More probs - cly 2 misfire/fuel smell

[Pennyless]

So, I have about 1000KM on the motor now and it has developed a cylinder 2 misfire code. I clear it and it comes back in a few hundred km. It seems to be doing it more during times where I let the car idle. The engine is running smooth and it pulls extremely hard and smooth. It's and 05 LGT, gtspec uel, cnt catted down pipe, k&n intake, ej255 cp pistons and cobb stage 2.

 

I was freaking out because it jumped timing about 400km ago but the cylinder I would have expected to be damaged is not the one that is throwing the code.

 

I'm getting a fuel smell from the engine area if I sit and idle. Idle seems smooth most of the time but it will go into a rough idle every now and then. I've been looking for the source of the fuel smell but I have no idea where it's at. I thought it may be a filler neck at first because I have had that issue on several subies but I'm thinking it has to be fuel delivery that is leaking. Maxpower said to check the fuel lines under the intake when it was apart. Everything seems tight....no idea how I'm going to find the leak.

 

I'm getting really tired of working on this car....it's pretty much all I have done for the last 3 months.

[jenzos]

When I put my motor in I had a misfire from 1 & 3. Doing some basic tracing, I saw that the fuel lines were bent right where they start to head into the intake manifold area. Shake those lines around and ensure there is no bends.

 

Check your injectors make sure they are seated properly and there is no issues with the rail. Luckily Cylinder 2 is the easiest to get to and visually see.

 

While your there, switch coilpacks & check spark plug. Are you on a protune or just OTS cobb tune? Sometimes tunes can get whacky over time.

 

I have had to troubleshoot misfires for the past few weeks so I feel your pain.

[Pennyless]

I can't nail down the fuel smell. It seems to be worse when I fill the tank but I don't see anything leaking.

 

I pulled the plug from cyl 2 and switched it with cyl 4 as well as switching cyl 2 coil pack with a spare I had laying around. If it comes out of it, it was the coil pack. If it switches to cyl 4 then I have a bad plug.

 

The car is just OTS stage 2. It seems to work great other than the misfire code every once and awhile. The A/F's look great IMO. The bottom end makes one hell of a racket....kinda like most subaru's. I don't know if it's just the forged cp's or they messed something up on the build. I'm so past caring, it doesn't matter. I'm pretty much at selling the fleet and buying a new truck.

[Pennyless]

Well, that didn't work. I guess it's compression test and injector swapping.

[Max Capacity]

You did tighten all the gas line clamps under the intake manifold when it was apart, right ?

[Pennyless]

I tightened some under the intake when I had it off for the motor build but after some reading I think I will chase a couple tonight from the top to see if that works. If I ever have the chance to meet the engineer that designed all the plumbing on this thing, I swear I will knock him down and kick him in the teeth. I have never chased so many leaks!!!!

 

It has been extremely cold out so I have been parking in my heated shop. The place reeked of gas this morning but my fuel consumption seems down. I'm now pretty sure it's one of the hoses but I just have to find which one.

 

I'm wondering if the leak is the cause of the odd cylinder 2 misfire. Mine only misfires at idle it seems. Pretty much everything is brand new.

[Pennyless]

Well, for the people interested, I did a little more trouble shooting on the misfire. I have been using the AP to watch cylinder roughness. It seems to be happening just every now and then. It seems to be worse at idle. Sometimes the car idles smooth as glass and sometimes I stop and it's skipping pretty good on cylinder 2.

[Pennyless]

I swapped the cylinder 2 and 4 injectors. I drove to work tonight(about 20 mins) with mixed driving. I went from many cylinder misfires on cyl 2 to just 1. Cyl 4 is now misfiring with the old cyl 2 injector.

 

I think I would just like to get a complete set of good used injectors.

[Th3Franz]

You may want to consider sending out the injectors for a thorough cleaning (ultrasonic).

[Pennyless]

Well, I think I found the second oil leak. The first one was the "S" shaped hose that comes from the top of the block and goes to the valve covers. That leak soaked the top of the motor and ran down behind the turbo to the cross member and oil pan. I cleaned it up but it was still leaving puddles. When I cleaned it again, I noticed the dip stick tube was a bit wet. I unbolted the dip stick and replaced the 2 O-rings with new ones from a generic kit I have. It snapped in good this time but when I tried to bolt it to the block I had to kinda bend it around the AVCS line for the bolt to fit.

 

I'm pretty sure the oil was blowing back on the crossmember making me think it was coming from the back of the block.

 

I pulled the intake off AGAIN and tightened the rest of the fuel lines. I wish I had remembered to do them all like MAX had told me too when I had the motor apart. I know everything is tight now but the weather warmed up so I'm not sure I found the leak.

 

I put seafoam into the tank and after the injector switch, I have not had a code yet and the cars runs smoother than ever.

[greensuberine]

I'm a new user so I'm not sure if this is where I should start this post but the instructions said to do it this way I think.

 

Here is the short of the problem. I have an 02 legacy with 100k non turbo and it had a nasty knock. So I noticed that the #4 injector wasn't seating as far down as the rest of them so I took a metal bar and bent the fuel rail down and now it seats like the rest and the knock is much improved. It actually runs pretty good right now but I want to still make it better.

 

I have two questions that I can figure out that maybe someone can help me with: 1) Is there a fuel rail upgrade or retrofit that I can use on this old car.

2) Is there a good diagram that shows the optimal depth the injectors should be at.

 

I can't find any fuel rails other than stock for this car. It seems like the stock rails have a fair amount of variability in that they apparently bend easily.

[Max Capacity]

I don't think there's much for that gen car, check out the 3rd Gen forum.

 

Good Luck.

[Mitchell]

What your describing happened to me a month ago after doing my headgaskets. I hadn't seated the injectors properly. I could hear a vacuum leak sound coming from them at idel. After trying to drive the car I would get misfires and smell gas in the cabin. Makes sense the boost pressure was spraying air and gas out of the seal and not into the cylinder.

 

I reseated them a million times eventually had to put another o-ring in there to shim the seat kinda. No more leaks for another 5k miles no missfires even under full boost. No gas smell.

 

I really had to mess with them. I think the part that holds the buckets the injectors sit in bent at some point and wasnt pressing down all the way. Tonight Ill be taking my manifold off and verifying everything again.

 

Good luck.

[Mitchell]

Follow up to my last post:

 

Everything I had guessed turned out to be right. Took the manifold off and created my own injector seals. I had found the ones I installed to be cracked and not seating correctly. There was a noticeable hiss (the sound of air being sucked in, typical vac leak) from the injectors before. Now at idle its dead quite. No more fuel smell in boost.

 

It's unlikely you need to remove you manifold. I did to make things """"easier""'" but if you have some needle nose pliers, a pick, a hook, and some finesse, you can probably just unbolt the rail and slide the seals in and out.