Oh boy was I wrong

"PowderHound" (PowderHound) 01/20/2016 at 11:04 • Filed to: None

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I was under the impression from the mechanic that one of the timing belt pulleys had exploded. Turns out, it was the came gear! Holy shit! Now I don’t feel as bad about not changing the timing belt sooner because I had no plans to change any cam gears.

Quick edit: I should be getting my car back today and this is not my photo, just added the words and arrows

Takuro Spirit > PowderHound 01/20/2016 at 11:12

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Plastic timing gears. Not even once.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > PowderHound 01/20/2016 at 11:16

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I knew as soon as I saw “cam gear exploded” this would be a Subaru. When DIYing the WRX’s timing belt we broke a huge chunk out of the driver’s side exhaust cam gear. Got a replacement and soldiered on, but scary as hell...

PowderHound > Aaron M - MasoFiST 01/20/2016 at 11:20

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This happened while I was driving… luckily it was only at 25-30 mph. I ended up with a used engine in the car with a lot less miles. I’ll have to look in to better cam gears if I keep the car for the next timing belt interval

Aaron M - MasoFiST > PowderHound 01/20/2016 at 11:28

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There are JDM EJs with metal cam gears. You can also get the metal adjustable gears from someone like Tomei, but that’s likely overkill.

PowderHound > Aaron M - MasoFiST 01/20/2016 at 11:31

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I have seen the adjustable ones but yeah, way too much overkill for me.

EL_ULY > Takuro Spirit 01/20/2016 at 11:39

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Early LS460 had plastic a crank pulley. .... lol those things were replaced with metal ones ASAP!

brianbrannon > PowderHound 01/20/2016 at 13:01

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Did something (lack of oil) cause the cam to seize?

PowderHound > brianbrannon 01/20/2016 at 13:12

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I don’t think so. I’m not even sure if it really seized. The belt itself was fine. Pretty sure it was just plastic fatigue after 185k miles