Subarutex

Ok, just got back from talking to the guys at Action Machine about the engine. This morning I talked to my buddy's up at Bow Wow auto. In the daylight, #3 cylinder is very marred. All cylinders have pitting. Looks like ring failure on #3. Action Machine said the block looks like its gotten hot. (It had, thus the reason I resealed it.) They agree that #3 cylinder is way gone, but #1 and #4 aren't that far behind it. #2 looks the best, least amount of pitting. He said the engine got hot, then sat for some time, probally a matter of weeks with water in the cylinders. All true, car sat at zaps house for a week before I got it all the way to my house, then another week before I started pulling it apart and rebuilding. My fault, I put decent heads and cams on a shot block. ANd drove it into the ground. THis would explain the doggy low end to some degree. Options: Jap. Import engine, locally - $820 after tax and in my garage Action machine bore the block I have, new pistions, balanced, with them disassembling and assembling the short block - $1500 give or take $200 depending on new pistons, etc... Same stuff from acton machine, only I take it apart and put it back together - $1000 or there about Now, lets take a look at probally needing a new head. Has a crack in the exhaust ports, leaking exhaust into the coolant. - $150-$300 probally. Now lets think of me living in a cardboard box, and walking to WCSS because I can't afford to live and pay insurance/ gas money. If you had very little money, what would you do?

Took the parts to Bow Wow and Action Machine today... see other thread for results.

Ok... time for some catchup to those not in the know. Engine wouldn't idle, but i fiddled with it enough to get it to start almost everytime. Then it stopped wanting to start. On came the compression test. Cylinder 1, 70psi. Cylinder 3, 30psi. Didn't test the otherside (i wish I had :/) Decided to pull the engine, got it out last night. Took it down to the block tonight. Pass. side head has some cleaner whitish spots on it, as do the cylinders. Drivers side head had white exhaust valves, otherwise normal look. All 4 of the lifters had a broken ring on them, and came apart when i pulled them out. Also a slight crack in the exhaust ports, leaking a little bit of coolant and exhaust apparently. Its all in the wagon, in the morning I stop by my local shop and have the guys take a look at what I got. Ideas? Thoughts?

Compression tested the pass. bank and found cylinder 3 at 30psi, and 1 at 70psi. That, and it wouldn't start anymore. So i pulled it. New thread about to begin...

Thanks for the reply WJM. I couldn't get any cylinder over 30 either. OH well, time to take it apart. Got the engine out in about an hour and 15 minutes.

Is it possible to test the compression with the engine on the stand? Also, what have other people seen compression wise running the delta cams? Seems like it should be the same as stock, yeah?

Do It.

the ports on the TB also never see vac. I mistakenly hooked my boost gauge and BOV up to one of the TB ports the first time. Car ran kinda wonky And the guage never showed Vac!

Stock the FPR references the manifold pressure. You could try referencing the throttle body pressure. This however will probally make the car run richer while in vacuum. The spider intake has 2 vac. ports on the TB. I'd try tapping into one of those and see if the problem lessen's or goes away.

There are a lot of differences between the flapper door style cars, and the hotwire cars. The timing process being one of them. I followed per my '87 FSM. I know i have 2 extra dizzy's for the flapper, but none for hotwire cars. I'll see if I can scare one up from somebody. How do I vac. test it? I've watched my vac/boost gauge for hours looking for something. Even if I do find its low vac. what can I do about it? The damn cams already give me about 10 less at idle! Ignition Module? tell on caleb.

The other thread started to get cluttered... Ok, the problem: Simply, the car won't idle. Starts almost everytime, will run if you hold the gas. Anything below 1500 it starts to fight, and wants to die. Sometimes, after it dies, it won't start right away. 5 minutes later it will though... If you give it enough gas to hold at 2000rpm, it seems to jump around. Creeps up to 2200, drops down to 1900, recovers back to 2100, etc. It does the same thing in 2 different configurations... the "stock way" with the turbo and IC plumbed. Also does it with the MAF/filter stuck right on the end of the throttle body. Retimed it (with the green plugs together) to 20deg. While running (with the plugs apart) I can't see any timing marks. I've set fuel pressures below stock, at stock, and above stock. All with the same results as above. New cap, new rotor. Searched for vac. leaks... haven't found any yet. Not getting any codes on the ECU. No check engine light. What do I do next!?

Supposedly, the effeciency of the stock turbo runs out at 13.8psi. Read that on here a long time ago. Anything over that is really just making your air hotter than it needs to be as I understand it. Now, back in the day, when my car was actually quick... I was running the stock turbo, WRX TMIC, stock exhaust. I had the boost set at 13psi. Daily driving 12psi was all i'd see. With a good third gear pull it would go to 13, on the freeway, it would peg 15psi. However, on the freeway the psi just didn't feel like it was doing anything. For you Will... I would reccommend shooting for 13psi, that way if it spikes, it shouldn't spike over 15psi or so.

i have the same problem with those wheels on my RX... I just leave the little cap off. I'm thinking about maybe getting some spacers, to push the wheel out a bit.

Monica and I will be attending. I'd like to head down with Ken and Eric... I have friday thru monday off. Monica will be driving from Pullman, and meeting me there. Now... how do I take 2 cars?

Any ideas anyone?

Last night took the timing belt covers off. Timing belts were a touch on the loose side, so we took them off and redid them. Now, the cam timing is perfect, the disty is set at 20deg. It fires and runs... still no idle. I have developed a leak at the uppipe, right below the turbo. Perhaps the turbo (since its only spinning a tiny bit at idle because of the leak) is acting as an obstruction to the air path. But... who knows. Going to pick up another set of plugs I guess, and some new turbo exhaust gaskets. Haven't driven it yet again, afraid of it breaking on me. Messed with the fuel pressure, at 0 its at a perfect 36psi. Normally reads about 28 or so while i'm trying to keep the engine alive in the 1000-1500rpm range. rawr!

have you reset the ecu? I do that religiously everytime I change something.

yes, plug wires are all good.

Update: Put new cap and rotor in. Instant improvement. Started up on first try. Doesn't idle. Will run though. Plugs are decent... not perfect, obvious signs of running a tad bit rich in the cylinder. I don't understand what is going on. Tried checking trouble codes, but couldn't figure out how with my FSM. Light on the ECU just blinks. No code, just a blink. Tried timing it... but not being able to keep it close to idle makes it a bitch, so that really didn't happen. Basically, the car is F***ED. I'm very pissed off at it. I've clearly gotten the car to a point where I am not capable of diagnosing and fixing it.

Ok... so given this information... when setting fuel pressure to stock settings, should I unplug the vac. reference on the regulator while the car is at idle? Then set the pressure. Once everything is all set, then plug the vac. reference back in? Or would leaving it plugged in work just as well? Thats the way I did it...

A fine piece of work.

Stock Coil... don't trust accel's. Tested with a known working one, same thing. Messed with the disty a bit, back and forth while cranking. Got it to fire, wouldn't really idle though, but it did run. Cap and rotor look really really bad (worn) so I'll get new ones tomorrow. Fuel pressure is right on, seem to be getting spark to all cylinders. If new cap and rotor don't do it, i'll check the spark plugs. If cap and the rotor fix the problem... this is one more good reason to run MS w/ EDIS. Problem probably wouldn't have ever happened. Oil level is good and clean. Found out from local subaru only shop, that the oil pressure on synthetic is generally higher right after a change from dino.

Haven't taken the cap off to look yet... I'll be sure to check tonight.

Yesterday drove the RX down to the RallyX to spectate. Almost got all the way there. Car needed to be AAA'd home. Preface: Had some idling issues (see past thread), but those were fixed by installing the AAV. Had some doggy, laggy problems, turned the boost up and those problems were all but gone. The car had been ticking like mad the last couple of days, so the night before the RallyX I changed the oil, it was low. Put in some 10w30 (same as what i've used on this new motor) only this was Mobil One synthetic. Along with a PureOne oil filter. Yesterday: Driving down to the RallyX, car drove normally. Had plenty of power. The oil pressure was pegged at 85 just about the whole time. Unusual... I thought. While coasting around a cloverleaf interchange, the engine (at idle) died. Couldn't get it restarted for about 10 minutes. Not sure why. Drove the rest of the way to the raceway park, at the stop sign in front of it, I wasn't able to keep the car alive. It died, wouldn't restart. Pushed it off to the side of the road and walked into the RallyX to spectate. After awhile, we got a ride back to the car to look at it. Noticed the Disty Cap was loose, one screw was practically all the way out. Tightened that, still no start... got real close a couple times. When cranking this time, the oil pressure gauge read below the bottom line. It didn't move at all. After the RallyX, we AAA'd it home with a pretty weird tow truck driver. What could the problem be?

Commonly referred to a manual boost controller. Buy one off ebay. Make sure it is a ball and spring type in its construction.