bigtrout

I have an 87 GL wagon 4wd with a hitachi carb that I can not get to idle right. Checked and replaced all vacuuum hoses, triple checked all vac motors, all are good, egr is working(not creating vac leak), put in new manifold gasket, rebuilt carb and installed new base gasket...and I can not find the vacuum leak. The car will idle at 1000rmp at 15 inches of vacuum, but any lower idle speed causes it to surge, and vacuum goes down to 10-12 inches. At speed the car runs fine. I also installed new coil, plugs, wires, cap and rotor. I decided to recheck everything, and make sure float is adjusted properly(it is) and while checking I noticed that there is a thing called according to the vac diagram under the hood, an AIR CONTROL VACUUM VALVE. What does this thing do, it has a connection to a port on the top of the back of the carb, a connection to a top port on the front of the carb, and a connection to the air cleaner housing, the other connection which was whacked was the vacuum connection which receives its vacuum from manifold vac thru a solenoid. The port where this vacuum connection is was broken and somebody poorly superglued it together effectively closing the vacuum port and rendering it inoperable. Any ideas on what this does, could I just remove it? Or is this the cause of my bad idle(still runs bad with VAC port blocked shut though)?? bigtrout

OK the parts subie I bought, well I tried to get it home, lady said it had an overheating problem. Well on the way home, it drove nice for a mile then died a horrid death, running badly and belching blue and white smoke, i look under the hood and water is in the oil and when the engine died it belched some of this up thru the SPFI into the air cleaner. Am I right in assuming Head gasket, or could something else seriously failed...it did start again but runs terrible belching mostly blue and white smoke heavily. If it is a Head Gasket, i have a question...is it easier to replace the HG, or would it be easier to just do an entire engine swap from my loyale sedan and use it for parts, my wife likes this wagon alot better than the sedan. The 5 speed worked great, and the entire engine is so damn clean, its immaculate new radiator, new water pump, brakes, etc. So, Head gasket replacement or engine swap, or use it for a parts car? bigtrout

Hi, I saw a 93 loyale 2wd wagon 5 speed sitting they are asking 500 obo, but its been sitting there for about 4 months. The body is in good shape, can't open hood(cable broke) interior good shape, 221,000 miles. In the back of the subie sits a brand new exhaust piece from the engine to the Y and a new axle assembly.My question is how much should I offer em to take it off there hands. I was thinking 250 because at the very least the interior is in alot better shape than my 87 wagon, and the wagon needs 2 tires to pass inspection and the tires are almost new on this wagon. This leads to my next question, This wagon body wise is alot better condition than my current wagon inside and out, engine remains to be seen, lady said it had an overheating problem?, but in my current wagon I got a carb which right now is giving me fits. How hard and how much time would be involved switching my current Auto 4wd tranny to this 93 loyale which is spfi? Or would you just use this newer subie for parts, right now if i could get it for 250 it gives me a new axle, y pipe, new interior and 4 tires for the current wagon and a new hood for my loyale sedan. At any rate, if i score on this and decide to part the rest of this out, I'll be sure to let the everyone know in case the may need something. Opinions please bigtrout

Must have been either dumb kids, or someone who lives in the boonies, but that does suck, its not like it was a Porsche or something, who would want to steal an old Subie! bigtrout

Bump! Any experts wanna chime in with a thought or two? I've had and worked on chevy's my entire life until my first Subie a 93 Loyale 2wd 5 speed and I love it, now I wanna fix this wagon for some 4 wheel action! bigtrout

Well im taking a setp back for a few days. I seafoamed the intake manifold, put new plug wires and for the heck of it a coil...kinda a little improved, i can at least drive it now and I can get it to idle at 1100 rpm@15 inches of vacuum...not right yet but its close...maybe the valves are sticking and since i trust it now, ill drive it hard at high revs for a few days and see if that loosens thing up a bit. I'm still looking for suggestions though. Thanks, bigtrout

Tank and fuel lines not in bad shape...check PCV valve is new from Subaru...check I already tore the intake manifold off to replace the gaskets...it looked fairly clean and the pathways down to the intake valves looked fairly clean also...it wasn't all carboned up Today i pulled the float bowl just to recheck float not sticking and that idle circuit didnt get something hung in it, it didn't. Could the head gasket be leaking air big time and not anything else?? If a timing belt on one side slipped one groove could this do this? Thanks for the ideas...the tune-up has it running alot better and on highway it runs great...steering tight...tranny shifts right...just need to get this idle/low vac thing tracked down and ill have a nice daily driver/deer camp car bigtrout

I have already done the complete tune with a new pcv valve, air/fuel/oil filter, new NGK's and the egr blockoff is already on the car. Ive only put a couple of hundred on the car since it will not idle good enuff to run it as a daily driver unless i would set idle to 1500+ rpm. Should I monkey with the float level? The rebuild kit had generic instructions meaning the float levels given in the kit were not from an 87 car so I used the levels from an 84 as a guide. The only part of a complete tune that was not done was new plug wires. There are no lights on, the egr light was on when I got the car and I reset it...there is no cel light on...this carb is a hitachi NON-feedback. Thanks for the ideas, keep em coming! bigtrout

Bump! Please give me an idea or two!

I have a 87 GL wagon 4wd pushbutton Automatic that someone just gave me and im trying to fix it up. A small patch of rust and otherwise great in and out all electrical accesories even work. It has 187000 miles and has sat for a year. OK , heres the problem, it has a hitachi carb which i had to jam my foot on the pedal just to keep it running to get it home. So I got a rebuild kit and rebuilt it, it runs alot better but i cant get it to idle. At speed the car runs great but under 1200 rpms it stalls and surges. I have put new spark plugs and wires in the car, changed the oil/filter and rebuilt the carb. When i rebuilt it i carefully adjusted the float dead on to specs. Timing was checked and was at 20degrees way advanced so I set it back to 8 as it should be. After all this it would start and run but wouldn't idle right under 1500 rpm. Vacuum gauge at 1000rpm reads 10inches of vacuum. So I start checking and repairing vac hoses and accesories and have no leaks in hoses(yes i triple checked every item not wanting to have to tear of the intake manifold). Well as it turns out i ended up tearing it off and replacing the intake manifold gaskets, which helped a little now at 1000rpm it gives me 12 inches of vacuum. At speed(over 1500rpms) i get a nice even 21 unches of vacuum and in all other respects vacuum gauge reads as it should under acceleration and deceleration. I even triple checked the carb to manifold gasket, its not leaking...spraying with carb cleaner yields nothing. Please help, whats next? Advancing timing to 20 degrees helps some but not much. What do i look for next ive looked over every vacuum hose 5 times in this darn thing. Also there is good compression and no oil in water or vice versa so I dont think there is a head gasket gone. Could one side timing belt have slipped and be giving me these sypmtoms? Any other suggestions? I really love this car it goes well in the driveway with the 92 loyale which runs like a champ, they even are the same color but this darn thing has me at wits end right now! Thanks, bigtrout

Hi, I was gonna buy a '93 loyale, no rust...180,000 miles, nice paint, nice interior, new sturts, etc...was gonna pay 900, guy forgot to latch the hood when driving to complete the transaction, hood flew up hit the windshield...cracked the windshield, and dented the hood pretty bad...i renegotiated and bought it anyways for $400...it runs like a top, 30 mpg so far and drives beautifully. I now need a new hood i think, will a GL hood fit...i can only find one hood at local junkyard for a loyale and they want 100 for it. If another hood will fit, please let me know which hoods would be a good substitute. Thanks, bigtrout