Monday, December 11, 2006 - 09:24 pm, by: John Jantzen(Taslex)
Classic case of a worn timing belt. Replace for sure! (It's under $70!). There seem to be two stories regarding timing belts on Soarers. One cites the US manual which gives a 100000 mile interval (160000 km), and thus by inference all Soarers are OK to 160000kms. The other says that early Soarers (pre '95?) have a weaker type of belt and should be 'done' at 100000kms. Yours shows the classic transverse cracking of a failing belt, and I think is good 'propaganda' for the 100000kms change - this belt looks 30k overdue for a change!
Monday, December 11, 2006 - 10:38 pm, by: Dan McColl(Hoon)
Just do it. Nike. It's not worth poncing around to save $70. You can also get a bosch belt from bursons or repco or similar for about $50. Much better than being stuck somewhere when the belt breaks.
By the look of the photo, the belt is definately on its last leg.
Especially as you already have half the stuff off to get to it.
Consider doing the water pump at the same time.
Gregg Holden Trader WA Soarer GT-TL & Supercharged 31
Tuesday, December 12, 2006 - 08:14 am, by: Damian Ware(Frozenpod)
I would say that the km's are not correct on your dash.
I inspected mine on the weekend and there was no damage in perfect condition and my dash indicates 90,000km.
I have seen the belts of a camry that had done 150,000km and there was still little sign of wear. I have heard on the camrys that they tend to break around the 180xxx to 200xxxkm mark so I would think your belt has probably done more like 180xxx to 200xxxkm and is about to snap.
I would check your plugs too, they may help to give you an indication as to the how many km's they have done. I checked mine at the same time and they are factory platinums and they have wear consitient with 70xxxkm with my camry, I probably drove the camry it a bit harder than the owner of my soarer in japan.
Other than changing the belt and reconising that your dash km's are not likely to be the same as the cars actual km's as with 99% of soarers I don't see what else can be done. Perhaps rethink some of your other servicing schedualings.
You should also inspect your water pump and welsh plug for any signs of leaking as they are prone to leaking and with them being behind the timing cover with the cam belt its best to replace them when you do the cam belt as it will save you money down the track. On all of my other cars I have done cam belt changes at 100,000k intervals and never had an issue, 150,000k seems like a lot to me.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006 - 08:51 am, by: Tim Appleton(Timbo)
What he said ^^
There's nothing worse than changing just the belt then having the water pump and welch plug leak, and the tensioner assembly seize on you, only to ruin the nice shiny new belt you just spent all that effort putting in.
I got told that the timing belt was changed on my car, but I'm not sure what else was changed with it as they said "it's all been done". I'm rather skeptical of this.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006 - 09:58 am, by: Peter Nitschke(Pen)
The 1992 SC400 manual (which applies to 1991 V8 Soarers) says the belt should be replaced at 60,000 miles (96,000 Km), or every 6 years. So 135,000 and 15 years is really very overdue.
If my belt looked like that, I doubt I would be game to drive it anywhere. Most likely it does, but I am not game to look, it's getting done next week anyhow
Friday, December 29, 2006 - 05:38 pm, by: Mark Ribbans(V8gtsoarer)
Hey Guys OK well i have decided to go ahead and do the major cam belt service.
I have already sourced a new serpentine belt, and the idler and adjuster bearing (which have been installed in the pulleys) and have had my radiator reconditioned ready to install.
I have just called CMI Toyota in Adelaide to get prices on the rest of the gear:
(Mention this site and you get discount) ------------------------ Water Pump: $157 Cam Belt: $66 Tensioner Assembly: $103 ------------------------
I've just looked up the planetsoarer page which also says i should get the Cam Idler Bearing and Cam Tensioner Bearing too. (I take it this is not included in the tensioner assembly?)
Will keep this thread going as the project progresses, any thoughts, advise appreciated. Will probably replace the other bits as mentioned on Planetsoarer website.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007 - 10:05 pm, by: Mark Ribbans(V8gtsoarer)
Just thought i'd share this excellent tutorial I found on how to replace the cambelt and water pump. Its for an LS400 so it's slightly different basically the same steps from what i can gather: http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/engine/timingbelt.html
Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 11:16 am, by: John Jantzen(Taslex)
That's a great link, Mark. I've recently done my water pump and I followed this procedure closely. At a quick look, I didn't see the author mention how to loosen the crankshaft pulley - that's probably the hardest part of the job. I wound about a metre of 9mm nylon rope into a cylinder to stop the engine turning over, then used a breaker bar with a 1m pipe extension. I believe this way of doing it is not injurious to the engine, and is probably the easiest way with the car on jackstands. By the way, I did not get the two O-rings included with my water pump. You will need these, so check that you have them before starting the job. The part numbers for the O-Rings are 96761-24019 for the back of the water pump O-ring and 96761-35035 for the thermostat housing to water pump O ring.
Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 11:27 am, by: Mark Ribbans(V8gtsoarer)
Hi John, thanks I do remember reading somewhere about your method to crack the crankshaft pulley.
You mention doing this job on jackstands, i assume this was easier for you? I hadn't thought of doing that.
Also, with this job, where did you get the various torque settings for all the nuts? I don't have the bible so if anyone has a copy of this section or knows where i can find the torque settings for the nuts that would be great.
Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 01:08 pm, by: John Jantzen(Taslex)
Mark, I did in fact do this job on ramps. I just mentioned jackstands as they raise the car further, but still not enough to easily access the vicinity of the gearbox, which you need if you want to immobilise the crankshaft by putting a rod through the engine/gearbox adapter plate (? not sure if that's the correct term). In fact, I'd recommend ramps over jackstands as there isn't the danger of the car falling (admittedly small if you are careful).
Torques: I downloaded a portion of the manual with the cambelt job in it, but I can't remember from where! (Pages EM15 to EM36) Anyway, here are the torques they specifically mention: Cam belt Idler pulleys: 350kg-cm/25ft-lb/34Nm. Fan bracket: 12mm head: 160kg-cm/12ft-lb/16Nm Fan bracket: Others 310kg-cm/22ft-lb/30Nm Crank Pulley Bolt: 2500kg-cm/181ft-lb/245Nm Camshaft Pulley: 1100kg-cm/80ft-lb/108Nm Timing belt tensioner mounting bolts: 270kg-cm/20ft-lb/26Nm Spark Plugs: 180kg-cm/13ft-lb/18Nm Serpentine Belt tensioner: 160kg-cm/12ft-lb/16Nm (106mm bolt) Alternator: Bolt: 360kg-cm/26ft-lb/35Nm Alternator: Nut: 380kg-cm/27ft-lb/37Nm Distributor Housing: 185kg-cm/13ft-lb/18Nm Distributor Rotors: 39kg-cm/34ft-lb/3.8Nm Distributor Caps: 39kg-cm/34ft-lb/3.8Nm Timing belt covers: 10mm head bolts: 80kg-cm/69ft-lb/7.8Nm Timing belt covers: 12mm head bolts: 160kg-cm/12ft-lb/16Nm Serpentine belt idler pulley: 380kg-cm/27ft-lb/37Nm
I guess you just use care and common sense with any others - I suppose there is a table somewhere giving suggested standard torques for all 6mm, all 8mm bolts etc.
Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 03:32 pm, by: Mark Ribbans(V8gtsoarer)
That's great many thanks John!
So with the car on ramps/jackstands, presumably then most of the work is done from underneath the car? I would have thought it would be easier from above?
Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 03:53 pm, by: John Jantzen(Taslex)
My pleasure, Mark. While most of the job is done from above, there are certain parts of it best attacked from below, such as removing the radiator and fan pump assembly, unplugging the alternator, lining up the belt on the crank pulley and some others which I can't remember offhand. I suspect you could do the job entirely from above, but it will be harder to check your work as you go.
Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 08:37 pm, by: Mark Ribbans(V8gtsoarer)
John, i have just found this PDF guide on the Lextreme website for the 1st generation (1UZFE as opposed to 2UZFE?) motor for changing the cam belt. I think its the same one you mentioned above.
This appears to be exactly what I'm looking for and seems to be the guide that you also used (the pages are marked EM15 to EM36) so assuming this is indeed for the 1UZ-FE i'm pretty happy to get stuck in to this now..
I got my water pump, tentioner kit and belt today so i'm almost ready.
Also, for anyone else doing this, the water pump from Toyota no longer comes with the 2 o-rings so you have to get these in separately (about $3 each).
Thursday, January 04, 2007 - 11:20 pm, by: John Jantzen(Taslex)
Yes Mark, that is indeed it - I now remember getting it from lextreme.com and thinking what a great help it was going to be. I printed it off at work, so I didn't save lextreme as a favorite at the time and hence lost the URL. I would wish you good luck with the job - but you won't need luck - it's a good, easy, straightforward (but long!) job to do, except take careful note of where the wire to the crank angle sensor (5 o'clock off the crank nose) runs as it is possible to make a mistake there. Also, don't loosen off the air conditioner compressor unless you find you really have to - in retrospect I did, but I don't think you do need to, and it may save you having to undo three quite difficult bolts, especially the back one, which is best accessed through a 40mm hole in the lower suspension arm, using a 400mm extension and a universal joint, after you take the wheel off.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 12:01 pm, by: Mark Ribbans(V8gtsoarer)
G'day kids, thought i'd post a few pics of the progress of my major engine service that we're doing at the moment. Yesterday we finally got the half way point, that being that everything needing to be removed has been done, so from here it is all a reassembly job. Here are a few pics taken yesterday of the final few steps in getting the crank bolt, cam belt and water pump, cam bearings off:
The compressor bolts are a bit of a pain to remove, you don't have to take it out, just remove the bolts so you take the water pump off:
Here is a nice shot just before removing the crank nut. It is very tight, about 180ft-lbs. We tried using a rattle gun to shock it off, but had to use the starter motor method with a extension bar on the socket which worked great (there must be huge torque in the starter motor!).
Here we are removing the pulley with a modified Holden Commodore pulley puller:
Here is after having removed the belt, before removing water pump and the two cam bearings:
Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 12:09 pm, by: Mark Ribbans(V8gtsoarer)
Here is the half way point, water pump is the final thing to remove. Mine was actually in reasonable condition, tiny bit of noise in the bearing. The cam bearings were a lot worse. There is coolant everywhere because we couldn't get to the drain plugs. They are nearly impossible to get at so we just pulled the pump off and tried as best we could to catch the coolant in a bucket!
My distributor rotors were both totally cracked. This one is cracked in three places! Very glad i found this..
We'll be putting it all together in the next week or so, so i'll take more pics as this happens. Very hot in Adelaide at the moment so will have to wait for a few cool days.
Here are the parts being replaced (so far):
Radiator (new top tank - very shiny now) Serpentine Belt & Idler pulley bearing Water Pump and O-rings Cam Belt Cam Belt Idler and Tensioner Bearings Distributor Rotors
This is a big job, not overly hard but time consuming but is good fun (for now - hopefully it all works once done!)
Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 01:07 pm, by: Clayton Webb(Clackers)
Mark Ribbans wrote on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 12:09 pm:
Very hot in Adelaide at the moment so will have to wait for a few cool days.
You've got that right! I start work 2 hours and I'm not looking forward to it. Thanks for posting this up mate, been a good read so far. All the best for the replacement part!
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