Foreign Service
Not an expert on Subaru cam belt jobs? You will be after
digesting the info in Dan’s new multipart series. This
month: A primer on the venerable 2.2-liter pancake four.
Dan
Marinucci
S
ubaru timing belt jobs aren’t necessarily difficult. But if you don’t have the
right information and tools, the task
can become your worst nightmare.
This month we begin a multipart series with some tips on how to do the
job correctly and efficiently—the first time.
We begin our cam belt caper with the venerable 2.2-liter engine, which was used from 199099, mostly in the Legacy. This is a noninterference, single overhead-cam engine with a 60,000mile t-belt replacement interval.
The first thing you should be prepared for on a
2.2 cam belt R&R is one of the last steps—holding the crankshaft steady while tightening the
harmonic balancer bolt to 79 ft-lb. Some technicians prefer Subaru Tool No. 4 999 77000
(photo 1 below) or its equivalent to do the job.
Other techs simply hold the balancer with a
wraparound chain wrench, such as Snap-on’s
CW24 or its equivalent.
Still another approach is to remove the rubber
access plug from the bellhousing, slide a pry bar
Photos: Dan Marinucci
1
into the opening and catch a flywheel tooth with
the tip of the bar. This is a two-man job, so have
another tech hold the pry bar steady while you
torque up the balancer bolt.
Whatever you do, don’t take this harmonic balancer bolt for granted. Coat its threads with a
medium-strength thread-locking sealer and always torque it to spec. And don’t guess at torque
with an impact gun. We’ve seen and heard
dozens of horror stories about Subaru balancer
bolts that worked loose. In every case, the customer admitted that the timing belt had been replaced recently at another shop.
If the customer is lucky, this fiasco will cost
him only a new bolt, woodruff key and/or harmonic balancer. If he’s not, he’ll also need a new
crankshaft because a loose balancer can hog out
the keyway in the crank snout real quick!
Always sell a Subaru timing belt job smart,
which entails covering several bases. The first
one is to package a new water pump and thermostat into the job quote. Like other engines where
the t-belt drives the water pump, it’s foolish not
to change the pump while you’re that far into the
engine. By the way, the stat housing is built right
into the water pump housing.
Sources who service lots of Subarus agree that
the idler bearings on the 2.2 (and the 2.5, for that
matter) rarely fail. If you hear an rpm-sensitive
noise coming from the vicinity of the t-belt, put
your stethoscope on the water pump or stat
housing first because the pump bearing will get
noisy long before an idler will.
Meanwhile, don’t forget to check each idler
bearing by loading it—applying pressure to it
with your fingers—while you spin it. Replace the
bearing if it doesn’t spin silky smooth.
Anticipate covering another base while doing
a Subaru t-belt job—replacing a leaking front
crank seal. Edo Guerrero, a Subaru specialist at
Hawthorne Auto Clinic in Portland, Oregon,
told us to be surprised if a 2.2’s crank seal isn’t
leaking. The original seal is black; an updated
seal is available, and it’s brown. Guerrero and
other sources urge readers to install the updated
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July 2001
Foreign Service
seal during a
routine t-belt
job because a
black seal that’s
not weeping
now is sure to
leak later!
Remove the
crank sprocket
and you’ll see
this seal, which
is pressed into
the front of the
oil pump assembly. Some Subaru specialists
told me they
yank out the old seal with a seal pick,
then carefully polish the crank snout
with a light lubricant and very fine sandpaper. Next, they lube the crank snout
with petroleum jelly or grease and fill
the inside of the new brown seal with
grease so its garter spring won’t pop out.
Finally, they patiently slide the new seal
over the crank snout and tap it into
place in the pump housing.
At Hawthorne Auto Clinic, Guerrero
takes the extra step of removing the
2.2’s oil pump and retightening the
screws that hold the plate on the back of
the pump assembly. He mentions he’s
found several untouched, original
equipment oil pumps on which these
screws have backed way out!
Arguably, the last base to cover is a
tensioner inspection. All 2.2s and earlier
2.5s use a self-contained, horizontal hydraulic belt tensioner (photo 2). Although these tensioners seldom fail, you
don’t really know one’s condition until
you visually inspect it. Subaru experts
concur that any sign of leakage is immediate grounds for replacing this tensioner. Another would be a high-mileage
engine with a slapping t-belt and a tensioner plunger you can compress easily
with your fingers. So plan on changing
this tensioner if you hear the t-belt slapping or knocking when the car arrives at
your shop.
Like any unfamiliar job you tackle,
you should have a good shop manual
handy. There may be a detailed tensioner leakdown test in the manual,
but sources agree that the smartest,
safest approach to any suspect tensioner is to replace it. As of press time, this
horizontal tensioner costs about 80
2
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July 2001
bucks. Some shop owners or managers
prefer to package the tensioner into
every t-belt estimate. Then, if the engine doesn’t need it, the customer is
pleasantly surprised with a repair bill
that’s lower than expected.
Incorrect Valve Timing
Subaru specialists say they often see
sluggish-running Legacys with low
manifold vacuum and no trouble codes
stored. The thing these particular cars
have in common is that these symptoms
all appear after another shop replaces
the t-belt. Whenever you see a combination of low vacuum and poor overall
performance, check the cam timing.
The easiest way to do it on a 2.2 is to
bring the timing mark on the harmonic
balancer up to 0 on the engine’s timing
tab mounted on the front cover. Then
remove the outer cam belt covers and
check the timing marks on the front
face of each cam sprocket. These indentations, which we’ll discuss in greater
detail next time, face the front of the car
and must both be pointing straight up.
If both cam sprocket marks aren’t exactly at 12 o’clock high, the t-belt was installed incorrectly.
Lining up the 2.2’s cam timing marks
is easy once you identify them. (You’ll
see close-ups of the marks next month.)
The crank sprocket has reluctor teeth
on it that trigger the crank angle sensor.
The reluctor has a timing mark on it also. No matter what, when that mark is
at 12 o’clock, the cam sprocket marks
must also be straight up.
Tune in next month for more tips and
detailed pictures on Subaru t-belt jobs.
See you then, amigos!