The final word on my dead 2.2l SOHC

[Black Sunshine]

I talked a little about this on kevbot's thread about his head gasket failure. It's official my Subaru died. I had 198K miles on it and the motor just gave up. I was taking off from an intersection with my foot on the floor as usual and at around 4K rpm it sputtered and died. Only like one sputter. I knocked it in Neutral and tried to start it up again. I immediately knew that the motor wasn't making compression (only the crank was turning). :smt022
No worries it's a non-interference motor, one of the only ones that Subaru made. So I had AAA tow it home and I tore it down real quick and the belt came out in little pieces, lots of little pieces.
The belt was in such horrible shape, with only 40K on it, that I thought it must have just failed. So, I bought a Subaru belt and put it on. I lined up all of the marks and threw it back together. It sounded awful, like an old tractor.
At this point I decided a compression test was in order. #1=150, #3=0, #4=0, and #2=180 the prognosis is not good.
I wouldn't let go I tore the timing down again and turned the crank one turn. Does this affect timing? I thought maybe it would. I put it back together and . . . the same. There is a loud knock, not a rod, but something is colliding.
I now have an AWD 2 cylinder Legacy Farm All tractor.

[valkura]

97 BK? I don't think that's the non-interference ej22, as far as I knew that ended in 96. 97 they updated the ej22 by, if the wikipedia article is correct, reshaping the crown of the piston (among other things, but the reshaping part killed the non-interference).

[dann]

sorry to hear bro, i'm in the same boat as you. still looking for a good motor for swap. having trouble since i got the odd ball motor that no one seems to have at the junk yard...

[Black Sunshine]

97 BK? I don't think that's the non-interference ej22, as far as I knew that ended in 96. 97 they updated the ej22 by, if the wikipedia article is correct, reshaping the crown of the piston (among other things, but the reshaping part killed the non-interference).


Thanks for the info, I wish I had known this. Although it may not have changed anything. My belt only had 40k on it. Maybe I wouldn't have used a cheap one from advanced auto. I find it amazing that the original was operational until removed at 160k and the replacement broke at 40k.

[bangedlegacywagon97]

Beginning in the 1997 Model Year, the 2.2 liter engine for 1997 Legacy and Impreza models has had internal and external changes that yield an approximately 10% increase in power and 3% increase in fuel economy.
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1999 2.2 Liter Phase 2 Engine Enhancements (from endwrench article H-4 and H-6 service): All 2.2 liter engine for 1999 are the Phase 2 design. The 2.2 liter Phase 2 engines are a SOHC design, with a newly-designed cylinder head. Changes in the 2.2 liter Phase 2 engines are as follows:...

So according to wiki there were changes made in 97 and 99 is when it went to phase 2. So I am assuming that and also heard from subaru mechanics that only the 99 was a phase 2 engine.

Thereby making everything pre 1999 non interference engine. My 97 had 195K miles on the original timing belt before I decided to change it.

[Grafton]

no


all 2.5's are interference. period.
all 97 and after 2.2's are interference
96 and older (95, 94 etc...) 2.2's were non-interference

the change in 97 jumped the hp a little bit, and removed the non-interference but it was still a phase I, ie main thrust bearing in the #3 position vs #5 in phase II

[Black Sunshine]

The final, final word on my BK is that after listing it on Craigslist for $900 I got 10+ calls in two days, from people as much as three hours away. I let it go for $700. Now it's gone and an entire chapter of my life is closed. I replaced it with a hulking Mercury Grand Marquis, that ironically, gets better MPGs.