Suby broke down, possible timing belt?

indy · Post by **indy** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:22 pm

Hey guys was driving the suby today, when all the sudden a big thud the Oil light popped on followed by all the lights and then engine turned off. after many failed attempts of trying to kick it over, it just wont! had to get the car towed back to my place.
Car will turn but it wont kick over? and it doesn't sound healthy when trying to kick over. I was thinking timing belt, just because i purchased the car when it roughy had 250k on the clock, it now has 320k and i havent changed the timing belts

Tommorrow im going to take the covers off and see if theres a broken belt?
I've had a lot of bad fuel/spark problems, where the car wont kick over, this time i think its something a bit more though as the big thud and it really doesnt sound like normal when trying to kick over?

thunder039 · Post by **thunder039** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:33 pm

do you know when the belt was change before you owned it?

revmax · Post by **revmax** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:37 pm

what car is it

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 5:08 pm

sounds like an L Series, you'd think it would wait for Xmas eve to do this !!

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 5:51 pm

Easiest way to check is to pull off the dizzy cap and get someone to try and start the car.. if dizzy no spin, then most likely a belt

Unless of course the engine is an EJ variant.. and hopefully not quadcam

indy · Post by **indy** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:06 pm

thanks guys, yeh its an L series! RSR thanks for that info mate ill try that tomoz and will post back with results!

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:14 pm

Good luck with finding the problem, hoping for you that it isn't a belt snapped...engine is absolute toast if one has gone isn't it?

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 7:53 am

No, not with most EA82, they are free spinners and it always seems to be the LH bank belt that goes, quite clever in that if it goes so too does your spark supply from the dizzy, and just as well coz the oil pump stops oil delivery too. It'd be disater if spark kept up to two cylinders and you tried to keep driving while oil pump stopped delivery !
Good advice is to get a complete timing belt kit with two new tensioners and idler cog. Some better kits also come with crank seal and cam seals, and oil pump ? so if you renew them correctly and they no leak oil on new belts causing premature failure.

Some deals are found in US with a week to deliver sometimes !!

indy · Post by **indy** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:34 am

tried cranking it over this morning but battery is dead from having hazard lights on yesterday for a couple of hours/and trying to start it a couple of times.

Timing belt kit from the US is exactly what i was thinking steptoe, http://www.ebay.com/itm/85-94-1-8-SUBAR ... 255fd731a0

Ill probably have to be carless for 1-2 weeks if timing belt is the case, going to see if my mate whos a mechanic can come over give me a jump start and see if it is the timing belt, then ill be trying to order that as soon as i can! will keep yas posted with what the problem is!

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:47 am

indy wrote:tried cranking it over this morning but battery is dead from having hazard lights on yesterday for a couple of hours/and trying to start it a couple of times.

Timing belt kit from the US is exactly what i was thinking steptoe, http://www.ebay.com/itm/85-94-1-8-SUBAR ... 255fd731a0

Ill probably have to be carless for 1-2 weeks if timing belt is the case, going to see if my mate whos a mechanic can come over give me a jump start and see if it is the timing belt, then ill be trying to order that as soon as i can! will keep yas posted with what the problem is!

Did you try the dizzy thing? I'd suggest do this FIRST before anything else. Good luck with it...

FujiFan · Post by **FujiFan** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 11:31 am

Hey indy I recently purchased a timing belt kit from the US as a spare, complete with idler and tensioners + cam & crank seals. The quality appears to be there:D, def not cheap rubbish. Although delivery took 17 days. Twas far cheaper than the Gates brand kit I purchased 6mths ago from Ripco. Although the Gates kit is closest to genuine Subaru IMO, if you could get the idler and tensioners from Subaru that is.

And where abouts on the coast you at, I may be able to help out.
If it does turn out to be the belt/s, I have an assortment of tools now specifically for doing cam belt replacment - to do the job properly!!:)

J

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 1:18 pm

L.Series stock has the EA82 engine and no probs if you bust a belt. Like Jonno said the are non-interference fitted pistons, so no worries.

I once had a RX Turbo on a rally that seemed to lose 1/2 it's power.. at low revs it was a pig and rattled all the bog out of the car

turned out that it broke the RH side timing belt, so the dizzy still turned and injectors still pulsed but no runny.. compression check sorted out that one though.

I'd pull the front covers off and inspect first.. no point spending lots of money on a engine with that high of kms (IMO) and you never know, you might even consider an upgrade one day

indy · Post by **indy** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 1:55 pm

Okay tried turning engine over by hand, dizzy rotor didnt turn!
I jumped the gun and bought timing belt kit off ebay from US. May not even be the timing belt, but im hoping it is now lol. ended up being 115 express shipped from america, it says about 4-6 days. I'm on uni holidays, so its not a big deal as i can get a car to goto work for the couple of nights a week i work.

Fuji im at Empire bay (near kincumber) thanks alot for the offer! my cousin has already offered to help me out with it but. will keep updated.
I got a heater core which arrived a day before this dillemma, in the meantime while i wait for this timing belt i might tackle that lol

Will get the car on a better surface (sitting on a slope in the grass) and take the covers off after chrissy and have a look to see if it is the belts. thanks alot for the help guys!

sven '2' · Post by **sven '2'** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 2:11 pm

Do the water pump while your there too.

indy · Post by **indy** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 7:32 pm

update: ended up being the left hand timing belt. ordered a kit off ebay from america, on the 23, arrived on the 27th. amazing turnaround considering international and christmas. My cousin helped put belts in and new tensioners, started putting it back together, tried kicking it over. was running like shit and backfiring and spewing fuel out the carby!
The alignment marks on both sprockets line up with the notches in the case and also lines up with the middle of the valve timing marks of the flywheel? could the belt still be a tooth out, or the distributor or something?
We did a dry compression test and was getting 160 on each cyclinder on the left side, and 190 and 200 on the other side.
ran out of time to check anymore, will have another look in a couple of days. any ideas or anyone had similiar situation? thanks guys!

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 7:49 pm

I guess you sound like you used the three marks about 120 degrees away from ignition timing marks. Obviously you need to install the inner belt first, tension it up, spin engine clockwise from the front one revolution only, instal belt #2, do its tensinewr then spin a few times checking all the timing marks for belt install and it should all be correct

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 8:41 pm

steptoe wrote:you need to install the inner belt first, tension it up, spin engine clockwise from the front one revolution only, instal belt #2

Yep, this is what took me three months to work out when I first got Ruby Scoo going - pre forum days. My sister's L series is what got me on to it when a head gasket replacement had it doing the same thing, dad just happened to put it back together correctly by chance when we first got that one going!

All is not lost!

Cheers

Bennie

NachaLuva · Post by **NachaLuva** » Fri Dec 30, 2011 9:16 pm

This is what I love about these forums, the wealth of information.

good pick up steptoe & El Freddo

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 4:42 pm

As long as the makes (small holes) on the cam pulleys are opposite (one at 6o'clock and the other at 12o'clock) then you'll have no probs. If it doesn't fire, then just turn the dizzy 180deg and off she'll go

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 5:28 pm

RSR 555 wrote:As long as the makes (small holes) on the cam pulleys are opposite (one at 6o'clock and the other at 12o'clock) then you'll have no probs. If it doesn't fire, then just turn the dizzy 180deg and off she'll go

So long as the passenger's side cam is aligned at 12 o'clock and the flywheel is on those three little marks you'll be sweet so long as you've rotated the crank shaft ONE ROTATION then put on the second belt. Doing this and then turning the dizzy 180 degrees will not run the engine.

However,

NOT rotating the crank once between belt installs will only ever have the engine run on one side, you can rotate the dizzy 180 degrees until the cow comes home but it will continue to run on only one side of the engine, the dizzy rotation will simply make it run on the other bank (left or right) from what it was running previously.
This is what got me and I couldn't get my head around it for some time back then!

Cheers

Bennie