YFZsandrider

I have a '93 xtracab 4x4 3.0, and when driving today, my water pump started leaking pretty bad. My daily commute is short enough that I'm able to top off the coolant and still make it to work without an issue, so I'm thinking about waiting til the weekend to replace the pump. I want to have my truck down, for as brief as possible.


It has 254k miles on it, and I don't know when the timing belt was last replaced. I read through the FSM on replacing the water pump, and it seems pretty involved, since the timing belt and much of the front accessories have to be pulled to get to it.


Question is.... if I choose to replace the timing belt as well, is there more work required than to simply replacing the water pump, or is it the same since I'll be right at the belt anyhow?


Also, in a search, I noticed that guys were talking about a timing belt set... is that something available locally, and what all does it contain?


Basically, what's the best route to tackle this, and how much time can I expect to spend on it?

sb5walker

There's a timing belt section in this post, with links to many threads that will answer your questions:
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/sh...3&postcount=22

It probably is possible to change the pump by just removing the upper timing cover and fan idler bracket, and not have to remove the harmonic balancer (crank pulley) and belt (and radiator). That would be a significant savings in time and effort. Just be sure to rotate the crank so the cam pulley marks are at 12 o'clock and line up with the stamped match marks on the backplate, and paint match marks on the belt and cam pulleys before removing the lower idler, tensioner and water pump. I've never replaced a pump by itself, though, so I'm not 100% certain you can do it that way. I have always used Aisin pumps and never had one go before the belt. In fact I just last fall changed an Aisin pump that had 140k miles on it and it was in PERFECT condition and probably had another 70k of life left in it.

If you decide to change the belt, I'd go with one made in Japan, such as the dealer belt which is the only one AFAIK that comes with white marks to aid in getting the timing set correctly. That's helpful but not necessary; the above post has instructions for getting the belt correctly installed. 1sttoyotaparts.com, operated by Titus Will Toyota of Tacoma, has great discount prices on dealer parts. Mitsuboshi and MBL (both sold by autohausaz.com) are two other Japanese-made belts. I have a Mitsuboshi on mine now that so far is doing fine. Mitsuboshi is the OEM belt on Lexus motors; not sure who makes the OEM belt for our motors.

The OEM pump and idlers will last the longest. The OEM pump is an Aisin, and it is WAY better than any other choice. As mentioned above, it'll last through two changes of the belt. autohausaz has great prices on Aisin parts. Be aware some engines come with oil coolers, and need pumps with a fitting for the hose, while others don't and so need pumps without fittings. Your truck probably has a cooler, but check: it's a can-shaped thing aft of the oil filter on the same side of the block, and you'll see the small hose leading to it from the pump (which the lower radiator hose attaches to).

To prevent a future leak, get some Toyota Black FIPG (sealant) either from the dealer or autohausaz and put a thin bead on both sides of the water pump gasket. The Aisin gasket already has a thin cured bead on both sides, but I use the little extra fresh sealant in addition, just to help make a good long-lived seal.

The OEM upper idler is a Koyo, and the OEM lower idler/tensioner is an NSK. I've found the upper generally lasts through two full changes of the belt (140k miles) while the lower should be changed each time. To change the upper, you'll need a wobble extension if you don't want to remove the plenum (a lot of extra work). GMB idlers and pumps are slightly cheaper and slightly less durable parts, but not bad as a second choice. But since they only reliably last through one change of the belt, they may actually cost more over time. Check idler prices at 1sttoyotaparts and autohausaz. autohausaz sells an Aisin timing kit with Mitsuboshi belt, Aisin pump (of course), and Koyo and NSK idlers and an NTN tensioner. I have the older design veezy which doesn't use a hydraulic tensioner so don't know how often that needs to be replaced (inspection criteria are in the fsm). Maybe someone else will chime in.

It's best to use Toyota Red coolant. See this post:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...nt-faq-192781/

Yellowtruck

I just went through the same thing last week.

You can read up on all of my posts:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...estion-236802/

And this one helped me out a lot! Covers a lot of your common questions:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...vations-32812/

YFZsandrider

Thanks for all the info so far guys... I'm blazing along, when I get massively stuck on removing the power steering pulley!

Any suggestions? I'm assuming it has standard threads(counter clockwise to loosen?)

bugs1961

It is standard CCW to loosen and can be a real bear. Use some PB Blaster on the nut. Last time I took mine off, I ended up using an old shirt stuffed between the belt and the pulley to stretch the belt and make it tighter. Worked for me. If you have someone to help, have them push down very hard hard on the belt between the fan bracket and the pump to increase the tension. Make sure the trans is in gear so the Alt belt will keep the fan bracket pulley from turning.

This thread has more detail on getting the pulley off:

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...riteup-183622/

sb5walker

Why remove the PS pulley???

It's not needed to change the timing belt.

YFZsandrider

I got it off... I'm replacing the timing belt and the water pump, so don't I need to remove the pulley, so I can get to the bolt holding the pump on the bracket?

Anyhow, its off. Any items that the FSM tells me to pull that don't need to be removed for replacement of the belt and water pump? I'm quesssing the removal of the cam sprockets is not necessary? Anything else?

At this point, I have the fron of the motor pretty well stripped down. I just took the fan pulley bracket off, and I'm starting in on actualy removing the belt from the sprockets.

Thanks guys for all the help so far!

sb5walker

Yeah, cam pulleys do not need to come off except to change cam seals or when removing heads. I can get the P/S pump on my 89 3.0 out of the way without removing the pulley, maybe the later models are different?? I just loosen the sliding bolt to remove the belt, and only remove the bracket bolts and then push the whole assembly to the side.

If it hasn't been changed, it might be a good time to replace the front main seal.

YFZsandrider

well now I have the timing belt and the water pump out... when tearing it down, I was able to remove my crank pulley bolt with the first attempt from my rattle gun. I'm thinking the belt or water pump or both had been replaced recently, and someone just tightened the bolt with air, leaving it easy for me to take off, does that sound right?

Now that I'm looking right at the oil pump, is there any reason to replace it? Looking at the bead of sealant on the bottom side of the oil pump where it meets the oil pan, it looks like something may have been done there recently as well.

Also, how much work is involved in replacing the front main seal? Does it require pulling the oil pump?

And, how do I know if the idler pulleys are needing replacement?

TNRabbit

Roll the idler pulleys & listen for ANY noise. Anything with a "gritty" feel needs to be replaced without pause~ with that many miles, if they've NEVER been replaced, I wouldn't hesitate to replace them

While you have the fan bracket off, turn it face down & dump a small amount of motor oil into the cracks of the bearing & let is seep in for a few hours. This can net you an extra 100,000 miles out of the bracket--and they are NOT inexpensive!

YFZsandrider

I kinda figured I should replace the idler pulleys. When I roll them by hand, they free spin for quite a bit, with a rolling bearing noise. I'll go ahead and replace them as well.

I actually live down the street from Titus Will Toyota, and the parts guy put together a list of all the parts including those idlers... with 1sttoyotaparts.com discount, it ends up being a little over $350 if I remember right.

If this motor makes it to 350k miles, I'll be stoked!

Also, I've wanted to adjust my valves for the last few months... is there anything about having it apart for the timing belt that makes it easier to get to the valves?

sb5walker

Don't replace the oil pump unless you have an oil pressure problem - most of them will last well past 300k.

It's usually easy to replace the front main seal: just pull the crank timing gear off, remove old seal, pack new seal with a non-moly grease, seat the new seal with the timing gear as far as it will go, then fully seat seal by either using a sleeve/pipe that has a perfectly square end or just tap around and around the seal a bit at a time with something that has a flat end. I used the top (female) end of a 3/8" drive extension and a hammer. Just don't get the seal cocked at an angle while you're seating it.

Removing the timing gear is sometimes easy, pulling off by hand. Or sometimes it will come off when pried evenly on opposite sides simultaneously. (Don't just pry one side: it'll get cocked and jam up.) Don't pry too hard, that's the soft aluminum oil pump you're prying against. Spray gear/crank joint beforehand with PB Blaster and allow to sit for at least an hour, or preferably overnight if possible. On some trucks, usually the 88-91 years, the *@&#% thing won't come off for love nor money. Mine was like that and I had to drill and tap holes at the 9 and 3 o'clock position, thread in bars of threaded stock, and use a puller. I used 5mm stock but I'd recommend 6mm because I had to use a LOT of force to pull it off there and I was worried about stripping the threads. I used a cobalt bit and lots of oil to do the drilling.

If crank is rusty under the timing gear, clean it up with naval jelly or ospho, rinse well to remove the phosphoric acid, then polish with fine wet-or-dry & wd40. Rinse with wd40 also spraying out the keyway, wipe dry, then wipe on a very thin coating of antiseize.

To pull the seal, I drilled holes in it at the 9 and 3 o'clock positions being very careful not to allow the drill to go into the pump body behind the seal (use a drill stop collar tightened just an 1/8" or less below the tip of the bit), carefully threaded in sheet metal screws just enough to grab it, then pried the heads of the screws to yank it out of there. Some might use a seal puller; I have one but don't like using it since it's difficult to avoid scraping against the crankshaft, which can damage the sealing surface.

As far as adjusting valves, of course you have to remove the plenum, which is a fair bit of extra work. That would make changing the upper idler easy tho. The difficulty with adjusting valves is depressing the lifter to get the old shim out and new in. There's a tool to do it but it doesn't work very well (UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR!) The only time I adjusted valves using the tool, the neighbor's kids learned a lot of new words. It would be easier to have another set of hands. See this post and also post #4 in the same thread:
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/sh...19#post3137919

But the easiest way to replace the shims is to remove the cams. To do it, you would have to remove the cam timing pulleys, so yes, having the timing belt off is needed if you're going to replace shims that way. Of course you'll want to replace cam seals then too. See this post for tips on installing the cam:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116.../#post51741211

While you have the plenum off, replace the PCV Valve and Grommet with new ones from the dealer. Those are top quality and you want them to last since they're near impossible to replace with the plenum in place.

YFZsandrider

I rigged up a tool to allow me to torque down the crank shaft bolt, and installed it. I had the belt lined up correctly with the proper tooth on the crank sprocket before it all went together, but now I am trying to get the belt routed over the cam sprockets, and it is really kicking my a**!

the driver side cam seems to stay in place pretty well, with the alignment mark facing straight up, but the passenger side was bumped earlier on in the tear down, and it does not want to go back to where it needs to be!

Anyhow, after fighting it a bit, I think I somehow managed to get the belt to skip a tooth or two on the crank sprocket. since I can no longer see the alignment mark on the bottom of the crank, I'm assuming the dotted line on the belt is intended to line up with a point somewhere? Where exactly is that, and am I able to move the belt on the crank sprocket without taking the pulley and dust cover back off?

Thanks

TNRabbit

It's not important that any lines on the belt line up. What IS important are the cam pulley & crank marks.

Make sure you're running up the driver side, around the driver pulley (might have to cock the pulley slightly to the right to get the teeth on properly), under the upper idler pulley, over the passenger side pulley (again, you WILL need to turn the pulley slightly clockwise to get in on the right teeth), the around the lower idler pulley. Keep it tight & get the idler pressure on as soon as possible. I futzed with mine forever & every time I'd end up with an extra tooth between the two cam pulleys.

YFZsandrider

What I'm wondering is, if I can't see the bottom of the crank anymore, how do I know if the belt didn't jump a tooth on it? I know what you're saying, that it doesn't matter so much that the lines on the belt match up with anything... but I feel a little uneasy with just wrapping the belt around everything, and buttoning it all back together, and hoping my valve timing is right.

you're saying that so long as my crank is at TDC, and both cams are pointed straight up, then all is good???

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

The cams have match marks on the timing cover backing that you need to line up. Generally, thats straight up. Same with the crank, it needs to be at TDC but they have match marks you can match up. Its incredibly easy to time a 3VZ.

And remember the crank spins 2:1 to the cams, so don't try to spin the engine once after buttoning it up and think the cams will be back at the top. They won't. They will be back at the top after two revolutions

YFZsandrider

Huge thanks to everyone who responded to my thread, I was able to get it all buttoned back up... I could honestly do it in a fraction of the time the next go around!

At this point, I'm really glad that I opted to tackle this myself, rather than hand it over to a shop. In the end, I have a fresh timing belt and water pump, with 2 brand new idler pulleys, all parts used were factory Toyota, and I replaced the spark plugs with NGK iridium ones, which seemed to smooth things out a little. I also notice less underhood noise, which I think is due to using new idlers. The original ones had quiet a bit of freewheeling and ball bearing noise coming from them.

Anyhow, thanks again guys!