D-Cal

That sounds like very good record keeping. I assume you're selecting pages for before & after comparsion from the same time of year? Have you tried halting acetone use to get a true ABA test?

I don't buy the corrosion argument personally. I mean, gasoline is fairly corrosive on it's own, and these days we're adding 10% ethanol anyway. Nobody uses pure natural rubber in their fuel systems anymore. I'd be curious to see your documentation in some form. What regimen do you follow? Do you allow for seasonal variation? What are you using as a baseline to compare the gains to? Are you anal about eliminating things like maintenance issues as factors (tire inflation, oil changes, tune ups)?

RC Engineering is one of the best places, and I have seen 10-20% flow improvements listed on the spec sheet that comes back with the injectors. Aside from low flow, dirty injectors suffer from uneven flow which is even more dangerous. If you have 3 injectors flowing normally and one signifigantly lower, it will lean out that cylinder and potentially cause massive damage. Holed piston, damaged valves & seats, turbine damage, etc. The only way to know this was going on would be to have an EGT probe in each runner. Most people only use one in the hottest runner.

It should retard under boost.

I agree, it's possible the alternator has an intermittant problem. Loose connection, bad solder joint... something like that.

My cars with dino oil in the tranny are always like stirring molasses with a stick when it's -30c out. Switched to a synthetic and it's much better.

How do you know the battery is good? Did you have them charge test it? Swap it with the battery from another car if you are able to. What is the voltage reading across the battery terminals while the car is running? It should read near 14v. Is the alternator grounded properly? I've had the ground wire melt off an alternator because corrosion built up resistance, and eventually created enough heat to slag the fitting. Try tying a thick gauge wire between the case ground and the negative battery terminal. Check and clean all of the body grounds you can find in your engine bay. Are the battery terminals clean? On Subarus I believe the regulator is either in the alternator, or mounted on the fender. Which is yours? If it's fender-mounted, it's possible it's malfunctioning. Hope some of that helps.

I was looking into the same thing. I know AVO makes a kit, but honestly, $4500US? That's madness.

Call around, lots of speed shops carry Redline MTL. Be prepared for a bit of sticker shock tho.

Every car has that "magic age" where stuff starts falling apart. Usually that's when they get traded. If you set aside some cash and go through them thoroughly, I find they go back to being nice reliable cars once again. Every once in a while I get a yen for a new car, then I look at the cash outlay involved, the monthly decrease in my available cash and I come to my senses. Good luck with your stuff.

Do the cams have the same centerline specs? From my other make of cars I know some cams were keyed differently, and to use them in other applications you either had to get adjustable cam sprockets or offset cam keys. eg. Using the stock sprocket with the new cam would result in 4 degrees retard, so you advance it the same 4 to have it perform normally, otherwise the car would be a dog on the bottom end. Just throwing out a thought.

I feel your pain brother. Hopefully once all this is done you won't have to touch it again for a while. I forgot to change the dust seal on my Daytona once and had to change the bearing twice in 6 months. $150CDN a pop.

I'm told you can also get them on EBay. There are a couple of good sellers. http://www.books4cars.com and there is an EBay seller called "thebestmanuals4u" who claimed to have a CD with the Subaru info on it for $35. I had already paid Subaru for the online account by that point so I have no info on whether the CD is the same info as the FSMs or is one of those "generic" manuals. He claims the info comes from Subaru. None of the above had the books for 97 Legacy at the time I looked.

Not at all: http://techinfo.subaru.com I will warn you, there are two ways to get the FSM: 1) Pay $35 US and download 500-600 small PDF files at the max rate of 20 per hour (took me 2.5 days of downloading, I work on a computer fortunately). They also have TSBs online as well. 2) Order the printed set for $200US Both can be done online with a credit card at the site above. Subie Girl gave me that link.

Yes, I really love the black. The paint has lots of swirls and washing marks, but is otherwise in good shape. I will buff it out and wax it come spring to keep it that way. Should look awesome with a nice shine to it. I really like the stock rims. For once a set that complements the car. I'm definitely going to tint the windows as I see you've done, what black car would be complete without tint? They local police frown on front side window tint (have heard of road side peeling sessions!) but I live in the sticks, so I doubt it will be an issue. I didn't pay the $10K, I got it for $8800 and they did the timing belt as part of the deal. This car really is cherry, and unfortunately it was at a dealer so a bit of a premium for their profit is a given. Worth it for getting the color I wanted (black) and a stick car (seems to be fairly rare). The belt was due in another 15K anyway. I also had them put a class 1 trailer hitch on it as well at my cost. A word of warning though, I scraped it twice backing out of steep driveways today, it's very close to the ground. Somehow though, it looks kinda cool on the back, makes it "beefier" looking somehow. It's the Hidden Hitch system. So literally everything major has been done on this car already, headgaskets included. Hopefully I can just drive it for a while and keep my wrenches in the toolbox. I finished downloading the entire FSM PDFs so I am set if something goes on me. Unfortunately the snow has all melted here at the moment, will be another couple of weeks before I can run the AWD through it's paces. Ironically I am originally from Ottawa. I did extensive searches in the Autotrader, literally hours, and among the prices any of the dealerships had, there was a very wide range - from seemingly better deals (at least $/km wise) to insane prices ($12K for a 200K km car). You also have to remember that car prices vary widely from region to region, so doing national searches only has so much value. Locally, used Subarus sell in a couple of days typically so there is a fair demand.

As long as the battery posts are showing ~14volts while running, you are charging the battery and should be fine. If the measured voltage at the battery is below 12.5 while running with... say the headlights, blower and defroster on... a fairly common situation in cold climates, you might have a problem. It would take probably 10-20 minutes to drain the battery out though. I am not referring to idle, I am talking about cruise conditions. Check around for corroded grounds as well, common culprit with electrical gremlins. Try putting your meter across the pins feeding the dashboard voltage gauge and see what it reads. The problem could be purely the gauge, as I suggested above.

...and here she is, in my driveway!

They're usually stuck together. Hammering on the threaded rod will mushroom it or bend the tie rod, pickle forks can potentially rip the grease boot. Just go get a tie rod end puller, it's the correct tool and will have it out in minutes.

Most of those readings sound normal for most cars. 12.5 with the car off, 14 while running. Have you considered that the gauge may be malfunctioning? Turning on heavy current accessories will cause a voltage dip in any car, and usually the ECM responds after a second by raising the idle RPM. I would trust your voltmeter readings across the battery terminals.

Can you borrow a tie rod puller from a local parts store? It's usually required.

Agreed, I'm a new Suby owner with a 97 GT and it's awesome so far. First time ever that I'm (almost) sad to see a chinook come through and melt everything.

I'm thinking you should do what a few companies have done, have a "drive it day". Rent a parking lot somewhere. Make sure it's loaded with snow. Bring 3 vehicles: a mix of competitors FWD, RWD, and AWD Subaru. Have curious people drive each one in turn around a simple course with pylons. The results should be pretty obvious. While all this is going on, bring a camera crew to shoot it. Would make a very convincing commercial, air it next year starting in November.

www.emachineshop.com

I wanted a comfortable 4 door car. I wanted AWD for crappy weather since I commute on rural highways a lot. I wanted something with "fun factor". Decent power. Stick. I wanted something that was dependable. I wanted something that wasn't like what everyone else was driving. I wanted something that was easy to service. I wanted something that was decent on gas (IE. I didn't want a truck).

Incidentally, I found out exactly what the lumpiness on the rockers was. You know that "invisible bra" stuff they put on the noses of cars? Some kind of 3M polymer film? Same stuff. Car also has it on the nose.