Hello,
I am in the middle of doing a cambelt / water pump change on a 2004 blobeye WRX EJ205.

With the timing belt off working on the water pump i must have knocked one of the RH sprockets and it pinged out of alignment. Somehow I had missed the copious advice (yes I am an idiot) about the direction the camshafts can be rotated with the belt off, i.e. top right; clockwise bottom right anti clockwise. and have probably mis-rotated both by hand to line up the marks again.

Is valve damage now inevitable ?

I'm waiting for some cooling parts before reassembling so won't be able to attempt a start up until the weekend.

Assuming worst case what are my options?

Thanks in advance

Chris

 

highly unlikely unless you have brutally forced the cams back into line.......

 

Update: Wracked with worry that I may have trashed the engine, I got up early and put it all back together. (I should still be able to fit the oil cooler pipe with the belt on). Everything lined up nicely so pulled the pin in the tensioner and rotated the engine manually from the crank shaft No interference or noises and seemed smooth. As all well, attempted a quick start (without coolant or alternator). Roared into life. Couldn't detect any ticking sounds or unusual vibration from engine. All seems normal. I guess I won't really know until it is driven, but at least it didn't explode.

 

Hey,

I think you should be okay, I have done the same recently: I believe when you align the crank sprocket to the marked position, it sets it into a position where all pistons are moved in so not interfering with the valves.

Have a look on YouTube there plenty videos about, if you doing it solo, its much easier to do it with cam lock tool those are about £17 or so.

good luck

 

oh don't forget to correctly gap the belt jump plates (corners of the heads and over the crank pulley) they about about 1mm gap