Whitedog

Any help on the emissions kinda stuff? Or what about the noise in the drivers' rear that speeds up and slows down with speed and goes away if I push on the brake a little? Drivers SIDE rear. Not MY rear, silly. I have been going 900 miles an hour lately so I haven't been able to dedicate the time to the Sub.

Snap-on Solus Pro.

I hope you don't mind if I piggy-back on this thread. Our 2003 Legacy is throwing a P0132 code (or is 133?) I have a scanner and watched the voltage on the upstream sensor and it was perfectly flat at 2.158 V. Does this mean that thing is dead? Shouldn't I be seeing it switch up and down between .2 and .8? I am going to go out and run it, then pull a vacuum hose to see if it wavers at all.

Weather here has been sunny and warm until the day I have to work outside pulling that axle. Now we get a dusting of snow. It figures... Anyway, someone elsewhere is telling me that Subaru uses a different method of utilizing the O2 sensor. So does anyone have any information on what I should expect to see on this thing when I watch the voltage?

I found the axle. It was under the truck right where it is supposed to be. Of course the hub on one side is pretty much welded in place, so It'll be coming out ASAP. Rick, I have no idea if that can happen, but it certainly makes sense. BTW, I was looking through the log book at the last pre-trip check and all it said under "problems" was "The Car".

I did some reading on O2 sensors and found that the upstream sensor should bounce between .2 and .8. I watched mine and it was flatlined at 2.158. So I guess that's a pretty good indication? I guess I should have watched it as I unplugged a vacuum line to see if it moves at all. But the Subaru is now on the back burner. One of our busses lost a rear axle. I asked where they saw it last, but you know how drivers lie. I can't get a straight answer.

Popped a couple of codes today. P0032 then I cleared it, cleaned the O2 Sensor and got P0132. I can watch the signal for both sensors, but I don't know what to expect there with good or bad sensors. I'll start digging in with Google. The battery is low and won't take a charge. I wonder if that is my problem?

Rick, I didn't replace the injector. It has me just a tiny bit concerned, but not much. I guess I'm wishing for a sign that something needs to be done there. As far as the things I had to change, I spent more time looking for parts, pieces and tools than actually doing anything. The PCV, I used the one that screws into the intake and just used a reducer to drop from 3/4 hose to 5/8 hose. I forgot about the dowel pin that we had to take out, so I had to work just a bit extra on that, but no big deal. It was nice working on such a small, light engine that I could wrestle around to get it mated to the transmission. Ah... the flex plate bolts. I don't like to tighten them until I get them all started, so I got them started, then after I tightened the first one, it pulled the TC in and the other bolts hit so i couldn't turn the engine LOL! So, I went back and worked them all in a bit at a time until they were all snugged up. I also found out that the AC compressor only has the two upper, horizontal bolts and the one, vertical bolt, not the two, lower horizontal bolts. I wish that our Ford van had a hood that was so easy to put into "service" position. My head REALLY wishes it did. I like having the hood latch so far back. (I'd still rather pull the engine on a John Deere 570 Grader. I think my best time was about 45 minutes.) Lastly, I want to thank all of the great information from everyone. As things worked out, I didn't do much of what I learned, but knowing stuff, helped me make decisions. I fell I owe something monetarily to the community, so if there is a way to help, drop me a PM.

Well, that didn't go bad at all. I swung the engine in yesterday afternoon and this morning she made smoke. With all of the oil in in the exhaust that was to be expected.:cool: When starting it, I unhooked the coil connector and went to crank, but got nothing. No click or anything. I looked at the starter and then I realized where that one spare wire connector that was hanging out went. So I hooked it up and cranked until i saw pressure on my gauge I had installed and after I saw pressure coming up, I plugged in the coil and it turned twice and purred. That was sweet since I didn't understand where the mark on the block was for the passenger side cam, so I just applied a bit of CFS and got it right. Just a bit of stuff like guards and air intake and a CV boot, then get it detailed and it will be ready to run. I'm thinking I'll let it go for maybe 500 miles and drop the oil and filter. No codes either.

Jarl: I got the drill size wrong. It was 1/64 under 3/4. Let's see - 3/4 is 48/64 so it must have been 47/64. John: yeah, everything will get closed. It is a 2.2 long block with the 2.5 intake. We thought about deleting the EGR, but the ECU would look for it and I hate CELs. The tap and drill wasn't cheap, but $60 was cheap for having that dang light off. Odd thing about the PCV is that what came out of the 2.5 had a 3/8 nipple and when I asked for one from NAPA, it was a smaller pipe thread size and a 5/8 nipple. I need to run to the Subaru store for plug wires so I'll check there with the PCV in hand. One other thing about the injectors is that #4 piston burned, most likely from a lean condition, I guess. If the injector wasn't working right would this cause a lean condition?

February update: Bought engine from board member. It is in really good shape, but there is a bit of a sticky point. It's a 99 2.2 instead of the 2.5 for the 2003. So far a couple of things I have run into: The alternator bracket that came with the 2.2 has different threads for the AC mounts. No big deal, I just swapped brackets. The 2.5 had an EGR port on the head, the 2.2 didn't. 27/64 drill followed with an M20X1.5 bottoming tap then a 3/8 drill and I have a new EGR port in the head. I had to burnish in the pipe fitting to get a good seat, but it worked well. There is a port that I THINK is the PCV on the top, rear of the engine, near the flex plate bolt access hole. On the 2.5, there is a pipe with female pipe threads on the top, then a check valve with a 3/8 nipple. From there is a hose that goes into the intake manifold. On the 2.2 is a 3/4 nipple that goes to a 4" section of hose then a plastic "Y". I'm not sure what way to go here. Do I need this port plugged into the intake with a check valve? Another thing that I noticed is that the injectors are different colors and I have no idea if this means anything at all. I know that the 2.2 was from a manual trans car because the crank gear had teeth all the way around, so I don't know if this will matter in regards to the injectors. I swapped over the cam and crank sensors as well as the cam gears so I should be working with like stuff there. I'm also wondering what other surprises I may find.

That wasn't bad at all. The thing i think of when poking a TC is that the TQ always has to move towards the flex plate. So if I'm unsure of the depth, I measure and make sure that the TC will have room to move towards the Flex plate. If you bolt up the trans/engine so the TC doesn't move back and forth and is pressed hard against the flex plate, it's not poked all the way. I was a bit sceered of this one, but it turned out to be the fastest I have ever done. I literally spent more time skimming this thread than poking the TC.

AM I supposed to be able to see the top of the ring while the piston is still in the bore? LOL!!! Not only is the piston ruint, but there is displaced aluminum on the cylinder and some scoring lower down. Boss man wants me to price out boring oversize. UGH. That would entail a complete teardown and that is something I'm not sure I want to tackle. Any thoughts or words of encouragement?

I'm back again. Something that I haven't learned is the reliability of the automatic transmissions in this car. I can't drive it enough to get any kind of a feel for it, but are these long-lasting transmissions? If we swing in a JDM with low mileage, it will somewhat ameliorate the high mileage of the chassis, I would think.

BIG SIGH So let me get this straight. Either 1/2 and 3/4 or 1/3 and 2/4 share coils. If there is a misfire on one cylinder, we suspect a wire, but if there is a misfire on mating cylinders, we suspect a coil. A friends 2.2 has a P0302 code that came back after clearing. It would idle smoothly for a few seconds, then drop a bit, then recover. Repeat this for a bit, then it would get really rough, jumping 150-200 RPM either way. I pulled the wire out of the boot trying to disconnect, but I got things back together, just not long-term. Now it runs just fine. Code is cleared and so far isn't back. 130,000 miles. Major service at 106,000,(??Timing belt??) head gaskets not too long after, but I don't know about plugs and wires. I'm thinking that if it hic-ups again, I'll just get her new wires. The plug that I pulled looked perfect. Thoughts?

Drove the car about half a mile today and the oil smoke was really bad, so I'm sure the bottom end... er... center end... well, whatever you call it, is done. We are pricing a JDM now. That's better than nothing.

John, the boss's office is ten feet from where I work on the cars so he knows what goes on. LOL! You mentioned the difference between heads and block damage. Heads are repair, block is sell. We tossed around selling it to me, but I'm not sure about that. I have a line on someone else that MAY be interested though. I hadn't thought of looking for a dead car. With a broken timing belt, there should be enough good parts to build one good engine. Hmmm... More discussion in the shop is needed. We also have a 98 Dodge full size van that needs a transmission so there is lots of discussion going on and they all are about how to spend the boss's money.

John, the boss's office is ten feet from where I work on the cars so he knows what goes on. LOL! You mentioned the difference between heads and block damage. Heads are repair, block is sell. We tossed around selling it to me, but I'm not sure about that. I have a line on someone else that MAY be interested though. I hadn't thought of looking for a dead car. With a broken timing belt, there should be enough good parts to build one good engine. Hmmm... More discussion in the shop is needed. We also have a 98 Dodge full size van that needs a transmission so there is lots of discussion going on and they all are about how to spend the boss's money.

D'oh! Never thought thought to check the others. Anyway, I did a field expedient oil analysis by pouring some oil from the filter across a clean pan and looked for sparklies and didn't see any. This doesn't rule out broken rings, but it kinda leans away from it, don't you think? Or not? And what about a hole in the piston? That wouldn't show metal in the oil, would it? Of course my analysis isn't perfect, but it's what I got for now.

I spent some time with the old girl today. Compression: #1 180 PSI #2 190 PSI #3 180 PSI #4 0 PSI I had checked the valves and on #4, none of the valves were held open and the adjustment was in the ball park and the exhaust was a little bit loose, so I know that the valves weren't being held open. I don't know if this supports the burnt valve theory, though I am leaning away from that. Why? Because we like you. Well, that and after I did the comp test, I put air to #4 and rolled the engine and I had lots and lots of air coming from the oil fill tube. So, what does that make you think of?

Thanks, GD. I would rather pay someone than have to go through all of that. Since it's a 2003, it has adjustable valves, I misspoke earlier. (The good news is that the proctologist called and he found my head.)

OK, so surfacing the head can be done on the bench, but what about the rest of the head work? I have never replaced valve seats, but I have done lots of bushing and bearings by freezing them, so that doesn't scare me, but is it something that would need special attention for some reason? My biggest concern in the valves is final valve height. Since the followers are hydraulic, that isn't very critical is it? Or would a new valve and valve seat need to be machined? I have only done valve work on one Dodge 318 but I'm confident, I could do something, but will it be right? And what about the valve guides after 250,000 milerones? If they are worn out, are they easy to R&R?

Thanks Mike. The problem I have with KBB is that They don't do well with high demand vehicles, from my understanding. Take a VW TDI for example. If it get's to high mileage, the KBB value really drops, whereas the market will demand a higher price, regardless of the miles.

General question on selling price: Will the mileage (250,000) really knock down the price on this car if we sell?

Well, the boss is vacillating on selling as is or fixing the Sub. So I'm trying to see if I can cut some cost by not pulling the engine. I would do the timing belt and water pump of course, but my concern is torquing the head bolts. I'm guessing it can be done in the car and the big reason for pulling the heads is because the bolts have to be in the head and I would have to maneuvre things around with them sliding back and forth, getting in the way. There are folks that have done this in the car and if any of you are reading, I would appreciate your input on what I would face. Now if it were a DOHC, well then it becomes a no brainer since the cams have to come out to pull the head, but that isn't so on a SOHC, therefore that part isn't an issue. So what are the other issues I could run into? There are also HG cheaper kits available on line, but they don't seem to be as complete as others, yet they have some stuff that more expensive kits don't have. Any thoughts? The TB kit, I will get from a reputable place so I don't end up with Prothe crap. Thanks