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EA81 valve noise?

Just replaced the heads on a 1984 EA81 1800 Subaru. (2 litres of water had dropped into te oil - nice). Had the heads skimmed and the workshop did a nice job. Put it all back together today (1 week later) and torqued everything down and set the valve clearances (twice!) Started it up and got lots of valve noise - more than there was before. Double checked everything (Tappets, push rods, rockers) and everything looks sweet, but lots of noise.....very sad after hours of work.

Read around the net and see quite a few people taking about the need to replace seals on Subaru oil pumps to maintain enough pressure to keep the valves lubricated.

Now, this car has done 220,000 kms and there is no leak from the oil pump - but it did sit with shitty oil+water mix in it for a week :( Remembering that this is the OHV subaru engine - does it suffer from the same oil pump problems? Should I be replacing the oil pump seals on this car.

The oil pressure light goes out once the engine starts, but is that good enough? Is it possible to have enough pressure to switch off the light, but not enough to loob the valves? Any other ideas?

Al, Australia

Reply to
Al Blake
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I doubt if you have an oil pump problem. It's the EA82 series that has the oil pump seals problem. Install a real oil pressure guage to determine if you have or have not a low oil pressure problem. I'm thinking the EA81 engine has solid lifters. If I am correct than it is doubtful low pressure is the source of your problem. Also doubt the oil/water mixture was in the engine long enough to damage the bearings. Did you for some reason remove the lifters and then reinstalled them in different holes? This can wear the lobes on the camshaft very fast. I guess it is also possible if too much was removed from the heads when you had them milled that the pushrod/rocker arm geometry is too far off. Good idea to post this problem over on

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Lots of EA81 experts over there.

Reply to
johninKY

Did you check that the rocker oil feed holes were present in the gaskets? Many years ago I didn't check this on an Olds Rocket 88, and the result was that a new set of rockers and shafts was needed.

Reply to
Limey Lurker

Is this a solid lifter engine or one of the hydraulic ones? The EA81s that came with hydraulic lifters had a label on the valve cover saying "do not adjust valves" or something to that effect. Also came with locking tabs to prevent the valve adjustment from being changed casually, whereas the solid lifter motor uses a conventional adjustment screw/locking nut arrangement. The solid lifter engine is always going to have at least some valve train noise, and the condition of the oil pump isn't gonna make a whole lot of difference; go back thru and double check to be sure everything is properly in place, and the valve clearance adjustments are to specification. The hydraulic lifter engine is definitely sensitive to oil pressure, and, additionally, if the lifters have collapsed, it may take a bit of run time to get them pumped back up again. In any event. it's probably worth the effort to service the oil pump; a simple matter of checking clearances between the impellers and housing, and replacing several "O" rings. If you don't have access to it, I can probably scan the appropriate pages from the factory manual and send 'em along.

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Reply to
S

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