Is this normal?
 

Hello everybody, I have bought this 98' Impreza GT.

The car had one accident and the right side timing belt sprokets were broken.

I have replaced the 4 sprockets, the belt tensioner and the timing belt.

When I start up the engine I see the vibrations of the timing belt in the left side and I don't like that, I think is a excessive vibration, but the timing belt is correct with marks and the tensioner is new.

Another one is one tic noise in the left head, this is the first engine I have seen as this, I don't know is this noise is normal or not.

Please can you watching this vid and let me know?

Thank you.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA_R52-Ix4A

Okay, welcome to the forum. Couple of separate points here. First of all, it's always very, very difficult to get a proper appreciation of "noises" from a video. Nothing beats actually having your ears under the bonnet.

Second point. The Impreza's valvetrain and pistons are an interference design. Serious damage (or misalignment) of the timing system can often in damage. If you are hearing a "tic" in the head, suspicion would immediately turn to this area, although of course there are other potential explanations and it is impossible to tell short of disassembling the engine.

Third point. By "vibrations in the timing belt in the left side and I don't like that", what specific part of the belt are you referring to? If its the run between the tensioner pulley and the 2/4 inlet camshaft pulley, vibration there is a known problem - which is why, from MY99 onwards, Subaru introduced an extra small tensioner pulley in that section. If the vibration is elsewhere, then you need to tell us.

Fourth point. Again it's difficult to tell from a video, but it sounds as though there's either piston slap or the audible symptoms of bearing damage happening there. Difficult to make out any other sounds, at least where I'm listening at the moment.

Have you had the engine looked at by anyone experienced as yet?

Are the headers OK? I had/have a tick coming from the left hand side of my engine bay, this was due to a broken flexi pipe letting gas through and producing a tick noise.

I haven't watched that.

Thank you for response. I'm mechanic.

The vibration is between the tensioner and the left inlet camshaft pulley, I know subaru in later models mount one bearing there, but I need to know if in this engine is normal.

The noises:

the first noise you can listen in this video is the bearings of timing belt, but is normal I think.

The Tic is aprecciate at idle, more exactly is a TAC TAC, I don't think it is piston slap, normally the piston slap is listened with cold engine and it dissapiar in a few minutes, but this engine has this noise all the time, is minimal but I can listen it and I don't like.

I have thought it can be a valve in bad condidtions by the accident but the old owner promised me the engine was stopped in the accident time.

I don't know if you can specify more exactly the tic noise with my explanation, I wait you can listen it.

Thank you

how could you stop it in time??????

As above Subaru added the small idler specifically to get rid of that vibration.

That's a meaningless promise, unfortunately. The previous owner has no way of knowing whether the engine stopped rotating before, during, or after damage was done. The chances of it escaping unharmed after this sort of accident would be slim, unfortunately.

You'll need someone listening to it direct, or, more likely, stripping the engine, in order to offer an informed opinion.

Yes, you said the best solution, I'm going to open the engine and see the heads, valves, pistons, etc...

It's time to rebuilt....yuhuuu!!!!!