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Good job, Tim. And welcome

Welcome, Troy! If the problems began with the plugging of those lines to the manifold, I would 'unplug' them, go back to the original setup and see if the problem goes away. Sure, the white smoke may return but maybe plugging the lines is causing other problems. Just a first step in gathering clues as to the root cause of the problem.

Welcome Fabio!

Note: This topic is being addressed in the LS400 forum -> http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/topic/80654-problems-with-power/

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.

Yes, check for codes as a first step. Use this procedure -> http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/intro/codereading.html Did this behavior just suddenly occur or has it been progressively getting worse? How many miles and how long have you owned the car? Need a little background. Thanks.

Well that is absolutely crazy that the dealer will not guarantee the diagnosis. Maybe If this was not such a well-known issue... but with your symptoms, it is more than a little certain that your starter solenoid contacts are compromised. I do not know what your electrical skills are but I would hook a wire to the starter relay and monitor the voltage to the starter solenoid. If the relay is energizing but the starter is not whirling then it is 100% certain that your starter is the culprit. If your 2001 has over 100k miles on it, this is a VERY 'normal' failure mode. Yes, it is Russian roulette. That is why YOU should pick the time to strike and fix this problem. Do not let the starter choose the time and place. You probably won't like its choices.

Yep, sounds crazy but on the ES300's, Lexus uses the power steering pump to push fluid thru the cooling fan to make it spin. As I mentioned, it is a long shot, IMO, that this is your problem. Still, it should be looked at as you rule out possible sources of the smoke.

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?

Yep, sounds like your starter solenoid contacts are toast. You probably have it fixed by now anyway.

Power steering fluid often burns a whitish color so I am wondering if you might have a pinhole leak in a line for the PS fluid running the cooling fan. Could be squirting on the hot exhaust manifold? Just a wild guess. Welcome, Scorp!

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.

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.

You could probably just seafoam the capacitors and they will be back to normal.

The TB is tight for sure even without the tensioner sprung. What I did was thread the belt onto the crank and LH cam sprockets(drivers side). Then I took a socket and pulled the LH cam CCW to give some slack in the belt towards the center of the engine and slipped the belt onto the RH cam. However, I do not recommend this method. What I would do instead is thread the belt onto the crank, LH cam and idler pulley leaving the belt off of the RH cam and tensioner pulley initially. Then, get the belt started onto the RH cam but not all the way on. Next, start working the belt onto the tensioner pulley which, with smooth edges and smooth surface should begin accepting the belt. Continue working the belt onto the cam and tensioner. You might, at this point, put a little CCW tension on the LH cam with a wrench while working the belt on. Once you get the belt threaded onto everything, you can pull the tensioner pin to apply full pressure. You do not want to rotate the crank without the tension pin pulled. Otherwise, the belt stands a good chance of jumping a tooth or three and you could actually damage the belt. When ready, rotate the crank two revolutions and recheck the crank and cam timing marks. Forget the belt markings after rotating because these will no longer be correct (and that's ok). Only the crank and cam marks really matter anyway. My son and I just got done doing our 92 LS this past week and that method worked pretty well. It does take some patience and trial and error but that is the best method we have found so far.

Fredy, welcome to the forum. If you have another 95 LS400, you could just temporarily swap the ECU's to see if that is the problem. The thread mentioned in post #8 has a lot of good suggestions. I would read that thread in detail -> http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/topic/15699-9596-ls400-low-idle-engine-dies-and-jerking-thre/ Also, if you turn on the AC unit, and the car does NOT stall, that suggests the ECU as well. There is apparently a programming bug in some 95 ECU algorithms. There may also be some dried-out capacitors causing problems. But I would swap your ECU's first to see if that has an effect. The ECU is located behind the glove box.

I have never been too impressed with the FSM but it is made for the experienced technicians who work on cars all of the time and not so much for us weekend 'hackers'. However, when we have forums, such as this one, it makes it much easier to share our collective experience and that helps a lot. I know it is a lot of work and I would encourage you to make a tutorial to share with others. It will be much appreciated. I am impressed with your tenacity in tackling this job, especially working outside in the weather. Good job!

I would smooth out the surface as best you could (small file maybe?) without too much fuss. Aluminum is easy to damage as you can see. Sometimes I just take a pocket knife and carefully shave off the raised portion. The gasket should take care of slight deviations so you do not need to get it extremely smooth.

Since it seems to be in the middle of the surface and not an an edge, I do not think it will be a problem when it comes to sealing. I cannot tell if that is a burr in the crevice but if so, you might want to remove it. If you are still concerned about sealing, you could apply a very small amount of RTV to the crevice to fill it but I really do not think it is necessary.

If you changed the battery because the old one was weak (maybe dead?) there is a good chance that the ECU was relearning fuel settings that were lost when the battery was out. That may be the reason for the temporary rough idling. For now, just keep an eye on it and let us know if the rough idle returns.

Yes, good job, sha4000. Sounds to me like you might want to put the (next to) front-most bearing cap back on and just snug it to keep the cam from rocking out when you pry on the front seal cap. You are doing this outside in the driveway? Oh man, that is rough. I am glad to have a garage. What state do live in?

When a password will not work, I always check my "caps lock" button first. Maybe the site was just having issues. I would not worry too much about putting the cams back in. As I see it, you would do the following: 1) reinstall the exhaust and intake cams back into the head making sure to mesh the gears together such that the timing marks(dots) on each are aligned together. 2) reinstall bearings and caps and torque down in sequentially order and in torque steps. Do not try to torque in one step but ramp it up. Make three separate passes, increasing the torque on each pass until you are at the final torque. 3) install the cam pulley. 4) do the other side 5) install the timing belt making sure to align marks on the belt with the marks on the cam pulleys and crank. Torque the cam pulley bolts if not already done. 6) install the tensioner and pull the pin. 7) rotate the crank clockwise by two revolutions and recheck the cam alignment. Would like to see a pic of how far off this drivers side cam is.

Good job. So, are you taking good pics to make a tutorial when you are done? These 'peripheral's issues are the tough ones. The actual timing belt remove and install is not too bad, its all the little issues that pop up. Would love to see a cam seal replacement guide for the 98 (and up) here on LOC.

Welcome Loyd. If the water pump is leaking or otherwise defective, it obviously needs replacement. If you replace the water pump, it would be unwise to reuse the old timing belt. Especially if the pump leaks and has contaminated the belt. You might not need new pulleys if they were recently changed. The cam seals you may or may not need. I am guessing the shop saw them leaking? In any case, the cam seals are pretty easy to change on a 97 while in there for a timing belt/water pump replacement. You can probably find an independent mechanic to do this job for half the price. You can buy an Aisin kit with belt, pump, pulleys, etc for about $250 (Rock Auto). Cam seals are another $20 or so. You might also replace the crank seal while in there. Its not much.

Yes, you are absolutely correct in thinking that only the cam side that you move will move. How would the other cam side move if the T belt is off? That's the sole purpose of the belt...to move the cams in concert with the crankshaft. No belt, no movement (unless you move it by hand). Just move the cams carefully 'feeling' for spring pressure and be ready for possible 'snap roll' because of the valve springs. The 50 ATDC is only a rough estimate, it does not have to be precise. You can move your LH cam by hand to get them aligned and the service bolt installed. The cam gear will no longer be precisely in the 50 degree position but that does not matter. In reassembly, the important point it to get the two cams(exhaust and intake) precisely aligned with the 'dots' on each and then the cam gear will get realigned when you do the belt. I do not know about the TB disassembly but I would be tempted to just remove the whole assembly.