corlon Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 was driving home last night and out of the blue what sounded like a 5 lb rock hit the firewall or floorboard right under may feet. engine shut down and won't restart. it cranks, but makes a nasty noise while doing so. towed it to a buddies shop (not a suby guy) and they think the timing belt broke. they suspect an idler seized up. they called around and a couple shops told them that the valves will bend on this engine if that happens. I called my suby guy who replaced the timing belt and goodies that go along with it about 10 months ago and he said he has never seen a suby bend valves. wondering if you guys have any input as to how f'd I could be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunny5280 Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 You may be in luck. I seem to recall having recently read in this forum the 2.2 is a non-interference engine and therefore a broken timing belt shouldn't cause and valve damage. Someone else should probably confirm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleaidestar Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 In late 99 Subaru completed the phase 2 2.2 making it:eek: interference and I have heard about some lucky people driving away from damage like that, I'm thinking that if you tried to start it like that all you did was spin the crank, if your motor died on the compression stroke you may have bent some valves. Gotta line everything back up and pray you are that lucky...or its new motor time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snederhiser Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Hello; From your description it does not sound good on your part. I suspect that valves have bent and maybe a piston went with it. You could line the timing marks back up and do a compression test. I am thinking you will have to pull the engine and pull the heads to inspect for damage, Steven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corlon Posted October 4, 2013 Author Share Posted October 4, 2013 went and looked at it in the light yesterday. there is a hole in the plastic of the timing belt cover. if standing in front of the car it is to the right of the crank pulley. tech who looked at it said when the engine is turning over the timing belt is not spinning. he made it sound like it was bucking (or trying to spin, buy not.) he thinks the cogs on the belt are off and spinning on the crank pulley (10 month old belt, probably not.) he said it turns over fast like no compression and suspects the valves are bent. I had it towed to my suby guy who did the timing belt. he'll look at it today. if everything looks good he'll put a belt on it (and perhaps a tensioner) and see what happens. also, when a checked the oil it was at its normal level if that means anything? (as far as a piston shooting out or whatever.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r3v_v3ng3 Posted October 4, 2013 Share Posted October 4, 2013 I think your suby guy just changed the timing belt and not the rest of the timing components (3 idler and 1 tensioner). I've seen/worked on 4 cars like that and its almost always the idler bearing. My friend also bought a forester for $500 with a snapped timing belt. The owner said he just got the timing belt done but it was the idler bearing that siezed. They stopped the non interference on 96 2.2 My friends 97 obs snapped a timing belt and had bent exhaust valves on the driver side cylinder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corlon Posted October 5, 2013 Author Share Posted October 5, 2013 update. an idler seized and valves are bent. put new tensioner and idlers in, reset the timing and no good. so i'm assuming my next step is to replace the valves? anything else I should check? Is there a performance upgrade I can make while doing this? 2.0 heads or something? thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleaidestar Posted October 5, 2013 Share Posted October 5, 2013 Cam regrind and dual port heads and put some headers on it :thumbs-up ..to start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyposeur Posted October 5, 2013 Share Posted October 5, 2013 2.0 heads will not work. Concentrate on getting the motor running. One option is to find a set of heads off a running motor and swap those on. Or get your heads rebuilt. Could turn into a money pit if your'e not careful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corlon Posted October 5, 2013 Author Share Posted October 5, 2013 ok. no go on the 2.0 heads. what's up with the dual port heads? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleaidestar Posted October 5, 2013 Share Posted October 5, 2013 Wheres the fun in that though monkey are you being sensible? J/k, dual port heads are just heads from a 2.2 from 95..just said that to give you header options, follow up with an exhaust system. Really the nest way to start is getting the power you have to floor with suspension and chassis stiffening while you get to know your way around your motor and build knowledge.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snederhiser Posted October 5, 2013 Share Posted October 5, 2013 Hello; I have been down this road before and can offer a few words of wisdom. Get the motor pulled and tore down. Check for piston damage, check heads for cracks and valve seats. You can get a set of valves for $100.00 off epay and lap these in. Check heads and the decks to be sure that they are flat and you should be good to go. Make sure the valve clearances are set correctly. Good luck, Steven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeyposeur Posted October 5, 2013 Share Posted October 5, 2013 Wheres the fun in that though monkey are you being sensible? Time for an STi swap corlon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corlon Posted October 5, 2013 Author Share Posted October 5, 2013 tech doing the work is going to pull the engine. he has access to a machine shop so he can check the heads etc. so the dual port heads just give me more header options? no sti swap. just a winter car for now and hopefully never a money pit project car. love the car. don't want to let it go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleaidestar Posted October 5, 2013 Share Posted October 5, 2013 Yeah..the 22e is a strong and super reliable motor, can't pull big amounts of power out of it. But you can make it better by doing those kinds of mods, n/a motors need to breathe. Doing suspension and handling work on most cars prior to doing power upgrades makes it that much better. Even with an auto tranny you can corner better than other cars but stiffer bushings and bigger sway bars..stuff like that will put stock power down better. The donkey is great by the way...lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo F Posted October 6, 2013 Share Posted October 6, 2013 Ugghhh... that stinks that your EJ22 is interference. I was hoping my '98 is non-interference (as the Gates timing belt guide suggests- 98 and earlier are non-interference, 99- 01 are interference (and use a different timing belt than the earlier models). However, if the gentleman who posted that he knew of a '97 OBS that had bent valves (unless it wasn't the original motor) it would suggest Subaru made some mods on the '97- '98 engines that caused them now to be interference. Geez, now I wished my mechanic put at least Gates timing components on mine instead of Dayco... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corlon Posted October 6, 2013 Author Share Posted October 6, 2013 so looking for valves / heads will an year 2.2 heads / valves work or do I need specific year or engine code information? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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