Subaru UEC 1 , Ellie 0

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 6:10 pm

Think Coxys been reading our suggestions

Still no luck

Did you take note of the leakage %'s ?

Just as well you have safety first - self preservation and dignity. I forgot about power steering , maybe you would have a bit of both PS and vacuum with car rolling , in gear.

nncoolg · Post by **nncoolg** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 8:17 pm

You've tried oil down the plug holes to boost the compression, yeah?
I reckon a degreasing gun full of oil should atomise the oil enough to get it up the top of the bores, crank it around abit, should boost it up a bit. May melt that carbon from the valve seats too if you let it soak...

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:44 pm

This might sound silly, but do all the spark plugs still spark as they should?

I only ask as yesterday at AshR's his brumby didn't fire up and it was due to 3 dodgy spark plugs. One was still firing as it should, the other three were creating little puffs of smoke and seemed to be arching somewhere in the electrode below the ceramic lining. It was strange!

I really hope it's a simple issue that you're over looking, it's probably worth going back to the basics just to be sure that those bases are covered

Cheers

Bennie

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 12:42 am

Coxy did mention the numbers but it was the trends ie one bank better than the other that he finds significant .
He wasn't at all interested in where it was losing the sealing ie inlet or exhaust ports , I reluctantly have to agree because without spinning the thing faster or ripping thye heads off its not like we can do anything about it . Between the small electric compressor cutting in and out it was difficult to hear which way the air was going though it didn't make any difference removing the oil filler cap , basically means not leaking past rings and into the crank case . Also I did wander down to the end of the exhaust and zip could be felt or heard there .
One interesting thing was that when cranking the engine the vane (flap if you like) AFM gets a clanking up and removing its plastic cover shows the wiper fluctuating back and forth about a 1/4 of its travel . Coxy reckons its because there is not a constant draw from all four cylinders , ie two sort of half ok and two doing SFA . It makes me think the inlets may be the issue there .

Anyhow this debacle started on the 15th of last month and plan X is to obtain a car trailer and transport to somewhere with a suitable hill - one where I can roll it to 70 + and attempt to clutch start it in 4th gear .
Fingerscrossed 2500 - 3000 revs will give it enough compression pressure to fire it up and the go woud be to give it a constant 3-4000 until it starts to run properly . Coxy figures only combustion heat/pressure/gas speed has any hope of crushing and spitting out the crud - without mechanical surgery .

Plugs , yes its had 3 3/4 sets of brand new plugs in it since the 15th of last month and the small hex BCPR6ES are the current ones .

A .

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 9:46 am

Bung up the tailpipe next attempt, build up the pressure in the exhaust may help sealing issues ? Don't go to the extent of shoving a mushy orange up too far - seen that blow a muffler - pop its seams

nncoolg · Post by **nncoolg** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 4:45 pm

Dont EFI cars need to see a key turned to start to start? injector voltages, fuel pump control and ignition staging...
Might give the starter some curry at 70 in forth

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 5:14 pm

Nah you can roll start an EFI car with the ignition turned to on. Start enrichment is only really needed because the slower cranking speed.

At 4000rpm, if its gonna start, it will

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:34 pm

Update .

Open heart surgery has begun with the pulley and covers off plus all the painstaking to make custom air plumbing .
The spider inlet manifold is off and thankfully after fighting with a few things it came away in one piece . The most difficult thing was the bypass hose we used between the TBs water supply and return points . It was stuck under the spiders plastic breather pipe and the way out was to remove the modified spider throttle cables bracket from the bellhousing .

I can't see heaps of carbon on the backs of the inlet valves and the stems look pretty clean . When I get time I'll stick the pulley and bolt back in so I can turn it over by hand and see if I can find any crud on the seats and valve faces . Still won't know what the story is on the exhaust side .

More later , cheers A .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 12:41 am

Finally after a month got back into this and yesterday found time to mark everything out and remove the belts cam pulleys and rear covers . Later today I hope to have the nearside header nuts off and may get close to removing the cam box and maybe the head itself . The nearside cylinders had SFA compression and this is the easiest head to remove on turbo engines .
Once thats off its out to the workshop to remove its valves and nail whatever stole my compression pressure .

A .

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 5:47 am

If you are going that far, why not just whip the whole engine out and put it on a engine stand to work on. It might save you time in the long run

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:29 am

Not really , no benches stand or lifter here and pita lining up spigot bearing by myself .

A .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:14 pm

Nearside heads off and will pull the springs and valves tomorrow , fingers crossed we'll find some gunk in there .
I'm also going to clean the lifters out and if I have any spares I'll clean them Mitsubishi style in diesel fuel . They get you to bleed theirs with diesel too but theirs stand up being an inline four or vee six .
I might think about bleeding these with light machine oil so they can find their sweet spot quickly .

Will consult the hurt shop manual , A .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 12:01 pm

Gutted head yesterday and cleaned everything up , reasonably clean on the exhaust side except the valves but black as on the exhaust side . Actually had to tap the rear exhaust valve out because it had crud making it stiff in its guide .
I was thinking hmm , valves guides lifters angle uphill in relation to the chambers and Subarus with their evacupan breather system . SUIC running down the stems chewing carbon on its way then drawing into guides ...

I also spent time soaking/cleaning/purging the lifters which were basically extended all the way out and rock solid . I clamped them up in a vice with soft jaws and pump the old oil and diesel cleaner until I could compress them reasonably easily , this works better if the oil hole is facing downwards and you can get them to spit all the crud out . WSM reckons bleed them and leave them standing up .

I found both inlet valves had worn through their hard chroming and dug out some spares which look better .
The head has been de gasketed with razor blades and smoothed with an oil stone . Will get final clean and blow out later today .
I quite like engine component work these days as it harks back to my fitting trade I did back in the early 1980s .
A big thanks to Coxy and the people he works for who let me use their facilities and tools from time to time , mad bunch to be with !

Quick question in case anyone knows , part numbers for genuine EA82T headgaskets and the lower water pipe seal . Mine is an XT4 engine but I imagine all genuine head gaskets are the same nowdays ?

Thanks , cheers A .

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:04 pm

11044AA013 is EA82, EA82T head gasket part number, add one to get 11044AA014 I think is EJ.

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Fri Aug 03, 2012 10:46 pm

I found a bit more time a couple of days ago and the turbo side head is almost ready to come off .
The rear exhaust header nut/stud is proving very hard to get at and my long 14mm flat spanner I can't find . Grrrrrrrr .
That aside another difficult one is the turbos oil supply line at the head because this stainless header is difficult to work around . Once those are out I can remove the head bolts and get it off for a degunge and inspection .
Then its headgaskets and screw it all back together again .

A .

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 10:40 am

Wow both heads off!

Found anything that explains what the issue with the compression is?

I'm now worried that if it's not in the valves or the head gasket it could be a ring issue, although I don't know how some UEC would damage rings so quickly on such a fresh engine...

I recently stripped down an engine that I was running in Ruby Scoo years ago, it had been rebuilt before I got it and ran pretty good. Turns out that 3 pistons had cracking in the piston head between the rings, one had been badly damaged for some time as there were wear marks of these little pieces where they should have been joint to the piston.
On one piston there were two little marks where the valves had just touched the face of the piston, these were aftermarket units and not the originals...

I'm hoping for you Adrian that it's just a case of regrinding the valves/cleaning everything up and slapping it all back together!

Cheers

Bennie

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:57 am

The offside head is almost ready to come off but besides lack of time I can't find the only spanner I know of that can get the rear header nut/stud out .
We think the valve stems were sticking in the guides because partially disolved carbon is sticky grainy stuff .
I will turn this engine over once both heads are off and have a look at the bores .

A .

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:30 am

Nearly 3 months ellie has been off the road. Must be close to saying "bugger it" and parting her out.

Nah just kidding.

Hope you get her back together soon and back on the road.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 8:43 am

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discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:02 am

I did think of a sell off but hows steptoe going to get the bits home ?
No I want to see this thing run again and its a challenge to do whats difficult I suppose .
I got the second head off yesterday afternoon but it was a real drama getting the rear header nut/stud out . I replaced my double ended long 12/14mm flat spanner and after that found other painstaking ways to get that mongrel stud out . Fair ding I was fighting in two different ring spanners and getting 1/16 of a turn and only them because the double hexes (12 points) were slightly differently aligned when the spanners were forged . Then finally the trusty shorty Snap On ring spanner allowed 1/8 turn at a time for the 100 rotations to get the $&@* out . I suspect the easiest way would have been to jack the engine slightly and remove the offending engine mount for better access . That aside I'm going looking tomorrow at AusTools for a set of Hazet offset double ring spanners - Coxy reckons no one else makes quite the same design and they've got him out of trouble numerous times . The ring section is on the same plane as the flat section but not on the same center line . Anyway Hazet 610 N8 RS is the sets part number .
That aside I whiped the valves out and as always have everything in various sized zip lock sandwich bags to keep things clean . At a glance the hardening is damaged on the inlet valve stems but my other spare heads ones are good so no probs there .
Will try to clean everything up with the second head tomorrow and if OK go order some OE gaskets for the reassembly .

Steppy you may want to save your pennies because I don't want to reregister this car in November and you can have the first offer if interested . I'm not going to ask a lot for it because complete and running it wouldn't sell for much . Worth more in its vital organs but I don't want to strip it and have to dispose of its shell . Easier for someone to drive it away and do with it as they please .

More as the saga unfolds , cheers A .