subynut

I understand. My bad.

Yes, I did use a clutch alignment tool when I put it together. I'm useing the existing clutch because it was done about 3 months ago. I have lifted the tranny with a jack so, the engine mounts clear the crossmember. I'll try putting the tranny in grear, cleaning up the imput shaft again and add a little grease and see how that works. Thanks guys!

It is a micro SUV. But, with a body on frame construction, a truck tranny and transfer case, it's built very solid. Alot of people don't like them cause they're slow and quarky. MY Suby was quarky too. In fact, all six of the roos in our family are quarky. THe only sane one in the bunch is BillyBob (the outback) and the two Fords. Well, not if you count the trouble getting BillyBob's heart transplant finished; but, that's a differnet thread. The Sportage is a very capable off-roader. It takes the daily driver/weekend worrior field very well. As far as getting stuck: sure, they get stuck. So do subarus. But, tires make a world of difference. When I switched from street tires to all terrains, that allowed me to go much farther in two wheel drive. Like I said, Subarus are awesome cars and they have they're place. And I still love 'em, but in this part of the country, the Sportage does much better.

Maybe it's just the differences in terrain between the PNW and southern arizona, however: The biggest downfall subarus have is lack of gearing and suspension travel. In order to get into offroad tires, you have to either cut up the fenders and/or lift it. The gearing - have you ever been in really soft sand? My suby got bogged down and stuck hundreds of times in that stuff; even after adding the high comp engine with the Webber, then converting to SPFI. Rocks - It's like, driving an auto: bring it up to 2-3K and slip the clutch to get enough power to get over that rock, then when you get to the top, jump on the binders so you don't slam on the under carrage on that same rock. Then there's the lack of suspension travel issue: the only reason I con't get through a trail is not because of getting hung up on the under carrage; it's the wheel can't move far enough to make contact to the ground - opposite corners off the ground. You can discaonnect the anti-sway bar It helps, but not enough. Now, it can be done: The Rubicon run back a few years was proof that the right modded subaru can go through some tough trails with the right driver. Look at QMan's Brat: he's lifted it enough to get a t-case under there and a solid axle in the rear. Why? more flex and gearing. Same thing with lill roo, mod it enough to get the gearing that's so needed in off roading. That's why I switched to my sportage: it's 1st gear is equivelent to 1st+4lo on my Suby. 1.97 LO range, and 4.11s in the diffs. I didn't have to lift it to put 29" all terrain tires on it. The suspension flex is awsome. (On the same trail, where I'm on and off the throtle and clutch in Suby, I just let my sportage idle right through, don't even have to touch the throttle.) It currently has open diffs front and rear, but even with the added LSD in Suby, I'm able to go much farther in my Sportage. It get's the same mileage as my suby did (20-23). It breaks just as often. I did loose some performance, but it gets me through places that I would had to turn around and order a lift and at least 27" tires for Suby. And, it's built like a truck. Suby will see dirt roads to rallycross on, the one snow day we have down here, and the street. Subarus are all weather cars. Subaru built them to last 200K reliable miles, so they're tough. That's why we can beat on them like this and they just keep on puttin along with not even a squeek - they love to play in the dirt. But, when the going get's rough, I'll take my Sportage. That's what it was designed for.

Ok, 97 Legacy Outback - 2.5 and 5MT: I'm swapping the engine and I cannot get the two to get together. They look square, but it just won't go. They were difficult getting apart, but that was just because of one of the pins was stuck. It took quite a bit of finagling to get my 86's engine and tranny together, but it finnally just went. This one is just plain being a pain in the neck. I've been fighting with this for about a month now, and it's driving my crazy! Any ingenious ideas? Billy Bob don't like being stuck in that stuffy and cramped garage. He wants to go buzz buzz! Besides, mom's van just lost a CAT Conv. and now, you can't use no more than half throtle. HAve you ever tried towing a 4horse trailer with a plugged Cat? sllllooooowwwww goin. Anyways.........Back to BillyBob's engine issue.............HELP!

Or Middle March road during a monsoon. That can get intristing. Carr canyon is boring till there's a snow storm. Then, it's fun. Suby had no trouble going up and down that grade in the snow. We'll see how my Sportage does with the all terrain tires on it. Well, whenever we DO see some snow.:-\

Right they are, General Disorder and The Scooby be. Yes....... Belongs in, the EGR does, yes... BUT! If plugging the EGR fixed your exhaust smell in the cabin, then the logcal conclusion would be the EGR system has a leak. THAT, the hesitation, the cause be. As far as your heating issues, what temp t-stat do you have and how old is it? My 86 had practicly no heat with a 180 in it; I put a stock 190 in and replaced the radiator, and I had plenty of heat in 20 deg cold and still kept cool during the summer months. Consider this, you must do. Yes.......

Yeah, we just blew right though Beatty; at about 10 at night. My bother and I are working on gettting the pics up.

Sorry it's so long, but in 3100 miles, alot happens! Many thanks go to Zap, Ken, Corky, and all that helped put on the show! It was great! :clap: WELL worth the trip from Southeast Arizona, car turned over 200K on the way back, too. Car ran good, lost a power steering seal when we rolled into Reno where we met up with Subieman and his wife and NV Neno. Great guys and gal, btw. Kepted an eye on the fluid level the rest of the trip, but it stopped leaking after the mud pit, I wonder why? No other drivablility issues the rest of the trip up there. We caravaned up with them from Reno to a campsite just over the columbia river on the Washington side where we met up with TheSubaruJunkie, Jibs and his cousin (sorry, I forget your name). First time in a tent since I was about 12, lotsa fun! Had a blast at the show, the mud pit was great; however, I didn't get a chance to romp in it, it was still great watching all the roos romping away in the slop. Had my first try at Rallycross, I'm hooked! Incentive to get my roo running again. After lunch, we pulled the rear wheels off and cleaned out the mud on the backside of the wheels to get rid of the shakeoromma at about 55. After we got back on the road, we develuped another vibration; turned out I forgot to tell my brother that I loosened the front lug nuts so he could clean the wheels, but he never got to those. Oops... Tightened them up, and put 3 on each side, an away we went. Thankfully, we didn't loose a wheel. As we continued back home, we had an electrical issue pop up in the middle of the Nevada desert in the middle of the night; the volt meter began climbing and evetuallty pegged out while the aftermarket guage began dropping below 10 volts. Turns out the fuseable link for the charging system is going, I wiggled it abit, and that cleared it up for the rest of the trip. We took a detuor and checked out the Grand Canyon, all I can say is WOW. Pictures don't even come close to seeing it in person. We took I-17 south all the way to I-10 in Phoenix (don't go north on I-17, it's all uphill) then down through Tucson and then south to home, sweet home, in Sierra Vista, AZ at about 2:30 this morning. Lesson lerned from last year: hit the deserts during the evening and midnight hours: it's a whole lot cooler then. Will we be there next year? You bet!

Thanks guys! Great show, had a blast! :clap: Well worth the 3100 mile round trip! Including the power steering wiggin out, the flaky charging system out in the middle of the Nevada desert, at night no less, and trying to keep the car from cooking though the heat. We made it back at about 2:30 this morning. Car turned over 200K on the way though the Grand Canyon, too.

I know this is not a subaru, but my Kia sportage was doing exactly the same thing: Run it for a while, stop, then girgle, girgle......... I ran 2 cooling flushes through that system, improved it, but no fixy. Then, I got a leak in the heater core, it's currently bypassed right now, but my girgling is gone! Might be somthing to check out. Now, off to finish sister's Suby engine swap.............................

Here's a few numbers I kinda remember when my brother and I went to WCSS7. Headin' through the Phenix area at about 65mph and about 110 outside, my water temp was running at 230 and my oil temp was at about 280. That's with the oil cooler. Engine didn't like that after about 200 miles.

Cool, that's the info I needed. I'll see what I find at the auto parts stores for that tool.

The head that had the cracks in it was the one I replaced. As far as the lifters, I know some of them I could compress and some I could not. Stupid question time: How do I do a leak down test?

Ok, I'm gonna do a wet test, just to see what happens. Looks like I'll be tearing it apart again. Oh, what fun. Funny, it took me about 3 tries to get the Weber on there right too. Do I see a pattern here? Thanks guys!

Ok, no I did not hone the cylinders. I was told that a wet comp test doesn't work on a flat opposed engine.

Yes, he checked them for truidy before he started working on them. Funny, they weren't warped at all, but the one that was bad, had major cracks on both the intake and exhaust ports.

Compression test was done with throttle at WOT. T-belts are 180 out. Yes, I had the valves worked on while I had it apart. New headgaskets, and I made sure the rings were not aligned when I put them in. Before I cooked the engine, I was getting over 150 on all 4. I've been driveing it for about 2 weeks. I had one noisey lifter when I first started it up, the vac guage was bouncing to the tick, two days later, it dissapeared and idle improved, but still noware near what it's supposed to be. Vaccume is wandering at about 13-15 at 1200rpm, will steady out above 2000rpm.

Low compression. Even after the rebuild, I STILL have low compression: 1: 100 2: 150 3: 70 4: 90 How is this possible???? They are all supposed to be around 150. Here's what I did: Tore engine completely apart. Had heads worked on: one was bad, swapped that one. New rings. One piston had a callapsed skirt, replaced that one with one out of a SPFI engine. Cylinders still had some cross hatching on them, not much, but it was there. No signs of scratching or anything. New Napa gaskets. Couldn't afford Subaru gaskets at the time. I gots poor mileage, poor power, don't like to idle: can't make up it's mind if it wants to run at 1100 or 500 rpms. Anybody have any ideas? I'm at a loss as to what's wrong. Some people have told me that I may have bad lifters. I got's no tick. Could they be bad? At 50 bucks a pop, I dont' want to swap them unless I absolutly have to.

Hey, send some if that snow down here to Arizona! Suby's back on the road and we need some snow to drift in. Even if it's just one morning to work! Please?

Ummm just a hair too fast going into that corner? Whoops!

I own 1 and she's in the middle of open heart sergery. Total in the family: 4 running, mine, and my brother's parts car.

That's what I figured. Checker still doesn't believe me that they are the wrong ones. I pulled the pistons out of my brother's parts car, they're ok and they are SPFI too. So, I'm gonna use on of those. Thanks guys!

Wow, looks like checker screwed up. Again. Why do I even bother going there? No wonder Napa didn't have them. Ok, I'll send them back. Since they are a full set, including rings. MudIsFun: Are those pistons off a SPFI engine? I'm also gonna call CCR and see what a new pair would be too. Thanks guys!

Ok, I had two pistons that were toast, so I ordered a set from checker. BUT, they look different from the ones in the engine. I'm not sure they are the right ones. They're a BeckArnley 012-4968. Here's a pic: What gives? I talked to the guys at checker and he says that's the only set for both the ea-81 and ea82. Are they just a generic type of piston or what? I don't get it. Help?