legacycentral bbs

Hi Guys

I just bought a 91 legacy 2,2 turbo aut bought it not running, changed all ignintion related and the main relay and got it up running again . It has a ticking sound and im not sure if its valve ticking or rod knock. I dont really know so much about this engine because we never got it in Denmark were i live so i have to ask

Do the ej22t have hydraulic lifters or solid like the ej22 na?

If solid what is the tolerance?

Also how big difference is there in the heads from the turbo to the NA?

I have a set of na heads and thought that i would do some head work on them and have them ready for when i take the engine out and swap the head gaskets if they fitted.

Thanks in advance

It has hydraulic lifters, just like the early 90s ej22 na.

The heads are not majorly different from hydraulic lifter early NA. Biggest difference is the turbo specific cams, and they have different valve sizes, and there is a plate on the back of passenger head (that exists on the NA head as well) where the head is tapped for the turbo coolant, oil feed and oil return). The early NA heads are not tapped for oil and coolant feed lines.

If you have solid lifter ej22e heads, you cannot put these turbo cams in. Even if they fit, the harder metal of the old cams would beat the newer valvetrain into smithereens! ha ha.

The 22t heads are super durable. It is unlikely they have any terminal damage from spinning bearings or overheating.

The ej22 series was subaru's most reliable engine. Unfortunately many people did not understand the maintenance required with the 22t, and did not change oil regularly, did not use premium fuel, let it overheat, etc. With regular, normal vehicle maintenance, the ej22t is a very solid engine.

The ticking probably isn't rod knock. The lifters are pretty noisy. You can bleed them but that doesn't work very well in my experience. I thought that the ticking lifters were rod knock when I rebuilt my 22T and I wasn't familiar with it. I replaced some of the HLAs and the ticking subsided. It always ticks upon startup though until the HLAs pressurize.

I took a video of the initial startup when I thought that it was rod knock. Your engine probably sounds similar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VckpQAC ... ature=plcp

I posted the procedure for bleeding the HLAs here (scroll down to post 10): http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.p ... 91227.html

And I posted the FSM pages for bleeding the HLA here: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.p ... ?p=4057679

Thanks for the answers its a great help

Monkeyposeur, that is excactly how mine sounds
I have to try to bleed them and then change the lifters that wont shut up
Thanks guys

https://youtu.be/pDuX6aZBYIY
This is how mine sounds at the momen so i am going to try to bleed and clean the lifters

That does sound just like deflated hydraulic lifters. They always seem to lose their pressure if you don't drive the car for a long time.

Last time I rebuilt an ej22t, I was able to successfully bleed 13/16. The last 3 didn't stay pumped up, so I grabbed some from an early NA ej22.

Mine hasnt run for 6 years so that makes sense that they would be deflated:)