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Were the cylinder head bolts not real tight when you first touched them? If they were loose then that could have been your problem to begin with.

The belts are different length. Most people don't replace belts until they intend to replace the water pump. Replace water pump every 20,000 miles tops. Don't wait for it to detonate. Replace pulleys and idler gears every 75,000 miles, or if they don't spin easily. Replace front or rear covers if they rub against the pulley or idlers, because they are warped. Replace oil pump seals if they are leaking. Most mechanics will replace the oil pump as well. Buy idlers, belts and pulleys as a complete kit on EBAY for about $70. You can buy the water pump from an auto parts store because there are two different sizes. One for GL and one for GL-10's. Before you touch anything, you align the timing mark on the engine to the 3 ticks on the flywheel. Those ticks occur at two locations on the flywheel. When you do that, the timing holes in the camshaft geared pulleys will also align with their timing marks. One timing hole will be at the top of the pulley and one timing hole will be at the bottom of the other pulley. Take your rotor cap off and note the exact location of the rotor and camshaft geared pulley because you will have to exactly duplicate that when you reinstall the belts. Don't forget to loosen up the pulleys to get the old belts off, and retighten them after you get the new belts installed. You will have to remove the radiator fan assembly in order to access all of the front covers. All front covers come off. You will need a 22mm socket and a long socket wrench to get the front pulley off of the crankshaft. Replace front covers by placing either a neoprene or HDPE washer beneath the cover bolts so that they don't seize up next time you take them off. You will probably find seized bolts this time.

Oil pump is damaged, possibly due to rubbing of the gear against the plastic cover. It sounds like the cover needs some looking at as well.

If the distributor has a pair of horizontal plates that have ball bearings between the two, and the upper plate is connected to the vacuum mechanism as well as the advancing electronics, like the 85 and 86's, the upper plate gets sticky. This stickiness simulates a vacuum hose leak because the upper plate gets hung up. The upper plate controls the advance of the engine firing. The stickiness is due to either corrosion of the ball bearings, wear on either of the two plates, or dirt getting packed into the bearing contact path. The result of stickiness is a lack of smoothness in the advance of the engine. Suddenly, it will jump the advance forward, after the upper plate was hung up on the lower fixed plate. The ball bearings can be easily replaced after removing the plates. The plates can be scraped for dirt. Grease can be added to improve the smoothness. If you have rough grooves in either plate, then the plates are toast.

I will repeat it again, the 90 to 94 Loyales, can get gas mileage in the high 30's. That will be your simplest and cheapest way to save gas $$$ in a Subaru. And then you offset the purchase expense by selling your 86 GL wagon. High School and College kids love them.

Re: the 5th and 4th gear rpm numbers I noted the rpm's on my GL-10, while driving at 60 mph, and factored it up to 65mph.

Here is the 3.70 gear numbers for the subaru gl turbo 5th gear 2800 rpm @ 65 mph w/ 185/70/r13 tires 4th gear 3575 rpm @ 65 mph w/ 185/70/r13 tires

Check with your dealer for a new 5th gear that goes with a 3.70 turbo GL-10 or turbo loyale transmission, if you are an expert at disassembling and reassembling transmissions. You will need an extra car to drive in the meantime. Or you could just swap out for the entire GL-10 5 speed tranny from an auto wrecker. Then you would also need the rear 3.70 differential out of the same models. I have an extra 3.7 open slip rear differential that I could let go for the right price. You would also need need front CV axles because there are 23 splines on the GL-10 tranny verses about 21 on the GL.

I know that the 85 and 86 distributors have a short life, of maybe 125,000 miles. Once that dies, you get no spark. You might swap out for another distributor that you know is good. The black ground wire in the fuse box, goes bad on ea82 after 300,000 miles, if the car makes it that far. That was long ago for me. You might check that. Look for unusual stiffness, melting, or a break in the wire. The hot wire to the alternator, gets fried on some models, right at the alternator. Look for melting and burning. If it does not even turn over, perhaps the starter needs replacing. The brushes may be shot. The distributor cap may inexplicably crack, then it won't fire.

Before you attempt to change any cylinder head gaskets and then obviously examine the cylinder head for cracks between the valves, spend a couple of hours retightening up the cylinder head bolts. Use a 3/8" x 17mm socket, in order to get into tight places by just removing the cambelt cover. This may solve all of your problems.

The transmission gear ratio and the rear differential gear ratio must match. Good quality replacement equipment is hard to find. New equipment will cost a fortune. Taking the transmission out, working on it, and reinstalling it, is very expensive. I estimate that your idea will cost you at least $2000, if you can get good used equipment. Most wrecked vehicles have at least 180,000 miles and the transmission have synchro missing is one gear. Better find exactly what vehicles have that mysterious 3.54 gear ratio, before considering this further. The gear shift may not end up being in the right place, for instance. I have the 86 subaru maintenance manual and it says nothing about a 3.54 gear ratio anywhere. It is either 3.70 for the turbo, or 3.90 for the non-turbos. Techniquely, any larger diameter tire will require a slightly greater torque for acceleration. However, the larger diameter gets you higher off the ground where you can see better and have more safety. It also has more air cushion to give you a better ride. If you primarily do highway driving, it requires no extra torque to cruise at a constant speed than with smaller tires. The car also looks like a real car instead of a child's toy, with the larger 185/70/r13 tires. With a 3.70 gear ratio and 185 tires, my engine turns at about 3000 rpm at 60 mph. 86 subarus did not get excellent gas mileage, turbo or non-turbo. 90 to 94 non-turbo Loyales get 30+ mpg. You can buy a nice condition, low mileage loyale for the cost of doing this change that you are thinking of, and still have your gl for emergencies.

You have and EA82 engine. You also have a 3.90 gear ratio. You absolutely do not want to mess with any gears. The easiest way, is to go with larger tires. Many non-turbo gl's came with 175/70/r13. The 185/70/r13 is a lot nicer ride and you sit noticeably higher off of the ground. Once you try them you will never go back. Yes the engine block and heads are aluminum. Forget about putting any money into changing the transmission. The cost would more than offset any gas savings, which probably will not happen anyways. Your 4wd is on demand besides, and does not cost you a penney when it is not engaged. The easiest way to get better mileage is put more air pressure in your tires, keep good plugs in it, keep the rotor cap poles clean, and keep good plugs wires in it.

The idle screw could be set for too slow an idle, to begin with. If the timing is off, that could also cause it to idle too slow. Check the timing. The rotor caps also tend to build up a lot of corrosion on the 4 poles inside the cap. The corrosion inhibits the spark. The corrosion can be easily removed with fine sandpaper. The plug wires also corrode inside of the rubber covers at both ends, and should be checked regularly. I have experienced overheating from 3 issues. 1. mouse nest between A/C radiator and main radiator 2. cylinder head crack between the intake and exhaust valves and 3. bad thermostat. Some people also complain of old plugged up radiators. First, check for the old mouse nest. Second, examine the plugs for a build up of tiny white specs from coolant burning with a magnifying glass. Compare all of the plugs so you can figure out which ones are normal and which ones are possibly in a damaged cylinder. Don't lose track of which plug went with which cylinder. If you are losing coolant, then you will also need to be adding coolant to the overflow bottle. If you are not adding coolant then you just dodged a big bullet. If you are, then you are going to have to learn how to change out cylinder heads and get it right the first time. Third, change the thermostat. Fourth, check or change out the radiator for a new one. They are simple to install for anyone and can be bought at many radiator supply stores. Don't buy OEM.

Aluminum isn't magnetic. Magnafluxing is magnetic particle inspection. Gen 3 heads don't have the horrific crack problems as the cylinder heads that the GL-10 came with.

If you are going to do it right, you put on Gen 3 heads because what the car came with are most likely garbage. Here is an extra pair that I have for sale. http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/pts/3216769406.html There are several little tricks to getting it together right, like getting gasket sealant in the right place on two interior surfaces, and getting those special subaru O-rings to stay put prior to setting the cylinder head. Also, clean all oil off of your cylinder head washers, bolts and threads, so that they do not loosen up so fast. Later, the trick is getting the rocker arms to stay in place when you place the camshaft assembly.

What about if the left side timing belt is broken? Then the distributor won't spin and you won't get a spark. Take the distributor cap off and watch the rotor as you crank the engine. If it spins then the left belt has not broken yet.

Tighten up the cylinder head bolts first, if they are loose, without removing the camshaft, before you attempt to tear down the engine.

If a valve is not opening, it will run rough. It is probably time to replace all of the lifters at $40 each. The timing could be off as well, which will cause loss of power and rough idle. While you are at it, replace plugs, rotor, cap and plug wires. Those all should be replaced every 20,000 miles tops. Just check your files and see when you replaced them last.

Just because you are losing coolant faster than you can add it, and blowing white smoke, does not mean that you have either a blown head gasket or a cracked head. You may just need to tighten up your cylinder head bolts. If you have less than 125 psi compression on any cylinder, then you have a compression issue that may be those bolts. Tightening up those bolts can be done by removing the cam cover, and the top oil distribution tube. Then you just carefully insert your 3/8" socket and tighten as many bolts as you can access. Make sure that you don't lose the socket off of the end of your 3/8" extension, because you are in big trouble if you do. Cylinder bolts will loosen in as little as 5 to 7000 miles from when they were last worked on. I understand that using new bolt washers that are not already squashed, is the way to go when installing new cylinder heads.

It looks like the top bolt that holds the camshaft in place, was stripped and then backed out. That backed out bolt then bound up your camshaft toothed sprocket. Fortunately, there are extra threads available in that hole that the bolt backed out of. You will need to find a longer 10 mm headed bolt however. Or you can get a used camshaft housing at your local used auto parts reseller. Of course, then you will have to reset your distributor in the new housing, which can be difficult. Easy to find a longer bolt. And the teeth have to be exactly on. There is a hole in the face of the toothed sprocket that lines up with a notch in the black plastic rear cambelt cover. Or on the other belt side, the same hole would be directly opposite.