robm

Once you know where it goes, the inner CVjoint circlip can be installed with the axle in place. A messy job, as you have to get your hands right into the grease, but easier than pulling the axle. Although, if you have been doing it the hard way, maybe you should practice pulling axles the easy way!

LPG used to be a good way to save $ on fuel, but the cost has gone up a lot. It is now about $.70/liter here in Canada, with gas at about $1.15/liter. Less BTU's in propane, so the difference is not as great as it looks. It is close to the point where we are paying the same for the BTU's, just they don't tax the propane as much. There are other advantages to propane, like cleaner running, less wear, etc., but they are hard to figure in to the equation, especially when a car lasts as long as a Subaru does on gas. The engines already outlive the bodies, what is the point in making them last longer? Conversion costs would be hard to recover. The high octane rating of the propane is hard to take advantage of with a Subie, as it is hard to raise the compression. If one could, it would help make up for the lower BTU content of the fuel. Would be good for a turbo (with higher boost a possibility) , but the propane mixers are not all that sophisticated, much less so than the MPFI, so you lose tuneability, power and mileage by converting from a decent gasoline injection system to a crude propane mixer. There are gaseous injectors out there, but they are still in the preliminary stages, not too much available on the market yet. Maybe one day....

It is hard to not talk about gas properties when discussing miles per gallon, and the gallons keep changing. It would be great if we could buy it by the heat content, instead of by the gallon. Then we would be talking about kilometers per kilojoule, or miles per MBTU. Seasonal and regional variations in fuel content wouldn't make any difference, then.

Gas density higher in winter? Not so, I am afraid. Winter gas tends to be LOWER BTU content, as they put more volatile components in it. Probably the density will be reduced slightly, as well. All reasonably modern gas pumps (less than 20 years old) adjust the gallons shown to give you gallons at 15 deg. C, no matter what the temperature of the fluid. (I am not sure what they adjust it to in the US, 60 deg F maybe?) I am not sure what density they base the measurement on. Winter driving conditions (wet roads,snow on the road, snow tires, cold engines and bearing grease, higher air density) all combine to reduce mileage considerably. So it will be hard to compare summer fuel consumption, with AC hooked up, and winter, without. My guess is the difference will be minimal. If the compressor isn't compressing, the extra drag due to the bearings will be very small.

That little jar is about the biggest you will find in Canada. You might try asking around one of the Youth Hostels in Vancouver if there are any Aussies that know of a source of larger jars. I would try the Jericho Hostel, it is a good excuse to get down to the beach! Great fruit stands along Highway 3. The Old Grist Mill in Keremeos is pretty cool, if you are into old tech and organic farming.

I can't imagine a RWD only conversion working well. These cars have so much weight over the front wheels, I suspect it would just sit there and spin its tires. Perhaps fun and impressive, with lots of sliding and smoke, but not fast.

It may already be quite waterproof. ECU's are often epoxy potted from the factory. Have a look inside to see it it is. If it isn't, DON"T JUST POUR IN THE EPOXY! Use a box. Heat build-up will kill it. In fact, just putting it in a new enclosure could give you heat problems, so be aware of this when you do it.

Yep, and power required is force times velocity, so power required to overcome wind resistance is velocity cubed. Rolling resistance is linear with speed, so power to overcome it is the square of the speed. I was impressed, too. As I said, I attribute it to the new, narrower tires and alignment. I used to run 185/70-13's, and managed to find 165/80's. All they can set is the toe-out, but they did set it, and there was a noticeable difference in the steering wheel (it now points straight ahead, from 15 deg. left) and also in the yaw stability. (A sudden hack at the wheel damps itself out quicker than it used to.) There was noticeable wear on the outsides of the old tires, which is why I had the alignment done, so I hope that is gone too. Worth the $50, and worth considering for your car, if there are any indications at all that there is something not quite right in the steering. Your car weighs more than mine, has a larger engine, and probably more frontal area. The automatic will really kill your mileage. I coast on hills, as well. A 6% grade will allow the car to maintain speed in neutral, greater than that will allow it to increase. Not a problem with a standard trannie, not recommended with the auto. The fuel injection does cut back a lot when going down hill, so we probably don't save much gas on that part. It is coasting up the other side that saves fuel. Hey, if I know the weight of the car, that 6% grade will tell me how much drag the car really has, won't it! Body mods are expensive. The best bet for a Loyale would be to lower it, but then I would lose the rough road ability, and compromise the great access for service. Even at $1.15/liter for gas, it would be hard to pay back the investment in new suspension parts and labour. A front air dam would help too, but again, rough road ability would be compromised, and the cost probably wouldn't match the benefit.

Yes, I realize I am lucky. There just aren't that many people up here.

You have the choice right now. 55 isn't that bad, as long as you keep it up steady. Not having to stop as often for gas helps cut down the time on long road trips. I find driving a bit slower even makes it less stressful, so I don't have to stop for a break as often, and can keep going longer. For example, I drove from Vancouver, BC, to Terrace. That is about 1400 km, and I took about 18.5 hours to do it, with the cruise control at a steady 93 km/h. I stopped once for fuel, twice to shop, and once to chat with a friend for an hour, so time on the road was less than 16 hours. Between Cache Creek and just north of Quesnel, I was passed 3 times by the same SUV! He was doing 110-120 km/h, and didn't even have to speed up to pass me. Because he stopped so often, he maybe beat me to Prince George by 15 minutes, and spent a LOT more on gasoline to do it. That is about a 5 hour trip. My fuel consumption for that part of the trip was over 15 km/liter, or about 36 mpg US. That is the best I have ever achieved, probably due to new tires of the correct size (165/80-13) and fresh alignment. The 4 hour trip through the Fraser Canyon is good and twisty, with lots of hills, so that kind of mileage is amazing at any speed. Pretty good for an old Loyale wagon, full of stuff!

Your highway scenario is interesting. Do you know what speed that was measured at? Highway fuel consumption is very speed dependent. Even 5 mph slower can show improvements. 10 mph is huge. Many years ago, Car and Driver magazine used to publish their measurements of horepower requirements for air and rolling drag for the cars they tested. Small econoboxes were pretty typically 15 HP @ 50 mph, and half was air drag and half was tires. They calculated this with coast-down measurements, or something like this, so they couldn't estimate drivetrain losses. But since power required is proportional to the cube of the speed of air resistance, and the square of the speed for rolling resistance, it gives a good place to start guessing from.

If the track is at all slippery (wet or gravel, in other words) 4WD will help get the back end sliding. But there seems to be noticeably less power available in 4WD. In a straight line, a stock Loyale seems to be even more doggish when accelerating in 4WD. I can't imagine it rolling on you, as long as you don't hit something sideways and trip over it. Unlikely on an autocross course.

Sounds like a plugged or otherwise inefficient radiator. More RPM's may speed up the cooling flow as the pump goes faster, but it also increase the power required, therefore the amount of heat to be dumped. To test the bad pump idea, you have to try running at the same speed with higher RPMs, not increase the speed at the same time. At 80 mph, you need roughly double the horsepower, therefore double the heat to dump, as at 60 mph. To test the water pump with this more rpm idea, try going 50 mph in 5th for a while, then see if the temperature drops when travelling 50 mph in 4th. Rob.

The DOJ is held together with a little wire circlip. It will be easier to take it out and clamp it in a vice to work on it the first time you do this. Put a bucket under the joint when you pull back the boot, to catch the grease. Have new grease ready to put in the joint, also new clamps ready for the boot. Look inside for the clip, and figure out how it all goes back together, then regrease, reassemble, and put it back in the car. Once you know how they go together, you can do this with the axle in the car. It is a very messy process, but not too bad. Rob.

The yellowing he is referring to is outsided the combustion chamber. I can't see mixture being able to affect this portion of the insulator. If it can, I would expect to see effects on the pistons shortly..... These are the front plugs. Could it be road crap getting cooked on? Or some minor oil leak from the front of the engine, getting blown back onto these plugs? Rob.

You actually will need 1.5" dia. pipe to match the flow area. Figure it out: 1.875 squared is 3.52. 1 squared is only 1! So the flow area will be way less than you have now. 1.5 squared is 2.25, a little better than half of the area you have now, and will work a lot better than the 1" dia. you propose. Rob.

Bump?

Unless you are in deep snow, AWD is a better bet than 4WD for a car that spends most of its time on the road. At low speed especially, the 4WD will make you spin out. I have had them both, and I find the AWD to be the better bet for a street vehicle. Rob.

I got rear ended by a Toyota Echo. Pulling into traffic, paused to let a pick-up go by (90 HP is not the best for getting up to speed!) and WHAM! Right in the trailer hitch. No injury. I took his licence # and name, and noted the time and a probable witness, just in case my neck is sore tomorrow. Otherwise, not worth reporting. This is why I drive beaters..... No visible damage, except the bumper is punched in on the left side. I guess the bumper shock there is collapsed. There is a shock in there, right? Is it resettable, or should it be replaced? The other annoying thing, the roof light won't turn off. The switch is built into the latch, and I can't seem to get it to adjust to shut off. Any tips? Car is a '93 Loyale wagon. Thanks, Rob.

A bad diode in the alternator will cause a persistent drain. That is why you should try disconnecting that cable.

Don't worry about it, the guys that work in those 30 minute oil change places throw those washers away by the hatful and never have a problem No, their customers do!

Maybe pull the engine for better access, or the radiator etc. on the front end. If this vehicle is a keeper, invest some time as well as money into it. Using that right angle drill, with harder bits, sounds like a good way to break even more drill bits.

I have no idea about modifying old carbs. If you had lots of guts (and a spare carb) you could just go at it with a drill... I believe it is called "ported vacuum" because it comes from a port on the carb. Pretty obvous, maybe there is another reason for the name? The port is usually between the primary venturi and the throttle plate. It is just a hole, with the connector on the outside. Racing applications don't usually bother with vacuum advance. They run WOT all the time, so they don't run into situations where vacuum advance is of any use (no vacuum), and don't care about fuel economy anyway. They claim that the extra linkages etc. make the disty less stable, the timing less exact, esp. at high RPM, so they prefer to do without. So perhaps you have a carb intended for a track application. If it pings for just a second as you get on the throttle, don't sweat it. If it pings contiinuously as you accelerate or climb a hill, then that is a problem, and probably a different issue, like too much static advance, or the wrong jetting.

Ported vacuum barb sees vacuum only when the throttle is open. At closed throttle (idle) the disty will be running pretty close to static advance. Better for emissions, doesn't make much difference for economy or power. The advance curve is cut for the ported vacuum, which will be slightly different, and probably less than the manifold, especially when accelerating. That would account for the ping you hear. Examples: Ported vacuum At idle, disty is running about 10 deg. advance. Open up to accelerate, and the maniifold vacuum drops as the throttle opens. The disty still sees low vacuum and remains retarded, the engine is under heavy load where the advance is not needed, and all is well. THe only advance is due to increasing RPM. As the engine "catches up" with the throttle, and the load drops, the vacuum increases, and the advance does too, just like it supposed to. Manifold Vacuum At idle, the vacuum is very high, and the vacuum advance is maxed out, 10 deg. + vacuum advance, 20 deg. total maybe? As the throttle opens, the vacuum drops as the load comes on, but the disty takes some time to roll off the vacuum advance, as the signal takes some time to propagate through the tubing and the canister takes some time to move the disty where it belongs. The engine will be running more advance than it needs for a second or 2 after hitting the throttle, and it will rattle until the disty gets to where it should be. This isn't off-topic at all, as desertsubaru figures it works the other way round. So do lot of other folks. Education is always useful. To try and get rid of the rattle, make the vacuum hose as short as possible. It might help a bit, as the vacuum can will respond quicker.

Are the throtle shafts worn? It sounds like there is some kind of variable air leak, when you say it jumps around, and runs better(!) with your hand on the intake.