[shuswapcanuck]

Hi everyone, great site, I purchased a .00 OB not running(326Km) ($600.Can )(car sat for year and a half), ad said timing belt issue. Story was car died on side of road, owner had car towed to garage not sure what work was done at this garage. Owner gave car to his daughter and son inlaw for the cost of towing to their house. Trailered car home, found fuel pump not working, removed pump and got it going again reinstalled. Checked timing belt looks newish, timing marks appear correct( have new Haynes manual). Put everything back together, also installed new spark plugs, cycled fuel pump several times to prime the fuel system. Car will not start, have spark and fuel pressure, even tried starting fluid, car sounds like it wants to fire but will not start. Next I did a compression test, results are cylinder # 1-123 2-147 3-115 4-91psi. I suspect car may have bent valves due to due to broken timing belt. Rechecked compression on cylinder #4 with 10 cc of engine oil, no change in compression. Talked to neighbor who is a mechanic, he said car should start even with bad cylinder, he said recheck timing marks which I have done, they line up like manual says. what do I do next?

 

[canubaru]

just in case yhis is your first look at a subaru timing belt, the timing marks are not the arrows, never the arrows.

you pretty much have to remove the crank pulley to check the crank sprocket for correct timing alignment. you may be able to check it by removing the crank bolt. the crank in the corrct position when the key way slot in the crank pulley is straight down in the 6 oclock position.

 

[shuswapcanuck]

Thanks for the reply, my timing marks are set the same as your image. Rechecked all electrical connections, all look good, did find the vacuum line for the fuel regulator off, still will not start. Due to weak compression, I will change out engine for wrecker unit out of ,01 Legacy that only has 176k Km. I want to make sure car runs before I commit to a newer engine. Wife wants car for winter driving.

 

[4wheeldog]

Check for codes first. You may have a bad crank position sensor, or something. Weak/untimed spark would fit your symtoms. Good luck.

 

[shuswapcanuck]

No codes are showing on my scanner, tested CKP sensor it seems to check out with specs from another thread I found on this site. You mentioned weak or untimed spark, how is that possible when all timing marks line up?

 

[1 Lucky Texan]

given that we're not sure about the work that was done at some garage - I suggest you will need to confirm no 'tabs' were broken off the crank sprocket. Good chance to triple check the timing t as mentioned above.

Also, wonder if the spark plug cables could be bad enough to prevent starting? (OEM best on those)

EDIT: sorry, looks like you did look at the crank sprocket to check timing. Still, make sure none of the tabs are broken.

maybe try to clean the trhotle body, maybe there's some kinda IACV problem from sitting around so long?

 

[MRO]

You might verify that you actually have a spark to each plug. It's possible that the ignition wires have degraded or that the spark-block thing has failed.

 

[shuswapcanuck]

Great news, well sort of, talked to a few different mechanics and tried some suggestions, took plugs, out burned fuel off plugs plus warmed them up. After reinstalling them turned engine over and car finally fired up but wouldn't stay running. Add fuel to intake and fired up again, took some feathering of throttle to get it running but now runs by itself. Engine sounds like crap metal on metal sounds. Found 2001 Legacy engine at auto wrecker, my understanding is it is the same engine as used in the outback. Will a swap of engines do the trick or do i need to find a engine out of a outback? Thanks again for the response to post. Jon