NorthWet

So, my guess is that the general problem is like I outlined earlier: Whatever blowby there is getting sucked (pre-breather-configuration) into the intake tract and dragging oil froth with it, or post-breather-config it is just venting to the breather and dragging the froth with it out over your engine. The nasty part of all of this is any oil in the intake charge will promote detonation, so if this went/goes on long enough you are going to kill your ring lands, causing more blowby, etc. And the breather setup is just plain unhealthy for the engine. A couple things that I might try (I am planning a hi-comp turbo, but now have a N/A MPFI block as a base) would be to reconnect the PCV valve to the disty-side cam cover, possibly with a plenum chamber directly above the cover (cut down the velocity of any entrained oil so that it falls out of entrainment); do something similar on the non-disty side plus run it to a larger "condensator" to try to wring out any vapors or mist, and then either plumb that to the air intake like stock, or run it to a breather. Something else that might help is, rather than use the cam-cover connection on the non-disty side, fab a connection to the oil filler tube and run that to the intake. Higher and farther away from the turbo drain return, larger diameter so less air velocity so less entrainment. I would probably still use a plenum and/or condensator on this line. Now this could all be BS if my initial premise is wrong... :-p

So, similar to the typical oil smoke from worn valve-guide seals? I assume that you aren't seeing the oil smoke with the breather setup... when does it spew oil with the breather? Or do you just see it all over the engine when you stop?

First, what does the oil look like? Might be hard to tell if water got into the oil a year ago... but it still might show some "milkshake" look of water-coolant emulsion indicating a blown headgasket. Biggest issue with an overheat is a blown headgasket. The blocks seldom if ever crack, the head on this one is very unlikely to crack. The overheating issue may have just been due to a stuck thermostat or a dying radiator. Regarding starting, try using some carb cleaner or starting fluid and see if you can keep it running (admittedly a little difficult with the SPFI intake system, but should be able to spray it in a pcv or brake booster hose).

I have some notions, but I can't think of a good reason why the engine would be experiencing positive crankcase pressure during engine braking (unless I misunderstand what you mean by "coming off of the highway"). My general feeling is that the turbo engine used the central oil breather/separator line to avoid this situation. And the situation, I think, is an excess of frothed oil in the non-disty side head due to the turbo's oil drain line feeding into that cam-housing. Between the quantity/quality of oil in that head's drainback, plus perhaps more blowby in the turbo'd engine, the frothed oil may be getting sucked into the cam-cover breather line. Calebz, did you ever do a postmortem on your engine to see what the piston/rings/cylinders looked like?

I don't see any reference to you doing Syonyk's suggestion that you physically check for spark. (First posted response.) And, oh BTW, does your horn work? IIRC, ECU and horn share the same fuse... Edit - just saw that you played with horn fuse, but didn't say if horn worked before or after...

The "tool" is a pin-wrench that fits the cam sprocket holes and is used to apply torque to tension the "pull" run of the t-belt (ensuring all slack is on the slack side). When I made mine I misread the torque-spec needed (in-lb, ft-lb... what's the difference, eh??? ) so I built the dang thing like a brick ****house. (Looked like one, too!) My FSM is AWOL, so I can't remember the exact spec, but the torque-spec is somewhere around 10-20 ft-lbs. (My memory says that I designed mine for 120 ft-lbs, so 10ft-lbs is probably right.)

If you have the opportunity, DEFINITELY visit with the NorthEast US people! They are good people, with plenty of information and parts. :banana: I doubt that even the "Crossroads Of The World" (as NY City calls itself :-p ) has any performance shops for your Leone. If you had a WRX, then they probably do.

+ 1 on that. I haven't seen a PP mark in 15-20 years... Maybe it is the cheap parts I get? I have never done anything but had the flywheel resurfaced. Any bluing indicates hard-spotting on the flywheel, which will effect how smoothly and well the clutch will engage. Resurfacing has gotten pricey in my area (around $60-80), but my main issue is the waiting for the shop to do it. Local parts houses now offer pre-surfaced flywheels on an exchange basis for about the same price as resurfacing. My first Subaru clutch I tried to do like my Datsun... pull the tranny, no big deal. BIG deal! I wasn't ready for the weight of the 4WD D/R tranny: My Datsun tranny I just slid under and set down on my chest... not something to do with the suby. Learned my lesson, and for my situation far easier to pull the engine. (Others like pulling tranny, or just separating the 2 and working in the gap between.) Daeron is right about the Lego thing. I like my Datsun for that quality, but Subarus are twice as Lego-licious.

My question to all of you that have retensioned (or just done the initial install): Do you use the tool (or its equivalent) to tension the cam pulley before releasing the tensioner lock? If not, I think that any conclusions drawn regarding retensioning are suspect.

Do you just have the 2 cam-cover breather hoses? If so, do you get more/most oil from one, like the one on the turbo oil return side?

First off, do everything possible not to let the coolant level run low. If my assumptions about the case's transom coolant passage is true, any lowness could risk serious overheating. I would think that blowing air in between condensor and radiator would not do any good, and might cause issues by disrupting airflow through the area (though doubtful with the amount of air that a blower could provide). And this sort of thing is likely to compomise your A/C, so all-in-all you might be better (if sweatier) to turn off the A/C. Do you have the engine driven fan (for A/C) on your car? Could the fan-clutch be malfunctioning? I would consider putting on a second electric fan (an EA81 slim fan, like GD and others have recommended recently) in place of the engine driven fan.

*IF* you need to deal with the disty (I would go along with the others ont this, clearing and seeing what happens), the CAS module is more easily replaced with the disty pulled out (IIRC). The other thing is that several have reported that the disty can be hard to remove or replace as the disty's bottom shoulder that fits into the cam-housing can be a tight fit. Many have used a drift to rotate the disty housing back and forth until it comes out. So, that might be another vote for just "waiting and seeing"! Psst...Hall Effect uses magnetic proximity. The CAS uses an optical emitter/detector. (picky, picky picky)

Naw... Retarded *ignition* timing can cause excess heat rejection, but not lean burn. Incorrect cam (T-belt) timing won't cause a lean condition, just how well the engine breathes, shifting the torque curve characteristics up or down the rev range (within limits).

I am tired, so I might have missed this in your post: Does the (single) switch on the door raise/lower its window? Either way, the problem is likely dirty switch contacts. I haven't opened up the master switch yet, but the individual switches are pretty easy to clean. Take off door panel, unscrew switch from panel, unscrew (IIRC) the back of the switch (with switch upside down), open up, clean contacts. Rreverse procedure to install. (BTW, do you still have those T-Loyale axle shafts for the Automatic? )

Isn't that what I said??? Don't confuse me, as there is no sport in that! Well, not exactly top, but yeah. The t-stat is mounted to the intake manifold and is fed by the head ports, so if one side of the case is not getting coolant to it you can still get coolant flow to the t-stat and radiator. OK, I am tired and befuddled after work, but: How does t-belt effect mixture??? It will effect lots of things, but "mixture" will still be the same even if (non-disty side) t-belt is missing. (Daeron, sorry for looking like I "tore apart" your post... I was just trying to put it in litle spoonfuls that my mind can handle this morning! )

Yes, Subaru Of America. I haven't experienced the FelPro ones yet, but should be OK. Many headsets do NOT include these gaskets, so improvisation (rubber o-rings) or reuse of old gaskets can happen.

Regarding the ticking, what did you use to replace the "o-ring" between head and cam-case? An SOA gasket (metal reinforced o-ring)?

I have not split an EA82 case yet to check my assumption, but from the pics and diagrams I have seen the waterpump feeds the disty side of the case, and then water flows through a smallish transom port at the TOP of the block into the non-disty side of the case. This port being at the top, low water levels or anything that inhibits coolant flow should cause the non-disty side of the case to run hotter. My vote goes for t-stat bad or radiator plugged. Can't hurt, though, to check that t-belt and ignition timing are still correct.

I haven't experienced it, but I can certainly see it happening... wouldn't take much variation in the wear to let it happen. Might not "catch" under load, though.

The issues that I have are with what appear to be simplifications that can lead to erroneous conclusions. Things such as detonation only occurring if the sparkplug ignites the mixture. Detonation is the abnormal combustion of the endgas, and it does not care how the combustion process initiated. (You can get detonation in a compression ignition engine running supplimental fuel... no spark event involved.) The assertion that the frequency of detonation noise is such and such because of the resonance of the engine's metal sounds falatious: Resonance of a material is directly related to its density, stiffness, and mass. I CAN however believe that the frequency is set based on the pressure propogation speed through a gas of fairly consistant density striking a material of density within a certain range. Discussion of causes of detonation leave out fuel/air mixture and turbulence (though the latter could be covered by CC geometry, turbulence is more complex than that). Discussion of pre-ignition states that BDC is the most likely point that pre-ignition will occur. "Since the spark voltage requirements to light the charge increase in proportion with the amount of charge compression; almost anything can ignite the proper fuel/air mixture at BDC!!" Falatious conclusion based on impoper premise. He states the pre-ignition is caused by a non-spark event, then equates the ignition source to the physics that apply to an electrical-discharge spark event. The fact may be that pre-ignition is more likely at BDC, but this conclusion can NOT be drawn by when an electrical spark can bridge the spark gap. (Given the rest of his reasoning, the ACTUAL most likely moment is closer to when the exhaust valve closes and there is a less-than-atmospeheric pressure in the combustion environment.) It is not the one or many cylinders to which I referred. It is issues of bore stroke ratios and dimensions, along with conrod angularities. The process doesn't vary from its physics, but it will vary from its environment. Geometry matters. Mercedes Benz made its 5-cylinder engine (the 300D) because they needed a larger engine than the 240, but they had "perfected" the geometry of the 240's combustion environment and didn't want to stray from it. They did 5 cylinders because they felt that a 3.6 liter 6-cyl was too big. Due deference to the Northstar team, but I would listen to engineers from companies that have been designing "high-performance" (and ultra-HP by GM standards) engines for much longer than I have been alive. I also feel (just in my gut, though ), that LPP is affected by rod angularity. It used to be considered so, though perhaps recent information makes that obsolete. I know that theories are just that, and beliefs are at at even lower level. Much VERY GOOD information is presented in this article, but for me much of it is tainted by the author's may of expressing himself. We should agree to disagree. I will agree that the article is definitely worth the read, and will now leave it at that. Thank you for bringing it to us.

2 things, one somewhat on topic, the other one rather off topic. First, for much less than 500Euro you could get a good used VF7. They are pretty common and inexpensive in the USA, and even with shipping should be economically feasable. Second, what makes you believe that your turbo is dying? Have you checked the shaft for excessive axial and/or radial movement? Is there oil in your intake tract (could be other things), or is it just not building boost (again, could be other things)?

The non-answer that everbody has been waiting for... Disty casting has an FHI swoosh-logo on it and FHI part number; no other id that I can find that indicates maker. All of the CAS-style disties that I looked at (87-twagon, 88 N/A XT, 88 SPFI) have Hitachi caps on them.

Rotors can definitely be different. Tried to swap cap and rotor between T-loyale and another FI (can't remember if T-MPFI or SPFI)... no go on the rotor, didn't get to the cap.

One way to tell if splines or CV joint: Watch CV cup/boot and axle shaft. If, while turning the wheel, the cv cup doesn't move the axle is stripped. If the cup moves but the axle shaft stays still and the boot twists up, then the CV has issues. If the cup, boot, and shaft move but the DOJ boot twists and the its cup doesn't move, then DOJ issues.

I have 2 spares that I have repaired... pretty common break. My question for SubaruJunkie is: Didn't it make enough racket to make you look for a leak? Mine scares Harley riders when I start it.