stephenw22

My turbo wagon had a pretty clogged cat before I had it (COUGH!)removed(COUGH!). The main symptom was that I had no power above 3500 RPM. I couldn't even get it to rev much past 4000 RPM if I tried. After I had the cat removed, I was absolutely amazed over the performance improvement. All of a sudden my engine was ALIVE! I still remember how much I smiled the first time I floored it in 1st gear and took it to the redline.

I'd say 2-3 years, based on the couple of re-seals I've done. Note: These were done in an outdoor parking spot and a dirt driveway, over several days, and without anything but basic tools. If they were done in a controlled environment, using the right tools (parts washer, torque wrench, etc.) you could probably last 4-5 years between re-seals. Even then, the first thing to go seems to be the cam case o-ring. As long as you check the oil level religiously, you could make it through several additional leaky years until the cam seals start to go. All an oil leak does to me is convert my gravel driveway into a paved driveway.

I did one in -30C weather last year, it only took a few hours. Just remember how it comes apart (take a picture or make a drawing if you need to). That way, no leftover bolts.

I'm going to be doing this tomorrow on my '92. Are there any tips or tricks that I should know before I tear into this job?

If you have the key number, a dealership can make you copies. When I bought my '92, it only came with a single, worn-out key that didn't work too well. The dealership cut me a new one that works fantastic. Just took the number off the old key and made a new one from somewhere in the back of their shop. Of course, this won't help if all your keys are all copies without the key number on them, and the owner didn't write the key number anywhere.

This sounds exactly like what I was seeing. I will take a bottle of water and pour some into a plug well. Then I can see where it drains out of. THANKS USMB! You're awesome!

I think that the intake gasket is blown, but I want to make sure that there isn't anything else. When the engine is running, I can see coolant coming from the intake gasket on the pass side, and I also see that the gasket is pushed out a bit. Definitely an intake gasket. The problem is that I can also see coolant coming out of a weep hole on the side of the head. Is this consistent with an intake gasket problem, or is that another problem happening as well? I've never had an intake gasket fail before, so I don't know what it should look like. Thanks!

I'd rather be driving my '88 DL (which is 2wd for now) than the gmc 3/4 ton that I use as a water truck. It just feels way more stable that the truck. Of course, I can't put 300 gallons of water in the back of a subaru (without snapping the subaru in half), so I'm stuck with the truck sometimes. It also has several more inches of ground clearance for the muddy season.

I have lights on my red one, but they are bolted to the hood.

Try to jack the car up at the jacking points. My '86 had such a rusty frame that when I'd try to jack the car up, it would bend (or even punch through) the frame. That car is sitting behind my shed now, and I'll occasionally start it up and do a few laps around the yard in it. I've changed all the tires on it, and replaced them with temporary spares. No traction at all, but fun.

So far, I've driven: 3-sp auto pushbutton 4x4 5-sp d/r 4x4 5-sp pushbutton 4x4 I like the dual-range for the simple fact that it's a mechanical system. I can be 100% sure that I'm in 4wd, rather than trusting a light. That said, I only use 4wd when I'm driving on completely icy or snow-covered roads. If I'm working my way through mud or drifts, I'll start in 2wd. If I get stuck, I know that I can switch to 4wd and get out. I didn't mind the 3-sp auto. It's nice in winter for smooth power delivery on ice or snow. That car was also a turbo, so it seemed about as fast as the 5-sp SPFI I drive now. I've found, at least for the conditions I encounter here, that my tire choice makes a bigger difference than 2wd or 4wd. I'd pick a 2wd with the right tires over a 4wd with a poor tire choice. I have a Chevy 4x4 with big mud tires on it, and it sucks in winter. I hate driving it anywhere because I slide all over the place. I feel way more confident in my 'roo with skinnier winter tires.

I've never heard of anyone zip-tying the belt to the sprocket. You could try it, I guess. I doubt it would work because of the way the belts are set up, though. <soapbox> This is another reason why I don't have timing belt covers on my car </soapbox>

At the dealership I used to go to, the parts guy said to just use permatex 'Ultra Grey'. It seems to work pretty well, as long as the surfaces are clean and relatively oil-free when you apply it. He knew his EA engines very well. Owned a few, and repaired them himself.

When I had my car towed home the last time it broke, it was -40C and a blizzard. My dad was towing the car with his truck, and I was in the subaru, with 1 hand on the steering wheel and 1 with an ice scraper. I had to constantly scrape the window because it kept frosting up. I don't know which I hate more though, fixing a car in freezing weather, or fixing it in the spring when I'm up to my knees in mud.

My first car leaked pretty bad, and looked like how you describe. It was a combination of leaky valve covers and cam case o-rings. The VC gasket was totally shot, and the VC bolt grommets were also breaking up. To find the leak, you have a couple of options. The easiest would be to check your engine bay (from above and below) while the engine is idling. Washing the engine before you do this would make identifying the location easier. Another option is to take it to a shop and let them do a UV leak test. They put a dye packet in your oil, and then run the car on a lift while the look at it from underneath, using a UV light. It should only cost $40-50 for this type of test, and if the mechanic knows subarus, they'd be able to pinpoint the source very well. If it were up to me, I'd try to find the leak myself. With a leak as big as yours, it should be easy to find.

Changed the oil in a truck a couple of weeks ago when it was -35C (-45C with windchill). Even with the truck warmed up a bit, it took a while, because the truck had 10W30 in it. I started doing some work on my '92, but I chickened out and waited for warmer weather.

For each camshaft holder, there is a seal and an o-ring. Also, don't forget about the crank seal. I have this as a 3-4 year ritual on my cars. This is what I do: cam seals / o-rings cam case o-rings oil pump o-rings / seal front crankshaft seal timing belts water pump o-ring oil pump (if necessary) water pump (if necessary) valve cover gaskets / grommets (if necessary) other hoses, etc. (if necessary) The cam seals and cam case o-rings seem to start leaking after 2-3 years, but I just wait until it's time to change timing belts before I do everything. Even then, the leaks have never been too bad.

The covers/no covers issue is one that comes up every now and again. If you are into doing all of your own maintenance, just leave them off and keep an old set of belts in the car as a spare. If you're going to have a shop do it, just leave the covers on. From my experience, yhey charge you by the hours it says in their book, whether or not the covers are there. I've been running on gravel roads for about 1 year now using my '88 that has no covers. Before that, it spent about 1 year doing city/highway driving. I've never had problems with broken belts, and I've been through tons of nasty mud. I was actually a little worried because this last summer was one of our wettest in history, and the roads became horrible, but nothing broke. I didn't even wash the car until the fall. The first time I do any t-belt or re-sealing work on one of my cars, the covers are the first thing to go.

My '92 Loyale died a few weeks ago in some bitterly cold weather. It had all the symptoms of a timing belt failure, but when I checked, both belts were still there. I looked at the spark timing next, and it was all over the place! I couldn't figure it out. Anyways, to make a long story short, I took the belt covers off, and found the problem. When the previous owner had the timing belts changed, whoever did the work only used 1 bolt on the drivers' side tensioner instead of 2. The second bolt wasn't there at all. The tensioner was loose, and the drivers' side belt had zero tension. I pulled a bolt off a parts car I have, put it in, and now it's working fine. Grr! At least it gave me an excuse to take the timing belt covers off.

Regapping the platinum plugs kept them running a lot longer than if I hadn't done it. At the recommendation of my parts guy, I went one range cooler with the platimums, and the electrode wear wasn't too quick. I just didn't notice any improvement in performance over 'standard' plugs. As for "cheap", I was talking about the price compared to platinum or irridium plugs, at least for how much I pay for them. I use ngks on my cars.

Are there any good filters with synthetic media? When I worked for Detroit Diesel back in tha' day, they made them for their Series 60 engines, and they were WAY better than conventional (paper media) filters. It trapped particles down to 1 micron instead of the usual 10 microns. They did some studies and it showed that there was a significant drop in wear (at least on a new engine) vs. using a conventional filter. As far as which brands are best, it seems like you just get what you pay for. The low-cost filters are cheap for a reason. Most are made by only a few manufacturers anyways, and just re-branded.

I had Bosch Platinums (just regular platinums, not the fancy ones) in my turbo wagon for a while. Didn't really notice any performance difference between them and ngk's, delco's or any other cheap brand. The only thing was that I had to re-gap the platinum plugs sooner, as the electrode seemed to disappear a little faster than a standard plug.

I was looking for a water pump o-ring for my '86, and the parts guy (it's a Subaru/Suzuki dealership) asked for my vin. Then he told me it would take 2 weeks to get it in. This is the same dealership that quoted me $750 to replace the windshield. (and asked for the vin again). I had it done somewhere else for $200 cash.

How quickly would the pedal get mushy? It happened to me over the course of about 2 weeks, and seems to be getting worse all of the time. I was originally thinking that it was from the extreme cold we were having (it was about -40 for 2 weeks), but a recent warm spell didn't fix anything.

Anyone?