subsince77

I'll check into this today. Thanks. What about needing to vacuum pump the air out of the system first?

Sorry, I'm always behind on terminology, or rather materials. I need to check, but R134 is what I thought this thing used. It is a 97. If a line was "stretched" would the refrigerant just leak out again after I recharge it?

How would I check the clutch?

Took the new motor on a road trip out of the snow and down to the desert. It was great to see real live dirt. It was actually warm enough to turn on the A/C. Unfortunately the A/C did nothing. It has always worked fine, as late as last November for sure. It has never been super cold, but always sufficient. This time the compressor just didn't kick in at all. I checked the belt, it's fine, fuse is fine, unplugged and replugged the compressor, same with the four relays in the fuse box. Two things have happened since I last used it. I got a new radiator, and of course a new engine. Done properly, neither should have messed with the A/C, but I would guess that done wrong either could have damaged a line or something. I can't see any obvious problems with any wires or lines, but that doesn't mean much. Where should I start to figure out what's wrong? Should I have the refrigerant checked first, or look for an electrical problem? Can they just test the pressure in the system to see if it has freon. I've never had a problem with A/C before, so I'm in the dark here. Thanks once again in advance.

I hope I'm not hijacking here, but do all of these cars have an alarm, or are some just keyless entry? I am familiar with turning off what I always thought was just the keyless entry thing whenever I unhook and re-hook the negative battery cable. Lights flash etc, push the button and cycle the ignition. But there has never seemed to be any alarm on this car. Is that just an option on some, or another standard feature I didn't know I have? Just wondering really. Where I live 1.) I have no need of an alarm, and 2.) they are considered really rude.

Yeah, actually, where I live, there is no place to go 80 anyway. And, the car does take a nosedive in milage anywhere above 70. We do spend a fair amount of time at 65 or so, and do use the higher RPMs for climbing passes. Of course that is offset by a long downhill on the other side most of the time. I've always loved the way this car sounds.

Is 3500 RPM really any problem? It has always "felt" to me like this engine kind of likes to run at 3500. In fact for climbing hills, and we have some fairly big ones, 3750 to 4250 feels fine. I haven't had as much time on this new engine, but my old one had a spot around 4200 in third that it seemed to just smooooth out and climb with ease. All of this is just subjective feel, but I think boxers kind of like to spin. Is that wrong? I have never liked the way American cars feel when they are lugging along at 1500 or 2000 rpm all the time. Maybe its just me.

It usually takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to do plugs and wires in that car. For the left side I remove the battery, then unbolt the washer fluid tank and lay it where the battery was. That provides plenty of clearance. On the other side I pull out the whole air filter box. Sometimes I remove the bottom portion of it, sometimes just the filter and snorkel part. That gives plenty of room on that side. Gee, aren't you supposed to have to dismantle the engine compartment to change your plugs? I've gotten used to it, and I still love the car. You don't have to do this very often if you run good plugs and are not having the STINKING mis-fire problem that I have been having. I used to go years between plug work.

97 OBW 2.5L DOHC.

Yeah, if you are talking to me Nipper, that's what I'm saying. After the months of always taking the truck because the Sub was grounded by the HG issue, i somehow got it in my head that there was no tilt - like the truck. Oh yeah, it's right there where its always been. Funny the way they just go straight up and down though.

http://www.ccrengines.com/mwe/ Click the link on the CCR website and you should get an email address for MWE. There are phone numbers there too.

Wow. I need a brain transplant. Actually, I remember that now. We used to have an 85 Nissan pickup that had a tilt lever. Then, we bought our current 97 Nissan pickup that does not have one. I have missed it. The last time we were out on the road IN THE SUBARU, I was thinking, "Wonder why they didn't put a tilt lever in this thing." Never looked, or felt for it, just wondered and suffered. It was some kind of lunatic transference thing. I should go to bed now or something.

Both my owners manual and Haynes say PFR5B-11. This is a 2.5. I'll say it before someone else does, yet another side benefit of the ej25 - expensive pugs that are hard to install.

How come I don't have a tilt lever on my wheel? I'd love to move it sometimes. Or are you waxing poetic here?

That's what I thought, just running down every possibility on the mis-fire front. Thanks.

This engine is notoriously sensitive to plugs and wires. Lots and lots and lots of posts where people have had problems when not using the specified plugs and OEM wires. Actually, I'm now using NGK wires instead of Subaru. Anyway, that's what makes them "worth it," to me, along with the fact that they really do last forever. AE - love the technicals.

This came up as part of another discussion, but I thought I would post it here. In the old days, I always checked and re-gapped my plugs. They always seemed to need it. In the last several years, I have been using better quality plugs in general, and the NGK Laser Platinums for the Subaru in particular. These plugs come gapped at .044. My Haynes manual says that this plug should be gapped at .039 to .043 for this car (97 OBW 2.5). The box says not to re-gap them because you might damage the center diode. I have checked a bunch of them, and they were all indeed gapped at .044, so at least they are consistent. I have taken to just putting them in as they come out of the box. Given the design of this plug, I don't think the gap widens much, or at all, with use - am I wrong? So, should I be re-gapping these plugs? If so, to what gap? And is there any chance that running them at .044 is causing any of my misfire issues discussed elsewhere?

I had a question along these lines. The NGK Laser platinums are supposed to be gapped at .044 out of the box. It says on the box not to adjust the gap because you can damage the plug. When I first started using them, I checked quite a few, and they were always right on. So, I always just put them in right out of the box now. Is that a bad idea?

My coil pack is a diamond of the exact same model number as the original. I bought it at Napa, but I have no reason to think there should be a problem with it. Given the problems I am having, there was probably nothing wrong with my old coil pack. Too bad I tossed it. I did measure the primary and secondary resistance across this pack, and it tests out fine. About 24 hours after my last post, new plugs etc., I got a CEL. It was #4 only, and it happened upon starting the car - that's a first. I have never been able to make the car throw the code by trying to duplicate the circumstances of the last time it happens - like your decelerating thing. On the one hand, I want to find this problem and fix it, on the other hand, I don't feel that it makes the car unreliable in any way. I am about ready to throw a ECM at it, a used one, but I can't say I think that will fix it. It is possible I suppose that the valves were not set right, but I really doubt it. I think if that were true, the codes would be more consistent. As it is I can drive for a week around town, or 150 miles on the highway one time with no codes. Then it will just suddenly throw one. I still think putting electrical tape over the CEL may be the ultimate solution. Seriously, next time it happens, I'm going to read it but not clear it. Then see how long it takes to clear itself. Last time it cleared itself within just a few starts. If you find any new leads, please post them.

MWE Axles www.ccrengines.com/mwe/

97 OBW. Rear axles, stellar rebuild, great service, very reasonable price, only have about 5 or 6k on them, FANTASTIC company to deal with, will absolutely get fronts from MWE when the time comes.

OK, NGK lasers installed, 2 chassis grounds "cleaned." I couldn't get to them as well as I would like, but I scraped what I could and blasted with contact cleaner. In the process I found another main ground that runs from the neg. bat. post to the front of the engine compartment above the left headlight. Don't know how I missed that one before. On putting the air filter box back together I discovered that I may have never really had that in right before. I didn't realize that the bottom of that cover has three plastic slots that fit over three plastic tabs to lock down the bottom side of the box. Oops - never saw them before. Probably why I only got 200k out of my first engine. Anyway, it will always be done right in the future. Can't think of anything else to do on this, other than check the primary and secondary resistance on the coil pack. It's new so I haven't done that. It will probably be a week or two before another road trip to really see if I get another CEL. Here's hoping. Oh, and yes I packed the Denso plugs up for a future need.

I don't think CCR would use a bad plug, it just seems to be the consensus that this engine is very particular about both plugs and wires. If I were not having this problem, I'd run them until they died. But since I am, and I have been working from the premise that the plug and wire bases were covered, I'm going to change them.

I removed and cleaned the ECM connections - it is under the passenger floorboards. I also cleaned all the places where it bolts in because I guess those are the grounds. I ran the engine and tapped and wiggled the ECU for a while. I couldn't cause any problems that way. I see two chassis grounds toward the front of the engine compartment. I will get those in a couple of days. I found out today that this engine did not come with NGK lasers as I thought. It came with some Nippon Denso plugs. I have ordered a set of NGK's that will be in tomorrow. When I pull everything out to do the plugs, it will be easy to get at those two chassis grounds as well. A bit bummed that I didn't get NGK's with the engine, I thought that was a given, but Emily says sometimes they use Densos. Unfortunately it is now supposed to snow for 5 days, so I won't get any of that done for a while unless I find a nice dry garage to work in. Life goes on.

Thanks, always good to save some frustration. I'm going to do that part, cleaning the ECM connections, then see what happens from there. Today's 150 miles with no problems was encouraging, I'm just not convinced. The Haynes actually suggests tapping sharply on the ECM while the engine is running to see if it throws a code or makes the engine stumble - now that is my level of wrenching!