Petersubaru

GD...I am seeking your best guesstimate..the manifold gaskets were dry on both sides...took off the heads and the gaskets look good, even under a magnifying glass, with no signs of water anywhere..Since both plugs were carboned up on one side, I thought at least I would find some crack or tear in the middle of the gasket or a part of the gasket that is close to both cylinders...I have seen few other blown subi headgaskets and each one showed evidence of coolant leakage...got a call from the machine shop and was told that one head has a very fine crack (hairline) and is of course considered normal,..but the other side has a crack that is wider (slightly open).. also, this is the head that was on the same side that had the darker plugs (is this just a coincidence?)...the machine shop has no experience with subi heads to do any testing or giving any advice beyond what has been said here..I appreciated there honesty because most other places would have just milled them and sent me on my way...(I have had that happen to me already)..before doing this FI conversion, testing and monitoring of the coolant was done, and obviously things don't work out as planned...any thoughts??

..just wondering if these do Not need to be retorqued..

..learning something new again..I have always thought the "external" leaks were the norm and find your experience interesting and certainly most timely..the 2 mid '80 subarus that I have driven over the last 20 yrs have both once developed external leaks and adding a stop leak took care of it for a long time...just having finished the spfi conversion and thinking all is good, then yesterday, apon starting the car I noticed some white exhaust smoke which never disappeared..its got to be internal since no coolant can be found leaking, plus now, the car is running rough and the 2 spark plugs on the drivers side are too dark in color, and no coolant is going into the overflow container no matter how hot it gets..what I find confusing is that the temp gauge does not go more then the normal half way mark even after extended idleing..the compression gauge reads 160-163 psi for all 4 cyls...I learned my lesson a long time ago, "not" to use the fel-pro manifold gaskets..so OEM manif. where used...is there a way to test, if just by some chance the manifold gasket is leaking...

Thankyou, and the battery was tested and found to be very weak..cranking amps are very low, so it was a good time to find this problem well ahead of the coming cold weather ..I got nine years out of the battery...

..is there any reason why the idle drops when putting the headlights on..I lose about 60 rpm when sitting at the corner ....... also when stepping on the brake pedal, the fuel pump slows down momentarily..I am useing the fuel pump off my old turbo...

as mentioned earlier, with the present set-up, everything is running ok...the injector which made the car run rough has returned from the cleaning/refurbishing shop ..installed into the other spare/original throttle body and then installed into the car..definitely the cleaning helped in this case, a very noticeable difference..for what ever reason, the injector "clicking" sound is now louder after the cleaning...sooo , I have one complete throttle body that seems to be operateing as near perfect as can be...at cold start the rpm is at 1600 and then very shortly drops in rpm ..the other complete throttle body also has a good working injector, but its behavior is somewhat different..the cold start takes the rpm to 2000 and stays there, also at times it is hunting, but when warmed up, all is good..I have changed out the coolant sensor (not sender), but, still makes no difference...I am putting the problem at this moment onto the idle control unit for not working properly and will keep it as a spare when travelling across the country..tomorrow I will install a 3 wire O2 sensor

....being familiar with only "top down" injectors, nothing in the above quote made any sense to me until taking the injector cover off , and later only to realize the inj. is fed thru the side...anyway, tried your method and in less then a second that inj. popped out (I wonder why this common sense approach to inj.removal is not in the manual)...installing another injector brought other benefits...starts just by turning the key, once warmed up idles at 750rpm, smooth feeling through out the rpm range, no more slight roughness above idle...

Has anyone ever done this before??..the subi manual shows channel locks pliers holding the injector "after" removal...but how do you even begin to dislodge the unit from the holder when so little of the injector is available to grab onto..

..the throttle set screw has been reset and tested to within specs useing my digital voltage meter..connecting the 2 green connectors only give 5 short "bleeps" and then repeats itself..as you recommended, I did check for vac leaks and did find a leak around where the sensors and rubber tubing for the carbon canister hook into and got that repaired, (what a difference a few vacuum caps can make)...also pulled the IAC screw out and cleaned inside with a spray cleaner..now the car runs very smooth at idle and I believe this problem has been dealt with...However, there is still a little roughness, although barely noticeable, with some very faint popping or a miss that can be heard when the car reaches around 2000-2500rpm..I plan on getting a new O2 and coolant sensor plus have the injector cleaned...hopefully this might make a difference for complete smoothness...

the conversion parts came off a car that seemed to work flawlessly..just turn the key "only" and it started immediately and ran smoothly every time...now that the conversion is done, both "starting and idleing" at 700-800rpm can only be done if the throttle plate is kept "slightly" more open, otherwise it just idles at 500-550rpm...I turned the throttle plate adjusting screw to increase the rpm so that final timing adjustments could be made..I tried adjusting the idle by turning the IAS screw and the rpm increased but now ran rough, so that didn't work..other then this slight problem, it runs very nice..

The "cat" is a long time dead

How much longer beyond stock can the O2 sensor wire be lengthened...with the spfi con., I would like to move the present location of the 02 sen. to just "after" the cat for ease of o2 access...the original cat 25 yrs old, failed emissions 10yrs ago and has 240Kmi

would anybody have the part # for the "green colored" guide pin ,front caliper, for an '01 OB

"thicker guide pins", could this be the common denominator, that the bmw/mb crowd are experienceing..the dealerships are useing aftermarket products..Naa, that couldn't happen.. if those BMW pins are as expensive as the guide pins for my '86 jetta, who wouldn't use the aftermarket..example,.. since I live in Canada, guide pins and the sleeve to fit into the caliper holder cost..$120 plus 14%tax and that is for one side..the stealership told me that they buy the guide pins from carquest down the street..went there..a little cheaper at $60..I eventually got them at rockauto $6-8 per side...

I believe I found the problem and thankyou all so much for attempting to find a solution for me...dismantled the caliper etc twice in the last couple of hrs and piston size nearly covers the width of the pad , so all is ok ..drove around a bit and decided to look one more time at the guide pins, BECAUSE, it just occurred to me that the pins, one pin on each side was not subaru approved, but aftermarket, (can't remember the name)..even though they seemed to be OK (in and out movement)when greased up, but after each dismantle were tight, difficult to turn or "spin" in the bore,(different from my other brake jobs)..I "miked" them up and no matter how many times I measured, the aftermarket pins were 1.5 thou. thicker....still having the other 2 aftermarket pins in the garage..the ones that I did not use that take the rubber end, ..I could not, unless with force get them into the guide holes ... they were .002 thicker..looking at rockauto there seems to be slightly different designs of the guide pins and No, they do not, all come from one place..

..Akobono ceramics

..it is my view also that if the rotors were warped I would exchange them for new..turning the rotors for me is just to clean up and give a new surface for the pads..the last turning only took about off .004, and I still have a disc thickness of 24mm (22mm being minimum)..I have also checked both caliper pistons and both sides move in and out very freely..from reading a couple of other web sites (BMW&MB)..some members are asking the same question and experienceing over and over again the problem of pad wear along the outer and inner edges (only for the inside pad)..also all have in common, are numerous visits to the dealerships, and those dealerships are also scratching their heads as to why the inside pad rocks from side to side (these complaints are coming from people whose car is dealership maintained)..a common statement.."you just live with it"..reminds me of many yrs ago of having a particular VW and when asking the mechanic, why is the inside of the rotor slightly glazed?... being told that "it was normal"..all this after they were maintained by the same person..again no answers..it is not exactly like I am a novice at this..having repaired countless brake systems over the last 10 yrs (family and friends) leaves me also scratching my head, especially when some of the brake jobs I have done are still working flawlessly, even after 5 or 6 yrs..my other subaru was done last in 2002..no binding and having even wear on both sides of the rotor, (the cheapest white box stuff money could buy) ..sooo, with new guide pins,rotors turned for fresh pads, pin/guide holes were inspected for cleanliness, lubed sparingly with japanesse slide grease to prevent any hydraulicing of the pins and rubber grease for the pin boots and pads that float freely in the caliper,caliper pistons moving freely, leaves me also out of any answers...My theory at the moment would lead me to believe that the caliper piston diameter is to "small" in relation the pad width..in time I will take some measurements, looking at the relationship of piston size to pad width , comparing my '86 and '01 might reveal something ..time will tell...

..rotors were turned..I never put new pads on an old surface..

.....the pins are new since 6 months ago and when just inspected are freely moving...no dirt or rust to speak of..

the pads are lubed up and float freely within the caliper..I even removed the anti-rattle clips to give more room...

on my '01 OB the inside of both rotors are slightly glazed, but only on the "outer and inside" edge of the disc..of course when looking at the pads, both edges are worn more then the center...since the pads are lubed and float freely within the carrier plus the guide pins are moving freely and greased..what would be the cause of this type of pattern??..I have searched the web and many people are experienceing the same brake problem..especially on very expensive cars..I found no real answer..except..possibly, I have reversed the pad order of placement, in otherwords some pad companies make an inner and outer pad..reversing the order will cause problems... go to the first answer after the question.. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100211045908AAk9qjF

..you be the judge @ http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66&Itemid=76

..no compelling to change..I just do the drop and fill once every yr ..cheap insurance, maybe ??

in all the yrs that I have driven, I have never before owned an auto tranny that I actually changed the fluid on...so the clutches are made of metal..I never knew

just got done draining the OB and on the magnetic plug I installed a yr ago is a very fine black creamy substance...what is it??