kayakertom

Would double check that the timing sprockets are correctly aligned, dump the Bosch plugs for NGK. Did you disable the vacuum advance when you did the timing?

Daeron: my plan is to tee in a vacuum gage to verify a leak. GD: It's SPFI and does idle up with the ac button depressed.

OK, this was a new one for me - might help someone else. My '87 gl 3-door has been on the road for a few months but has had an intermittent idle problem that has baffled me. Started the car today and it idled fine; decided to cycle the ac on, let it run cold for about 5 minutes, hit defrost and the idle goes really low, rev it up and then cycle through heat, defrost, bilevel, ac, off and defrost boggs it down each time. Guess I'll be avoiding defrost and pulling the dash after it warms up.

This is serious damage that would be a challenge for almost everyone here to fix right - an impact violent enough to do the damage you describe will most likely require the services of a frame shop. Good luck...

One big MYTH is that the oil pumped from the oilfields all across the world originated from dinosaurs... If you think about it, it doesn't make sense. (How many barrels of oil from a dinosaur? How many barrels of oil of proven reserves? How many dinosaurs does that imply?) The oil comes originally from millions of years of microorganisms in the old oceans dying and dropping down to the seafloors. Lots of geological activity burying and compressing those deposits. Further evidence of this is the examination of exploratory drilling cores - you tend to find identifiable ocean- life micro fossils in those oil bearing shales. Mini-science lesson for the day.

If it is the 4wd trans, then its capacity is 3.5 quarts. Might consider making up the difference with auto trans fluid.

The trans shifts very smoothly through the gears and going into 4wd with the hi/lo selector has gone from being very difficult to engage / disengage to easy fingertip control. I'm very happy with the car now - lots of fun to drive.

Went through something similar: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=62027 I followed the advice of Rguyver and Nug and did aggressive shifts from R to 1st and it freed up. If you suspect internal damage, then I would drain trans oil and look for metal.

I had a similar experience with a spfi and new headgaskets and it did turn out to be the intake manifold gaskets, like GD suggests. I would drain oil for a long time, drain coolant, replace the intake gaskets, replace just the oil, disconnect the fuel pump fuse, take out spark plugs and rotor and do a compression test.

Can you clarify what you are saying here? "checked plugs getting spark to the distributer cap only..thinking new distributer cap and rotor??"

https://www.1stsubaruparts.com/partscat.html Description Year MSRP Price Your Price PISTONS, Brat - 4 CYLINDER - 4 CYLINDER 84-87 $62.20 *** $44.78 ps: Is your town of Walsall the one outside of Birmingham in England? That's one of my grandmothers hometown.

Another thing: When you drop the exhaust manifold, put some plastic bags over the two manifold openings to avoid getting coolant down the pipes when the cylinder head is removed.

First time: have a newspaper covered flat surface ready to put your removed parts on with several small containers for the fastners - keep the fastners with the parts you remove grouped together. Have a cleaning station set up - large shallow container with "Simple Green" or other grease dissolver, wire brush (small), old toothbrush, paintbrush and plenty of rags. Large mouth, shallow container to collect your coolant, funnel and another gallon container. You will also need an rtv sealant for the cam tower Tools needed: 10, 12, 14, 17 mm combo wrenches, metric socket set - deep ones are useful in several areas, breaker bar with 17mm and 22mm sockets, torque wrench, phillips and regular screwdriver, adjustable wrench, safety razer blade for scraping off old head gasket material, some fine wet/dry sandpaper, magnetic pick-up tool, mechanics mirror, grease for when you reinstall the lifters and rocker arms - holds the rockers from falling. The head bolts have a tightening sequence that you should follow. You should also replace the intake manifold gasket. Rotate the engine until the center of the three marks on the flywheel is at the pointer. Take your time and have fun. Don't curse too much if you are doing the drivers side and go to take the clutch fan off.

Alec, On that trans there are 3 openings for switches, I know you found one that lacked a switch for the previous leak source - just checking that all three openings are blocked.

When I lived in Fairbanks, I supplemented my heater / defroster in my saab 99 with one of those portable electrical ones that plug into the cigarette lighter.

The 87 dl wagon that I have came with that problem and adding a heat shield between the cat and inner boot solved the problem. My shield is mounted to the heat pipe flange (carbed engine) and is just a piece of duct metal with several small bends to add max clearance around the boot. Keeps the boot from being cooked and cracked.

Correction: There is the water pump pipe bracket with the ground connection that needs to be disconnected from the top of the cam tower.

Drain the trans fluid before removing, otherwise you will have a mess.

Good article on cylinder heads and engine blocks: http://www.aa1car.com/library/ar996.htm I've just experienced the failure at cold temperature of a newly installed head gasket and a probably not flat cylinder head - would weep/drip coolant until warmed up. Will be installing a "Stone" head gasket with a fresh rebuilt cylinder head. The "Stone" head gasket is the type carried by Discount Import Parts in Beaverton - has a nice contoured rubber seal integrated with the head gasket and better matches the coolant passageways than does FelPro.

The special o-rings are between the camshaft towers and the cylinder heads. You need to have the middle of the 3 marks on the flywheel lined up with the pointer so that the valve assembly is in the fully closed position - eases dissasembly and reassembly and sets you up for correct timing belt placement.

Another possibility is the failure of the o-ring that is between the head and camshaft tower. If your car doesn't have the special - metal reinforced o-ring there, that would be a likely source for leaks at high rpm / high pressure.

I just went through the Oregon DEQ headache and finally passed with my spfi 87 gl; the problem turned out to be the #3 intake valve not seating properly at low rpm. A replacement 1-3 head fixed it. Worth doing a compression test.

Update, the gl 3-door finally passed emissions today! It turned out that the problem was low compression on one cylinder - I guess this pushes out unburned fuel. Anyway, the fix was to replace the 1-3 cylinder head (had a rebuilt one in my stash of parts ready to go). In Oregon, if your registration is up, you can get two 3 week trip permits and then if you can't get the car through emissions, you have to wait a whole calender year to try again. New emissions results: Idle @ 900rpm: hc = 16 pass, CO = 0.01 pass 2500 rpm: hc = 27 pass, CO = 0.43 pass Now I have to focus on my 87 dl wagon which also failed. The intake valve seals really need to be replaced - lots of blue smoke when it starts cold.

If your clutch pedal is not returning, that could mean the clutch cable is binding or is kinked.

At this point, I would disconnect all of the engine electrical connectors, spray the contacts with a contact cleaner, let air dry, reconnect and then try to restart.