McDave

Heavier weights would make more sense on the surface, but the aftermarket HEI weights actually were lighter. They also had a steeper ramp which gave a greater timing advance for a given amount of movement, yet they also had less centrifugal advance movement built in. This allowed you to set your base timing higher without getting too much total timing, and the ramp up to full advance happened quicker. Much better off-the-line performance was the result. I sure miss the days when you could tinker with stuff like that... cheaply. Now you need a laptop with tuner software, a wideband O2, and cable interface. In otherwords, not cheap!

Now now, calm down. I was the one talking about 90k on my Silverado where the interval is 100k for Platinum plugs, as are many cars. I was also the one that said I would probably put NGKs in my Loyale when I do change them. I'll even go so far as to say I will likely use NGKs in customer's Subs. But you'll never hear me dissing Autolites.

Not wanting to buy 8 AC Delco Iridium plugs for my '02 Silverado when they came due I went with NGK since I had heard good thinks about them in a Chevy truck forum. In less than 8k miles they started random misfiring at an idle. Still not wanting to spend the big bucks on Iridiums I went with Autolite Platinums. They've been in there for 90k miles now without a hickup. My ea82 happened to have Autolites in it when I bought it. I don't see any reason to change them, though I guess I should check them for wear. I'm not going to condemn NGKs based on that one experience though. In fact I'll probably give them a shot when I change them in the Loyale. Some brand plugs just work better in some engines than others. Though I will admit I haven't found an engine yet that didn't like the Autolites, and I install them in more customer's cars than any other brand. Obviously, ymmv.

You shouldn't need to adjust anything, the iac motor just isn't working. Same thing probably happened to it as what happened to the fuel pump. Died due to non use. Try tapping lightly on the electrical end of the iac while the engine is running. That may free up the brushes in the iac motor.

Yeah that Toyota mini motorhome straightened right up after we siphoned the tank and added fresh gas. It was running so bad before it would spit back in the intake under load and set a maf sensor code. I would suggest you keep a spare fuel filter in the car in case the new one gets stopped up any time soon.

There's also a nice long thread already discussing HHO/Brown Gas in this very sub-forum. Here's a link to it... http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=88082

Yep, fuel filter sounds like a good place to start.

Mufflers really like to rattle when the cat's honeycomb breaks loose and ends up inside the muffler (or in this case inside the second cat). Possible??? I've seen it on other makes. Edit: Let me refine that a bit. At that point the muffler probably doesn't rattle so much as just gets stopped up. A plugged up exhaust, wherever it may be, will cause a motor to ping under load. Heck, I'll even go so far as to say it's a contributing factor in beating the rod bearings out of a motor! Paul, is the car down on top end power too?

Any chance it's an automatic tranny so one of you can listen while the other power stalls it enough to make the noise? (short periods) Is it an exhaust leak sound, or an exhaust rattle sound? P.S. I hate doing sound diagnosis over the internet. :-p

Glad you got it figured out! Sometimes it the wires, sometimes it's the coil, and sometimes it's the bad wires that kill the coil. You didn't waste any money.

Free is good! Glad you didn't have to buy a coil too.

How about a follow-up? Was it just plugs and wires?

I sure wish I were in the mountains right now. It was 102 degrees at noon today. At least we don't have the humidity that Houston has. Have a cold Coors beer for me!

Yes, take them to a shop that has a proper spring compressor before you hurt yourself or break something nearby when it flies apart on you.

Part throttle pinging is usually caused by a non-operating egr valve. Do a search of this forum for info on how to test it.

I may be wrong about this too but I don't think you can clear codes on an OBD II car by disconnecting the battery. I believe it has to be done with a scanner, or it should clear itself after three drive cycles after the problem is fixed.

Hmmm... normally I would have to see it to believe it, but I'll take your word for it. Learn something new everyday. Rockauto.com has the OE knock sensor for the '99 2.5 Legacy Outback for $43.00, but not for the Impreza Outback 2.2 motor. Not sure which you have.

Knock sensors don't operate by resistance values, their signal is audible and is measured in hertz, Khz.

I would remove the whole unit since it's obviously gone bad. It's not that hard to do. We get them towed into the shop all the time and it takes about 30 minutes to exorcise an aftermarket alarm. Remove the panel under the steering column for better access. Find the black box tie wrapped in place with a jumble of wires coming out of it. Clip the tie wrap and pull the box down so you can get a better idea where all the wires are running. You'll see a couple wires go though the firewall for the siren and hood switch. There are wires leading to the left kick panel going into the driver's door. Some wires go to the trunk, apparently, and there will be the wires that go to the little red light. There may be a ground wire too. Most of those wires should connect to your factory harness with either scotch locks or T connectors. Where possible just unplug the wires leading to the black box. If you have to cut wires, cut alarm wires, not your factory wires. If you have to cut some, have electrical tape handy to wrap the bare ends in your harness so you don't produce a point for future shorts. Note: In some cases there may be a factory connector unplugged and two Black box connectors plugged into their ends. This is usually done at the left kick panel and the connector is for your power door locks. Simply unplug the two BB connectors and plug your original connector back together. Once you get all those small wires disconnected you will likely be left with two larger wires of the same color that were cut and larger black box wires spliced in. That is your main ignition feed wire and the reason the car won't start. Cut the black box wires off them and solder your wires back together. You may have to leave a couple inches of the BB wire on when you make your cut so you will have enough slack to work with when soldering your wires back together. Tape up all slices, or better yet use shrink wrap on the ignition wires. That's all there is to it. I've removed dozens of them and they're basically all the same and not at all hard to remove.

Glad to see he's finding parts for it. I just saw this thread for the first time and thought about the first Honda cars, the N600. They had a 600cc motor too and I wondered if they could have been the same. It might be worth looking under the hood if you ever run across one of them. Here's a link to the car... http://www.honda600source.com/

NW does make a very good point. If the ecu doesn't get a crank/cam sensor signal after cranking, the fuel pump won't continue to run. A pressure gauge sure would help.

What about Vehicle Speed Sensor input to the cruise module?

Look on the tranny dipstick.

The way I read his original post, the problem started before he changed any parts. "I have changed the plugs and the plug wires. I had a camshaft sensor code and replaced that as well. I took the plugs back out and saw black soot on a couple of them so I was told that means that I am running rich."

Even cheap aftermarket parts should work for a little while. Since you're getting a couple sooty plugs I would suspect the coil.