scoobiedubie

They screwed me over on a bunch of hydraulic lifters.

Sounds like either the intake manifold gasket bolts loosened up and are allowing coolant into multiple cylinders on one side, or the fin in the exhaust port between the two cylinders, cracked and is pissing coolant into the exhaust gas cross-pipe.

Clean the MAF with special MAF cleaner.

The subaru O-ring goes in a slightly recessed area, that surrounds an oil port, at the bottom rear of the camtower. Dig the old one out first.

Bad lifters or bad oil pump.

The trick to keeping cylinder head gaskets from leaking, is the cylinder head bolts. Clean the threads, the entire bolt, and the washers with brake cleaner. Squirt brake cleaner in the hole and blow out with compressed air. Have a clean outer face of cylinder head, so that the washers have something to bite into. Be careful inserting long bolt in holes with shoulder, and the short bolts go in the holes with no shoulders. Otherwise, you will strip out the block, which is very very bad. Tighten bolts from the center out. Bring up to maximum torque and then (this is important), stop work and let it sit overnight. Then come back the next day and torque them again because they will have slightly loosened overnight. For a quiet engine, you should get a very slight amount of gasket maker around the two oil passage holes between the cylinder head and the camshaft tower, without plugging up those holes. And use a genuine Subaru O-ring at the obvious location. Use a high temp and flexible gasket maker at the bolts that hold the camtower cover on and at the bottom 2/3rds of the black rubber seal for the camtower cover.

Try cleaning out the air sensor (MAF) with special MAF cleaner. That could fix the hesitation.

Best to buy after market gasket kits off of EBAY. Subaru parts cost a fortune.

There are some after market dual core radiators that the mfr says fit, but they don't work right. The reason is that the hole for the thermoswitch on the right side, was not properly constructed so that there is not enough thread to hold the thermoswitch. That thermoswitch tells the auxiliary fan when to turn on. Radiator specialist shops carry the dual core. Take along your thermoswitch to make sure that it will hold it and maintain a seal.

If you want to restore the original power, put in a new coil, new engine ground wire, and replace the battery cable end of the black wire that runs from the + battery cable connector, to the bottom of the fusible link box. Also, new plugs and plug wires. Make sure that you also have good compression in all cylinders. Takes about $100.

A dirty MAF causes hesitation.

Not shown in the video, is that you have to get the center cover off, which is behind the center inertia belt wheel. You need to lock the engine in place and a 22mm socket with a long breaker bar, in order to get that bad boy off. To lock the engine, you can stick a phillips screw driver in a hole in the top of the big flywheel, at about where the 3 notches are. The water pump has a hole in the top, that lets dirt into the bearings. Seal that top hole with a flexible gasket maker, to keep the dirt out of the water pump, so that it will last a lot longer.

Just pick up another camshaft tower from your local pick-n-pull. You will need some gasket maker from your motorcycle shop. It takes maybe 2 hours to replace one. Heli-coils are a joke because you do not engage any more threads than what your screw has engaged. Full length solid threaded inserts are the only way to go, if you are going to piss away your time on hole repair.

Do a compression test on all of the cylinders, in order to determine if you now have one with a shattered valve. Had you not had the metal in the pan, I would have guessed either the coil or the distributor.

I have synchro out in 2nd gear. All it requires is holding the clutch in for about 1/2 second longer than it if was working perfectly. Double clutching is not required.

"Repaired the distributor" ? What does that mean? The 85 & 86 distributors are particularly problematic because the black plastic encased electronics in the top of the distributor, that has several connector tabs pointing up for wire attachment, go out frequently. You can't repair this. You replace it, and/or replace the entire distributor with another used one because new ones cost a small fortune. The inside swing weight mechanisms can also get worn and can require replacement. Get yourself a couple of used distributors that both work, and then use the best parts off of both of them to put together your primary distributor. Use the remainder parts, and parts off of your now presently bad distributor, to put together a working back up that you carry with you in the car. I keep a half dozen spares because this is such a big issue. You also did not report the mileage on the vehicle. For vehicles over 250,000 miles, two wires require replacement of the sections that have gone brittle and have lost their conductivity. The first wire is the engine ground wire that connects to the chassis just in front of the battery. That connector at the chassis, will get hot when the engine is running, if it requires immediate replacement. A low mileage wire replacement will do wonders like you won't believe. The second wire is the black wire that connects the positive battery cable end to the bottom of the fusible link box. The connector at the cable end, goes bad. By attempting to flex the wire at that end, you will see whether it is stiff, which means that it is brittle and has lost it's conductivity. Since you cannot replace this entire wire, you have to just replace the end at the cable. This requires splaying out the wires at your new splice joint, overlapping them and twisting. A stock auto parts store butt end connector, WILL NOT TRANSFER ENOUGH ELECTRICITY to allow the engine to run smoothly.

Backfire means that you temporarily lost spark. When I had a bad coil, just before it went out all together, it acted exactly as you described. Coils are cheap and a new one really adds power.

The 86 distributor's are problematic. Get yourself a working spare as soon as possible. Looks to be in excellent condition, from the picture.

Tires with a broken steel belt will wobble, just before they blow. Wheels with loose lug nuts will wobble. Stick with T rated tires because there are some crappy H and S tires out there. And then there is the balancing question. Older steel wheels will rust inside of the tire and make it impossible to balance.

Use pipe thread tape for the sensor below the thermostat. Use nothing for the one in the radiator. Use nothing for the one in the top of the engine.

I had a subaru dealer in Portland use something like steel epoxy to keep the rear half axles from ever being removed from the rear differential. So I bought a used LSD rear differential and showed him. I won't even park my car on the same block as that dealership anymore.

If they don't have oil in them, then they leaked out the oil that they came with. So they are worn out and will continue to cause problems. New lifter replacements for the ones that don't hold oil, is a good investment. Only buy them from a dealer so you can take them out of the box and check them that they are hard and holding oil, before you leave the store. Never buy lifters off of the internet, because you will likely get crappy imports from China.

15000 miles is just about enough time for the cylinder head bolts to loosen big time, and cause all kinds of coolant and overheating problems. You could first try removing the camtower covers and attempt to tighten the bolt heads with a 17mm x 3/8" socket. If you you find that they are loose, then that could be your problem. If they are still tight, then look for something else.

Go to a motorcycle shop and get some crankcase gasket maker.

You only have to have one side screwed up in fwd, for it to not go anywhere. If both half axles are not spinning when the car is in gear and not going anywhere, then the problem is inside the transmission. If either half axle is spinning, but the car is not moving in any gear, then the problem is between the spinning half axle and the wheel. Engaging the 4wd may be a separate issue, if you had problems getting it engaged before this happened. If both issues occurred at exactly the same time, then your transmission if f***** up. Just a bad clutch would not affect your ability to get it into 4wd. Just an external front drive axle problem would also not affect your ability to get it into 4wd.