Jensen

IT LIVES!!!!! (sorta) So everything went in REALLY easily. Apparently you DON'T need a puller to get the pulleys off, they just wiggled off by hand. I bolted everything back in except the radiator which is crumbling and showing some green staining (leaks!). SO I'm going to pick up a new one tomorrow (damn near restoring this car now...) Anyway, I wanted to see if it would turn over so I left the accessory belts off so the water pump wouldn't run and I thought I'd be ok with the car in park.... got a LITTLE bit of an ATF shower on my driveway from the hose that leads into the rad, BUT! the car turned over fine and seemed to run ok. I'll see how well it runs once I get the new rad in there.

Status ARRIVED! Just started ripin' things apart tonight, got the radiator out and then realized I'd left my puller at work so no dice on the pulleys (that and the wife picked up T-bone steaks for dinner... priorities you know!)

Still waiting on my e-bay timing belt kit. Status, shipped...

Just ordered a timing belt kit off of e-bay. Somebody earlier posted that I didn't have to worry about the valves, that's not really what I'm concerned about as it's non interference. I'm worried about the bottom end after driving it at highway speeds over a decent distance on only 2 cylinders. It's gotta be hard on the crank bearings with an engine so out of balance running at that RPM (4000, as mine is a crappy 2wd automatic) over that kind of distance. But, we'll see!

I'm in a bit of a tough situation. I have owned a 91 Loyale wagon for the past 5 years. It has been the most reliable vehicle I have ever owned. I bought it with only 90,000 km on it and it now has about 235,000. I bought it originally to be a cheep, semi-disposable car. I had been into German tuner cars, and I'd dumped thousands into vehicles over the years that I never got back. So when I bought the little wagon (or shoe as I referred to it) I figured it was the perfect car. Here was a vehicle so lame, so underpowered, that I'd never spend a dime on it. I could abuse it, I could ignore it, and I wouldn't shed a tear the day I had it smushed into a small cube at the wreckers. Well, I did just that, I never had to do much besides oil and filters. Ever. Which started to become amazing. Over the last year the car approached it's timing belt replacement mark, but, swearing that I'd never spend any money on it, I just kept driving it. I was in the process of getting a Mitsubishi Delica so I was going to get rid of it anyway. Why dump any money into it. Finally, while waiting in traffic, my faithful Subaru started to jiggle a bit more than usual. The engine didn't stall or stop, there was no horrible noise. Just a little less power and lot's of shaking. One of the belts finally went. I pulled over, thinking I was going to block traffic and that the second belt would go any second. But it was still idling and I could even move it around fine. I thought what the hell, it'll make for a funny story. So I put on my left turn signal and pulled back into traffic. I got the thing darn near up to highway speed and other than a little roughness, the damn thing kept running fine. I drove that thing about 10 km until I got it back to my work. I called BCAA (AAA) and when the tow truck arrived (a flatbed) I actually drove the damn thing up onto the flatbed! (with a bit of a running start). So my problem is, the government has a vehicle recycling program where you can get $300 to have your old car smushed into a cube. I registered the car, got the address of the dealership, and as I was going through it taking out any old stuff I'd left in the shoe. I had this horrible feeling, like I'm shooting old Yeller. I've never had a problem with getting rid of a BMW, why do I feel attached to my old sh#tbox commuter? I'm really torn about getting rid of it. I'm not sure if I've kicked the bottom end around too much and it'll never run right again, but a new set of belts isn't that expensive. I feel like I made a decision when I chose to drive it running on 2 cylinders. I wanted to see just how tough that little Japanese box really was. It's still running right now in fact! I think I owe it to that little car to take it all the way, so I'm replacing the timing belts and I'm going to see if it's still running fine after that. If it is, I might build a shrine to it (a'la Top Gear Toyota Hilux Diesel) as it will be proven that the Subaru Loyal is truly a piece of engineering genius. If it doesn't live a long happy life after that, it's still the most reliable car I ever owned and never once broke down to the point I couldn't drive it. (if the engine doesn't run I might just replace the whole damn thing and treat it right this time, I'm seriously having a hard time getting rid of this car...) I'll let you guy's know how it turns out either way.