Time to change timing belts

Well, it's time (past due actually) to change the timing belts on my two 'rus, 99L and 00OBS, both 2.2. I was going to see if anyone here had any advice before I order the parts and dig in.

I was looking at the instructions on ravensblade impreza, I notice there are a few special tools for taking off the pulley and cam gears. Are these necessary? Or are there other techniques to get the pulley off (besides pulling the plugs and using the starter motor and a cheater bar on the ground...)?

Also, is there anything else I should do, while I'm in there? I know the belt tensioners have a tendency to go bad (like my old 98 legacy did). But both of my cars seem to be fine, should I replace them anyway? Any other parts, seals, etc that should be replaced at the same time?

Thanks for any info,

Joel

 

Brian, thanks for the information. I sent you a pm with my car info.

Joel

 

I want my belt change we can change together if we get fongs tool again

 

Yeah, I read somewhere that the breakaway torque on the crankshaft pulley is around 200ft lbs. I may go check out Harbor Freight and see what they have for BF-breaker bars.

I think I'll change the belt on my wife's car first and learn how to do it. Then when I do mine I'll have a better idea how much time it takes and if it's possible to do two at once. But I'll definately be willing to help when you do yours.

 

i did this in the spring to my 2.2l heres a quick run through.

i wouldnt be so worried about breaking the crank pulley loose it wastn so bad for me. just put the car in gear and wrench on it. after a few tries mine came off. if it comes down to it brace the bar on the ground and use the starter to knock it loose. i wont do anyting exceptionally bad to the car.

i recomend getting a Subaru replacement timing belt not a napa or other brand. the Subaru belts have marks on them, for where to line up the cam and crank pulleys.

also why were you asking about the cam gesars? you do not ned to take these off fro any reason.

when i did my timing belt i also changed my oil pump, water pump and thermostat.

the water pump we very easy it just unbolterd and poped off, the tidious part was cleaing the gacket off the block beofre i applied the new water pump.

i had my biggiest problem w/ the oil pump. since in order to remove the oil pump you need to remove the crank gear. this is held in place by a key, so it should just slide off, except mine was rusted on. it took lots of liquid wrench on two pry bars. in the end i had drstroyed my oil pump, and it was a god thing i was going to replace it.

the oil pump (after the crank gear is off) is fairly easy. its a little tricky to gret it out becuase of how it fits in there but with some prying/wiggling it will come out. FYI you dont need to drain your oil to change the pump, but you will need to drain your collant to do the water pump.

on the timing belt you will need to remove the tnesioner pulley to the left of the crank pulley to get the belt off. after that the tensioner piston needs to be removed (2 bolts) and re compressed. i used a pipe clamp for it. it too alot of pressure and time to get it back into place. wjen its back in it s spot you need to put a pin or small allen wrench in to to keep it compressed.

almost forgot before you take the belt off rotated the system (i used a ratchet on a cam gear) so that all three marks (there are marks on teh cam, and gear pulley) so they are straight up and line up with the marks on teh block/timing belt cover.

once the belt is off you can put the pulley back on. do oil/water ump now if you want. then before you put the new belt on you have to remove the tensioner pulley down by the water pump. (wash your hands before handling the new belt). put he belt on, then sneak this pulley back on. make sure the 3 marks on the belt line up exactly to the three marks on the gears. (1 mark off could result in up to 30 degrees off). once the belt is one w/ all pulleys in place return the tensioner and remove the pin. it will snap back and the system will eb tensioned. make sure that the marks on the belt line up witht he pulleys. if not take teh belt off and try again.

if all goes well this can be done in one day. it took me 3 cuase i took 2 days to get the crank pulley off to get to the oil pump.

 

Thanks a ton for the info, that's really helpful. I think I might end up pulling the driver's side cam gear to change the cover that I broke tonight. That top bolt was just way to tight for the plastic to hold the nut, it wasn't even really corroded, just tight. oh well...

So, I popped the covers on both cars tonight, just since I was curious as to what condition the belts were in. The '99 looked fine. The '00 looked pretty bad though. Lots of dust caked up on everything I could see in there and some majors cracks on the back of the belt.

Here are some pics of the belt on my '00. What do you guys think? Should I drive on this till the weekend? Is the ej22 an interferance engine, would I risk bending valves if the belt broke?

Thanks again,
Joel

 

time for a new belt on that one. how many miles?

i saw a chart a long time ago that showed which subaru engines were interferrance, but i cant remeber which one it is. however i do remeber that it was only liek 1 or 2 engiens of them ALL. i am fairly sure that the ej22 is non interferance (as i was looking to see if my ej22 was interference.)

i would say drive it as little as possible, but i wouldnt worry bout it too much. just dont red line all your gears.

 

84,000 on the odo. The '99 wagon has 95,000 and the belt looks brand new, barely any dust in the covers even, and I've had the 99 for over four years now, so I'm pretty sure it's the original belt.

But notice in the pictures how the belt is running way to the inside, and the wear seems to be worse on the inside edge. If I look through the passenger side inspection hole, I think I can see some aluminum specs in there. I think an idler has failed...

Well, considering I _was_ going to do the '99 first, I was planning on waiting for another month to do this car, I'll see if I can baby it back and forth to work this week. I'm usually pretty easy on it though, I rarely go over 3500 in any gear.

 

i dont think that the belt riding so far inside has anything to do with the how frayed it is. if you look at he picture agian there is a dark line that runs over all of the cracks. this make me believe that the problem lies with an idler pulley since those dont (as far as ia cn rember) come incontact witht he full width of the belt. also the cracks seem to stop as soon as they leave the darker area.

 

here we go. also i belive i took of the timing belt cover to clean it and did nto need to remove the cam gears.

FYI if you mess up the gears in any way just move them to the marks all point straight up. it will run fine. i got mine all messed up. marks where everywhere, and well it didnt start. after much more thinkinf i returned all three marks to the up position (seperately since the belt was off and they had been moved indepently of each other) and first try it started up.

 

Nice picture.

I got all my parts today. I wish I could tear into it tonight, but I gotta get to work for the rest of the week. Oh well, if you see a silver OBS driving really slow, be nice, that's probably me.

So, take a look at this page. From that diagram it looks like that guard is the right width for the wear I see on my belt. Maybe the tensioner's gone bad and is allowing the belt to hit the guard.

page 10
http://www.ravensblade-impreza.com/modifications/drivetrain/tbelt/tbelt.html

Anyway, I know what I'm doing friday night.

Thanks,
Joel

 

2.2 is NON interference up to 1999 when the switched to phaze2

 

"2.2 is NON interference " thats part of the reason why 2.2s are indestructible.

your link didnt work got a bad monkey sign

 

Hmm.. I have a 2000 OBS. It's listed as a phase2 on this page http://wac.addr.com/auto/obs/obsspecs.html

So I am correct in assuming that phase2 IS interference? Sorry to be paranoid, I just don't want to find out the hard way.

Thanks,
Joel

 

edited the link. I guess you need a cookie to look at the pics on that site.

 

Well, that main crank pulley bolt is tighter than my clutch can hold. I had to do a quick search and and make sure it wasn't left hand thread... sheesh...

We'll see if the wd40 helps at all.

.. back to the garage...

 

use a huge breaker bar, and the starter...faster then lighting...ive done it more then once!

 

all right... I'll give it a shot. i've got a 25inch breaker bar that reaches the ground nicely...

 

ok, that did the trick. I just barely bumped the starter, it lifted the front of the car a bit, I thought "no way", but sure enough it was loose. thanks.

/me goes back to work.

 

Got it all back together yesterday and it runs good. The old belt was worn down to the cord in several places, but not broken anywhere yet. The belt was obviously rubbing on the guard over the crank gear, the guard was well worn and discolored from the heat. I kinda think the belt was replaced once (didn't look like a subaru belt, no sign of markings...) and the whoever installed it didn't check the clearance on the guard.

So, everything in there is new, except for the lower idler on the passenger side, which is on backorder from subaru. If anyone happens to have one of those idlers, old worn out one, I kinda want to try pressing a new bearing into it. Should be possible...

Thanks for all the advice.

Joel

 

glad to hear it went well!

 

hey joel, can you do mine?