1993 Subaru legacy Ej22e h4

[frankbth]

Hello this is my first post in this forum I hope someone can help me! Im going crazy.

I purchased an used Subaru legacy 1993 2.2L (Ej22e) 4 cylinder, 130bhp, 4X2, automátic transmission.

It has 120k miles and it throws a lot of black smoke (unburnt fuel) is fouling the sparks in less than 2 minutes making it stall and no start until you clean the spark plugs again.

So I replaced, fuel filter, fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, maf sensor, O2 sensor, temperature sensor, spark plugs, wires, TPS, and almost everything related with (air and fuel). But the problem is the same giants clouds of black smoke, timing is correct, the car start with just one second turning the key (with clean spark plugs), almost every sensor checked with multimeter.

Also cleaned the injectors with ultrasound.

So i was like ok time to open the motor, I just open both cylinder heads. And I found this weird thing..

If you line up the right Cam with the timing mark, four valves remain open, and it should be closed if I'm not wrong..

So it is very hard to put the cam pulley in the timing mark because the valves interfere, I was reading a lot and it should be very easy to move when the pulley mark and the timing mark are the same, so...

Rocket and lifter's checked all 16 work pproperly, so maybe the last owner used a wrong camshaft? It seems to open and close valves in different times that it should

[frankbth]

[lmdew]

Quote

The Drivers side is under tension when the cam gear set with the timing marks.

 

[frankbth]

But according to others tutorials when timing marks alings with pulleys mark, it should be quite easy to move all the gears, also is normal to have 2 intake valves and 2 exhaust valves open on the driver side cam, when timing mark is aligned?

[GeneralDisorder]

That's normal. Anyone that says they should turn freely is flat out wrong. 

Check fuel pressure. 

Check the ECU for shorted injector drivers. Check the wiring for shorts to ground on the injector control wires. 

Could easily be a bad ECU - solder joints and capacitors fail on these. It's 30 years old. 

Could be erroneous data being given to the ECU by MAF or O2 sensors - without the right cable and software for a laptop or a Subaru Select Monitor this will be somewhat difficult to tell though much can be done with a DVOM if you know what you are looking at. 

A bad misfire will drive the O2 sensor lean and cause the ECU to add a lot of fuel to compensate. 

MANY possibilities. This is not an OBD-II vehicle that will be easy to diagnose. You will need to start up that steep learning curve to understanding modern fuel injection. 

One thing is for sure - troubleshooting with Visa - as you have been doing thus far - will get you nowhere. And it might introduce additional faults due to poor quality aftermarket junk parts where there was no issue with the stock one's you took off. Test, Verify, THEN Replace. 

GD

[frankbth]

Thanks for response, All the things replaced come from OEM dealers that car was parked for almost 7 years, that's why I changed a lot of stuff, also if its bad ECU and all those ECU's are 30years old, what I should do? Put a carburetor on it? No joking, I have seen a lot o vídeos of Ej22e first gen with carburetors, but I'm a little bit confused, can I just disconnect the injectors (so they cannot get ground to shoot fuel) and put a carburetor on the intake manifold (where the big tube of the MAF sensor is) and the ECU will take care of the spark with the camshaft/crankshaft sensors? Or I need to get a distributor and etc? 

[GeneralDisorder]

No, not really. The stock ECU needs the TPS and the MAF to calculate load and thus calculate timing. 

LINK makes a plug and play stand-alone ECU that's compatible with the 90 to 94 ECU connectors. I have several running everything from 1990 Legacy's to VW swaps to sand rails:

https://dealers.linkecu.com/WRX2X_2

A carb is possible, but takes a lot of mechanical changes and the parts to do this and maintain it going forward aren't all that available either. 

GD

Edited March 8, 2022 by GeneralDisorder

[frankbth]

Thanks but I cannot afford an 1599$ ECU the car cost me just 500$,

Any other options? Where I can find used ECU's or something? This is my first Subaru.

I don't know what else to do

[forester2002s]

1 hour ago, frankbth said:

car was parked for almost 7 years

Here's a possibility:

7 years ago, the timing belt jumped a few teeth, and the car wouldn't run properly, so it was taken off the road and parked.

Now 7 years later, the timing is still off, and the fuel is degraded, so it still won't run.

[frankbth]

I did change the timing belt, water pump, alternator belt, thermostat, oil pump seals, empty the fuel tank added 10 gallon of new fuel still clouds of black smoke and fouling the spark in 2-3 minutes.

Also I have noticed too is the manual switch (the button for change from auto to manual mode) for the transmission all those connectors have Been 'cutted' and there is just a black and blue cables connected directly,  Also the Eco modded button on the drive mode selector it does nothing like if it's unplugged, also if I plug the green and black connector to activate test mode to see store codes, it just power on and off the fuel pump and the fans but no check engine light or nothing

Bad ECU?

Also sometimes when driving the car stalls suddenly And I need to start it again.

When the battery has low charge (still it should start the car 5 times at least) the car just crank and crank but no start, but if I use a battery with good charge it just start in one second.

Also when the car gets hot (operating temperature) and you switch off, you need to wait to cool because it cranks but no start

Edited March 8, 2022 by frankbth
forgot to add a symptom

[GeneralDisorder]

Well you can keep fighting it with Visa - at some point the current parts purchases and future parts purchases will probably eclipse just putting a LINK on it and having the ability to delete the MAF and O2 and have proper diagnostic abilities to determine what else is wrong. 

Sounds like it's a $500 car that has the usual problems associated with such species. Which is to say MANY. 

The WRX2X ECU that's applicable to your model is $1095

Not $1599

GD

Edited March 8, 2022 by GeneralDisorder

[frankbth]

First I don't get your 'Visa' message I currently live in south America, here we don't have 'visa' we pay in cash, also all the pieces mentioned above were payed in cash (made with hard work) as I work six days per week).

Also like I told you I will not pay 2x the price of the car for just a simple piece of electronic.

I hope someone can guide me In the correct way of how to proceed with the car. And not to try of sell me a custom ecu of 1095$.

[GeneralDisorder]

It's an expression - it means throwing parts at the problem when you really don't know what you are doing or why. You can say "Troubleshooting with cash" - it just doesn't have the same comedic value here in the US. 

Price of the car is irrelevant to the price of the repair. You bought a *broken car*.... so one could say you overspent on a $500 "lawn ornament".... it's all in the way you express it isn't it? 

In no way should the LINK or the factory ECU be considered "simple" electronics. They are full fledged computers - more than capable of landing a rocket on the moon with the right software. Many hundreds of times more powerful than the Apollo guidance computer in fact. Calling it "simple" belies the fact that YOU clearly don't know how it works. So if that's simple what does that say about the mush between your ears? 

Follow the tests I outlined in my first post - have you ruled out any of those items I listed? You can't prove a bad ECU till you do. Ultimately you bought a vehicle with very poor support for diagnostic electronics - the tools needed to connect to that ancient ECU are difficult to obtain and operate at this point which will make the entire endeavor that much more difficult. 

I wish I could be more helpful but I can't imbue you with my 20 years of experience diagnosing and repairing old Subaru fuel injection in a few minutes and a few sentences. It's not that simple.

GD

Edited March 8, 2022 by GeneralDisorder

[frankbth]

This is the first time I used this forum and this will be the last time. Moved to another place, found nice people.

You should go to a church or something.

I can see evil in your writing.

Bye

[el_freddo]

Whoa! That escalated QUICK! 

Gotta say that GD knows his stuff through and through, and will speak the truth as hurtful as it may be. 

EG: I accept GD’s fact that I daily drive an EA81 platform that is considered dead. Mine still runs and I can find parts so it gets driven. 

@frankbth your issue could be a bad sensor causing over-fuelling. Got any codes showing up on the ECU? That would be my starting point if I didn’t know what was up. 

A dirty TPS can cause all sorts of odd issues, as can a dead O2 sensor. Typically neither of these will show up in codes. 

A sticky IACV could be the stalling issue. And an exhaust that’s partially blocked will cause strange issues. 

Shot oil rings can cause plugs to foul quickly too. Does it use much oil or have you not had the chance to drive it enough to know? The black smoke could be a choked exhaust from the previous owner. 

There’s a wide range of issues at play here. 

All the best with it if you never come back. Down here we say never say never…  

Cheers 

Bennie

[heartless]

4 hours ago, frankbth said:

This is the first time I used this forum and this will be the last time. Moved to another place, found nice people.

You should go to a church or something.

I can see evil in your writing.

Bye

there is nothing evil in his writing - he simply does not have time to explain every detail to someone that is new to this. Yes, he can be very blunt, and often seems rude.. most of us here understand this.

Simple line is this.. you bought a car that had problems and had been sitting for a long time which adds to the list of problems. Simply buying and replacing parts that you "think" are the problem will not fix it .. you need to do proper diagnoses and determine exactly what the problem is.. being this car is prior to OBDII, that makes it a little harder, but it can be done. But without properly diagnosing what the problem(s) are, you are simply throwing money and parts at it, hoping it fixes it (this is what is meant by "fixing with Visa").

As for the valves on the drivers side being open when setting timing marks, yes, it is normal and doing exactly what it should be doing. One has exhaust valves open, the other has intake open.. Passenger side will have both fully closed.. When setting the timing on a 4 cyl with a single timing belt, you need to have all 4 positions set correctly or it wont run.
4 stroke engine = 1 - intake (intake valves open, down stroke), 2 - compression ( valves closed, up stroke), 3 - combustion (valves closed, down stroke), 4 - exhaust (exhaust valves open, up stroke)

and one last thing... you claim you are living in South America, but you have your location listed as being in Florida.. so which is it? Not exactly being honest here, are you? Last I checked, Florida is not part of South America.