Quidam

Me too. We have the variable ratio rack. I've never ran across a contant ratio. Not even sure if they were put into EA-82 cars. Doug

Bingo. Not starting an engine for a year could be really bad in your climate. Bore rust, for one.

R.I.P. Rust never sleeps.

Hi Steven, I don't have any experience with 2.5 Subaru. The guys here know these cars, so here are just some thoughts. Two tests for combustion gas in the coolant. One positive, one negative. Someone is wrong. Pin that down with a third check. What were the numbers from the compression test and leak down? Edit: Gary, my leak-down tester has a 200 p.s.i. gage. If the car I'm doing is supposed to show say, 170 psi on a compression test...that's what I test it at when I leak it down. A lot of leak-down rigs will only do 100 psi. Well, there's a story right there. A leak down using 100 psi can not give you the whole story. Of course, you have to have the air compressor to acheve those higher numbers, or bottled nitrogen. Colapsed rad hoses make me think stuck thermostat. But I'm not sure in your case. "IF" the compression is good, leak down good, no combustion gases in the coolant. I'd be looking somewhere else. Radiator, thermostat? Has the drive pulley on the crank been slipping? Recent timing belt and water pump and all. I don't even know if it's possible on the 2.5. It is on the EA-82, and if it has red locktite on the bolt, it can and will stay in the crank, and slip. Been there done that with a previous owners repair. But I don't know much about these 2.5 engines. The leakdown needs to done with the engine hot. Thermal expansion and contraction and all. I'd get a third then sort it out. Doug

Hi, I've looked. I haven't found what I was looking for. The factory text and pictures describing this. Doug

Yes. Never let Mad Max spend the entire winter snowed in. Ever. hth

Hi, You can tell. Turn your steering wheel lock to lock, and count the turns. 4 or 4.8 turns, lock to lock? Doug Manual variable-ratio steering rack: "Some cars have variable-ratio steering, which uses a rack-and-pinion gearset that has a different tooth pitch (number of teeth per inch) in the center than it has on the outside. This makes the car respond quickly when starting a turn (the rack is near the center), and also reduces effort near the wheel's turning limits." I like it.

I was driving up the interstate, 1989 spfi, sedan. The voltage starts dropping. I keep driving for several miles. I'm running late and I'm going to see a relative pull with his Hemi Dodge truck. I just make it to a Wallmart. Buy a new battery. Drive to the track. At two in the morning after it's over, I change the alternater in the parking lot. Had it in the trunk. The alt was bad. It had acted up before. Just a story:)

Hey, I have an eighty seven GL, 2 wd, 5 speed wagon. If I put a jack under the right rear tow hook, jack it up, the front will lift off the ground as well. If I remember correctly, there was three quarters inch difference between the front and rear tires, and the floor. That's not bad at all. Not sure about front to rear. If I drive my 4wd up a bank, sideways, kinda. Say right tire contact with the bank, the left front tire will be off the ground, and I'm sitting pretty level in the car. Not bad at all. The RX sedans that won the WRC championship were seam welded, with reinforcing plates. That would be even better, for sure. Just thoughts, Doug

Nug said it, measure it. A casual glance at a Chilton, 2.2 Subaru. Crankshaft end play:.0012 to .0045. Thrust on #3. Doug

Hi, Where is it worn? Do you mean the tip of it? Yes you can work it over with your choice of fine abrasive wet/dry sandpaper. A good used one shouldn't be too hard to find on this board. Or do you mean the threads are worn, sloppy? Blue loctite will take care of that. Doug

Hey Bob, Standing at the back of your trike looking at the engine. Turn the crank clockwise so that the cam sprocket on your left has the dot pointing down. The right cam sprocket dot will be pointing up. If you had a flywheel, the picture with the three lines would show the center of those three lines lining up with the timing pointer on a Subaru bell housing. Ok, your dots are lined up. Turn the crank counter clockwise 90 degrees. This is O degrees TDC. This is where you drop the distributor in. If you do this, it will probably run. Doug Edit: This pic shows the three lines pointing up. This is where it is with the cam dots lined up. The mark to the right is TDC.

Hi Bob, Hang in there dude. There are no marks on the belt, so don't worry about that. WAG by me, your belts and distributor are about 90* out of sync. Click on USRM in the right top corner of the screen. Ultimate Subaru Repair Manual. Click on Engine. Go to second page. Click on "Timing Belt Procedure" by Miles Fox. The info near the bottom goes into some detail you should look at. HTH, Doug

Yep, what Cougar said. Bob, you used these marks for the belt install, right? And these, to set the distributor in, right? Doug

Hey Guys, The manual rack I drive is the variable ratio, 4.8 turns lock to lock. A constant ratio, 4 turn lock to lock rack was available. Yes? I've never ran across one. Can you shed some light on this for me? Thanks, Doug

[quote name=trikerbob Anyway, I hope to have a good report later today. Bob[/quote] Hey, Got any pictures of that trike? Doug

Hey Kaz, Looking good:) You still got those riptides that damn near dragged me under? Sandy Beach:) Doug Ok Dude. Jolly Roger Cruises. "If you can do it in the pool, you can do it in the ocean", style of dive training. 25' under, first dive, sweet:) Oh, and those Subaru Powered Motes.

Man, I had to think about that:) If it's got good paint, no need to bother that. I find here in the rustbelt, the area of the bead, where the tire seats...clean it up, good. I've had wheels so rusted, I could cave them in with a tire iron on the tire machine. I stopped into Hubcap Annies in Columbus three years ago. A store full of wheels, hubcaps, trimrings, lug nuts, and such, only. He warned me then, I'd have trouble finding good wheels. Doug

Wheels, rust, yuck, lots of work. I had a quote locally for a $100.00 to do four. That's after me hitting them with paint stripper first, then me going over them with the mini grinder with the wire brush. What he would then do is glass bead, clean, and immediately hit them with a good primer. I passed. Keep in mind that once you go to bare steel, it's important to primer ASAP. Etch, etching primer are options as well. So, I bought some on-line and used the best I have after refinishing and ended up with ten good ones. Now here is something I'm sure will work, you can do it at home, but it takes time. I may be forced to do this to wheels at some point. A bit of money, and a container big enough for a wheel with a cover on it. Let me tell you what I did first. I have a 40 year old fuel tank from a rototillar. It was rust, in and out. I bought 7 gallons of regular white vinegar @ $1.50 per gallon. The tank, tank straps, and other parts have been soaking in vinegar for about two months. "All" the rust is gone. I kid you not. Try it, you'll see. Cheap too. Doug Edit: It took the paint off as well. I degreased everthing before submerging. Here's what I'm talking about.

You're welcome, sir. Those heads are a bolt on to your block. No sweat. A brand new set would be sweet, huh:) Icing on the cake. Have your machinist measure for the "standard height" on those MPFI heads, that's head gasket surface to cam cover surface. How thick the head is. "Standard height" "90.6 mm (3.567 in)". This will tell you if they've been milled. If they are new, you can tell by looking them over. Check for cracks between the valve seats, one sure clue. Go or no go, as far as being like new. MPFI non turbo heads, used ones, might have survived without cracking even used. Turbo heads, you can pretty much count on them being cracked. I doubt if that block has reman turbo heads on it, btw. Later on, Doug

Just some additional thoughts. You'll have some time and money in the head swap, gaskets, sealant. Say you strip the "new" heads down, transfer all the fresh parts onto your "old" heads. Have the old cores cleaned, valve seats machined and or valves lapped in. All easy to do with a little time and money. Say you have these fresh MPFI cores left over. I let one MPFI "OEM new" head slide on ebay, a board member bought it, I believe. He needed it more than I did, I think. It had one bungled up thread, an easy fix. It sold for about $70.00. I bought one "OEM new" bare head for $50.00. One reman set from a board member for $170.00, shipped. Good ones. Well, that gives you some idea of pricing. I wouldn't bust the heads off that block, I'd use it as is. But that's me, and it's not my decision, is it? Thanks for the consideration, and definately keep us posted. Thanks, Doug

Well, we always have choices, personal preferences. I prefer the manual rack. I also run only 175 70 tires on my driver. Tire size is the key, the way I see it. I have less weight, less drag on the engine. I have no issues with the manual rack, for my use. If I'm driving it hard, left hand on the wheel, right hand on the shifter, left foot on the dead pedal, pushing my posterior into the seat:) We all have choices, good thing huh? Doug

It would run great in a trike. Carb? Take your pick. Dave has a non turbo Spyder mpfi intake for, "make offer". Doug Scott might cast an adaptor for him for the right price. Nawww, EJ it! Should I make an offer on the heads?

Just some thoughts here: #1 135 or 140 psi > see note to #3 #2 170 psi #3 135 or 140 psi- make the call at the highest sustainable psi #4 135 psi SPFI compression limits from 128- to 156 or 139 to 168 psi depending on the engine rpm. None of those are out of limit, "mabie", so...liquid in the cylinder on #2, either antifreeze or fuel, you would see it, feel it, when you bleed the gage. It would raise the compression, but you "should" know it, if you did the test and bled the gage. Hell, I don't know:) Edit: "Smells like fuel", leaky injector? But in one cylinder? If it's oil, may be seized oil ring in that cylinder. #2 might also have bad oil rings creating "deposits". Told you. I don't know. Doug

Well, several good responses. Internal? Mabie Driver error, mabie. It doesn't matter what the bushings look like. What matters is if the whole shifter assembly is tight. You know this from the driver seat. Could it be a clutch thing? Mabie. Just some thoughts. Doug