Doing the dreaded seals this weekend!
 

Hey folks,

I'll be replacing the oil seals on my wife's '95 Legacy (2.2L) this weekend. Probably won't be done until tuesday due to couple of back ordered parts. If anyone is interested in getting a rough idea of what to expect with their SVX, come on by the house and check it out. There's of course more room in the Legacy but the general principal is the same for the SVX 3.3 engine. This will be a good primer for my SVX this summer.

Here's what I'm planning on replacing:
-timing belt
-water pump
-Tstat
-seals (cam,crank, oil pump, oil pan)
- valve cover gasket and grommets
-whatever else I break on the way!

Anyway, just a short notice invite to those of you in the Chicagoland area. I'll start on it again on Sunday around 10am. Send me an email if you wanna come and need directions, etc..

Thanks.

Ali
alia176@yahoo.com

Re: Doing the dreaded seals this weekend!
 

If this is the first time you're doing these things and don't have help, you shouldn't start on a Sunday unless you don't need it running by Monday morning. The valve covers are fairly straight forward, but might be a little time consuming depending on how long it takes you to get the plugs and all those bolts out. The front end will take at least half the day, if not longer, and if you break something, you'll have a hard time finding parts on a Sunday night, let alone parts for an SVX.

KuoH

Hey Ali,

Nice to see someone doing this work themself. :)

I am up to 5 T belt changes now, 2 svx, 2 91 leg, and 1 97 obs.

Valve cover gaskets on the 2.2 are a snap. Did that year have the solid valve adjusters?

I'm about 70% done and she doesn't need the car on Monday. I'll basically wrap it up on Sunday as far as I predict. Valve cover gaskets should be a snap. I assume the lifters are hydraulic? If so then they shouldn't need adjusting but I'll check the manual just to be sure. The whole process has been quite straight forward thus far. The biggest help is removing the entire radiator/cooling fan combo all at once, this opened up tons of room. Everything here is so small compared to my other vehicles. My wife says that her water pump is so "cute" and light! Subaru did do a good job with placement of parts. Things are easily accessible.

I replaced the water pump on my wife's 95 Legacy back in December, and then totaled it 4 days later.:(

Since it had 113k miles, I figured that it was a good time to do the timing belt, seals, oil pump o-ring and check the oil pump plate screws.

It was a fairly simple process except for having to fabricate a tool to hold the crank pulley in place while loosening the nut.

I would also recommend replacing the two large water hoses since you have the radiator out anyway. In my experience, these are the ones that eventually crack and are likely to leave your wife stranded.

I agree that everything is fairly easy to access. I still marvel at the layout everytime I open the hood or change the oil. I did wake up during the night and remembered that I forgot to move the tensioner to the left before tightening. I had to go back in and fix that little "error". So I guess I can count this experience as having done 2 timing belts.

Feel free to contact me if you run into any problems.

Matt

Matt,

I was contemplating on replacing the hoses but I'll change them now. It's a good suggestion. I opened up the oil pump and it looked good inside. Any suggestion on the easiest way to replace the oil pan gasket/seal? I figure this is a good time to replace it as well. My plan was to drop the pan, remove the old gasket material, then use Right Stuff to seal it back up. Upon a cursory look, it seemed that the engine may have to be moved up a tad. Does this sound right?

Regarding the crank pulley, yup that was a little difficult to do with one person. My wife came home then I had her remove the nut with the breaker bar while I engaged a large flathead on the flywheel teeth from below. Afterward she flexed her bicepts for me and made the usual grunting sound!

Ali

Are you married to Monica Seles? ;)

KuoH

I did not replace the oil pan gasket. I personally do not see any benefit in replacing it during a timing belt job since there is no labor savings. If it is not leaking, I would leave it alone.

Be careful with the oil pump and do not put too much sealant on the mating surfaces. I believe that a very, very thin coat is required. Did you check to make sure that the phillips head screws which hold the plate on were tight? They have been known to loosen up.

Matt

My oil pan is leaking so I figure why not get it done. Thanks for the tip on the oil pump and I made sure to tighten the phillips screws. I used Hylomar on the oil pump and now I'm wondering if I should've used Right Stuff. What did you use?

You know, back in the day there was a movie made by her called Spring Fever or something like that. I still remember her famous grunt/squeak combo sound! My wife's grunt, however, is more like Venus's!

I used Grey RTV, but since the car is now gone, I can't vouch for the results.

Did you replace the gasket which runs along the bottom of the timing belt cover. It is just a dirt guard but mine was all distorted due to the oil pump o-ring leaking oil on it.

The leak actually happened right after I started using synthetic oil so the issues associated with making that switch on older engines are true.

Best of luck with the car. I personnaly loved it. It sacrificed itself to protect the occupants and we did repace it with another Subie. So far, my wife really likes the 98 Outback. I told her to make sure that she tells me of any coolant smell or steam in anticipation of the dreaded head gasket failure that some of the 2.5 engines are prone to. Now she tells me of every little smell that she detects. Most of the time I think it is my older son playing with her head.:D

Matt

Oh great. I've been following this thread since my recently purchased '98 Outback with just over 100K is starting to leak a little too much oil for my liking. But now you're telling me I have to worry about a possible head gasket failure???? Yikes!! How prevelent is this problem? Any symptoms other than that sickly sweet smell? Any preventive measures to be on the safe side? I just changed the oil and didn't notice anything funky about it. Please tell me this a really rare problem and I can devote my anxiety to wheel bearings

Thanks,

Michael

My recommendation is to check daily just to be safe :).


Your outback's bearings are going bad?

Nope, the Outback is fine, I've just got a rumbler on the SVX.

A small percentage of the 2.5 engines have experienced head gasket failures. The symptoms are overheating, that "smell", and puffs of steam from the hood.

There have been ~4 revisions to the head gaskets and the verdict is still out on a real fix. I just purchased one with 114k and figured that if it had not failed yet, chances were better that it would not. I did get a 3 year unlimited mileage warranty just in case.

Matt