question re timing belt change for subaru legacy wagon 92, ASAP please?

change the belt and cure your carnack foresee problem

WTF does that mean? If I buy it yes I'm going to change the belt. Cure my what? k wallace

k wallace wrote:

Wallace,

This is a fairly simple job. If you are going to change the timing belt, you should consider changing the water pump as well as the cam and crank seals while you are at it. To change the belt you only have to take out the radiator fans, although only 4 screws hold the radiator in, so you could figure the engine could use a complete flush and without the radiator you have a whole lot more room to work. The most difficult task is taking off the crank pulley bolt and then the camshaft pulleys if you decide to replace the crank seals. I removed and resealed the oil pump on mine as well, but that is not neccessary, but does make it easier to get at the crank oil seal. To remove the crank pulley bolt you need to buy the special subaru tool or use a chain wrench to lock the pulley. If the car is a manual put it in gear, apply the brake, and heave your breaker bar. With and auto you need to hold the crank pulley or lock the flywheel. The bolt on my manual was on so tight that it caused the clutch to slip with the breaker bar. I used the following technique quite cautiously. Put

22mm socket on the pulley bolt and wedge the breaker bar in the frame. (if you looking at the engine standing in front of the car you will want to wedge the breaker bar on the right). Pull the connector for the ignitor or the coil wires to keep the engine from starting and give the engine a quick crank. From what I understand many technicians use this technique. Make sure you buy timing belt that has the timing marks on the belt. You will have to remove the hydraulic tensioner and compress it with a vise (you hold it compressed with a small allen wrench that fits through the holes & compress it very slowly). You will also have to remove the lower idler pulley to get the belt back on. Make sure you very verify that the belt was put on properly by aligning with the small notches on the cam sprocket and the notch just above the crank sprocket. (do not use the arrows on the cam pulleys, these identify piston location, not timing). Any repair manual will also show you the proper teeth count between the left/right cam pulleys and the crank pulley. Make sure you do this count before you put it back together. Your EJ22 engine is non-interference so you dont have to work about rotating the cam shafts once the belt is off. If you decide to replace the cam belts you will need the special tool to remove the sprockets just a make a strap wrench with a segment of the old timing belt and a pair of vise grips. For re-assembly I used Medium strength permatex (blue) and tigthened to factory specs. People seemed paranoid that the crank pulley will come loose and tighten them to upward of 200+ foot pounds. I replaced the cam seals, crank seal, new water pump (~$70)resealed the oil pump with permatex 599 super grey, new timing belt, radiator flush, new thermastat/gasket, oil/filter change and new drive belt for about $150. It took me a the better part of a single day, but alot of that work was cleaning the mess from the failed crank seal that leaked oil everywhere. Just e-mail me if you have any specific questions.

It is not a interferance motor and if you are mechanically inclined and can follow a manual, it is not a hatefull job to do. One word of caution though, new belts tend to stretch, even the ones that are not supposed to so run it enough to warm it up fully then let it cool and recheck belt tension and then button it up.

Belt tensioner/idler, thermostat and hoses are also a good idea while you are in there. I don't know if hydraulic tensioners lose their "spring" or not. But pulley bearings do wear out.

I can vouch for this. Just make sure you do not have left hand threads if you try this on a different car.

And turn over the motor at least twice by hand to check for interference. Yeah, it's supposed to be non-interference. Never hurts to check. While doing that you can look at the gears and make sure there is no play in the belt.

Red loctite on the crank bolt is a better idea than overtorquing if paranoia is necessary. The last thing you want to do is damage the crank nose threads.

If you do the oil pump, recommend cranking the motor with coil disconnected until oil light goes out, to avoid a dry start. Also, after flushing and refilling your radiator, "burp" it by letting it run open loop for a while and then letting it cool off: when cool, remove radiator cap and fill to the top; repeat until the level does not go down after the motor has been run.

what does running the radiator 'open loop' mean?

thanks for all the advice. I am fairly mechanically inclined and have no trouble following a manual (I'm an engineer, have followed way more complicated instructions than a car manual). If I buy the car today, I will be picking up a timing belt and Chilton's on the way home. thanks, k wallace

Wallace,

Here is a web document that should help. At least the pictures will let you know what you are looking for

endwrench.com/images/pdfs/2.2Liter.pdf

Sounds like you know this make/model- something I recently read about interference engines is that most cars with two valves per cylinder are non-interference, while cars with 4 valves per cyl. ARE interference. This subaru legacy 1992 is a 16-valve (so, 4 per cylinder). I'm just going to have to pick up the manual tomorrow, but is the one that you changed the timing belt on also a 16-valve? And it's a non-interference engine? Why would anyone use the interference design? It doesn't sound like it increases performance. It just sounds like (from the bit of reading i've done today) that you can make the engine physically smaller and get the same power out of it. Is that right? If I find that this IS an interference engine, I don't think i even want to drive it until I change the timing belt. If it's not, I'll still do it, but I won't be paranoid about it, as the car will just stop if the belt were to break. thanks again, k wallace

All the 2.5L DOHC subie engines are interference. The 2.2L was non interference until 1996 at which point it is a bit hazy as to exactly when the interference design was brought in. Yes most SOHC engines are

2 or 3 valves per cylinder, but the subie went with 4. I admitt that I sure like the idea of a non interference engine, but with the DOHC it is a bit tough to pack everything in without utilizing an interference design. Regarding the use of DOHC arguments can go either way, but valve float can be minimized more easily in the DOHC design (as oppossed to using very stiff springs in the SOFC), valve placement and angle can be better optimized, and further the use of DOHC allows the spark plug to be centered in the combustion chamber which can improve flame propagation. Yes the difference could be quite small in the scheme of things unless you lean towards racing performance. The good news is that with the current timing belts that use curvilinear teeth, timing belts intervals have been upped to 100K, but even then as long as you have no oil or antifreeze leak issues your belt will probably hold out for a while yet. Regarding the valves issue indeed the original 2.2L engines had 16 valves, however, the cylinder was designed with clearance between the valves and piston. I do not believe there is any rule that 4 valves per cylinder indicates interference. The 1990 - 1994 engines are without a doubt non-interference type. If you had an outback with the 2.2L in 1995 you should be ok as well, but after that use caution. I spun my camshafts several times in my 1992 Subaru Legacy AWD manual looking for the timing marks with no problems. If you are worried just change the belt ASAP and spin the cam shaft real carefully. Although to the untrained, the force of the valve springs could feel like some sort of interference.

thanks a lot, that's just the info I wanted. I have the exact same car now, and I think I'm going to be very happy with it. OTOH, it did just cost me $32 to fill up. (wondering if I should have just fixed the old Kawasaki Ninja in the garage- would have been cheaper for commuting...) thanks again for the details. I do appreciate it. k w.

pretty good guess... high compression is one reason, optimum combustion chamber shape is another. Valve reliefs in the pistons aren't good for either compression or efficient combustion.

nate

Shorthand for "let the engine warm up until the thermostat opens and water starts circulating through the radiator".

I don't know what I'm talking about, but I would speculate that it allows you to get higher compression out of a shorter stroke or a smaller cylinder bore. The piston at TDC is flush with the top of the cylinder, so removing room in the cylinder head part of the combustion chamber increases the compression. And brings the valves closer to the piston.