Rebuilding my 97 4.6 2v motor from my mustang gt. When I went to put the crank pully back on the pully is pressed against the timing cover. It the same pulley that was on the engine before the rebuild. Am I missing a spacer or something. I feel like I have checked everything and have no expanation for this problem. Does anyone have an idea?

remove the large bolt at the center of the crank pully and the bolts on the smaller pully and the warer pump pully put jack under oil pan, remove front upper engine mount and lower the jack this will allow you to remove the timing belt cover and then pry off the pully with a large screw driver

Below the altenator is a tensioning pully, insert a 3/8" ratchet or breaker bar in the square hole on the tensioner and release the tension on the surpentine belt and remove the belt. Route the new surpentine belt in place up to the altenator and take the tension off the tensioner and put the belt over the altenator pully. Double check to make sure the belt is riding correctly on all the pullies before starting. Crank the engine over several times before starting to seat the belt.

right put the starter motor back in,then re connect .put the right size socket on the pulley bolt and use a long snap on bar jammed into the suspension then crank the engine with the starter motor and it will undo itself ,dont forget to put some contact sdhesive back on the pulley bolt thread when rebuilding

remove drivers wheel then plastic wheel arch then put jack under engine and remove the engine mount then take off fan belt and timing belt cover mark your two top cam pullys and the crank pully then remove your belt and tensioner put new belt and tensioner on making sure all your marks line up then put on the crank pully and turn engine over twice by hand using a ratchett on the crank pully bolt if it turns over and your marks still line up put it all back together and start the car

Sounds like pressure buildup. Did the old ones have a PCV valve or some way to release crank case pressure?

TIMING BELT CHANGE You should have some mechanical skills before attempting any engine maintenance! These are basic instructions, and you must knoe what you removed, when, and what order so you can reinstall them in order. First, you have to remove everything in the way! You need to remove the Fan, clutch, and shroud, pump pully & drive belts. Next, you need to remove the Crank Pully:

1. Crank Pully Bolt 2. Crank Pully 3. Center Bolt 4. 5mm Hex drive (used to remove pully bolts) Once the fan stuff, and pully(s) are removed, then you need to remove the Timing Belt cover:

Once the cover is removed, you will need to loosen the adjusting nut and pully bolt on the Belt Tensioner:
A. Adjust Nut B. Pully Bolt C. TENSIONER PULLY Once the the Adjust Nut, and Pully bolt are loose, move the pully as far towards the water pump as possible.
Then, you can slip the timing belt from the sprockets. Check the tensioner for roughness and excess play! DO NOT MOVE THE CAM OR CRANK SPROCKETS! IF you do, then you will have to line up the Crank and Cam for piston number one at Top Dead Center before placing the new timing belt on! Note the timing marks on the crank and camshaft sprockets. IF YOU MUST! Allign the Cam and Crank at piston#1, Top Dead Center before removing the belt. Each sprocket has a small hole, with a line through it, and there is a small groove or "V" it alligns with on the engine. Now, once the timing belt is off, look at your new timing belt. Older belts use the Squared off teeth, while new ones have the rounded teeth. Make sure you have the correct belt for your sprockets! Never reinstall a belt that is in questionable condition. BELT WEAR CONDITIONS
If there are Arrows on the belt, they must be pointing to the RIGHT when you put the new belt on the sprockets. If there isn't one, then paint one on, and place the belt back on the sprockets. The arrow will indicate to a mechanic, this is the way the belt must be put back on (if they replace any cam or crank oil seals). Slip the new belt onto the Crank sprocket. While maintaining tension on the side of the belt opposite the tensioner, slip the belt onto the Camshaft sprocket. Releace the Tensioner adjusting nut to allow spring tension against the belt. Temporarily reinstall the crank pully, taking care to align the notch in the pully with the raised area on the sprocket. Rotate the crank clockwise two complete revolutions. Recheck the alignment of the of the valve timing marks. If they do not align properly, loosen the tensioner, slip the belt off the crank pully, align the timing marks, reinstall the belt, and check alignment again. Tighten the tensioner nut, then the bolt. Reinstall all parts removed, in the opposite order, of course. Start the engine and allow to reach normal operating temp, then road test. THEORETICALLY, you should simply be able to replace the belt with the new one, and go, as long as you did not move any of the sprockets when removing or installing the belt. Most people do it this way, and do not test for alignment before replacing everything. When the belt wears, timing will be off, very little, and this is why you check alignment. The belt may have slipped a tooth, making the timing off. This is why the Cam and Crank sprockets must both align properly. An experienced person will do just that: Replace the belt, and go. It really isn't all that hard. It helps to have a second person around with some experience also.

This is how 2.8TD.Remove the belts (fan and power steering)with a 10mm socket un-screw the plastic cover. To remove the bottom pully their is 3 small screws inside the pully (10mm or 12mm) unscrew them and take off the pully. Do not try to remove the big nut. Remove the plastic cover. Their is a small hole in all the drive wheel's their is a treaded hole in the engine block behind each one and a mark on the crank shaft. Turn the engine until the mark on the crankshaft is at the top then push the bolts ( metric course tread 12 or 13 mm head 4 to 5 ins long) through the holes in the drive wheel's and try to screw them in if they dont line up first time turn the crankshaft 1 turn and try again. When they all line up screw in the bolds this keeps the timing in place. Release the tention pully (the one with no tracks on and pushing against the back of the belt) remove the old belt replace. To tighten the tention pully put a small socket bar in the square hole turn until the belt is tight hold the preasure on the socket bar ant tighten the locking screw. Remove the screws job done.

ok this is fun lol.jack the car up and put it on a jack stand,then you will have to pull the drivers side tire off.now you need to put a jack under the motor and unbolt the driver side motor mount. lower the motor down it will only go so far.now for the fun part.you got pull the crank pully off there is one bolt in the center of the pully.once you get that off pull the timing cover off top and bottom. there will be 2 belts one is the timing and one is for the water and oil pump. the water pump it the one closest to the back of the motor. it would be best if you replace the timing belt since your already in there.make sure you get ALL the old gasket off the block.you dont want to have to do it twice.oh yeah loosen the tensioner pully to pull off the timing belt it right above the crank one bolt in the center also.if you didnt move anything you should be able to put the new timing belt back on with now problems if you did move something then you got to put it back in time to do that make sure the #1 cylinder is top dead center of the compression strok then turn the cam gear till where its says up on the spoke is pointing up.after that put everything back together and you should be good to go. hope this helps if you have anymore questions just let me know.have fun lol

You have to remove the belt, the power steering pump i think and depending on build date may have to remove the motor mount thats attached to the belt side of the engine. Also need to remove the harmonic balancer. Thats the big pully on the bottom of the engine. Gotta be care full to cause under that is a sensor called the crank sensor. They are very fragile and expensive. If you hit it while taking the balancer off or putting it back on the car will not run right. I would reccomend against doing it yourself as its a pretty serious job to do without special training.

The crank shaft pully will need removal and the water pump pully as well, also the 2 inspection covers and the center housing cover that they conect with, when removed all of the timing belts will be exposed as well as crank shaft end. I used a screw driver angled wedged and held in on the teeth of the fly-wheel to lock it in position so I could remove the crank shaft pully bolt, (standard lefty-loosey threaded). This would have been easier with the fly-wheel locking tool from subaru, or even just a budy to hold the fly-wheel while i turned the bolt loose at the crank pully. I unbolted the fan and slid it out of the way, I did not even need to unplug it. just be sure battery is not conected. The oil dip-stick tube has one 12 mm bolt at the end of a brace at top of engine. loosen and pull up and forward to remove. the crank shaft bolt-you will need to put back in the bolt only! on the end of the crank shaft so you can rotate the engine manualy with a socket on the crank shaft pully nut, while looking through the hole on the top of rear engine area just above fly wheel. wach fly wheel as it turns, look for 3 lines side by side these are not the timing degree marks they are seperate from them, align them to the little arow on the houseing in front of the 3 little marks. be sure the e-brake is set, trany in nutral so engine can turn freely. inspect the cam shaft pullies, on the surface there are 4 evenly spaced holes, there is one tiny hole that lays between the other holes, this little hole that is the pully mark, it needs to be at the twelve oclock position, there is a small groove on the housing at the twelve oclock position as well. align the two with each other, the little hole with the little notch directly above. do the same for the other side cam pully, same way. loosen the idler pulies for each belt, 2 bolts, move it to its full retracted position, pushing on it with fngers against spring tention, titen one of the nuts so the pully stays retracted/pushed. remove old belts, being carefull not to move the place marks of either of the 2 cam shafts or the engine crank placement. put in the new belts check to see if belt has a direction of dravel and match with engine, mine it did not matter but was told that it may with other belt makers? i don't know about that? but thought it was worth the warning?
once belts are on be sure again that marks all mate with marks on all 3 points crank and fly-wheel, both cam shaft pullies with notchs, now release the tnsion on the idler pullies, and retighten where they fell. check again on the 3 timing points be sure they have not moved again... tireing but worth it. if the have moved off of any mark you must realign it by moveing the pully to the rite spot and putting the belt back on. one tooth off on the drivers side of engine cam can meen up to 16 degrees of timing lose either way of perfect. once aligned, put the center cover back over the crank shaft, bolt on. put on the oil dip stick, put on the water pump pully and crank shaft pully, put on belts. leave the fans out untill all is done, just be sure they are free of obstacles so if they come on later it does no harm to it, you, or anything else. leave off the inspection covers at each cam pully. be sure to un block the fly-wheel. re asemble engine and componants to the installed normal positions as best as posible. re conect battery, be sure all tools are clear, start engine, if it will not run smoothly re set the distributer for timing, if still runs bad, you may have one or both cams off by plus or minus 1-2 teeth one the belts. this was hell... you have to move one side one tooth and start the engine and time it again, if that was not it then you move one tooth in in the oposite direction from the oiginal spot, now 2 teeth the oposite way. if not better put back on the original tooth, and do the same to the other cam one step and start at a time untill you find it to work the best, it may even be off by 1 tooth on the rite and 1- tooth on the left. This was a nite-mare but i finaly found the rite placements.
take 2 aspirin, advil, etc. pre-medicate for the manditory headache. and best of luck..
if you are wondering if the valves and the pistons may have struck, forget it subaru made this 1.8l engine as a none contacting engine, this meens that they can never touch piston to valves even in a cam belt failure.