bmaddux

Car ran ok in Neutral. and checked oil on level ground. I usually dont ever take my car to the shop but I did on this one. The only guy I think that I would trust.

I have a 95 Legacy wagon ej22 with the 4eat. It has 180,000 miles. The trans isnt in the greatest of conditions. What happened is I was on a 4 hour trip climbing trip with 4 crash pads(skinny mattresses) on top of my roof rack with 4 other guys in the car and the rear loaded with gear. I was on the highway on the way home and without me knowing the crash pads flipped up to cause a 4' tall wind jam on my rack. I couldnt go over 65mph. I thought it was probably caused by the weight and didnt realize the amount of drag the car had at the time. About 90 miles away from home (with a quarter tank of gas) the car started to sputter and immediately lost power but the engine kept running but not well. The trans didnt slip but when I pulled over a nice cloud of smoke poured out from under the car. I went ahead and turned the car off. Inspected everything and noticed I lost about a quart of oil somewhere. The interesting thing is I could start it and it would idle ok in park but when put into drive it would roll and almost feel like it was choking for gas then die. Sometimes it would die fast and sometimes it would idle/drive (2 mph) terribly for a few minutes until a heavy load(hill) was put on it then it would die. I got it towed home and started it up the next morning and it started perfectly just like nothing was wrong. I then cycled through gears and thats when it started acting like it was choking or something. and it would just die. So strange. Any idea?

Yeah its not that. I appreciate your input though ford'ssubaru's. Its running great now.

So its fixed! no smoke at all. I guess the small amount of smoke at the beginning was maybe residual fuel or something but it runs great. Thank you all for kindly helping me.

Man I hope so. Ill keep this thread updated and hopefully be able to figure this out. Thanks again.

Texan, I wish I could meet you to shake your hand and buy you a beer. Your consistency has been a huge blessing to me. Thank you.

OK. I will do that. Today I buttoned everything up after letting all the fuel dry out of the cylinders. I left the hood up on a nice sunny warm day with plugs unplugged. I changed the oil with a high mileage 10w-30. (Penzoil). Then I put a teaspoon (might have been too much) of oil in each cylinder. Put spark plugs back in, etc and started it up. James bond wouldve been proud with the smoke i blew. It was white. It wasnt super thick like oil smoke is usually. and it reaked of raw fuel. I had to change my clothes it was so bad. But the car was running fine. No knocks or weird idleing. Im so confused. I just let it run for a minute but the smoke started getting worse so I turned it off. Not sure what to do now. I havent had a chance to check the ECT sensor or the fuel pressure but will do that next. Any other thoughts though? Could the smoke just have been burning everything off? ie. teaspoon of oil, raw gas in cylinders and exhaust pipe?

OK. So do I just plug in an OBD-2 scanner and it will tell me whats wrong even if the CEL is not on?

Oh I gotcha. That makes sense. Since the oil pump never kicked on then it never moved the oil through the filter. Great.Since we're on the subject. What type of oil do you all recommend for a subaru with 160k miles? I used high mileage 10w-30. Would you all ever suggest doing an engine clean then going to a fully synth like amsoil?

PCV valve was changed a week ago. I love changing those easy, inexpensive parts that make a big difference.. Texan, youve been very helpful. Thank you. Ill be working on this tomorrow and see what happens. So next steps for me is put it all back together and hope for the best?

You all have been so helpful. Today (nice and sunny and getting semi warm here in Louisville, KY) I pulled the plugs, unplugged the coil pack, unplugged the fuel pump, and turned the engine over a few times. there was a ton of fuel in there. I then put a 1/2 tea spoon of oil in the cylinders to lube them up again and then turned it over by hand a few times. Thankfully no resistence which im guessing means not a huge sign of damage yet. Next is changing the oil (should I put a new filter on there also? The one on there is brand new.) and then new plugs. Letting everything dry for now. Any other thoughts to this or encouragements in not making bone head choices next time?

1 lucky texan, You have been very good at helping me think through more of what this could be. Would me not unplugging the fuel pump cause fuel to continue to flow through the rail when I removed the injectors when the key was off?

1 lucky Texan, when you say squirt a little oil in the cylinder will you elaborate a little bit on that? I just dont want to screw it up and put too much in or not do it right.

No. No dripped fuel. Before this it started up perfectly and ran perfectly. It just ran SUPER rich. I could tell it was running rich by the smell of the exhaust was raw gas. And whenever I bought it, it had been sitting for a little while and it started right up. It just started giving me problems after i washed the engine (like an idiot).

Thank you so much for this Fairtax4me. Thats the best advice I've gotten so far. And Thank you 1 lucky texan. How would i check the MAF sensor