Great, thanks guys!  I'm glad I checked the FSM.

I've got the crank sprocket lined up with the back mark (and double-checked that the crank key was straight down).  Everything seems to be in order.  The drivers' side cam felt like it was spring loaded, and didn't want to stay on the mark.  I did some research and that seems to be normal.  And after a couple of tries it somehow decided to stay on the mark.  Not sure why that happened, but I'll roll with it . . .

I'm pretty sure the 44 and 40.5 tooth reference is for the 2.2 that has a 211 tooth belt. Your 2.5 I believe has a 223 tooth belt.

yeah, I'd COUNT all 200+ teeth on both belts to absolutely confirm they are the same.

 

then, count teeth from mark-to-mark before AND after pulling the pin of the tensioner. Then again after rotating the crank a coupla times by hand - before starting.

Put the belt on and the marks I made were definitely not right for the engine, but after further research this appears to be a known error in the FSM, and the correct marks are 47 and 43.5. Which happens to be where Gates put them.  Good job Gates!

OH MY GOD SHE LIVES!

Well, I haven't done a compression test.  I should probably still do that.  But I started it, ran it for 20 seconds or so, then killed it.  Sounded great.

 

Hell.  Yes.

Edited January 17, 201511 yr by Smo

150 PSI all around!  I don't remember the last time I felt so relieved!  Now to get to a junkyard and look for a new timing belt cover...

I attribute this to the fact that the pulley seized but didn't explode, so the belt never actually lost tension - when I took the cover off it was still super tight.  So I think it slipped just enough to die but not enough to damage the valves.

Very lucky to have no bent valves on that engine.

 

Generally when that idler goes it just eats the belt and spits out rubber chunks.

Got everything back together today, found a cover at the salvage yard.

Now it has one weird, new symptom - a rattling noise when idling in my driveway.  I haven't driven it around the block yet, but so far that's what I get.

It's coming from the front of the engine, sounds like from the drive belts.  It did not occur when I let the engine idle before putting the drive belts back on.

I'm used to a squeaking/squealing noise when drive belts are loose - could this also be a loose drivebelt issue?  I'll double check the tension here in a second.  I tried to tighten the tension bolts to the same place they were before I took them off, but I wasn't quite sure on one of them and decided to err on the side of slightly loose, figuring it would squeal if it was too loose.

Remove the belts one at a time and see which one makes the noise disappear.

The tensioner on the AC belt has a small bearing that fails fairly often.

Good advice, thanks.  I'll probably head back to the salvage yard tomorrow to look for my 22mm impact socket (doh!) - while I'm there I can grab whatever I need off of the 2006 forester that I got the timing cover from - it looked like it was in really good shape apart from some of the radiator lines draining what looked like pure oil when I removed them.  o_O