daeron

THAT is what I hypothesized was a barometer, but altimeter might make as much sense... and I was being sarcastic about "trusting" the factory gauges, I don't think any of us do. :-p

Besides, the AC evaporator is on the front of the radiator crossmember, so you really only gain minimal additional access. I will add that having the intake, etc all removed makes for an EXCELLENT opportunity to deep-clean the engine and engine bay.. 20+ years of oil leaks MAY be part of "what makes a subaru, a subaru;" but I had to get rid of it all

http://www.ch601.org/engines.htm scroll down, links to parts of the service manual

its up to one of us to submit it to the USRM. I just submitted Bucky92's photo of the fuse panel cover.

WOW skip!! I officially nominate your vehicle for GL-20 status!! Whatsamatta, don't you trust your stock gauges?? What exactly IS all that?? I see two clocks, (is one the stock one?) what looks like a radar screen, a barometer?!, a CB radio.. but I cant ID the thing next to the cell phone holder, OR whatever it is on the extreme right side of your dash console there....

Yes, ratcheting box wrench. I *think* that the cheap set is still on sale at harbor freight tools until the end of the month, something like $15 for four of them. They arent the GREATEST tools quality-wise, but my brothers was still in perfect working order after doing my HG job.

wow. I looked, and looked... and kept asking, "why did he bother buying that, well.. strike that, pugs and a spare engine or driveline is more than worth auction price.. I can understand buying it.. but WHY is he talking about fixing it?!" Then I read the accompanying text of your post, and only THEN did I see the "raised roof." DUH!!! Touring Wagon!!! Good score, how much did she cost you?

you sure its not just a wiring problem? the wires, or the terminals, go bad far more often than the sensors themselves. Rust is the main culprit of "bad," that is why I ask.

Speechless.... that sucks. uhm, dont assume headgasket is bad until you confirm with a compression check? I mean, we both know the answer already, but I am trying to help... at least you've got the BRAT to drive through the sea of brown stuff raining on your head.

I had a bad headgasket that was causing no problems beside a constant bubbling into the coolant overflow (with a new cap and radiator,) a *slight* tendency to overheat when provoked, and a slight dip in compression in one cylinder. I took my engine apart in one easy day, spent two or three days getting things cleaned and fretting over the fact that I ordered the wrong O rings, and one easy day re assembling it. It fired up on the first shot, which is something I frequently have issues with. (read: "It," whatever it may be, rarely fires up on the first shot, with my luck.) I had never done major engine work before; but I have been around that kind of stuff my whole life. The big secret: ratcheting bow wrenches for the valve cover bolts, and you can do it with engine in car, and you need to replace the cam case o rings with OEM branded parts from http://www.thepartsbin.com or 1stsubaruparts.com. The second website is a dealership; you should use OEM intake manifold gaskets as well, and most recommend dealer or Fel-Pro Perma-Torque head gaskets (I vote fel pro, especially at 17 bucks apiece from autozone) All that is IF you need to do your headgaskets. I would not consider "radiator evidence" proof positive of a blown headgasket without at least a compression check to verify at least one cylinder having a compression issue.

Now THAT was just too far would it be overly inappropriate to say.... threadjack?

I just keep seeing this thread and thinking it would be wise to clarify that "octane rating" is a rating of nothing other than anti-detonation qualities. I recently read it in an automotive textbook in the best, simplest language that I have ever encountered; higher octane fuels have more antidetonant agents. (meaning an additive to prevent "pinging," just like the chevron cars say.) "Octane" has no literal translation to power potential within the fuel; although it DOES allow a more aggresive tune to the engine; this could be evidenced in the fact that your car runs fine "tuned" as it is (current spark voltage/timing/etc) on high test and not low; it could be evidenced by finding a more aggressive setting for initial timing by switching to high octane in a vehicle that may otherwise be fine at stock settings with low test. BUT it does not inherently have any greater power potential as a fuel.

there is only one way to find out. Let it sit for a few minutes, THEN check it. Get out, pay for your gas, pump, finish pumping, then check your oil just before re starting. It is a boxer engine, after all, and not an inline.. it takes some time for it all to drip back down.

Well, I *wanted* to make a jackson browne reference.... (he wrote the best song EVER about ahh.. insert another eliptical reference here.. its on the Running on Empty album) but I figured that taking a page out of the Diary of Laurie L. would be a *tad* more recognizable. Green Day is a band that crosses every frickin border out there. They took a genre that had been utterly dead for 20 years (punk rock) and actually made it sound good again; better than it ever had.

ACTUALLY glass is a LIQUID. I didn't believe it myself, but the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and my engineer landlord, corrected me on that. a VERY slow-moving liquid, but a liquid nevertheless. I still agree with you that it should be a perfectly worthy accumulator canister.. I just had to share that because, well.. its kinda mind boggling.

I got to go to MY senior prom with a girl who was (at the time) a VERY good friend of mine, and for whom I was TOTALLY retarded (excellent word choice there, subyrally ) We went with a whole gaggle of our mutual friends, rented a limo, the whole bit.. by the time we all made it to our trio of hotel rooms, she was already trying to call her OTHER boy on the cell fone... I have no regrets; you should see who SHE wound up with. then again, I *am* getting tired of the "longview" if anyone catches my drift

awesome. IF the problem should recur (it did for me, after replacing my starter) then the relay fix should be sufficient. IF the problem recurs, then it is a poor contact causing intermittently bad voltage thru to the solenoid activating wire.. BUT the relay needs FAR less amperage to operate than the solenoid does. Seriously, though... bringing the starter home for you is enough to compensate for the mullet? :-p (of course, I've got a ponytail, too, so I cant really point my finger TOO loudly. A ponytail and a mullet arent the same thing though..)

I will say that this is a good idea to try.. but I only say that to give me an excuse to go WAYY off topic. I used to work around the corner from a place (either a distributor or manufacturer, I am not sure) called "Florida Bearings," and every time I pass it I think to myself (while pointing eastwards) "Florida Bearings?? The ocean is THAT way, so north is THAT way!!" Just a small taste of my outlandish sense of humour.

Your distributor rotor screw IS intact, right??? check to make sure you have nice, blue spark.. my first clue that I needed plugs was noticing (just before I ripped my arm away from the engine bay from the pain of X,000 volts; dont touch any other part of the car when checking your spark out of the plug) that the spark coming out of the spark plug was YELLOW and not BLUE. Pull codes, and if you haven't already investigate the coolant temp sensor and its connection as Gloyale mentioned. For SOME reason you are (obviously) getting too much fuel, or not enough spark to ignite that fuel. You need to rule out the things that are easy to rule out (CTS forcing the ECU to give too much fuel) and then check the things that are easy to check (dizzy rotor, cap, quality of spark, etc) do you have the FSM? http://www.ch601.org/engines.htm

Bump, for a more definite answer on the starter differences.... I've talked to connie via PM about this, and she says that sometimes when she hits the key she gets a click, sometimes just a weak turning of the starter motor (as if the battery were dead) and sometimes it starts fine. *I* suspect either fouled contacts in the solenoid (not getting good clean juice into the starter motor) bad brushes in the starter motor, or possibly high resistance built up in the keyswitch circuit (in which case my patented relay install would be right up her alley) Connie, I failed to mention the possibility of fouled up brushes in the PM.. i dont know how that escaped me. These brushes are the "contacts" hatchsub mentioned, and they are what makes a connection between the rotor ("big round thing") and the battery. Remember, an electric motor works by powering two electro magnets... the one (stator) is wrapped around the other (rotor/armature.) The brushes provide the contact to the rotor as it turns; they are spring loaded bits that push against a specific spot on the rotor, which is where hatchsub suggested filing. I took a totally non functioning starter apart, cleaned it, replaced NOTHING and put it back together in under two hours. That is how I learned how all these things work, and as Fuji is my witness, I will NEVER pay for a "rebuilt" starter again.

heh, been gone for a few days so this is getting a LITTLE bit old.. but I will bump it anyhow. Replace your Battery cables. The stamped copper terminals are CRAP after 20+ years.. My original positive battery cable is now being used as an auxiliary grounding strap, but my original negative cable was totally shot..AND the positive terminal was shot as well. Replaced both and I haven't had an electrical issue since. It never hurts to add additional grounding.. the one little 10 gage wire going from the negative terminal to the chassis REALLY is inadequate; ideally you should have a good cable going between: -battery terminal and chassis, -chassis and engine, -battery terminal and engine (duh, original negative battery cable location) -chassis and intake manifold. (JUST to make sure that all those FI components get AMPLE grounding. this one is the most optional.) As long as one of those is "battery cable" sized (4 gage or so) the other can be smaller, more like 8-12 gage... but the bigger the better. Also, you might want to look into replacing the alternator charging wire; this is the large wire with the eyehole terminal that connects to the charging stud on the back of your alt... and then goes into the fusible link block. If all that fails, go to the junkyard and pick up a 90 amp alternator out of an XT6 (if you are lucky) or a late 80s Nissan Maxima. You WILL need to find a way to get a V-belt pulley installed that will line up with your other pulleys, and with my maxima alternator I found that I could not slip the belt on without undoing the top pivot bolt of the alt... once the belt was slipped on, it was easy to thread the bolts and then tension up the belt; but with both bolts installed I couldn't slip the loose belt over the pulley. An auto electrical shop should be able to help you in finding and installing the right pulley/spacer combination to get you in business.

if the cotter pin is there, then the nut cannot be backing out. That leaves only one possibility.. regardless of how "tight" you tighten it, it is NOT at the proper position on the threads.. in other words, something is not seated properly inside the hub, and driving it around a little bit somehow seats it further in.. and you wind up with a looser nut than you had in the first place. Have you completely taken it back apart? I would suspect that one or both bearings weren't properly seated.. but I am just hitting your problem with logic here, I've never had my front hubs apart. I wish I could help more specifically, but hopefully my point will help shake something loose in your head, and help YOU figure it out :-p

where are you at with a short at this point? AND can someone else chime in with an answer to this: is ALL power to the car fed through the fusible link block? For the purposes of the FIRST part of this post I am going to assume that the answer is yes... the way to detect a short is, first, check resistance between positive battery terminal and ground. If you get anything more than infinite resistance, pull FIRST the fusible links, one at a time. at least one fusible link should eliminate your continuity, but it may take more. When you find one that eliminates your short (read: you pull a link, and your resistance between pos. cable and ground goes to infinite) then install the other ones and confirm that they are not giving you any continuity to ground. So, assuming that one of your fusible links, when removed, DOES eliminate this short, you have isolated the circuit it is in. Chances are rather high that its going to be in the circuit that feeds power into the fuse box, and from there out into the rest of the car. I cannot recall what each of the links do; but report back and you should get some help identifying which circuit it is.. PART TWO, regardless of whether all power is fed thru fusible links.. Now, either you have found that the link feeding power to the fusebox isolates your short; or I was wrong (meaning that power is fed straight from the battery cable to the fuse block inside the car, and NOT thru a fusible link first) and NONE of the fusible links isolated your short. In any case, the next step is to pull fuses, one at a time, until all your fuses are out. You stated earlier that you had pulled a fuse, and your short went away; THAT means that your short is in the circuit supplied by that fuse. From there, it is a matter of testing, starting at the fuse block, for continuity between a "hot" wire and ground. SOMEwhere there is something frayed, touching metal, and screwing you up. I call them "magic wires" and they are OH so much fun to track down, but it is just a matter of patience and time with your multimeter to find it. post back up here; I was gone for several days and I am lost on where you are at with this situation. You kinda need to step back, take a deep breath, and start from square one. You had a break from the f#$kin thing for a few days; pretend you havent done anything and proceed logically, first to the fusible links, then to the fuse panel. Remember, pulling a fuse or a link, and finding that your short is gone, means you have isolated the circuit in which your short is located. Once you do that, you can ignore ALL wiring other than the circuit connected to the fuse in question.

I imagine that with that kind of powerplant, that subaru probably holds the world's record for "lowest gas mileage in a soob" +3 points for the dog in the bed, that was priceless

You DEFINITELY need to replace those cam case O rings. Preferabbly with an OEM part, available cheaply from http://www.thepartsbin.com