silverback

Years ago, I converted a vehicle with a V-8 to propane. The octane rating is higher than gas. The carb/mixer and converter were made by OHG. OHG stands for "Over the Hill Gang". Use of an old tank is risky. They have a life span and have to be tested and re-certified. I can't remember the time between re-cert. I had a GM HEI distributor so it worked OK without changeing the advance curve. Two problems for a Subaru conversion: Where are you going to put the tank(s)? It needs to be 'outside'. Fuel availability for a vehicle was scarce. Buying propane for a vehicle was a daylight activity. No one would sell me propane after dark in the Seattle area. Truck stops were a gamble. The night shift people would tell me that they did not know how to operate the propane pump and do the hook up. I offered to show them. Infrastructure for propane vehicle fuel has not improved. I am not sure what the price of propane is these days. Also, for car licensing, you had to buy a yearly 'tab' for the tank to cover your road taxes since you were not buying gasoline and the highway tax per gallon is huge in Washington State. Funny, I don't know where they spend it.

Jono, the vent hole in the distributor cap is for Ozone.

Is this a test? I have 2 guesses. 1: Freon Muffler Bearing controller 2: Power window relay with fuse/breaker---- 5 wires and integral fuse/breaker to prevent over current/meltdown

Seems like it runs on the cool side. Is the thermostat stuck open perhaps? You have your troubleshooting lined up. Good luck.

Post #10. Video. Watch the oil pressure gage when the engine is revved. Is the gage/sender working properly? Do you find foamy oil when you remove the dipstick during these tests?

jj421, I missed the obvious in the 1st post. The video. Look at the oil pressure gage. If the gage is accurate, your oil pressure is poor. The HLAs, and the rest of the engine, do not have enough oil (especially when cold) to function half way decent. Quick questions: How old is the oil pump? Oil pump re-sealed and new shaft seal(probably sucking air)? Gage accurate? Sump level correct? Clogged oil filter? Oil filter brand? Oil viscosity? What is the highest oil pressure that you have seen on the gage? The oil pressure ranges for an EA82 at normal operating temp. : 2,000 rpm ---- 14--> 26 psi., 4,000 rpm ---- 34--> 46 psi.( FSM values ). My EA82 idles at 20psi and on the highway is 60psi. ( DELO 400 15--40wt) The HLAs of cylinders #1 & #4 are the last units to get oil on the oil gallery circuit. I would guess that your sparkplugs for #1 & #4 do not look good. Worth a look. Valves may be ugly too. Easiest next steps: oil change with quality filter, higher viscosity oil ( it will tick on start up until the oil gets warm ). The cam towers have an oil tube with an oil relief feature. The fast and dirty way to try to keep more oil in the HLAs is to stretch the spring in the oil tube relief valve if you are not able to get replacement springs quickly. Checking the grounds is still important. I spray 'Corrosion Block' into connectors and bulb sockets when I have them apart. Where did the engine come from? Another area to think about for minor hunting/searching is the distributor--cam shaft. Same distributor that was on the previous engine? Did you check the cam shaft float of the new engine? Measured, it is a max. of 0.010". On the engine, grab the timing belt pulley and pull--push. You should feel very little / no movement. The distributor has an axial float limit of 0.006--> 0.020". With excessive axial float, the distributor gear 'climbs' a small amount on the camshaft distributor drive gear. With excessive float of the cam and distributor, your rpms will change a small amount. You may not have this problem but it it something to check. Yank on the pulley. Put 12 volts to your radiator fan. Clean the connector. They get slimed with all the water coming past the radiator. When you are out in the woods, moving with high rpm and low vehicle speed, you have a low volume of air going through the radiator. Make sure your fan works. If you do this a lot, perhaps a secondary fan that is switched manually will prevent a toasted EA82. I assume that you have a double row radiator. Well, I think that your weekend is taken care of. Good luck.

Your wire harness ground wire is attached to the thermostat housing. Was this the 'ground' point before you swapped the engine and transmission? How about re-locating the harness ground point to an intake manifold-to-head bolt?

I do not have SPFI, but I am following this thread. The water pump thing is crazy. For an EA82, you should have a ground(earthing) wire attaching to the engine at the 'water pipe' bracket !!!!!!! Take all your ground(earthing) wires off and wire brush the lugs and the contact points where they attach. Make shiny. You need to verify that you still have a separate ground(earthing) wire attached to your manual transmission. As JONO previously posted, an extra ground(earthing) wire or three is not a bad idea. Wire continuity means nothing if you have bad/dirty connections. Poor grounding(earthing) leads to "stealing grounds" and happens to all types of equipment. I had to throw in the 'metric' conversion thing: 'ground( insert metric thingy term here)'. Add half a bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil to gas tank at each fill up. Might help your valves and won't hurt anything. A full bottle of MMO in the tank will just give the vehicle behind you 'second-hand Marvel Mystery Oil'. True. ( And you do not have a toilet bowl gasket under the TB ????? )

I am not sure what carb that you have. You have an EA82? FWD, 4WD? AT or MT? There may be an ID tag on the carb. 87 GL wagons had an Hitachi DCZ 328-XXXX. MT and AT were the same for jetting, venturi size and such. At this point in time, changing the filter in the carb would be one of the last procedures that you do. When you replace your pump, keep in mind that the fuel pump may get power when the ignition is switched to 'run', pump for about 1-1/2 seconds, stop and wait for an 'rpm' signal. On my 87, there is a rev. sensor between the ignition switch and fuel pump. The fuel pump resumes pumping when the engine is running. Not sure about your 86. Don't go hog wild about a replacement fuel pump. You only need a couple PSI output for your Hitachi or a future Weber.

What ruparts said. Also, you need to verify power to the fuel pump. Not sure what carb that you have. If there are two fuel fittings, one supply & one return ( return is the one on top ), then there is a fuel filter in the carb. The carb filter is the last to change at this point in time. You had some cold weather there that can lock up standing water in gas tanks, gas barrels, etc.. You may have picked up a load of questionable gas. Same gas going into your Outback?

The thermoswitch tends to get slimed from moisture passing through the engine compartment. Check the terminals on the switch and connector . Clean and clean before you reassemble and then test at idle before roaring out into traffic.

This is strange. The vehicle has 78,000 miles and you are having these problems. Timing belts failed from age/mileage which is common. But metal??? Save any pieces of metal that you find. Remove the oil pump and look at the pieces: oil pump shaft with inner rotor ( 4 lobe thingy ) attached and the outer rotor ( round thingy with 5 lobes that rotates around in engine case ). Using a mirror with good light, check out the rotor housing in the engine case. You will see immediately if the pieces are scratched/gouged from passing debris. If you have an oil pressure indicator in your instrument cluster then you may have seen 'normal' / less than normal oil pressure prior to belt failure. Please remove your oil filler duct from the cam case. Is there a perforated gasket there? Find anything?

Welcome. Keep your '99' for a long time. Funny that you are a writer and are posting because the rest of us post but usually can't write. Does this Subaru have a name and this name starts with 'P' ???? Women always name their cars. Men just use other words.

Typical early warning signs of timing belt problems (failure) are: hard starting, decreased gas mileage. Failing/clogging cat risks burning exhaust vaives.

The carb section in the 1987 FSM is 26 pages. Are you sure that you want to educate your self that badly? PM me a mailing address.

The previously listed firing order, by someone who has worked on Subaru's for 15+ years, is still : 1 3 2 4 Laying out numbers in a horizontal--vertical pattern can be confusing at times. Attached are several images that can help. The reason that I asked about plug wires is they look too long. Cross-fire is easier to check for than a burned/stuck valve, dropped valve rocker. About that WEBER: Is the choke housing black or white? Mine is white, neener, neener, neener.

What Hitachi carb and what are you looking for?

So, you went for a test ride a zero-dark-thirty hours. Never boring when you do that. Is your catalytic converter clogged? Is there any smoke spewing out the exhaust pipe as in a grey cloud? You are working through some electrical problems. Have you checked the quality of spark at the sparkplugs and the coil output?

Tell us that you changed the oil filter !!!!! You should do a couple of oil changes with filters when you get it running. Run for several minutes and dump the oil. Smell the oil. After the first change, the oil change intervals are your call.

Did you replace spark plug wires recently? Have you checked the wire routing and separated them to check for cross-firing?

Sorry for the small size. This image is what Gloyale is referring to in the way of #1 being at TDC and the 'timing dot' positions.

Here is a link to Weber production/history: http://www.jameng.com/news/20/What-is-a-Genuine-Weber.html I bought a RedLine Weber kit from Carbs Unlimited. It is marked "W", made in Spain and has a white choke housing. BTW, jeffrodta11, if you saw your shadow on Feb. 2nd, you will have 6 more weeks of rough Weber operation.........................

Just curious.........is the Weber a real Weber that was made in Spain or a counterfeit knock-off? How old is the catalytic converter? Results of a compression test?

NorthWet is spot on about the 'TURBO' part of the search. Assuming EA82, I believe all flavors of radiators for EA82's will fit into all EA82 platforms. An aid in searching maybe; 4WD, TURBO, AT for a double row unit. Perhaps a 1989, 4WD, TURBO, AT may work. Good luck with the search.

What is the definition of "junk in the oil"? Sludge? Pieces of RTV silicone sealer ? Did the mechanic save an oil sample for your inspection? It is a non-interference engine as all posters have pointed out. Tow the vehicle away from the non-Subaru mechanic. Previous posters have said to just change the belts and tensioners. Ditto. Quality oil filters have a lot of filtering media. low pressure drop through the filter and an 'anti-drain back valve'. The anti-drain back valve is supposed to keep oil in the filter when you shut the engine down( important for filters that are horizontal and upside down ). At start up, the filter is full so the oil pump does not have to fill the filter housing before oil is pumped to the oil galleries --- eliminating 'dry starts'. You posted that the oil filter was empty. Change brands. Many automotive forums on the internet have discussions on oil filter brands and qualities. You have time to search.