ericcroll

Do yourself a favor before it's too late... Pop a fuse into the FWD fuse holder near the passenger side strut tower to lock it into FWD. If the problem goes away, then my bet is that somebody changed some combination of the tranny/diff, and now the front diff no longer matches the rear one. I got the same torque converter code (0740) while experiencing a vibration like you describe, and discovered that I put in a tranny that was not the year that the seller told me it was. I have been driving the car in FWD mode for about a year now with no troubles. One of these days I plan to change the rear diff to match the front on but I haven't gotten there yet.

Indeed, it was an early 98 build date. The heads are back in and the car is running great. Now if I could only figure out how to get rid of that darn EVAP code!! The 97 OBW (originally a 2.5) doesn't have the same configuration as the 98 2.2.

Do any of you happen to know how much r134 the system is supposed to hold? I evacuated my system, and then put in two cans of r134, and although it is working, it is not getting as cold as I'm thinking it should (97 OBW) Eric

I kind of figured that was a date code, but I wasn't sure which was the month and which was the day. Your rationale about a September build being a 99 is a good call. Eric

I pulled this motor at a junkyard, and put it in my 97 OBW last year. To make a long story short, the heads are now at the shop to be redone, but the guy tells me that he needs to know which EJ-22 it is, as they changed them in April or May of that year. He tells me that there is another letter code after the EJ-22. Does anybody know how to tell? I got the following numbers from the block: VIN - 4S3BK4253W7321517 Stamp - 3608 Stamp - 6 Stamp - 1-D Print - 98 3 09 Eric

I'm not 100% sure what happened first, but the timing belt got about 6 teeth sheared off of it. It only had about 10000 miles on it and it appeared to be in very good shape... almost like something stopped one of the cams and the crank just stripped it. In any case, pistons met valves, and now they're hanging open. I'm open for suggestions, but I had a shop tell me $60 per head plus parts, and I thought that was pretty good. Eric

That's some pretty helpful poo, right there. Thank you very much. After having very little luck at the JY finding what I wanted, I've decided to just rebuild the '98 that I have (heads). This information will be quite useful. Can I get rebuilt heads cheaper than having mine redone? Eric

The torque converter and I have already gotten acquainted. Do all of these seals come in some kind of kit that you're aware of. I already got the timing belt kit with the idlers and WP.

Thanks. I already checked the EGR. Reseal what?

I'm looking at pulling a '96 EJ22 with a manual transmission to swap in for a '98 with an auto trans. I know that the difference in year is not a problem, but I'm unsure about the transmission situation. Does anybody know if the there is a difference between the two? Eric

Yeah, well my timing belt just went at about 10,000 mi., and took the top end with it. Hence my new love for the non-interference engine! I was just curious if there were any advantages to the 98 (interference) model vs. the older non-interference. Obviously, the 98 model bolts right up to my exhaust, so that shouldn't really be an issue. Eric

According to John and the VIN code, this is a '98 model (W). Apparently, it had already been swapped out of the car by the time I got to it (it was in a 96 Legacy). In any case, since I am now going to be heading back to the JY this weekend to get myself another engine, do any of you have any suggestions? I was thinking about looking for another 96 (with the hopes of actually finding one this time). I like the idea of non-interference (even more so after looking at those pistons) as opposed to the 98 model type. I already had the exhaust modified from the original dual port for the 2.5 to the single port, so I'm not sure that switching back to a dual port engine would be the greatest of ideas, although I'm not a welder so what do I know? Now that I know where the VIN is, I can feel pretty confident that I won't get duped again. There was a pretty large selection last time, so I think that I can get just about whatever I'm looking for. Suggestions? Eric

I thought about it being a date, but it didn't seem right to me either. It is a single-cam, single-exhaust port, with EGR: I thought that only happened in 96 with the EJ22s. I'm going to check the VIN tonight. Eric

Well, the engine is out, the head is off, and there was definitely a piston-valve collision, Both driver's side pistons have intake valve scars on them. For a non-interference engine, that's a pretty neat trick. So, the stamp on the top of the engine block says 3608. There is also a printed number behind the driver's side cam sprocket that says 98 3 09. Can anybody identify either of these numbers so that I can find the true origin of this motor? Eric

Yeah, resistance = interference in my world as of right now. Eric

I and a friend of mine who knows a little bit more about it than I do pumped air into the cylinders and determined that there is a valve leak someplace. We had air escaping from one cylinder while pumping air into the other when valves should have been closed. The head is already loose, but I can't seem to get it out of there. I haven't taken the pitch roll brace off yet, and I haven't started pulling motor mounts either. Is there any way that I can get the head off without pulling the motor? Why did they make those bolts so damn long?!? Eric

I think Import Export is where I got the belt kit this time, but the idlers that they sent me were wrong; they would require a slightly shorter bolt, or a flat washer as a spacer. I definitely have interference at TDC. Are you saying that there should be some spring interference, but not at TDC? Everything was dry inside of the timing belt covers, so I doubt that it was oil contamination, and the belt only had 10,000 miles on it. I originally thought that it might have been a tensioner failure, but that seemed to be fine when I removed it. I have compressed and released it a couple of times, and it seems to be responding well.

Everything spun freely... cams, idlers, water pump, etc. The tensioner seemed fine. I did not notice any moisture. It was compressed somewhat slowly... not over ten minutes, but maybe a minute or two with slow pressure in a vise. Eric

Well, that explains the interference at TDC on the driver's side. I think that I bought the belt at Advance, but I don't remember for sure. When I got the belt off, all of the idlers seems to spin freely, so I could not detect a failure there. I didn't do anything else to the engine. I considered overhauling the front end when I did the belt, but it seemed fairly easy to get at, and I was kind of tight on cash at the time, so I just put it off. Eric

Okay, so here's the deal... The car is a 97 OBW (160000, AT) with an EJ22 from a 96 Legacy (130000). The car died after running cold for about 5 seconds... no warning. I suspected the timing belt, even though I put a new one on about 10,000 miles ago when I did the swap. Sure enough, the belt has about 6 or 7 teeth stripped off of it. Now I know that this is a non-interference engine, but when the crank and driver's side cam are aligned at TDC, there is interference, which is probably why it stripped my belt. So I started pulling the head, but am now stuck. First of all, do I have to pull the engine to remove the head? It seems to be awfully tight with those four-foot-long head bolts coming out into the frame. Also, have you ever heard of a failure like this before? All of the reading I've done indicates this engine is bullet-proof. What happened??? Eric

Okay, so I got all of the drive shaft bolts out, but separating the shaft from the diff. is giving me trouble. It's not that they're stuck, but rather that it seems as though the drive shaft is kind of spring loaded toward the diff. I can separate them enough to see between them , but I can't seem to get them to separate to the point where they won't be interfering with one another. Am I just not trying hard enough, or am I missing something? Eric

Okay, so I got all of the drive shaft bolts out, but separating the shaft from the diff. is giving me trouble. It's not that they're stuck, but rather that it seems as though the drive shaft is kind of spring loaded toward the diff. I can separate them enough to see between them , but I can't seem to get them to separate to the point where they won't be interfering with one another. Am I just not trying hard enough, or am I missing something? Eric

Help? Am I missing something, or do I just not have rights to create a new post? I am trying to possibly get a used timing belt hydraulic tensioner by Friday and am looking for some help on this site. I don't know if that's what's wrong or not, but I'm going to be doing to timing belt change on the road, so I want to have all of my bases covered (without spending a fortune on a new one that I might not need).

I have read both 120 Nm and 120 ft-lbs for recommended torque on the crank pulley. Does anybody know for sure which is correct?