shadetreemech

Check your fuel pressure regulator. Pull the vacuum line off the regulator--it should be dry. If there is gas in the vacuum line, the regulator diaphragm has failed. This happened to my son's 92 Legacy, and it behaved much like yours. rough starting, black smoke at startup, and poor mileage. The regulator controls the fuel rail pressure by returning excess fuel back to the tank. Engine vacuum helps control this. If the diaphragm in the regulator leaks, engine vacuum sucks raw gas into the intake manifold, messing things up. A new regulator is about $100.

If your 2.2 is hard starting, rough idle, black smoke at start (too rich), you should check the fuel pressure regulator vacuum line. It should be dry, if there is gas in it, the regulator has internal leak and can give these symptoms.

A '94 should have an OBD 1 computer control system. OBD 2, which standardized codes among manufacturers, started in '96. This means that your onboard diagnostics can be read by Subaru compatible code readers. You don't have to go to Subaru. Stop in at your local full service auto parts store and see if they can read your trouble codes. If you have to buy a suitable code reader, it should be in the $100 range. Make a few calls to NAPA, etc, and ask what they recommend. Read the codes before you drive it off a cliff.

just be sure the ceiling joists clear span all the way from outside wall to outside wall. some prefab roof trusses have a splice plate in the center of the bottom chord (that's the member you fasten sheet rock ceiling to). A center splice would be a weak point. and definitely yes on the 4x4 above the joists to spread the load over several joists.

suggest you check fuel pressure at injector supply rail with key on to verify fuel pump is working. Dying electric fuel pump will usually give erratic hard start problems. Fuel pressure regulator can have a ruptured diaphragm that will cause rough idle and tend to flood the throttle body through the attached vacuum line. How about spark plug leads? Damaged leads due to rodent chewing can cause misfiring and poor power.

IMHO, suggest that you service trans (new ATF and filter) if you have not already done so. It may buy you some time. I am personally dubious of ATF additives... Sometimes a full flush at a transmission shop will make a difference. Where they hook a pump to the cooler lines and flush out 100 % to the old fluid. If new clean ATF did not help, then rebuild or replace is clearly required. You may want to consider a replacement from a salvage yard. It is a crapshoot, but some yards are better than others. I swapped a used 4EAT into my son's SVX with good success. The best local yard gave a 90 day warranty, and offered longer warranties at extra cost. Base cost of good used trans was $500. And a lot of father-son wrench work on weekends.

I did a rear diff swap on '95 SVX. I swapped in a '97 4EAT trans (4.44 final ratio) from a legacy outback, and had to swap in a salvage outback diff to match the 4.44 trans ratio. (and I had to change out the diff spider to keep the LSD function) You need to just suck it up and get the exhaust out of the way so you can do the work and see what is up there. On the SVX, I unbolted diff from the chassis and lowered it down with a jack. As the diff is lowered, clearance is developed to allow the axles to be removed. The axles slip off the differential stubs if you drive out the pins first. The side seals are mounted in aluminum alloy side plates, so it is best to get the unit on the bench and see what you really have. Use new o-rings to seal the side plates when you reassemble. If you do pull the side plates, you will find some shims under them. These shims set gear clearances inside the diff, so put them back the same way they came out. good luck.

The advantage of a 'scope is it's flexibility. You can set it up to get a live display of the spark impulse at #3 cylinder. You can sample the voltage signal from an oxygen sensor, and slow down the scan so that you can watch the variations occur. You can display the 7 megahertz amplitude modulated carrier from your WW2 vintage amateur transmitter, and control for overmodulation. And there are top-quality lab grade scopes (Tektronic or Hewlett-Packard) that sold for thousands in the mid-70's, that you can buy for a couple of hundred bucks. It's all in what you want to play with, and how much self-education you want to do. It's just a tool, but if you know how to use it, a powerful tool.

Smart Charger by Vector--you are correct, a very good charger. It has a desulfation cycle which will revive a sulfated battery. I use mine on the deep cycle batteries in my motor home. Do a charge, then a desulfate cycle, and another charge. Batteries that would be junk ten years ago can be revived. The only fault of this unit: if your battery is completely dead, it won't even try to charge it. I have an old 1970's charger that is "dumb". It would try to charge a rock if you hooked it up. When my deep cycle batts go flat, I put the old "Dumb Charger" on them for a few hours. It gives them just enough juice so that the Smart Charger can tell they are batteries, and then will charge them.

in my humble opinion: for mild steel (which is not all that hard), High Speed Steel, or HSS is just fine. HSS with the gold-colored Titanium Nitride coating is a little bit better. By the way, the Titanium Nitride modification was developed by the USSR a couple of decades ago. For real hardened steel, the tough stuff, you need first class cobalt steel bits. Stainless is also hard to drill, and cobalt is the best for stainless. Cobalt is the real thing. Carbide is used as a welded tip on percussion bits for hammer drills. This is for drilling in concrete, not steel.

A good source for info on older electronics is at http://www.bama.sbc.edu/ "BAMA" stands for Boat Anchor Manual Archive, and is a great database on older electronics, especially vacuum tube equipment. Follow the Tektronic link on the site, they may have your 'scope manual available for download. There is a mirror site for BAMA, I think its http://www.bama.edebris

An oscilloscope typically will display on an X vs Y graph format. the X or horizontal direction is set by the sweep speed generated by the oscilloscope internally. You control this speed on the front panel. the vertical or Y signal is picked up by a probe. This would be your signal from the car circuit that you want to test. The voltage applied to the input needs to be matched to the probe and the input voltage range on the control panel. What kind of 'scope do you have? Do a google search on "oscilloscope tutorial", and you will find some good sites.

I will assume that tuneup issues (timing, spark plugs, air cleaner, fuel delivery) are not present. If you have many miles on the engine, worn piston rings/cylinders and leaky valves will cause lower compression, with loss of power. a compression test will help pinpoint this. If you have blue smoke out the pipe from oil burning, your engine is just worn out.

I just checked the Blue Ox site, they now ask you to verify towability with the vehicle manufacturer. My 2003 RV catalog had more information from them on vehicle characteristics. I guess they don't want to be responsible for problems caused by improper towing. They do show the 2008 Subarus as not towable with 4 wheels down.

A concern in towing an automatic is the lack of lubrication to the transmission. If the car's engine is not running, the pump on the tranny is not turning, and ATF is not circulating in the trans. If you then tow with wheels on the ground, and force the transmission shafts and gears to turn without oil (ATF) flow for many miles, excessive wear is likely. This depends on the tranny design. 385 miles of unlubricated towing may have not caused transmission failure, but how about excessive wear? A company called Blue Ox makes towbars for RV use. They have a large database which details best towing methods for many individual vehicles, as well as info on auxiliary oil pumps for towing use, etc. You may want to try a websearch for their online info.