robm

Googling "Advaned cam tiimng" shows that an advanced cam can improve botom end and midrange, but the amount of advance required is very little. No more than 2-3 degrees, typically, and it helps if you can adjust the exhaust separtely from the intake (DOHC). If your 36 tooth sprocket figure is correct, that will give 10 deg. advance, which is a whole bunch more than you can use. Doing this will advance your ignition timing, too. Don't forget to set it back, so you can tell exactly what is going on, and not get the cam and ignition timing effects mixed up.

There is a post on the site with the Alldata procedure for changing timing belts transcribed onto it. It is better than the Haynes version. I just went through this this weekend, and I wished I had the Alldata one to work from. Use the Search function to find it. The covers are not necessarily easy to get off. Maybe in Maryland, but probably not in Maine. Certainly weren't here in BC. Salt in the air, salt on the roads, lots of snow and rain. Does this sound more like Maine or Maryland? Pulling the alternator is not necessary, but pulling the drive belts probably is. I don't have AC, so I don't know if Haynes is getting carried away or not. The fan has to come out to get to the passenger side cover. Getting the hang of these cars is a bit of an attitude adjustment. Once you get into the logic of it, and find out that a lot of stuff has to come off to get to things, but it comes off easily, then all is good. I have worked on a bunch of different cars. These old Subarus are very easy, on par with early Hondas and Datsuns. Toyotas suck, but then they don't break down too often, so it is a wash. I have never enjoyed working on North American vehicles, they are just plain poorly designed and laid out. Weird fasteners (Torx and bizarre metrics mixed with SAE bolts) and stuff that is just plain inaccessible, requiring deep sockets and swivel joints. Yuck! And changing the oil: It may have run everywhere, but you didn't have to get the car up in the air to access it, did you? Ramps not required.

RE: Odcomp's confusion of MAF measurements. If you measure the air going into the engine at any point in the system, it doesn't matter how much you heat it or cool it, the same amount of air goes into the engine. That is why it is called a MASS air flow sensor. You can heat, cool or compress it all you want, but the MASS ( number of pounds) of the air stays the same. (As long as you don't have a leak in the system along the way, like a BOV that dumps to atmosphere. That would screw up all your measurements.) I think the ideal system for any engine would be a MAP and a very short, large area filter right above the inlet, whether turbo or throttle body (for an NA engine). Get rid of all that inlet tubing, and the tiny hole in the MAF (it is only about 30 mm across!). For an NA engine, the MAP with an old non-FI filter housing, with 2-3 stock filters stacked to provide lots of area, protruding above the hood into a scoop. With a freeflow exhaust, I suspect the SPFI could break 100 HP at the crank with this rig. If I could be assured of fuel economy improvements, it would make MS look pretty attractive.

I pulled the switch connector and shorted it out. The fan turns! Yayy!! Trip to the wrecker not required. Then I looked at the 4WD solenoids. Turns out the 3 inch piece of hose between the solenoids and the last check valve in the system was bad, so now I have 4WD again. And just for reference, there was 19" Hg of vacuum at the solenoids, with the engine running at 2000 RPM (cold/high idle). So, a fairly successful little project. And next time I do it, in about 3 years, it will be that much faster and easier, as there are no longer any stupid covers on the belts, and I already have the belt tensioner tool.

Changed the timing belts on my Loyale this weekend. So, what's up with those covers? I hope the committee who came up with those things was sent back to school to retake their materials and metallurgy courses. Steel/Brass bond better that brass/plastic, then the rubber gaskets are sensitive to oil, and blow up like balloons with a miniscule front seal leak! And it seems like the 10 mm bolts are just a hair uindersize, as they have to be hammered out of the socket (Craftsman, not junk!) if they do unscrew. It had to be a committee that came up with this fustercluck, one guy on his own couldn't have screwed it up this badly. I am now running without covers, by default, as the right one came out in about 4 pieces. A drawback to this is making sure that there is nothing likely to get caught in them. I didn't do that, and the wiring for the fan went through the timing belt. Now the fan doesn't work, so it looks like a trip to the wrecker. Is 66 -79 ft. lbs correct for the front pulley bolt? It seems like very little, compared to how hard it was to crack it off. Also, the 4WD went away. I suspect it may have something do do with the vacuum system. Any idea how much vacuum should be present at the solenoids at idle? It doesn't feel like very much. At least it started up first try. Cam timing is right on.

With only 190,000 km on my Loyale, all I carry is the stock tool kit. Strictly for use on OTHER people's vehicles!

I pulled an F150 crew cab out of the ditch on Saturday night. It wouldn't go into 4WD (Ford is 4 letter word as far as I am concerned, just like Chev!), so a tow strap between his hitch and mine, and away we went. It took 2 tries, but it come out fairly slickly once we figured out how to co-ordinate our pulls to get it rocking. Only a slight smell of burining clutch from my poor little beast.

The radio in my Loyale does this too. It is definately temperature related. If I turn on the heat, and send it towards floor, the radio will start to fade. If I kick the back of the radio, it comes back, like it is a bad connection, then fades out again rapidly. If I set the temperature to cool, or direct the heat to the defroster or the other vents on the dashboard, the radio comes back. It might be something wonky with the antenna connection, or perhaps the temperature is actually affecting the tuning? I haven't really had much luck fixing it, and even the stock radio is a real mess to install, with the wiring on the back pressfitted into place. Wiggling the antenna wire seems to help, which is probably why kicking it has a short term effect. For now, I just put put up with little or no heat on my feet. Maybe if it gets cold this year I will have to do something positive about it. Whoa, I just reread the original post, his does it cold? Maybe mine isn't the same.

Have you checked the vacuum advance? Ported or manifold, no vacuum advance = rotten fuel consumption. Pop the dist. cap, and pull off the tube going to the distributor advance can at then manifold/carb end, and suck on it. (It tastes bad! But not as bad as trying to start a gas syphon.) You should see the distributor plate move. Stick your tongue on the end of the tube to block it, and it should stay there. Good luck.

I am no expert, but a coil that heats up when installed sounds like it might be a pointer to the problem. This thing must have some kind of ignition amplifier or transistor in the circuit. If it is shorted out, it would put full current through the coil at all times, could make it heat up. Since it is shorted, and never opens, there would never be a spark come out of it. It is worth looking at whatever fires the coil.

Not just at high engine speeds. At normal cruising speed (2800 RPM plus, say) there is lots of centrifugal advance (based on engine speed), there is also lots vacuum advance (based on load, which is light, more load = less advance) . One doesn't take over from the other, they work hand in hand. That was a great article on ignition timing. We should get permission from the author to put it in the archives.

I believe the guts of that axle are the same, or similar, as in the R160. I saw some info on a Datsun site somewhere that implied the guts were swappable. Something like H160 for the solid axle? So it won't be Subaru, but it will be a related.

Pulling the axles out of the hubs might not be necessary, just get them out of the transmission. It would be nice to get more room around the tranny, though. I believe all it takes is a 3/16" pin punch to knock out the roll pin on the inboard end of the axle, just like on the older Subarus?

Put the hand brake on as hard as you can, or get someone to plant their foot on the brakes. Then get a big long pipe on the breaker bar, and away you go!

Many years ago, a friend of mine experienced vapour lock on his injected Supra, while using a commercial gas/ethanol mix. My carbed 510 ran the same stuff with no trouble at all. So the pressure may not always help. Fuel rail location is part of the equation here - how close to a heat source?

The front bulb not blinking is typical of a blown bulb, but you checked that, and it was OK, so you checked the power going to the bulb, and found none. Good troubleshooting! Well done. The turnsignal stalk switch is OK, or else the front wouldn't work at all, likewise the blinker, or else nothing would work. So the problem is between the switch and wherd you looked for power going to the bulb and didn't find it. Check all the connectors back to the switch until you find where the power disappears. Probably a bad connector somewhere.

I find my wagon scrabbles like a cat on a hardwood floor when in 2WD and the surface is a bit slippery (rain, sand, etc.). Firs one side, then the other, oscillating teh gripping wheel back and forth several times before hookng up. My buddy's EA81 did it way worse, though. My AWD Corolla never did it. Probably because of having only 1/2 the torque at any wheel. Yay AWD!

How does that tool work? Does it use a piece of wire to connect the cyliinder to the end of the axle? Does it automatically align the axle, so it goes through the bearings? I used a small block of cedar and 12 oz hammer to tap the axle through from behind, when I got to spots where the axle nut and available washers did not fit. Put the blcok on tehCVjont boot, be carefuyl to not get it near thd edge, so it won't cut anything. I also used a stiff piece of wire through the cotter pin hole with vicegrips and tapped/pulled like mad on the vicegrips.

Pintos, Vegas and Chevettes used the Holley 5200. It was too big for the Chevette, flooring it would make it bog big time. The Holly version doesn't have as wide a range of jets, chokes, etc. that the Weber version has available. There is a book put out by HP on this carb, could be useful.

Re: the rude, crude screwdriver method: I have resorted to that one, but I really hate doing it. It is an all-or-nothing deal, and I have actually had the screwdriver tear its way around the filter, it was on so tight! When the end of the screwdriver hits the frame, or other obstruction, that is it. And it is kind of hard to drive to the store and buy the tool you should have used in the first place with big holes in the oil filter....

Check your battery. It may be pretty near boiled dry by now!

I dunno about cleaning out the cat, but the pipes can be cleaned with an old motorbike drive chain. It should beat up the crud and knock it off pretty well. Oh, and pull off the pipe to do this, of course. Run the chain right through it. Same technique is used to derust motorbike gas tanks.

Absolutely right, the MAF doesn't need to measure the air temp. It kind of all comes out in the wash with the "hot wire" set up. Any idea why they went to MAP? In industry, mass flow is one of the best ways to go when measuring flow for combustion.

Driving in 2WD won't help gas mileage, as all the gears, shafts and axles are still turning. They just aren't connected to power, but they are still a drag on the system.

When you grab the filter to check the wrench size, make sure they are the SAME BRAND OF FILTER! I bought my wrench at Canadian Tire, which sells Fram filters. The Fram filter was different size than the Purolator one I had on the car. And using a wrench to remove it doesn't necessarily mean the filter went on too tight. It may mean the filter is in a really awkward spot, where you can't get proper torque on it by hand. Also, the gaskets tend to cook onto the car, that is why they should be lubricated before putting them on. Also, the Subarus have a pretty large diameter filter. That large diameter gasket resists removal more than a smaller one. I never had a problem with my Corolla, but the Subaru ineeds a wrench for removal. More gasket, more awkward.