dennyt

I removed the power steering pump, got a shorter belt, drained the lines but left them in place on my '94 Loyale. 49,000 miles later it's still doing fine, feels great!. The shorter belts for my car, with A/C in place but P/S pump removed, are: Alternator belt 7420, AC belt 7365 One dark and stormy night, I felt the steering get light coming around a corner at a reasonably low speed. The beginnings of black ice. Wouldn't have felt that with P/S.

I bought the Rockauto y-pipe and midpipe and passed WA emissions no problems. The y-pipe didn't match up exactly to the rear hanger, it hangs pretty low and had to be forced up to bolt it in. But, it does seem to make more power (or at least more noise) than the old one I took off!

I installed these spring rubbers in my stock '94 loyale rear suspension, and they really help keep the rear end off the bump stops. They give the car about a 1" lift in the rear. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Coil-Over-Spring-Rubbers,3536.html P/N 917250-075 I also installed KYB GR2 shocks at the same time, they definitely stiffened the ride up.

'94 Loyale just rolled over 250k

Probably. I'm considering it.

Ooh, I like this idea the most. I noticed a raw fuel smell when starting, but thought it was a symptom not the cause of the misfire. Also, my fuel mileage went way down from 30 to 26. I was chalking it up to cold temps, snow tires, and driving fast to the mountains with a full load of people, aka Ski Season. http://www.fuelly.com/driver/dennyt/loyale

I have the KYB 233022 and 233023 GR-2 Struts on the front of my '94 Loyale Wagon, 4WD. They are about 1/2" shorter than the stock struts. I was in a rush and installed one at a time, and noticed the swaybar was a little hard to connect and the car pulled to one side I really like the handling over big bumps. You could also consider some spring rubbers such as: http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Coil-Over-Spring-Rubbers,3536.html I have these in the rear and they give about a 1" lift and keep the car off the bump stops with a full load of people & camping gear. You could get the 5" diameter size for the fronts too if you want more ride height and stiffer springs for cheap.

Well, this problem seems to have gone away on its own. Maybe it's the temperatures in the upper 30's rather than upper 20's. Car starts and immediately runs smoothly. Huh.

Just replaced the timing belts and the PCV valve and hoses before this problem started. Cam timing is definitely right as it is making good power and running smoothly, except for the first 30 seconds after startup when it runs on 3 cylinders. Thanks for the tip on intake gaskets, I hadn't thought of that.

'94 Loyale SPFI with 249,000 miles on the original engine, located in Seattle, WA. A month ago I noticed some stumbling when starting the car first thing in the morning. Replaced the spark plugs and wires. Front left plug showed white flakey buildup, the rest are fine. Replacing plugs and wires didn't fix the problem, and now it's getting worse. The car is definitely running on 3 cylinders for about 30 seconds after I start it up after letting it sit for 4-8 hours. Today I finally drove it in the daylight and saw a puff of blue smoke in the rearview mirror when the 4th cylinder finally started firing. Once it starts firing, it runs like a champ. It's not burning enough oil to get me worried yet, but I guess I should start buying parts to fix this soon. So I'm guessing I have an internal head gasket oil leak or a bad valve stem seal, and it leaks oil into the cylinder while it sits parked. Any thoughts from the gurus out there? Thanks!

My '94 Loyale received its 248,000 mile upgrades: Replaced exhaust Y-pipe and mid-pipe with RockAuto parts to get rid of a heat shield rattle, which also gave me more power - stock cats must have been plugged up. Replaced rear wheel bearings Installed rear disk brakes from junkyard Installed polyurethane bushings on rear swingarms (saw thread on this forum) Installed new KYB GR2 shocks and struts all around. Found p/n's on this forum. Oddly enough, the front left was $7 and the front right was $50 on Amazon.com. Installed Spring Rubbers in rear to boost spring rate and keep the car off the bump stops when fully loaded. Resulted in about a 1" lift in the rear. P/N 917250-075 required some trimming and a hammer to fit in the stock coil springs. Replaced front tie rod ends and ball joints Replaced front right axle - the inner CV joint was cooked by the old cat Found the FR lower control arm bolt hole in the subframe was ovalized from hitting a curb. Loose and rattling & full of rusty water. Filled it with JB-weld, we'll see how that holds up Nice new Rain-X winter wiper blades, totally worth it after dealing with crappy blades forever Fixed oil smell in cabin by replacing cracked PCV hoses, PCV valve, and oil filler cap which was loose Replaced valve cover gaskets Fixed heater leak between A/C evaporator and heater core. Whenever the heater fan was on, cold air would blow out of the glove box area. Added a bunch of weatherstrip around the duct and re-fastened the duct clamp which was loose. Also patched up a duct hole a mouse had chewed through. Replaced timing belts (much easier without covers!), spark plugs, and wires Added weatherstripping to body side of all door seals and re-glued some door seals that had been torn off after freezing to the car. Applied a bunch of silicone spray to all of the seals. Lubed all locks and latches. Fixed driver's door rattle - missing rubber ring on door latch. Gorilla tape. New iphone holder for the dash and 2-foot right-angle aux cable, non-retractable. Listening to audiobooks on my commute rocks! LED dome light bulb and installed a hatch-area LED dome light this spring. Installed some awesome General Altimax Arctic snow tires! This is a lot of work for an old car, but I love it, because it's a better car now than when I bought it 115K miles ago. I'm still waiting for the clutch to go so I can install the dual range tranny and reseal the engine. Thanks to all who contribute to this forum - I wouldn't have done half of this work without the inspiration and technical details I find here!

My car used to do this ('94 Loyale SPFI). I fixed the low idle with the "sacred do not touch this" limit screw on the throttle body. I fixed the high idle by putting a restrictor plate in the IACV inlet line. I took a dime, drilled a 3/16" hole in it, and stuffed it in the 1/2" air line going into the valve. Now the IACV can't bump the idle up above 1100 no matter how hard it tries

1994 Loyale Wagon, EA82 5MT 235,000 miles on original engine, no rebuild. Summer Mileage 36-40MPG combined highway (75%) and city (25%) Winter Mileage 30-34MPG combined highway & city. Colder temps & heavier foot, going skiing 2-3 times per week so I'm driving faster to save time. Fuel log: http://ecomodder.com/forum/em-fuel-log.php?vehicleid=3436 Modifications: Removed power steering pump, drained & capped lines Removed clutching fan, installed second electric fan Installed kill switch on fuel injector for engine-off coasting Installed vacuum gauge, target 15 in.Hg cruise & 5 in.Hg acceleration Installed potentiometer across coolant temp sensor to trick the computer into closed-loop earlier Installed heated oxygen sensor (Bosch) for earlier closed-loop and proper functioning after engine-off coasting Installed block heater Removed A/C fuse so it doesn't come on when I hit the defrost button. Put the fuse back in the car in June Installed lower grill block, reducing air flow into the radiator Synthetic engine oil, transmission oil, diff oil, & wheel bearing grease Installed restrictor in Idle Air Control Valve inlet line to prevent 2000rpm idle surges. Now it idles at 750 and occasionally bumps up to 1000. Removed mudflaps I still want to make an undertray, I just have to find the time and fix these oil leaks first...

I removed the PS pump, got a shorter belt, drained the fluid from the rack, and capped the lines. Parallel parking requires two hands on the wheel, but otherwise it's awesome.

Right, the better way would be to back-flush it into a catch can, but I ran out of time. The reverse flow appears to have cleared it out for now. I'll do a proper flush when I have time, or when the snow is crap, which it's not now Also I read that the reverse flow is OK for EA82's but not EA81's because of the guts of the heater core.

'94 Loyale: Cleaned the chassis grounds, installed winter wiper blades, water pump, thermostat, & new heater hoses in "reverse" orientation to back-flush the heater core. After some cold ski trips to Baker, Stevens, and Snoqualmie, we have heat again! As a bonus, I found a loose timing belt from 20k ago, so I re-tensioned it and left the covers off. Thanks for the education, USMB!

The Kat's 11405 400 Watt 36mm Frost Plug Heater is what I have in my EA82. The picture is misleading, the heating element is short and straight, not bent over. Works fine. I haven't used any other block heaters so I can't compare it.

I have a Bosch 3-wire in my '94 EA82 SPFI, and a potentiometer across the coolant temp sensor to tell the computer the car is warmer than it is, all to get it into closed-loop sooner for better mileage. Before I did this, hitting my injector kill switch the car would keep running for 2-3 seconds when cold (uber-rich). Now, it dies within 0.5-1 second, without losing driveability in open-loop. I think it was too rich in open-loop warmup anyway.

New Radiator (June) New Windshield (August) New starter contacts, because I felt like it (November) Cleaned the wiper contacts & filled in the spark erosion hole, so my intermittents work again! (November) Before: After: Turn signal upgrade (December): Connected the amber side markers to the turn signals that are buried under the bumper. Previously, there was no side visibility at all of the front turn signals, especially in a "changing lanes on the highway" or "stopped at a 4-way stop sign" scenario. No more!

I've had the Zovacs for 3 years now, they stay on the car 6 months out of the year. They're quiet and awesome and cheap. Recommended.

A year ago I was starting to see how far I could push it, and letting the light come on (needle fully below the letter E on the gauge). This worked for a while. Then one day the car ran out of gas and the light never came on. Stopped playing that game... :-\

Is the air flow sensor plugged in?

Pull the power steering pump, drain the rack & plug the lines, and get shorter belts (Alternator 7420, AC 7365 for my SPFI 5spd). Seriously. This is a cheap and easy mod that will free up HP and increase mileage. These cars are light enough to parallel park with one hand without power steering, and the road feel is better at speed. Also, ditch the clutching fan if your car has one, and replace it with a second electric fan. More free HP / mileage. And put your cats back on, scofflaw!

Sounds like overheating to me. Make sure you haven't lost all of your coolant (the temp gauge will lie to you if you have). Does your heater work? My temp gauge reads 1/4 when warmed up. The only time I've ever seen 3/4 was when I lost coolant, the car overheated and was pinging like crazy.

Could be the master cylinder, an internal leak (pure speculation here). A good test after you bleed the brakes is to have the engine running (for vacuum boost), and apply moderate pressure to the brake pedal. If the pedal slowly moves towards the floor, it's a bad MC.