Got a new (to me) Subaru wagon to the house yesterday, after a good cleaning of the AirFlow Sensor, which is what the error code indicated.  Reading the forum and the manual, I see the listings for the MIL error codes, but now I see an error code that's not listed.  No long flashes, followed by 7 short flashes.  Does anyone know what this might indicate?

 

Currently the car will run for a second and by tapping on the accelerator, I can keep it going for a few seconds.  A visible symptom so far consists of oil in the breather tube leading from the AirFlow Sensor to the throttle body, I'm thinking it's coming from the crankcase vent tubes. This oily substance is what I cleaned from the AirFlow Sensor to get it to run at all.

7 on non turbo means normal function / ok

Thanks!  Now if I can get it to run for a few minutes, maybe the computer will generate new codes to let me know what's going on.  It sure isn't going to go anywhere the way it sputters and stalls right now...

I don't know the turbo version.

But with spfi, here's a few things to look at similar.

 

Idle air control valve.

Fuel pressure afters filters.

 

If you spray a carb cleaner into the intake for 2 to 3 seconds, then crank, does it fire and run for a few seconds?

 

A few times I have had one get flooded. They way to clear this is hold gas pedal to the floor and crank. It takes a longish time. So go in bursts. Eventually starts to sputter and run crummy then smooths out. But while flooded, they act dead like no fuel.

 

Again, I don't know how the turbo versions respond to similar situations.

I'm in luck then. Mine's not a turbo.  I was able to get it to run for a duration after removing the air flow sensor, disassembling the sensor, and spraying carb cleaner through it, and across the filaments. It ran for less than 10 minutes, after which the sensor again had motor oil in it.  I suspected a PCV valve was malfunctioning, so I've removed it, checked it, seems OK, not stuck...  So I've reassembled it, and I'll wait til it's light out again in the morning to get back to it.

I've gathered more clues, and I'll be getting into the engine on this. It is really starting to look like a blown head gasket. I wonder if there are things I should be doing as long as I'm that far into it. Like timing belts, or valve job...  any pointers will be much appreciated!

The most common symptoms for blown head gaskets on EA82s is exhaust gas into the coolant.  As it gets worse, pushing coolant out of the overflow on the recovery bottle.

 

I did cook one really bad once, and got the coolant in the crankcase.  But it ran great while doing that.

 

   I guess if it were blown between adjacent cylinders, it would run crummy, but not be unable to run - at least I have not seen one that bad.