NorthWet

Yes, lots of Turbo GLs. As Shawn pointed out, GL-10 is just a package of options, and most of those options could be ordered separately.

The PCV system is another thing to check. If it is not functioning properly you could be sucking oil into the intake. Ingested oil will make the engine detonate vigorously. Is the smoke while driving in a straight line, or during/after a hard or prolonged right turn?

The blower motor on one of mine (my current daily driver) also would work intermittently, and would come on or cut-out after going over a sizable bump. It also make a noise similar to a card in bicycle spokes. I found that if I banged on the bottom of the motor (where your passenger's right toes would be) with my flashlight (or other suitable bludgeon) it would come on. Took the motor out and tore it down... found badly worn commutator (where the brushes ride). Replaced motor with a spare and voila!!!

What material was your governor gear? {Plastic, steel, ?) From what I understand, the turbos tended to get the steel gear. Regardless, when asked by me my local dealer's chief mechanic felt that it was unlikely that the gear on the pinion shaft was damaged by the apple-cored (steel) driven gear. My personal theory is that the apple-coring is a symptom rather than a direct cause. I think that the valve shuttle (that Skip referred to) sticks in its bore, creating an unbalanced rotating mass that wobbles at higher road speed (not much support for the valve shaft). This wobbling eventually wears the governor's driven gear. And I am pretty sure that the apple-cored gear will prevent the tranny shifting into high gear, as if it doesn't spin the valve body the valving can't sense the road speed necessary for shifting into high. But my opinion is that the sticking shuttle/valving is the root of all governor "evil". It is not enough that the valve mechanism move, but it needs to move "like a knife through hot butter". I take mine apart (I have a couple...), debur/dress the edges against a honing stone, and sand/polish the sliding parts with 600 grit or crocus cloth using a cordless drill. Makes a WORLD of difference.

How does the crankshaft center main journal look?

Could also be distributor is in 180 degrees off... spark on exhaust stroke. I would also agree that the 3.xV reading might be due to testing methodology, as in trying to use a digital meter on a changing voltage. Digital meters have a sampling time-window, and tend to average out voltage changes/swings. (Regarding your original problem: The ECU or Distributor controls the drive to the power transistor, which grounds the coil's primary circuit. Overheating would be an indication that the power transistor is "ON" too much, or simply that it was handling the full unballasted ignition current during cranking.)

It is very difficult/near-impossible to remove the grill without first opening the hood. There are plastic screws that run ertially through the grill into the radiator support that must first be removed before the grill will pull forward, plus it has plastic pegs on its bottom that fit into holesat bumper level. Try the trick with the screwdriver. Requires some patience, and it helps to have another latch to look at.

At least 15.5... verified on several occasions.

I don't know what my employment will demand of me by then, but it sounds like fun.

Jim, glad that you found that broken tire belt. Your wife would not have liked it if the tire had let go on the highway. I had 3 truck tires die that way (no one had told me that light truck tires start to let go after 5 years...)

I've gotten a few JDMs over the decades (Datsun and Subaru), and have been satisfied with them.

Nipper, unless I have read this completely wrong (could be... ), one of the splined output shafts from the tranny that the axles shafts (with DOJ and CV joints) slide on and are pinned to has pulled out of the tranny case several inches. As in, if he had pulled it another inch or two then the stub axle would come completely out of the tranny and he could look into the tranny as gear oil dripped out of it.

I'm a "chain" kind of guy. 300k on a chain with just a little stretch to worry about, and maybe change the guides in the middle if you want to... Yes, chains would cause more destruction if they let go, but they just don't do that with any statistical regularity. Japanese cars have used chains for decades without any problems. Toothed belts have one major attraction, and that is they are cheap for manufactureres to use. Again, just my opinion...

Yes, that is a spider intake. They are found on XTs, and sought after by non-XT owners.

Oddcomp, the belts that I have look like they are nearly new: Clean, dry, no signs of any scuffing or wear. (But no brandname printing on them, either.) The only reason I changed them was because I was there and the car was going to be driven my my kid. As far as not knowing what to expect, I have had a belt with about 2k miles shred and explode on me. None of us truly know, we just choose to delude ourselves that it won't happen just yet. Timing belts s*ck! As far as running an edis-type system off of the cam, it mitigates some of the advantages of using a crank-timed system: Virtually no timing variation caused by drive tolerances, and the possibility of finer "granularity" of timing information. Just my opinion...

I think that nipper was referring to removing the axleshafts from the trannies stub axles,rather than stub axles coming out of the tranny. My understanding is that there is a spring-ring around the end of the stub axles, at least on the 4EAT/Legacy trannies, and to remove/replace the stub axle enough force has to be applied to compress the spring-ring into its groove in the stub axle.

Hmmm... the fluid should have mixed pretty well after just a little bit of driving. And the stuff showing on the dip should be whatever is at the top of the pan oozing down the dipstick towards its tip as you pull it out... plus the stuff that always seems to be in the dipstick tube that is there to make it hard for me to read the dipstick. So we are still wanting to be in all forward gears? Might try what worked for me (maybe I was just lucky): Warming it up, stopping somewheres where you won't get stared at too much (in less you like that sort of thing ), left foot hard on brake pedal, put it into reverse and floor the throttle for *a few seconds*, maybe do the same thing in Drive (and Neutral if it is still trying to go forward in neutral). A couple of repititions might break it loose. Band engages for forward gears, should release for P,R, and N. If the car is only kind of in forward while in neutral, a band adjustment might help and is fairly simple (though I haven't needed to do one even on my basket cases). If the car is semi-drivable, I would give the simple stuff some time to work on it. Cleaning the valve-body may or may not help a forward/reverse band problem, which may need more teardown to get to the actuator (I haven't looked at that yet).

Naw, a little bit of JB Weld woulda fixed that right up!

I would think that an oil pressure switch would be a better idea, as it really isn't the cam movement that you want but rather the presence of oil pressure. Oil pressure switch would be easier to implement (simpler) than a cam sensor.

How did you change the fluid? Unless you pulled the torque converter to drain it, or did your own "power flush", around half of the old fluid will still be in the tranny. I figure on doing a couple half-changes in a row to rid the tranny of as much old fluid as practical. Brown fluid sounds like it might be old, burnt red ATF. Was the stuff you drained about the same color? Or, mixing blue and red probably would get yucky brown color as a result. BTW, the actuator rod (goes between the modulator and the valve body) did get put back in when you changed the modulator, right?

Oddcomp, I have a set of belts that I pulled off or a new-to-me XT; no history of how many miles they had, so I put new ones on while resealing the oil pump. Yours if you want them... assuming better half didn't find and chuck them.

Reverse is different from the other gears; the forward gears are "syncromesh", meaning that the gear pairs are always meshed together and all you do is bind one of the pair to its shaft. Reverse (typically; I didn't check a parts diagram in case Subaru did something quirky) is non-syncromesh, in that the gears are splined to their shafts and are moved into contact with each other (or a movable intermediary gear which effects the direction reversal). If the gear teeth on reverse are not aligned (and not moving) then the gears can't slide together. The gears need a nudge to get into alignment, and that is what playing with the clutch (sort of like spinning the wheel of fortune; might get lucky, might not) or engaging another gear set (nudges things a little) does to make it so you can engage reverse.

Yup, spun the crankbolt most of the way out. With a 12mm wrench, an 8" crescent wrench, and a screwdriver I got the pulley back in place and the bolt mostly tightened. Had to wait for my wife to give me a jump (after we completed trip to practice to cancel it and make sure the girls got home OK), then drove it home. Hadn't checked the coolant level well enough, and boiled almost all of the water out by the time I got home. Spent 15 minutes and 5 gallons of water to get the temp down and the system somewhat stable. I will see tomorrow if the HGs are mostly ok. I discovered a couple other loose fasteners, so I will have to check things over. I haven't touched the engine on Christine other than to replace the t-stat, so my guess is somebody did some less than stellar work on it before we bought it.

... and it was only funny because my son (and not me) was driving. My son was getting drive-time in driving us in Christine to soccer practice. Got off the freeway, and I notice that the wipers are a little slow, so I glance over at the voltmeter (it has had battery/charging issues lately). Except I got distracted by the string of red lights under the gauge cluster. Ok, thought I, the alternator failed. Mentioned this to my son (aka "Commander Observant"), and he says, yeah, and the steering feels heavy. Oh. Ok, broken belt. But Christine has dual belts to the alt and PS pump... Hmmm... dual failure? That doesn't make much sense. Oh, well. Only 3 miles from practice, and I have a team full of kids waiting for us, so we press on. Responsibility takes precedence over what my tired mind thinks is a soft failure. Drive another mile and I see the voltage gauge drop down to too-low-to-run values. So, I instruct my son to take the next exit and find a parking lot. (BTW, my son has never experienced PS failure, so a downhill turn in the rain proves, ....hmmm... interesting.) Pull into lot, pop the hood, and... Alternator is standing still, and the (intact) belts are not moving. Crank pulley is not moving either. WOW!!!

Does your Loyale have Air Conditioning? And, if so, is the compressor outboard of the alternator or inboard of it (between alternator and power steering pump)?