watson524

Nope, timing belt didn't break, and doesn't look like it jumped time either. We aren't entirely sure what the heck happened but something in the passenger side bank went awry since it'll turn with the key but gets stuck there by hand. Someone interested in buying it was asking me about their Forester engine.

Yep SUS is DOHC. Thanks for the info.

Still trying to sell the dead 99 SUS. First off, can someone tell me if it's EGR or non EGR? If I'm counting bolts correctly, looks like it's a 4 bolt? Also, can a 99 Forester engine go in it?

Oddly no metal shavings of any kind came out when the oil was drained so we're still perplexed. Got the 2015 yesterday. Sweet car! The voice commands do way more than just dial someone like on my Honda Pilot which I wasn't expecting. The 99 is still for sale.

Good tip on the car parts but not posting, just might do that. And the 2015 should be great. Amazing what all the new "fancy" stuff it has It'll be my husbands. He took my 99 back in late 2010 when I got a Honda Pilot tho I can easily see me going back to a Subbie when I'm done with the Pilot, and since I tend to keep cars a long time, it might be the 2015 Subbie that I end up in when the time comes

I am sort of hesitant to put it on the car parts section because I don't want to have to rip it apart and not sure I want people coming here and picking it apart either. But I'm renewing it each week so it gets back to the top, maybe I should do it more often if they allow that. Ordered a 2015 Legacy Limited with the 2.5 engine.

Yep, we ordered the new one last nite with no trade. Just not worth it for us to mess with it. Thought I had a bite on it but the guy wanted to give me something ridiculously low (even after I came down in price) and then when I wouldn't go lower told me he had to come to wherever I was (Craig's list ad tells where I am) and haul it away. Yeah not exactly my problem when you're shopping for a car that's advertised as "bad engine, doesn't run".

Ok so sort of what we expected but not sure if we want to go that far vs hope someone wants to buy it and bring it back to life. We're ordering the new one this week because even if we got it going, it'd be to trade in and what we'd make on the trade in vs what would be put into it plus our time, probably doesn't make much sense.

What does pulling the heads entail here? Radiator out for more room I guess, mainfold off and have a go at it? Would a bore scope show valve through piston if that's the case? The valve clearly isn't opening all the way as we turn it.

Valve cover came off. I think it must have loosened over nite Anyway, cylinders 1 and 3 both appear goofed up (which the compression sort of already told us). The stop point for turning the engine is visible where the cam lobe on 3 comes around to meet the valve. I have to do some more research on the timing marks because there for some reason are two on the top sprocket of the passenger side. When we get one lined up with the notch on the cover, the driver side isn't lined up and we can't line the driver side up because of the "stop point". Still not sure if it jumped time or what the heck happened but I'm going to try to source a bore scope and have a look down in there to see if we can see a bent valve or something. Don't really want to take the head off at this point unless we get motivated when we see what we see with the bore scope.

We've had every kind of wrench and vise grips and vise grips on wrenches known to man on this at this point. Trying again in a bit.

The head gasket was done not ALL that long ago so we're all shocked that this one won't budge. And with the rubber gasket at the top of it, penetrating oil doesn't really get down in there and then threads are so far in anyway, not sure if it'd help. We'll give it another go later today.

Well the saga continues. At this point it's more to find what the heck the issue is than to actually fix it. Compression on drivers side cylinders front and back (2 and 4) is 85 and 100 respectively. On the passenger side, 0. Doesn't even move the gauge. Ok so we took off the timing belt inspection cover and the other cover on the driver's side and the belt looks fine (as it had before but our friend wanted to see it). Put a bar on it and turn it by hand to watch things..... turns left to a certain point, then stops. Like no budging makes it go. Same after a certain point to the right. Now apparently the starter is strong than we are so now we're thinking it skipped time (tho there's no slack in the belt and it's in good shape) and let valve and piston collide. Ok it's Friday afternoon and why not pull the passenger side valve cover and see what's what. 5 bolts off. Bottom rear bolt will NOT come off. Tried everything possible and it just will not budge. I am wondering if whatever flew off the tracks is up near the bolt and has it jammed up (is that even possible??). So my husband's friend is coming back tomorrow and they'll try some other things. Getting on this one bolt is particularly hard but there's no way it should be this tight.

So for my own learning, in that clip, is there 5 full cycles and that high whine at the end of each is the compression issue?

We looked at the timing belt and it seems fine and turns when you crank the engine. I made a sound clip of it tonite if anyone wants to try to play guess the sound site unseen http://sveneskyrealtor.com/testsite/engine.html