97 Outback Sport timing belt

[idosubaru]

67,000 miles 2.2 1997 OBS. doing the timing belts next week. didn't see anything in the repair section of the site or doing a search, are there any good write ups/pictures of replacing the timing belts? lots of t-belt questions, but not many details.

 

i'm definitely replacing the tensioner and cam seals as well. should i do the water pump or oil pump seals while i'm in there or let them go until the next t-belt change? how often do the water pumps fail? anything else to address while i'm in there?

 

i've done 100 ER27 timing belts so i'm not too worried about it, but a little sketched out working on an interference motor so just trying to read up as much as i can.

 

thanks!

[Smpol19]

On my 2001 Impreza OBS 2.2 the timing belt is schudaled for 105,000 miles not shure when they changed to this but you may want to double check.

[idosubaru]

thanks for the heads up, i'll check for future reference. for now, even if it is 105,000 i'm ready to change it out. i inspected it yesterday and it doesn't pass my visual inspection.

[BigMattyD]

http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/TBeltEWWin05.pdf

 

This should help a lot.

 

matt

[svxpert]

67,000 miles 2.2 1997 OBS. doing the timing belts next week. didn't see anything in the repair section of the site or doing a search, are there any good write ups/pictures of replacing the timing belts? lots of t-belt questions, but not many details.

 

i'm definitely replacing the tensioner and cam seals as well. should i do the water pump or oil pump seals while i'm in there or let them go until the next t-belt change? how often do the water pumps fail? anything else to address while i'm in there?

 

i've done 100 ER27 timing belts so i'm not too worried about it, but a little sketched out working on an interference motor so just trying to read up as much as i can.

 

thanks!

 

no need to replace the tensioner, they don't go bad unless there damaged. do the cam, and crank seals, re-seal the oil pump. you might want to do the water pump because when you get the 105,000 belt on, the water pump will be that much older.

[Olnick]

Does anyone know if there is a physical difference between 60k and 105k timing belts? Materials? Composition? Design?

 

Or is the difference simply because California demanded the longer interval and maybe Subaru was too conservative to begin with?

[NOMAD327]

There may be something to the California issue with belt interval.

I owned a Mitsubishi in the past and the entire model lineup was 60,000 miles. They even had big signs throughout the showroom warning you of the requirement. Same vehicle was sold in California with 100,000 mile change interval.

 

As to the waterpump, on an interference engine, I would think twice about not changing it. These pumps are not known for premature failure, but should the pump seize up, the timing belt will fail almost immediately. If I did go to the trouble to change it out, I would use only a Subaru pump. The tensioner seems to hold up on these so long as it's not showing any signs of trouble, the idlers should all be inspected for trouble, but will probably be OK. The crank oil seals are a real problem and for a couple bucks really needs to be done, along with the o-ring between the oil pump and the block. check the screws on the back of the oil pump tight and probably loctite them as well.

[ferret]

Here's an answer to your 1st, and subsequent questions:

 

http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/TBeltEWWin05.pdf

[TheBrian]

Beck-Arnley offers two timing belts for my 2.2L SOHC. A Fed-spec "neoprene", and a Cal-spec "highly saturated nitrile". I'm no rubber engineer, so I can't tell you whether you can expect a significantly longer service interval with the California belt. But they are different belts, at least in Beck-Arnley.