Major Engine Problems Rendering My Car Useless

car: 1995 Legacy L. JDM EJ25DE, AWD4EAT

 

storyline:

 

 

1. start car - it takes a noticeably few extra cranks than it should from sitting a couple days in the snow
   
2. car idles while i brush snow from windows - from a start, it's fine.. it revvs waaay up for 3-5 seconds then goes back to normal
   
3. warm body in seat - notice a small amount of smoke coming from engine, i thought of it as nothing more than the current exhaust leak from my header
   
4. start to reverse - bald tires i give it a considerable amount of gas to overcome the mound of snow behind me, engine revs higher but car slllooowly increases speed.
   
5. 'Drive' - mobbing throught the snow i didnt notice anything wrong, i finally made it onto a clear main road at a light
   
6. From the light: i give it about 90% throttle and the car starts revving up and down as i accelerate like a turtle, the tach is slowly increasing though as normal - when the tach shows around 3-4krpms, something happens and i take off with heavy acceleration.. i was unaware i had vtec
   

thats been happening alot lately.

 

today after #7 i was at a red light after i'd driven a total of maybe 1 mile, and something happened that sounded like a backfire and my car slowly sputtered to its death, it started, ran, and idles forward albeit slowly but surely without problem but as soon as i hit the gas AT ALL it dies.. had to push it home in the snow.. seeing smoke from the engine.. it wasnt white or thick just exhaust type... and smelling metal type odor faintly as well

 

prior to this i ran a few weeks without a cone or any other filter attached to my maf sensor, it is on now.

 

i have a CEL from the engine swap (PO106) - havent yet checked if there were any others

 

 

im out of a car right now so info wanted!

 

thanks

possible that maybe your maf ceased functioning, and that caused your ecu to misallocate the air fuel mixture....thereby causing massive detonation?

that metal type smell from the smoke sounds like burning coolant. possibly you popped the head gasket.

Might check the CAT. You mentioned an existing leak @ header. You could be building way too much back pressure, which would exaggerate the leak and could cause a number of other issues.

 

Maybe not likely, but another thing to look at if MAF and head gasket check out good. Maybe a combination of things?

Yeah, I was ready to say it was the MAF, but if you are seeing smoke that you didn't see before - and it seems related - then maybe not. But everything else sounds like MAF, so I would definitely look into that.

I bet my life on the MAF sensor. I had the same problems this summer with mine because of an oily K&N cone filter. Try unplugging the MAF and see if it runs any better. If not check fuel pump for pressure.

the plugs, wires and coil came with the motor from tigerjapanese.com in nov/dec of 2008.. so those all no doubt need replacing

 

i had always had that code though since the swap from the old 2.2 to the current 2.5, i thought it was due to not tapping the EGR into the motor when i swapped it... its run fine with it on until recently so im not sure if thats it

 

some more info..

tonight when i turned it on, despite it taking 100000 turns to finally start, it idles for about 5 seconds then dies, upon turning it on, the 'AT Oil Temp' light blinks 16 times..

 

i noticed unusual smoking.. upon inspecting, it appeared to be coming from the front part of the motor as opposed to the heads..although still not overly thick or white.. also after the car died it looked like it may have been coming from under the car as well, near the trans or cat

 

i'm also running on the stock ecu from the 2.2L, unplugged the MAF but again, it died within a few seconds

 

also right as it started sputtering before it died tonight, a 'pop' sounded like it came out of the cone filter.. i thought that was odd

Yep. Most likely, the MAF caused a lean read at the ECM. This caused the compy to add fuel in overabundance. Hence the smoke and slow acceleration. When it WAS able to burn of the pig rich fuel load around 3K or so, that's why your car felt like it had the dual cam profile VTEC pull. Hard to maintain that condition when it's cold out, because our cars are already adding fuel at an advanced rate to warm the engine to optimize drive quality and stay running. Might have also wiped out the governor pressure riser in the trans. Triggered the light... Or the desparity between engine values at the sensors and the trans speed sensor and wheel speed sensors. The lack of EGR may have caused a hemmorage in the intake gasket with the backfore, and loss of vacuum coupled with all other issues may have been the nail in the coffin, so to speak.

http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/attachments/problems-maintenance/12795d1198982464-cel-p0106-79023609.gif

 

This is from the FSM for a P0106. Doesnt sound EGR related.

I'm with hippo on this, I was going to say MAF immediately. But all these problems seem to be from the perfect storm with the MAF and lack of EGR. I doubt the cel has anything to do with the issue though...hope you get her back on the road soon!

I'm with hippo on this, I was going to say MAF immediately. But all these problems seem to be from the perfect storm with the MAF and lack of EGR. I doubt the cel has anything to do with the issue though...hope you get her back on the road soon!

 

Its gotta be the MAF and having the wrong ECU. The code has to do with the pressure sensor on the pass side strut tower.

 

Too bad you sold your other car, because you could have switched them to see if it made a difference.

My bad, didn't see the link for the code Damn, I missed that you were running a stock ecu too...it's just not my day haha.

check you codes, the maf will throw a TCU bcode as well as a obd2 code. a TCU code will cause the AT Temp light to flash 16 times.

I'm with Johnegg on this one...believe it's directly related to the MAF and secondarily to the 2.2 ECU running/monitoring input/output measures. But, thought that OBD-II didn't start until the 1996 MY in Subarus???

subaru went obd2 in 95. the gov't required it in 96.

Interesting - my 95 OBS didn't have OBD-II but my 96 does.

well the 95 legacys got it . maybe because they were built in the us.

aight guys, i'll pick up a new MAF... too bad i JUST sold my parts car..

 

any thoughts on a clogged/shot cat or fouled plugs? ive also heard of those possibilities

Dont you have a new high flow magnaflow cat? When was the last time you did plugs, if it has been more than 20k I would go buy new NGKs and throw them in there.

no, i had some emissions argument and decided to sell it and keep sotck cats..

 

the plugs, wires, coil, fuel filter.. all of that is the same as it came on the block from tigerjapanese when i put it in.. so its definitely not going to hurt replacing them... oil is almost due and tranny fluid hasnt been changed since the motor swap

 

this was in nov/de. 2008 i think

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