I have a 1987 Subaru XT, non turbo, stock engine. I recently had to down the car for several moths after my brother overheated the engine and cracked a head, a small water hose burst. After getting a set of heads from a junk yard and getting them check out at a local machine shop, the car is back together and running pretty smooth. I only have a few glitches, first the idle seems super low, and if I raise the idle by opening the butterfly valve a little bit it returns to idle very slow and flutters sometime. My other brother, not the one that cracked the head, told me that the idle is controled by a sensor and valve on the thermostat. He was wondering if there is anyway to adjust that valve. The idle seems to be about 400-500 RPM after it has warmed up, once I give it a little gas the idle comes right back up. The only concern we have is that the oil pressure is pretty low at this RPM and water isn't really being moved to cool the engine very well and if it idles for too long the engine temp creaps up a little, still less then halfway on the gauge (I need a numbered gauge, that is the next purchase before summer hits).

 

Any ideas on how to up the idle without making it flutter or return to idle very slow. Also the car clutches chatters and the car shutters when taking off from a full stop. This only happens every now and again and only when I am driving, my brother doesn't seem to have a problem. It seems to do it more after warming up and after coming off the freeway. Agian it doesn't do it all the time. The clutch is almost brand new, before teh cracked head the clutch had maybe 2000 miles on it. The only thing I can think is when it was sitting the clutch or flywheel may have gotten a little rust on it, but that should be cleaned off after using the clutch for a while.

 

Sorry for the long post and I really appreciate any information. I also posted in the marketplace, I am looking for some interior parts.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

John

Hey John, good to see another enthusiastic XT owner:cool:

 

Idle seems to be a bit funny on these cars. My XT, when I would first start it up in the morning, would require gas to keep it running. It would start, go up to about 1500, then head straight for 0, unless I caught it. It would bounce around for a second, then after about 30 seconds, sit pretty at 1000 rpm. I have not corrected anything about it, I just catch it and wait until idle is stable. It has not caused me any other problems (yet)

 

As for the clutch, the fact that it's brand-new tells me that the disc is barely seated, which can cause some shuddering, and the fact that it's a Subaru clutch My Legacy's clutch has 20k on it (131k on the car) and I can still make it shudder really hard if I want to. My only tip is to alter your driving style to prevent that as much as possible.

 

Anyway, enjoy your XT, and join us on xt6.net if you like. It's open to XT 4cyls as well as 6's