[ST] my non-rallye, non-MC report

[Brian D <brd@xxxxxxx>]

There's very little Sprint content in this message, other than it
explains what I did instead of going to the Eastern rallye this week.

Accompanying pictures are at http://www.erf.net/~brd/photos/subaru_head/

So, my wife and I had been planning to attend the eastern rallye ever
since I got back from the western in June.  We were going to trailer
the bike up there and camp at Canaan during and a couple days after
the rallye.  So, I bought new tires for our car, a 97 Subaru Outback.
Monday I went to change the oil on the car, only to discover oil all
over the bottom of the filter, oilpan, and front of the engine.

I wasn't shocked to find this.  The crank oil seal goes out on every
2.5L Subaru right after 60k miles (when the warrranty ends, of course).
Our car has 65k.  (This is their only real problem, btw, and I wouldn't
use it as a reason not to buy a Subaru.  They are great cars.  We've put
18k on ours in the year we've had it, and I expect it to last for over
200k miles.  I'd buy another one tomorrow without hesitation.)

I got the parts to do the fix myself, including a new seal and timing
belt.  In the process of finding Top Dead Center, I did something
incredibly stupid and used a telescoping mirror/magnetic pick-up as a
gauge for cylinder travel.  Well, let's just say the magnet wasn't very
secure in the telescoping tube, and decided it really liked being inside
the cylinder.  

I was so shocked and in disbelief that I didn't even spew forth my usual
stream of cursewords that I'm prone to do when working on cars.  Oh man,
I really could not believe it.  It's one of those things that's so bad
and/or so dumb that you kind of have denial about it for an hour or two.

So I started stripping off the intake and accessories so I could pull
the head.  Tuesday morning I went back to the Subaru dealer to get a
head gasket and told them my plan.  Both the parts guys laughed at the
idea of pulling the head in the car.  The subie engine is a DOHC "boxer"
layout, and the head is on the side of the engine and perpendicular to
the ground with about 4 inches of clearance between it and the side of
the engine bay.  You have to remove the camshafts to even get to the
head bolts, which are about a foot long.  They recommended pulling the
block.  Ugh.

Not what I wanted to hear, but I had no choice.  At this point, I
started to doubt my rallye attendance.  We had been planning to leave
Wed and arrive Thurs afternoon, doing 600+ miles each day.  

Anyway, I rented a hoist and engine stand, and Tom came over and saved
the day by showing me how to pull an engine.  What a great guy.  He
heard about my dilemma that morning and told me he'd by after work to
help me out, even though he lives 30 miles from me and had work the
next day.  We started working on it at 8 and about 10:30 that night, we
finally got it removed from the car.

Wednesday was spent removing the camshafts, pulling the head, putting it
all back on, and trying to get the timing belt lined up right, which was
tricky, since I never got to actually find TDC.  Tom came by again that
evening to offer helping hands, which were much needed in holding all
those sprockets aligned.  We finally got it ready to drop back in around
11pm.

Well, I had been thinking up to this point that maybe we'd still make
the rallye, but just get there on Friday and miss the first day of
riding.  Now, I pretty much gave up hope.  I cancelled my trailer and
campground reservations.

Thursday my wife and I dropped the engine back in.  I started putting
things back together and did a lot of testing of compression and stuff
to make sure valves hadn't been bent and things were lining up okay.

Friday by suppertime, everything was back in and ready to go.  I fired
it up and had to crank it a few times before it started, but then it
ran, idled high for a few mins til it warmed up, and then seemed to run
okay.  Took it around the block and came back to tighten a heat shield
bolt that I'd forgotten and was scaring my wife with a rattling noise.  

The engine had power and seemed okay.  I crossed my fingers and wrapped
it out to redline.  No explosions or smoke clouds.  Did some more
acceleration tests and noticed a grinding noise when letting off the
gas.  I stopped and revved it, but the noise wasn't there while sitting
still and giving it gas.  Something in the driveline, it seems.  I
topped off the front diff fluid and the AT fluid and took it out again.
Life was good.  She ran smooth as butter with no noises.  Actually,
Stephanie thinks it idles smoother and quieter.

Anyway, I was really sorry to miss meeting all the east coasters and
riding around the eastern USA where I've never even been to, but glad I
discovered this oil seal before we left on a 2600 mile trip.

The good news is that after doing this, I have no trepidations about
pulling the motor out of my Sprint and splitting it open to check the
balance shaft alignment.  The biggest problem there seems to be making
sure I have all the special tools and replacement parts needed ahead of
time, so that I'm not sitting there with the engine in pieces waiting 2
weeks for a part to be shipped.

Laters,
Brian
- -- 
'99 ST (black)
Dallas, TX

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