kingbobdole

Wow, You learned something didn't you? Don't you hate it when that happens? Anyway, all kidding aside, that really stinks. To answer your questions in order, kinda. 1) Is there a way of pulling the remaining bolt thread out of the camshaft housing? 1. This depends on if its sticking out or not there are 2 things you can do. If its flush, or sticking out, thats easy. get a dremel with a cut off disc and grind a slot in the bolt. Then simply use a screw driver to pull the screw out. If its in a little ways you will have to get an easy out. Basically its a reverse threaded tap and screw. you drill a hole in the center of the bolt, tap that hole reversely, then tighten the reversed screw into it and that loosens the screw you screwed it into. 2) Can I re-thread the stripped hole in the camshaft housing? 2. This rethreading depends on how bad you stripped it. Once I also learned something, don't pull the plugs on a hot aluminum motor. anyway I really didn't strip them, just cross threaded them a little. I chased the threads with a tap and it worked. Yours sounds worse like you worked on it a little. You might have to helicoil it which is fun, and mostly the "right" way. Now if you have a majority of them down and only one needs to be set you can do it the "ghetto" way. clean the hole and rough it up. *puts on armor* Get the bolt clean it, grease it and...... cover it in JB weld *ducks* shove the bolt into the hole with out the cover on. Let the JB weld dry, then carefully remove the bolt. That should leave threads in the hole, but careful tightening it back on then you put the cover back on, don't break it. 3) If I need to replace the camshaft housing, where is the best place to get one? Find a local junk yard, pick and pull types are the cheapest. New ones from ru are a bazillion dollars. 4) Can I buy a torque wrench that goes down to 35-50 inch-pounds? Goto Sears. I've got one thats on a 3/8s drive and I think I got it for this very purpose, or maybe something else head related when I rebuilt mine. 5) When disconecting the A/C Compressor to take of timing belts, do I need to discharge the system first and who can do that the cheapest? Ok, One why are you doing this? You can remove the compressor and move it aside. Two, YES 100% This thing is R-12, but tell me if you do it, I'll get bank from the Gov and you get to pay "SUPER FINE" Tm. I personally wouldn't bother discharging it, removing it, recharging it. It will probably cost you somewhere in the $400-$800 depending on where you do it. Where to do it? Anywhere you can find to do it. Not a lot of shops still work on R-12s due to expense. Well, good luck, have fun and make sure that is clean before you put in the new gasket. clean the cam carrier where it sit and the covers with a nice clean soft cloth. Also watch passing wires, I got one in mine and didn't notice till I got like 3 bolts in. Phil

No, it's not. Sentances have periods at the end. Just a question though, how did it get in such poor condition after so few miles? I know that my Xt-6 had head gasket problems at 140k but its like 15 years old and I know people beat the hell out of it. (not me, well not all the time) Anyone know if Subarus grand reliablity went down as a result of an open block? Thanky all yalls, Phil

A second thought.... Does it idle smooth, will it do this when cool? I'm not savvy on that distrubiter-less ignition but when a coil starts to go in say... an 80 turbo car, it usually devlops a high speed miss when the coil gets hot with engine temps and use. Just thinking that if one of the "coil packs" went this way that 2 cylinders would mis, possibably at high speed, possibably when hot. Again, I don't know if thats common with your set-up, but they are similar to regular coils in some respects. Phil

Thats kinda vauge. I would say you might have either a small problem or a huge problem. For the small check everything. Check the plugs wires and for spark. Also take a listen or test the fuel injectors. For the huge problem check the compression. Also take a quick look at the coolant and oil checking for milk shake. Basically with the shaking it seems as though you are having a mis firing condition on one or a few cylinders. Check it out, Phil

Blah blah blah Colorado Salvage Yard (off Santa Fe),. Where!? Some guy was trying to tell me where it was, but he didn't know exactly. Is it pick and pull style? Ohh, and for the most need paint award, I win. 230 layers of krylon can't be wrong. Phil

I have also seen this site before, but I have replaced my heads due to misuse. Any way, I'm at 145 and plan to keep dumping green into it until gas propelled cars are replaced with something better, or I die, what ever comes first. Even if they are replaced, I'd probably just house it for all of the remainder of time. Phil

ohh, and no that will NOT have any relavence to engine oil level.

HOLY CRAP! Is that a hole in that green thing?!?!?! Thats the inner cv joint. How on earth did you get a hole in it? There are two reasons that it might be smoking. 1. CVs require lube because they are what , in this case, makes the axle be able to be at an angle and still spin. there are bearings and the like inside and with no lube, its metal to metal. thats high heat which burns what little grease is in there. 2. the grease shot out all over your cat, the big shiny thing under the green thing. The solution is that the entire cv axle needs replacing, if that is indeed a hole. Don't drive it, thats a safty issue, it might seaze and sheer. Wow, thats impressive. Phil

Hello, I for one would prefer the sonic. We could all park at the stalls, eat, check out the others rides. I'f we go sit somewhere to eat it'd be all chat, but no show. I donno. Phil

Really? You don't find that Kia funny? As for things I've done to my car, the list isn't really long but in no sort of order just as I remember them.... Port and polish, valve job, head shave, straight exaust well cat only, custom intake, I painted the valve covers and those fuel rail supports yellow, thats like five horse, I converted the auto fwd to a five speed which decsreases weight, and gas milage, but I gots torque. Weight reduction throught interior removal, weight increase throught bass, slotted rotors (makes it stop fast). I also increased the timing a bit and run high octane, ohh and the turbo hood helps keep it cool. other than that just been trying to "restore it" like resealing the oil pump. As far as getting back on topic goes, I had a question reguarding another thread where they talked about using a N/A 9:1 or so compression or the carbed like 8.5:1 and using the turbo heads and turbo. They seemed to say it doesn't last. Would you do something similar with a better low end? Any more info on block swapping would be intrested. Phil

Agreed, That Honduh I drive for work I always pull the intake resonator tube out of the filter housing. Gives me some more power, but damn its loud. wow, thats great. This little side conversation is very amusing to me. not only the lenghts that you two go to, but damn. My opinion, not to spray fuel on the fire but.... anyone that stayed awake during physcics class knows that water and other liquids ARE indeed compressable and not only in labs. Even in an engine right before that rod snaps, the water compresses. Yeah, not much, but it does. heres the home experiment. go get a plastic bottle. fill it with water and cap it good and tight. A 2 litre works best. now.... jump on it. hopefully you had a good cap. What happened? Did the bottle explode? Did the cap fly off?, go get a better bottle. Usually with a good bottle magically the mystical liquid will compress. Not trying to be an rump roast. well... not trying hard at least... Phil

Hello, If you do plan to take the heas off, check for cracks between the valves as this is really common. I personall went with the HG direct from Subaru for my ER27. No special reason, just thought that it was an ok price and I am willing to pay a little more for GSP. I would also agree tht the intake manifolds dont just fall apart like that, no reason to. The HG have all the pressure on them. Also, if you do need good heads, go to a pick and pull yard. You can pull the heads off rather quickly in such a place as you don't need to keep the bolts in line. Also if you need any little knick nacks like bolts or what ever, they usually just charge for the big parts, you can have as many bolts as you want. woah run-on. Anyway, check the miles and damage on the donor car before you start ripping it apart. Once worked on a car for about an hour ripping it apart to notice that the car had 350 plus miles on it and the parts were in worse shape than mine. just a thought, Phil

Hi everyone, Well arnt you all happy with each other. First, I would like to exclaim that I am indeed a rice boy. Not that I decided that, but for the fact that I drive a lowered yellow XT-6. Did I lower it by cutting the springs, did I paint it yellow with walmart spray can? No some little asian guy did. Met him once, hes driving a 300zx tt now. I just saw the car one day and was like "What the hell is that thing, an old prelude, thats cool." A few months later it was for sale. So what did I do to it, made it fast. I'm a cheap rump roast and over the last four years I have ever so slowly dumped cash into this thing. Not much, and most of it went to make it new as stock. Ex. The car leaked about a quart a week when I got it. Now it barley drips and I just needs a few parts to make that stop. Whats the deal with ricer haters there.... do you fear them, or is it deeper? Anyway, I say let the guy dream if thats what it is, or if hes really gonna do it, more power to him. There are many ways to mod a car and I say we should support it. If I had 6 grand to dump in my car, damn it would be cool, and yeah still worth like $3 grand, but hey my car's not a blue wrx and thats what I like the most. Phil

Ok, Sweet sept 18 12-1pm at red rocks, How bout some maps for everyone for a more exact location. DrKrazy, you seem to have a pretty good handle on things. Phil

I'm gonna agree with the last two. Firstly cold air intakes (fair to good quality ones) DO in fact give you good power increases. Also they do give you better milage, but one point about that is that one has to drive consistently to notice such fuel increases. When I first got my intake on the Focus I thought it killed the MPG but in facct my foot had gotten heavier. Secondly, Hyrdolocking is not very common execpt in extreme conditions such as fording rivers or streams. I might make a note though as not all rivers or streams are permenent, all people that drive colorado springs when it rains knows what I mean. The drainage there is bad, not to mention when it rains, it RAINS. Water drops by the barrel and floods everywhere. Just a few weeks ago I was driving through this terrible strom, stuck in traffic. I got to the front of the line to see some joker in a honda hatch thought he would just drive through this puddle. Well, the road had sunk under this "puddle" and he was in up to the windows. Wonder if his engine locked. Ohh and to define "fording", the first thing I thought. FORDING: Process by which a Ford eventually takes its self off of the streets. And a ditto on my typing skills. Phil

Hey, Feel free to blame the hippies here in Boulder Colorado. There seem to be soooo many cheap almost rust free rus here they have trouble giving them away. There are more rus in boulder then there are in all of Iowa. If you are really looking for a good used ru, better to get one out here then one on the east coast. We don't salt the roads to save the fist, and like the last person said, I also had an east coast car and a colorado car and the difference is huge. My current CO car has very very little surface rust. My old XT-Turbo had rust holes in the rear fenders the size of tennis balls and the rest wasn't much better. Phil

I would second red rocks, but again, I'm flexable. Phil

I live close so I'm flexable with any date, just give a solid 2 weeks notice. Thanks Phil

Phil wants an SVX and lives in Colorado, where is it? One note about Colorado, we love our subbis and never ever sell them. There are probably more subarus in Boulder than in say.... New Mexico. But seriously one can make quite a profit selling subarus here. They are very popular. Phil

wow, did we post at the same time or what? Phil

I have a question. Does the problem get worse as you use the tank of gas? I'm just thinking that this may be a lack of maintance, as in the fuel filter. Speaking of civics the one I drive for work is really peppy when you first fill it with gas, but then it gets slower as you run low on fuel. This is mostly due to a clogged filter and fuel pressure. My cars with their maintained filter get faster as I run low on fuel due to weight loss. Just a thought, Phil

I disagree that subaru will ever get away from the boxer design. Not only are they know for it, but it greatly lowers the hoodline and..... Compinies these days are evil. So what if its a little more to do two heads, they manage to charge you for it. Ever notice the bargan basement 2.5 impreza starts around $17K? That ain't cheap when you can get a honda or focus or neon or whatever under $12K. Also, when you break this thing head gasket wise the kits alone are twice as much as a honda or what and if you have it done they charge you there too. For a 4 cylinder this this is a literal cash cow. Phil

Hi, A few things, fisrt my theroy is gear ratios. Autos usually have a better highway ratio than manuals. My extreme example. My XT-6 FWD came factory with an auto. 70 mph and like 2500 rpms, the car used to average about 28 MPG and I drove it hard. Got the super close ratio turbo tranny now. 70 Mph in 5th like 3200 RPMs the damn thing is really hard pressed to make 22 MPG but with the way I drive... its like 20. Two last notes. My fathers Ford F-150 is running like 1500 or so RPM at highway speeds, Fored autos have very high gears. It has a 5.4 triton V8 and gets 15 MPG. We once drove it to Iowa pulling a trailer loaded with wood and the bed loaded. It got 15 MPG. we unloaded and got rid of the trailer coming back to CO. It got 15 MPG. Last note, my little 97 horse work car, the super duper Honduh Civic gets about 38 MPG on the highway. I have to downshift to get it over hills. I drive the hell out of it. It has over 240K miles on it and the check engine light is on. 38 MPG... did I say that? The damn thing is screeming down the highway. It has no tach but its gotta be way up in the rpms. It almost gets 400 miles..... on like 10 gallons. Did I tell you it will blow the doors off an automatic saturn on a flat surface? I don't know where I was going with that, Phil

Yo, I'd give the generic check the engine temp sensor. I have an old XT-6 and usually before I fived it, the idle would be real low, maybe even surge and sometimes stall. Usually the connector will corode and one just has to clean it for the fix. Also check the MAF and see if its clean. Check that out, Phil

Wow, You guys and gals all love each other in here dontcha? I used to have a cold air in my Focus... I figured "hey, its a focus WHEN it breaks I have a couple extra bucks... I'll get a new one" Well one thing I will point out is that I had a magical device called a water trap on my car. I think it was made by K&N but I wouldn't swear to it. The thing saved me once, drove it through a puddle that looked shallow. I had driven there many times, but the rain had made the road sink, ended up being like a foot and a half deep. As I drove through the car got all loud as the water trap opened. About a month or so later I heard a rattle and then I ran over something. I looked in my mirror and that damn thing was rolling down the road. Got a hack saw and made my cold air a ram air, right next to the engine with a cold air box. Anyway all the water trap is is a one way valve that opens when the pressure at the filter is too high to suck. This only works when you totally submerge the filter but not the trap. Also I might add that the filter is usually oiled.... oil repels water. Last thing I'll add, I've hydrolocked engines before that were not mine just to rip them apart to see what happened. They break different every time! Who the heck cares how it happenes?! My old teacher has a VW bug piston with a valve sticking out of the top of it. It dropped out, turned 180 degrees and jammed into the piston. What are the chances of shutting off an engine without smashing that thing to bits? It's gotta be like a bazillion to one. Welcome to Earth where nothing happens the exact same every time. Its designed this way just to piss you off. Phil