Tap, Tap at my chamber door....

[rick_hake]

Its me again trying to learn more about my first Subaru a 93 Loyale with a 1.8 liter engine.

When I am motating down the freeway at 65 mph and about 4000 rpm all is well. As I begin to go up a hill speed bleeds off, gas petal goes down a little at a time, and about 3/4 the way up the engine starts a fast rattle tap-tap-tap like the the tappets do when a car is low on oil. My oil level is up so that can't be it. The more I push down on the pedal the louder the noise and as soon as I release the gas pedal even a little the noise diminishes.

Thanks in advance for any help understanding this one.

Rick

[GeneralDisorder]

Sound like one of two things.

 

Either you have some igntion timing issues, and what you are experienceing is pre-detonation, or "ping". Usually a problem in hot weather, etc. The SPFI engine is fairly high-compression so that's definately possible. You might try one notch better grade of gasoline. Could be carbon build-up in the cylinders, or just improper timing. Should be se to 20 degrees BTDC with the test mode connectors (green) connected to disable ECU advance.

 

Or..... Typical EA series rod knock.

 

One day you'll be doing 65 and the rod will come out and say hello. Generally it's a softball sized hole under the intake manifold accompanied by large quantities of smoke, oil, and coolant. As well as a dissapointing loss of power.... "Hello.....AAA?.... got a problem here...."

 

And no, I'm not kidding. What you described is boxer rod knock to a disturbing exactness. Only usually heard under load, and that's generally at WOT, and up hills, etc.

 

GD

[rick_hake]

Thanks GD. The first problem I had was ratty running, smoke & oil splash from under the Oil cap filler. So I backed off the oil cap until it was tight and only the ratty running continued. Then when pulling a hill I had a smoke trail that would have made Cheech & Chong envious. When I let off the gas pedal it really belched smoke. So I replaced the oil cap to its fully on sloppy tightness.

 

Then as reccommended by y'all in the forum I replaced the PVC valve, and bingo the smoking while pulling the hill quit, but splashing of oil with small puffs of smoke coming from the oil filler tube. I could smell exaust fumes in the car when I was stopped, but figured there must be a leak in the exaust system that I would need to fix.

 

So then I purchased a new oil cap, and it screwed down tight, and bingo the the oil splashing stopped. No more exaust in the car. No more tappet noise when pulling a hill. She runs like a top (a very low powered top).

 

So in summary; for a mere $15 total and the guidence from you and others I have cured the most serious issues this car had. My thanks to all of you.

Rick