'92 Loyale - Difficult to start, rough idle, and stalling/no power while in gear.

[cherrythesubaru]

Hey yall! Just joined the Subaru crew with my '92 Loyale, Cherry. She sat for a year or so with a broken timing belt before I got hold of her and had a lot of somewhat "frankenstein" style work done by the previous owner.

Here's where I'm at:

• Did timing belts, oil change, oil filter, spark plugs, checked all fluid levels, and replaced old fuel.
• I had some trouble getting her started until replacing the fuel filter (old Fram filter leaked cloudy brown fuel when I cut it out).
• After replacing the fuel filter it still usually takes a few tries before I can get her started and the idle is quite rough and can sputter out with too much throttle while cold. 
• Some warmup time will typically help the idle settle in and allow me to rev to about 3500rpm although I get lot's of backfire and sometimes the engine stalls coming back down. 
• When I try to put it in gear and ease off the clutch the engine feels like it's going to die immediately and will typically stall out with extremely minor load (backing out of an angled driveway, for example). 
• I was able to feather it out onto the street and get into second gear but it can barely get above 15km/h without some major finesse and painful noises. 

My first instinct here is a fuel issue but I know it could be a lot of other things and would love any help yall can provide. 

Cheers! 

[moosens]

Have you checked your timing to make sure it didn’t skip a tooth ? 
 

Not sure how you did but I like to use clamps on the cams to hold the belts in place, get that last loop of the belt over the toothed gear which I leave loose until the belt slips over, then you can easily release the tensioner and your belt shouldn’t move. Just a tip. I’m guessing you have plenty of experience with other makes. 
 

Distributor ok ? No play side to side? 
 

If it is fuel your pump sits on a little shelf in back under the car on the right side. Getting hard to find replacements but maybe not so bad for this generation. I think Walbro made a good one for the EA82 FI cars. 
 

Post back what you found, and good luck. 
 

Some folks may also suggest the pressure regulator. 

[el_freddo]

Did you fit one cam belt, rotate the crank one rotation then fit the second belt? If not, this is your issue.

I learned this the hard way. Your engine is probably running on one bank/side while the other does nothing. 

It will start with difficulty, and be completely gutless to drive. 

Cheers 

Bennie

[cherrythesubaru]

Thanks for the replies! 

I followed the procedure in this video for timing and double checked the holes are opposing on the two cams and align with the seams but can’t hurt to triple check. I also made sure to rotate the crank one full rotation after fitting the first belt. Checked the distributor alignment and that I have spark on all cylinders. 

Hoping it’s just my spoob mechanical skills and not something expensive 🤞

Will let y’all know what I find. 

 

[subaru1988]

That video is OK, but kind of short on detail. Do a YouTube search for "Miles Fox EA82" and watch his timing belt video. He posted on this board for a long time, and his videos are good ones that have a lot of why you're doing what you're doing instead of just how to do it.

Edited Saturday at 08:59 PM by subaru1988

[cherrythesubaru]

Thanks! Love Miles’ videos! I watched the Miles fox video first but it didn’t include the distributor section so just shared the Nice Guys one here for reference. 
Any chance I can get Miles to come take a look at my car? Haha 

[cherrythesubaru]

Checked the timing and it looks good to me. Both cams are in line with seams and pointing in opposite directions.

Today I’m getting really tough start and about 5 seconds of idle before slowly dying. Giving it gas while trying to start kills it right away. 

Edited Sunday at 07:27 PM by cherrythesubaru

[scoobydube]

Your descriptions sounds like a problem I had when the Exhaust Gas Temperature sensor in the exhaust needed replacing.  $25   You also might want to change out all of the relay switches under the dash over your left knee cap.  Make sure all the breather hoses are soft and get a good seal, as the rock hard breather hoses on top of the engine no longer seal.  See my thread on Rock Hard Breather Hoses.  Make sure that the timing advance vacuum on the distributor still holds a vacuum when you suck on the inlet.  Take apart the distributor if it is not an electronic distributor, and make sure all of the swing weights are not worn on their pivot, have grease on them and they swing properly.  Make sure the distributor cap is not cracked. Verify that the engine problems do not occur only when you are running accessories.  If accessories cause the engine problems then you need to change out your engine ground at it's left front connection to the frame, and also look for rock hard electrical wires running from your + positive battery terminal to the bottom side of the fusible link box as it loses it's ability to carry current. 

[cherrythesubaru]

Thanks Scooby! I'll give those a try if the fuel issue diagnosis doesn't solve it. 

Update: I tested the pump and it seems to have good flow. After a bit more diagnosis, I noticed that when starting cold giving it some gas almost instantly kills the engine. To me that seems like it's running rich and would point to a fuel pressure regulator. 

I bought a new regulator off Rockauto but it didn't fit despite their website saying it was compatible. Got the Delphi part #FP10485: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=10910396&cc=1270134&pt=6124&jsn=1162 

The only other option on Rockauto is Intermotor part #PR263: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=817733&cc=1270134&pt=6124&jsn=1161

Has anyone else had issues finding a regulator and, if so, where did you find a viable replacement? 

Cheers!

[moosens]

Last line in my post above. Lol

 

I might have one still. I don’t have EA82 items in general but I can picture one in a plastic multi drawer thingamajig. Don’t hold your breath though. 
 

Otherwise I would hope one of us has one or find a yard with one sitting around. 
 

Good luck and please post back with your results.