Thirdeye

Just a quick update. Was able to get the new belt and pulleys on. She cranked right up and is running great! Thanks for the help everyone. Also, I might add that I bought a new tensioner pulley from Napa. The inside diameter of the pulley was 32mm. The ID of the old pulley is 35mm so the new pulley would *not* fit on the tensioner arm. I didn't want to buy a new $130 tensioner just for the pulley so I'm still using the old pulley. The bearings seemed to be OK. I'm going to talk to the dealerships about getting the correct ID pulley. Anyone ever experienced anything like that before?

It is an EJ22. What does Phase II mean? Are those the ones that came after 1997 when the engine became an interference engine? BTW, can someone direct me to detailed info on exactly how to remove the belt and re-time? I'm assuming all the witness marks need to be at 12 o'clock but as far as how to rotate the cam and crank shaft with the belt off without further damaging valves. Thanks. You guys have been great help so far.

Good point. Suppose it does start. Does that mean the valves are OK? Do damaged valves make a distinct sound or will the engine simply not start?

Yeeaaaahhhh. About that. We're not really sure if the belt was changed at 100k. This was my wife's car. She had it before we met. She knew that she had had some work done but couldn't remember what it was they did or find any of the receipts. It's possible that the belt has never been changed. The belt looked to be in decent shape though. :-\

Hi all. Just joined the board. Was lurking different sites, and saw that there seemed to be good help here, so here I am. Some quick info on the car: 2000 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport EJ 2.2 Liter 4 cylinder manual transmission 125k miles The incident happened while the car was stopped. I went to turn the key and the engine barely started, idled very, and I mean very poorly for a few seconds then shut off. Before that, it was running fine. I'm thinking it's the timing belt, so we tow the car to my buddy's garage and tear into the front end. Get the timing belt cover off and we see that the bearing housing of the inside idler pulley (the one with the teeth) is blown completely out. The pulley is just riding against its mounting bolt. The timing belt is not broken but it's clear from the timing marks that the engine is out of time. See attached photos. Now for my questions. Is it possible that the belt only jumped a few teeth and that no valve/piston damage has occurred? From the photos you can see how far "off time" the camshafts are with respect to the crank shaft. Does anyone know how far off time you have to go before piston meets valve in a bad way? Also, how can I tell if I have valve/piston damage? Should I just replace the belt, pulleys and hydrollic tensioner, put it back together and just go for it? I'm sort of lost as to what I should do. Thanks very much for your help. The damaged idler pulley The following pics show how off the timing is