Changed water pump/timing belt now car wont start

[khalimatical]

Hi, I'm in need of some serious help.

 

I will try to give the short version, and as detailed as possible to try not to take up too much of anyone's time.

 

Ok here it goes....

 

I had a water leak on my 2000 Legacy 2.5 motor SOHC. I checked all the hoses, everything seems fine. Notice that while filling up the radiator with coolant a steady stream was just pouring from the bottom of the engine, and upon further inspection it seems like it's coming from underneath the timing belt cover. 

 

The car has 154,000 mi on it....I figured it was time to change the water pump perhaps. I did this job years ago on my other Subaru which was an older DOHC engine. 

 

I know that I did a lot of things wrong in this job. I'm going to get to all of that shortly. 

 

When removing the timing belt, I didn't make good marks (yes I know!)

 

The notch on the crank sprocket wasn't exactly at 12 oclock position when I took off the timing belt. It was 'kind of' but not there. It was closer to say...12:30, near that notch marker on the oil pump, but you could clearly see that it was not lined up.

 

As I took off the timing belt the driver's side cam immediately sprung closed. 

 

Like I said, I did this before on a DOHC motor. I watched one of briansmobile's videos in the past that discussed the SOHC timing belt, but neglected to watch it again, or consult any other resource before I started this job. So I continued with removing and replacing the water pump and went back to the computer to look at some resources before I put the car back together.

 

I viewed some threads on this board, and in a few youtube videos that I watched that pretty much says, if both left and right cams, and crank are all lined up to 12:00 to the notches up there the car should run fine.

 

I did exactly that, line up the notches, reattach everything. The car does not start. Bummer.

 

I went back to the internet now to look at this information in detail to find where/how I could have gone wrong and this is where I am stuck.

 

1. I heard that to line up the notch on the crank you should turn it either clockwise or counterclockwise no more than 90 degrees till you get it on the mark. Line up the cams and you are good. This I did NOT do. The notch went around a full 360 degrees once, maybe twice before I lined it up. The reason why I believe it went twice is because it is hard for me to see down there, I had a flashlight aimed toward the notch and I missed it the first time, I just kept going back around until it came back again. Then I lined it up.

 

When lining up the cams, I turned both of them counter clockwise to find the notches. 

 

I did turn the crank bolt over 2x to make sure that everything was lined up, and when it went 720 the lines did all come back to 12:00 (although the notch on the crank still looks a little off to the right by my eye). I noticed that when I turned the engine 360 degrees that the notches on the cam point to 6:00 and the notch on the crank goes to 12:00. What I did was I turned the engine into this position, loosened the belt again and turned the cams to 12:00 and put it back together. This time the car started, however it runs horrible for about 10-15 seconds then it stalls out. When I try to give it a little gas it chokes. I don't hear any knocking or anything like that. It just runs like crap, and definitely not long enough, or under enough power to move on it's own even one inch. 

 

I am glad that at least the car started a bit. I tried to take off the belt, make minor adjustments like rotating the right side cam 360 then put it back on, and then the left. I did this over the weekend and still no luck. It still started, however ran just as rough, and now I'm stalling out in 5 seconds or less. I didn't do anything else for fear of messing up the engine majorly. I hope I didn't mess anything up already.

 

My car ran great before I decided to change the water pump. No check engine lights. I didn't mess with the cam position sensor, or the crank position sensor either. All I touched was the water pump/timing belt/tensioner.

 

The tensioner/belt appear to be in good condition. The belt feels tight on reassembly. 

 

What I'd like to know is is there some kind of way to know is there a certain kind of way to know if everything on the inside of this engine is in alignment?

The videos I see are very helpful, but they only go into detail of how to take off a timing belt, make marks, small adjustments, reattach. What I've done is.....

 

1. I've lost track of how many times I spun the crank in a full circle with the belt disconnected.

2. I've lost track of how many times I spun the cams around in a full circle, and they have each been spun a different number of times (sigh)

 

What I am hoping will save me (hopefully) is that I didn't make any attempt to start the car until I had all 3 notches pointed at 12:00.

 

Please PLeeeease help if you can. My car has been down for two weeks now. I drive 40 miles to work each day and the only reason I got a little time to breathe is because it's the holidays and a lot of people aren't in the office. In a short period of time everything is going to get busy again. I really need my car.

 

To whoever is reading, I know that I said I would keep it as short as possible, I did try. However after looking at other people's posts who had similar problems I figured I'd try to say as much as I can as to where I am at so you know all the steps that I've done already. 

 

Thanks for reading :-)

 

[porcupine73]

You specifically mentioned notches so I'm guessing you already saw the many posts that say to use the notches, and _not_ the arrows.

 

If the crank sprocket hash is lined up with the notch on the oil pump, then on the SOHC's turning the cams won't hurt anything. Turning the crank too much though I believe might engage a piston with a valve though I think you would notice that while turning the crank, i.e. it encountering something.

 

Beyond that right it is the hash marks on the cam sprockets to the timing covers and the crank sprocket hash to the hash in the oil pump. Supposedly one tooth off it will start but lack power, two teeth off anywhere I believe the old endrwench article said it wouldn't start.

[ocei77]

You have the marks correct.

Is the tooth count on the belt correct? 44 from crank mark to passenger cam and 40.5 to driver cam.

If this is correct then something is unplugged. Check crank , cam sensors and IAC hose to intake.

 

O.

[khalimatical]

Thanks for the replies guys, I did not count the teeth on the belt, but I will check it out in the daylight and post back my results. I will also double check those electrical connectors, even though I didn't touch them at all, it doesn't hurt to check. 

[Bushwick]

Did you get it running? Being the engine is an interference engine, you DID hand crank the engine so it went through a complete combustion cycle w/o any mechanical blocking, right? Meaning with a ratchet connected at the crank pulley nut, you cranked engine by hand through a full intake/exhaust opening/closing event and it didn't bind?

 

Never ceases to amaze me how often people will forgo this important step and end up bending a valve or 2. Had an uncle that was rebuilding a 69' Cutlass and ruined his engine. And a bit of irony his son did the same thing after building up a Lancer. 

[bugeye72]

having same problems but i have a dohc

[khalimatical]

Hey everybody.

 

I didn't get the car running yet. I did go back and look over my work, the cam sensor/crank sensor appears to be fine. No loose wires or anything like that.

 

Yes, I did spin the engine around before I tried to start back up. I didn't feel any bind. 

 

What I did notice right now is that while taking off the crank pulley that I broke off one of the teeth that line up with the crankshaft position sensor (ugh!!!) 

[khalimatical]

I tried to post a picture of it, but the forum wont allow me to post pics. I'm not sure why. 

[khalimatical]

THE TOOTH ON THE CRANK PULLEY SPROCKET MATTERED A WHOLE LOT!!!! She's back up and running :-) :-) I got a new crank pulley sprocket, I can post the part number if anybody needs it, I just dont have the reciept on me at the moment. I put everything back together and she started right up.

 

I was off of the road for nearly a month. It was terrible. I'm glad that this was my problem and that I didn't bend any valves or anything like that.

 

I've taken off and put on the Subaru timing belt so many times I feel like I can do it in my sleep LOL. 

 

Thanks everybody for your help, and have a great new year.