Hi,

 

I just finished replacing my head gaskets and such on my SOHC 2.5L 2000 Forester and realized that I did not mark the teeth on the timing belt prior to disassembly. DOH! On reassembly, I followed the manual I have and it says 40.5 teeth on the driver's side and 44 teeth to the passenger side.

 

The problem I have is that I need more teeth on both sides to get the gears anywhere near the timing marks. It appears like 44.5 teeth on the driver's side and 47 teeth on the passenger side are needed to get all there gear in the 12:00 position. Is that right?

 

What is the spark plug gap for this engine?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Dennis

Tooth count is 43.5 and 47.

 

Spark plug gap is 1-1.1 mm, .039-.043 in. Most people suggest sticking with NGK (BKR6E-11) copper plugs.

 

I imagine you're also replacing all the seals while the engine is out. Good luck.

Yep, I replaced many of the seals/O-rings and the water pump while I had it out. I removed oil pump and replaced the seal and O ring, removed the pan and replaced the pick-up O ring, and removed the water manifold to replace the O-rings. I replaced the front cam seals and I am going to replace the rear main seal once I get the engine off the stand. I also did a valve job and verified that the head was flat (.0015.) The crap on the exhaust valve was too tough to lap so I refaced them (neighbor has machine shop in backyard garage ) and then I lapped them to the original seats. The intake valves looked nice and so I just lapped them in with out refacing.

 

I was surprised at how nice the cylinders and such were after 130K miles. The engine had no leaks, except the driver's side head gasket. Even so, the various O-rings were hard and brittle. It was only a matter of time until they started to leak.

 

Hopefully reinstalling the motor will go smoothly. . . . .

 

Here are e pages of pics of my motor as I was disassembling it:

 

http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n229/dennis_8047/Subaru%20Motor/

 

Currently they are in reverse order on the site. I took all the pics to use as a guide for reassembly. Lots of plugs, hoses and wires. I was able to pull the motor without draining the AC once I removed the intake manifold.

 

Thanks for your quick help.

 

Dennis

Hi Dennis. Hohieu's teeth counts sound right. I had the same problem on my '00 2.5l sohc. I was really confused because the teeth counts in the manual are just plain impossible. Maybe they're for the 2.2L. The geared/toothed belt idler is often a good candidate for replacement.

Hi Dennis. Hohieu's teeth counts sound right. I had the same problem on my '00 2.5l sohc. I was really confused because the teeth counts in the manual are just plain impossible. Maybe they're for the 2.2L. The geared/toothed belt idler is often a good candidate for replacement.

 

 

Cool, thanks for the back up!

Hi Dennis. Hohieu's teeth counts sound right. I had the same problem on my '00 2.5l sohc. I was really confused because the teeth counts in the manual are just plain impossible. Maybe they're for the 2.2L. The geared/toothed belt idler is often a good candidate for replacement.

I thought that was the case as well, Porcupine, but read somewhere that it's the revised (verically positioned) tensioner used on newer Subes that accounts for the higher tooth counts. The older numbers (40.5,44) apply to the older horizontally positioned tensioner.

 

It's pretty silly that even the factory service manuals, didn't upadate this info.

 

BTW, Dennis, if you're not replacing the t-belt idlers, it's possible to regrease them by removing the seals.