Complete Rebuild...

[eng4hire]

I bought this 1994 LS400 a little over a month ago for $8K from a used lot. The inside was perfect and it ran good. It had the common power steering pump leak and someone had tried to fix the vacuum switch on the pump with JB Weld after breaking it (I suppose) which ruined it. The car also had the dreaded jerking going down the hi-way after warm up when you ease down on the gas to accelerate. So I knew I was into this for at least a power steering pump job. I had read the posts about cleaning the throttle body and then tore the engine apart as you can see in the picture. I found a CDROM of the Lexus service manual on eBay and bought that immediately to help me pull this off without the need to tow the car to my local Lexus dealer to fix it after I had it all apart. :o The few things I could'nt decode from the Lexus service manual I got from auto-repair-manuals.com which I highly recommend if you’re going into one of these like I did. Needless to say, as you can see from the PIC I found a lot more wrong with her after I ripped her open and I'm lucky I had the right stuff to keep taking it apart or I would probably not be driving it now! Yes cleaning the throttle body is required to bring back the old performance but do yourself a favor and take the plenum off and clean it shinny too! That’s the metal air box on top of the engine. Use plenty of carburetor cleaner and a small wire brush. The EGR return is injected into the back of this cavity hence the buildup of crap over time (>134K miles for me). Try and get as much out of the air intakes as you can once you get the plenum off using a rag soaked with cleaner and your finger but be careful not to loose anything down those tubes! Have a long magnetic pick up stick handy! Every bearing in the front of the engine was toast and the timing belt was trash. Even the water pump was loose and everything was squeaking. Now with everything new including the PSP, all the idlers and pullys, and a new set of spark wires, rotors and caps and the busted vacuum switch and belts she purrs like a kitten! Total outlay for me was ~$400 and 4 days of working on it after work but it was worth it! This is my first luxury car and I intend to keep her purring as long as I can get parts. By the way if anyone needs a new one of those vacuum switches on the PSP I found mine on line for $60 otherwise get ready to pay upwards of $200 for one of those... Hope some of this helps... You can email questions directly if you wish at eng4hire@excite dot com.