asavage

i agree. I'm really unimpressed with Subaru's SPFI. My SPFI 4WD 3AT wagon is pretty soggy/doggy. I've driven a couple of 5 spd SPFI wagons, and they're better, but still not good (of course, I haven't cut up the air filter box yet, either ) Then I drove an '86 RX, and Wow! It's hard to believe it's the same basic engine. The MPFI intake ports are almost double the size of the SPFI in total, then add in the turbo. What a difference!

True story: Six years ago, a friend of mine borrowed my LTD wagon in Portland, rented a car trailer, took them to BC and picked up a 500SL, hauled it back. Got on the south side of Mt. Whatcom (the stretch of I-5 on the downhill/south side of Bellingham), combo started oscillating, and he ran it off the road, wrapped the wagon 'round a big alder by Lake Samish. MB was undamaged. Trailer neck was bent. Lots and lots of people lose it towing that stretch of I-5. Be careful. As to back roads, there really aren't any good ones 'till you get further south. Hwy 9 is a major pain to get to, but if you're willing to drive 10 miles east, it does work. The advantage of I-5 is that people can get around you. Try driving slowly on Hwy 9, and you're a traffic hazard, and people will be trying to pass you all the time. Renting a proper trailer is the best way, even though it costs more. It's a pain that they won't rent to you until you're 25, but that's why you gotta have friends

Good/tight engine (except Turbo): 10W30 Good/tight engine (Turbo): 15W40 Loose/used/worn engine (any): 20W50 Thrasher/beater/smokescreener: SAE30 or worse Main thing is: keep it clean. Don't "push" the mileage, change it often. (My '93 owners manual has 5W30 listed as an option, but only up to about 40°F. IOW, winter only, for the 48 States). Brand opinion: like armpits, everyone's got a couple. Keep it clean, I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference (but I run Mobil 1 today, FWIW).

If it's a Bosch. Delco relays don't use that schema. At least, the Delco ones I've seen. And wire the other side of the switch to a fused hot. Either an accesory terminal (such as, splice into the radio feed) or something similar. The switch feed is going to draw so little, that it doesn't matter what you use to feed it. The 30 terminal, OTOH, will want to be 12ga or larger, and should also be fused (or use a circuit breaker). IMO, 12ga again for 87 to the lights, but I always go heavy on the wire. I'm holding a Bosch 0 332 014 150, which is a fairly common 30A relay. This particular one came out of a Pathfinder, for its optional driving lights. You can buy it from many parts stores for about $8. It has TWO 87 terminals, and if you wish, you can run separate wires for each of two lights -- which is the way Nissan did it on the Pathfinder.

I don't even try. Can you tell? It's all good.

I agree on the left-handed drill bit. Works very well. Trouble is, not every hardware store carries them. My two don't -- and even asking for them can get you strange looks. "Whaddaya mean, 'left-handed'?" I assume you broke one of the clutch pressure plate-to-flywheel bolts, as I don't know anybody strong enough to break the flywheel-to-crank bolts. You can sometimes get lucky: remove the pressure plate, dry off your thumb, press it firmly on the broken bolt and turn it counterclockwise. If the threads were oiled, sometimes the bolt will come out this way. Really. If that doesn't work, try teasing it with a No. 00 flat screwdriver. Sometimes you can catch an edge and work it out. If, OTOH, you used locktite, you'll have to drill it. Std. bit + EZ-out, or left-handed bit.

Hilton's HyperLube, the Wonder Drug for your engine. Seriously, it's the same stuff as STP. A concentrated dose of additives and various polymers. Great way to turn 10W30 into 20W50 or SAE 30 or SAE 50 or whatever, but it's cheaper to just buy the heavier oil outright. It *will* reduce oil burning, I know, I used it by the quart in my first car (1958 Simca Arondè Elyseè w/Flash 1300 engine). That was a long time ago.

I was under an '86 RX turbo today, and the water line connects to a different port, one that's horizontal. I assume that the NA drain ports I plugged are never used for turbo water lines. I guess that would have been my point, had I been able to think clearly. Anyway, I obtained two 12mmx1.25x50mm bolts, cut them to half lenght, and seated them with copper washers and a dab of RTV. Seems fine.

I prefer National seals to Chicago Rawhide, and sometimes NAPA sells the CR seals, but it's not a religion with me. I thought that the recommended mileage figures in NAPA's chart might come in handy.

Ah, but you don't have the view out your front window that I do. And I don't suffer the obnoxious overcrowding and noise pollution of the city. To me, it's a good trade-off. I've lived in urbia -- it's not for me. I may be able to get DSL soon. Cable runs by my door, but is just a few feet too far away to easily connect (they have a 50' limit for overhead). I make do, with efficient multitasking, excellent cron jobs, and multiple computers.

Not quite. K&N claims performance gains from "virtually unrestricted airflow" from their products. I ran K&Ns in the 70's in my motorcycles. I had a gallon of K&N reoiling oil around for years, bought it when it was a lot more expensive than it is today, and I was a lot more ignorant. I recently used it to start some bonfires, it worked great for that. http://www.knfilters.com/filtercharger.htm "Our air filter is designed to achieve high, virtually unrestricted air flow" Virtually unrestricted airflow, but without adding additional square inches of filter media. You do this by reducing restriction. OK. How do you do that? Make the "holes" larger. Larger holes = more airflow, but also more dirt gets through. Having the "holes" be lined with tacky oil does not imply that the dirt is going to stick to the oil. ". . . stumbled on a cotton filtration technology destined to be great. Our high flow cotton gauze air filter is washable, reusable and built to last for the life of an engine. The filters consist of four to six sheets of cotton gauze layered between two sheets of aluminum wire mesh. This media is then pleated and oiled to enhance its filtering capabilities and overall performance." This is the same technlogy that LawnBoy, McCullough, and many others discarded in the early 60's, because the filtering efficiency of oiled media sucks. It's even worse than oil-bath air cleaners (like VW used through the end of the 60's). Yup, it flows more air. Yup, it it cleanable and resuseable. Does it filter as well as pleated paper. Not on your life. BTW: all filters' filtering efficiency goes up as the media becomes more saturated with dirt. Yes, this means that a "plugged" air filter or oil filter keeps more dirt out of the stream -- to a point, anyway, until the pressure differential gets high enough to break down the filter substrate. "The result is an air filter that allows dramatically more air into an engine, is washable and reusable, and will protect your engine for the life of your vehicle." The reduced life of your vehicle, is what they should say. TANSTAAFL (Google it, it's classic Heinlein)

You seen the size of the shared intake ports on SPFI? Teeny. Cheaper & easier to put MPFI heads/intake on, if you can get the CR up. Which is exactly what Subaru themselves did with the (EJ18?), isn't it?

You get 28.8? Lucky Dude -- I never, and I mean never get above 24.8k .

Here's a good one-page PDF summary on how to time the belts: http://www.smpcorp.com/download/view/Tt3Q98.PDF Same link in HTML, but without the pics: http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:xTpzYGmFKJQJ:www.smpcorp.com/download/view/Tt3Q98.PDF+subaru+timing+belt+mark+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 I print it out and keep it handy when I'm doing a belt. Keeps me on my toes.

Mind went blank . . . forgot to turn off the sound. Sorry.

Great. Now I'll have to go try to dig up 12mm fine thread short bolts. On a Sunday. Well, it's not supposed to be easy, I guess. Now wait a sec . . . if I've got a turbo, I've got multiport heads, don't I? This thing is SPFI, with single ports. Don't the EA82Ts heads have multi intake ports?

Yes. The same timing belts.

OK, I've got the A/C compressor swapped and all the other pieces installed (alt., rad, fan & clutch, AT lines, etc.) and I'm pouring water in, and about 1/2 gallon in, I hear the sound I dread: water hitting the floor. It appears that these EA82 heads have a drain port (?), maybe a 12mm hole in each head. I blew air up in them, and they definitely go to the cooling system. So . . . I've sold my spare heads, and I've sent the other set back to AHR as cores for these rebuilt ones. I've got no manuals that cover this, and no other EA82s laying around to look at for an example. Just what goes in these holes? Bolts with seal washer under head? Pipe plugs?

So, I'm taking a break from swapping my A/C compressor (Thanks, Turbone!), and my eyes spot the NAPA Timing belt Replacement Recommendations booklet. This is what it has to say on the subject of Subarus: [b]Model/Year[/b] [b]Engine[/b] [b]NAPA Belt[/b] [b]Recommended[/b] [b]Part No.[/b] [b]Replacement[/b] [b](Miles)[/b] [b]Coupe[/b] 1985-89[b]Loyale[/b] 1985-89[b]RX[/b] 1985-89[b]XT[/b] 1985-91 1.8L 4-Cyl. Right Hand Belt 250300 52,000 Left Hand Belt 250299 52,000[b]Impreza & Outback Sport[/b]1993 1.8L 4-Cyl. 250172 60,0001994 1.8L 4-Cyl. 250254 60,0001995-97 1.8L 4-Cyl. 250254 60,000 Federal 105,000 Calif.1995-98 2.2L 4-Cyl. 250254 60,000 Federal 105,000 Calif.1999-01 2.2L 4-Cyl. (SOHC) 250304 105,0001996-97 2.5L 4-Cyl. (DOHC) 250277 60,000 1998-99 2.5L 4-Cyl. (DOHC) 250277 105,000[b]Justy[/b]1987-95 1.2L 3-Cyl 250135 60,000[b]Legacy & Outback[/b]1993 2.2L 4-Cyl. 250172 60,0001994 2.2L 4-Cyl. 250254 60,0001995-98 2.2L 4-Cyl. 250254 60,000 Federal 105,000 Calif.1999-01 2.2L 4-Cyl. (SOHC) 250304 105,0001996-97 2.5L 4-Cyl. (DOHC) 250277 60,0001998-99 2.5L 4-Cyl. (DOHC) 250277 105,0002000-01 2.5L 4-Cyl. (SOHC) 250307 105,000[b]SVX[/b]1992-94 3.3L 6-Cyl. 250209 60,0001995-97 3.3L 6-Cyl. 250209 60,000 Federal 105,000 Calif.[b]XT6[/b]1988-91 2.7L 6-Cyl. Right Hand Belt 250150 60,000 Left Hand Belt 250151 60,000[b]Forester[/b]1998 2.5L 4-Cyl. (DOHC) 250277 105,0001999-01 2.5L 4-Cyl. (SOHC) 250304 105,000 For EA82(T) engines, some handy part Nos.: NAPA (Victor) Timing Belt Components Kit, No, JV1028 ($56). It includes the cam seals, front crankshaft seal, camshaft seal carrier o-rings, oil pump shaft seal (but not the pump mounting "Mickey Mouse" gasket), and the best part: all of the timing covers gaskets, those convoluted pieces that are always oil-soaked and often nearly impossible to put back on after they've become swollen. This kit is incorrectly described as a "Timing gasket kit", but it includes the seals, too. Oil pump mounting/reseal kit, Beck-Arnley 039-6320 ($24), comes with oil pump shaft seal, oil pump high-temp o-ring, and most importantly the "Mickey Mouse" pump mounting gasket (see http://usmb.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3517 for a good pic of how they fail). Also consider replacing the timing belt tensioners: Beck-Arnley 024-1008 ($74 list) 024-1046 ($69 list) The driver's side timing belt also has an idler, as well as a tensioner. I bought the bearing only and replaced it myself (using a couple of big sockets and a bench vise). I don't have the generic brg number here, but I bought a BCA brand brg, their No. 203SS, and it fit perfectly. The A/C idler bearing is a BCA 202FF

Well, that explains why you only have this leak OTOH, you have so many more to look forward to -- unless you sell one of use that rig

Also make sure you've got the L&R belts correct. IIRC, the passenger belt is shorter.

Looks like an EA82T? Maybe '85 or older? That hose looks like somebody replaced the OEM PCV breather hose with heater hose. Heater hose is not particularly oil-resistant, particularly on the inside. It gets soft and swells (and leaks) easily when exposed to oil very long. On the several I've looked at, the EA82 PCV hoses seem to get very hard and brittle over time, esp. the pieces that are directly attached to the tops of the valve covers, as the one you show, and the first time you touch them, they like to snap off at the top of the nipple, but even if they don't, they crack and leak 1" up. I've bought a couple from Subaru. The L&R are about $30 each for NA; I priced a left side one for an '86 turbo and it was about $29 four months ago. I assume that the right side (the one you show) would be about the same. As Subaru uses a bastard ID PCV hose, making replacement via the aftermarket difficult, I'd suggest buying one from Subaru. As extra insurance, when replacing it, use a std worm-drive hose clamp or similar, rather than the light spring clamp that Subaru originally used. Incidentally: if that's the only major oil leak, you've won the Subaru oil leak lottery. There are a lot worse oil leaks to have to fix on an EA82 (oil pump mtg., camcase o-rings, head gaskets, cam seals, crank seals, etc.). You are living the clean life

Dumb Q, but what is "USDM"? Couldn't find a definition via Google.

"Partial synthetic" is sorta like "genuine gold-plated". It's a blend of something Valvoline calls synthetic (which might be a Group II/III oil, or it could be a PAO oil) but you don't know which. And it's anybody's guess as to how much "synthetic" oil they put in the bottle. IOW, a rip-off. You could see 2-3 lbs oil pressure difference between a rainy day and a sunny day. You mineral oil may be a better oil than the synthetic blend. A good Group II oil can have lower NOACK volitility than a sh*tty synthetic blend. But I have no numbers to back that up. Unrelated: I ran across this pic of a Forester with a dual-bypass filter setup.

Like Skip's tip, this only works on old-school distributors, this one with a vacuum advance unit: The vac. unit is mounted to the dist body at an angle, like the starter cord on a chainsaw. Line your finger up over the top of the advance unit, it'll point toward one side of the dist. Imagine it's the chainsaw starter rope. Your finger is pointing in the direction of rotation. Works for dual-diaphragm units, too. Useless for EA82 and newer, of course.