Subaru Owner PSA

If you own a Subaru with the 2.5 liter flat 4 motor there are certain maintenance tasks which must be performed without fail.

Number one on that list is a timing belt change at 105K miles. Well, actually that's probably number 3 after regular oil changes and scheduled coolant flushes (yes they are very important, they will help to keep the head gaskets from leaking which is a bane of the Subaru 2.5L flat 4, also pay attention to your battery) but it is the major maintenance at 105,000 miles.

If you are doing this on your own it is imperative that you get the service manual for your car, but while on the subject of timing belts please do note you do not line the motor up to Top Dead Center to remove or install one, as you would with normal engines. You do this at TDC (#1 cylinder compression stroke) + 90 degrees.

For what it's worth, you can install the heads without pulling the motor. You have to put the heads in place with the bolts in the heads. It's easier to have two people to do this, one from the top and one from the bottom, to keep from dropping the head as you are trying to seat it on the block.

Eldest Son wasted most of his day trying to figure out why he couldn't put the timing belt on the Subaru today, when I got home we had it on in 5 minutes and he felt like an idiot. I'm hoping that the rest of the trucklet will go back together tomorrow, it's been down all week and I'm going to need it next weekend.

Until then I'll be forced to ride the pony I guess. The sacrifices I must make...