Timing Belt

[channelfats]

I have a 1998 Subaru Forester. I hate the 'under the hood layout' of this engine. It sucks to work on. BUT I am going to do the timing belt this weekend. I know the Technical steps to change it, but does anyone have any insight on the unexpected steps I will encounter on a subaru engine? I fugure since I am at 150000m(yes, I know, way overdue) I will just replace the water pump while I am at it.

All responses appreciated!

[Jeremy airjer W]

Pretty straight forward belt. What engine do you have. The hardest part will be getting the crank pulley off. There is a trick which involves a 22mm socket, a breaker bar, and a whole lot of confidence in the second person.

It should only take you about 45 minutes (no power tools) to get the belts, cooling fans, upper hose, lower t-stat housing - leave the lower hose attatched(t-stat is located in the water pump right above the plastic housing on the lower hose), crank pulley, and timing covers off (be prepared for a couple of the nut inserts to break loose) Make sure you line up all the t-marks before loosening the tensioner and removing the belt. If its a 2.5 sohc the right cam (passenger side) will float (it will turn back and forth freely about a 1/8 of a turn without the belt on. The left cam will not. If it is not aligned right on it will spring one way or the other. if it does just use a 17mm wrench to realign.

The water pump is an extra 6 10mm head bolts should take about five minutes. Make sure you transfer the seal on the side of the old pump to the new one.

If there is any oil under the cover replace the crank seal and the oil pump o-ring. The oil pump is the housing that the crank seal sits in.

The only other thing is that usually like I said before the nut inserts in the rear covers break. We usually replace the lower inner cover and the left inner cover as well as the lower t-cover seal which is usually bloated from being soaked in oil.

If you have any questions I will be around all weekend. Give me a call if I don't answer leave a message I'll get back to you within a couple of hours (I might bring the boys to see the 3D Imax dinasour movie). 651-428-3049 - Jeremy

[channelfats]

Thanks for the response Jeremy! I didnt actually see your post until I was done with the car. All went well, and your dead on with that right cam, she floated out of turn a little, and my heart almost dropped out of MY lower unit, I didnt know this was ok. I just took a change and turned it to align again. I did end up replacing the water pump, and Tstat, however I am a little weary of the Napa tstat I got.

The steel coils on the inside were alot smaller gauge, with less coil, and there was no breather valve in the side plate. The original I took off was a lot heavier steel coil with a valve, so I took it back to napa to double check part, and they said its the only one for 1998-2003. Do you have any insight/pros-cons/opinions on the differences between these to thermostats? Or maybe a guess as to whats going to be the difference in operation? Thanks for the reply, you made me feel better about that drifting cam! Also I knew the oil pump seals were ok since I had it in the shop last summer for that exact reason.(I wish they had recomended to chance timing belt then! At least I save about 400 dollars this way!)

[Jeremy airjer W]

We use NAPA parts at our shop. As long as they gave you the right part it should be fine. With thr t stat on the very bottom the cooling system bleeds pretty easily without the poppet. The only thing the spring does is close the t-stat when the engine is cool enought, it doesn't aid in the openning of the stat.

Glad to hear everything went o.k.!!