subynut

Well, me made it to Kelso, WA safe and sound. We met with abcus at McDonalds next to OIT off US 97. Zipped along with no troubles till we hit Portland at about 4PM. Yuck, traffic. Most of the time we were crawling along between 5 and 15 MPH and it was quite muggy. Outside of the slowdown in Portland, day went well. Didn't take too many pictures, just enjoyed the drive.

Had some fun today. My sister and my brother missed the exit for US 395 in Reno and I had to backtrack and track them down. Thankfully, they got off the following exit and we were able to get back together and find our way back to US 395. Ran into plenty of smoke as we approached Susanville, CA and pretty much smoky till just outside of Klamath Falls. Cars wise, I tweaked the idle mixture on my sister's car and idle is better. PandaWagon's cruise behaved today, so, now, I'm confused. Maybe it's the heat. We're meeting abcus tomorow and will caravan with him to the show.

WCSS is just not gonna be the same without ya, man!

Thanks Turbone! We made Reno tonight. Ran into more construction in Beatty, NV, but nothing too bad. Believe it or not, we had rain on and off from Goldfield through Fallon. Today started the quirks: This morning when I fired up the PandaWagon, I had a CEL, but when I read the codes, I had about 15 codes. We went for breakfast and when we came back out, and fired up the car, the CEL was gone. Haven't seen it since. My cruise control has gone wackey. I was watching the speedo and it's doing the wobbling bit, so it looks like the speedo cable is messing with the cruise. I'm gonna plug in my laptop and see if I can see the variations there. My sister's Roo is having idle issues, need to do a little retuning for the different environment.

Will try to keep up with uploading pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44982071@N04/collections/72157631065221518/ We're off to another exciting day in driving our Subarus through the torturous land of the desert!

Reminds me of a movie... Anyways. We left home about 1400 and stopped in Kingman. We hit mild construction near home and also in Tucson and Casa Grande. Traffic was not bad - worst was Phoenix, but we hit it at 1630. It was HOT in Phoenix - 115* When we stopped at the Subway at Highway 74 and I-17 for dinner, my car said it was 120* inside! No wonder I was sweating like a horse! So far, cars are taking it and they are doing OK. Filled up in Kingman, close to 399 miles on that tank @28 MPG. Anyways, time for some ZZZZz

That's interesting, it kinda looks like a long bed version of the Brat.

Finished my sister's car. I replaced the cam belts and tensioners - no more noise in the valvetrain. Had the bearing in the idler pulley replaced. No more whine. Whoo hoo! Changed the oil in the PandaWagon. Then the monsoon rolled in, had to close up shop for the night. Still need to do some electrical checks, and a general look over everything, afterwords, a good bath inside and out, and then she will be ready for the trip to WCSS.

Yeah well, if I wasn't going on a 3400 mile trip through the torturous desert heat, I would rock it. But a shot engine 1700 miles from home is not my kind of fun - been there, tried that, never ever will do again. Good news is, I took the car to my local machine shop friend and with the assistance of a few of his tools, we found that the loudest noise is coming from the passenger cam belt tensioner. The second loudest is the idler pulley for the second belt. I ordered a new tensioner and will pull that pulley out and see if we can find a new bearing for it. If not, I think I may have a spare laying around somewhere.....I just might get this thing ready for WCSS yet....

jj421, The loose castle nut could be an early sign the wheel bearings are beginning to go. Might want wise to check it in another 500 to 1000 miles. Onto my project: This car of my sister's is driving me crazy! I swapped in the OEM cams - idles much better, starts a whole lot easier, and.......it sounds like it has a roots style supercharger!?!?! And we leave for WCSS next Monday. Ideas?

You're welcome. Now that is one way to align the clutch! Nice.

Mmm...phase II EJ22. Nice kanurys! Well on my project, engine is back in the car. All that's left is reinstall the Alternator, a few more wires, fix the wire I broke during engine removal, battery, reattach radiator hoses, fluids, fans, belts, and then I'll be back to where I started - retuning the carb.

Yes, the return from the Surge Tank to the Fuel Tank is at the top to serve as a spill over for the low pressure pump. The return from the Fuel Rails to the Surge Tank is usually a little lower down the side of the tank. I will venture to guess that it helps stabilize the pressure and flow through the Surge Tank, but that is just a guess.

Usually, a surge tank requires two pumps: a low pressure high flow pump to feed the tank and another high pressure from the surge tank to the fuel rails. I've never installed one, but this is the concept: For the feed: Fuel Tank--->(Low Pressure Pump)--->Surge Tank-->(High Pressure Pump)--->Fuel Rails Return: Fuel Rails-->Surge Tank-->Fuel Tank If I were to install one in a Brat, I would put it in the bed. In a Wagon or Sedan, I would try to install it in the spare tire area. Heat soak might be a problem. In a sedan, you could install it in the trunk. A Wagon, not sure how that would work in the wagon area.

Just drive it once or twice during the work week and you'll be fine.

Had the machine shop look at the head - every thing looks good. Valve's straight and the seat, guide, and seal are all ok. He installed new retainers for the valve stem and I was good to go. So, last night I reinstalled the head with a new gasket, torqued down to FSM specs, installed the cam carrier, made double sure the rocker arms are in their right place, and the valve cover. I'll be finishing things up and hopefully reinstall the engine tonight. I might have had the engine in the car if the swamp cooler hadn't fried the water pump. An easy fix, but it's still two hours not towards fixing the engine.

Well, had my first backfire in the face yesterday. Was working on tuning my sister's carb when POP!.....cough cough...... Then I noiced the engine running very rough. Thinking I forgot to tighten one of the t-belt tensioners, I pulled the covers off and....no, they're fine. I fired up the engine again and noticed tink..tink..tink instead of the typical ea82 tak tak tak.....hmmm, checked the vacuum and it's doing the dropping to zero in time with the "tink"....Great, what did I break? I noticed the "tink" coming from the driver's side (of course) head area, so I pulled the valve cover and found one of those pieces that holds the valve stem to the spring top (I can't think of the name off hand) sitting in the valve cover. Uh oh.... I check the cam followers - OK, OK, OK, wait what? That one is crooked! Somehow, I managed to knock that one rocker arm off the valve stem during install of the cam tower. So, instead of an evening of tuning, it was an evening of pulling the engine, pulling the cam tower, and the head. The valve "looks" ok, and there is no evidence of the piston smacking into the valve. It is crooked since that one holder piece is missing, so, maybe it's OK. The cam looks OK, at least nothing jumps out and says "I'm broke". The only other damage I see is the cam follower is scratched (I have spares) and there's some minor damage to the valve spring top. I will be taking the head down to the machine shop to have it looked at. Hopefully, nothing major. Needless to say, I am not happy with myself. Next cam swap, I am pulling the engine. Easier to work on it and easier to see if I misaligned something.

In preperation for the trip to WCSS, I replaced the tires in the PandaWagon - much more traction in the wet! In between rainstorms, I also swapped the cams in my sister's wagon - we cannot get the idle right, starting is a delicate dance, and it's power is meh. So, I'm put the OEMs back in to see of that will help out the idle and starting. Will start the retuning tonight.

Not sure what year your roo is, but subaruforester.org has a couple of PDFs on ABS troubleshooting: http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f68/2002-abs-diagnostic-procedure-44346/ Might be something to check out.

Good looking wagon, djellum!

Nice!

OK, thanks!

That exhaust is the Tsudo header/cat pipe, right? Did you have to do anything to get it to fit? I've been thinking of ordering one for the PandaWagon.

Dave, that is all kinds of awesome! Are you bringing that to WCSS? I have to see that in person! Awesome job, man!

Could you use the turbo header? Or will that be too much restriction?