Timing Belt Covers

[Dinky26]

I bought this 91 Loyale wagon over a year ago TRYING to get the time to do the head gaskets on the motor.

 

My question is with the timing belt covers, they are warped not drastically that being said I don't believe that they would match up if I were to put them back on which I won't be doing anyway.

 

How does, or can one tell how damaged the lower end is without tearing it completely down?

 

I believe I have most of the parts to do the job, I just need to get the heads surfaced

(after much consideration I've decieded that this is one thing not on my DIY list    )  

 

I can add some pics of the covers later here to see what you think, I am just not sure I want to put more time and money into something that might fail down the road.

 

The PO did tell me it was smoking pretty bad when it was parked and when I drained the oil, it did tell the story of white milk shake.

 

I have spied two other Subaru engines on Craigslist that sound like to be a good fit in my area, very tempted to go grab em up but I don't have much space to put them at this time.  One is a 2.2 rebuilt with manual and the other is a EA82 I am guessing.  I am very skeptical of buying fresh rebuilt stuff as this guy has stated.

 

See below.

 

http://wichita.craigslist.org/pts/4394836243.html

 

 

 

 

[Dinky26]

Pics finally to explain a little more.

[idosubaru]

melted timing belt covers isn't a good sign.  a friend bought an EJ22 two years ago with melted covers and i told him i wouldn't use it, i was helping him remove/install his first engine....it had rod knock not long after he installed it. i'm not at all saying that happens every time, a chance it's perfectly fine, but it's certainly a sign that things got really hot.

 

if you have time and don't mind redoing it or doing an engine swap if this doesn't work out - then give it a shot and go for it.  i'm at a point in life where i don't want to be pulling an engine twice. there's 10,000 other things i'd rather do than yanking and installing an engine twice out of the same vehicle.  and i could make a lot of money in that same amount of time so it's stupid to even consider (but i'm still awfully tempted to do stuff like this and would have 10 years ago).

 

the only test i think you can do i think is to have the oil analyzed by cmopanies that do UOA.  that would only be valuable if it's the oil that was overheated during the overheating episodes.  call those companies and ask and they can tell you if they can get quantitative results of bearing material amounts in a UOA.  

 

or disassemble the engine and check the bearings...but that's labor/cost intensive as you already know and mentioned.

Edited April 29, 2014 by grossgary

[Dinky26]

      Once again thrown away something that would have been useful at a later time    

 

Doesn't happen very often for the amount of stuff I still have

 

Any other ideas of cluing into what the bottom end of this might be like without tearing into it.

I don't want to spend a bunch more dollars so I can scrap it in the end.  

 

Maybe there is enough in the pan that I could send that off hopefully so, will be checking that when I get home.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

[Dinky26]

Another clue....makes me think this engine must have gotten really hot.

 

Still thinking I might send oil off for analysis though.

 

 

Thoughts???

Edited April 30, 2014 by Dinky26