idosubaru Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Friend has slightly bent valves on his 1997 Impreza EJ22 and fixing it is not an option. Prognosis for driving it a few months like that? Idles rough, drives good at highway speeds, he drove 100 miles at 80mph on the interstate yesterday. Only instance I found of someone driving with slightly bent valves was a guy on NASIOC with slightly bent valves that ran fine for 4 months in a "racing application". I mixed up a bunch of bent valves with good valves and tried to separate them last year and they were so hard to differentiate even spinning in a drill that I just bought new ones. This suggests maybe it's not a big deal for a short period of time...??? He's already been looking for another subuar so I'm thinking he'll be fine to limp this thing along for a few months? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
987687 Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 Well it'll likely eventually get burned out. Then that cylinder will lose compression. But if you're driving it into the ground, keep driving. Even if you lose a cylinder, it'll still run, just kinda shitty. I drove a 2.2 almost 200 miles with a blown out spark plug to get home. It'll still go alright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 How do you figure that just one valve is slightly bent? Sure the lash is correct and its timed properly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz345 Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 (edited) I'm wondering how one would even go about bending a valve on an EJ22. Also wondering why repairing isn't an option. New(rebuilt) heads aren't much $$, or you could pull some from a junkyard and have them rebuilt for like $80 each and putting them on isn't too tough with a haynes manual and apprpriate tools. Heck, around here you could even pick up a running reasonalbe miles whole engine for $400 or so and have it installed and be down the road for not all that much. I guess it depends on the condition of the rest of the vehicle though as to wether or not that's worth doing. Edited June 3, 2013 by chaz345 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
86BRATMAN Posted June 3, 2013 Share Posted June 3, 2013 His thread yesterday said the marks weren't lined up properly when doing a timing belt, engine rotated and made contact. Easy to do on the interference ej22's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodsWagon Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 When you burn a exhaust valve and loose that cylinder, just pull the injector plug to it and keep cruising. It will burn some oil but keep going fine. I commuted with a 3cyl EJ22 for months. Heads are also pretty easy to swap out in car or just plunk a whole nother engine in there. Easy weekend job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz345 Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 His thread yesterday said the marks weren't lined up properly when doing a timing belt, engine rotated and made contact. Easy to do on the interference ej22's. DOH, my bad, didn't see that we were talking about a 97 and/or forgot that they are interference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted June 4, 2013 Author Share Posted June 4, 2013 thanks guys. don't need suggestions on repair...just experience running on bent valves. quarter million miles and time to move on...if you wanna make an offer for this easy to fix, well worth it vehicle, please do. sorry Fairtax, i have no idea how many are bent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 I missed the previous thread. How many times was the engine rotated with it being out of time? Was just one camshaft out of time or both? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted June 5, 2013 Author Share Posted June 5, 2013 I missed the previous thread. How many times was the engine rotated with it being out of time? Was just one camshaft out of time or both? he used the wrong mark on the crank sprocket and started the vehicle. poorly idled...caught his mistake...installed belt properly and car runs, idles rough, but otherwise drives fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivans imports Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 the head is so easy to pull why not putt valves in it ? I put them on my valve grinder tells you instantly if bent or not. Have had a few come in that had been runing with bent valves for years 3 cly 2.5d will drive a long time if your not in a hurry. Did not damage the head just burned the ex seat a bitt. I whould take head off and change valves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaz345 Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 thanks guys. don't need suggestions on repair...just experience running on bent valves. quarter million miles and time to move on...if you wanna make an offer for this easy to fix, well worth it vehicle, please do. sorry Fairtax, i have no idea how many are bent. I think the suggestions on repair are based on the fact that it's really a pretty simple and not all that expensive fix and we don't want to see the car end up junked. Quarter million isn't time to move on with an EJ22, in fact, that's about when I buy them. But if the goal for the owner is the most affordable transportation possible, repairing this one is, without a doubt, going to be less expensive than anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
987687 Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Is he sure the timing belt is on correctly and not off a tooth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 he used the wrong mark on the crank sprocket and started the vehicle. poorly idled...caught his mistake...installed belt properly and car runs, idles rough, but otherwise drives fine. Sounds fishy to me. The only other mark on the crank is a full 90 degrees off. Did he use the TDC arrow? I wouldn't think it would start at all with the crank at 90 out. Being 90 degrees behind would almost certainly bend the exhaust valves, although I'm not sure it would be "slightly". I vote compression and or leak down test to confirm. In the absence of those tools you can do it the backyard way. Set the cams unloaded so all the valves are closed, spin the crank and listen near the exhaust ports on the heads, and near the throttle body. Should be able to tell by feel if any valves are bent. With the valves all closed there will be compression and vacuum on all 4 cylinders, which will make it quite difficult to turn by hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted June 6, 2013 Author Share Posted June 6, 2013 (edited) tHave had a few come in that had been runing with bent valves for years 3 cly 2.5d will drive a long time if your not in a hurry. Did not damage the head just burned the ex seat a bitt. Great, thanks. That's what I needed to know. Wow, crack, finally someone answered my question. Thank you! How many times do i need to ask the same question to get an answer? How do I request no repair advice so that I actually get no repair advice? I don't need any repair advice, at all, none, not a discussion, not an option...does that make sense...how else can I say it? He can not fix valves or do a head job, has never done it before, works a ton and doesn't have time and only has one car. it's not even remotely possible or makes any sense, he works too much. He was already looking for a newer Outback before the bent valves, so fixing it would be stupid. The car won't sell for anything substantial around here, regardless of what west coast pricing. Car is too far away for me, nor it is worth my time. Do I need to tell his life story....or can we agree that what's a good fit for one may not be a good fit for another? I have done engine rebuilds, valve jobs, a zillion head swaps and frankenmotors...discussing whether to swap heads or repair is a waste of time, i'm not asking that, already done that countless times. We are past further diagnosis. If you think the car is an easy fix and a great car, make an offer! Edited June 6, 2013 by grossgary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivans imports Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 takes real negect to wreak a 2.2 as long as you dont run out of oil will run forever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 I understand the lack of time and desire to repair the engine. I'm just tryin to figure out roughly how many valves may be bent. Since the crank was 90 degrees behind its likely that all 8 intake valves are bent since the intake valves would be opening before the pistons reached TDC to start the intake stroke. Since its the intake valves it could run that way for quite some time. Exhaust valves would burn quickly and allow compression to drop too far for the engine to continue running. It's still a crapshoot though. He might get a week or he might get years. An engine can run perfectly fine on 3 cylinders if one valve burns. What determines how long it will is when 2 other valves burn, you completely lose compression in 3 cylinders and have only one still firing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted June 7, 2013 Author Share Posted June 7, 2013 great, thanks FT4M. got it...that makes sense intake lasting much longer than exhaust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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