180 out when I was messing with distributors. For lack of a better term whenever I changed the direction of travel of the piston it sounded wet in there.

Something I wasn't paying much attention to at the time made me wonder. A month or two back the smoke started to abate a bit. I checked the oil. According to the dipstick it was above minimum but not by a lot. I added some oil and I think it was smoking more again. Also when the engine is warm it leaks from the top of the sump at the back of the motor with a steady drip. It leaks far worse when I have it on ramps with back of the engine on the low side. With a normal oil fill how high up in there does the oil sit?

I know it sounds like I'm clutching at straws, but this engine does have an unknown service life and parts substitutions wouldn't surprise me.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Jul 27, 2011 11:32 pm

RatCamper wrote:This may sound silly, but what if its dipstick were wrong for some reason and it was overfilled with oil?

Could be... how long does it usually smoke for when you rev it?

The way to check this would be to drop the oil, change the filter then ONLY put in as much oil as the service manual says. Then check the dip stick - if it's low the dipstick is probably the wrong one! But I don't see any other subaru dipstick that is really interchangeable...

Cheers

Bennie

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 9:14 am

Oh yeah , mix ea81 and 82 dipsticks up - they are not so interchangeable going by their markings. They'll fit and cause level differences

RatCamper · Post by **RatCamper** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 8:45 pm

steptoe wrote:Oh yeah , mix ea81 and 82 dipsticks up - they are not so interchangeable going by their markings. They'll fit and cause level differences

Any way to tell?

RatCamper · Post by **RatCamper** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:06 pm

Now that you mention it...

When I got the engine it had its juices drained for shipping. I gave it a new filter and oil. I vaguely recall thinking the level was too low for the amount put in it and attributed it to human error.
I'm afraid this motor is a bit mysterious. What really gets me is the oil filler. Every Subaru I have seen the filler cap is on the right side of the motor. Mine is on the left. I didn't think that was really possible.

tony · Post by **tony** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 1:18 pm

wouldn't worry about the filler my gregorys shows it on the passenger left side.
my 2 ea82s have it on the drivers right side.
if you can smell the coolant from the tail pipe you have an internal gasket failure. if it is leaking on to the exhaust system you would smell it more from under the bonnet.
try holding a piece of cloth folded several times over the exhaust pipe with engine running obviously for a few minutes, if it ends up wet there is your problem. if not it doesn't mean you don't have an internal leak but makes it less likely. oh it gets hot so wear gloves.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Aug 06, 2011 1:28 pm

We are talking with a rear mounted engine so left and right can be confused. EA81 fillers are near starter motor Ea82 are diagonally opposite.

Rat, if you measure your dipstick, whoa, keep it clean, we can compare ....

RatCamper · Post by **RatCamper** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 11:43 am

It's been a bit busy. Sorry. I measured the dipstick proper. Ie the long piece of metal from tip to tip. Not the plug / handle section it is riveted to. The total length is roughly 33.6cm

When I measured it I noticed the oil was slightly over full. Not like way up the dipstick but a few mm. Unless these are the most sensitive motors in existence that shouldn't make a difference sitting on flat ground should it?

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 3:34 pm

If anyone is out measuring , i think best is to measure from the bottom of stick to first hole or indicator for low, up to next one for full, then up to the underside of the plug where it is level with top of dipstick filler tube.

Think there are at least two different typs of dipstick for EA81's as in their top, not sure if the rest is different

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Aug 12, 2011 3:38 pm

Yellow handle with oil can depiction on its top out of a 92 EA81 Brumby is 412mm from bottom end to top level with top of filler tube. L hole is 3mm from the bottom, F hole is 30mm from the bottom

RatCamper · Post by **RatCamper** » Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:55 am

haven't had a chance to re-measure. Been very busy. Interesting thing has always happened. If it has been sitting for a while, like a week + when I try to crank it for the first revolution of the motor one of the cylinders bogs really hard. I had a Ford which did the same thing. In the case of the Ford it could have been a leaky injector. For the subie no idea. I really doubt it would be fuel. If it were it'd be like some kind of anti-miracle. It would have to get past a non-pumping facet pump and the needle valve and not evaporate or seep through the rings into the oil because there is no real fuel smell.
So that leaves coolant, oil, or misdiagnosis. If it were oil, how did it get up there? if it were coolant why isn't there any mayo in the oil?
I suppose there is one final possibility. Some kind of spark related issue.

Don't think I said, but when this happened this time I had to shift it to move some branches which I cut down. 'tis the season for brutal plant butchery.