The Web is a wonderful source of info - but some of it is contradictory, and some of it is just plain wrong. I don't want to trust some wrong info as I prepare to change the timing belt on my 1996 Outback (2.5L) engine myself for the first time. With 218,000+ miles on the engine, I think it's ready for a new belt (last one went on via a dealership install at 110K miles). So, since this is a valve interference design, I've gotta get it right the first time or nasty consequences result. One of the things I've read online is that I need to use some fancy Subie specific tools to hold the Intake and Exhaust cams in place, especially on the left side, when I go to pull the belt, or the valve spring pre-loading will rotate the cams into a postion where the valves smack into each other and something either bends or breaks. Is that really true in this engine, in the 1996 configuration? The reason I ask is that I've found some additional info about the WRX STi engine that makes no such claim - in fact it says that if you rotate teh crankshaft until all the cams line up to their reference marks, that is a valve neutral position and there's no spring loading. Which is true??? The STi is the same 2.5L block, right?
Help to clear up my confusion, please? Thanks!!