change  the belt  and cure  your  carnack  foresee problem

Wallace,

This is a fairly simple job.  If you are going to change the timing
belt, you should consider changing the water pump as well as the cam
and crank seals while you are at it.  To change the belt you only have
to take out the radiator fans, although only 4 screws hold the radiator
in, so you could figure the engine could use a complete flush and
without the radiator you have a whole lot more room to work.  The most
difficult task is taking off the crank pulley bolt and then the
camshaft pulleys if you decide to replace the crank seals.  I removed
and resealed the oil pump on mine as well, but that is not neccessary,
but does make it easier to get at the crank oil seal.  To remove the
crank pulley bolt you need to buy the special subaru tool or use a
chain wrench to lock the pulley.  If the car is a manual put it in
gear, apply the brake, and heave your breaker bar.  With and auto you
need to hold the crank pulley or lock the flywheel.  The bolt on my
manual was on so tight that it caused the clutch to slip with the
breaker bar.  I used the following technique quite cautiously.  Put
22mm socket on the pulley bolt and wedge the breaker bar in the frame.
(if you looking at the engine standing in front of the car you will
want to wedge the breaker bar on the right).  Pull the connector for
the ignitor or the coil wires to keep the engine from starting and give
the engine a quick crank.  From what I understand many technicians use
this technique.  Make sure you buy timing belt that has the timing
marks on the belt.  You will have to remove the hydraulic tensioner and
compress it with a vise (you hold it compressed with a small allen
wrench that fits through the holes & compress it very slowly).  You
will also have to remove the lower idler pulley to get the belt back
on.  Make sure you very verify that the belt was put on properly by
aligning with the small notches on the cam sprocket and the notch just
above the crank sprocket.  (do not use the arrows on the cam pulleys,
these identify piston location, not timing).  Any repair manual will
also show you the proper teeth count between the left/right cam pulleys
and the crank pulley.  Make sure you do this count before you put it
back together.  Your EJ22 engine is non-interference so you dont have
to work about rotating the cam shafts once the belt is off.  If you
decide to replace the cam belts you will need the special tool to
remove the sprockets just a make a strap wrench with a segment of the
old timing belt and a pair of vise grips.  For re-assembly I used
Medium strength permatex (blue) and tigthened to factory specs.  People
seemed paranoid that the crank pulley will come loose and tighten them
to upward of 200+ foot pounds.  I replaced the cam seals, crank seal,
new water pump (~$70)resealed the oil pump with permatex 599 super
grey, new timing belt, radiator flush, new thermastat/gasket,
oil/filter change and new drive belt for about $150.  It took me a the
better part of a single day, but alot of that work was cleaning the
mess from the failed crank seal that leaked oil everywhere.  Just
e-mail me if you have any specific questions.

It is not a interferance motor and if you are mechanically inclined
and can follow a manual, it is not a hatefull job to do.  One word of
caution though, new belts tend to stretch, even the ones that are not
supposed to so run it enough to warm it up fully then let it cool and
recheck belt tension and then button it up.