Hi all.
I just did the head gaskets on a newly aquired '06 Forester. It has the EJ2.5i NA engine in front of an auto. What bugged me though, was the cam timing when I pulled it down. I set the harmonic balancer to TDC but couldn't get the cams to line up properly. They were not sitting with the mark on top. Then, I pulled the plug on number 1 pot, to double check the position of the slug and sure enough, it was right on the money. Regardless, I put some paint on the wheels and stripped it down, leaving the cams in the heads, and got it back together and running fine.
So, my questions are these:
1. What advantage would advancing the cam timing by 6 teeth be? What would be the drawbacks, if any?
2. Would it be likely that it has cranky cams in it? (It has an aftermarket set of extractors). There is no warble from the noisy end. Just sounds normal.
3. It reaches up to 170 kph in third and nearly went into top when the road ran out, (or thereabouts) and redlines in 1 and 2 at about 6.7k rpm with the foot planted and the AT set to power. Is this normal?
4. Still had honing marks in the bores. There is a full service history, but a blank entry at I think around 40 000 k's ago. followed by shorter service periods. Would the head gaskets have blown so early after a rebuild?
5. Unsure yet of the mileage, but it is running a black exhaust. Possibly averaging 6 or 7 liters per hundred k's but it is not being driven by me, so accuracy is suspect.
It had a check engine light on when I got to it. It was throwing the P0032 code. I jigged around with it for quite a while, and ended up fixing it I think, but still suspect there is an issue with the sensor which might be the cause of the black exhaust. The main thing is the cam timing.
I am about to do another engine, but fully stock. Would there be any advantage in advancing the valve timing on it?