My new 2010 Subaru WRX

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Currently run T6 always have. Can't beat it for the price and quality.

Andrewtech and IAG have a good relationship with each other so hopefully they will honor their work warranty wise. Turbo XS will do the turning. I'll call them Monday with more details on a firm price for my block rebuild and get them on the same page with what's going on at andrewtech.

Using andrewtech because they are closer and already reworked the car once and know the car. Plus they're cool and did a bunch of stuff and charged me less than I expected. Wasn't cheap but I didn't get raped when I pretty much said here's my credit card do whatever it needs done.

Also didn't know IAG did transmission work.
 
IAG does everything. Andrewtech is probably the best in the country when it comes to Subaru transmissions though.

I was going to have IAG rebuild my 5-speed with Albins gears, but I think I'm just gonna swap in the 6-speed.
 
Didn't expect this but what happened was a sparkplug backed out just enough so that when the engine was at full temp it allowed a gap which allowed for me to hear the weird sound. It only happened when fully up to temp, and with the timing of it making that sound and the radiator failing... Ohwell, no new engine for me. Having Andrewtech do the transmission, timing belt, all new hoses, AOS, oil pressure gauge, and some other stuff.

At least now when the motor does fail, it will be half the cost since I knocked out all the small stuff.
 
make sure they replace all of the idler pulleys with the timing belt. worth the piece of mind IMO. when IAG did mine, i think they only replaced 2 of them, but in hindsight i wish i would have had them just do all 4 of them. i worry about an old pulley siezing up, fucking the timing belt, and ruining the motor. It's happened before to other people.

how many miles do you have now?
 
I requested that they do all Pulleys and they said they always do everything regardless. Too many failures.

Car has 94,xxx
 
Not until she finishes school. She's got 2 more semesters. Then we'll start looking for a house most likely.

She doesn't want to move out of the philly area. And I wouldn't mind moving up there but there isn't much in my industry (satellite operations) in that area.
 
make sure they replace all of the idler pulleys with the timing belt. worth the piece of mind IMO. when IAG did mine, i think they only replaced 2 of them, but in hindsight i wish i would have had them just do all 4 of them. i worry about an old pulley siezing up, fucking the timing belt, and ruining the motor. It's happened before to other people.

God, this is so ironic.

So yeah. I pulled into Starbucks on the morning of Feb 21st, turned the car off, and heard an odd light clanking sound right as it shut off. it was brief and faint and thought it was another car in the lot, didn't think anything of it and went inside for coffee. came back out, tried to start the car and CLACK CLACK *insert other bad rotating noises*. wtf. popped the hood, checked the oil, checked for leaks, everything LOOKED fine under the hood. tried starting it again, no dice. wont start but sounded normal when cranking (clacking sound went away). got towed home and didn't touch it for a week because i was swamped at work and had no time.

finally tore it apart a week later and found my problem. idler pulley failure. specifically the cog gear idler pulley. the bearing in it basically exploded, threw little ball bearings and shrapnel all over the place, and threw the timing all out of whack on the passenger side head. The belt jumped about 5-6 teeth on the passenger side.

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i feared the worst. that i bent all my valves and now the motor has to come apart for service :(. so i decided, since the failure basically happened right as the motor spun down with no load, and that i only tried to start it a few times, maybe i got lucky.

so i ordered a new timing belt kit from Gates part number TCK328 (includes new idler pulleys, a new tensioner, and a new belt), and new accessory belts from Gates. less than $200 for all the parts shipped to my door from amazon. the Gates timing belt kit is a steal. it uses all the same pulleys as OEM (literally the same, same mfg, markings, etc) and includes a new belt for less than half the cost of the discount online suby dealer.

so today was the first day i had some free time, and wasn't raining or freezing cold. So I tackled it.

I removed the old timing belt
I removed all of the old idler pulleys (they were all bad and made noise)
Installed the new timing belt and pulleys
Checked, double checked, triple checked timing marks
Rotated engine and re-checked marks
Re-installed timing belt guides and gapped them with the gates plastic tool.
Re-installed timing covers and accessories (one broken timing cover bolt grrr)
Installed new accessory belts
Re-installed radiator fans.

I was able to replace everything without removal of the radiator or even removing the radiator hoses (I didn't want to deal with refilling and bleeding air out of the cooling system). Probably would have been a little easier with removing everything, but I don't like messing with fluids if I don't have to.

Then the moment of truth...

Fired right up first try! Engine sounds quieter in the engine bay than it did before. No obvious sounds that make me think anything is wrong. All the temps and pressures looked fine. Went for a 20-30 min drive and everything feels 100% normal. Still hits about 20psi boost (I'm tuned for it) and it doesn't feel noticeably slower or anything.

I feel really lucky. I still have my appointment with IAG in about a week that I made for a possible valve job. I think I'm going to keep the appointment and just have them run a compression test and give it a once over and some other maintenance stuff.
 
My lower can sprocket broke, shredded the belt and bent at least 2 of my Ferrea valves. 2000 miles and I have to pull it back out :(

That pic is the new belt, fired up and how we found out a cylinder was down :(

Glad you're not as unfortunate!! Lol
 

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Holy crap!

I've never seen a cam pulley break like that. How did that happen? And what were you doing when it failed?

How did it sound when you fired it up? Ran like crap? Didn't run at all?

But I think since it failed while trying to start, the belt only jumped a few teeth and stayed in tact, and the cams stays in time with each other on the passenger side, it might have saved me.
 
I was pulling on a gtr lol. Just before redline it gave loose. Bounced off the rev limiter (7k to be safe) and shut off. Done:(
 
How did you find out the bad cylinder after fixing it? Wouldn't run? Compression test?
 
planning ahead to summer.

i need new tires.
while they're off, i was planning to have the rash fixed on the one, and the whole set re-powdercoated.
since they're getting refinished, maybe it's time for a color change.

thinking about a bright green like this (I know E will approve):

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Why not a color that compliments instead? Like black grey or bronze.
 
because boring.

i dont like black/dark grey for wheels because the wheels then blend in to the tire and it's hard to make out the profile of the wheel, and my wheels now are already bronze and i'm looking for something other than bronze for a change.
 
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