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I have decided its time I pull my finger out & fix my engines misfire. It has been given new plugs every service but still has the original coil pack & leads. I was gonna get new leads & look at those iridium plugs but remembered about a coil conversion? Can someone please tell me whats involved & of course the costs lol. I'm guessing it will use different leads so i'll hold off on doing that till I know more.

Also what do people think of these iridium plugs? Worth the extra cost?

Anything else I should do? It misses noticeably at low rpm & is I think a fair bit down on power from what it should be. Plus it doesnt get the fuel economy that others have reported despite my (usually lol) conservative driving.

EDIT: I have a '98 Forester with a EJ20 NA engine, 160,000kms, regular servicing

I would do the spark plugs and wires. I went to repco and got bosch wires/leads and used what the owners manual recommended for spark plugs. NGK then the model specified in the book.

I cant help with the ignition coil pack. start there and then look into the coil pack if need be. also look and see if you have oil on your spark plug wires. if so you may need to replace your valve cover seals. oil leaking down can cause cylinder misfire.


My wires/leads cost me $120 and the plugs were about $4 each from memory.

Taza

Yep, ngk irridium plugs.
no idea about coil.
leads, as low tension as you can.
Try Subaru upper engine cleaner, that does wonders. And might just fix your problem.

Cheers Cam

Cam, just did upper engine cleaner, loads white smoke. Put in a new air filter at the same time. I'm a bit reluctant to do it again after all the probs Taza had after he did his.

The only oil leak anywhere is where the oil filler attaches & its only minor. Took the closest lead off, inside was clean enough to eat off!

Just checked vacuum hoses, all look like new.

Where is the fuel filter? I might replace that too. Does it have just one or is there a large EFI filter plus one of those cheap plastic ones?

The white smoke is a goo thing. I had heaps of it too, means heaps of carbon has been cleared out.
My issue with using UEC is that it had made my burning oil (valve stem seals most likely) worse. I have gone through 10l o oil in 5000km. But for now I can live ith topping up the oil every 3 days until I fix it next year.

I also read that any kind of engne cleaner can bring out the little problems more in engines. I.E make them worse, so im guessing thats why my foz is burning oil like no tomorrow

Has doing any ofthat helped your foz Matt?

I'm worried that removing the carbon deposits from areas like rings will increase wear. Old engines get into a pattern of use & if you change that use I've always believed it can increase wear

Do you know where the fuel filter is? I cant find it

^^ Well the damage could already be done, like with my foz You said you used the SUEC right?

Has it helped though doing what you have done?

The fuel filter is near the washer fluid bottle. Google Image it for an idea, it s too hard to copying a link while using my phone otherwise I would give you a link;)

Also a Hayens Subaru Forester Manual is handy to have, I got a used one on ebay. Its great for referring to for bits and pieces

Taza

OK thanks Taza I'll have a look tomorow.

How much did you pay for your manual? You're right, I need to get one.

Apart from the smoke I havent noticed any change at all since using the SUEC

Matt, do a search on the forum for the coil pack conversion.

Andrew T mentions the part numbers here. But no details as how to do it - I'm not even sure if you need to be told how to do it or if it will be plain obvious once you've got the new coils.

So far I've had two part numbers come up: HEC716 and MEC716 here

Hope this helps!

Cheers

Bennie

Decided not to do a coil conversion...

Put in Iridium plugs

Got new leads but the 2 right angle boots dont fit all the way on. So I checked out 2 other brands...same deal. So I called Subaru for a price on genuine...$36...EACH!

Many & varied swear words later, I still don't know what I'm gonna do. Worst thing was the Bosch set were a nice blue, not the boring black


Fuel filter done, couldn't remove the rubber fuel lines so I just cut em off & put new ones on lol


Has anyone else had the boot problem?

Finally tracked down a set of NGK leads from Bursons, RC-FX49.

They were the only ones that fit my EJ20J ('97 engine)

Plus they're a pretty blue

Hey mate where you get them from?I'm having trouble finding non genuine with the places i know?

I got em from Bursons. hers a list of their stores in Qld:
http://www.burson.com.au/allstores/Stor ... Queensland

They were $95 but I haggled em down to $80 lol

The ones that fitted my EJ20J coil were RC-FX49 but if you have a EJ201 then it will prob be different. Are the leads where they attach to the coil 2x straight + 2x right angle? or all straight?

nachaluva wrote:The ones that fitted my EJ20J coil were RC-FX49 but if you have a EJ201 then it will prob be different. Are the leads where they attach to the coil 2x straight + 2x right angle? or all straight?

I thought yours was EJ201... Mines EJ202

Nup, EJ20J. Build date is Nov '97. Compliance plate says engine EJ20J, plus matches with parts for it. Very old EJ lol

nachaluva wrote:Nup, EJ20J. Build date is Nov '97. Compliance plate says engine EJ20J, plus matches with parts for it. Very old EJ lol

Oh ok. I wonder if they changed to the EJ201 in the mid 1st gens?? coz mines EJ202. I think on paper I have 2Kw more than you but I doubt its even noticable.

taza wrote:Oh ok. I wonder if they changed to the EJ201 in the mid 1st gens?? coz mines EJ202. I think on paper I have 2Kw more than you but I doubt its even noticable.

I think it changed mid '98.

You have 2KW more? I knew it was more powerful

Now I nee that blower more than ever lol

Bumping this up with my learnings from a bit of reading.

Was looking to repalce the plugs in my 2000 Forester (EJ202) and noticed the owners manual specified different gaps for different plugs, I couldn't quite work this out. After closer inspection I discovered the different gapping was for cars with and without catalytic converters.

NGK BKR6E .8mm (no cat)
Campion RC10YC4 1.1mm (with cat)
NGK PFR6B .8mm (turbro)

The service manual specifies

Type and manufacturer
NGK BKR6E (no cat)
Champion RC10Y (with cat)
NGK BKR5E-11 (with cat)
Thread size mm 14, P = 1.25
Spark gap mm (in)
0.7 — 0.8 mm (0.028 — 0.031 in) (NA no cat)
1.0 — 1.1 mm (0.039 — 0.043 in) (NA with cat)

I thought it was interesting that the cars with cats have a bigger gap spacified, any ideas why this is? I would have thought if the ignition system can handle 1.1mm gaps it would be the specification for all varients. Has anyone else looked into this?