Infosecdad

You can do it! Maybe I'll try to visit my in-laws up in Louisville sometime and swing by

Basically, yes. I had a 5 sec event where it bogged and considered reverting back to it's old ways, but that cleared quickly. I've sent an email to Deatschwerks asking about o-rings, but haven't heard back yet. Now I'm fighting a vacuum or exhaust leak (I think). I've never had values this far off. I'm leaning toward exhaust leak since I've had issues in the past from the manifold to the up-pipe and I had to disconnect all that for the valve cover replacement. Work has just been crazy busy and I haven't driven a lot, so I haven't tried to seriously troubleshoot yet. Hoping to be able to this weekend after all the yard work and house ToDos.

Couple of things. First, and easier answer about the pink shaded square is in the manual: https://www.btssm.com/manual.html On to your power issues. I struggled with this a bit as well. I went through a couple different OTG cables and a couple different power convertors until I found a stable setup. There is a lot of junk electronics on the market that look good, but just aren't. In the end, I also installed a kill switch on the side of the console because I think my power was still a high enough trickle to keep the tablet from deep sleep. Before I did that I could have it drain in <2 days. Now it's usually only around 6-8% a day. Also, if it helps, here are the gauges I run with most typically. I'll rotate some out depending on what I'm troubleshooting. Little tip, on the field chooser screen there is a little green bar at the top, that's your gauge/logging capacity. Too many parameters and it struggles, just keep that bar from filling up. I'm at about 85% I think.

It’s mostly -10 to -14 now. If the AC kicks on, it moves to -3 or so for a few seconds. Engine braking downhill is almost zero. I checked all the connections, haven’t found anything yet. Might reset the ECU and relearn, just to see I had put the intake snorkel (piece between the box and radiator) on in the middle of the learning cycle last time and I wonder if that confused it.

300 miles and she is purring like a happy kitten. 0 misfires, not even a stray one. LV is high in A, I suspect I have a slight vacuum leak after tearing it down and putting it back together so many times. Not really worried about it at the moment, will check it out when I get home. Got 26mpg at 78mph, probably some of the best gas mileage I've gotten at that speed. Idle is buttery smooth. I'm not even noticing the previous stubble/hesitation that I had fought for a couple years. We'll see how long it lasts, but dang, I'm going to enjoy it right now :-D

I've been told they do, but I'm pretty sure it won't be a full set for $15 :-D As I was sitting down for the night, I had a thought. The misfire on #1 now shouldn't be the injector o-ring at this point, I had addressed that. Checking yet again, I realized that I had swapped the coils between #3 and #1 when I did the valve cover. On a hail mary (so I wouldn't have to go to the dealer so early) I replaced the new coil with one of my spare coils. Fired it up, no misfires. WTH? that was a new coil... Decided that was pretty much par for the course at this point. I went for a drive, she drove so smoothly. 20 mins of driving back roads 20-60mph, not a single misfire. Brought her back to the garage, let her idle for 10 min, no misfire. So to bring this all to summation... I had multiple issues. 1. I had tired and leaking o-rings between my intake manifold and TGVs (intermittent misfires on multiple cylinders) 2. I had tired and leaking o-rings on two of my injectors (continuous misfires on two cylinders) 3. I had a "new" coil that was misbehaving (continuous misfires on one cylinder) I also learned that at 196k miles that the exhaust valve clearance on #3 was still perfect. Happy to learn that. Also learned that the tiniest of details can muck with your mind multiple times (valve cover gasket)... Going to drive her for 4.5hrs tomorrow. Hoping and praying she runs just as smoothly as she did tonight.

Ok, so I finally have a sealed valve cover gasket! Got her up to operating temps and coolant burped, no leaks (other than other things that are old). Burned off all the spilled oil of the exhaust after about 10 min. I think I would have sat down and cried if it had leaked on the 5th try. So I got that done. Check Btssm and find #3 quiet as a lamb and #1 continuously misfiring... I'm pretty sure it's the o-rings at this point. So I'm going to be waiting at the dealer at 7:30 in the morn when the parts department opens. I know I'll pay more for them, but I really, really want to drive my car tomorrow afternoon when I have to take a 4.5hr drive to the in-laws. And I want to be doubly sure I get the right sizes.

I think I figured out why I had failed the previous 4 times. On the fifth attempt I just barely noticed that when sliding the cover back down, the cam bracket likes to just bump the gasket out of the track on the bottom side. It's hidden from me unless I feel up there and I simply missed it the previous times. I tried several times and just didn't have the clearance to get it past without dislodging the gasket. I pulled the exhaust manifold to gain better access to that side. Finally figured out I could get it past the exhaust cam, then from the underside, reseat the gasket. After a bit of fighting, double checking, checking again, I tightened everything down just til the ultra black started to show. In the middle of waiting an hour before torquing to spec. While waiting, I decided to redo all the exhaust connections on the manifold. Took it all apart, cleaned it up, added some ultra copper to it. Now waiting for that hour to elapse as well. I should be working on the class I have to teach Wed, but I can't think clearly while this was hanging over my head. Gonna go torque down the valve cover, put the rest back together, torque the exhaust, grab some dinner and work late on my class. Hoping and praying I finally got it this time... Will find out tomorrow evening after the 24hrs is up..

I have two half-moons, but they aren't the source of the leak (waterfall). The two areas marked in red is/was where it was leaking. The smaller area on the right/near the front is good now. It only leaked when I tried spreading the RTV too thin. The larger area, I can't seal for the life of me. It's not coming from the half moons in the back, but just pouring out of the bottom edge there. I have a suspicion that the "quick dry" RTV is actually drying too quickly. I have some Ultra Black now (and a rental car). At some point, I'll tear it down for a 5th time and clean it up. I will try to see if I am going to try the same "new" valve cover gasket again or if I'm going back to the dealer for another one.

I'm at a loss... I can't figure how what's happening. Was extra careful to double check everything clean, good bead of RTV all the way around. Follow the FSM to the letter for bolt tightening sequence. Let it sit overnight (even thought it's supposed to cure in 5 min). ... Start it this morning, oil just start pouring out of the bottom side of the cover... ... Sigh. Well, gonna have to go get a rental car for the week. Going to get another new gasket from the dealer in the chance that the first was is defective. Get some Ultra Black Try again at the end of the week. I've never even come close to having an issue like this with valve covers before.

Trying for the fourth time. Praying that this does it, letting it sit overnight because it doesn't do any good to test any earlier than that. If it doesn't work in the morning, then I have to call it for a week and get a rental. I have too much going on next week to fight this.

Third try, half succeeded. I’m using the fast ultra grey, sets in 5 min. First time I spaced using any, hadn’t needed to on previous Subarus. Second time, I went all the way around, but too thin. Third time, did it to FSM spec, and am leaking out of an area that isn’t marked for RTV. Guess I’m going to go all the way around on the fourth try.... It takes me about 60-90 min to get it all cleaned up for each try.

:spin: 0/2 on attempts to seal the passenger side valve cover... I'm doing something wrong on the bottom edge, it's like there is not even a seal there. I'm being very careful to slide it in and fit it. Tighten in the FSM sequence... still no joy. Gonna take a break, drink a cup of coffee, and try again...

I may have screwed up more than just the RTV judging by how fast that oil poured out. Guess I'm doing an oil change now as well :-D I picked up some quick ultra grey, so hopefully that does it. Gonna smoke/stink for a bit with all the oil on the exhaust. I'm going to go to DW740s one day, I worry about pushing these stockers to 100% DC from time to time. Really, really want to get this valve cover on and sealed because I'm dying to know if I finally figured it out.

I've used either synthetic grease or motor oil to lube the o-rings on the injectors. I've swapped so many injectors that I ran out of grease. I'm fairly certain it was a lower o-ring on injectors that were causing the flooding. I think because most of my injectors are older, so the lower o-rings have shrunk. And on many of my injectors, it's enough to not seal well. I tried burping the coolant this morning, and had no misfires for the 3 min running. But I found that I didn't get the valve cover sealed correctly and dumped a quart of oil on the garage floor. So... When I get a break, I'll figure out what I need to do for the valve cover. I also have new lower o-rings coming tomorrow if needed.

I'm running on the theory that the lower o-ring isn't sealing on the injector and is flooding the cylinder. That would explain the horrid gas mileage, unburned fuel, backfiring, etc. I picked the injector that had the best looking lower o-ring and installed it. I also swapped the coil and plug between #1 & #3 just for fun. If that doesn't do it, I'll get a new lower o-ring just to be sure, since all my injectors are older. Once this is fixed, it's time for an oil change as well. On a side note, I like the cooling of the Mishimoto radiator; but the extra width is a PAIN. To pull the timing cover off to rotate the cams to the right place, I had to remove the fan. To remove the fan, I had to pull the upper radiator hose. A bunch of coolant drained later, I finally was able to pull the valve cover. Kids had to go to bed, so I couldn't test it tonight (the blessing and curse of Stromung) Will have to try it in the morning. As frustrating as it was to find that the exhaust valve clearance was perfect, I'm really glad I don't have to replace buckets right now.

Yup. Got to put it back together. Then going back after the injector

:spin: exhaust valve clearance on #3 is perfect. :spin:

I'll try to get some decent pictures and post them here. I'm getting way too good at tearing down that side of my engine bay to get to the engine...

I do... I plan to scope through the plug and the injector when I get into it next and see if I can find anything with the scope.

I worked on her for a number of hours yesterday/last night. I have most of the misfires from #1 gone. I had to replace the "cleaned/flow tested a year ago" injector with one of my older ones and it cleared up. The only time #1 misfires now is when I have a decent amount of load and #3 is mad. I'm pretty sure it's essentially sympathy pains bleeding over. I thought I found the issue when I found that the clip is busted on the #3 injector wiring plug. However, that wasn't it. I pulled the spark plug that is almost new to find that the gap was significantly less than .031. Re-gapped it, didn't make a difference. Redid the connector for #3, the pins for the coil definitely fit tight now, no change. The behavior now is that it will be running rough and sometimes registering misfire at idle. Most of the misfires are registered under load, even though it's running rough most of the time now. However, I can make a 5 min stop and when I get back out she runs perfectly for a while before returning to rough. Gas smell in the exhaust is strong, minor backfires, definitely not cleanly burning in that cylinder. After messing with it, definitely more consistently dogging and misfiring from #3. I picked up valve cover gaskets from the dealer. I'm going to reseat #3 injector one more time. And I think I'm going to pull valve cover and measure the exhaust valve clearance. I can't decide if I'm hoping this is it or not...

I do. But I don't know why it would be intermittent... I haven't found a decent explanation as to why valve clearance would be so intermittent and flip on and off like a switch and on two cylinders.

Spark plugs are new. 93 Shell or Costco Did a compression/leakdown a while ago, don't remember the numbers, but they were fine. I pulled the fuel pump, replaced the o-rings and filter. Put it all back together, no difference. Tested the fuel pressure, it's perfect at 43psi at idle and seems to be in the right ranges when revving. I've pulled the front O2 to force it into open loop to see if it's a sensor that's killing it, and it still has the issue (just doesn't record the misfires). Pulling the MAF really ticks it off, doesn't really want to idle then. I've thought about the coolant sensor, but I think we only have one on these cars and it seems to be spot on for temps. I've also thought about TGVs messing up, the sensors read good though. I need to drive it for 600 mile round trip next week, so trying to figure this out. It's not messed up all the time, just sometimes. When it goes, you can feel it; even without misfires. You can feel a "switch" thrown, and she starts bogging down and running rough. Under load misfires in #3 and sometimes #1 is in-sync with it. Then you can be driving and the "switch" flips again and she is liquid smooth. For the life of me I haven't figured out how to nail this down without firing more of a parts cannon at it...

Look to the left of your post. <—- you had 8 as of this reply.

Still pretty frustrated. Can't figure out what exactly is causing this. It's now coming and going multiple times in a trip. Can be smooth, then rough; once it's rough and there is any load I get a pile of misfires. Usually just #3, but if I push it at all (like uphill), then I can get #1 and #3 to misfire in sync. Thoughts about it are: - TGVs: Maybe they are doing something to mess up that bank? Not sure if there is much they can do, might do a delete anyway. - Fuel Pressure Damper: They could impact the rail on that side. I checked mine and they seem to be ok, tried adjusting them, but hasn't seemed to make a difference yet. - Fuel pump: I'm starting to wonder if my fuel pump is having an issue. I replaced the stock with a AEM 50-1000 in May 2017. I don't think I did a double o-ring, but not sure. It's been fine for a long time, might try testing the fuel pressure. The thought is if it's losing pressure or dying, then #3 is last in line and doesn't get what it should; then if I push it and demand more, #1 has issue as well and it's the second to last injector. - Coil Harness Plug: Pretty sure this is not it, I've double checked them three times, and the behavior of it going 1 & 3 if pushed when rough also pretty much rules this out.