idosubaru

i'm not that familiar with 86 models, is that an EA81 or EA82? and by flywheel, you're saying it's leaking where the motor and trans mate together? the oil pump is on the other side...front of the motor on an EA82 so i dont' think a leak at the flywheel would be oil pump related. i would guess rear main seal but i'll wait 'til i find out if this is EA82 or EA81 before saying anything else.

i put a couple gallons in my XT that had been sitting awhile and it started...eventually (lots of other issues). sounds like that ought to get you going. i did what someone else mentioned - pulled the hose at the engine and pumped some into a bucket to get some of the old stuff out.

if you're reusing the tensioner due to failure possibilites then you're also looking at replacing all the timing pulleys for the same reasons. they have bearings that can fail and do the same thing - ruin the belts and valve/pistons. with 100,000 mile change intervals it's a good thing to replace anything as that's a long time to hope it lasts on an interference engine. the good thing is that you can at least inspect the timing pulleys by rolling them. if they feel good and tight and don't spin freely then the grease and bearings inside are good and you can keep it. if the pulley spins freely, noisey or is not tight then it needs replaced as there is no grease left inside. you can also repack the grease yourself or replace just the bearings. that requies some resourcefulness, but i've done it. the pulleys can be upwards of $100 each.

"should" is relative. since most people never change their trans or diff oils, now is probably a good time to change yours if it's never been done. if you got the car used i'd assume it's never been changed as most people don't. so now would be a good time to change and no reason not to use synthetics in your diff or trans. i always use synthetic trans/diff oils. i'd keep an eye on the oil color/clarity after switching over. if it gets discolored you would want to change it sooner than planned.

i wouldn't worry about it. it is more common than other subaru head gaskets, but not gauranteed to happen to yours. there is no way to say "yes it will" or "no it won't". the good news is that you know about, so if you start seeing signs then you need to worry and think of what actions you want to take. if you're attentive the car won't leave you stranded at least.

like mentioned earlier when you turn the key ON (but don't start the engine) the fuel pump should cycle for a couple seconds and then shut off. if it cycles on every 1.5 seconds then the green connectors are likely plugged in and they shouldn't be except for diagnosis or adjusting the timing. once the connectors are verified - are you sure the fuel pump is sending fuel to the engine? have you pulled a hose and verified that when you turn the key on the fuel pump cycles and gas comes out at the engine? might be hard for a mutimeter to read real time fluctuations at the fuel injectors like you said. fuel injectors have a common ground under the intake (close to the thermostat housing, behind it and the power steering pump). and there are also the dropping resistors by the front strut tower that are for the injectors. this could get really confusing so i'll try to keep it short but what year motor and engine exactly did you use? i just looked through the wiring diagrams this weekend for my issues (in the States, don't know if yours is different) and the 1987 and 1988 model year wiring harnesses are quite different. and on another note the waste gate solenoid (for the turbo) is tied into a number of different things, it branches off to the fuel pump relay for sure and some other things. not sure if this could be your issues but sounds suspicious. if you're not getting fuel at the motor when you turn it on or try to start then i'd suspect it is related to this and i can go into more detail later.

the clutch replacement part is very easy and straight forward, make sure you get the clutch alignment tool. with that, it's so easy you start thinking you did it wrong cause it takes about 13 seconds to get it right. the hard part is getting to the clutch. pull motor, transmission or try to slide them apart in the car like mentioned.

don't know if you have an EA81 or EA82. what is good for one person isn't good for everyone. i've found that opening up the exhaust a little gives 1-3 mpg better on all highway trips. the less highway driving you do the less i'd expect to see. i've taken a long highway trip, swapped exhausts on my XT6 and then taken another trip and seen an immediate jump in mpg. but i drive alot (used to drive alot) and mostly highway. i noticed the best improvement by just replacing the stock muffler. i've always used dynomax, i'm sure there are many other choices. i've removed the cat in place of straight pipe and also installed a high flow converter and noticed no difference in these two changes. like jeff said, open the exhaust up too much and you will loose significant low end power which is annoying if you drive up hills or stay in the low RPM range often as the car will want (AT) or need (MT) to downshift to keep speed. i've gone to straight pipe or no cat and just a muffler and that was too much low end loss for the kind of driving i do. this is all on the XT6, same motor as the EA82 with two more cyilnders slapped on.

is it not tapping? you're sure it's knocking? if it's knocking and not the HLA's then it's not likely that a cam swap will fix the problem. you can pull the valve cover and turn the motor over by hand to make sure all the cam lobes and such are working fine. if you need to replace the cam, there are no cam bearings, you'd have to replace the entire cam assembly. the cam rides on bearing housings built into the cam case, which is just a machined surface with oil ports.

the light duty cooler will be more than adequate. the radiator side tank is a terrible excuse for ATF cooling so don't let the label "light duty" fool you into thinking it doesn't do much. if you are racing or towing and subjecting the motor to abnormal useage *maybe* a larger one would be in order, but even in that case a light duty would be fine. oil coolers are a good option for turbo vehicles, but i'm not very experienced with those. use the recommended standard ATF unless you're having some transmission issues you're concerned about. Redline is a popular aftermarket ATF option. i know some people on here running it.

i will say that doesn't look like the stock hose. that looks like auto store ATF or fuel line hose. the stock hose has 90 degree bends in it i believe. pull it and have a look if you're curious.

the 1987 XT and 1988 XT wiring diagrams are different. the main sensor difference is the 87 XT AAV goes to ground and the same side goes to pin out #59 on the ECU in 1988. i tried mocking that up and inserting a pin for the 1988 ECU to work but it still didn't work. there are other minor differences like no EGR on the 1988 and no waste gate on the non-turbo motor and then some definite differences in routing between the engine and ECU but the rest of the ECU pinouts are quite close. but i'm going to assume this is too much to make an ECU swap feasible. and hope, however doubtful i actually am, that a 1987 ECU might run this thing. Also - the 1988 FSM lists NO knock sensor for the XT 4 cylinder. but it does list a knock sensor for the 1987 XT 4 cylinder. strange indeed. i thought all XT's 1988 and up had knock sensors. i'm going to assume from this that i need a 1987 ECU.

the canister has a vent/drain hose at the base, i would assume this is it. there's a rubber fitted end cap sort of thing, if it's part of that then it doesn't connect to anything. your car has a few vent orifices, you normally don't see them but when you do it's always like "what the heck is that and why didn't someone plug it in right!!!". i'd guess it's just how it's supposed to be. check the bottom of the can to be sure.

use high quality thick wheel bearing grease. put a nice glob on the rocker arm, hang it on the HLA and that is enough. for kicks you can sort of smear the grease lightly over the top of the rocker arm and around the HLA, giving it a nice coat of continuous grease holding it on. they won't come off unless you touch them.

bad headgaskets can give varying compression readings. if they are completely blown and venting to atmosphere then you'll get 0 psi. but it's also possible to get compression readings with bad headgaskets. you can even get really high compression readings. i'm not sure if this is caused by liquid in the combustion chamber displacing air or what but it can happen. i've seen 175 psi before on blown cylinders. unless it's really bad i'd expect a low reading, not 0. intake gasket leaks can be slow enough to keep from hydrolocking. while you're sourcing testers and such if you can find a leak down tester or spark plug threaded adapter for an air compressor to pressurize the cylinders i'd jump all over those items as well to help track this down. definitely replace both sides. i replaced one on my XT6 a long time ago and i wish it was monthts later like the poster mentioned. it was the same day after getting it back together i realized the otherside was lhad a small leak. whoops.

Tim - i think i am in need of a 1987 ECU. let me know if there's any time this weekend i can come pick it up - call me! been comparing FSM's. wiring is slightly different. still looking at it - i'm not a wiring diagram master. i think i read binary and hex better than this stuff! I have the 1987.5 Turbo Engine and Body wiring harness and the 1987 and 1988 ECU pin-outs are a little different so this could be my issue. All the ECU's i have are 88 and up....wondering if an 87 will cure my issues. (BUT STILL WHY DOES AN F'ing XT6 ECU START AND DRIVE THE CAR!?!?!?!?) thanks for the help, can't believe you all are still following this mess!

crack, that sucks. which bolt sheared off? a machine shop can get it out for you. probably $40 unfortunately and you can probably pick up a used hub for that as well if you wanted. let us know which bolt. EZouts suck. i no longer use them. if there's any stud sticking out, i weld a nut to the top, it has worked every time. but requires something sticking out which you don't always have. if you can get the EZ POS out of the way then try a left-handed drill bit. they drill but once you get down far enough typically they will back the bolt out.

tim, i'll definitely try out another ECU. do you know what year/model they came from? i'd like a 87 or earlier at this point for kicks if you have one but i'll test anything at this point.

headache.... maybe i need an 87 ECU to get this thing to work? but then why the freak does the XT6 ECU work. what "differences" or resemblance did you notice? thing is - everything is 88 and up EXCEPT the body wiring harness. computer, engine, MAF, and disty are 88 and up. only the body wiring harness is 1987.5. i'll look for differences in the 87 and 88 wiring diagram portion of the FSM and see what i can find. thanks a ton kids.

so would my 1987.5 Turbo XT Spider Manifold wiring harness be represented by the 1987 or 1988 FSM? i figured out the swapping of the disty harness using the screws by doing a search...but after i had already cut. whoops. off to do some checking tonight. anyone on that 1987.5 FSM wiring let me know.....87...or 88.....??

i work in DC bluebird... remove the rear half of the driveshaft to run in FWD. i've done it before. but it better be binding or it won't go anywhere or drive weird. i've done it on the old subaru's where you can lock the center differential manually. push a button and you're locked.

everytime i ask a question i get more confused! thanks for the input. this is for a 1987.5 XT Turbo vehicle (engine converted to non turbo). seems that should qualify under the 88+ umbrella right, it has the MAF and spider manifold. the distributor i got would not plug into my 1987.5 XT Turbo wiring harness. i cut the plug off something and installed it. is that an issue? so what pin outs does this 1987.5 Unicorn have anyway? who the hell came up with "87.5" anyway!!! am i looking at 87 and earlier stuff or 88 up.

is that a generic statement or you're sure the MAF's are interchangeable on subaru's? i ask because there are toyota and other MAF's that have the same electrical connectors. now that i think about it - i think subaru's run fine without the MAF connected. maybe i could try disconnecting it. anyone verify that?

with all the members here i'm not surprised to see a handful of bad racks. on the older generation the steering suffers significantly when the steering rack bushings go bad....or fall out completely. you'll start feeling slow response and drifting to one side or another. sort of wobbly. feels like bad or loose rack, but typically a sign of bad bushings. replacing the rack may replace the bushings and solve the problem indirectly that way. if tie rod boots or linkages are to blame, the inner and outer tie rods can be replaced independently as well without replacing the steering rack gear box itself. steering is nothing to mess with so good to address it right. the front wheels don't go where you want if the steering goes bad.

okay, thanks. i have a SPFI disty coming so that's good to know. anyone know about EA82T and EA82 MAF? i was told by a very knowledgeable xt6.net member that he doesn't think they are the same. but in a search over here, it says they are interchangeable.