robm

I don't recommend rad sealers for long term use. But it might it get you out of the bush with a blown head gasket or leaky radiator. The Alumaweld or Solder Seal stuff, powder in a little plastic tube, might be cheap insurance to carry in the tool box when far from civilization.

Well, I made it home in one piece, without too much drama. 1400 km in 2 days. The fuel pump connector crapped out again, in Cache Creek (where the Athens Queen got her name). Same nonsense, 10 minutes fiddling with the connector in D-check mode until the pump finally started to run. I wound up covered in sticky undercoat, and the soap in the restaurant and gas station does not cut through it. I think there is a temperature effect going on here. Every time it stops working is when it has been parked in a hot parking lot for a few minutes. I can see no other correlation. I will get some bullet connectors this weekend, and cut out the old connector, put in the new ones. Other than the fuel pump in Cache Creek, it ran well. 11.1 km/l (26 mpg) around town, as much as 13 km/l (30.6 mpg) on the highway. Not too bad. Now to fix the fuel pump connector, replace all fluids, and look into getting it derusted.

I wonder if the air is caught in the hill holder? Maybe try bleeding with the nose in the air, and press the clutch as Miles suggests.

Very true. I considered it. But I lacked the very long punch/steel rod (1/4" - 3/16" dia.?) necessary to get up inside to do it. As I mentioned, this car has AC, and the condenser hanging out in front of the radiator reduces the working space in there to an near-impossible minimum. Also, I wonder: would the hood right above the screws prevent them from moving far enough to release the grill? The first major mod I do will be to remove all that crap, so I can do timing belts.

Well, the Athens Queen went to the scrappie yesterday. He picked it up, and took off the wheels once it was on the back of the flat deck. I got $80 for her. RIP, a great car. I don't imagine the ones that will be made from her will be any where near as tough or practical.

A "new" engine with new oil pump with TOD may just need a few days of use to quiet down. Otherwise, it will likely need extreme measures, such as the cam tower O-rings, etc. Lots of stuff here on TOD. I am not sure why scoobiedubie thinks the pumps only last 20,000 miles. My last Loyale went over 200,000 miles on the original pump. Changing the water pumps annually is not part of Subaru's maintenance requirements. Lots of very experienced users of this forum hate the EA82 because of its timing belts, not because of its water pump. Timing belts are good for 55,000 miles if the covers are on, and, in my experience, less if they are removed. I haven't managed better than 40,000 miles to failure without covers, but got 55,000 without failure with covers on.

Linseed meal! That goes along with the old patch-her-up-to-sell-her-quick use of oatmeal to seal leaky cooling systems. Except the linseed meal may actually harden, the same way linseed oil in paint cures. Usually, it requires oxygen to cure, though. I am not sure how much oxygen will be dissolved in a car's cooling system. Apparently the borax can form a rubbery substance when mixed with PVA glue (plain old Elmer's white glue, for instance). How much do you want to bet that PVA is the "proprietary resin solution"? The goop it forms is actually known as "flubber"! Personally, I have had remarkable success with Solder Seal rad sealer. It comes as gray metallic flakes in a plastic tube about 3 inches long. It sealed a blown Loyale headgasket remarkably well. I wouldn't trust it much further than the nearest scrap yard, but the car went from filling the carport with steam, and filling the rad constantly, to no noticeable steam in the exhaust at all. I have no idea what those flakes are.

I tried removing the grill. On the Loyale, it is held by pins on the bottom, which can be popped out by flexing the grill slightly. It is held at the top by by 2 of those strange plastic fasteners that hold the plastic trim bits inside the car, like below the glove box or steering column. They have a plastic screw that expands an insert to wedge it in place, like drywall anchor. These screws must be unscrewed from above, and are not accessible if the hood is shut. It may be possible to drive the screws out with a punch, but to do that would require a very long punch, and don't try it with AC, as there is very little room between the condenser and the bumper to get tools, hands etc. into this area. And the latch is held by 3 each 12mm head bolts and a Phillips screw holding a bit of sheet metal that is part of the cable sheathe anchor. The Phillips screw may or may not come out. Too late to run a pull wire. I hope I can fish it through.

Got the hood release figured out. For future reference of others in the same strait: 1. Make a hook of 1/8" steel about 9" long. The hook should be bent to 90 degrees, about 1/2 long. 2. Peer through the grill. You will see a metal tab on the driver's side, sticking out from the latch mechanism. It holds the end of the cable sheathe. There is a hole in it, 1/4" or so above the bottom. That is the datum point for using the hook. 3. Stick your hand and arm, with the hook, up under the bumper between the bumper and the rad. If you have AC, a skinny arm is an advantage. (I already hate AC. I don't need it, it doesn't work, and it is in the way.) 4. Line up the rod with the hole, so the rod is level and at the same height. The hook should be inside the mechanism. With the hook facing forward, pull the rod towards the driver's side of the car until it pops. 5. Some latches have a plastic backing plate on them. If it does, you are screwed, as it won't let the hook into the guts of the latch. It was a good thing I had the old car around still, to see how it works and develop this procedure. Also good that this one didn't have the plastic plate.

I am not too worried about most of that stuff. Parts are 2 days away. Towing etc. is a biggy. But really, it is only the funky fuel pump wiring that has me concerned. Now I know the problem, it should not be too big a deal. The real problem I have now is the hood is latched tight, with no cable to pop it. Oops. Big double oops. Any brilliant ways to get to it? Maybe pull the bolts that hold it down through the grill...

This one has fairly advanced cancer, too. Not worth the effort. On top of that, I am 800 miles from home and tools. That Solder Seal stuff I put in is working great. I haven't used it much, just around the block far enough to warm it up, with a steep hill at the end. The exhaust is pretty near dry! No noticeable steam coming out. When I first fired it up, it filled the carport with steam, and used 2 qts of water in 5 miles, even though 1/3 was coasting with the engine off! I think I might buy a tube of that stuff to keep handy. It seems to be cheap and effective.

If I have to carry all that stuff, this is NOT a daily driver! I am not really far from civilization. This is a main highway, but one with huge stretches with zero services. 50 - 100 mile stretches between fuel stops, and cell service even more spotty. Another little glitch: the hood release cable has snapped. The old car's is ready to snap (no corrosion, but only about 11 wires left of the original 19). Are new ones available anywhere? Dealer or aftermarket?

I got it. It was the 10 mm head/ 6mm dia. bolts that I forgot about, but rust took care of them. Salvaging the hardware in the frame rail took a bit of work. One came out OK, the other I had to get creative. I bored a hole into the rail, stuffed a 1/2" rod into it, and jammed a long crescent wrench handle between the rod and the backing plate, to stop it and the carriage bolt (round head, square beneath it) from rotating. There are also a bunch of 8 mm bolts that hold it on. Only one survived, the rest snapped. The strange thing was that they would turn about 3 turns, then get stiff and snap right off. They were too long, so they went into the rail and got rusty. The threads in the welded on nut were OK, it was the bolt threads that stuck out that were rusty amd seized when rotated into the nut. Next time, I will use bolts that are the right length, and lots of antiseize. The next question, is how to reinstall? Getting those bolts deep into the frame rail will be interesting, without the original hardware that came with the hitch. I will have to make some straps or sheet metal bits to get them into place.

Stop leak helped my terminal blown headgasket. The beast went from producing vast clouds of steam and using a quart+ of water in 5 miles to being capable of gentle use on a local basis, just keep a jug handy and top up now and again. I used the Solder Seal metallic flakes, not one of the sodium silicate liquids. It took a couple of days and starting/heating/flow cycles to achieve maximum effectiveness. This is not a long term fix, just enough to keep it on the road until it can go to the scrappie. Not recommended for a long term vehicle. Milk shake residue on the oil filler cap is quite common, esp. in cooler climates. Not a problem. Look for steam in the exhaust, smell it for coolant.

Sounds like the same one. The nuts had long sheet metal tongues to locate them inside the frame rails, from inside the rear smuggler's compartment. Any good references on removal of the bumper? The rest is easy, I can see it, it is the bumper part that I can't remember.

The deal on this one is "push pull or drag" a beater to get it out of the system, so it won't "pollute" any more. They won't pull parts and return them, as they don't want to encourage the use of cars this old. They go straight to the crusher, as I understand it. (Despite the fact that the same website that promotes this program told me repeatedly that any car that can replace the Loyale will do so at the expense of increased carbon emissions. I am not sure they are critical in global warming, but at >$5/US gal for gas, I prefer the Loyale's fuel consumption. ) They want it running at the gate, and the government will give me $200 for it. Much more than I could get as a beater with a blown headgasket on the open market. I just have to figure out how much I can strip and leave it mobile. The tires I want to save are Kumhos, only 1 year old, maybe 20,000 km on them. They may have another 20 - 40,000 km left. (I get crap mileage from my tires, I don't know why.) The replacement Loyale has some good Michelins on it. Maybe the same tread wear. They may last longer, although to date, Hankooks, Kumhos and Toyos have all lasted less than 50,000 km a set. It will be interesting to see if Michelins do better. (Pirellis did - 80,000 km.) If I could get a full set (3 more) of temp. spares, I would be laughing. I may be better off stripping all the useful stuff that will fit in the new one, and giving the car to the scrappie. The tires are worth at least $200.

I will check those points to look for the thump. Another thing has reared its ugly head: It quit on me in the mall parking lot. No start, no matter how long it cranks. I traced it to a fuel problem. The fuel pump does not cycle. Went home to get tools and schematic and a new relay. I replaced the relay and put it in D-check mode so the pump would cycle. Everything seems to work at that end. Relay clicks and the 12 V on the load side cycles between 12 V and not much. At the back there is a new fuel pump. (Easy to tell, no muck on it yet.) I pull the connector and see only about 0.5 V on the hot side???!!! Cycling with 0 V, of course, as the relay clicks. I put it back together and the pump cycles - a bit. I poke the wires and it starts to cycle properly. I drove it home just fine. So the problem seems to be a flaky wiring harness right at the pump. How much do you want to bet the previous owner paid for a pump they didn't need? Tomorrow I crawl under and strip the wires back to retape them. There must be a moderate resistance leak to ground, so the pump won't run, but the fuse won't blow. I can't have it working like this when I take it home next week. 1400 km up to northern BC in 2 days is no time or place for flaky wiring.

I bought another Loyale to replace the Athens Queen. Light blue 1992 4WD 5 sp wagon. 154,000 km (<100,000 mi). C$1400. The rust is just starting. I think I might throw another $500 into it to get it derusted. If it lasts another 200,000 km/ 10 years it will be a heck of a good deal. The only little niggle with it is one that didn't show up in the test drive: A thump underneath (hard to tell from where) when getting on the gas after braking. Any ideas what to look for?

This post might be better in the "parts wanted" section, but I get the idea this part of the forum is more frequented. I have near new tires on my old Loyale that is not long for this world. I would like to replace them with old temporary spares for the short trip to the recycler. Does anyone in the Vancouver BC area have one or more temporary spares for a Loyale they want to get rid of for cheap/free? PM me for contact details. Thanks, Rob.

My old Loyale is on its way to the recycler. (Blown head gasket and not enough steel left in the body to warrant fixing it.) I want to salvage as much as I can from it, including the trailer hitch. I mounted it about 9 years ago, and cannot remember the details, all I remember is having to remove the bumper to mount it. It is a Hidden Hitch, who no longer list this hitch, so there are no instructions available for it. Does anyone know what is involved? Some plastic/rubber bits came off, the hitch went on, then they were refitted. Thanks.

Every 20,000 miles for water pump and timing belts? That seems like somewhat excessive preventative maintenance.

Re: 1987 GL's being "the worst GL/Loyale made": They may be the worst, but the fact that they are 27 years old, and "craigslist is full of them" says a lot about how good they are compared to the rest of the cars available. How many 27 year old Corollas are out there?

Being able to watch someone else do it for $100 would be good a good deal. But chances are you won't learn too much applicable to "shade tree" mechanics, if they pull out the 100 ton press with all the fittings to do the job. Get it done right, once, by someone else, watch it happening, and your car is good for the next 200,000 miles. Bargain for $100.

There may not be an immediate, noticeable difference with these additives. Not like in the chainsaw. It could be one of those things that makes a difference way down the road. Like the difference between 400,000 miles and 500,000 miles when applied to a Subaru. Consider that if it reduces friction, it will run cooler, i.e., produce less waste heat, but that won't show up as anything on the temperature gauge because the t-stat just closes down to compensate and keeps the temperature the same. Tracking fuel consumption very closely may show if this additive has any effect.

For $50 a side, how do you know it has been done right? I am conflicted on this one. $100 for both is a bargain. Easily worth the money for the reduction in time spent, hassle and frustration. As a learning experience, it may be useful, but it may just teach you not to bite off more can chew. Skills learned may or may not be useful in future endeavours. On the other hand, it is no bargain if it isn't done right. And $100 seems like very little for the work involved. I take it you are supplying parts, and the $100 is labour only? WHoops, I just noticed the arms are off. $50 a side may be reasonable. But still low, around here.