Hey hey -

Swapping the heads on a forester right now that had a couple belt valves from breaking a timing belt.

my dog, a doof, stepped on the timing covers while they were off and broke them!

I know people run open covers on the EA82, I do that myself, but I’m wondering if anyone goes without the covers on the EJ25.

Gotta finish the job today. What do y’all say? Okay to run this forester w/o timing covers?

yes, you can run it without the covers. it wont hurt anything if you dont have them.

Just be aware that it leaves your timing belt more vulnerable to debris that could potentially cause problems.

You can get timing cover pretty easily at junk yards that have bad blocks.

 

 

Don't. They are CHEAP from Subaru. 

Epoxy them back together. Buy new or used. Lots of options.  drive it like that until you get covers   

I run without covers all the time, but not on interference engines.

For the time, cost and labor of bent valves it’s penny wise dollar dumb for most people. Debris and spills could be problematic.  the pulleys rust out here which means 4 rusty pulleys churning against the tbelt. Maybe benign but I’ll pass on interference engines