timing question

[Samiam1017]

i bought a 02 sedan hit drivers side. turns over fine and wants to run but wont. i pulled the covers off the cam gears to ck time and there alittle off. (read that in another thread thx to whoever posted that) can i loosen the tensioner spin the gears soall the marks line up and tighen it again to see if this baby runs? thx in advance for all the help

[Mechie3]

You could. I would take the belt off and turn the pulleys by hand and listen for odd noises, pinging, etc. How many teeth is it off? I think 3 is the max recommended, so you could probably be off by a few more before damage happens.

[Samiam1017]

craig its not off to much. i cant figure out how to post pics so ill email you one

[Samiam1017]

i just sent them they are more then three

[PhyrraM]

You can't just 'loosen' the tensioner. It's loaded. Once it's off, you need to very slowly compress it and place a pin across the holes (it will be obvious when you look) to retain it. Once everything is installed back, and the timing is checked, you pull the pin to do the final tension on the belt.

[metalmaker12]

+1 On PhyrraM's advice

[philly15]

You could. I would take the belt off and turn the pulleys by hand and listen for odd noises, pinging, etc. How many teeth is it off? I think 3 is the max recommended, so you could probably be off by a few more before damage happens.

this is correct subaru states that more than 3 teeth will most likely bend valves, best thing to do as stated is to completely take the belt off and rotate the pulleys by hand but they have to be rotated a certain direction so the valves dont hit iirc intake gets roated clockwise and exhaust counter clockwise

[Mechie3]

It could also have bad/old gas in it. My car didn't like to run if it sat for a while.

Just looked at the pics. If I'm looking at this right....it's off by a lot

Passenger side: Is that a single or double mark on the top of the intake cam? If it's a double, that cam is off by 180 degrees. If it's a single, it's not terrible. Maybe a tooth or two, maybe a stretched belt. I've never had the marks all be perfect, but usually pretty darn close.

Driver side doesn't look bad IF you rotated them to get the single mark to point up. If these pics (driver and passenger) were taken at the exact same time, then timing is off between the left/right.

What I've done successfully with the tensioner, is to slowly compress it with a pry bar, then pop the allen key in it. Make sure the key goes through the front hole in the body, through the pin, then through the rear hole in the body. Store it in the upright position.

[Samiam1017]

ya the pics were taken at the same time. so i want all the single marks up? rotate top cams clockwise and the bottoms counter. i try this today. thx

[Samiam1017]

ok i just checked them again the passengers are 180 out and the drivers are almost 180 out (thats if all the single marks are supose to be all straight up?) i do a compression check too

[Mechie3]

Check the "mechanical" PDF I sent you.

Going from memory:
Driver Intake: Single straight up, double straight down (matches with driver exhaust double)
Driver Exhaust: Single points to the right (towards fender) double points up matches driver intake

Passenger intake: Single points stright up, double points down (matches passenger exhaust double)
Passenger exhaust: Single points left (towards fender) double points up, matches passenger intake.

[Mechie3]

I uploaded the pics to photobucket. Also took some screenshots from that PDF for others.

Samiam's pics:
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q291/mechie3/driver.jpeg
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q291/mechie3/passenger.jpeg

FSM pics:
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q291/mechie3/Camrotation.png
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q291/mechie3/CamMarks.png

[longislandwrx]

ouch... is your timing belt guide broken? above (a) in the posted diagram.

[Samiam1017]

well something came up so i didnt even get to look at the car today. the pass side marks are top cam one mark up bottom cam two marks up so that good the driver side(fmic tube smacked the lower cam gear) ther clocked counter clock wise to about 11 oclock on the top cam with the single mark up and the bottom cam is about the same but a tooth or so towards 12 with double marks up. im off tomorrow also so thats that plan is to hear this run. it has a wide open 3in straight pipe and no muffler!