DaveT

My experiences - Disappearing coolant, or coolant on top of the engine - intake gasket fail. IF the leak into the intake is bad enough, you get steam out the tail pipe. Endless stream of bubbles out the radiator, beginning of head gasket failure. IT will progressively get worse. With the history you described, it has very likely been run over normal temperature while low on coolant, which starts the head gasket failure. If it has never been resealed, it should leak oil everywhere. Do not run it in any situation where you can cause it to overheat badly, as most rebuild parts are NLA from dealer or aftermarket. Unless you have a known good engine to drop in... Last I knew, gasket sets are still available. Use OEM intake gaskets only.

86 GL- 93 Loyale are almost all interchangeable parts, or tiny differences. Except carb VS SPFI VS Turbo Earlier ones, I am not sure of, I jumped from 76-78 to 86 and up.

I had a 1978 - not sure if it's the same as 1979... But if it is, I don't recall any relays for that stuff.

The EJ swap doesn't involve axles, unless you swap the transmission also. It does involve an adapter plate. And the big project of wiring - you have to bring the ECU and all it's stuff along with the EJ. None of the options are cheap, or only a little work. Except if you got really lucky and found a good original turbo, at least the work / time part would be the least. With the bypassed turbo, I'd be surprised if it passed emissions testing, if you have to deal with that. Here, the only reason it would get by is that it's old enough that they don't bother with testing any more. The last time I had to test one of my EA82 cars, only a few shops knew how, or even had the equipment.

36 years old. Got to expect a lot of things need attention. Who knows how well maintained it was?

It will be worse than swapping in a non turbo engine and ECU. The tune in the ECU will be all wrong. The compression will be way lower than a non turbo.

The automatic chokes I have dealt with have a thermally sensitive spring that when cold, will snap the choke closed when you tap the gas pedal before cranking. They also have a wire that get 12v when the engine is on that runs a heater near that spring, that makes it relax, opening the choke as things warm up. The round part facing the camera in the picture above might be it.

After you pumped it, look and see if the choke closed. Take the air filter off. That's if it's an electric / automatic choke. If it's manual, there has to be a pull knob on the dash somewhere.

Did you do fat the crank one full revolution before installing the second timing belt?

CTS Test - put the sensor in a pan with some water, on a stove top. Use a thermometer and an ohm meter. It took a while, looking through my FSMs and finding my old notes - Water temp sensor ohms 14F 7000 - 11500 68F 2000-3000 122F 700-1000 Above are from the FSM. Below are actual measurements. Done at 2 different times, compiled here. The 1990 unit was in a good running engine. The new dealer unit was bought locally, and I made the measurements before installing it to get the extra reference points. measured ohms temp 1990 used new dealer unit 77F 2390 122F 1154 1098 185F 400 190F 454 One of the main things to watch for is that the readings are steady, or drifting as the temperature changes. If the reading is jumping up and down, that's a bad sensor. If it doesn't change smoothly. If it is WAY off it's not good. Notice the readings for the 122 degrees. they are all a bit different. But they work. That amount of off spec isn't going to cause noticeable problems. While not technically in spec, it's close enough.

I just re read the line about "it runs fine once warm." This points really hard at the CTS. The off engine test for the CTS is pretty simple. 2 used 30 year old CTS is not a great way to rule them out as a problem.

After checking / cleaning the engine grounds, battery terminals, etc. I usually use the battery - or engine ground point. Unless I started getting really odd results, then I might check the ground pins on the ECU also. My 1990 FSM is where I found the off engine CTS test.

5 v from the ecu would only be there with key in run.

For these old models, if someone decided to post all or part of the FSM, you might find it online. Sometimes they show up on ebay, etc. I got mine from dealers, back when the cars were about 2 years old.

Verify the choke is working properly. When the engine is cold, it should snap closed when you pump the gas once before turning the key. Once it has warmed up, [and as it warms up] the choke should open. On a warm start, it should not be closed tight again, or not at all, depending on the temperature.

If it's a Subaru radiator, it is a straight thread and metric. Not a pipe thread.

Those kid of mods were never my thing, but I don't remember seeing much of anything like that. With many normal maintenance type parts NLA for these models - both OEM and aftermarket - I'd be surprised if there are any around.

IF you got enough pressure and flow, you could push seals out. A broken dipstick isn't going to have much to catch the wind, unless you have the round part at the handle jammed down the tube. If it's just the metal strip, I'm thinking the air would just slip by it.

Everything I have read on this forum, over many years, points to forget about the Hitachi.

Oh, yeah, on that sort of road, not such a great idea. I had back road options.

A walk by / run by keying, the only thing I can think of is a couple of security camers mounted so they have a good view of the car. And maybe you could get a good enough pic to help the police athch they guy. Some idiot walking by just to do that, could do it, the alarm goes of, and runs away before anyone could get there to catch him red handed.

My first car I put in an alarm. Was back before boom cars were a thing, but I had a high end stereo system. I set up the arm disarm switch so that locking and unlocking the driver's door controlled it. Only the key controlled it, the buttons did not. It had some kind of tilt switch. Never had a problem with it.

I pushed one further than that once, a few decades ago. Just need 2 experienced drivers. Depends on how picky law enforcement is about such things I guess also.

It looks older than Loyale. The wheels and little center covers look like what my 76 and 78 wagons had. Just called GL or DL depending on the options.

Mine are 4WD. My 87 was originally FWD, but I added the parts to make it 4WD from one of my retired due to rust cars. Yeah, if they had more power, I'd be more likely to get in trouble using it.