scoobydube

My money is on the bearings on the inside of the engine, at both crankshaft, and piston rods, are rusted up so that you would have to tear the crankcase completely apart and replace them. Then the steel piston rings are probably also rusted in place and did not help the cylinder walls any. Long story short, you are wasting your time with an engine that has water condensing inside the crankcase, due to the changes in weather, regardless of whether it was under a hood or not.

The cylinder head compression tell you whether you need new velpro gaskets. Less than 140 psi and you should replace. Wheel bearings can be stuffed to the max with synthetic grease every time you replace a cv joint and you will go forever on them. The water pump has a special height to the pulley so pay attention to that. You have periodically make sure the timing belts are tight by loosening the two bolts for each and allowing the springs to tighten up the belt. Do it every 5000 miles. The water pump has a hole in the top and a hole in the bottom. Plug the top hole up with a gasket maker otherwise dirt will get to the bearings and you will be back to replacing it every 15,000 to 25,000 miles, instead of 40,000 or more. Rebuilt CV axles last 200,000 miles from O'Reillys. Don't waste your rebooting them because they are going to start clicking soon thereafter. Nowadays, the only suppliers for cables is the aftermarket parts from your favorite parts store. Subaru stopped making them. U-pull-it has lots of parts, when you can find the cars there. But Facebook is your best place to find a car that you can get parts off of.

You may be able to buy the 88 wiring with the used 88 distributor from the source that I mentioned. One additional electrical issue that I have on my 86, is the hot wire from the alternator, gets hot, gets brittle and breaks within about 6 inches of the alternator or at the alternator. Then the engine runs on the battery until the battery is dead. Then is won't crank the engine over and everything is as dead as a door nail. Also, both distributor cap bolts need to be down tight. There are issues with the diaphragm not allowed the forward screw, not able to be fully tightened.

It would be the 85 to 94 EA 82 engine series. I am assuming that nothing improved with the loyales as I was working on an 86 turbo. An additional note, I squirted as much lithium grease in each end of the cable as I could get, before installation. After installation, I noticed considerably less resistance in the operation of the clutch.

CLUTCH CABLES last about the life of 1 1/2 clutches, or about 150,000 miles. I am leaving a few tips here for your future search when you can't find a mechanic who can figure this one out. I came up with two tricks to help considerably in this nightmare of a project. The first trick is to fashion your own spring compressor out of rebar tie wire, going from one side at one end, to the opposite side at the opposite end, with a circular loop, and then do the mirror image for the other side of the spring. Set the spring in a vice with a 10mm socket over the rod end, in order to compress the spring to be as short as possible. You will have to remove the spring from the clutch lever arm in order to do this, and then reinstall the spring with the compressor still attached, before attempting final reassembly. The second trick is to fashion two 6 mm x 35 mm bolts with a filed down point on the end, to replace the two 6 mm x 30 mm bolts in place. The lower one of those bolts should be inserted in it's proper hole in the loose base retainer for the spring, before the spring is reinstalled between your loose clutch lever are and your loose base retainer for the spring. The reason for the spring compressor is make it possible to slip both the brake lever arm and the holed end of the base retainer, over the main lateral pivot bolt for both the clutch and the brake. The reason for the pointed end bolts is that you won't likely be able to use the existing bolts and get them to find the hole to which they are anchored in the anchor plate. So to help with terminology. From left to right, at the front of the clutch assembly, you have the spring assembly, the base retainer for the spring, the actual clutch cable Tee end with two holes, and then the anchor plate. The clutch lever arm has three attachments. One to the main lateral pivot bolt, one to the back end of the compressor spring, and one to the back end of the clutch cable. Subaru no longer makes these cables and there is only one supplier. Those clutch cables are quite stiff due to sitting around for 10 years. Which makes them difficult to work with. Although the Subaru manual says to remove the entire brake and clutch assembly from the firewall, I removed all 4 of those bolts and it would not budge. Furthermore, you are not going to get it very far from the fire wall with that assembly because the right end of it extends over the top of the steering column to the accelerator.

The trip computer beep also comes on when your power steering fluid is very low.

Stuff all the synthetic grease into the old bearings that you can. You might use some 2000 grit sandpaper and see what you can take off on the CV axle.

Lower the lift. Problem solved.

Helicoils are a joke. The solid steel inserts, by whatever brand, and with thread lock on them are the only way to go. Don't over drill the hole and it is better to be too shallow and grind off the excess, than too deep and spring a leak.

Why not just get an 88 distributor from Johns Subaru in Gaston Oregon? The brains in them, burn out every 100k or so. In my 86 GL10, there are two relay switches beneath the dash, that can cause the engine to not fire. They don't last forever, and should be replaced when it is in your garage, instead of paying for a tow off of some mountain top. The black fusible link also allows the engine to run. Mine went out on some back road in BC. The condensor/thingamajig that runs from the coil to the engine ground, can blow and not allow the engine to run. Coils can blow and should produce 12 volts. A cracked distributor cap may also cause the engine to quit, like it did with mine on a snowy pass at 15deg F in Colorado. Corroded fuel injector connectors will cause problems, particularly with the #1 cylinder. The black box over your knees can go out. The engine to body ground can get overheated, brittle and lose it's ability to pass sufficient current to run the engine. That happens at the screw to the body. Just wait until your clutch cable goes out. You don't know what problems are until you have to replace a clutch cable.

If you are getting the "beep of imminent death" from your ECU, when driving around, or even on startup, then your timing has issues. Various issues include, 1. rotor screw dropped out, 2. timing belts have never been tightened which should be done every 5000 to 8000 miles, 3. one side has skipped a tooth due to loose timing belts. Other symptoms include, engine power fluctuating, idles at a lower rpm than usual, less than normal power, runs rough on startup, heavy valve lifter noise. All of these indicate a timing issue.

Johns Subaru Auto Body in Gaston Oregon has a whole box of subaru distributors, of which at least a half dozen would fit the 86. (503) 985-7110 In that distributor, you have swing weights in the bottom that can get worn, you have tiny ball bearings that can dig into two plates that makes your vacuum advance not work smoothly, you have the vacuum mechanism that can go out and cause it to run roughly or not start at all, and you have the black brains on the top. The black brains go out often.

When you buy the entire CV axial, the boots will last for a couple hundred thousand miles. What the subaru mechanics like to do it coat them with a fluid that causes them to disintegrate in about 3 weeks, so you will be back in 4 weeks to have even more work done. It is generally a waste of time to put new boots on a high mileage CV axial. Replace the entire assembly.

Although I recently had similar symptoms, I finally read the trouble code and got 14. Copilot told me that my #1 cylinder injector was malfunctioning. Upon inspection, there was lots of white corrosion inside of the connector. Scratching as much of that corrosion off, not only made the engine run normal again, but it meant that I did not have to go shopping for another car. Win-Win.

An EGR red light on your dash would indicate that either your EGR valve has issues or your EGR solenoid has issues. A faulty EGR setup can cause the problems that you describe, according to the Subaru manual and CoPilot.

Your descriptions sounds like a problem I had when the Exhaust Gas Temperature sensor in the exhaust needed replacing. $25 You also might want to change out all of the relay switches under the dash over your left knee cap. Make sure all the breather hoses are soft and get a good seal, as the rock hard breather hoses on top of the engine no longer seal. See my thread on Rock Hard Breather Hoses. Make sure that the timing advance vacuum on the distributor still holds a vacuum when you suck on the inlet. Take apart the distributor if it is not an electronic distributor, and make sure all of the swing weights are not worn on their pivot, have grease on them and they swing properly. Make sure the distributor cap is not cracked. Verify that the engine problems do not occur only when you are running accessories. If accessories cause the engine problems then you need to change out your engine ground at it's left front connection to the frame, and also look for rock hard electrical wires running from your + positive battery terminal to the bottom side of the fusible link box as it loses it's ability to carry current.

The engine develops more power and responds quicker as a result of improving the suction in this breather system, for some odd reason.

Better to figure out why it does not work right, instead getting some vague description of a problem from trouble codes. What are the symptoms? For instance, my car suddenly decided not to maintain it's idle, even when giving it enough gas. Then it would suddenly run right for a mile, but then do the same thing later. I first replaced the alternator since I keep a spare. No change. Then I swapped out the two engine relay switches. No change. So that narrowed it down to the distributor for me. So I thought that the distributor brains were going out. I pulled the distributor and was ready to swap out the brains with a backup distributor with the wrong gearing, and by chance I sucked on the timing advance diaphragm inlet. Vella! It would not hold a vacuum. So, I swapped out the timing advance diaphragm and it worked perfectly again. Obviously, I saved myself from have an actual Subaru dealer look at it, where they either would not likely be able to figure it out, or they would have fixed it, charged my a small fortune in order to get my car back, and sabotaged it so that I would have to bring it back in 30 days. Standard Subaru mechanic scam.

Your market is teenagers and early 20's, that have no money. They would not be leaving it as is, but instead would be jacking it up, putting new larger wheels on it and turning it into a ditch banger. So the top value would probably be no more than $1500. Unless it is a show car. Since you did not mention the mileage, I assume that it is over 250,000. If it is the original engine, then cut that price in half.

The distributors don't last forever. Plus, you need to take them apart and make sure that all the moving parts have grease and swing properly. I have gone through one distributor every 100,000 miles or less. The little black plastic electronic thing a ma jig in the center goes bad, then there is no spark to the plugs. As far as electricity to the injectors, that could be the black wire in the fusible links, that runs the entire engine. Another culprit could be the capacitor that wires into the coil, that will cause the engine to not start. Obviously, you have to have installed the timing belts exactly right, and you need prior experience to do that. Coils also go bad. Then there is the electrical connectors of the hot wire coming off of the alternator. That wire with the looped end connector loses it's conductivity due to overheating, so you have to cut back the lead and reinstall a new loop end to reattach to the alternator. Ground wires also lose their ability to conduct electricity at the body end of the wire. If they are stiff, they are bad. If before you took everything apart, and tried to run the electric windows at the same time the engine was running, but that caused the engine to miss or drop in rpm, then the ground wire is bad. I use two ground wires to be safe. There are two out of the six rectifiers under the dash over your left knee, that will cause the engine to not run. You can look for a burned one or replace all of them. Don't buy them from Subaru, because they will sell you the same rectifier that you can buy on the internet for$10, but for $50.

You can remove the auxiliary fan to improve the air flow around the engine, and install a lower temperature thermostat that opens up sooner. You can also drill some holes in your thermostat to increase the coolant flow and lower the engine temperatures that way. In the winter, you would want to put the standard thermostat back in. Few air conditioners still work.

Tell us what is at the other end of the wiring and we well tell you what is bad. I have six relay switches under my 86 turbo dash. Since they were getting real hot and putting of nauseating fumes, I relocated them to ammo cans placed behind the front seats. Two relay switches keep my engine running. Two relay switches keep the head lights and digital dash running. One relay switch keeps the fan running and one relay switch probably goes to the rear window defroster, which I removed the fuses for. The original relay switches are mostly bad by now. Do not buy new relay switches from Subaru, because you can buy the same ones off of Ebay for 1/4 the cost that the Subaru dealer is going to hose you for. When your engine suddenly stops running, the cause is usually either relays switches, the black fusible link, the left side timing belt broken, a bad coil, the condenser next to the coil, or a bad distributor. Carry spares where possible. You have to take your distributor apart periodically and make sure that the swing weights and all other moveable parts are swinging and rolling freely and have light weight lithium grease. I have never had an ECU go out in 530,000 plus miles.

My 86 Turbo has no wiring to the engine mounted radiator fan. The other auxiliary fan that blocks air flowing through the radiator and blocks cooling air to the turbo area, has wiring. But I took it completely out with no over heating problems whatsoever. I even went back to a single core radiator and have no problems. Take it out.

My first fuel pump broke down at 150,000 miles. My second fuel pump is still going strong at 380,000 miles but I carry a backup. In my experience, when the engine ground wire from the left cam cover by the battery, to the ground on the frame, becomes rock hard at the connection to the frame at 250,000 miles, multiple accessories will cause the engine to run rough. So you may have a bad ground wire. I run two ground wires at the same location because I am so paranoid of it happening again and at the worst possible location. Used fuel pumps from U-pull-it are fine if the car was not sitting for years before they sold it off to the yard. And they are cheap. As are the ground wires.

I doubt that you can buy the OEM breather hoses from Subaru anymore. The double curve hoses are particularly hard to replace by shopping on line because the offset of the two ends is unique to the car, and unlikely to be made by Gates and others. So I improvised for a fraction of the retail prices that I see listed on Ebay, by using 3/4" diameter high temp silicone coolant hose in the multilayer type, brass barbed elbows and then enough 7/8" clamps to make those single and double curves. Once the original hoses crack, then your engine is not going to run well. So I wanted to replace with the new and pliable hoses to head off that potential breakdown.