Club 80-90 Forums

contact laser tech support and ask have they got an equivalent for whatever the scooby tool number is
they make the quad cam sprocket retainer tool for the 2.5 for example

well got the finer feeler gauge and 0.18mm fits in so between 0.18 and 0.2mm

so out of tolerance by only 0.02mm max , not sure how much of a problem that is - surely if a gap then valve will seat ok for now or can it change by that much when hot?

will test other side and if nothing else a problem may just leave that one for now and keep an eye on it

So the whole valve gap thing has been bothering me as in order to change them without the subaru tool it requires the cams to come out

this isnt easy on these engines as it involves ...
engine out
front crank pulley off,
timing cover off, chains off,
guides tensioners etc.
sprockets off ,
oil pump and relief valve off,
water pump off,
rear cover off ,
then cams off. !!
front and rear timing covers , water pump etc. have to be re-sealed with three bond and new subaru o rings afterwards as well.

with the tool it can be done with just the valve cover off when engine in the van

so i figured i would need this tool at some point so easier to create one now

studied the pictures of the subaru tool and took some measurements from the engine
with this i created some cad files of the necessary parts

I have access to a laser cutter at work so could cut out the parts in acrylic to make a trial run
unfortunately the laser cutter wont cut steel so had to make the centre part by hand

heres some pictures of the tool i made

here it is disassembled


the slanted steel insert in the middle has a bigger hole on top than at the bottom so when tightened down it elongates the steel part
and pushes the arms onto the buckets

and here it is on the engine


tightening the metal plate above the arms pushes down on the buckets - the arc of the arms is designed to be as close to straight down on the buckets as possible

Acrylic unfortunately isnt strong enough to do that without shatering - my plan was once the dimensions were right to get it laser cut in steel
However i did find that if i turned the crank to push down the shim and bucket i could then tighten down on the arms and hold the bucket there while i turned the crank back to get the lobes out of the way. I could then remove and replace the shims!

So i now have all my valve gaps within spec

I still plan to get a price for laser cutting a steel version as it will be more robust but for now i can get on with the real job of getting this engine in.

great work

and thanks for sharing

Great work going on here but if that was me and the engine was running ok i would have just cleaned it up without taking it apart, alot of engines have a bit of oil weepage.

but if that was me and the engine was running ok i would have just cleaned it up without taking it apart,

yeah i got a bit sidetracked - should have just stuck it in, but its a bit of a learning process for me anyway, not having much experience of this sort of thing.

Love the tool you made , you should look into the cost of having it cut in metal.

was gonna clean up all the aluminium on the engine and get it looking all shiny but things are starting to drag on, so decided better to get it in and working and think about that as a later job. Also cleaning the aluminium parts is nigh on impossible unless you get them vapour or shot blasted. so just got it clean enough to see where any leaks were coming from and started sticking it back together. Putting the timing cover back on was interesting, as well as all the bolts with their correct tightening sequence it needed a bead of mastic round the outer edge and centre bolts as no gasket is used. Manual says the bead should be 2.5mm +- 0.5mm!!!!

now anyone that's seen my bath will know that mastic is not my freind....
this is best i could do


used wyns black gasket maker instead of the threebond stuff specified(hard to get over here) - seems good quality and gets good reviews so dont see why it shouldnt work? time will tell.

put a small bead round the outside of the rocker cover gasket too just to be sure.

so been thinking about the exhaust -

was gonna use the original headers that i cut off the subaru



but put them inplace and put a straight edge across them to see how low they are



and they protrude a good few centimeters below the sump, which given the sump is already low isn't good. Could cut off the seams that stick up on top of the headers but they still use extra clearance without them.

Anyone know how close the h6 sump is to the ground on standrad 2wd wheels and suspension?

Also thought i could swap the left and right headers so they pointed to the back of the van instead of the front (see pic)

could almost bolt straight onto an early t25 back box like that!

this may simplify the pipework as it wont have to loop round the engine and gearbox but will require altering the heater return pipe (also doesn't alleviate the height issue).

really need to see engine in van to get best idea for exhaust - hoping i dont have to make custom headers