I changed the belts on my borthers 2.5 dual over head cam and I will tell you this. Have a shop do it!
First off while you are in there you need to replace the water pump. Why? Cause if you do not it will fail right after its back together. Murphy says so. If its bearings fail it can let the belt slip and you already know what that does. If it just leaks it will cause other problems. The timing belt runs on the water pump to drive it.
Its not a bad idea to replace ALL the bearings the belt rides on. You can usually get a kit off ebay with all the wearing parts for a fair price IF you decide to do it yourself.
While your in there you will want to replace the four camshaft seals for the same reason. They will leak within a short time if you dont! (Effin Murphy) Then you get to go back in!! Make sure the new seals are the Subaru brown seals. They are the new standard.
Also replace the little "O" ring seal behind the oil pump. If your wondering why see above. As well as the crankshaft front seal.
Heres the real
in the nuts. Get or rent or buy a tool that will hold BOTH camshafts at the same time (This means you need two!) If you rotate either side the wrong way the valves (in the 2.5 it will hit. I heard that all dual cam setups will hit and the 2.5 single cam will hit pistons as well.) Only the 2.0 single cam is a non interferance. (on dual cams the valves can hit the pistons and each other and bend!) At that point the heads come off at the very least $$.
The tool is needed to hold the cams so this rotation does not happen. The book my brother had showed using a large channel locks on the camshaft sprockets to hold them while loosening the nut that holds the sprocket on. It works OK on the passenger side where the pullies are convex. The "nut flanges" stick right out there. Easy to get on. However on the drivers side they are concave and you aint getting no channel locks on those.......... It's recessed quite well. I will not tell you how I did it as it requires/involves sacrificing virgins to demons and pig blood and two cornish hens....and a hitchhiker. But I have said to much already...
The tools hold them so they do not spin and so that you can loosen the bolts that hold the pullies to the cams with normal sockets. There are tools that engauge the teeth on the pullies and get wedged in between the two and the Subaru tool actually is a funny looking double ended box wrench that actually fits the nut inside the pullies and holds them right where they need to be. Then you gotta get the old seals out without damaging the cam seals surface area and seat the new seals. Fun! You loosen each bolt in the cams just enoguh then take out the tool and remove the pullies and replace the seals. The place the pullies back on carefulley and put the tool back in there and locktite it and torque those bolts.
Then there are belts. The belts have little marks on them to match teeth to alingment marks on the sprockets. I cannot remember which ones but there are a couple companies that have belts with the marks one tooth off. Not good. (I found this doing searches on the internet) These marks all line up with marks on the pullies and there will also be marks on the plastic housing (like part of your broken plastic) that surrounds the belt. If ALL of these are not lined up you are gonna have an issue. The manual will tell you to double check the belt by counting the teeth around the belt to make sure the marks are correct. More fun!
Also you need to put a new hydraulic belt tensioner on it. Or not but the risk is it will fail and slip and $$$$$ noises. Also you need to be VERY careful how you push the plunger in IF you decide to reuse it. Do it to fast and you ruin it. It only goes maybe 3/8ths of an inch but it takes (It better) a few minutes or more to push it in to allow it to relieve the hydraulic pressure. (Then you pin it to hold it) Don't try to flip it sideways and do it in a vice either. You need to keep it upright if your model has that type of tensioner.
I think I remembered everything but maybe not. Many Subee owners hate the shops cause they think they are getting robbed when the shop tries to tell them to do it all at once to save money going back in. Many refuse and when the water pump or oil seals on the pump go out shortly later they think the shop set it up to fail. Then have a another large bill to pay to go all the way back in to finish the job.
If you are gonna work on Subbees all the time invest in the tools. But if only once or twice have a shop do it that knows these. If your plastic is cracked go get replacement at the scrap yard. Have the mechanic replace it all at once.
Also to hold the crankshaft while trying to get the front pulley nut off you can hold it easier at the back of the motor through the flywheel timing port.
If your still sane when you get done let us know! Mmmm luv my padded cell.
