NorthWet

Responding to your post in a different thread regarding oversize bearings: I currently do not know where to get oversize bearing shells, though I have heard of them for other vehicles in the past. I would suggest that you start a thread specifically asking about oversized bearing shells, and/or contact people that are more likely to know or at least know where to look, (Moosens, General Disorder, ShawnW, Qman and Mcbrat come quickly to mind.) Emily at CCR (vendor of rebuilt Subaru engines and other goodies) might also be a resource. Frankly, I m with GG on this. I have not heard of any of the EA engines messing up there bearing saddles enough to be mentioned. Think good thoughts, take it apart and look over and measure things. I think that you will be favorably surprised.

I have been following your thread. I will respond there to prevent hijacking this thread.

The words are deserved and earned. You provide good information and advice, and a view of Subarus and life that are not limited by my perspective from the USA.

I seem to recall a couple years back someone was talking about difficulties getting a complete fill on an empty Legacy-class vehicle. (Gary, I assume that you have searched already, but thought that it was worth the mention.) I assume that your car has the saddle-style gas tank. I have not looked at one, but wonder how quickly gas fill flow between the 2 sides while filling. Maybe the height of the structure of the tank and filler position/height are causing the pump to shut off before the opposite tank saddle fills fully.

I think that there are several USMB members in the Vancouver BC area. (Certainly several south of the border in Bellingham.) You might be able to borrow/rent a crane from a member, and maybe get some friendly help and kibbutzing, if you ask for it.

The car probably has rear disks and probably does NOT have an LSD. Do you know that it is a turbo? IIRC, an SPFI-engine was offered in GL-10s around that time. GL-10 was more of a trim level than a list of features.

Not sure about the switch, and it is too dark/cold/wet for me to go have a look right now. The resistor pack is next to the blower motor (and partially mounted to it) in the passenger footwell near the kick panel. Stand on your head in the passenger seat and you should be able to see the blower motor pointing straight down. The resistor pack should be just firewall side of the motor IIRC.

+1 on warped rotors. They are cheap to replace.

Is this a wagon or a sedan? Wagon's have an issue with a connector in the tailgate: The wire really isn't long enough, so the connector is always under a little strain, resulting in a bad connection that ends up overheating and making the connection worse.

Did this clunk start after you did the axle? Is this the first time you have done an axle on a Subaru? If yes to the first Q, and "pretty much yes" to the second Q, are you sure that you put the dished washer (the one under the axle nut) on the correct way? (Convex towards nut, so outer rim of dished-washer presses against the cone-washer while center of dished-washer presses against the thread-area of the nut.) Also, how tight did you get the axle nut? Might also be other hardware not properly retightend on the knuckle.

Rod bearings are listed as for 1400 and 1600 (EA61? and EA71) engines, with no mention of working on 1800 EA81s. Might want to check into this. Main bearings say they are oversize rather than undersize. Simply a nomenclature issue, or are these for resized bearing saddles?

My 2 cents on the CEL and power drop off is the Coolant Temperature Sensor (CTS), nestled in the intake manifold coolant tube. They are notorious for having contact corrosion issues. Many of us modify them to be hard-wired at the sensor and a pigtail connector brought out to connect to the harness. Good luck if you spun a rod bearing, The next sound you hear might be a rod ventilating your block. Hopefully, the noise was something else.

Sorry for any confusion due to the EGO reference. Partly my age (I could have called it a Lambda sensor and really confused people!), but mostly to shake the complacency of those thinking that they "know" that an O2 sensor measures air/fuel mixture. Regarding readings of the "A/F Meter" fluctuating, without knowing the specs of the meter nothing can be concluded. The hysteresis of the meter combined with its time gate might make it so that it wouldn't show the normal fluctuations of a properly functioning O2 sensor's output. Look for better indicators of what is going on: check the sparkplugs.

Gee, I am glad that I have never done THAT before!!! That is a deal at twice the price!!! I wonder if this is the same Heads Unlimited that I have kind of been looking for for the last few years. Are they in B.C.? Washington State? The one that I had heard about was in Auburn, Washington.

There should be a distinct difference in sound and output between the lowest and highest setting of the fan. 1 and 2 should be almost inaudible, and 4 should be loud enough to hear but not annoying. My experience is that the blower moves lots of air (relative to my non-subes) and that they do a darn good job on 4. Loyale 2.7 Turbo is a good guy, so if your symptoms sound like a relay follow his suggestions. If the blower just doesn't seem up to snuff, it is pretty simple to pull out and check out. (A little more messy and troublesome to get eyes on the brushes and commutator... easier to swap with a known good fan if one is available.)

AFAIK, the only boost sensing that the EA82T has is just to let the ECU know that positive-pressure has been reached (2PSI???). Other than that, the ECU should only know mass flow rates.

Another possible cause is worn out fan motor. My 90 loyale had its motor's brushes and commutator worn down to dust. The differential on figuring this out would probably be: When the fan is on, is it running normally (output flow and sound), or is it is slow and possibly noisy. Normal running would point to the relay, slow and noisy would point to fan motor.

The bottom engine-to-tranny studs are screwed into the engine's rear housing (It is sort of half of a traditional bellhousing, bolted to the engine, while the "other half" is part of the tranny.) Pull the tranny and engine back together with bolts and studs, and work on lifting the engine off of the crossmember to free the motor-mount studs. These mount studs are splayed outwards slightly (to match the angle of the crossmember) and sometimes are slightly resistant to coming out. (This is not noticeable with an engine hoist, but might be by hand or floor jack.) The engine mounting system is very simplistic, except for the pitch-stopper link at the top of the bellhousing to the bottom of the spare-tire tray... you did remove this, right? 2 motor mount bolts under the crossmember, the 2 bolts and 2 nuts that you found holding the engine to the tranny, and the pitch stopper. If you pull the engine, remember to disconnect the O2 sensor wire and free it from its clips, drop the exhaust system, disconnect the electrical harness plugs, unbolt the ground wire near the water pump inlet pipe, disconnect fuel lines, disconnect power steering hoses at the pump (my preferred way) and remove the pipe hold-downs on the non-disty head, heater and radiator hoses... And, oh, do you have A/C? If so, just unbolt the compressor from the engine (by itself or with its mount bracket), and carefully lay it over into the battery box. No need to disconnect any A/C hoses.

It helps to be left-handed... or have a very trusting assistant. It also it can be very unpleasant if you miss.

Another possibility is mixed up sparkplug wires. (Still kind of falls under the umbrella of timing issues.)

One of my first thoughts when I read this is the legendary (mythical?) "fuel cut" problem. It has been reported that at high air mass/flow rates that something causes the ECU to cut the amount of fuel injected. One theory is that it is programmed into the ECU, and another that it is a confused MAF. A possible fix has been suggested by straightening the airflow prior to the MAF by using a bundle of straws.

Although this really hasn't been seriously researched (AFAIK), the US-Passenger-side head tends to have more HG issues, especially with the turbo. If it were a blown headgasket, I cannot think of any scenario where disconnecting spark plugs would make it run better. Did you purchase the vehicle with the engine not running? If so, I would suspect other issues. Typical scenario is someone changed timing belts and didn't do them correctly.

How about a misinterpretation of what is happening? What the meter is probably displaying is a representation of the voltage from the EGO sensor. The EGO sensor does NOT indicate air/fuel mixture. What it does give is an indication of how much free oxygen is in the exhaust. Free oxygen MIGHT mean a lean mixture, but it can also mean an exhaust leak that allows O2 to get sucked into the system. It can also mean misfire and other incomplete combustion. The exhaust can be lousy with unburned hydrocarbons and still appear "lean". Look at the sparkplugs. I would suggest that you replace plugs, wires, cap, rotor.

I would be cautious in putting too much faith in a simplistic F/A mixture gauge. I assume that this is taking its input from the stock EGO (O2) sensor? If it is, the EGO sensor might be failing, a connection might have issues... all sorts of stuff caused by relying on indirect information. Especially one that does not give linear results. I'm with Turbone on checking the sparkplugs.

I swear that I checked his locale twice before I stuck my foot in my mouth. (sigh) I was close... only the length of Washington between the 2 Vancouvers...