Help: Info on Timing Belt Replacement: 97 Impreza

[Jim Stewart]

Well, the work on the '95 1.8 Impreza is done! My first time working on a
Subie. We did crank and cam seals, oil pump seal, water pump and thermo. and
gasket, timing belt and center cover. It runs like a champ so far!

Now I need to do the same to my '96 sometime soon.

I opened the cover to the flywheel on the passenger side and wedged a punch
in to hold the crankshaft. I used a rubber strap wrench on the cam
sprockets. The passenger side sprocket had over 100 ft. lb. torque on it.

Next time around I'll try to get some pics out of it.

Well done. It's a nice feeling to hear
it humming after you've had pieces scattered
all over the driveway

 

[oothlagre]

That's for sure. I turned it over before the radiator was back in just to
make sure I wouldn't have to tear all back down again.

Henry

 

[Terry King]

I opened the cover to the flywheel on the passenger side and wedged a

punch in to hold the crankshaft.

Oothlage, can you tell us specifically how you got access to the
flywheel??

I had to weld a tool to hold the crank pulley on my 97 2.2L Impreza.
Worked, but a pain.

I have photos of removing the cam pulley bolts using the old belt
Visegripped around the crankshaft as a holder. Worked fine.

I'll try to put those photos up. If you can tell us how to get at the
flywheel this may become a no-special-tooling job!

Happy to say my Impreza is running fine for 250 miles, with zero oil on
the front of the engine.

 

[oothlagre]

It's a lot easier to find than I thought........ It is a rubber square,
about 2 or so inches on each side. First, locate the flywheel housing from
the passenger side. It is on top of the engine, radiator side of the
flywheel housing and slightly below and behind the intake manifold. I just
wedged a punch in there good and had someone hold it while I broke the bolt
loose. I had to use my 2ft. breaker bar to get it. I had to maneuver around
some vacuum hoses to get to it. The rubber cover is just sitting there.
There is a little tab and you can lift it right off.

I used a rubber strap wrench on the cam bolts. It looks like an oil filter
wrench with a rubber strap instead of the metal one that my filter wrench
has. I'm sure it works just like your belt and vise-grips.

So far, it is running great! The patient is a '95 Impreza 1.8 engine. My
next project is my '96 2.2 Oh yeah, I was able to compare the 2 engines
side-by-side. The only real difference I noticed on the Impreza is EJ18 and
EJ22 on the block. That was about all I could find at a glance.

Henry