1996 Legacy EJ22 engine problem: catalytic, Woodruff key, cr

[slingshot]

I bought a 1996 Subaru Legacy AT AWD Brighton (base model) SW with an EJ22 4 cylinder 2.2 liter engine and 14 inch running gear with 150K miles on it. Compression check found all cylinders 182-190 psi and it passed the emissions check with new catalytic converters.

I love the design simplicity, ease of maintenance, and reliability, and especially that it gets 30mpg at 75mph on the highway. Unfortunately, however, I have some engine problems that may be a “learning experience” for me.

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I: Catalytic Converter:

I had an aftermarket catalytic converter (Eastern) put in it because the old one had rusted out. Installation mechanic put the forward O2 sensor in the port on the rear of the forward catalytic converter, and it promptly coded slow O2 sensor—not surprisingly. I moved it to where it was supposed to be—forward of the forward catalytic converter, which places the wires within 1/4 inch of the rotating right front drive axle shaft. I adjusted the converter pipe down on the manifold as much as possible to maximize the clearance. I then took it back to the mechanic to clear the code.

Well, I have driven it maybe 5000 miles, and my new cheap generic OBD-II scantool says that that there are no hard codes, and “MIL = on”, but the check engine light (CEL) on the dash is off, and the status of the Cat, O2S, HO2S, and EGR are all “Not Ready”. He musta done something! I have not found any plugs pulled (are they all on a single connector somewhere in the harness, e.g. at the firewall?), wires clipped (the Chilton’s engine control wiring diagram suggests that the Ye/R wire on the main relay runs the O2Ss, IAC, EGR, purge and “pressure sources sw sol valve”—does anyone know where the relay is?), and I do not know about any bypass jumper (the green “test mode” connector under the dash is unplugged).

Any ideas as to what to look for? I plan to find why all the emissions sensors are offline, then turn them online, then see what codes come up, and then fix the original problem.

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II: Crank Pulley, Woodruff Key, and Valve Timing:

When I got the car I turned on the AC and somehow heard a noise I discovered that the crank pulley bolt was loose and the pulley was beginning to saw against the Woodruff key. Likely whoever had replaced the timing belt had not tightened the bolt enough. I replaced the oil pump (there was an oil leak), water pump, timing belt, Woodruff key, and crank pulley.

Unfortunately, I did not know that there is a special tool with 4 pins to hold the crank pulley solid while tightening the shaft bolt, or that you can use a chain pipe wrench around the pulley, or that you can have a friend jam a pry bar into the ring gear through the inspection hole on top of the back of the engine, but it is rumored that you need about 100-130 foot pounds of leverage on the bolt to tighten it, plus maybe thread locker. For discussion, see:
Marinucci, Dan: “Foreign service”, Motor July-Sept 2001.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... i_n8959141
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... i_n8971906
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... i_n8969972
and a “must read” on crank pulleys at bbs.legacycentral.org .

I drove it about 2000 miles, and the new pulley slot wore on the Woodruff key completely around the circumference, then spun loose on the shaft and threw the belts. I had major concerns about shaft end and Woodruff key slot wear, but as I was away from home I pulled the timing belt in a parking lot and replaced the key and pulley (I think that key insertion requires pulling the timing belt and crank drive sprocket—I cannot see how to insert the key into the slot while the crank drive sprocket is on) and drove it to a dealer on battery without belts and told them to tighten it down as hard as they could to get me home, and decided to never fix the AC so as to reduce pulley load on the worn shaft.

I would not be surprised, however, if the valve train cam was retarded a few degrees from the crank timing due to Woodruff key slot wear which might have allowed the key to angle sideways a bit. (I started the engine before I put the pulley on, and noticed a bit of a idle-rpm clatter which went away at high rpm that I suspected might be the Woodruff key rattling as the cam load varies on the crank as the engine fires and turns.) I hoped that the key issue was not relevant, because I interpreted the design as having the crank pulley bolt press against the crank pulley against the timing belt drive pulley against a shoulder on the crankshaft, to hold it solid by pressure fit, while the Woodruff key keeps it generally aligned. I hoped it would not wear or change timing as long as the pulley was bolted down solid, but the crank does get hammered on every piston firing.

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III. Current Power Problem:

Shortly after I had the crank pulley bolted down due to the Woodruff key problem, the engine developed a power problem, which is the present issue. Notably, the check-engine light has not come on, but I figure that the catalytic converter mechanic may have done something to block coding of emissions problems, and apparently non-coding is common with Woodruff key valve timing problems.

A) Symptoms: The 1996 Legacy EJ22 runs in one of three states:

1) near-normal: at 75 up to mph with 28+ mpg.

2) moderate problem: Usually on a hot day after it has been driven a while, it does not want to run over 40 mph, it has no “vacuum advance” perk, it easily kicks down the transmission (low manifold vacuum?), pushing down the throttle just makes exhaust muffler noise, and full throttle causes a misfire but little acceleration. It does not want to go uphill. It drives fastest on a downhill run at minimum throttle at night (cooler).

3) major problem: Usually on a hot day after it has been driven a while, it does not want to run over 15 mph, there is a hum from the driver’s side valve train (flat/boxer/pancake 4 cylinder engine), and, if driven faster, an EGR control “vacuum” hose blows off and whistles, first fast and furious and then slower, releasing what I presume is exhaust back pressure (but I supposed it could be something else, like leakage from a cracked head). [It is the vacuum hose that goes from near the intake manifold end of the EGR tube to the bottom of the round plastic disk vacuum control unit above the EGR valve located to the driver’s side of the throttle valve. On top the disk has two vacuum hoses that go to the throttle valve, and one that goes to the EGR solenoid and then on to the EGR servo diaphragm. I figure that it might be some sort of exhaust backpressure modulator on the EGR valve control circuit.]

Notably, using “valve medic” in the oil (napthylated hydrocarbons) seems to reduce the severity of the problem for the next hundred or so miles.

The car seems to drive okay with the green “test mode” connector plugged in, but I it does not seem to cure the problem, at least not once it has begun acting up. Pulling the Throttle Position Sensor also does not seem to cure it.

Any suggestions? I suspect that the EGR hose blowing off and whistling when it gets hot may be a big hint as to what is going on. It may not be the only problem, though, like there may be a bit of a timing problem and a bit of an emmissions sensor problem, etc.

Hypotheses (My Guesses):

1. Woodruff key slot damage: Maybe the valves are now timed a few degrees late do to widening of the Woodruff key slot. This may result in overheating of something in the Driver’s side head. The “naptha” in “valve medic” vaporizing through the PCV system improves the octane for faster burn and may reduce the timing problem. Action: I don’t know a MIG welder, don’t do braizing, don’t know where to buy a wider Woodruff key (auto parts or hardware store?), do not have much metalworking experience (e.g. to reform the slot, drill a “Dutchman” pin between the shaft and pulley, or drill at an angle into and pin the shaft), and the engine has 150K miles on it, so disassemble timing belt, clean and use “quickmetal”, “sleave retainer” and “thread locker” on the crank, key, sprocket, pulley, and bolt to glue it together, use 24 inch chain pipe wrench and breaker bar to tighten over 100 ft-lbs and hope that the bold does not snap (replace the bolt?), and hope the fix it holds till the engine dies. Notably, the key is under significant stress each time the engine fires, so the fix must be solid. Opinion: difficult to do with unpredictable results, and possibly unnecessary, so try everything else first. Also, it is an irreversible fix, so it would be useful to know first if there was a head problem.

There is one other suggestion I like, linked to in the “must read” on crank pulleys at bbs.legacycentral.com, and that is to drill 2 holes through the new crank pulley and bolt it into the existing 2 holes in the crank sprocket tapped 5/16x18x 1/2 in. The idea is that if the crank pulley and crank sprocket are bolted together so that they cannot shift with respect to eachother, a new Woodruff key is likely to be held square (even by the soft pulley metal) and is much less likely turn, shift, and wear on the crank.

2. Catalytic converter: Apparently the mechanic wired-out the emission sensors about 6000 miles ago, and maybe it is coming back to haunt me with a backpressure problem, maybe due to chronic low O2 in the catalytic converter. (It got 30mpg much of the time.) Opinion: A fix is probably necessary anyway, but may not be possible to diagnose if there is a mechanical problem such as a valve or timing problem.

3. Timing belt: I think that I got it right, and both cam pulleys match, but I cannot pull the central cover off until I tear it down again. Same as above explanation on “valve medic” and octane. Same as above action on Woodruff key damage.

4. Unidentified Sensor failure: Throttle position sensor failure, resulting in bad fuel mix when throttle is opened? Pulling the plug did not seem to help. O2 sensor failure (is it even working if the OBD-II says “not ready”?) somehow causing too much back pressure in the exhaust system? EGR control (it sometimes opens at high rpms if the throttle is opened slowly and evenly, but usually it starts to move but then closes after a half second)? Action: Pull all sensors but crank, cam, and MAP and drive carefully, to see if the problem goes away. If so, then plug sensors back in one at a time. (Problem: many of the emissions sensors are in “not ready” mode and may already not be working.) Opinion: sounds simple enough, and it may reduce the number of variables in the system.

5. Valves: Maybe there is a sticking valve, which gets worse when the engine is hot, and screws up the emissions, and maybe “valve medic” loosens it. (Note, the 1996 EJ22 is reputedly a noninterference engine, so a timing problem will not directly result in a bent valve, and the compression check was good.) Action: If a bad valve can be demonstrated, then swap in a cheap junk-yard engine, and keep the spare parts. Opinion: I am not really set up to pull an engine, although I hear that it is far easier with a light high-mounted Subaru boxster than with deep, heavy Detroit V-8s.

Is pulling the spark plug while the engine is running and acting up a good way to identify a valve problem when the compression is okay? Will the spark plug packs tolerate a pulled wire?

Any suggestions as to where to start???

Thanks in advance!!!

[Manarius]

I can't personally comment about numbers 1 and 2 as I really don't know anything about them. I've never seen an O2 sensor make a car run as horribly as you describe, but there's definitely a first for everything.

For 3A: As I recall (and I recall wrongly sometimes), the AT is electronically controlled, so the ECU reads in the throttle input and decides from there how to control the tranny - not from a manifold pressure sensor. I may be mistaken about this so if I'm wrong anyone may feel free to correct me.

For 3B & C: You describe pretty well a vacuum problem. As for what's causing it, I personally don't know. Your problem seems pretty rare. I know I had a similar problem with my car bucking and acting weird which turned out to be a MAF sensor. The car shifted fine but wouldn't go if I pushed on the gas. But, it also did other things like stall out every 5 seconds and shut off on me in the middle of the road for no good reason. Maybe that's part of your problem?

I wonder if you have something wrong with the lifters on the driver's side. You say that valve medic fixes it....I wonder if it just undoes the stuck lifter for a little while and then it goes back to being stuck again. You would think though that a stuck lifter would cause problems all the way throughout the powerband no matter what day - warm or cold.

[quicklook]

i got tired of reading about halfway through and will go back and finish and than give suggestions.

that has to be the longest first post ever.

i need more coffee in me before i can look at it again.

[quicklook]

that was still too much to read, even after more coffee, but i would suggest getting a vaccuum gauge and see what it does. it is kind of old school, but it will diagnose a whole lot of problems. beyond that i will have to think somemore. good luck.

[slingshot]

I got a vacuum gage and taped it to a winshield wiper, hooked it to the big vacuum tap on top of the EJ22 just behind the coil pack, downstream of the throttle. The gage runs 18-22 in-hg at idle, and as low as 1 while accelerating, while the engine is working passibly. Now, with two bottles of “valve medic” (napthylated hydrocarbons) in the crank case, the problem is now mostly related to temperature and accelerating up hills.

I think that the high pressure that blows off the hose to the EGR control disk and whistles for a while, and starts again whenever I try to accelerate when it is acting up is a hint. The port that blows the hose off comes off the intake manifold just below and outboard of the EGR valve, just above where the EGR tube comes up from the bottom of the head and enters the casting. It normally is at a slight vacuum (4 in-hg) when revved. It seems to only have vacuum when the EGR opens (which is not all the time—at one point I thought the EGR valve was acting up). I suspect that it is EGR pressure BEFORE it is switched by the EGR valve and goes through the channel moulded underneath the #4 (driver’s rear) cylinder intake passage.

Is this pure exhaust pressure (maybe the catalytic converter is plugging up after about 5K miles after replacement because all the emissions sensors say “Not Ready” for unknown reasons)? Or might the pressure be from somewhere else (e.g. cracked head that only acts up when hot, radiator fluid that boils, whatever)? The port is in the intake casting so there are not too many places for the pressure to come from.

Yesterday before I bought the vacuum gage, I started with the engine cold and made it about 65 miles at highway speed before it thought I heard a slight whine, so I pulled off. It had the exhaust noise (sorta like having “glass packs”)/no-accelleration problem, and blew off that hose going to the EGR control disk while trying to accelerate from a stop sign (the start of the current symptoms), so I let it cool and limped it home on back roads.

I think that the Woodruff key is a little loose from the previous crank pulley problem, in that there is a bit of a clack-clack-clatter just as I turn the engine off. That looseness could retard the valve timing a bit, which might lead to it running hot. (The temperature gage and radiator seem normal, and there are no ECU codes, though the radiator fan does run fairly often in this 95+ degree weather.)

Yes, there could well be a lifter problem with 150K miles on the engine, although the compression is good on all cylinders (182-190 psi).

Any comments or ideas? Does this sound like an emissions/exhaust backpressure problem? Where do you start to troubleshoot the emissions system when all the emissions OBD-II codes read offline—like maybe someone turned them all off?

Sorry about the length of the initial post, but there are a lot of gremlins, and I have been chasing them for a while.

[quicklook]

"The gage runs 18-22 in-hg at idle, and as low as 1 while accelerating, while the engine is working passibly."

what does it read when not running passibly.

this all started with your 'aftermarket cats", i would go back to that area.

[slingshot]

Took it down to midas and had it up on the rack and was describing the symptoms, and the mechanic hits the rear catalytic converter, and it rattles. So he unhooked the outlet, and we see the cat honeycomb cracked off around the edges and the bed turned partly crossways. So that was the cause of the exhaust backpressure and the EGR hose blowing off.

The cat may well have been damaged in installation. I speculate that the aftermarket cat (Eastern) may have had the rear cat pointing slightly crossways when installed, so the mechanic may have tried to bend the tube between the cats and used a hammer on it and cracked the bed.

Pulled the timing belt, and the Woodruff key rock allows the belt drive sprocket about 5 degrees of slide back and forth. Will try "sleave retainer" and "JB weld" to keep it from sliding, then crank down the bolt.

[supernoob]

I had crank walk on one of my 22s. It totally gouged out the crankshaft, key and pulley. The timing was way off. There was just a little part of the crank keyway left defining where the key needed to go. So I pinned the belt cog to the crankshaft using a (2) C clips, like the CV shaft C clip, so it couldn't rotate on the shaft anymore. Then I replaced the key and pulley and slapped it back together and its been fine ever since.

[slingshot]

Summary of problems and lessons learned:

[1: use a chain wrench and torque wrench to bolt on EJ22 crank pulley to 120 ft lbs to avoid loose pulley problems.]
[2: static timing the EJ22 by boresighting through crank position sensor hole to check for timing belt jump.]
[3: the perils of JB weld-ing the crank pulley on, and work-arounds.]
[4: damaged catylitic converter=intermittent inexplicable driveability problems--e.g. won't drive uphill, blows off EGR hose.]
[5: replacing oil pump, seal, and o-ring in old EJ22 solved oil leak.]

I. The car had an old crank pulley problem and a new exhaust problem:

The car was sold with a crank pully problem--probably the result of improper installation during a timing belt change, and it tore up a second pulley (rounding the end of the shaft), sawed the end of the second woodruff key, and threw the belts before I got it figured out.

Point 1: to put the EJ22 crank pulley on (after a timing belt removal) get a 2 foot chain wrench and 2 foot torque wrench with a big socket and put about 120 foot pounds on the crank bolt. Try Harbor Freight Tools for bargain tools to do this with.

I had put in a new oil pump and seal, new water pump, and new timing belt. [By the way, heavy oil leaks in old EJ22 engines tend to be fixed by replacing the oil pump, seal, and o-ring, which are all located behind the timing belt, and should be replaced at the same time.] Engine compression was very good. When I pulled the pulley off do a permanent fix of the crank wear problem, I found that the new Woodruff key was able to lay over to the side just a bit due to slot wear, so there was only a few degrees of cam rattle possible--but I think I could hear it at idle when running with the pulley removed.

The other problem with diagnosing this case was that the rear catylitic converter had been damaged in installation, the bed was rolling around inside the case like a ball, and it was plugging up the exhaust and the backpressure was blowing a control hose off the EGR, and generally making it intermittently undriveable--especially when trying to drive uphill. The driveability problem was due to exhaust backpressure, not a rattling timing belt drive pulley.

II. Gluing on the Crank Pulley:

With a new belt and having made sure all the pulleys were good, I used Sleve retainer epoxy inside the belt drive sprocket and on the Woodruff key, then put JB weld on the inside of the pulley and bolted it on. The excess JB weld on the front made a nice little seal between the inside of the crank pulley and the shaft--which may keep things from wobbling. Excess JB weld on the back may have glued the crank pulley to the crank drive sprocket--but you do not want to have too much in the back because it could run out and get on, or make a lump that would wear on, the timing belt.

Point 2: You can static time the EJ22 by pulling out the crank position sensor and boresighting the reluctor tab on the crank drive pulley. Boresight it first while you have everything opened up (with the cam marks straight up, the Woodruff key straight down, and the marked reluctor tab straight up where the crank position sensor should be), because you may have to view the tab through the hole using a flashlight on an angle (due to the position of accessories), and you want to be certain what it should look like before you glue it all together. This is very important in order to know where the pulleys are at when it is all assembled in order to be able to verify the timing by sight--since you have to put the plastic timing belt cover on before you put on the crank pulley--and in this case the point is to glue the pulley on permanently.

I fired the engine to move the car immediately after I had glued the woodruff key, drive sprocket, timing belt cover, and crank pulley on. I took a look at it and thought the timing looked a bit wierd, but I estimated that the position was about okay. Unfortunately, after about 6 hours of JB weld setting up, I found that the timing belt had jumped two teeth on startup. Now, I have never been able to get the timing belt on without completely pulling an idler pulley, so I figure that there are tolerances that one cannot get right just by putting the timing belt on and rotating it a bit--you have to run the engine with the tensioner on to get it to settle into its permanent position.

BE CERTAIN TO INSPECT THE TIMING PROMPTLY AFTER JB WELD-ING ON THE PULLEY IN ORDER TO CHECK FOR BELT JUMP WHILE YOU CAN STILL DISASSEMBLE IT!!!

Chiseling JB weld was futile. In the end, I got a hacksaw and snips, cut a large corner out of the plastic timing belt cover between the belt path on the bottom, and up just outboard of the pulley, and taking both screw holes on the top, so I could put the piece back later with the 2 top bolts and a lot of duct tape without worrying about it getting into the pulley or belts. I then removed the belt tensioner through the large hole, boresighted the drive cog reluctor tab through the reluctor hole to straight up, set the cam sprockets straight up, while I got the timing belt to jump back 2 sprockets on the drive cog--which is something that cannot really be done all at once due to the lack of free play on the belt, and then reinstalled the tensioner and tensioned it, reinstalled the crank position sensor, fired the engine and timed it, and taped the cover flap on.

After that arcane bit of desperate magic in the middle of the night by flashlight, it has run 12,000 miles with no problem other than the fact that the driver's side of the timing belt cover is held on 2 sides by duct tape.

What if the engine lasts long enough to need another timing belt??? Well, my next guess is to buy a new timing belt cover, saw it in half top-to-bottom, break off the old cover, change the belt without removing the crank pulley--which might be interesting since some of the idler pulleys are behind the crank pulley, and then bolt the two half covers on from the sides.

Well, it is working for now, and probably will for another 50K miles.

[subytech]

dear lord i really tried to read all of this but jeezus man I like to work on my car not read novels lol