scoobydube

You can buy whatever bolt you want off of EBAY. Be sure and get grade 10.9 high strength bolts. The original OEM bolts are most likely OK so you don't need to get paranoid about replacing them. Just do not over torque them. Which is 47 ft lbs to 55 ft lbs. Fel pro gaskets go longest, and only blow out when the bolts loosen up due to water intrusion. About 100 ft lbs will break the bolt off at the face of the block.

A faulty vacuum pump in the distributor causes all kinds of problems. So does a faulty O2 sensor on the exhaust. My idle adjustment screw is on the top of the intake manifold. You would back it out to get leaner and higher idle rpm. As you back it out, the rpm will stop getting higher. Then you stop and turn it back in 1/4 turn. The distributors need to be rebuilt as the ball bearings inside tend to wear grooves into the two flat plates that they ride between in my 86. The swing weights in the guts of the distributor can get funky and bind up. Don't expect a smooth operating engine if you have never checked your distributor for wear.

Sweet ride.

the bolts on the front and back in the top row, can get water intrusions that both rusts the bolt and causes them to back out. If you caulk the holes above those holes, the problem goes away.

Those are the wrong bolts. The OEM are M12 x 1.25 and extend about an inch into the block. Grade 10.9. Yes you can break them off at the block if you apply more than the prescribed torque. And the broken tip takes a couple of hours to remove. You reuse the old washers.

Fouling after driving down the hill with clutch engaged, would likely be the pistons sucking oil past the rings into the combustion chamber. The dirty plug would confirm that. There is an mixture adjustment screw on the top of my intake manifold. You lean it out by unscrewing it and getting the highest idle rpm. You stop unscrewing it just as the maximum rpm is reached.

The original bolts are so soft that they will break off with very little tightening. There is no idiots guide that says one must overtorque high strenth bolts. Given the limited thickness of the gasket, I would think that it would be quite impossible to warp that small of an oil pan, unless you are not into equal tightening on all sides. Removing the oil pan while the engine is in place, I believe it impossible. Beside accessing the rear bolt being quite difficult, the oil pan needs to slide out towards the rear due to the sloped oil intake tube below the engine. So snugging up new bolts appears to be the only viable option, unless you want to pull the engine.

Go to Ebay and buy longer and also high strength bolts. What you have in their now are the soft M6-1.0 x 13 mm long bolts. If you tighten them, they snap off. Go with the 10.9 high strength grade flare head bolts in the 16 mm length and tighten them up until you can't tighten them anymore. This will really cut back on the oil pan leaks. At the back of the oil pan, you can do some light grinding of the cross frame in order to get a 1/4" socket set in there with some swivel end attachments. It requires a 10 mm end socket and you would want the 1/4" version of that.

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.