DaveT

When I got my 87 wagon, mice had made nests in the hvac system. I took out the dash and everything and cleaned it with bleach, etc. There can be some nasty stuff in there that you don't want to breath in and get sick.

+1 what lmdew wrote. Miles over 100k isn't what kills subarus, rust is. Bad overheats only kill engines.

If it's original battery, it is overdue by about 2 years. Typical LA batteries have 5 year lifespan under ideal conditions. Normal use in a car is not ideal conditions. Or, it could just be dirty / corroded connections, or open circuit in the battery, or other main power feed.

I'm not a carb expert. Sounds like it running rich, from your description and emissions results. If the vacuum lines are not right, you have little chance of passing. If you don't have a fsm, find one, or an online copy. That should help with the emmisions system connections, and more.

If it helps, think of it this way. Cost of oem parts over 100k miles. A lot less expensive than bent valves.

If it's an interference engine, I take no chances, go oem for all timing parts. I'm pretty sure that 08 would be interference.

That is pretty weird. It's hard to come up with a way the threads would be insulared enough to cause arcs there.... and the washers should be slightly crushed between the head and the plug, and that should be bare metal to metal, which would be good contact.

Yes, that could be. Just something to check to be sure it's coming back.

SPFI don't have asv. None of several I have owned. In CT, there is emissions. Even the CA car I have doesn't have the ASV.

I don't know. But I did take a carbed engine, swap the spfi manifold onto it, and ran it for many years without trouble. Made plates to cover the asv ports.

That low after only a few hours isn't good. Overnight is usually long enough for batteries to settle to their resting voltage after a charge (any time the engine is run) any loads will also disrupt the accuracy of this check, except for things like the clock and radio keep alive currents. I always install the largest battery that will fit into the area.

A fsm should describe which clutches are engaged and not when in idle, etc. Typically, they are released when at 0 pressure, from what I have seen.

I've been nabbing parts for years, when deals drop in my lap. Stuff is going to continue to get harder to find for these old models. If you intend to keep running a carbed stock car, I'd get them. I only do spfi, sold /traded my only ea82 cab with it's intake a while back .

Sounds plausible. I've flat towed 4WD 3ATs at low speed [40 and under] short distances [ under 20 miles] without any noticeable damage.

I haven't paid anyone to work on a car in decades, but yeah, 800 for that sounds high, to say the least.

Solder. Maybe a short piece of bare similar stranding to tie the ends together without shortening it. Shrink tubing. With electronic rtv to seal it if it is exposed to the elements.

Hmm, sitting ouside, maybe old gas with condensation isn't helping.

Gas pedal to floor while cranking is clear flood mode. The coolant temperature sensor / engine temperature sensor could fail intermittently and cause weird hard starting. Usually causes other problems, like high Idle when hot though. Like mentioned in the previous post, if fuel is leaking from the injector, that would cause a flooded condition. 5 months sitting is plenty long enough to destroy a battery. And sitting also accelerates corrosion, due to moisture condensing on everything, and staying around since no engine heat periodically to dry it.

I'm looking for a few part numbers for the axle boots, inner and outer. These are oem axles, 23 spline. They made the outer cups bigger for turbo automatics and 4wd. At least for the 1986GLs. I'm looking for the bigger ones.

You don't just swap the carb engine in place of spfi. You can swap the intake manifolds and everything above from the spfi onto the heads and block from the carbed one. May hAve to deal with egr differences.

12.3v on the battery, at rest (sitting overnight) is low. That indicates about 1/2 of a full charge on a good battery. Full charge resting voltage should be 12.6v. This probably has nothing to do with the no start, but it's something to look into before it gets worse.

Subaru engines are not built for low rpm high tourque. High rpm is no problem.

Adding air conditioning? In addition to the compressor, you need an evaporator, condenser, filter dryer, expansion valve, some electric and electronic parts. You may have to remove the dashboard to get at the ducting to install the evaporator. Might need the piece of duct where it mounts also. Best way would be to get an entire similar model that has air conditioning as you may need harness and controls also. And a factory service manual.

+1 Sapper

I'm not specifically familiar with that model. What could slip in a manual?