Ok. I've been fighting this battle for a while now on my '93 Impreza, ej18. I did the whole timing belt shindig a little over a month ago and all seemed fine. Well, except the car had no power. I tried ruling everything out by doing a tune up. Still no dice, so I reluctantly pulled it back apart this week. Waaaay off. Well, I had everything lined up spot on, put it all back together and tried to start. What do I get? No start and a backfire of protest. Sooo....tore it down again and everything is still spot on. What's going on here? Is it possible for it to be wrong and have all the timing marks still line up right?

 

Sorry for the trouble. I tried searching, but there are so many timing belt posts it's impossible to find what you're looking for.

It sounds like your timing is off. I'm not sure about the 1.8, but the 2.5 and I think the 2.2 have various markings on the cam sprockets. There are arrows, which I think is piston position - this is *not* the mark to use for lining up timing. There are dashes also which I think are the timing alignment marks.

 

Otherwise try compression test and see what you get.

I kind of figured the timing was off. I just don't know why. I used the dashes etched into the metal of the cam sprokets. Not the orange painted arrows. On the passenger side, the arrow and the dash line up exactly. On the driver's side they do not. :/ Chiltons says that both camshaft marks and the crankshaft mark should be pointing at 12 o'clock. All are pointing at 12 o'clock. So what's the hitch here?

Hm..maybe it's the crankshaft sprocket that's off. I noted several marks on my 2.5L. I had to pay careful attention to the diagram in the service manual ot make sure I had the right one.....

 

The weird thing is the backfire, which makes me think maybe the intake valves are not completely closed when the cylinder fires.

Pull tensioner and re-pin in vise. Reinstall with the 2 bolts loosely.

 

Set belts to 12:00.

 

The cams have notches on the outer ring edge. Set them at 12:00. The arrows should point around 2:00 if you have them close.

 

The crank pulley...the crank key should point down and theres a notch in the gear that corresponds to the oil pump where the crank angle sensor is installed.

 

When they are all lined up right install the belt. The last pulley to go on is the one on the water pump that is cogged. Move all the slack in the belt toward that spot by taking a wrench and turning the drivers side cam such that the belt snugs up on it.

Hand thread the bolt thru the cog into the water pump and then snug it all the way down.

 

Now take a screwdriver and slide the belt tensioner over toward the passenger side of the car slightly...maybe 1/4" gap when you have it all the way over in the bolt holes and then bolt down one of the 12MM bolts so it stays put. Snug them both down.

 

Pull the pin out of the tensioner. Then turn the drivers side cam gear slightly to load tension onto the belt.

 

Clear everything out of the engine bay that can go flying around and try starting the car. See if it runs right before putting all the covers back on and such. Don't run it real long just enough to tell if its right.

 

Make engine compartment pretty again and put your tools away for next time....60K from now.