I recall Exidy being the OEM parts supplier

As for your answer - this is a timing belt if it fails or does not fit right your engine gets junked.

Not exactly an item you shop for the cheapest non brand no history or known quality.

Check out the the online subaru parts suppliers most are dealers selling discounted parts via their parts departments under a different company name.

 

Gates is high quality. It's also the cheapest one I've found. I got the full kit on ebay for very cheap. They are good parts with proven quality. All of the parts also come in a sealed box from gates, so you don't have to worry about an ebay seller mixing and matching parts to keep the price down.

BTW, buying parts from AWDauto does not make the parts better, just more expensive.

 

Check out Mizumoauto on ebay. I bought a complete kit for my 2005 Outback 2.5 SOHC. There are a few different kits, but the one I bought included the timing belt, tensioner, idlers, water pump, thermostat, oil seals, and accessory drive belts. The complete kit cost less than $250 and parts were top quality OEM.

 

Awesome, thanks for the great suggestions everyone. I'll look into the above suppliers. Currently, the subie is under the carport 1/2 way stripped in preps of a timing system change, valve cover gaskets (yep, leaky), and valve adjustment.

 

For your car I would recommend the gates kit with water pump. The gates kits are very high quality. It is $185 on rockauto. While in there you should also replace the cam and crankshaft oil seals, get them at the dealer. Also use a subaru OEM water pump gasket. Replace the thermostat as well, OEM or Stant Xact fit.

I generally use the mizumoauto kits on EJ22's, but their EJ25 SOHC kit with the higher quality belt is $250 which at that point makes the Gates kit a better buy.

Felpro is fine for the valve cover gasket kit and generally can be found locally at Advance or Oreilly.

Also, I can't imagine going wrong with Denso. I didn't know they made timing belt kits though.

 

Only use Subaru Long Life Coolant and add a container of the Subaru Coolant conditioner!!!

 

How terrible are the cam/crank seals to replace? Do I need to drop the oil pan to get the crank seal out?

Yes on the coolant, I plan to only get that from the stealership.

 

Once the timing belt is off, slide the crank gear off and there's your crank seal. You don't have to drop the oil pan even to change the oil pump on a Subaru!

 

Oh... that's awesome! I'm quickly learning to love working on Subarus. Strip-down to prep for timing gear replacement took all of 1 hour my first time--unheard of in my accustomed land of VWs!

 

The cam seals are behind the cam sprockets. The bolts are easier to remove when the timing belt is on or if you have an impact wrench.

How many miles are on your car?

 

the cam seals are behind the cam sprockets. The bolts are easier to remove when the timing belt is on or if you have an impact wrench.

How many miles are on your car?

200k

 

Yeah subys will ruin you when it comes to working on other cars. I can have the engine out and on the ground in about 1.5hrs, the techs at the dealership I used to work at could do timing belts (2.2's mind you) in about 30 minutes. They billed 3 hours, but that's flat rate for you.

 

Probably a good time to the cam and oil seals then.