Hydraulic lifter replacement for '93 Legacy turbo/RS

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

I'm not really english fluent with engine vocabulary so I'll try to be as understandable as possible...

I'd be glad if a Legacy RS owner could help me...

I have a (or some) noisy hydraulic lifter adjuster on my Legacy Turbo (this is a european spec but rather same as Legacy RS I think: EJ20GN engine, 200 bhp, VF12 turbo). It seems to be a frequent problem on Subaru engines with hydraulic adjusters. I've been used to it, but this time they are very, very noisy, like a flamenco castanet concert. I'm a bit worried about this as the valves do not open fully and the engine may loose power.

Me and my mechanic would like to change the tappet but we can't find any on the market place. The Legacy turbo is a very rare model in France, maybe something like 200 have been sold (Subarus have been imported in France since 1992 only). Subaru France does not have the parts, and they don't give a damn about it. They are now on their diesel business plan and don't care about old rusty noisy thirsty models (no, mine is not rusty).

I had a look at more common turbo engines, the EJ20 mounted on the '94 Impreza GT/WRX models. But the tappets are totally different. On my Leg they are on the side of the camshaft (same as 2.2L turbo north american model or 2.0L non-turbo models), and on Imprezas they are situated between the cams and the valves.

I'm wondering if the tappets from a EJ22 turbo or EJ20 non-turbo are similar. EJ20 non-turbo are SOHC whereas my EJ20GN is DOHC. The picture of the tappet looks similar to the one mounted on my Legacy but what about the size??

I'm prospecting the web to find some new tappets and the only ones I can find are for EJ20 non-turbo or EJ22 american spec turbo models, like these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CAMSHAFT-HYDRA...item4ceadd20da

Are they compatible?

I'd be really - really really - happy if someone could help me on this issue. Subaru France words are "change the heads and fit '94 Impreza WRX ones". It would cost me what I paid for the car !

Cheers

Marzan from France

[subieboy]

Sounds like worn tappets to me.

The teflon has probably worn off, only way to cure is

a) replace them

b) turn the stereo up...

[GT_Head]

The early legacy's are pretty bad for lifter noise but you could try some magic stuff called Pro-Ma MBL8 Oil Additive ... it's works wonders for cleaning/silencing noisey lifters.

http://www.fueloiltreatments.com.au/Technical/MBL8%20Oil%20additive.html

[Guest]

+1 on the MBL-8 oil additive

replacing them is a b - itch of a job, and if you havent done them before - i'd strongly suggest removing the engine to do them

Our guidline at the dealership was - if you to replace more than 4 of the 16 then pull the engine

After removing the rocker arm, there is a very fine circlip that hold the lifter and pedestal in place - real easy to loose !!

Old trick we had was to increase the oil feed into the lifter gallery, by increasing the size of the gallery restrictor plug to 1.0mm

[Guest]

Thanks for your answers. I already tried a european "magic stuff" (MBL8 didn't reach my continent yet) but the only thing it did was lightening my wallet of 30 euros.

If the tappets are hard to remove... I'll let my mechanic do it... ;D

My main problem is to find the spare parts. Leighos gave me a reference but only SOHC engines are listed, and I couldn't read anywhere that it will fit my DOHC (I had the same problem with european resellers). I think I'll have to buy one and compare its size.

Increase the oil feed? Sounds a good idea...

[Dacca]

Hi there,the tiny hydraulic lifters are expensive from Subaru but very cheap when aftermarket. They are the same lifters as the 90s Ford SOHC 12 valve 'FE' engine. I can purchase them from around $15NZ ea

[Guest]

Ok I'm afraid we don't know the Ford FE engines here in Europe. I found data about V8 FE engines on the web, but if you tell me it's a 12 valves, it can't be a V8.

I think I'll unmount one and measure it to find an equivalent.