Question About Changing Cam Seals On 98 With Vvt-I

[sha4000]

Good info but I hit a major snag. It's all my fault I must admit though. I wrote down all the torque specs for the various bolts but made a mistake and put foot pounds instead of inch pounds for the cam pulley. Everyone knows what happens next. The first bolt snapped on the right pulley. I'm not even that *BLEEP*ed because the way my mind works is what's done is done now find a solution. I've been so focused on those cams that the stress made me make a mistake that I should not have made. To make matters worse the TB is on with tension and everything ( I wanted to confirm the timing which is perfect by the way ). Unless I can back bolt I will have to remove the belt to get it from the back. All that stressing about the cams to get undone by a little bolt lol.

[landar]

Sorry to hear that but it does not look that bad actually. I think you could drill and back that out with an ez out tool pretty easily. Just do some research on methods first. It also looks like you can do it in-place w/o removing the belt.

Probably your biggest headache will be finding a replacement bolt. I would get that on order ASAP.

[sha4000]

Yeah I'm ordering the bolts now. Is it hard to reset the tensioner if the belt has to come off? Just thinking ahead.

[landar]

You have to put it in a large vise or strong clamp and recompress the shaft. Hopefully you saved the locking pin from the unit to stick back in the shaft. Otherwise you can use a small allen key. But I do not think you will need to remove the belt.

[sha4000]

I had to remove the belt and get at it from the back. I removed the belt,pulley and front camshaft bearing cap. That was the only way to get at the back of the bolt with the tools I had on hand. I alternated with a pair of needle nose pliers and wire cutters for like an hour because they both kept slipping off the threads. When I got enough of the bolt out I put a pair of grips on it and it was smooth sailing from there though. I put the crank to TDC and then move it to the 50 degree spot and marked both cams plus put a mark on the timing cover to mark the 50 degree mark for the next TB job. Then I removed the tensioner and wiggled the belt off the passenger cam while watching the drivers cam closely.

After getting the bolt out and putting it all back together minus 1 pulley bolt I just popped the tensioner back in there and torqued it without compressing it before hand. When I assisted on the first TB with a seasoned mechanic ( Yes he did most of the work ) I didn't remember seeing him compress the old tensioner so I figured it was ok. I rotated the engine several times and ALL the marks lined up perfectly. Do you think I should pull the tensioner back out and try to compress it first before re-inserting it?

[landar]

If you got the tensioner back on w/o compressing the shaft then I would just leave it as is. There must be enough thread on the two bolts holding the tensioner to allow it to be reinstalled prior to compressing. The FSM shows how to recompress it so I was under the impression you had to do that. However, I always wondered if there was enough bolt thread to just put it back in w/o compressing and your experience shows that is the case.

Now, what method did you find that worked best on getting the belt onto the cam pulleys?

[sha4000]

I actually used your method the first time but i googled and read a post where the guy removed the tensioner to provide more slack for the belt. I kept having a problem when backing the left cam up that the belt would jump a tooth. It's pretty simple after the fact though. While backing the left cam I would hold down on the belt so It did not move. Then I pulled the belt with just enough force to keep it still while using my let hand to get the belt started on the right cam. Once it was on the right cam I could let go of the belt on the left cam and work the belt onto the right cam. The trick is that you have to get the right cam side of the belt on EVENLY around the edges and it will slide right on there. I know that in your tutorial you put the belt on you installed the tensioner but that was not working for me so I installed the tensioner after the belt was on like another guy did. I also used your method to torque the crank bolt. I was going to use my cam pulley holder tool but could not find the other bolt to screw into the holes. It would not have worked any way because that 1 bolt I did have did not even stand up to the torque of the power steering pulley. I'll get a pick of the bent bolt later. I can't find one of the nuts for the fan coupling though. I bagged EVERYTHING which is the best tip EVER but it must have fell out somewhere. I'll have to look around my various boxes and bags.

The old belt only had 70k on it and all the teeth were good as well as the backside but it was showing some wear on the sides. I can't remember if it was an OEM belt though.

[sha4000]

Finally got it done. I made too many mistakes that I'll get into tomorrow. No leaks so far and the car started just fine.

[landar]

Glad to hear that your car is all back together and running fine. I am looking forward to some pics and maybe a write-up on changing those cam seals.

[sha4000]

Yeah I'm trying to put a write up together in word. I don't know if It can be as precise as your how-to but I'll try. I'm probably just going to link your TB tutorial and richardkwons Valve cover tutorial to get the engine opened up. I'll be posting all my pics and what I did too though. My drive belt is making more noise than normal I think though I hope I don't have to replace any of those pulleys anytime soon. I did scrub them all with soap and water plus lots of brake cleaner to get most of the caked up oil off.

[sha4000]

Have not forgot about the tutorial. Since I've got the car running I ran it to some other issues. My mothers desktop has been having issues and I'm n the process of re-installing windows.

[vissine]

Do you have to remove the valve cover to replace the camshaft seal?

[sha4000]

9 hours ago, vissine said:

Do you have to remove the valve cover to replace the camshaft seal?

For the 98-00 yes because the camshaft needs to be removed but for your 96 I don't believe you have to remove the valve cover.

[vissine]

8 hours ago, sha4000 said:

For the 98-00 yes because the camshaft needs to be removed but for your 96 I don't believe you have to remove the valve cover.

Thanks sha4000. I've observed some leaks on the camshaft pulley locations so that will be my other job while replacing the timing belt and WP. 

[vissine]

I found this thread. It confirms what you (sha4000) mentioned earlier that there is no need to remove the valve cover. 

Timing Belt, Water Pump Replaced...now Leaking Oil From Bottom Of Ocer

[sha4000]

Glad I could be of some some help.

[vissine]

Do you normally replace distributor rotors while you replace the timing belt?

[sha4000]

I have not owned a car with a distributor in a long time but that would not normally be part of the timing belt job. That's more in line with doing a tune up.

[Lauchlan]

sha4000, did you ever do the camshaft seal write-up?

I have a '98 LS400 and am currently doing the TB, thought about the camshaft seals at the same time.

Thanks for all the great content!

-Lauchlan

[sha4000]

Never got around to the write but everything you need to know is in this thread. You can post any additional questions and I'll try to help if I can.