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Subaru Legacy (1990) losing power up hill


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Ok so I have a subaru legacy, 1990, "L", with 2.2L multipoint fuel injection and manual transmission.

 

Runs fine all around town, starts right up, there is no wiggle or strange sounds coming from the engine, just when I go up hills it start to loose power and jerk on me a little. But as long as I dont go up hill it does fine. Excellerates up on the freeway fine, etc. Sometimes when Im going 70 in 5th I get the slightest shutter. But very faint.

 

When I turned around on the hill my idle went down a bit but came back fairly fast.

 

Im currently getting these codes off the ECU.

 

32- oxygen sensor or circuit

35- purge control selenoid or circuit

41- air/fuel adaptive control

22- knock sensor

24- air control valve or circuit

 

They wont clear no matter what I do so Im guessing they're phantom codes. Also Ive had this car for 3 years and the check engine light has been on ever since I got it.

 

From what Ive researched it sounds like a bad knock sensor? Is there a way to test a knock sensor with a meter?

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I forgot to mention, I just swapped the engine and thats when the problem started. So Im thinking its something on the new engine thats bad.

 

before it ran ok just the previous engine had 300k on it and it leaked oil like crazy. And instead of buying all new seals I figured Id just drop a different engine in.

 

It could be the cats... I found the entire exhaust in a bush out at my dads junkyard 2 years ago(I know that sounds bad, but it looked good- had no rust etc). It worked great up until the engine got swapped out, so Im thinking its gotta do with something new that I put in.

 

I replaced on the new engine:

 

power steering

alternator

spark plugs

spark plug wires

wireing harness

water pump

timing belt

fuel injectors

 

(these parts wernt new except timing and spark plugs, they came off the old engine, but I atleast knew they worked.)

 

Which leads me to believe its gotta be one of the sensors on the engine that is failing... Or fuel pump or something. Feels like the engine isnt getting enough consistant gas going up hills.

Edited by thefingD
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Thanks for the link, never saw this post. Seems like alot of people on these posts just put some injector cleaner in there gas tank and it cleared the prob right up... Im going to start there and work my way around and see if I get a similar result.

 

Thanks again

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The exhaust smells almost like straight gasonline, which is making me think more and more that it could be a poor O2 sensor.

 

Is there a way to test the O2 sensor?

 

Is it safe to unlplug it and see how the car runs without it?

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