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- Mar 5, 2022
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Hi, so I bought a 2002 Subaru WRX with 258000 kilometers. It has the stock 2.0l DOHC ej205 engine. One day I was getting up to speed and the check engine light came on. It was flashing at first but eventually when on solid. I didn't feel any severe power loss or hear any bad sounds, so I drove it home as soon as possible to check it out.
When I was pulling into the garage extremely slowly I could hear a slight knock/tick. The previous owner said that it needed a timing belt change soon so I figured it was something to do with that.
When I was changing the timing belt I alined the top dead center (TDC) mark but I didn't know there were two different TDC's and I happened to land on the wrong one. I didn't know so I just moved and adjusted all the cams to that TDC. While I was alining the timing marks on the bottom left (driver side exhaust) cam, I turned the cam clockwise instead of counterclockwise. Aswell It kept spinning on me so I did it multiple times to line it up.
After that all the marks were lined up so I put the belt and pullies back on and double, triple checked all of the marks again. Everything looked good so I finished putting it back together. When I started it, it made a loud persistent knock, was shaking and was having trouble idling. So I stopped and realized something was wrong.
I did some more research and found that you are not supposed to turn that cam clockwise and there are two different TDC's so I decided to do it all over again but turn the cam the correct way and put it back to the old TDC. When I put the belt back on both of the cams the left side (driver side) seemed to be out by a tiny little bit, (maybe not even half a tooth.) I kept trying to get them to line up perfect but I gave up and said that must be how it is. So I reassembled it all and started it up again. This time it still had a knock (not as bad as the first time), it was still shaking, but it could idle. I was not very happy.
So the first thing I thought it could be is bent valves because of turning the cam the wrong way and maybe using the wrong TDC. Next, I pulled all of the spark plugs and put a camera in each of the cylinders to see if there were any marks in the piston from the valves. Each spark plug was wet with and smelt like gas (Which could be something,) (Image below of what pretty much all of them look like) Cylinders 1 and 3 (so both of right side/passenger side cylinders) looked good. Whereas cylinder 2 and 4 (so both left side/driver side) (Images below) looked slightly different. Cylinder 2 has maybe a slight outline of the valves on the piston (bearly, not at all) and cylinder 4 has a lot of carbon on the piston compared to the other cylinders that looked clean.
So that didn't give me a definitive answer so I decided to take off the intake manifold to get a look at the intake valves. I turned the engine over by hand to see the valves open and close and seat all the way. All of the intake vales from cylinders 1,2, and 3 look good but the cylinder 4’s look like they are not seating all of the way down (image down below). This means they are probably bent. If those valves weren't closing that could be why all of the carbon is on that cylinder's piston.
I don't know about the exhaust valves yet because I can't get to them. So now I’m just wondering what to do. I could do the work myself but I would need to buy a lot of tools like an engine hoist, engine stand, engine leveler, etc. Plus it would take me A LOT of time, and I might make a stupid mistake again. Or I could get someone else to do it where it will cost more money, but I won't have to buy those tools.
So I'm kind of in a predicament and I'm wondering what I should do. Right now I'm leaning to get someone else to do it because I want it done as soon as possible. If anyone has any ideas or thoughts please send them my way. Thank you very much for taking time out of your day to read this.
When I was pulling into the garage extremely slowly I could hear a slight knock/tick. The previous owner said that it needed a timing belt change soon so I figured it was something to do with that.
When I was changing the timing belt I alined the top dead center (TDC) mark but I didn't know there were two different TDC's and I happened to land on the wrong one. I didn't know so I just moved and adjusted all the cams to that TDC. While I was alining the timing marks on the bottom left (driver side exhaust) cam, I turned the cam clockwise instead of counterclockwise. Aswell It kept spinning on me so I did it multiple times to line it up.
After that all the marks were lined up so I put the belt and pullies back on and double, triple checked all of the marks again. Everything looked good so I finished putting it back together. When I started it, it made a loud persistent knock, was shaking and was having trouble idling. So I stopped and realized something was wrong.
I did some more research and found that you are not supposed to turn that cam clockwise and there are two different TDC's so I decided to do it all over again but turn the cam the correct way and put it back to the old TDC. When I put the belt back on both of the cams the left side (driver side) seemed to be out by a tiny little bit, (maybe not even half a tooth.) I kept trying to get them to line up perfect but I gave up and said that must be how it is. So I reassembled it all and started it up again. This time it still had a knock (not as bad as the first time), it was still shaking, but it could idle. I was not very happy.
So the first thing I thought it could be is bent valves because of turning the cam the wrong way and maybe using the wrong TDC. Next, I pulled all of the spark plugs and put a camera in each of the cylinders to see if there were any marks in the piston from the valves. Each spark plug was wet with and smelt like gas (Which could be something,) (Image below of what pretty much all of them look like) Cylinders 1 and 3 (so both of right side/passenger side cylinders) looked good. Whereas cylinder 2 and 4 (so both left side/driver side) (Images below) looked slightly different. Cylinder 2 has maybe a slight outline of the valves on the piston (bearly, not at all) and cylinder 4 has a lot of carbon on the piston compared to the other cylinders that looked clean.
So that didn't give me a definitive answer so I decided to take off the intake manifold to get a look at the intake valves. I turned the engine over by hand to see the valves open and close and seat all the way. All of the intake vales from cylinders 1,2, and 3 look good but the cylinder 4’s look like they are not seating all of the way down (image down below). This means they are probably bent. If those valves weren't closing that could be why all of the carbon is on that cylinder's piston.
I don't know about the exhaust valves yet because I can't get to them. So now I’m just wondering what to do. I could do the work myself but I would need to buy a lot of tools like an engine hoist, engine stand, engine leveler, etc. Plus it would take me A LOT of time, and I might make a stupid mistake again. Or I could get someone else to do it where it will cost more money, but I won't have to buy those tools.
So I'm kind of in a predicament and I'm wondering what I should do. Right now I'm leaning to get someone else to do it because I want it done as soon as possible. If anyone has any ideas or thoughts please send them my way. Thank you very much for taking time out of your day to read this.