Colodano Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 2009 LGT Limited. Mother-in-laws car so bone stock. Just rebuilt the heads after having a couple of valves that burnt up/ damaged the seats slightly, causing low compression and misfires. Car had been running rather well, and I had put close to 7K miles on in ~2 months. Yesterday morning, catastrophic pop and noises, luckily only a block from the house, so we pulled back up and in the garage easily. Found a piece of timing cover on the road, that was my first sign of doom. Pulled the snorkus today, and see the Pass. side timing covers hanging around on their own, and a demolished exhaust cam gear, and associated timing belt mess. After all the effort and money I put into the rebuild using all oem parts, the proper cam gear tools etc. and then to have this happen, I am very disheartened to do it again, especially since the last time was in a 3000 sq foot shop, now I am back to a tiny 1 car garage. Are there any jdm engines that are a drop-in replacement for this one, or do I need to hunt down a USDM engine or rebuild/ build new? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Capacity Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 2009 with burnt valves on the stock tune. That's not surprising. You need to get the car off the stock MAP, as you've seen what can happen. You may be able to find a ej255 in a junk yard. But seems those prices are not that attractive. You might want to bite the bullet and pull the engine and rebuild it. Might be better off in the long run. Just need to know if the valves hit the pistons. 305,600miles 5/2012 ej257 short block, 8/2011 installed VF52 turbo, @20.8psi, 280whp, 300ftlbs. (SOLD). CHECK your oil, these cars use it. Engine Build - Click Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colodano Posted October 27, 2016 Author Share Posted October 27, 2016 Yeah, I may just track down a new gear and bolt, and at least time it back up and see what the leakdown tester shows. Bummer it happened now, I had it booked in for the airbags and dash replacement next week. That and a new wheel bearing, and it would have been a pretty damn happy car. It definitely likes me driving it over my M-I-L. If she ever shifts above 2500 I would be amazed, feels like such a waste of a car for her. If I get it up and going again reasonably, I may have TA give me a tune, I have Tactrix and all, as my WRX is very very far from stock haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
covertrussian Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 Did the plastic exhaust cam bear explode or the AVCS intake one? Did you torque those properly, maybe over-torqued? I wonder what else would cause it to just explode like that. 05 LGT 16G 14psi 290whp/30mpg (SOLD) 12 OBP Stock 130whp/27mpg@87 Oct 00 G20t GT28r 10psi 250whp/36mpg 22 Ascent STOCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colodano Posted February 6, 2017 Author Share Posted February 6, 2017 Coming back to this, finally got new plastic gears, and installed along with TiC bolts. Engine spun well, so I tried to start it, and something is for sure amiss. Getting the battery charged back up for compression testing. I was wondering if I had given the gear a pop with the mallet when installing everything, but when I pulled the LH side gear, it has 3 distinct cracks forming on the backside as well, so I think it is the combo of old brittle plastic, and it was a cold day when I had the failure. Torque was done as per factory manual, and freshly calibrated wrench as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesA Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Sorry, OP. Somebody else posted about a passenger side cam sprocket exploding not long ago. Is this yet another thing we have to be worrying about? I hope not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infosecdad Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Last one I had that exploded (99 DOHC) was because of the toothed idler pulley bearing seized. Are all the timing belt pulleys intact? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colodano Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 Idlers are all great, brand new when I redid the heads for the burnt valves 7K miles ago, and still appear new. Most of the gear failures I have seen were either from something like a seized cam, or something that had cracked the gear where it was not seen, and then when the engine is started it just blows up. Most seem to be right on initial start-up, but I have heard of random failure as well. So far as being an issue to look out for? I would say that if you remove the exhaust cam gears, especially on a higher mileage engine, just replace them. For the ~120 bucks, it is worth not dealing with the aftermath. I am in for at least 400 in parts so far, just to replace the visually damaged parts and the 4 cam bolts, and see what kind of damage there may be internally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colodano Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 One other note, I do distinctly remember giving this gear a few hits with a deadblow hammer, during the engine rebuild process, so I am not super surprised after the fact, knowing what I now know about these gears. The fact that the other one has cracking, and I did not do the same thing, has me seeing just how fragile these are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colodano Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 OK, here is a shot of the back of the Drivers (LH) side cam gear, I replaced this one as well, after seeing what happened to the RH side gear. Hopefully not too huge, trying to get the hang of using imgur instead of pbucket. http://i.imgur.com/METgyz9.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colodano Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 Sorry to hear about this, if you need a hand I'm happy to come lend you one or two to help you get it up and running quicker. Thanks for the offer! Right now I am still in slow diagnose and research phase, depending on what I find in the next day or two, will form the plan of exactly what I want to do. Honestly if I could find a good drop-in replacement 2.5 single AVCS with the damn air pump setup, I would just swap. But it looks like I will need to rebuild again. Maybe I get lucky and just the RH head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesA Posted February 7, 2017 Share Posted February 7, 2017 I wonder if there is an aluminum version of that cam sprocket. If I were to replace them, I'd want to use something tougher if possible. I remember when I first found out they were plastic - "you've got to be kidding". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colodano Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 I am sure you could use adjustable gears, and if not interested in that feature, just loctite the bolts before install. Since this is still technically my mother-in-laws car, I am trying to keep it all stock Subaru parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colodano Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 Well, not so good news, I was hoping to maybe just have one head to deal with, that is not the case. RH side has ~60 psi compression in both cyl, but LH side has no compression at all, barely enough to make a hiss when I release the pressure after testing to remove the gauge. I think the next thing I am sorting out is going to be towing the car down to Buffalo, as I have to get the dash replaced before March when the warranty is up on that. Then I can deal with the engine. At least by moving the car out of this tiny garage, I can turn it around to make it easier to access the bay and remove the engine. Might be easier to ship the damn thing back to Colorado and have use of my dad's 3000 Sq ft shop again, and my hoist and engine stand are still there as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
covertrussian Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 I wonder if there is an aluminum version of that cam sprocket. If I were to replace them, I'd want to use something tougher if possible. I remember when I first found out they were plastic - "you've got to be kidding". When I was doing my cam seals I was thinking of replacing the plastic gears myself. Someone mentioned that the older DOHC metal cam gears might actually work. 05 LGT 16G 14psi 290whp/30mpg (SOLD) 12 OBP Stock 130whp/27mpg@87 Oct 00 G20t GT28r 10psi 250whp/36mpg 22 Ascent STOCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colodano Posted February 13, 2017 Author Share Posted February 13, 2017 I wonder if someone has any of those around to check, for science? I have a LH exhaust gear readily accessible here, and could get measurements from the RH side easily, as there are no timing covers on there right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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