the3rsss

As I understand, and did, the sealer goes outside the cap. I put a blob down in that valley where the cap meets the valve cover. That's where the old stuff was.

That got me too. As with any engine, arrows always point to the engine front. Shims pop out of bucket with a pick or tweezers. If your shims are still marked, write numbers down THEN wipe them off. Those numbers wipe right off. Most of my intake were .009 one was .010. The exhaust were all right on except for two, they were both .008. I couldn't believe the cap bolts took such little torque 90 in lbs. They are! I still tweaked the inside bolts a little more. It was alot of measuring, checking and double checking, but not hard. Hell, if you exhaust is measuring .008. Spec calls for .010. And the shim is a .025. Then you need a .023. Simple.

I just wrapped up this job. Valve adj is not hard at all. Label everything! With the heads off measure valve clearance. Use a good micrometer and measure the installed shim. My ships still had the size marked on them. Subtract or add the diff. The Haynes manual has a listing of shims with subaru numbers. Order your shims put in new shims and double check cleara-ce. Not hard. i had two tight exh valves and one sloppy intake.

It's done! New....water pump, idlers, t belt, separator, and of course head gaskets. Took about 3 weeks. I was in no rush. Did a lot of little stuff like replaced all the vac hoses, cleaned the intake and objectors, adj the valves ( 60 bucks worth of ships). Also cleaned the pan and pickup, oil pump o ring, and all new seals. Yes, I left the rear main seal alone. After printing the oil pump, she started right up! I used assembly lube. Idled fine. Runs a lil off but I now have a knock sensor code. Think I overtightened it. Engine is alot quieter. Very smooth almost easy pull and drop. Never needed a 2nd pair of hands. Very easy motor to work on. So, I think I'm.all set. If I can get another 130k out of this trans( not the smoothed at I've ever owned) ill be happy. Thanks for everyone's help. BTW... I just can't imagine doing this job on the car. Just can't see how its even possible.

I just found a thread on this site titled " cam bearing cap torque sequence" in the thread is what looks like a fsm showing inner larger bolts at 14 ft lb and outer cap bolts at 7.5 ft lb?

Small block Chevy mentality I guess. Let's torque the hell out of everything.

Well, just seemed low. Plus...the end caps are a diff size.I was thinking maybe 15 lbs?

I have a 99 obw. 2.5 dohc. Haynes manual just lists " cam bearing cap screws 70 - 90 in lbs. ?? Really Haynes? Really?

Ordered the shims i need from my local subaru dealer. Just for kicks i asked him if he sells alot of these. He said " been in parts for 13 years and this is the first time i remember". No one adjusts their valves? Or is this shim bucket system only used for a few years?

Hi. I have a 2.5 dohc out of a 99obw. heads are on the bench. I measured each shim, installed the cam then measured clearance with the lobe at its lowest spot. Any reason this wont give me accurate measurements? btw...2 tight exh valves both .008. all the intakes are at or near ,009. sound like i got it right?

Hey...I love the screwdriver idea. Ive been "mucking around" in engines since I was sixteen. If I purchased every"special tool" the general and every other mfg called for i'd be broke. God! They have "special service tools" for everything. disorder is right. who wants to spend 300 for a tool you may use twice? Ive see tips like the "screwdriver trick" where you get in there and say "woooooo, this aint gonna work" and i have seen them work great!! Two words...common sense!

oh yeah. Even labeled the bolts

well, the engine is out. Heads are at the machine shop. Both head gaskets blew in the same spot. Ordered head gaskets etc online from subaruparts.com. Fail!! Everything they sent was for a sohc. Did they even use a sohc engine in the obw that year? And yes, I gave them my vin number. So this will set me back. Can i use the head gaskets? PN 11044aa633? The plastic seperator plate was leaking so i ordered a metal kit. The rear seal looked fine so i left it alone. In the front, i replaced the oil pump blue oring, cam seals and crank seal. All the idlers and timing belt are gates. Really good people to work with!! Replaced the water pump with a gates while i was in there. I forgot to write down the valve clearences before i tore the motor down so that should make the valve adj interesting. Can the valves be adj off the motor? Ill keep you all posted on my parts return and how this all ends up. thanks to all who have posted.

Just an update. Got intake off, everything disconnected and unbolted. Engine is ready to come out.. went with all subaru gaskets. Not a bad job at all. Only real problem were the exhaust bolts. Soaked them, cleaned them, then heated them and still broke two off. Couple of questions...... why does the book say to mark the flexplate? What is the purpose of removing the dogbone? Why set the crank at t.d.c.? Finally, I want the heads cleaned, tested, new cam and stem seals, and surfaced. And oh yeah, a couple of helicoils. What would you guys consider a fair price?

I guess you could pull the heads on the car but damn it looks tight! And what about cleanliness? I put together motors when I was young, all Chevy small blocks, and i know that cleanliness is half the battle! Just don't know how, with that engine design, I can get the surfaces clean enough. Id rather put extra work into it and do it right. Please let me know if I'm wrong. Trying to gather as much info as I csn.

Ok. All subaru gaskets. How about bolts? Do you guys routinely replace head bolts? I'm ordering parts now. Anything else I need?

How does this sound..I can get a fel pro head gasket set for 75.00. Ill toss out the fel pro h gaskets and go to the dealer and get oem head gaskets, but use fel pro everywhere else. Dont want to do this job twice so any comments tips will be appreciated.

Haha I'm thinking a valve job will cost me 50 bucks. Living in the past!

Well.unfortunately your right. It is a cheap cap. Hopefully its junk. I'll get a good cap and see what happens. If I do need hg, do you guys usually redeck the heads? Anything else i should take care of while the engine is out?

Got engine hot and reved it. No bubbles in bottle. No exhaust smell either. Years ago they had dye you put in your water to test for exhaust in water. Guy in napa looked at me like i was crazy when I asked for it. Any other way , short of pulling the heads, to test? Compression prob won't help. Leak down test prob won't tell me anything. Pressurized cooling system? Any ideas?

Well, I'm very anal about my work. New thermostat and cap. Would pulling the heads and replacing the hg be a good idea for maintenance? If the failure rate is high I could do the job now and get a valve job while its apart.

Ps... never overheated.

99 outback 2.5 130k just replaced tbelt about 200r mi ago. Among other things, replaced waterpump and flushed cooling system. Recently, after a long hot trip with the ac on, I parked and smelled that sweet smell of coolant. It was overflowing from the resevoir. Went back down when it cooled. Nothing in oil. Coolant is fresh and looks it. Bottle is clean. No white smoke. Haven't reved it yet to look for bubbles or took a wiff of the bottle. What are common symptoms for this engine?

Yesterday morning , I open the hood, pushed it back into the sun , said @#$k it, and went to the beach. This morning it started right up! First time I ever fixed a car while laying on the beach!! I must have gotten water into a connector etc. I forgot that a dirty engine is a happy engine. Well. all in all it was not that bad of a job. The crank marks are kinda obscure but the other marks are straightforward. I took out the whole radiator. Easier then messing with the fans and gave me more room to work. covering the condenser with cardboard was a great tip, thanks. Chain wrench worked fine on the crank pulley bolt. I used a gates belt, water pump, and idler kit. Emailed their customer service on a sat night and they got back to me within an hour!! Amazing service!! You cant get the marks perfect. I got them all daed on except the drivers top cam. hat was off about 5mm but when i pulled the pin on the tensioner it dropped to about 2mm off. Thats VERY close!! Thanks to everybody who responded to my post. Now its on to the cel.

I'm sure I got the marks right. Dot on housing near crank sensor. Dash on pully guide attached to crank. Dash on drivers cam pully. Both sides. Lower cam pully line up with double dashes. Drivers side came moved off marks but I read this is common and simply lined them back up. The mark on the crank was dead on. Drivers side was a lil off but got close ,I'm talking 2 or 3 mm, when I released the tensioner. Both pass side marks weredead on. When I hand cranked it everything lined up again. Just thought of something...:before i began this job, steam cleaned the engine. That was monday. Hmmm....moisture somewhere?? God I hope so.