WetbehindEars

Hey Everyone,

Well, the son and I have had a fairly busy day today. We have everything removed for a timing belt replacement, and all we have left to do is remove the 12 bearing cap bolts, remove the cams, unbolt the heads and we will have the heads off. Its gunna have to wait until the morning..... its 11 and im pooped!!
Our Game Plan is to get the heads off, have a look @ the cylinder walls/ pistons and hopefully just have to have the heads surface, valve job, T-Belt, and start putting her back together.
Well.. just from our work today.. I have a few questions, and hope some of you that have already been there can help. I have been in a few motors, but never the 3.0 before!

Questions:
1. Is it truly important to purchase the timing belt with the CAM & Crankshaft Marks actually marked on the Belt? I have read several posts that recommend these belts, but I dont understand the advantage? If the Crank Pulley, CAM Gears, and Dist are set back to TDC, then what are the marks on the belt for?
2. On my No.1 Idler Pulley (the one next to the Timing Belt Tensioner) the bottom bolt on the bracket does not have a head on it? (Please see pic below where RED Circle is). I can spin the entire Pulley Assembly and it will unthread, but there is no head on that bold... its looks like a tab with a welded head bolt is threaded into the water pump housing. Is that normal?

3. Is the dealer the only place to purchase the Pigtail for the Knock Sensor?
4. Im taking the heads to a machine shop to have them checked and I will install the cams back in the heads before hand. I plan to print out the Specs from the FSM and have the cams and heads checked, resurfaced, and valve job. "IF" the heads and cams check out good, is there any benefit to a port and polish on these heads? Im not out to try and make a hotrod, but its this something that is normally done with the 3.0 heads? We are installing already purchased Downey headers back onto the heads during install. Mainly to eliminate the crossover... I out for more durability than speed!!

Thanks!!

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

1. No, timing belts don't care how they are installed as long as the cam and crank are correct.

2. That is a pin for the tensioner to pivot on. It should NOT be a bolt, and it should not have a nut or any threads cut into it.

3. Yes

4. Not really. You will be spending a lot of money to make little to no power. The engines are just a terrible design that flow for crap, and it takes a LOT of money to gain a modest amount of horsepower. Just clean them up good, and run it stock. That will let your engine run the best too IMHO.

Some people may disagree, but I think headers are a great idea. It eliminates that stupid factory "back into the manifold THEN out" design.

WetbehindEars

I like the answers... Short, Sweet, and to the point!! Thanks for the help!!! We will continue moving forward!! I will be posting some Cylinder Wall pics in the morning!!

OutlawMike

Pic below for reference on the tensioner. As said above, that is just a pivot.

And, I agree, don't bother with porting/polishing the heads on the 3.0.

Good luck,

WetbehindEars

Well, we finished getting the heads off this morning. I have a BUNCH of cleaning to do now!! Heads are on the work bench, stripped of exhaust and ready to go to the machine shop. We did have one of the bolts holding the rear journal that was stripped out and will have to be re-threaded (see pic below with Red Arrow).


And here is how the cylinder walls look. They are not perfect, but I can still see the honing marks in the wall. I will bring home some internal calipers tomorrow and do some more research. I would like to leave the lower end alone and just do the heads, T-Belt, Headers..... please feel free to give opinions!!



Outlaw... That pic above really makes me wanna go ahead and pull this and do a full rebuild!! However, this is a truck im putting together for my son... so.. im not cutting corners, but also have to realize this is going to be a teenager vehicle for now. I did however, tell him if he takes care of this truck when he starts driving next year... for graduation I will buy him a new car, but I want this one back! My wife has already told him she would trade her 98 for his right now!

So.. I will take the heads to the shop on Monday (They are closed today). And now comes the hardest part of this project. Time to spend some $$!! I hope I at least get a "Thanks Dad" out of all of this!

pb4ugotobed

Holy rust batman, how long has that thing been sitting?

I'd agree with deathcougar 100%.

Just to add though...
A mark on the belt may make it a bit easier to line up initially, but if you know what you're doing then a mark is just a mark. It will wear off in a few thousand miles anyways... Just line every thing up, and I'll always rotate the engine a full turn and make sure the crank and cams both line back up to TDC at the end of the revolution. ( note you'll have to turn the crank 2 turns to make the cams turn 1 turn to get back to tdc).

The one thing I'd highly recommend is clean the block surface up REAL good and inspect CLOSELY for pitting, ESPECIALLY around the water jackets. Do the same on the head, both have a tendancy to rot out or at least pit bad enough that you'll never get good compression again. You only have .010" to play with in milling between BOTH the heads AND the block. Any more than the ten thousandths and something needs replaced.

OutlawMike

Actually, I did not do much of anything with the bottom end, the cylinders looked great and I checked the bearings on the engine stand. I put the short block on the stand, stripped off the pan, the oil pump, and the rear main plate. I then cleaned up the block really well and painted it, the pan, and all the miscellaneous pieces.

One thing I wanted to do was freshen up all of the gaskets in the motor. Also, once you pull the heads, there really is not very much further to go to pull the block. The only thing holding it is is the trans bolts and the engine mounts.

Not knowing your son, I could not say if you are going to get a "Thanks Dad" out of it. But, from my experience with my father, the time is a good investment.

Let us know if you run into any problems.

Mike

betelnut

Agreed, although the marks will help avoid a small amount of fiddling needed to get it right the first time. As pb4ugotobed pointed out, turn the crank around twice or more to make sure the marks still line up, or if you're off a tooth. The FSM does a good job of describing the procedure.

That idler pulley is sold as part of many 'timing belt kits'. It's on the earlier years of the 3vze, so be sure you get the right kit for your engine.

You can probably only find this from the dealer, but check the online dealers; you may be able to find the part cheaper, even after shipping.

truckmike26

The 3vze has a similar upper/lower intake plenum design as the '86-'93 Mustang "5.0". Cubic inch for cubic inch or litre for litre, they're the same in terms of power and torque output. (Actually, the 3vze makes a bit more horsepower for its size the the 5.0.) People for more than 20 years have ported and polished and massaged and flowed and headered and intaked and re-ground the 3vze cams and all that without really significant gains. Supercharging/turbocharging is difficult because there isn't much room for it.

The 3vze needs more cam despirately. It needs more duration and a lots more lift -- a squarer lobe -- to take advantage of its natural OHC design and especially for the intake/exhaust improvements people do. And only then it should put out power closer to what modern OHC 3000 cc engines make. If I had the time and money, I'd find a company to cast fresh cores and find another with a cam-grinding machine and we'd make various from-scratch 3vze cams for different applications.

WetbehindEars

Okay.. .Heads checked out good @ the machine shop... didnt need a valve job, they heli-coiled the one stripped thread, resurfaced, shimed cams. We are STILL cleaning the engine bay up, and waiting on gaskets to arrive.
Soooo....
Im thinkin we are going to go ahead and yank out the short block.
So Outlaw (or anyone else who wants to answer)...
1.Did you replace the oil pump completely?, what other seals or gaskets would be good to replace while I have the block out?
2. Im at work, and plan to read the FSM when I get home... but can I unbold the Trans (Manual by the way) and leave it there, or do I have to pull it out completely? I just wonder how hard it would be to line up during re-installation.
3. Speaking of install... Outlaw... what all did you leave on during in your installation?

tried4x2signN

I agree x a googol...

tried4x2signN

Toy get a Toyota belt for reasons besides the timing marks...

They are made more accurately and to Toyota's specifications, not somebody that decides for themselves how and what their belt is made of...


It's cheap insurance... You can skimp on the waterpump, but I would NEVER on a timing belt.

Though an AISIN waterpump would be way far better than any aftermarket...


On a 3.0 V6 I highly recomend factory:

Plugs
Wires
Cap
Timing belt and waterpump...

OutlawMike

Nope, did not need to replace the oil pump. The FSM has a very detailed procedure for measuring the clearances in the pump with feeler gages. Mine measured right on the money, so, I disassemlbed it, cleaned up the ports and the pressure relief spring/ball (just because I was in there) and popped a new front main seal into it.

Do the rear main while you have it out. The rear main is in an aluminum plate that is bolted to the back of the block with a gasket and forms the rear seal area for the back of the oil pan. I bought a complete gasket kit for the whole motor and replaced the rear main and re-sealed the aluminum plate back there. I think, not sure, that it just used FIP gasket (The Right Stuff, or the Toyota factory stuff). Other than that, the pan, but that is not a gasket, even if they sell you two, do not use cork gaskets on it. Just use FIP gasket on the pan. Oh, there is a cap in place of where the oil cooler would go on the block. I pulled that off, cleaned it up, and resealed it. If you really want to get trick about it, you could buy a water pump from a later model 3.0 that has the oil cooler outlet on it, buy the hoses from Toyota, and pick up an oil cooler at a boneyard. You could then add a cooler to your early model 3.0. I did not do this when I did mine, and have wished I had. At the least I wish I had put the water pump in and just capped off the outlet, then it would not be such a big job to put it back in later.

Lining up the trans was not an issue, mine was an auto, no pilot bearing. I had a bottle jack on the bottom of the trans to raise/lower it as needed. Also, my cherry picker had one of the angle adjusters to angle the motor correctly.

Here is a pic of the motor as installed, just after I finished bolting up the trans. I put headers on it, so, I put them on after putting the motor in. If you are going to run the stock exhaust, it might be easier to assemble that on the the stand and then put it in. Someone else would have to comment on that part of it. I put as much stuff back on the motor as possible on the stand, way easier that way.

WetbehindEars

Well....it is OUT!!

Here is my son looking on and wondering if I know what im doing!!


And here she is:

pb4ugotobed

Dude.............
What's with the shop vac hose attached to your tstat?

OutlawMike

That kid is too clean, he should be all grease covered!

Glad to see you got it out. Are you going to clean it up, or just freshen up the seals and slap her back in?

WetbehindEars

Thats for cleaning the truck on the go of course!!!

We have LOTS of cleaning to do. Im glad we went ahead and pulled it out... it does look like the rear seal was leaking.. Im not sure what else was leaking under the hood, but there is 21 years of CAKE EVERYWHERE.
We have been cleaning parts in the parts washer, and have been sand blasting pulleys and brackets... we plan to clean and put the engine back together on the stand, and clean under the hood at the same time, which looks like it will be where most of the work is.
Outlaw, did you change out your freeze plugs while you had her out?

OutlawMike

Nope, did not touch those. None of them were leaking, and I live in Cali, it doesn't freeze here. If it gets in the 30's we all stay inside and call for the National Guard to come save us from the freezing weather...

Kiroshu

Wow.... Lots of work... I hope you know what you are doing if you going to rebuild it... If it were me i wouldn't...(If it ain't broke don't fix "its a toyota") but its your truck....
Be very careful with the 3VZ when rebuilding its very touchy and your going to have to take it to another shop to press out the piston wrist pins and press in....
Headers are a very good idea! They acctaully are one of the only things that help the 3.0 out in terms of performance... other wise just keep it OEM. THe 3.0 was made to do nothing but pull that toyota truck around.

WetbehindEars

Hey Guys,
Sorry I havnt updated in a week, but we have been working..... not drinking!! Honestly.
So Bearing checked, Cylinders check/look good (block was previous bored before). I just checked the spacing on the oil pump tonight and we are cleaning and reinstalling everything... Heres some progress pics for ya and some questions below. IF ANYONE NEEDS PICS OF THE 3.0 I HAVE TAKEN 157 SO FAR!!




So... Now I have some Questions and/or Opinions Needed
1. I have been shopping around for an Oil Cooler... Have found a few but they are all 50+ bucks.. I have read up and understand the benefit, but is this a good price for the benefit?
2. Have a look at the pic below. This is my drivers side valve cover. Looks like there is part of the baffle missing? I have been in every square inch of that engine and its not in there... IF I decided to use this baffle, would I have issues with oil wanting to blow out from the fill plug??
3. Have a look at the pic below. Part of my Upper Timing Cover is missing!! I would think you really wouldnt want debris flying into the cam gears and what not, but how well do these actually seal (I did get new seals for them in my engine gasket kit)? Should this be a Must Replace?
As Always.. Thanks!!