idosubaru

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.

same here, that's really obvious, it was really early when i read this.

in doing a search it is suggested that all of these are interchangeble. someone told me the Turbo and non-turbo MAF's are not interchangeable, so i'm trying to verify this for my XT motor swap issues. i have an RX MAF, unknown (i believe 88 XT) distributor, and the XT ECU won't work but the XT6 ECU will. so turbo, non-turbo, MPFI and SPFI should all be interchangeable?

settle with the insurance company as quickly as possible. if you settle and they find the car....the car is their's. they essentially "buy" it from you when you settle with them. so settle quickly. if it turns up before you finalize settlement then you have to deal with that. if you settle and they find the car, you can buy it back from them really cheap too if that's an option for you.

i guess this is EA81 which i know nothing about. but water under the distributor would be something to consider as well.

i doubt the coolant directly caused the converter issues unless a ton of it just blasted the honeycomb internally. but normally coolant doesn't ruin a converter. i've done a number of headgasket jobs that had coolant all in the exhaust on subaru's and other makes and never had one have any cat issues. on the intake gasket, sucking coolant in the combustion chamber certainly isn't a good thing. i'd look to replace that immediately. it isn't too bad of a job really, the entire intake assembly unbolts and lifts off of the engine block. the most annoying part is getting the old gasket material off. be sure to cover the intake runners with rags so the debris from the old gaskets doesn't fall down in there. and drain the coolant before hand so it doesn't spill all over the engine when you lift it off. other than that, unbolt intake, lift it up and have a 2x4 to hold it up and out of the way, install new gaskets and bolt it back down. 6 bolts in all, 3 on each side. might need to swing away or remove the p/s pump and/or alternator as well.

here's the easiest way to remove a stuck bolt. lay a nut on top of the bolt and weld it onto the remaining stud. yes it's tricky depending on space, but it works well and saves time. had you not bunged it up and reduced it's length this should have worked. NEVER USE EZ OUTS. they suck for this vary reason. all dozen...you'd think i'd learn....have broken. they should be illegal. do not try another one, it will do the same unless you're really lucky. i think the success rate of EZ outs is about 10 percent. and those 10 percent probably would have come out with vice grips or something. drill it out. once you drill down half way or so it will likely be enough to finally slide the thermostat housing up off the remaining stud. at that point, you should have enough to weld a nut to. then you can use a socket wrench on the nut. otherwise drill it out and helicoil if you can't weld.

i'm almost positive mine is the v-belt type. came off an RX. i'll double check and mail it to you. email or PM your mailing address and i'll have it in the mail tomorrow.

replace the axle and you'll be golden. and don't keep driving it like that, sounds like it's about to go. your weird trans shifting is probably just vaccuum or governor related...i'm not well versed on the 3AT but likely you can resolve that issue with some searching on this board. what is an "accel" anyway. never seen that one mentioned before. is that a 3AT only part that i don't know about?

very strange indeed. any chance you can list recent work done to the car? often times something like this is traceable to something that was worked on previously. i'd try removing ALL the fuses in the fuse box. see if it blows. then insert them one at a time and keep testing until you find what circuit is causing it. that will narrow it down alot at least. on older generation i've seen shorted wires above the gas pedal. there's a wiring connector there that will short out and cause issues. never heard/seen of this on the newer gen but i would look there as a quick check. i attribute it mostly to manual trans cars in the north......snow sticks to your feet and if any gets on the connector and shorts it out over time it'll heat up the connector and cause issues. but it happens on auto's too. usually strange lighting issues before fuses start blowing.

ran across this today while searching old threads: they repair/rebuild distributors. http://www.philbingroup.com/rebuilt/distributors.htm

thanks for the suggestions, i'm beat on this one and the wife is telling me to just buy an impreza...NOOO!!!!! i'm too stubborn! the fuel pump relay clicks and the fuel pump cycles properly in diagnostic mode every 1.5 seconds and i have good fuel pressure at the engine. the motor runs with the XT6 ECu or with the one ECU and a hard wired fuel pump - so the fuel pressure regulator should be good i guess though i don' t know how that works. anyway....seems to me the fuel system is good...definitely smells like it's running way rich though, but maybe that's just the exhaust gasket leak at the converter. boost switch i think i left it connect...is this the same as the Waste Gate Solenoid? i have that connected but no lines connected to it since i has no turbo. someone told me that should be fine. i think i tried it unconnnected and no difference, but i'll try again. although maybe the boost pressure switch is difference, above the WGDS, i have the disconnected i think. it is a MAF sensor and the NA and turbo ones i have are identical in part number, but i'll double check that tonight. now...the vacuum lines i'm sure are ALL jacked up. i have the charcoal canister lines all exposed and only the 4WD switch getting vaccuum. mabye i'm missing one that should be connected to the purge solenoid or AAV, but i don't know where they go or are routed. if these can affect starting then that's my issue. but they start and idle on the XT6 ECU??? i'm getting tired of posting this...too much info and details, getting confused......head hurting....blurry vision....

turn the wheel lock to lock a number of times then refill. check again after driving awhile and refill. edit....grrrr posting while you were....same thing....

cool thanks! i'll test it for kicks with the meter and then wire the positive terminal to the relay. did you wire it with no relays or fuses in place? i'm too scared too now, but wondering if you did it.