98 1uz-fe Timing Belt And Water Pump Replacement How_to

[richardkwon]

Here are some more pics of the No. 1 Idler Pulley and the timing belt tensioner bolts being removed from underneath the car.

[richardkwon]

32. To remove the water pump, remove the 5 bolts, 2 studs, and 1 nut. First, remove the 5 bolts with a 12mm socket wrench with a foot long extension. Why the extension? Because there are a bunch of studs and sharp angled metal exposed everywhere and you don't want to bust a knuckle, rip off your skin, nor scream in anger and pain when your hand goes slamming into a stud. Then remove the nut on the lower right side. There is not much space to move the 2 studs. Again, you don't want all that heavy handed torque that you will be using to undo the stud to go to your knuckles and rip off your skin. I found it easiest to remove the 2 studs by using a 12mm wrench and smacking it with a hammer or rubber mallet. Also, to make assembly easier, I just placed all the bolts and studs and transferred them to the new water pump holes.

Then take same rubber mallet and smack the water pump around on all the sides. Start pulling it outwards and soon it will come undone. One trick to be aware of is to carefully bend and move the camshaft position sensor wiring on the driver side. This correlates to the lower right side of the water pump. Bend the wire over the water pump edge and now the pump will have clearance to be pulled straight off. The water pump is held on by an aluminum gasket with a sticky rubber seal that easily peels off. When removing the pump, some coolant came spilling out (1 win and 5 losses) and then I hit the small coolant hose again and unbelievably still more coolant came out of that frickin' hose! (1 and 6 now) I spilled some drops of coolant onto the camshaft timing gear so be careful to wipe any coolant and/or oil from the gear and in general the timing area. You don't want to contaminate the new belt. Now, the disassembly is complete!

[richardkwon]

I compared the old timing belt to the new Mitsubishi one. The old one (on the left) definitely has a bunch of cracks in the outer side of the belt. All the markings are gone and outer side is shiny and glossy. Also, bending it 360 degrees with the outer side exposed, I noticed the cracks even more. The inner side of the belt where all the webbing and reinforcement looked great with no cracks at all. Playing with the belt, I noticed that it was very pliable, flexible and loose compared to the new belt. I'm very confident the belt would last a lot longer but I really think it is the right time to change the belt.

[richardkwon]

After removing the WP, I tested the impeller. Still feels good compared to the new one. Did not notice any wobbling or strange noises. However, I noticed some crusty pinkish white stuff totally caked on and plugging what I think is the weep hole. After removing the crusty stuff with a pick, there is a small tubed hole that goes to the impeller area. This entire hole was plugged. The service manual says to check the air hole and water hole. I'm thinking that due to the plugged hole, coolant is not able to be circulated in the impeller, thereby causing the marbles in a can sound as the whole area is running dry. Don't know this for sure and am only deducing but I'm thinking any plugged hole is not a good thing.

[landar]

Almost looks like someone, along the line of ownership, put in some stop leak and clogged the passage. Either that or the coolant has never been changed. That is a good 'find' and good to finally get it fixed.

[richardkwon]

In addition to the timing belt, I've also purchased a new WP, fan clutch and a Gates drive belt tensioner.

I have looked back at the service history and it may very well be that the coolant has never been flushed. The coolant that I removed "looked" good to me. I guess the lesson is to flush your coolant regularly. Anyway, I did compare the two WP's again. The old WP impeller could be turned by hand to spin freely one half rotation while the new WP only goes one quarter rotation. So here is definitely a difference. Inspecting the weep hole I noticed that there is a small reservoir/space that is connected by an internal tube/passageway to the impeller area. There is no seal, ie the WP gasket does not seal the reservoir area.

Comparing the old fan clutch to the new one (Made in Japan), the old one seemed a bit harder to turn by hand where the new one spins a little more freely.

The Gates drive belt tensioner (Made in Canada) pulley spins very tightly whereas the old one spins very freely and with a LOT of noise. The old drive belt tensioner was also made in Canada. This is the secondary source of noise that I was hearing at idle. So, my recommendation is also to replace the drive belt tensioner as it is not a very expensive part at $50 - $75.

The replacement timing belt tensioner is also an updated design in that the long tube part is shorter on the new one vs. the old one. Also, the rubber cap is a little different.

[richardkwon]

For those of you wanting to remove your crankshaft front oil seal (or as Toyota calls it, the oil pump seal), the procedure is very simple.

First you will need to remove the timing belt gear pulley. If your gear pulley is not rusted on to the crank, then you may be able to pry it out with 2 screwdrivers. I bought a pulley puller and had to buy 2 M6 hex bolts that are at least 65mm in length. You will also need some fairly large washers. Place the 2 bolts in the gear pulley holes and then pull it off the crankshaft.

[richardkwon]

To remove the seal, you can use either a seal removal tool (looks like a T shaped ice pick) or cut the inner part of the seal and then place a screwdriver and pry the seal out (just like the spark plug tube seals). Not wanting to gouge the metal, I first drilled a small hole and then tapped in a screw. Then using a pry bar, I popped the seal right out.

My seal was not leaking and was in excellent shape although it was a bit harder than the replacement seal. The outer seal is a hard plastic rubber and the inner part is flexible rubber with a tiny inner metal spring coil. Mine had just a bit of oil on the bottom of the inside seal and I'm sure it would have lasted quite a bit longer. This is definitely a 200K replacement item imo and I would definitely recommend at every timing belt change.

[landar]

Nice. I made a tool out of 1 1/2" PVC piping to press the seal back in but you could probably just tap evenly around it to get it seated.

"This is definitely a 200K replacement item imo and I would definitely recommend at every timing belt change.."

Did you really mean "every OTHER belt change"?

[richardkwon]

Nice. I made a tool out of 1 1/2" PVC piping to press the seal back in but you could probably just tap evenly around it to get it seated.

"This is definitely a 200K replacement item imo and I would definitely recommend at every timing belt change.."

Did you really mean "every OTHER belt change"?

Yes I think at about 180K should be fine.

[richardkwon]

Landar,

I tried installing the timing belt today. I had the CR arrow exactly on the timing pulley indentation mark hole and the LH Cam arrow on the LH Cam. Then all of a sudden the LH Cam moved clockwise to the right and now the belt on this side is very loose. I tried to move it CCW to bring it back to 50 degrees and will come back a little bit but then the 19mm bolt becomes very loose.

So of course, now the RH Cam side of the belt does not have enough slack to slip it onto the cam as there is too much slack on the LH Cam side of the belt.

What am I doing wrong and how do I fix this?

[landar]

Yeah, same thing happened to me. It is going to take some patience and trial and error to get this belt on correctly. If you accidentally unloosened the cam bolt then you will have to retighten it before moving on. I think the torque spec on it is 80 ft-lbs but recheck that figure. You do not have to torque it to spec right now, just get it tight enough to move the belt to produce slack on the RH cam side. The 'proper' way to move the cam is with (of course) an SST. Try holding the cam somehow and retighten, at least enough to be able to move it CCW again. I think I might have wedged a tool under one of the smaller bolts to hold it. Once you get the belt on correctly and tensioned, you can properly torque that cam bolt. If you look at my past posts to this thread, you will see that I cautioned that this step would be one of the most trying...so keep at it, you can get it aligned. Frustrating yes. But it can and will be done. Amen.

[richardkwon]

Damn Landar, I'm sure glad you're here. I'll give it a shot tomorrow afternoon. I knew this was the part that I would get stumped. It's very frustrating because I'm constantly wondering if I'm turning the cams in the correct direction and what if I messed up the timing and so on. Thanks for the direction.

[landar]

Those timing marks on the belt are you best friends at this point. Get the CR aligned with the dot on the crank, the L-CAM aligned with the dot on the LH cam and then 'wrestle' the R-CAM onto the RH cam tooth. It takes some doing. Don't worry that the cams have rotated some, that is why you set the timing to 50 ATDC. Gives some breathing room. From your pics, it looks to me like you are off by a couple of teeth on the L-CAM but maybe it is camera angle. You MUST be dead on with each mark and tooth. Do not be concerned with the block marks at this point. Just get the marks on the belt aligned with the respective dots on crank and cam. Recheck and readjust as necessary.

Once you are satisfied that the marks are correct, you can put the tensioner on and pull the pin. Then put the crank timing cover back on and pulley (harmonic balancer) and turn the crank 720 degrees CW (rotate two complete revolutions). Then recheck the timing marks on the covers and cams. They should be exact (crank at TDC and cam dot align with block). DISREGARD the belt timing marks at this point. They will no longer match and are no longer relevent. The ONLY thing important at this point and hereafter are the actual timing marks. Rotate two more revs and recheck. If ok, then you are good to go. If not, the tensioner needs to come back off and start over. However, if the printed timing marks on the belt are dead on to begin with, you will not have any further problems.

[richardkwon]

OK got the dang thing on. Took me about 1/2 hour and was very easy actually. Most of the time was spent retorqueing the LH Cam bolt so that I could get some leverage to back the cam.

So basically, when I initially removed the belt, only the RH Cam moved a few degrees. The LH Cam did not move at all. When I put the new belt on, I had the CR mark at the indentation on the timing gear pulley and the LH Cam arrow on the LH Cam. When trying to maneuver the belt on the RH Cam side, the LH Cam snap rolled a bit forward. And then it did it again. This is the reason for the 50 degrees. It buys you quite a bit of wriggle room. And it seems like the cams will snap and roll for no apparent reason.

The goal with first placing the belt on the LH Cam is to get as much tension on the LH Cam belt side so that you can easily slip on the RH Cam belt side. To do this, you will need to put a 19mm socket on the cam bolt to get the LH Cam to move back or CCW with the goal of aligning the LH Cam arrow on the belt with the indentation on the LH Cam. However, this is also how the bolt becomes undone. My bolt kept coming loose so that I was not able to move the cam backwards. So I used my old timing belt, wrapped it around the cam, tightened the belt together with vise grips and then holding the belt tightly, retorqued the bolt as much as possible. The cam moved forward again a bit but it was nothing to worry about.

The service manual mentions to rotate the LH Cam backward as much as possible to get the belt on this side tensioned as tight as possible. Doing this allows you to easily slip on the RH Cam side of the belt. There was plenty of slack so that I was able to easily slip the belt on. No crushed fingers between the cam gear and belt and I only had to rotate the RH Cam backwards a few notches. Everything is now aligned. I installed the tensioner last (not installing the tension initially gives you more slack when putting on the belt). Now it's on to rechecking the timing marks before pulling the pin.

Also when initially placing the belt on, make sure the electrical wires and connectors on the LH Cam side are out of the way.

Thanks Landar for your instructions. I think it's all downhill and easy street from here.

[richardkwon]

And before I installed the new timing belt, I cleaned out the grooves in the timing gear pulley and the front and back. I also tried to clean as many grooves in the cams as I could. I used brake cleaner and a bunch of Qtips to clean out all the belt dust and dirt.

[richardkwon]

Nice. I made a tool out of 1 1/2" PVC piping to press the seal back in but you could probably just tap evenly around it to get it seated.

"This is definitely a 200K replacement item imo and I would definitely recommend at every timing belt change.."

Did you really mean "every OTHER belt change"?

I also had the joy of making my own seal tool from Home Depot. I think mine was a 2" diameter piece of PVC pipe with a screw in insert. Just buy 2 or 3 that fit together and you will have the proper length to tap it in. Total cost was about $5. You can always use a small hammer to tap in the seal also but make sure the seal is inserted evenly and flush. My seal went in just a hair more than flush. There will be a point where the seal will be driven to its maximum and you will know. Don't over do it and start crushing the seal.

Make sure to coat the lip of the seal with a little bit of MP (multipurpose) grease. I had the hardest time determining what the hell the "lip" of a seal is. After much diligent research, it's the inner part of the seal folks. However, DO NOT grease or oil the outer part of the seal!

I guess the reason I am putting so much emphasis on this little seal is twofold:

First, it takes a lot of work to get to this sucker and you don't want to go through this entire process again just to replace this $8 seal.

Second, if this seal starts leaking, the oil will get on to your timing belt and will destroy everything which is not good.

[richardkwon]

I checked the timing by making 4 full revolutions and everything lines up perfectly.

Reading the service manual, there's a reason they indicate the use of the SST to hold/move the cams. The 19mm bolt (aka Straight Screw Plug) that I was using to move the cam backward is only torqued to 11 ft/lbs! No wonder why it kept coming loose. Before the screw plug, there is a seal washer.

I guess it would have been nice to have an SST as it probably could have made things a lot easier. I looked online for this tool and there are varying costs ranging anywhere from $60 to $400, however, I don't think it is worth the cost.

[bluestar]

such a wonderful job... ^_^

[richardkwon]

Got everything put together last night and the car runs great. When I first started the car, it started right up but shook a little bit and the "check VSV" light came on and white smoke was coming out of the exhaust so I cut the engine. I thought maybe I had not fully tightened the alternator bolts. You start trying to remember what you did. Did a recheck and yes the alternator bolts were fully tightened. Then I restarted the car. The VSV came on again and then went out after a few seconds. I think the initial shaking was due to the car sitting on jack stands at an angle and no oil in the front after having been completely drained of oil and the new oil control valves. Also when removing the valve covers I think some oil spilled onto the exhaust. After a couple of minutes of nice white smoke coming off the exhaust manifold, the oil burned off. Took the car for a spin and noticed a bit more power. Even got the tires to chirp in first gear. B)

As for refilling the coolant it is a tedious job. First fill the reservoir. Then slowly fill the throttle body with 6 additional liters (1.5 gallons) of coolant. As the inlet opening is so small it takes awhile. When full, close the plug. I noticed that the new plug has thread sealant on the first few threads. Then run the engine for 10 minutes and keep topping off the reservoir. Keep checking for a few days as you will continually need to top off.

As for installing the fan and the fan housing the best way is after installing the fan clutch, install the fan blade without the fan housing attached. Then install the radiator without the top clamps. This allows you to tilt the radiator towards the bumper and gives you plenty of room to install the fan housing. No more plastic edges to cut into your forearms! And this way it's so much easier to install the fan blade. I just used my left hand to hold the blade and tightened the screws with a wrench.

When placing the air inlet housing back on make sure the long power steering air hose is routed underneath the housing and run along the fuel rail where the engine harness runs. In other words, the hose does not go over the air inlet rectangular box. Doing so will make the VBank cover not fit correctly.

Another tip is when putting the water inlet (thermostat housing) back on, make sure the inlet tube and rubber o ring are inserted properly and fully. I thought I had everything inserted properly but later noticed the top of the mating surface was not flush and almost stripped my bolt.

I am really happy and quite proud of myself. It took me a month but I basically did bits and pieces an hour here and there and really took my time. I also did my valve covers, cleaned out the throttle body and installed some additional parts so that took some more time. Another time eater was cleaning up everything. I'm a bit more anal than most. And I also had to wait on extra parts that needed to be replaced. The disassembly and assembly is literally a 2 hour job. I am very sure that if I had all the necessary parts I could do this job in a few hours now. What also adds time is the reading and researching and the fact that somewhere along the line you will get stumped and you may also break something. Just take it slow, label everything and take a lot of pictures. Be meticulous. There's nothing worse than figuring out if this is the right bolt. I had everything labeled and bagged and there were a couple of instances where it took me awhile to figure out which bolt or wire went where.

I think if I had taken the car to a dealer they would have easily charged me $3,000 parts and labor for the timing belt, throttle body cleaning, spark plug change, replacing the radiator, crankshaft seal, various sensors, install of various new coolant and air hoses and new valve cover gaskets. Keep in mind I bought a bunch of new air and water hoses as well as new oil control valves, VSV, clips ,etc. The way I look at is with the money I saved doing my own labor I was able to get all these parts for free! And knowing I did the job means I did it right and not half assed or as my friend's dad used to say incorrectly "half fast". Tell me, how many mechanics would actually clean all your bolts and clean all the grease and dirt from your engine? All they care about is getting the parts replaced as quickly as possible.

Also, don't fret too much about broken plastic clips. Our 1998-2000 model year cars are now over 15 years old. Thanks to that beautiful V-Bank cover, it helps to retain all that heat and cooks everything. Plastic and rubber becomes very hard and brittle. Even if you have the precision and delicate hand of an archaeologist, some plastic parts will still break. Don't worry. Just insert back, tape it, or use zip ties. Be careful of the wires and do not manhandle them. If you are really into fully restoring your car, the wiring harness (available as 3 separate pieces) can be purchased from the dealer for about $1400-2000. Installation is very easy.

As for the timing belt itself I really believe the actual belt can last a long time. It's the water pump, worn pulleys, dirt, coolant and oil that cause the deterioration. The belt should rarely snap. It's the other items failing that cause the belt to fail. The water pump should always be replaced while you are there. If it seizes or starts leaking, the coolant can cause the belt to deteriorate in a jiffy.

Thanks to Landar for all his help and his great tutorial which is the bible as far as tutorials go. But as good as Landar's tutorial is, I still had a lot of questions and confusion. Hopefully I have added some finer details and direction and clarity for the novices out there. And looking back, this entire job is very straightforward. There should not be a point or time where you should get "stuck" because there are no impossible angles or super tools that are needed. And thanks to CuriousB for his comments in the beginning. He really made me stop worrying that this was a difficult job especially regarding my jack stand question. I don't know why the hell I was worrying about having the car on jack stands. Oh wait, the reason was because I had thought that the car lifted at an angle would affect the timing. How stupid I was!

So basically, if you've got 100K or so miles on your LS400, stop worrying and procrastinating and change out your belt and water pump yourself. You will save a lot of money doing it yourself and you will learn a lot about how great these cars are.

[landar]

So proud of you Richard! Isn't it a real confidence booster to have tackled this job on your own? I wish more people would know that satisfaction but we are all built differently. I will have to admit that I was a bit 'worried' for you at first, however, your tenacity and attention to detail is nothing short of amazing and inspiring to me. Congrats on a job well done! PS...I would totally trust you to work on my car any time(and I am very picky)! ;)

[richardkwon]

Landar thanks again for all your help. I always felt comfortable knowing you we're just a question away. It was like having a master technician standing right next to me at all times. Feel free to visit anytime. Thanks again!

[luccig]

"Hopefully, you did not rotate either the cams or crank by more than a half a revolution(180 degrees) without the belt."

I did just that.

Now how in the world do I get out of this?

I read you remove the spark plug on the first cylinder (the closest one to the driver side, steering wheel) and check it is TDC by moving the crank. With belt or without belt, now that the cams are out of align? The crank only moves about 100 degrees and then it's stuck, so I am not forcing it but then how to put CYL 1 at TDC? ..

Thanks for any clues..

[landar]

As long as you did not force anything then you hopefully did not damage the valves.

So, the crank only moves 100 degrees then hits the valve(s)? You are going to have to back it up and hopefully be back to TDC.

You are correct that you can remove the spark plug on cylinder #1 and check that it is at the top of the stroke when the crank pulley marks points to 0 degrees (TDC). However, cylinder #1 is LH bank, front. So that translates to drivers side, front most cylinder.

I would remove the spark plug (you will need to remove the coil to do this) on #1 and insert a long bladed screwdriver (10" or so) that will rest the blade on top of the piston. Of course, make sure that whatever tool you pick cannot drop into the cylinder and be lost (should be obvious but have to mention it). Then move the crank slowly and you should see the handle of the screwdriver move up and down. When the handle is its highest and the crank mark is TDC then you have it. At that point, you align both cams to their marks (hopefully you did not move them too much) and put the belt on.

[luccig]

Randall, thanks a lot!

When the handle is highest and the crank is TDC (0 degrees on plate) - that I can do. My crank moves left and right for about a third of the circle (I'd say about 100 degrees) but the TDC is in between, so I can set the crank at 0 and hope the handle is highest.

At that point I have to align both cams to their "0" (Right Cam has a vertical line and the Left one has a dot on the gear). How do I do that, by turning them with the 19 mm tubular key, any direction, until it gets to their mark? (I tried that, but they DON'T get all the way to the mark, they seem to block somewhere and I stopped to not force them..)

Then another problem I had before doing this latest trial, they were aligned and the crank was aligned, but when I put the tensioner on, the Crank seem to have moved about one tooth - I think the tension in the belt pushed it.