No get up and go now !

[usps]

    Hello looking for some help from the pros. I'll first give you a little run down of how this all started. My wife is a mail carrier and we currently have two RHD Subaru's that she runs on her route . Earlier this summer her 1997 Subaru Legacy wagon 2.2 burnt a valve. I took the car to a local veteran Subaru mechanic and he replaced the bad head and new gasket on the other head as well as it was seeping antifreeze. On the return of my car I noticed a loss of bottom end power , kinda like when a knock sensor goes bad . No CEL , but I changed the knock sensor anyway, no change . It seems the majority of the time to have very little bottom end power until you start to get it wound out then takes off like crazy. I also thought maybe timing so checked that and it is on . Took it back to the mechanic and he feels its a shifting issue , not going into low so he only focused on shifting and transmission related things. I personally think engine , especially since that is what I had worked on originally. To me when I drive it you can pull it down into 1st and it goes in but no power until you wind it out a while . Could valve adjustment be an issue ? Also dropped the Y pipe to be sure there was no restriction at the cat. Any input would be appreciated as I need to get this back on the road before winter. Thanks in advance.

[1 Lucky Texan]

triple check cam/crank timing - do a tooth count after lining the marks up.

 

still no codes, pending codes? scan the ECU and post codes here.

 

maybe double check for loose ground wires/connectors.

 

vacuum gauge testing might help - 2-3 things it can locate, cheap/easy, do a search.

 

to me, you're wise to suspect the engine work - but anything could fail on an older car. Fluid change and TRans-X additive might help the tranny.

Edited September 19, 2016 by 1 Lucky Texan

[usps]

Okay so I ran the scanner on the car again and no codes pending or confirmed. I also did a vacuum test and at idle had a steady 19 in. of vacuum. Then at about 2000 rpm it leveled out at 20 in. vacuum. I will try and check the timing again when I get a chance to pull the covers off the front of the engine , may be a couple of days till I get to that. As far as tranny I generally run seafoam trans tune prior to a fluid change and I do change the fluid regularly. I would be glad to change the tranny if I knew there was something wrong with it but I'm not sold on that yet.  Also I did not see any ground wires off but I'll do some more looking there as well. Just curious can a knock sensor pick up excessive valve noise  ?

[Fairtax4me]

If it started doing this immediately after engine work, then it's most likely engine related, not transmission.

 

I would guess a broken or loose vacuum hose, or one of the breather or PCV hoses isn't connected quite right, or the ends split down at the valve cover.

Timing could be off as well. Sometimes the marks don't line up quite right with those plastic covers.

 

Knock sensor won't respond to valve noise unless something is physically wrong with the sensor. Bolt too tight, corroded element, etc.

[usps]

Alright ,First I apologize for the slow update to my problem. I decided to tear into the problem by first checking the timing since to me that seemed to be the culprit. I tore all the covers off the front of the engine and thought I'd check to see if it was actually in time . Upon trying to roll the engine to the timing marks by turning one of the cam pullys, the belt jumped a cog , so there went the idea of checking it first. At this point I just proceeded in completely starting over and also decided to replace the belt tensioner while I was at it since it seemed to jump a cog very easy. I ended up checking the belt , to be sure it was right, repairing a couple stripped holes with helicoils and putting everything back together with the new tensioner . This process seemed to fix the loss of power problem I had , but I can see where the mechanic thought it may be a shifting issue . I had replaced the transmission in the car a couple years back and it has never shifted as well as it had before. Of course I believe this was amplified by the loss of power problem . The shifting issue seems to be a little worse now and i'm not sure if this is because the mechanic focused so much on that and tinkered with everything related to that. The car seems hard to get to downshift when you need it to , you really have to tromp it sometimes to get it to downshift into first. The other shifting issue is that when you take off it shifts through first then second then third then drive almost immediately after third too soon and figures it out and downshifts back to third briefly . All the gears seem to be strong just the radical shifting and the problem getting it to downshift quick enough. Its like it just waits to long to decide to downshift and sometimes I'll pull it back manually. Thanks for all your help this far and if you have any suggestions on this shifting issue they will be greatly appreciated. 

[crazyhorse001]

Your shifting issue and to a lesser extent the power issue sounds to be throttle position sensor (tps) related. I'm not sure of the setting procedure on a legacy, so hopefully someone will chime in. I do know to check one an analog meter works better than a digital. Checking for smooth transition of resistance thru the travel of the sensor.

 

I'm glad you found the timing tensioner issues at home. Thats always a bear to have happen on the road!

[RC Pilot]

I am betting that the initial issue was a a cam out of time.

 

For the shifting issue, is there any mechanical ( tv cable ) from the throttle linkage to the trans? If so, it probably needs adjusted. If, looking into the TPS sensor as CH001 stated.