Fairtax4me

I'd inspect the cam journals and head bores VERY closely for wear. Possible the cam locked up and that's why it spun the pulley off. If the timing parts that were on the car don't appear to be that old it could just be somebodies goof after forgetting to tighten the cam pulley bolt. (seal change gone wrong) That cam can come out with the engine in the car, just have to remove the radiator. (easier said than done?)

I don't think it's in effect anymore, but Subaru did end up with a boatload of bad alternators which they sent off to be re-manufactured and they're now for sale at most Subaru dealers for about $75 plus core. That's about $50 - $100 cheaper than the parts store POS alternatives.

I'm a tithing member of the church of Amsoil synthetic and Valvoline High Mileage motor oils. I buy Valvoline by the 5qt jug when it's on sale for $20 or so with a Purolator filter. 3000 miles later, (that's about what I get before the ticking starts) I've burned less than 1/2 quart, usually much less, and it comes out molasses/dark brown color. With the current cylinder wall condition in this engine it does smell a bit like fuel. In the old engine (which I regret selling) old oil was the only smell. Don't know who makes Shell oil, but I would bet you can find out at Bobistheoilguy.com forums.

There may be a way around that, I'll have a look at the wire diagram when I get home later. What year is your car? There's no real reason to have DRL's in the U.S. They aren't mandatory, though most cars are available with them. Making them work could be done, but I would worry about what might happen to the resistor with the higher amp bulbs in the circuit. It's designed to work with 55w bulbs, which would mean about 4A at 13.5V. With an 80W bulb, all of a sudden you have closer to 6A. And with 2 bulbs that means 4 extra amps, which means a LOT of extra heat that resistor might not be able to deal with. (The amp flow with the DRLs on is actually going to rely on the value of the resistor, it won't be an extra 4 amps, but either way it's going to be more.) I'd just leave the resistor out and the DRL's disabled.

Yes, what before was a common hot at the bulb, is now a common ground. I want to say it's the center pin but it's been a while since I messed with the headlight wiring. I'm almost certain it's the center pin on the bulb. You can check the bulbs with a DVM to be sure. Also I just checked the wire diagram since I remembered that the wire colors are different between drivers and passenger side. I need to edit my previous post with the correct info for those colors.

Fuel pressure sounds normal. The specs in the manual are MINUMUM pressure readings. Slightly above those is fine. Oil pressure sounds fine. Have you checked valve lash?

Terminal 87a will only be present on a 5 pin relay. I thought it just came with 4 pin relays? You should have: 85, 86, 87, and 30. This process just changes the bulbs from switched to ground to load to ground. So the bulbs now need to be grounded to the body of the car, or run a clean heavy gauge (same as your power wires) ground back to the battery. You can follow the diagram posted earlier to run the load side wires. Remember the new hi/low power wires for the bulbs need to be SPLIT so they go to BOTH bulbs. Big thing here: Left and right side headlamp hot wires are different colors. Left headlamp: Red = High beam Ground Red/Blue(or purple) = 12V in (fuse 24) Yellow/Blue(or purple) = Low Ground Right Headlamp: Red = High Ground Black/Yellow = 12V in (fuse 26) Yellow/Blue(or purple) = Low Ground For the Low beam relay: 86=low ground > hi/lo sw. (Y/B) 85=original Hot (B/Y on right side, R/B on left side) 87=new wire split out to BOTH low beams. 30=Battery 12V (be sure to fuse this near the battery) For the high beam relay, put this one on the opposite side (if your low relay is on the drivers side, this one should be on the passenger side) 86=Hi ground (Red) 85=Original hot (B/Y on right side, R/B on left side) 87=new wires to BOTH High beams 30=Battery 12V. (be sure to fuse this near the battery) Now your bulbs should be something like Low pin = wire from low relay high pin = wire from high relay ground pin = wire to chassis ground The 85 and 86 pins can be reversed and still work. Same with 87 and 30. The relay coil doesn't care which side is ground or power. As long as you keep the control wires on the coil side, and the load wires on the load side. This schematic view might help or it might not. :-p Here's my attempt at making this wire diagram make sense. I would also wire the new fused power wires to the battery rather than the alternator. Alternators can produce uneven voltage and current that can sometimes be seen as a "flicker" in the light output. The battery has the effect of smoothing this out. Technically it should do this at the alternator output as well, but with the power wires at the battery you can save a few feet of wire, and don't have extra wires coming off the engine to worry about getting snagged or be in the way if you need to change a belt.

Theoretically, yes, but the engine also has to work harder to move the car now. So will use more fuel to do the same work as before. Also you have to figure the difference in the odometer reading, which will now show fewer miles than you actually traveled.

Both. :-p Aluminum wheels = alloy. You will almost never find straight up pure aluminum wheels. There are always other metals mixed in to alter the strengths of the aluminum. Pure aluminum is brittle, and brittle is bad in a wheel.

The ECU is probably seeing higher resistance on the wiring to the E and F ignition coils. (for cylinders 5 and 6) I'd look into chewed/chaffed wires and poor connections, follow wiring back to any large junctions and disconnect, clean, and re-fit them. Check and clean the contacts in the ECU connector as well. Something I notice in the picture, How old is that alternator? Is it a Chrysler unit or reman?

Blue smoke from the tail pipe is usually bad rings or valve stem seals. Excessive oil consumption can be caused by a clogged pcv valve or breather system. A clogged PCV valve causes high crankcase pressure, which can force oil out through seals and cause leaks. With large leaks being repaired, this higher pressure has fewer places to escape, and will cause new leaks, but in the mean time it will just force it's way past the rings into the cylinder and be burned off with combustion. The breather system is the first thing I would check. Next would be a leak down test to check for ring/cylinder wall wear. You can also check spark plugs for oil fouling to determine if the problem is uniform for all cylinders or limited to one or two.

'ow so? Sorry, been watching too much "Are You Being Served?" :-p

Smoke from under the hood or smoke from the tail pipe? Is the PCV valve clear? How about the hoses that go into the block? What about the breather hoses that run from the valve covers to the intake tube?

The sensor under the alternator is the oil pressure switch. Coolant temp sensor is on the coolant crossover pipe under the intake manifold. Under the number 3 intake runner (passenger side) it's gonna be under and to the left of the large wire harness loom. There may be some hoses and wires in the way. There are two sensors there. One is for the gauge or light in the instrument cluster, this one has one wire. The other is for the ECU and has at least two wires.

It will make a difference, but the extra power of the Frankie will certainly overcome the ratio difference. Fuel economy depends mostly on how you drive and what speed you drive anyway. I can get over 30mpg out of my Legacy on the highway ~55 mph. But at interstate speed ~70-75 mph that drops to about 26 mpg.

Should have got racing tires then you could call it Fast Orange. :-p

I thought the new Outbacks are 5x114 too? Actually I though the Legacy line went 5x114 in '05 with the "bubble" body change. 1990 to at least 2004 Legacy, Impreza, Forester: definitely 5x100.

1 Please. I would replace my Ranger with one of those with an EJ22. Or an EE20!

How many miles on the car? Misfires under load are almost always spark plug related. When were the plugs and wires changed last? What brands were used? How long since the last tune up? Does engine temperature have any effect?

Use a breaker bar on the knock sensor bolt. If the bolt breaks you can relocate the sensor. Those have a tendency to corrode and can stick. Penetrating oil will/may help. I've never heard of that one, and I'm not sure of it's accuracy. But yes, a burned valve would create a pretty much constant misfire due to low compression. If the burn is minor it can cause misfire issues at low rpm that go away at high rpm. This won't last long before more of the valve burns away and turns into a constant misfire. Knock sensors are known to cause many issues from pinging, to occasional small power loss, to multiple misfires, and can result in the ECU going into Limp mode which prevents ignition timing advance beyond a certain point. Depending on the failure mode the sensor may not set a code. Limp mode will be accompanied by a CEL for the knock sensor, the other symptoms may not. Over-tightening can damage the sensor. Corrosion can damage the sensor. Either way, I'd try to get that replaced before chasing other possibilities.

Movement at the transmission end is normal. Did you check all ball joints, tie rod ends, and bushings in the front suspension while checking the axles?

Any signs of coolant loss? Checked plugs for oil or fuel fouling? Wet? Green?

I would at least check the knock sensor (since it's free to look at it, only costs you a few minutes). Any signs of cracks in the housing or corrosion on the metal base means it needs to be replaced. Compression issues don't typically come and go, though timing issues can cause misfires at low RPM that go away at higher rpm. The loose valve guide is a good suggestion, but I would expect the valve to burn in a short time and cause a constant dead misfire afterwards. Not something that will come and go randomly.

OE is way overpriced. TheImportExperts on ebay has a good after market kit. If you really want high quality parts they can sell you OE brand (Koyo, NSK, Mitsuboshi) parts for much less than the dealer. Mizumoauto on Ebay has basically the same kit but they offer it with an OE brand water pump (Aisin) with a factory style gasket and cam and crank front seals for only about $125 shipped. Noise, and then it quit, but it still cranks over. Timing idler locked up shredded the belt. Rod bearing would have ended as a hole in the block. TOD on an EJ engine is a rod knock, and that's mostly a 2.5 problem. :-p 2.2 is practically bullet proof unless someone literally never changes the oil.

Non-running 95 wagon should be pretty cheap. I'm definitely interested to know what broke.