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Bought oil and fuel filters this am, to do something easy on the '90 Loyale. Decided to do fuel filter first, doesn't require getting underneath the car.

 

Manual says pull fuel pump fuse, run motor 'till it dies. Pulled the fuse, started the car, about 20 min later, shut off the motor, replaced the fuse, undid he hose clamps for the fuel filter, but couldn't pull the hose off the filter. Either end. Tried pliers, vise grips, water pump pliers, prying with screwdrivers, found I could destroy the hose in place by several means, but couldn't get it o let go of the fuel filter. Beginning to wonder if its glued on... Come on, how hard is to pull the hose off a filter?

 

Pretty hard. An hour later, gave up and drained the oil. Found the oil leak all over the oil pump.. couldn't get the old oil filter off. None of the six different filter wrenches I have are that size. Drove 20 miles to the AP store, bought 7th filter wrench, that fits Soob filters. Replaced Fram filter with Wix, replaced NAPA 20-50 oil with Shell Rotella T 15-40. Engine noticeably quieter. Still sounds like a box of rocks, but a much smaller box of rocks...

 

I looks to me like the oil pump could be pulled from under the car, without raising engine, pulling radiator, etc. Just have to find all those O-rings and the gasket, nearest Soob dealer near to 50 miles from here..

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Bought oil and fuel filters this am, to do something easy on the '90 Loyale. Decided to do fuel filter first, doesn't require getting underneath the car.

 

Manual says pull fuel pump fuse, run motor 'till it dies. Pulled the fuse, started the car, about 20 min later, shut off the motor, replaced the fuse, undid he hose clamps for the fuel filter, but couldn't pull the hose off the filter. Either end. Tried pliers, vise grips, water pump pliers, prying with screwdrivers, found I could destroy the hose in place by several means, but couldn't get it o let go of the fuel filter. Beginning to wonder if its glued on... Come on, how hard is to pull the hose off a filter?

 

Pretty hard. An hour later, gave up and drained the oil. Found the oil leak all over the oil pump.. couldn't get the old oil filter off. None of the six different filter wrenches I have are that size. Drove 20 miles to the AP store, bought 7th filter wrench, that fits Soob filters. Replaced Fram filter with Wix, replaced NAPA 20-50 oil with Shell Rotella T 15-40. Engine noticeably quieter. Still sounds like a box of rocks, but a much smaller box of rocks...

 

I looks to me like the oil pump could be pulled from under the car, without raising engine, pulling radiator, etc. Just have to find all those O-rings and the gasket, nearest Soob dealer near to 50 miles from here..

 

Thats how it goes my friend. You have to remember the age of the car too. Even on some of the newer Subarus I work on (I'm a mechanic at a local independent Subaru shop), I still have some issues with getting the fuel lines off of the filter without damaging them. Also, if you want to get parts without driving that far, you can order them online and probably get them faster then the local dealership could.

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a good pair of hose pliers helps a lot - but first thing i do when messing with old hoses (after removing clamp) - twist to break it free, if you can get it to twist you can get it off.

 

if the hose is in bad shape it should be replaced anyway, so on really stubborn ones i have been known to give it a little shot of penetrating oil to help break it free.

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a good pair of hose pliers helps a lot - but first thing i do when messing with old hoses (after removing clamp) - twist to break it free, if you can get it to twist you can get it off.

 

if the hose is in bad shape it should be replaced anyway, so on really stubborn ones i have been known to give it a little shot of penetrating oil to help break it free.

 

The hose seems to be in very good condition, not hard, cracked or anything. I'd been thinking of a shot of Kroil..

 

Local AP store has a Beck-Arnley oil pump seal kit for $22 bucks, seems to have all that's required. But, looks like I'll have to pull the belts and covers to do the work, I guess that will mean the radiator and all too. That will

give me a look at the belts and cam seals while I'm in there.

Engine is so much quiter with the 15-40 oil. TOD seems much less... When I took the old oil for recycling today, it poured from the jug like thick syrup..

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Engine is so much quiter with the 15-40 oil. TOD seems much less... When I took the old oil for recycling today, it poured from the jug like thick syrup..

 

gee, i bet it would quiet down even more with 10w40 in it.... :rolleyes:

too heavy an oil will not get thru all those little tiny passages properly...

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Manual says pull fuel pump fuse, run motor 'till it dies. Pulled the fuse, started the car, about 20 min later, shut off the motor.....

 

btw - if YOU shut off the motor after 20 minutes - you didnt pull the correct fuse. if you had, the car would have shut down in less than a minute.

 

it is actually better to just unplug the fuel pump, then crank it over for a few seconds. it might start but will quickly stall again.

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I Don't bother with "relieving fuel pressure". Take the gas cap off to let vapor pressure out of the tank, then pop the hoses off. Wrap a rag around the end to catch fuel that dribbles out.

 

Last fuel hose I did I completely destroyed trying to twist it. I just cut it off and got a new hose. Sometimes that's just easier. :grin:

 

Who uses a wrench for an oil filter? Long flat blade screw driver and a hammer will get any filter moving.

 

If you think it leaks oil now, that Rotella T is gonna run through it like water.

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btw - if YOU shut off the motor after 20 minutes - you didnt pull the correct fuse. if you had, the car would have shut down in less than a minute.

 

it is actually better to just unplug the fuel pump, then crank it over for a few seconds. it might start but will quickly stall again.

 

The thing has a bunch of fuses, most of which are blue 15 amp and a couple of yellow 20 (?) amp. I thought I pulled the right fuse, according to the layout shown on the fuse cover, but obviously got the wrong fuse, thought it was the fuse labeled as the fuel pump fuse... Gave up and went to plan B..

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I Don't bother with "relieving fuel pressure". Take the gas cap off to let vapor pressure out of the tank, then pop the hoses off. Wrap a rag around the end to catch fuel that dribbles out.

 

Last fuel hose I did I completely destroyed trying to twist it. I just cut it off and got a new hose. Sometimes that's just easier. :grin:

 

Who uses a wrench for an oil filter? Long flat blade screw driver and a hammer will get any filter moving.

 

If you think it leaks oil now, that Rotella T is gonna run through it like water.

 

Screwdriver was my first idea too, but I decided that there wasn't room to turn the thing after I stabbed the filter..

 

Waiting to see if the honey that was in there was an attempt to avoid fixing the oil leak. Couple of hundred miles, so far so good, seems to leak about the same with the Rotella in there..

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OK, so far done some light chassis work, and the following engine work:

 

Changed out the AC plugs for the recommended NGK plugs.

 

Replaced the dicey FI temp sending sensor with a new one.

 

Changed out the goop in the crankcase.

 

Prior to any of this, I drove out to my "local" pick 'n pull to see what they had. 80 mile round trip, got 27 mpg.

 

After above improvements, same trip, got 39.6 mpg, yesterday. Pleased with this, not only better mileage than my Mercedes diesel, but the fuel cost 34 cents/ga less...

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Forgot to mention adding thermostat and rad cap, now the system holds pressure, needle never more than 2 widths above the peg..

 

No idea what gear this thing has, but it indicates 65 mph at 3000 rpm, which is where it seems to like to run. Acceleration progressively weaker over 4k, I wound it 5 once to see what would happen. Not much. But with this mileage, who cares?

 

Next, belts and oil pump re-seal, and try to find some road tires to replace the snow tires it came with.

 

This is going to be a long term project, I think...

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i successfully ran rotella t 15w-40 in my 88 gl for years. lots of miles on old engine, drove it for a very long time with bad head gaskets. no bottom end troubles. I put 36k on used engine with rotella without a single TOD... I use rotella t in my 90 legacy with high mileage :banana:

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....65 mph at 3000 rpm, which is where it seems to like to run.

 

yup, that sounds about right for an EA82 - my old 89 GL wagon liked to run right about 3K as well.

 

you really want to wind it up??? find a great big hill and mash that gas going down!! :lol: got mine up to about 95 once! :lol:

 

the legacy on the other hand will hit triple digits on flat ground with no problem. :banana:

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