JLDT

Hey all Did the plugs and pcv. It still seems to be doing the same things though. I will have to try the CTS next, but before I do that I thought I would mention the smoke thing again, it seems to have gotten a little worse and I am not sure what the cause might be. Basically, today I could actually see it in the back window rather than having to be following the car. The smoke is quite thick if you get the rpm's rather high, then let off the gas without putting in the clutch. I got it to happen in both 1st and 2nd. Is this something that could be failing that I should worry about or just something that i can deal with when i get to it? It still doesn't smoke on start up at all and other than this hesitation thing it seems to be running quite well. Thanks

Let's call this a learning experience - I should have known better. Anyhow, the refill was because I had no cold and the AC comp wasn't kicking on. After we added the first can the comp kicked in and seemed to get full with the first can. The comp was making a lot of noise though and my dad thought something was stuck b/c when he revved it up the noise went away and the pressure went down. We then added two more cans. The shop too 1 lb 11 oz out - and then put it back in ?????? before giving me my car back - good news they only charged 50 for it all. note - this was a kit thing so 'ac gauges' consisted of a low side gauge. Hindsight is 20/20. After the fact research has taught me that since it hadn't been working in years and I was putting in not r12 but a substitute I really should have replaced the receiver/drier/thing. Probably won't be approach the next AC problem with quite the same naivety. Anyone know a really good ac shop in the SE chigacoland area??

Hey all AC on my wagon isn't working and I was planning on running it across country in about 2 weeks. On Sat we tried the charge it up and see what happens method and the AC got quite cold. We then let it sit for an hour and the took it out to run an errand - nothing. Not even cool - closer to warm. Decided to run it into a shop today and have them evaluate. Their answer is replace everything except the hoses. But . . . . . Basically the silica pack in the receiver I guess is in some sort of containment bag. That bag has ruptured spreading the absorbent particles through out my system. They said it probably can't be cleaned out of the evap and condenser, and my compressor is probably shot too. That said, it took them forever to figure out what was wrong because it doesn't seem to have a leak. It was showing fine on the High side and lower than it should be on the low side. Meaning there is a restriction on the system and they ended up determining that this particle is the restrictor. Anyone ever seen this before and solved it without having to replace the whole system? I would think that enough air pressure through the evap and condenser would push it out and some cleaner would finish the job, although I guess I am assuming that the line in the condenser and evap is a continuous snake through both and not some sort of grid that I could end up with only one pathway cleat. I would also assume that somewhere I can get my hands on a rebuild kit for the comp and clean that out. Obviously the receiver has to be replaced. Any ideas would help - oh and we noticed the the compressor was making a lot of noise at idle that would let up if you gave it some gas. Hope it all makes enough sense. Probably end up driving it across anyway but with my wife and kid along we might be driving at some interesting times of day.

Just had another thought that may or may not help. At one point I had a engine in my Subaru that was out of a carbed subaru, but I was running the SPFI of the car it was in on the engine. It was some time ago, but I think it did something really similar to what you are talking about, just died running down the road and never started again. Problem is I didn't really sus it out at all. I had access to another SPFI engine that I was planning on putting in so I just did a swap. It runs fine with the new engine. My thought is, have you checked anything mechanical out? I know I assumed it was a head gasket, but I never did check it out at all. Might be worth a compression check or something along a non electrical line. I haven't seen your other post, so I don't know all that you have tried, but there are a large number of mechanical problems that could cause a no start as well. Broken timing belt? Again, it was a unnatural set up on my subaru at the time, but from what you are saying about your electrical it all sounds normal to me.

Not sure if I just missed it in your post, but do you have ground continuity? Not entirely sure, but you should also have a good connection to ground on the negative terminal I would think. I have run into some strange problems that have been caused by bad grounds.

Thanks for the suggestions - i'll hopefully get to doing a tune up here in the next couple of days. I have lost timing belts before so I do keep track of the mileage on the belts. The ones that are on this car I am pretty sure are under 5000 from when I bought them. Thanks for the thought though. It would really suck to be stuck with a thrown/shredded belt. I'll let you know if the tune up changes anything.

So I will be driving a 89 from IL to WA in a couple of weeks and there is some small issues that I am concerned about and would like to address. First of all, this is the same car that I have posted about in the past (a few years ago is most recent) so I know the history. The motor was my father-in-law's from new, I believe it is around 200k but I am not entirely sure of that number. It is a FI EA-82. Just before my dad brought it from WA to IL, we did head gaskets and oil seals on it. Onto the problem. It seems to almost lug until you hit 2000 RPM, then it takes off. The idle seems good at about 750, although sometimes you can feel it vibrate a bit, other times you wonder if it stalled on you. Occasionally after first start up, it will die at your first stop. Always starts right back up again. Finally, it spits some smoke on shift, just for a second, and not enough that you notice when you are in the car - i was following it a couple of times. The smoke is black, but I don't know if it is on disengaging the clutch or engaging. No oil is leaking at all and it doesn't seem to be using any either. Dad probably only put about 2000 miles on it in the 2 years he has had it out here. It is a 5spd D/R if that matters. Just looking for some suggestions as to what to look at? I did a search but couldn't come up with a brief enough description of the problem to get good results. I am kind of thinking a vacuum problem, but some ideas as to what to look at would be appreciated. Sorry for the length and thanks in advance.

Thanks for all the thoughts. I think that I will let this one on by - not that great of a price from what I could be getting into. I am looking for a more daily driver type for a few years and then later a toy - if the truck doesn't die on me. I will just have to keep an eye out - usually see one a week out here on CL. Going to stick to the 80's though because if I do keep it a toy once I am done with it as a secondary vehicle, I want the 5-sp D/R. These EA-82's and chevy small blocks are about all I am confident to get all that deep into repair wise (probably because that is all I have ever really owned), and with my budget constraints as of late, I don't want to be needing a mechanic. Got rid of the late model honda before something happened because I didn't want to try to fix that myself. Any how, no matter - thanks for all the information and advice and perhaps when I am looking for something to play around with turbo's on I'll pick one up. . . maybe.

Thanks for the info. I have done a lot of work on these engine's (assuming that a 90 will still have an EA-82 in it) but never on a turbo version. Are they a whole lot more difficult to work on? Or more things that tend to go wrong? I have to drive about 30 min to look at this car if I think that it is worth it so I want as much information as I can get before I go. I don't want to go twice.. . . Thanks again for the info - FYI he says it has 180k on it . . and not much else about it.

Hey all I am looking at getting back to an older subaru. I have had a few, but got away from them for a while. I have finally cut back my fleet to one vehicle and would like to get something that I can fix when there is a problem to start rebuilding the fleet. I have found one that seems like a good deal. It is a 1990 Turbo 5sp w/ hi/lo. Needs a battery and coolant hoses, I thought that before I go look at it I would ask what I should look for. I have never had a turbo before so I don't know what to look for on them. Also, I know that the newer turbo models have to be run on premium, is the same true of the old ones? Thanks for any tips you might have. Jordan

Hi all, Thanks for all the help and advice. Was distracted with a home sewer issue so set the Subaru problem aside for a bit. Got back to it this morning. Thanks very much for aiming me at the disty. Now I'm wiping egg off my face after plugging in the crank angle sensor.

I connected the green connector and everything clicked and the pump ran like it should. I had the injector out and we tried to start it and the fuel flowed in to the Throttle body like it is supposed to so I think that I have the lines right (we also switched them at one point and when we took them back off to switch back there was alot of pressure in the sending line because it was hooked up to the wrong side) I still am not seeing any fuel coming into the thottle body when we try to start it. This car died on me suddenly with the other engine in it. I assumed that there was some sort of engine problem because there seemed to be oil in the coolant. Coiuld there just be a short somewhere? how can i test the Electrical lines that feed the Throttle body? We tested the resistance on the throttle body but that doesn't tell us if it is getting what it need to work, just that it should work if it does. I am probably going to take it back down to the timing belts and just make sure that I didn't screw that up, but with no fuel, there is no way it is going to work anyway. I'm looking for any ideas at this point. Thanks

I don't seem to have fuel in the throttle body. I just swapped injectors and I don't seem to have any fuel spraying in? Could it be an electrical problem? Any one know if there is a fuse that I should be checking? I have had this engine torn down for headgaskets and everything looked good. Any ideas?

I just put and engine in a 88 subaru that came out of a 87 Subaru. The 87 was 2wd the 88 is 4wd. The gas gauges is low and it has been sitting for about a year and a half. It starts very roughly on Ether, but doesn't really run. I am amost sure I got the Timing belts on right and have turned and checked the dist. Could it just be bad gas? I Know that the fuel is getting to the throttle body. Help - I need to get it fixed tonight or it might never happen.