Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

So after lots of swearing, I finally have my motor out of the car to replace my bad head gasket. When tearing into it, I found that my crank pulley has worn through the timing cover plastic! I know this can be caused by a stock pulley separating and wobbling, but this car has been running a one piece Perrin aluminum pulley since last summer, and it certainly wasn't like this when I installed it! Anyone know what might cause this, or how I can fix it? I was thinking about putting a couple washers directly behind the pulley to space it out enough where it won't rub when I reassemble it.

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/k...k88GTA/WTF.jpg


Also, does anyone have a center timing cover for sale? :rolleyes:

This happened to me when I installed an aftermarket pulley. The problem was solved when I had a stock pulley installed.

Check the pulley key slot for wear.

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

Don't use washers to move the pulley. It will move it out of alignment with the other pulleys that it drives.

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

The plastic cover warps and the the piece behind it does too.

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

Mine is just like this one.... Like SomethingElse said, it just warps and slowly gets rubbed thru.

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

Mine is also like this on my red car. It also has wear and holes from when the timing belt exploded 5 years ago. I have been running without any problems since then with the battered cover, its not a "holy crap how do I fix this?" Type of problem. When my water pump went a couple years ago, the timing belt was still in good enough shape for me to reuse.

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

Sunvisors that won't stay up, sunroofs that won't go up, bearings that roar, pulleys that cut.

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

Gosh, way to be a downer!

I have a theory about those rear bearings... has anyone actually seem the bearings upon removal? Did they really fail?

Only reason I ask is, I have never heard of one failing completely, I did hear the dreaded roar though, pulled the tire, brake assembly and rotor and the thing seemed really tight and smooth, when I put it back together, I greased the brake caliper slides and the noise went away for months, when it came back, I replaced my warped rear rotors and it has been quiet for 3 years or so...... just saying... also, if you drive upside down, the visors arent a problem either :P

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

In my H6 Outback the stock rubber/metal pully started to seperate and cut almost through the METAL timing cover. Only made noise on very hot days under load... took a little while to figure out.

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

Well, hopefully it's just warped plastic and nothing to worry about...at least it seems I'm not the only one, at least. If I replace this plastic part with a new one from Subaru, could I expect the same thing happen to it? I know I could run with it as-is, but I'd rather not. It bothers me like that.

Someone on another forum was saying that it could be either a worn out pulley, worn out crank keyway, or crankwalk. The pulley and crank snout keyway look fine. Has anyone experienced crankwalk in their SVX?

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

With seven main bearings on a 3-cylinder long block, and 180' piston opposition.... I would assume our engines are pretty immune to it.

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

Not when you wear out your thrust bearing.:rolleyes: Been there.

I've bought a few of these covers new from Subaru. They come with new gaskets for them as well.

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

The wear on mine was on that same side, and wore the same way, I wouldnt be worried about any issues with your engine. Just my two cents

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

My '92 - with a used '92 engine with 115K miles on it - did the same exact thing on the timing belt cover. The pulley was LOOSE - finger tight. Rattled badly when the engine was cold, causing me to think I had a engine bearing that was bad. SVXFILES found the problem and replaced the pulley. While replacing it, he discovered that the "key" and keyway in the pulley were very worn, so be sure to replace the key.

Re: Crank pulley wore through belt cover?
 

Same here... same spot... ugh.