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Talking to a mechanic about my idle issue he came up with the idea that it may be related to the hydrolic lifters. He said that it probably isn't my fuel pump since every time I blib the throttle I get response. He also didn't feel like it was my battery or alternator (although i do plan on changing those soon.)

Ive changed just about everything aside form the batter/alt and the fuel pump (and any sensor that may be causing it).

So basically I'm just digging for info. How would a car react if it had some lifters or just a single lifter starting to go bad?

Do you hear clacking from them? They pump up with oil to adjust valve lash to 0, but when they have air in them there will be a small gap between the valve and lifter and will make the clacking noise.

Steve

I wouldn't think malfunctioning lifters could cause a bad idle without making the engine run even worse when off idle... but that's just my intuition.

Nope, no valve clacking. The engine is very normal sounding. It usually will act up after freeway jaunt or after some heavy driving, but not always, it is very random. I'll be sitting there at a light the engine will act like it will miss every once in a while and kind of lope at idle. Sometimes it almost acts like the car will die but it never does.

The other two problems it has which I'm pretty sure is related is that during heavy driving sometimes when I go to downshift by double clutching I hit hte gas to rev match and I hear a small pop in the exhaust as I just start to gas it up. I will also randomly hear a pop as the rpms drop while I'm shifting.

I'm pretty sure all those are related to the same problem. I just don't know what it is yet.

I know I say this whenever I hear about an idling problem, but have you checked for vacuum leaks?

Yeah I have, but I probably should go over it again a little more thoroughly. Thanks for the reminder.

The exhaust pop is quite normal for hard driving conditions switching between high boost back to no throttle and back again. It is completely unrelated. Have you tried resetting the ECU?

Yes, I have reset the ecu. On a preliminary vacuum check i noticed that the line going to the under side of the small intake resonator was broken off. I was hoping that would fix it. It did help, but didn't fix the idle issue.

Did you reset the ECU after reattaching that hose?

IAC clean and everything?

Yep, and yep.

I'm convinced that SOMETHING is wrong with my car. I have confirmed that it is quite a bit slower than it should be. I went to a drag race today. I didn't do as good as I expected. My reaction times were great but I could never get any faster than 17.6. My car normally has driven faster, but today it went back to not pulling very hard and pretty much idling bad at just about every time I was idling. I really wish i had a boost gauge.

I'll post more about the race in another post.

There's something seriously wrong - that's slower than my N/A.

Steve

Cross post about the race

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic. ... 9745#59745

Thawa thought he could hear a little lifter tap from my engine, and I'll admit I hear it too, but it isn't anything serious I don't think. It really isn't that loud at all. You really have to listen for it, and it is probably normal. At least all the other subaru's I've owned have been louder.

I'm not sure if this is should be posted here, but to keep it on my post from earlier, and since it has been talked about before.....

driving around today I floored my car and I could feel it act normal, not normal (low boost), normal, not normal.......

It did this all on one run as I was accellerating. It finally stabalized at normal and pulled pretty hard from 5500 right up to red line faster than I expected. So I'm thinking that my boost problem isn't so much a stuck open wastegate as much as a sticky one. I still haven't tested it with just the green connectors (i've been out of town all week). But I will do that soon.

-Ryan

Are you sure the boost enhancement plate isn't interfering at all with your wastegate's operation?

Yeah I'm pretty sure. I made good and sure that it wasn't catching on anything when I put it in there. I was having problems making it fit until my brother saw that I needed to shave off some parts with a dremmel near a couple of the mounting holes. Besides, if it was that, you wouldn't think that it would be going back and forth during one floored session, right? Or are you thinking that I'm experiencing boost creep of some kind? I wasn't hitting fuel cut at all. That and I think I've felt it before I put the exhaust on but didn't notice it as much since it was before I was trying to diagnose the problem, but I can't be too sure on that one.

Yeah, I agree it probably wouldn't go back and forth that way. I'm just throwing out ideas.

It could still be the solenoid, though...

Do you have the ability to run the scan tool?

I do actually. I am going to download you new version and drive it around later.

Ok, well driving it for the short trip to the gas station I found it to be driving normal again (normal being the way it is sappose to be driven.) It was hitting 7psi in first, and it fluctuated from 8.3 to 9.03 psi in second and third. It pretty much stayed around 8.9 with spikes up to 9.03. That is the best I could notice from the drivers position. I haven't checked the green connector thing yet, but it wouldn't have done anything right now since the car was getting full boost. Once it starts acting up again I should have more updates, but I'm thinking it is just a sticky wastegate solenoid.

Yeah, it does sound like it's sticking... Try cleaning it with carb cleaner while it's cycling with the ignition on in test mode (but with the engine not running).

Do your vacuum hoses all have the correct dimensions and are they all in good shape?

All the hoses are "flexable" and look to be in decent shape. I do hope to change them out eventually. I'd like to change all the lines in the engine bay. The vacuum lines aren't that bad.

When I spray this thing with carb cleaner, do I need to spray it in a particular line? Does it matter, can I hurt anythying?

How long did you wait for it to dry out?

-Ryan

The hoses are all stock? And the bleed hose contains the restrictor? And you have the union fitting between the compressor outlet and the solenoid?

I sprayed primarily into the top fitting (since that's normally the inlet) but also into the other two, letting the stuff flow out the others.

I actually then hooked up just the top line and went for a short very careful drive, gingerly going mildly on boost to blow all the cleaner and grease out. After a couple of several-second-long boost runs I hooked the other two hoses back up.

Would fuel injection cleaner work as well as carb cleaner? All lines are stock.

If you mean the aerosol stuff that's sold next to the carb cleaner, I think it would be fine. The only difference between carb cleaner and fuel injection cleaner, as far as I know, is that fuel injection cleaner is rated to be safe for cats and oxygen sensors.

sounds exactly like when I had leaks in my intake manifold gasket. It's probably worth your time to pull the manifold off and check (takes about 1 hr). BOTH my gaskets were deteriorating in the same place, perhaps due to oil exposure. Anyways, yeah, I had pretty much the identical problem...

hmm, interesting. I tried to spray starting fluid down there and I didn't hear any difference in the idle of the engine.