porcupine73

I compared the crank speed to '00obw and it seems about the same. Always thought it cranked much faster than that but having never watched it esp in a no start, now I know! Well I got both the side timing belt covers off, and the hash marks on the cam sprockets line up exactly with the marks on the backs of the timing belt covers. When it cranks, it does not sound right. It doesn't have that chuck chuck chuck sound like compression in each cylinder. It seems too 'free wheeling'. Now I'm not sure what to check next? Take the middle timing belt cover off to see if the belt is off maybe at the crank sprocket? Or maybe do a compression test? Though it would take as long to do that was get the middle timing belt cover off.

Hm ok, so I jumped the starter with a wire, and it is cranking, but it looks like maybe it is cranking very slowly? I tried to take a video of it but not sure how well it turned out: I can't really hear it in the video, but when under the hood, the starter sound doesn't sound normal. It sounds strange somehow. I'm not sure if that crank speed is normal or not since I've never really watched it under the hood. If you can tell from the video let me know? I will try to compare to another Subaru now. Battery voltage is 12.4V. Voltage at the terminals when cranking is about 11.3V.

Thanks for the help! Well I got her bumper pushed into the garage, and got the LH cover off. The timing belt isn't broken and it feels tight. Whether the timing is off I haven't checked yet but will be checking it later tonight. Fortunately I used tons of antiseize when I replaced the timing belt a few years back so these bolts aren't putting up much of a fight. I think I will try cranking the starter again while watching the crank and make sure the engine is actually turning. It sounded like it was but it sounded like it was spinning faster than normal and didn't have much resistance. I checked for codes but there were none reported.

Hmmm....went to start the '96 Legacy Brighton auto trans 2.2L this morning. It sounded normal the first couple engine revolutions at first, but it didn't start. Then it sounded like the starter wasn't completely engaging. But then on subsequent attempts, it definitely sounds like the engine is cranking, but it doesn't sound like there is much resistance, like it is spinning faster or more freely than normal. So I'm guessing maybe the timing belt broke or something went wrong in there. I replaced the timing belt maybe 5 years ago or so, and it has maybe 40k miles on the belt. It's raining out so hopefully I can winch her into the garage somehow to take a look.

Hm...yah it does kind of leave all its junk hanging out there doesn't it. Perhaps a small set of gold colored truck nuts would dress it up?

Right on, near where the clutch is/would be there is a nice large plugged hole. In the Subaru service manual, I did see one time where they mentioned using this hole as part of a diagnostic procedure. I think it was to run a transmission pressure gauge through it to be able to watch it while driving on the auto trans. Maybe that was the hole for the clutch pedal I am thinking of since mine's an auto.

The directional tires can usually be run backwards as long as the pavement is dry. Motorcycles ridden on the track often flip the tires to use up the tread on the other side. But if the pavement is wet then it is not so good.

That's pretty neat. Thanks for the detailed info on those fittings for the water heater drain, I've been trying to figure out something like that for many years! Dexron VI is probably fine for the steering. I wouldn't use it in my transmission because it is a bit thinner than the older Dexrons. They like to claim everything is backwards compatible, though it doesn't necessarily mean it is the best spec for the application.

The MT can be flat towed in neutral, just keep all the wheels on the ground. Crank pulley bolt I always go to around 130 ft-lb. No way do I want that thing loosening up on me. I know some manuals listed a lower torque. They might have listed a lower torque thinking that the crank bolt being coated with engine oil before installation would give the proper tightening, but there seems to be plenty of stories where it loosened up on people.

Check this out for the most common engine oil leak sources on Subaru's. It could be the rear separator plate, if the original plastic one is still in place. You'd have to pinpoint the source of the leak to know the exact cause. That sounds like it has torque bind. Are all the tires the same size and model? Depending on the source, running a heavy oil like 20w50 might slow it down. You said you haven't enough money for more oil; I had a friend in college who had a car that used a lot of oil, so he was taking other people's used motor oil and using it in his car. Not ideal, but it got him through. To get the most out of it trying to sell it to a private buyer, all obvious problems would have to be fixed. Like your casual buyer, if they start it up and the exhaust is super loud, they're going to notice that. Some people will notice major oil leaks and other issues. Usually it is not possible to buy any higher mileage 15+ year old vehicle without having it need some amount of work. Normally it is best to test drive the vehicle before purchasing it. Granted if it isn't registered/insured that is not possible maybe, but if you have the cash in hand and the seller knows you're serious they might let you go if they ride along with you. You can't trust everything a private (or any for that matter!) seller says about a vehicle, because there are things they simply may not be aware of, or they may outright lie or misrepresent the truth.

How much would you like to see? I haven't seen above that on any of my soobs either (except on my '00obw when something went bad in the alt and I was getting 16 volts out). Your loaded tests seem about like what I see. I notice when loaded hard the voltage will slowly dip, like 12.4 then after a few seconds 12.3 and so on. I imagine it dips as the battery discharges and the current drawn by everything running drops to what the alt is putting out.

I have an '00obw and it has the style with the orange and blue buttons. I believe that is the Alpine system. Check this out, it will tell you the different soob alarm systems, should be able to figure out what remote you need from it: http://www.cars101.com/subaru/keyless.html

^^ that intake is roughly the 2000-2004 Legacy/Outback style. But those years do not have a MAF, so it would be kind of tricky to use that setup on a soob that does.

Did you try putting it in neutral to start it? Sometimes some of my soobs won't start in park, but if you push the lever forward and hold it there while hitting the key then it works, or they will always still start in neutral, at least for me. Did you lube up the mechanism at all or try the jumper wire method?

Rubber grease! I think something is lost in the translation....... It may be made by a joint venture between Matsumura Fishworks and Tamaribuchi Heavy Manufacturing Concern.

Ah ok, I didn't look at Impreza at first. The first site lists the same part for that year range Impreza 2.2. There is some funkiness shown in the Impreza part #'s too but those all look like they're for the 2.5L. HG114B Impreza1996-1998 Engine Parts, Head Gasket Set HEAD GASKET SET for 1996-1998 Impreza 2.2

Hm do you mean conflicting information between the sites? The first one just says HG114B, Legacy, 1996-1998 HEAD GASKET SET for 1996-1998 Legacy 2.2. I do see some vague info or mid-year differences noted but it looked like those were for the 2.5L?

It seems to be common at the parts stores for them to give a list of parts that could be causing the problem, of course because the whole hope is that since you're there and they were nice enough to read the codes for you that you'll buy these parts. It seems you have to specifically ask for the code number(s) or they don't tell you, probably since it is meaningless and confusing to most people who stop there to get it read.

Glad your light went off! Someone posted that sometimes that rubber booty under the cap, if it is sticking out too much, can press down the float and make the light come on. Maybe it gets worse when it is cold.

I just did my soobs with 3M plastic cleaner, then the 3M headlight polish/protector, based on those products having good reviews at Amazon. I was pretty pleased with the relatively low cost and speed that it worked. I just used a cloth to apply them. Granted I did have to go over them several times to get a good result, but they are now pretty clear. They weren't terribly frosted over before but they were far from clear.

If you don't need/use your A/C, you could remove the compressor and drive belt, hoses, accumulator, condenser, etc. Sometimes people do that to get rid of that extra weight. Your photo is interesting. You said that is a '96 EJ22? The radiator looks odd, the cap is on the left side? Maybe it was replaced at some point. Also curious, what is that metal thing with the two red hoses/wires kind of below the brake booster hose? Normally that is where the EGR is if the engine has it, just haven't seen that particular thingy before. Most factory intakes are already tuned to be just about as efficient as possible. The soob intake flows adequately for the amount of air the engine can breathe. Often the factory intakes are tuned to take advantage of Helmholtz resonance.

Your blower is most likely not getting power then. When you measured the voltage at your blower wires, was that with the blower connected/plugged in? If not, that is the real test, measuring the voltage across the blower wires with the load in place. Since the ground is switched on the blower, you could measure +12V w/r/t ground on one of the wires but the blower still may not work. I had a Ford Escort that did this to me, since I had no money to fix, I simply connected an alligator clip jumper to the grounded fan lead, and connected that to the ash tray when I wanted the blower on. Yes it was either full speed or nothing, but better than nothing at all. That is not perplexing at all; when you go to defrost, many cars also run the AC, which means the compressor comes on and either the main and/or sub fan depending on conditions. It seems on soobs the car does not have to be running; simply having the key in the run position is enough. It's something like this:

I've been running Amsoil 'HDD' HDEO (heavy duty engine oil) in my soobs for many years, it's 5W30, and the engines are pretty quiet. The quietest oil I have run was Amsoil 20W50 racing oil (no friction modifiers I believe, and wear protection similar to HDEO's). I even ran it in the winter a few times, plus on that oil, I once got the best ever mileage I have achieved in my '00 OBW.

Score! I had gotten some little packets of it in with the genuine caliper rebuild kits, but hadn't seen it available separately. Thanks for the info.

Also they got rid of the hydraulic lash adjusters after 1996. Around that era, some of the soobs had different part # timing belts depending on whether they had Calif. emissions or not. You asked about the water pump, I think the biggest difference in that era was whether they had a stamped impeller, or a cast impeller. I think one was dubbed the 'high velocity' pump and might have been for the turbos from 90-94.