WAWalker

Oil pressure is not the problem. The intake valves can be cleaned up running Sea Foam or othe top engines cleaners through. The exhaust valves are a different story. I have droped the exhaust on a few of these cars in order to soak the exhaust valves with Sea Foam while turning the engine over buy hand to make sure I'm getting the valve stems good. Seems to have helped, no news is good news. Have also seen this type of misfire problem on Rebuilt 2.2L engines untill they were good and broken it. I've got to believe it is the valves hanging in tight new valve guides. Since I can't spend days driving customers cars for 100's of miles to try and duplicate the problem, all I can do it speculate. But I believe this is what is happening. Your last resort is going to be to check valve lash clearance. I know it is labor intesive, and expensive if you have to pay someone to do it...............Good Luck

Can you post a link to a web site that shows the LSD unit that you all looking at? Technicaly, the ring gear and pinion have nothing to do with the differetial part of a differetial, or the limited slip part of a limited slip differetial. They are just the gears driving the differetial case / carrier, whatever you want to call it. It is the four little gears (spider gears) inside the case that allow the wheels to turn at different speeds. In the case of a LSD, normally two of the gears are removed, and spring loaded clutch's or some other method is used to "lock" the side gears (ones driving the axles) together, but still allow slippage so that the wheels can still turn at different speeds. So it is still a differetial, but tracktion is improved somewhat. Now a Locker (ex. ARB's) or a spool is NOT a differetial at all, because they do not allow the wheels to turn at different speeds. There is still a ring gear and pinon, but they are not part of, or driving a differential anymore. Sorry for all the BSing. Some LSD units may replace the differential case or part of it. I don't know what all is out there for Subarus. The one I've seen only replaces two of the spider gears inside the carrier along with the cross pin.

What do you mean exactly by this statement? You set the valve lash at .008 intake and .010 exhaust?

Good luck with a vaccum gage when it only happens very intermittently at 70-80 MPH on the freeway. Oh, and make sure you have a helper, someone is going to have to have their eyes glued to the gauge while the other drives. Please let us know how this works out if you try it.

Yes, tight valve lash adjustment will cause misfires at hight RPM.

Subrau ECM's do NOT monitor ignition Kv's nor does any other engine control system that I know of. That would be nice though. Would save having to spend money on a scope for that. The ECM is looking at crankshaft speed via the crank sensor when monitoring for misfires. With Subaru engines a misfire on accelaration is 99% of the time an ignition miss. Worn and or carbon tracked spark plugs and wires. Under heavy to moderate load is where this shows up, and you can really feel it. Most of the time you will not get a illuminated CEL, even though you can feel the misfire. A misfire at highway speed (cruising) is 99% of the time a mechanical problem in the valve train. Tight valves. Valves hanging up momentairly in the valve guides. This is hardly ever noticable, but will illuninate the CEL even though you can't feel a misfire. Go figure huh! But this has been my experiance working on these cars for a living.

The LSD will replace parts numbered 11 and 12, and probably 10. These go inside 2 and 3, which are the "differentail case".

According to what I find, the front EJ diff case is sold in two peices. No they will not have teeth on them. Right side case PN 38438AA041 Left side case PN 38439AA040 The ring gear bolts to the out side of the diff case. The LSD parts go inside the diff case. So if you are finding that the part #'s for your XT diff case are the same as the EJ #'s, then you should be able to install a EJ LSD in the case that you have. No need to worry about ring gear or pinion or a new case.

Look for damage to the the circiut board.

I see very few 1.8's, but yes the block is basicly the same as the 2.2L. May already have a hole there. If not I would think the casting would at least be the same so you could drive and tap a hole there. How ever you do it the knock sensor will have to be bolted directly to the block in order to be functional.

Two different engines. We are discussing the EJ22 2.2L. It is the EJ25 2.5L DOHC that has the bucket lifters.

Do you have a manual or auto transmission. If M/T, stick your head under the dash, there is a cruise control cure switch above the clutch pedal. There is a braket on the side of the pedal arm which should have a rubber stoper in it to activate the switch when the pedal is up. If the stoper is missing that would be the problem. If an A/T, not usually something so simple.

Switching the gauges and the HVAC controls would make for a better layout for sure.

Yes, '97's are interference.

Outback? Or just Lecagy L series? Milage?

The late model interiors don't do it for me. Looks to much like a bunch of painted plastic. I like my '98 interior. Lets see some pic's nipper!

If the CEL is illuminating, and a misfire code is set, then there was a misfire wether you felt it or not. If the CEL is already illuminated, and there is a misfire that you can't feel you will never know, the CEL is already on. Post year and model of your car. Start with the basics. Spark plugs and wires. OE parts.

That makes sence. This is why the solid rocker cam with inccorect lift, on the LH bank was working with the roller rockers. The profile of the lobes are different. Different ramp up and down, different duration. (Although there is not near as much differance as I would have expected. And I haven't been able to find these specs) The lift (lobe height) was not '95-6 spec but the profile was such that valve timing was not adversly affected. The discussion is a exellent learning tool though. Understanding how things work makes find what needs to be fix easier the next go around:)

Well..........the reaction of a leak down tester is slow and gradual. As the valve starts to close there is very little pressure change, as it closes the pressure starts to rise slowly then faster the closer it gets to closed............well the easyest way to say it is........your dealing with compressed air, it is "mushy". A dial indicator at the rocker arm and the degree wheel would be the way to go. This was the direction I was headed when I seen the difference in the lifters. I don't think the difference is in the deg. at which the valves open and close, I think it is more in the lift. I believe you could run any 2.2L set of cams in any MY 2.2L engine as long as you had the proper rocker arm assembly to go with them. The bank with the low compression had, near as I can tell, had a '97-'98 cam installed, but the '95-'96 rocker arm assembly. '97-8 had solid lifters, '95-6 HLA, which can not compensate for the '97-8 cam. Anyhoo, it is a done deal.

Hi Emily, When I talked with you on the phone you said "journals" rather than "lobes", so I told the guy the cams had to come out. Took him a while to make up his mind to pay me to pull them. When he did, as soon as I had both rock arm assemblies off it was obvious. Once both cams were laying side by side on the bench it is so obvious I don't know how the mistake was made in the first place. That is exactly why these types of problems are hard to diagnois. It is just hard to believe that someone rebuilding an engine wouldn't notice that, and put two totally different cams in, let alone cams from two different years that are not even right for the MY engine that they are building. Fun, fun, fun:)

That would depend on your scan tool. Will it dispaly readiness monitors? We don't have emissions testing here, but as I understand it, they are looking to see if the monitors have all run or that most of them have run. In some states I think you can pass with 1 or 2 incomplete. The cat monitor will be the one to take the longest.

OK. I thought maybe you had found someone who was reconditioning them. I haven't but you never know. If you have replaced the speed sensor and the speedo head with OE parts, then most likely you have a damaged cirucit board.

Were are you getting the speedo heads from?

This is one of my favorites. "My car starts but the engine won't turn over". Well it is bolted down;) Seriously though.............If I understand your description of the symptoms................... 1) Totally Nothing. Could be a bad connection at the battery. Getting no power to any of the electrical systom. When you get "totally nothing" do you mean totally nothing happens when the key is turned on? No warning lights on dash...........no nothing? 2) A clicking sound. Could be a bad connection at the battery. Could be a bad battery. Could be starter contacts. Is this a single click each time you turn the key to the start position? Or is it multiple fast clicking? 3) The regular starting sound but the engine won't turn over. The regular starting sound would be the starter turning the engine over. This would be a "crank but no start". This could be a number of things, but not a bad starter. Sounds like you may have more than one problem. Assuming the battery, cables and the connections are all good, clean, and tight. The most common cause of the "click but no crank" problem is starter contacts. Which will be taken care of buy replacing the starter. The expensive way but none the less, the new starter will have new contacts. If you still have a "crank but no start" problem. Comon things there are ECT sensor, Cam and or Crank sensor.

I think I got it fixed, for anyone eles who would like to use this info. That flow chart should be good for '95-'99. Pin # to be grounded is in question. I went back to Mitchell On Demand and it states pin #6 for all those years. The flow chart is right out of the FSM and states pin #5. So............................I just use my Select Monitor, saves all the goofing off with the gear selector and all;)