Saturday, 29th of January, 2011
Picture - The SOHC 2.5 is what Subaru should have stuck in the Legacy from the beginning. The normal technique to remove the heads is to pull the whole motor. But I figured I had more room to work with in the Legacy than the Impreza and Forester that the motor is found in, so I gave it a shot. Turns out, there is exactly the right amount of room to get the head bolts out - it makes me wonder what the bigger DOHC 2.5 had to offer that led Subaru to putting in that motor straight from the factory. The removal was surprisingly simple - unbolt the intake manifold, exhaust manifold, valve cover, and then it's just 6 head bolts from there.
Picture - Valves are bent all right
Picture - View of the pistons
Picture - I haven't looked at an EJ257 piston in a while but I don't think there is any damage to the piston - seems what we're looking at are the standard valve reliefs cut in.
Picture - One more view with the piston up
Friday, 28th of January, 2011
Slapped a new water pump, idlers, and timing belt on the Subaru today and crossed my fingers that the valves didn't get bent when it all fell apart. No such luck - absolutely 0 compression on all 4 cylinders...
Saturday, 22nd of January, 2011
Picture - A timing belt idler seized and failed Sunday. It looks like the bearings bound up and it popped right out, gashing holes in the timing belt cover, chewing up the timing belt...
Picture - and banging up another idler. Couldn't ask for better weather today to be our wrenching in the yard though - started out 50 degrees and worked up to 60.
Friday, 14th of January, 2011
Came across an undocumented enhancement while applying a fixpack to BOE 3.1 SP3 today. Users don't lose the schedule's start time when they reschedule an instance anymore.