kerandt Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Loyale Hissy My third Subaru I have owned is a '93 Loyale, w/ 5-SPD push button 4WD, SPFI wagon and love it. But on the way home last night it started acting up. Cruising through town (30 MPH) I noticed a sudden power loss. Kind of a strange bog sensation. I bee lined it (slowly) home fearing I might not make it. Luckily I only had to come to a complete stop at one light, and to my relief it idled decent and resumed movement on it's own, but it was like it didn't want to go over 2K (pumping the petal) and just real gutless. Then I remembered reading a post or two on how sometimes a timing belt would slack up and jump a tooth and throw the timing off. It seemed logical? So after babying the thing home I jumped on the web to do some more brain storming (USMB of course) and came up with a priority list of what I would check the following day. (Fluids, temp, all good tonight!) *Timing belt condition and position *Check engine codes *Vac lines, Plugs & wires *Clean MAF (& all connections) *Change fuel pump (It's a noisy used one) *Possible plugged CAT? *Seafoam (Everything!) Day One (2/15/2010) Visual inspection of hoses and connections. Everything seems o.k. here. Went on to checking the timing with the light, got the green connectors, yup. (I had done this once before) and this time it was showing the timing to be 10 degrees or so. It definitely wasn't at 20 like I had seen the time before. Took the fans off to get outside belt covers off. Started manual engine rotation and inspection. To my surprise every thing seems cool here too. Double checked it a couple of times. Yup. Driver's straight up, other cam straight down (180 from each). Decided the distributor had to get a look over. So I labeled the wires. Removed the cap first. Then the whole thing. Cleaned it . Visual inspection; Rotor good and secure. Inside clean and free of debris. Put it every thing back together so I could try and start it. Monkeyed around a bit trying to get the damn thing to start. Had to go back to USMB to get it back together right (I love this site!). I keep trying to install the dist.at the 3 tic marks and not 0 degrees Oops,(have to remember that). Finally got it to start. Was about to give up, you have no idea. Idles good. I was surprised though I had to max the ditsy all the way counterclockwise (I think) in order to get it to 20 degrees with the light. At first glance I actually could not see any of the timing marks (just staring at the rusty flywheel flicker) I know I have it on the #1 wire. Light set at 0 Advance. Anyways, even after one drive around the block, running much better than last night, I decided to still try it with the dist. set half way or so (set back clock-wise) and no no it had a real bad pinging so move it back (max left). Tonight Took a short drive and seems to be back to normal? TOD (ticking is slowly getting worse but will still go away after the motor is good and warm. Might try a thicker oil? I did notice the engine seems to make more of a subtle whine much like a turbo would make. Perhaps It's the accessory belts, I did tighten them about as much as I could. Will continue to do some tinkering. I'm still a little dumb-founded? I still don't understand really what happened. Pavements dry / nothing wet. Maybe somethings on it's way out? Anyways. Comments, questions? Thanks for looking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Are there any codes stored in the computer? GD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerandt Posted February 16, 2010 Author Share Posted February 16, 2010 Yes, the only one that comes up is 34, which I believe is the EGR? Was that way when I got the car. I do get 5 blinks before plugging the connectors together but that's normal right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesFox Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 the whining noise you hear might be the throwout bearing, relative to engine RPM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nug Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 I'd reconsider tightening the belts that much. Seems to me you still might be off a tooth on the disty if you have to turn it all the way to get it to run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacobeagle Posted February 16, 2010 Share Posted February 16, 2010 Have you tried taking and cleaning the EGR passage way. I know that on newer Hondas( I'm a Honda tech) the clooged egr will cause driveability problems. I'd say clean it, re-install and clear codes. Jose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerandt Posted February 17, 2010 Author Share Posted February 17, 2010 Thanks guys. I will do more tinkering. It's running pretty good right now though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lizardbrain Posted February 17, 2010 Share Posted February 17, 2010 I just replaced an ignition module in the distributor for a neighbor. It ran bad above 2000 rpm. Also, the distributor was all the way against one of the stops to time it. I don't know what was up with the distributor, I even took off the drive gear to see if it was on wrong, but it only fits one way. The "new" module fixed the crappy running, but it's still against the stop to time it. It also looked like it was off a tooth, but a different distributor (the one from my car) timed in the middle of the slots. I gave the car back running better, but I still don't know how or why the distributor was different. Oh, and no codes either. Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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