EA81 valve noise?

[Al Blake]

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

 

[johninKY]

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 www.usmb.net. Lots of EA81 experts over there.

 

[Limey Lurker]

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.

 

[S]

Hi Al!

Just replaced the heads on a 1984 EA81 1800 Subaru.

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