daeron

okay, i am very seriously considering going and buying the brand new O2 sensor, but replacing it last time was a REAL PITA. I knew that the threads would be difficult, so I didnt even think twice about dropping the whole Y pipe/cat assembly.. but quite frankly with what limited supplies I have at the house, it was a ROYAL pain in the tuckus.... should I be able to replace the O2 sensor by just unbolting the manifold from the heads, and removing the one support screw between the cat and the first flange? I just tried to "clear memory mode" and it refused to; it says it still has an O2 sensor code. When I connected both plugs, ALL difference that the "new to me" sensor had made vanished; the engine wanted to stall at idle (i dont know if it would have, i didnt give it too much of a chance) and it was VERY rough to start. I am going to replace the used O2 sensor with one that is brand new; i have had enough of these shenanigans, and I want to KNOW that my O2 sensor is NOT causing any problems. I hate to "throw parts at it" especially as broke as I am, but at this point I HAVE to... its what the FSM says to do in my situation, and the only reason I have been hesitant to do so thus far is my lack of fundage.

I gladly sacrificed any mileage I may have lost for the added wind stability of the wider, 185-70 tires. I have never felt so much difference from such a minimal change of tire size. (This may just be an experience thing with me; that was simply the first time I had felt such a difference and noted it so.. BUT the fact remains that I had never felt such a difference.)

had to do it.. just be glad I didnt throw any laserdisc comments in there. I liked the old discmans.. very ruggedly built, even if they didnt have any skip protection memory built in... didnt they need hydraulic support arms to hold the lid up on that thing?

"flat" and "smooth" are two different terms.. you wnat a TINY degree of roughness there for the head gasket to grip on, it helps seat it better. BUT, the eye can see much finer details than the finger can feel in this case.. PERFECTLY flat and smooth would literally have a mirror finish after it was cut. It should be near mirror finish, but still have some pattern from being cut on it. clicky for my photobucket album from when I had my heads milled in doing my head gasket job. you can see the cut pattern, but rest assured that you could NOT really feel it with your fingertips, and just BARELY feel it with a fingernail.

SOME loyale bodies came with a 4EAT, BUT in i think 88 they widened the transmission tunnel of the GL/loyale body specifically to take the 4EAT.. my 87 GL-10, and I would imagine also the ea81 cars, would need significant work with a BFH or maybe even cutting torch to have space to take that other automatic trans... I want to clarify something. I said "nissan transmission" earlier simply because I know that nissan used hitachi gearboxes, as well as hitachi differentials.. and I know that subaru used hitachi differentials.. SO I figured that there stood a good chance that a nissan trans *just* might be a simpler swap than many others... it was TOTALLY conjecture on my part.

Excellent! your welcome, and thanks for the update!

My point was that there may well be OTHER shorts, outside of the starter, and you need to check current draw from the battery before you decide you have fixed the problem, thats all.... *I* am satisfied about the starter, didnt want to bust you about that anymore, but any number of other wires could have melted their insulation because of your ignition switch problem. Check for any current drain off of the battery once you get it in. I have had a car burn because I was ignorant of a second short that had occurred.. it didnt burn to the GROUND, but my Z has been sitting with a crispy fusible link block, and the wipers halfway up the windshield, TOTALLY dormant for 2 1/2 years because I was too hasty in repairing a shorted wire. I am lucky that the fire happened in my driveway, when a couple of kids were playing baseball in the street; they were kind enough to run up to my front door and holler "hey, your car's on fire!" in time for me to save it. Good to hear you've got spare ECUs, I hate to be gloom-and-doom about it but its a real chance, thats all.

I would recommend getting a quart of marvel mystery oil. Remove the feed line to the fuel pump and drain out any fuel in there, pour the MMO in, drain that out, and pour a gallon or two of good fresh fuel in there. Get to a gas station and add some lucas fuel injector cleaner, or seafoam, or something of that nature to 8 gallons of fuel or so, (or a full tank, i guess, if youre driving a good distance) and you should be fine. Changing the oil would probably be a wise thing as well; if you do that, you might want to add some MMO or seafoam to the oil before you start out, just to give yourself some added flushing. BUT some fuel precautions, and a simple oil change, are probably more than sufficient. The more you do, the greater your peace of mind; but something is ALOT more than nothing, and going to great lengths eventually does encounter a point of diminishing return.. it WAS only 10 months, after all... Play it safe and keep an eye on the cooling system; make sure the radiator is full of coolant and check to make sure the fan comes on as it should. If not, a simple jumper wire installed in place of the temp switch in the passenger side tank of the radiator will make it run whenever the key is on, providing the fan itself actually works.

The stud extractor tool I mentioned still stands a decent chance of working..and it is a worthy tool to have around. Something like this but maybe find one singly, a little cheaper perhaps.. perhaps this beauty from harbor freight.. of course, the HF one has no price on the website, half the time I find their website that has no prices. :-\ ..and I don't even think to buy PB Blaster anymore. Seafoam Deep Creep beats B'laster to hell just as bad as B'laster trumps WD-40; if not moreso.

I like the older checkerboard style front grill; you could *possibly* look into retrofitting a quad headlight style front clip on it, and use dual low/high beams on one pair and then use the other pair as driving/fog lights.. maybe even amber ones. Since you are in Alaska anyhow, the whole "light monster" look could be easily cultivated.. this would make the alternator upgrade I mentioned an even better idea. Add a slight lift and some wider tires, and you give your son a nice, high visibility, safe vehicle. Is it a 4wd? Also, I dunno what the car LOOKS like, but have you ever read about doing a roller paint job on a car? search for "foam roller" or "krylon" or, best yet, if YOU can remember the canadian name for Krylon enamel paint (the kind that comes in a can, not spraypaint) use THAT as a search term. You can get this stuff, thin it out about 50/50 with mineral spirits, and use high density foam rollers to roll it onto the car.. the trick is to use just enough mineral spirits to get the paint to "lay down" in a meniscus of sorts as you roll it on. You let it dry overnight, wetsand in the morning, and do 5-8 coats using increasingly fine grades of sandpaper. You can do one panel at a time, and in the end if you sand it and buff it out you wind up with (supposedly) a high gloss finish, that is extremely durable as well. It SOUNDS really cool, and it makes for a paint job under $100 with all materials included.. as long as there isnt major body work to be done. Really, the possibilities are endless. if you paint you could go with a two tone job, and he could ultimately plan on putting an engine with some real oomph in it if you two REALLY get into things... but THAT all depends on his interest level. The "cool factor" of these cars is subjective to say the least; and I don't think anyone here would REALLY think THAT much less of a 15 year old young man who didn't LOVE his subaru... We might not think he is all there in the head but we wouldn't say anything mean :-p

I'm dreadfully sorry; I was in an odd humor when I made that remark. The point was that, the sensor seems to rarely, if ever actually be "bad" it just has a wiring problem.

Heed every word of this, just because you found *a* short doesn't mean it was the only one...Read this post a couple of times and make sure you have crossed all this off the list, ESPECIALLY the current drain check. And quite frankly, be prepared for the ECU to be fried; it is a non-zero possibility. I wouldn't go so far as to say likelihood; but from what I hear tell bad voltage issues are one thing that *will* kill them.

I HIGHLY doubt it... your best bet would *possibly* be to try and source a RWD nissan trans, and make a custom adapter plate; sort of like the plate you would need to use if you were swapping an EJ into an EA car, but keeping the EA driveline... Anything FWD would be impossible, unless it were from another FWD car with the engine mounted like a RWD car... If you are going to fab up costom adapter plates and some sort of crossmember and driveshaft, you could probably find a way to use ANY RWD automatic trans.. but as for bolt-on or nearly so, i cant imagine that you have any options. Thats just my thoughts on the matter, though; I could CERTAINLY be wrong.. Come to think of it, you may have major input shaft and torque converter difficulties, as well; using just any old RWD auto might be more difficult that I have set forth here. If you are ruling out the Subaru EA 3AT, then you have probably ruled out an automatic transmission, period. In my book, thats the way it SHOULD be. You wanna trade transmissions? I have a 3AT in mine that runs great, just needs a governor gear

My suggestion would be, walk him through installing the engine himself. Stand there and point and say "do this" "do that" and answer questions, but let him do the work.. My mom taught me how to teach, because she used to have a dickens of a time with the "new" computers at work (this was years ago, we worked at the same vet's office) and I had an annoying tendency to butt in and do what she wanted me to help her with.. she yelled at me to just tell her how to do it, so she would learn how to do it next time. You might want to go through the trouble of doing things like matching the ports of the intake manifold to the head, and the throttle body to the manifold, etc.. again just for learning experience.. even though there is VERY LITTLE to be gained from doing all that, by all accounts.. (hearsay warning, *I* don't have experience telling me that, just reading from others) You might want to snag an alternator from a late 80s Nissan Maxima (90 amp) to install in there and teach him the nuances of retrofitting other parts onto the car; I mean, basically I am saying teach him how to build his own car out of junk. Even if he grows up to have money to pay people to do these things, it makes for a well balanced man. Not ALL American Males are Tim Taylor, after all... SOME of us actually DO know what we are doing, but we are *certainly* a dying breed. Of course, "tricking out" your 1990 loyale is an exercise in polishing a turd, but its also an exercise in taking pride in your work, and doing work you can trust implicitly. Subarus make for GREAT learning cars... but I have to agree that Junior needs to learn how to control no power before he gets lots of power. My first car: 1992 Geo Storm Hunchback... Fugly, but I loved it to death because I could drive it to its fullest capacities without getting dangerous. I went from THAT, to my '75 280Z, in one short year. I like to think I was ready

FTW!!! :headbang:

Is your discman from 1984??!?!?? about the size of a CDROM drive, yeah.. a discman, not unless the 86s were SERIOUSLY different from mine

yes i know. All of that. My point was, I am not in any reality actually seeing a lean condition, correct? I have a trip computer already; but the display is kinda fogged and the bulbs are shot. I also have a sunroof already; but the drivers side visor that came with the car would NOT stay up, so I replaced it with the visor from a normal car. The sunroof controls take the place of the standard rearview mirror mount AND the standard "clip" for the visor.. so the slicktops have longer sun visors, and it doesnt fit in my car really. I need the sun visor from a car with a sunroof to fit properly. all thats trivial, i was just realizing these things as I was typing that post.. "thinking out loud" so to speak.... Whats NOT trivial is this: does anyone know of any way to remove the pins from the plastic plugs on the ecu? I know that frequently, the metal terminals inside these plug thingies are held in by a locking tab that springs up when the pin is inserted into the plastic plug body; in doing all my relay work, i found a way to depress those locking tabs and remove the wires from the relay plug, so that I could replace them with thicker wires in appropriate spots. I would LOVE to find a way to stick an eyeglass screwdriver into the plug body on the ECU plug, and remove the pins; then it would simply be a matter of comparing pinouts from the two different year ECUs, and swapping my 87 plug to the 90 configuration. you get my drift?

No problem. I am not TRYING to make money off of you by any means; my first priority is helping you.. but tearing apart a dashboard, in the junkyard, in the summer heat down here is not something to do lightly. If it were to go easier than I am afraid it might, I wouldn't bilk you or anything.. the LAST thing I am is a salesman; I get screwed FAR more often than I screw people. My motto in life is "what can I do to avoid being a jerk?"

OOG RIP SUBYRALLY HEAD OFF!!!! On side note, Oog very disappointed that Oog no contacted about involvement in Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters. Oog need smoke now... AHH, FIRE!! okay, oog goes back into his box. Joost, its from a silly cartoon show called aqua teen hunger force; its on Adult Swim, a programming division of CArtoon Network. You can see it online, http://www.adultswim.com

I love it when people admire my strut tower brace.. depending on who it is, I do not always tell them that its WAYY to flimsy to brace anything. Sometimes its fun to let the wool stay over someones eyes

i REALLY hesitate to post, but if you could make it worth my while I could POSSIBLY get connectors from the 87 GL-10 thats out in the boneyard; BUT I havent seen that car yet, and I dont know what would make it worth my time... AND i do not know when I am going out there. incidentally, is my casual english easy enough for you to understand? that thought just occurred to me, I am not very disciplined in my language used here on the forum.. I can avoid using dont, havent, etc if it would make life easier for you

Awww, HELL i didn't even THINK about that!!!!!!! that makes that MUCH more difficult.. maybe the GL-10 turbo that they list is in fact a NON turbo, because it IS an 87...... hey wait, cool, i can yank the trip comp display out of that thing!! bingo!! AND maybe it has a sunroof, was that all GL-10s?? if so then i get a real driver side visor, too!!! (i currently have a non sunroof one, and they are longer)

Well.. TPS checks out at ECU end with my DMM, and i dont have an analog meter to test it with. MAF operation checks out ath ECU end. Sparks don't have any physical damage. I am horribly torn between ECU and O2 sensor... so I think what I will do is clear out the memory on my battery, and play a waiting game.. god help me if the loyale in the boneyard disappears.. I couldnt use an ECU from a turbo, could I? there IS a turbo that just got dropped off out there (and I havent seen one of these yet, im anxious to go look... ) anyhow, thats where I am at.

okay....... I just went to check the TPS, and the fragment of the 89 service manual i think is not right for my car..... I wind up getting resistance values that vary properly between pins 28 and 25 on the large yellow ECU plug, but the 89 FSM says that pin 28 should be for "self shutoff??" Anyone care to confirm that I am checking the right pins, and while you're at it let me know what pins should be for the MAF on my 87 SPFI.. I will check according to what I have in the 89 FSM, and I should be able to find out on my own hopefully.. but i figure may as well ask THAT now while im asking for confirmation on my TPS pinout.

Tell me those sparks dont look perfect. I mean that; without my haynes book i am worthless for reading plugs; but to my best understanding that is exactly what they should look like. I have changed out the fuel pump AND pressure regulator with JY units; and I dont have a high pressure gauge to confirm proper pressure.. but my lines all blow through easily enough, the pickup screen isnt clogged, and its a fairly fresh filter. I know this is not scientific diagnosis, but outside of driving to my brothers shop and taking time out of HIS day to confirm this, i cant think of anything else. Besides, what lean condition!?? I mean, am I wrong in saying the sparks look fine?