So my dad picked up a subaru loyale to fix up our old one, we believe they are both 1994 engines. Everything went smooth swapping the engines. We used the best from the 2 cars, fly weel, transaxle, engine, oil pump, valve cover gaskets, timing belts, exhaust manifold, and a new battery. We took our sweet time to make sure everything was put together the same way that we pulled it apart.

We filled the car up with the essential liquids, gear oil, engine oil, coolant, power steering fluid. Like I said, everything was running smooth.

We got to the point of starting the car. We can get it to start by turning the key, but the only way it runs is by holding the gas pedal down, to get it past 1500 rpm about 1500- the car sputters to a die. 1500+ and the car runs smooth like it should. We think that it is a spark plug problem. But we checked all 4 and they are all giving a spark. We took the distributor apart, everything was a little dirty, easily cleaned. Still no change.

We aren't to the point of setting the idle screw, because the car won't even idle up to 1500 rpm! It should idle about 700rpm. Or so our subaru manual recommends.

So the car starts, sputters, then runs after 1500 rpm, dies below 1500 rpm.

HELP

sounds like a vacuum leak problem

My guy and I have been over the vacuum lines a couple times. Any other ideas?

Check for computer codes ?

Idle air control valve. Coolant Temperature sensor. Check them and thier circuits. I doubt it is spark related.

Are they both automatic or manual.  The computers for auto or manual might be different.

 

Good luck,

Sam

Both are manual. I didn't want to try and deal with automatic. I will check those as well, but can't for about a week. Valentine's day is the busiest day of the year where I work...

Thanks guys!

Both are manual. I didn't want to try and deal with automatic. I will check those as well, but can't for about a week. Valentine's day is the busiest day of the year where I work...

Thanks guys!

Check iac circuit. Any codes thrown? Check the three fuel hoses are correct into throttle body. They are all routed side by side and can easily be accidentally swapped.

Qbert's dad here. The donor car had a busted timing belt so there is no way of knowing if there was any other issues when I bought the car. We kept the donor car's drive train, radiator and exhaust, both are MT. Planning on running with only the elect fan. Donor radiator did not have temp sensor so we used sensor from old radiator. We put teflon tape on the threads. We didn't swap the ECUs. 

 

His description of the problem is fairly accurate. Rough idle and throughout RPMs, but "sounds" better above 1500rpm. I was checking things out while it was running, probably for 45minutes. About this time I realized that we had No temp readings or oil pressure readings in dashboard. Certainly my biggest concern is the lack of oil pressure reading, so either we have no oil pressure or there is a problem with the sensor connection. If its an oil pressure problem, I gotta fix that 1st. 

 

We put in new seals/orings on oil pump. There are 2 terminals on the oil pump, I've hooked the connector to both of them and there is NO change in reading. Is there something else needed for reading?

If you really had no oil pressure, the lifters would be making a hell of a clattering.

 

Some EA82 engines used oil pressure senders, big sensor screwed int the pump.  Some used just the switch & light, smaller sender.

 

The car harness used the same single wire, to the same place on the instrument cluster connections.  So if there is a meter, it should just work by connecting to the big sender.  No Teflon tape allowed on the senders....

 

Maybe check the engine ground wire.

 

I had an idle air control valve fail once, it caused the engine to die when you let go of the throttle, so it's a good idea to check it and the wiring to it.

Don't mess with the "idle set screw" on the throttle body. That's not what it is. And adjusting it from its factor setting will only make your problems worse.

 

Are you sure you've set up the timing belts correctly?

@DaveT
Yeah I didn't think there was a prob w/oil pressure because the engine sounded "ok" even though it isn't purring. I'll test the connections again.

Coolant sensor -

Removed the sensor and removed the teflon tape. reinstalled sensor.

GND path -

BAT to block is good [wire brushed both ends].

~16AWG wire from mount under ALT to small fuse block [wire brushed engine end].

~10AWG wire from Chassis connected to BAT GND terminal [wire brushed both ends].

So I think my GND paths are good.

IACV -

swapped this with the one from the other engine. It is now idling better, but the backfire at the intake still exists. Sh!t, just realized this has not been mentioned in either of our posts.

@markjw
Idle screw -

no telling if this has ever been adjusted. I have to start with the assumption that it hasn't

Timing -

We took the covers back off and set the finger on the bell housing at the center of the 3 hash marks and both cams marks teeth were pointed right at the marks on the top of the covers. I also looked at where the rotor is pointing and it looks to be ~120°off from cylinder 1 TDC fire point. I haven't found a post stating where it should be when setting crank to cams. I did give the rotor a shake to see if it might be worn. It all is pretty tight. I did look at the gears when we did the valve cover gasket and it looked good from what I could tell.

My guess is the backfire at the intake is now the primary issue. Any suggestions on how to move forward?

Edited February 29, 201610 yr by badair

If the pointer is pointing at the middle hash mark, then the hole in the face of the driver side cam gear should be at the 12 o'clock position when you install the driver side belt. Then rotate the engine over until the hole in the face of the driver side cam is at the 6 o'clock position and the pointer is again at the middle hash mark.

 

Now move to the passenger side cam, position it at the 12 o'clock position and install that belt.

 

When you drop in the distributor, the rotor usually points somewhere towards the back edge of the brake master cylinder for #1 dizzy pole.

backfire at the intake

 

could you elaborate ?  Backfiring can be a timing problem.

Timing -

We took the covers back off and set the finger on the bell housing at the center of the 3 hash marks and both cams marks teeth were pointed right at the marks on the top of the covers. I also looked at where the rotor is pointing and it looks to be ~120°off from cylinder 1 TDC fire point. I haven't found a post stating where it should be when setting crank to cams. I did give the rotor a shake to see if it might be worn. It all is pretty tight. I did look at the gears when we did the valve cover gasket and it looked good from what I could tell.

My guess is the backfire at the intake is now the primary issue. Any suggestions on how to move forward?

 

If I'm reading that right, both cam dots are up. That is the problem.

 

One dot up, other dot down.

Follow what markjw posted about T-belt install.

 

Disty timing has different marks on the flywheel marked off with degrees.

+1 what others wrote about the timing marks. 1 up 1 down is correct.

EA82 timing belts are 180 degrees out of phase. This has tripped up folks before. There is a famous youtube video of a guy who took his loyale to Canadian Tire for timing belts.  They got it wrong.

 

 

Oh and for the love of God people, never let the tire place do major engine work.

Edited March 1, 201610 yr by MR_Loyale

For your oil / temp gauge issue.  To test simply turn the key on and ground each wire.  Your gauge should peg out high with the wire grounded.

If it doesn't you have a harness or cluster issue and need more troubleshooting.

For your oil / temp gauge issue.  To test simply turn the key on and ground each wire.  Your gauge should peg out high with the wire grounded.

 

If it doesn't you have a harness or cluster issue and need more troubleshooting.

Doesn't that risk damaging the gauges ?

Doesn't that risk damaging the gauges ?

No.

For your oil / temp gauge issue.  To test simply turn the key on and ground each wire.  Your gauge should peg out high with the wire grounded.

 

If it doesn't you have a harness or cluster issue and need more troubleshooting.

 

 

Doesn't that risk damaging the gauges ?

 

 

No.

 

Yes it does.

You should always have SOME resistance in sender circuits to limit the current.

I use a 10 turn potentiometer to check gauge calibrations.

Just a follow up. We got the timing set CORRECTLY now. Thanks for helping me see that there was still a problem there. I'm so glad for it being a non interfering engine. Soobie is purring normal now . We'll tackle the sensor/sender issue next. I have leaded resistors to do the testing. Will update once we figure out what's going on with it.

 

Thank you all for the guidance. Awesome board members here

Goodtimes!

Grounding the gauge temporarily will do absolutely no damage to the gauges in these cars.

Simply have someone sit in the car.  Ground the wire.  You should see the oil gauge start to slowly climb.

If you left it grounded permanently then after a great amount of time it could burn out the heated element on the gauge itself.  This isn't going to happen in 10 seconds for a simple test.

If you want to get all technical then yes one would either figure out the mid range resistance the sending unit puts out and simulate it with a resistor or rig up a potentiometer but I wanted to give the OP a quick and easy test.



 

Yes it does.

You should always have SOME resistance in sender circuits to limit the current.

I use a 10 turn potentiometer to check gauge calibrations.

Edited March 6, 201610 yr by firehawk618