Qbert Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 So my dad picked up a subaru loyale to fix up our old one, we believe they are both 1994 engines. Everything went smooth swapping the engines. We used the best from the 2 cars, fly weel, transaxle, engine, oil pump, valve cover gaskets, timing belts, exhaust manifold, and a new battery. We took our sweet time to make sure everything was put together the same way that we pulled it apart. We filled the car up with the essential liquids, gear oil, engine oil, coolant, power steering fluid. Like I said, everything was running smooth. We got to the point of starting the car. We can get it to start by turning the key, but the only way it runs is by holding the gas pedal down, to get it past 1500 rpm about 1500- the car sputters to a die. 1500+ and the car runs smooth like it should. We think that it is a spark plug problem. But we checked all 4 and they are all giving a spark. We took the distributor apart, everything was a little dirty, easily cleaned. Still no change. We aren't to the point of setting the idle screw, because the car won't even idle up to 1500 rpm! It should idle about 700rpm. Or so our subaru manual recommends. So the car starts, sputters, then runs after 1500 rpm, dies below 1500 rpm. HELP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee2 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 sounds like a vacuum leak problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qbert Posted February 10, 2016 Author Share Posted February 10, 2016 My guy and I have been over the vacuum lines a couple times. Any other ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee2 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 Check for computer codes ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 Idle air control valve. Coolant Temperature sensor. Check them and thier circuits. I doubt it is spark related. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
somick Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 Are they both automatic or manual. The computers for auto or manual might be different. Good luck, Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qbert Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 Both are manual. I didn't want to try and deal with automatic. I will check those as well, but can't for about a week. Valentine's day is the busiest day of the year where I work... Thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qbert Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 Both are manual. I didn't want to try and deal with automatic. I will check those as well, but can't for about a week. Valentine's day is the busiest day of the year where I work... Thanks guys! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR_Loyale Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Check iac circuit. Any codes thrown? Check the three fuel hoses are correct into throttle body. They are all routed side by side and can easily be accidentally swapped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badair Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Qbert's dad here. The donor car had a busted timing belt so there is no way of knowing if there was any other issues when I bought the car. We kept the donor car's drive train, radiator and exhaust, both are MT. Planning on running with only the elect fan. Donor radiator did not have temp sensor so we used sensor from old radiator. We put teflon tape on the threads. We didn't swap the ECUs. His description of the problem is fairly accurate. Rough idle and throughout RPMs, but "sounds" better above 1500rpm. I was checking things out while it was running, probably for 45minutes. About this time I realized that we had No temp readings or oil pressure readings in dashboard. Certainly my biggest concern is the lack of oil pressure reading, so either we have no oil pressure or there is a problem with the sensor connection. If its an oil pressure problem, I gotta fix that 1st. We put in new seals/orings on oil pump. There are 2 terminals on the oil pump, I've hooked the connector to both of them and there is NO change in reading. Is there something else needed for reading? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 If you really had no oil pressure, the lifters would be making a hell of a clattering. Some EA82 engines used oil pressure senders, big sensor screwed int the pump. Some used just the switch & light, smaller sender. The car harness used the same single wire, to the same place on the instrument cluster connections. So if there is a meter, it should just work by connecting to the big sender. No Teflon tape allowed on the senders.... Maybe check the engine ground wire. I had an idle air control valve fail once, it caused the engine to die when you let go of the throttle, so it's a good idea to check it and the wiring to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjw Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Don't mess with the "idle set screw" on the throttle body. That's not what it is. And adjusting it from its factor setting will only make your problems worse. Are you sure you've set up the timing belts correctly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badair Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 (edited) @DaveTYeah I didn't think there was a prob w/oil pressure because the engine sounded "ok" even though it isn't purring. I'll test the connections again.Coolant sensor - Removed the sensor and removed the teflon tape. reinstalled sensor. GND path - BAT to block is good [wire brushed both ends]. ~16AWG wire from mount under ALT to small fuse block [wire brushed engine end]. ~10AWG wire from Chassis connected to BAT GND terminal [wire brushed both ends]. So I think my GND paths are good. IACV - swapped this with the one from the other engine. It is now idling better, but the backfire at the intake still exists. Sh!t, just realized this has not been mentioned in either of our posts. @markjwIdle screw - no telling if this has ever been adjusted. I have to start with the assumption that it hasn't Timing - We took the covers back off and set the finger on the bell housing at the center of the 3 hash marks and both cams marks teeth were pointed right at the marks on the top of the covers. I also looked at where the rotor is pointing and it looks to be ~120°off from cylinder 1 TDC fire point. I haven't found a post stating where it should be when setting crank to cams. I did give the rotor a shake to see if it might be worn. It all is pretty tight. I did look at the gears when we did the valve cover gasket and it looked good from what I could tell. My guess is the backfire at the intake is now the primary issue. Any suggestions on how to move forward? Edited February 29, 2016 by badair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markjw Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 If the pointer is pointing at the middle hash mark, then the hole in the face of the driver side cam gear should be at the 12 o'clock position when you install the driver side belt. Then rotate the engine over until the hole in the face of the driver side cam is at the 6 o'clock position and the pointer is again at the middle hash mark. Now move to the passenger side cam, position it at the 12 o'clock position and install that belt. When you drop in the distributor, the rotor usually points somewhere towards the back edge of the brake master cylinder for #1 dizzy pole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee2 Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 backfire at the intake could you elaborate ? Backfiring can be a timing problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomRhere Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Timing - We took the covers back off and set the finger on the bell housing at the center of the 3 hash marks and both cams marks teeth were pointed right at the marks on the top of the covers. I also looked at where the rotor is pointing and it looks to be ~120°off from cylinder 1 TDC fire point. I haven't found a post stating where it should be when setting crank to cams. I did give the rotor a shake to see if it might be worn. It all is pretty tight. I did look at the gears when we did the valve cover gasket and it looked good from what I could tell. My guess is the backfire at the intake is now the primary issue. Any suggestions on how to move forward? If I'm reading that right, both cam dots are up. That is the problem. One dot up, other dot down. Follow what markjw posted about T-belt install. Disty timing has different marks on the flywheel marked off with degrees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveT Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 +1 what others wrote about the timing marks. 1 up 1 down is correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR_Loyale Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 (edited) EA82 timing belts are 180 degrees out of phase. This has tripped up folks before. There is a famous youtube video of a guy who took his loyale to Canadian Tire for timing belts. They got it wrong. Oh and for the love of God people, never let the tire place do major engine work. Edited March 1, 2016 by MR_Loyale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firehawk618 Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 For your oil / temp gauge issue. To test simply turn the key on and ground each wire. Your gauge should peg out high with the wire grounded.If it doesn't you have a harness or cluster issue and need more troubleshooting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee2 Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 For your oil / temp gauge issue. To test simply turn the key on and ground each wire. Your gauge should peg out high with the wire grounded. If it doesn't you have a harness or cluster issue and need more troubleshooting. Doesn't that risk damaging the gauges ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firehawk618 Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 Doesn't that risk damaging the gauges ? No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naru Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 For your oil / temp gauge issue. To test simply turn the key on and ground each wire. Your gauge should peg out high with the wire grounded. If it doesn't you have a harness or cluster issue and need more troubleshooting. Doesn't that risk damaging the gauges ? No. Yes it does. You should always have SOME resistance in sender circuits to limit the current. I use a 10 turn potentiometer to check gauge calibrations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badair Posted March 5, 2016 Share Posted March 5, 2016 Just a follow up. We got the timing set CORRECTLY now. Thanks for helping me see that there was still a problem there. I'm so glad for it being a non interfering engine. Soobie is purring normal now . We'll tackle the sensor/sender issue next. I have leaded resistors to do the testing. Will update once we figure out what's going on with it. Thank you all for the guidance. Awesome board members here 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len Dawg Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 Goodtimes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firehawk618 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 (edited) Grounding the gauge temporarily will do absolutely no damage to the gauges in these cars.Simply have someone sit in the car. Ground the wire. You should see the oil gauge start to slowly climb.If you left it grounded permanently then after a great amount of time it could burn out the heated element on the gauge itself. This isn't going to happen in 10 seconds for a simple test.If you want to get all technical then yes one would either figure out the mid range resistance the sending unit puts out and simulate it with a resistor or rig up a potentiometer but I wanted to give the OP a quick and easy test. Yes it does. You should always have SOME resistance in sender circuits to limit the current. I use a 10 turn potentiometer to check gauge calibrations. Edited March 6, 2016 by firehawk618 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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