1 Lucky Texan

I'd say in a general sense; turbo bearing aspirated in through the intake from a hose going to the PCV or the valve cover fresh air intakes from an atypical headgasket failure from a cylinder problem like a valve guide seal or past the rings. If all 4 plugs look the same, that might eliminate those last 2. And if you can confirm the PCV and other hoses are functioning and routed correctly - well, that leaves the turbo bearing. And it 'seems' you might have a lot of oil in the intercooler. maybe someone else has some ideas.

wow! maybe a borescope inspection of each cylinder? is this a manual? I might be tempted to try and pop the clutch (ignition off) - maybe in reverse, just to see if the crank will turn. also, wondering if a piece of pulley or tensioner or ??? could jam the crank pulley?

I assume Brats have an odd number of splines, so, that's why you might be ~180 out but still offset.. I tried to MSPaint the situation - without the splines! the red line shows you what the problem is, someone misaligned the parts and probably hammered a nail part-way in one side;

Try a search cause, I have no experience on soobs older than 03. Might just be held in by a circlip and popping it out (be prepared for diff oil to come out) should be all it takes. Coupla big screwdrivers maybe ? At least you might be able to work on it on a bench or with a drill press.

sounds like someone assembled it 180 degrees out, then used some unknown object instead of the proper pin. My gut feeling would be to try using a drift or maybe sacrifice a drill bit, that is about or slightly less than ONE HALF the diameter of a 'real' pin. Then , try to hammer from the 'open' side to drive out the 'odd' pin. I have a mental picture that tells me it could work, but it might not lol! The angle just isn't right. But, even if it pushed it thru a little, you might be able to get some vicegrips on it. Dunno how much time I'd spend on it until I just starting looking for a new stub.

fill the tank near the shop, leave the cap loose, drive carefully to the shop, fastne cap normally and take mechanic for a ride. make sure this will duplicate the problem. they installed something wrong, broke something,or got a bad part.

http://www.ccrengines.com/mwe/

I think what you are complaining about is not Passive Arming. I think pa is when you close the door, the alarm is activated, without locking the door. Have you connected the PA connectors to see what they do? Valet mode may be what you want.

I only own one and it's my first. And it seems to be working well so far. try a search on turbo and turbo bearing failure and see what comes up. That's what I did. Some folks that are modded or run higher boost have to use catchcans or oil separators to keep excess oil out of the intake system. I guess a little oil is normal from the PCV hose - as mentioned, you might triple check that hose's routing and perhaps inspect the inside of it and change or clean the valve itself. Someone on one of the forums recently had some hoses misrouted and they were pulling a full vacuum on the crankcase. Turned the oil light on and 'maybe' starved one bank's valve train of oil. He even heard gurgling when he pulled the dipstick out while idling! If the smoke is from oil, I can only think of 3-4 ways it's getting out the tailpipe.

you're right, I did forget that. But, as noted, there are multiple failure modes; missing teeth from belt, broken cam sprockets, slipped timing, etc. good catch though.

if it's just a film of oil and maybe a drop, that's considered normal. If you can pour oil out, you may need to have the shaft play and fins on your turbo inspected.

to be perfectly honest, I have never tried. I always read it was a strip of paper. The idea is, a normal/working engine (say - with ignition disabled) should never have any valves in a position that would create pressure lower than the atmosphere. It should only blow OUT (though, there are pulses) If exhaust valves are stuck open during an intake or power stroke(broken belt, severely slipped timing), the tailpipe would try to 'inhale' the paper strip. IIf it just hangs there, all the valves would be closed (this seems very unlikely) so - this a an easy test, but an iffy one done out of desparation!

if the belt broke and the cams slipped to an 'all valves closed' state - I'd expect slow cranking. this is gonna read funny but does it crank like; rur,rur,rur,rur,rur,rur,rur,rur or like rur,rur,RU-RU,rur,rur,RU-RU that is, is it 'loping' sorta when it cranks? while someone is cranking, hold a strip of paper at the tailpipe and see if it hangs straight, blows out, or tries to suck inwards.

man, I dunno. here's a coupla crazy ideas - dunno where they would lead, triple check every PCV, vapor and vacuum line routing. also, consider pulling the plugs out to compare, maybe one of them is distinctly different enough to point to an issue with a specific cylinder - do compression testing while they're out. consider looking inside the intercooler for oil.

what brand of thermostat? Should be from Subaru dealership. Almost all others can cause overheating. It seems you are proceeding with a lot of work without addressing the 'smoking' problem. You may very well have multiple problems, but, if the smoking is from some serious issue like headgasket failure - you may be wasting time/money and risking more damage by these other distractions. forgive me if I don't understand the timeline and your present concerns. Does the exhaust smell like coolant (sweet).

seems like coolant, does it smell sweet, like toasted marshmallows? Or like oil? gas ? Have you checked all your fluid levels? Was any work done before the smoking? Even something minor, or was there a wreck? An overheating event?

those codes probably wouldn't lead me to change a timing belt. Are u sure about them? What color is the smoke?

Try to get a good feel for the difference in how long it takes to start when cold vs warm at present. Then, when cold, try just cycling the key on/off 4-5 times. Listen to detect the fuel pump coming on for a second each time. Then start the car. If it does start like when it's warm, probably means the fuel pressure IS leaking down over time/when cold. Then, decisions can be made about where to look for a problem.

hopefully, it's something simple like they forgot to tighten the negative battery terminal and it took a coupla days to vibrate loose. Or a slipping alternator belt. Or a connector came loose. It COULD be unrelated to the recent work, but if the car was running normally before, it should be the same now.

If you have original cables - or even if they are old replacement cables, I'd put them on the list of possibilities.

I knew a guy once that did a lot of side jobs at home on cars/farm equipment. He said he only ever bought left-hand twist drills. Works just as good as 'normal' and great at stuck/broken bolts removal.

you say nothing sounds clanky or noisy, but you also say it sounds out of time. I'd say, DO clear the ECU with either a scanner or disconnecting the battery for a while - but I think a triple check of the timing, especially the crank timing, could be a good place to start. Was the tensioner you installed already compressed (and you just pulled out a pin?)? Or did you compress it?

it's like buying a Harley and working to get rid of the potato-potato-potato-potato sound. CRAZY TALK!!!

I read about the aftermarket's problems after I had bought some parts and didn't realize I was sent Xacstat until recently. I figured I have to try to exchange a 'regular' one - or eat the loss. Both my cars will wear out from age before miles.

yeah, we have one in my area with some aftermarket go-fast bits and STi badges. There might be a JDM Forry STi - not sure.