Hello,

 

Yet another question from me.

 

I am doing the HG's on my 99 outback and it has a 2.5 DOHC. When I was taking off the heads some of the lifters fell out, and I may have put them back in the wrong place. How much trouble am I in? How do I make sure they are in the right spot.

 

thanks in advance

 

-Lance

Well - you should be doing a valve adjustment anyway - so you are (hopefully) not totally hosed.

 

You need to check each lifter for clearance with the cam lobe - you do this with a feeler gauge with the valve "unloaded" (closed). Intake valves need to be set to .008" and exhaust to .010". If they are too tight then you need to change the shim on top of the bucket. You will likely find several exhaust valves that need new (smaller) shims. They are around $6 each from the dealer but you will have to measure the old shim (micrometer), subtract the amount of clearance you need to add to get to the desired spec, and translate that into metric. Then you can order the new shim. Your local dealer should have a list of shim sizes and part numbers handy in their parts departement.

 

The reason you need to do a valve adjustment: if the clearances close up to zero you will "hang a valve" open and it will burn - causing a loss of compression in that cylinder and an expensive repair bill from your machine shop - not to mention another head gasket job

 

GD

Awesome. Thanks a lot GD, you are a wealth of knowledge.

 

-Lance