Hayk

iTrader: (1)

Somebody on here suggested that it's a good idea to replace all 16 washers on the valve cover bolts, but I just don't understand how you can do that. And is it really necessary?

First of all, I can't remove the washers because of the little ridge that each bolt has. And secondly, the washers and bolts are sold separately - so how am I supposed to put them together?

EDIT: Part Number 90080-10288 comes with the washer already on the bolt.

EEngineer

u can hammer the washer out. but what i suggest is that reuse them but add another washer from a hardware store and torque the bolts to 30lbs~40lbs

OceanView

I think the bolts will break before you get to 30 ft pounds, trust me I know.
Torque on these are 10 ft lbs if I remember correctly.

EEngineer

if a 10mm automotive bolt can't handle 30 lbs of torque, its probably made of plastic.
also, i was saying you have to have a extra washer to make it possible to torque it higher.
the reason why 1MZs love to leak oil through valve cover gasket is because they only torque it to 10lbs and the extra washer and 30lbs has been proven to solve the leak problem over the long run.

OceanView

I have never heard of that one but I hope you are right.
The thing that I don't understand is how can adding a washer prevent a bolt from breaking off? Doesn't the washer just shorten the length of the bolt?

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

That's right. By adding a washer, you're giving more space for the threads of the bolt to move. Because according to some people on ToyotaNation, the stock bolt pretty much bottoms out in its hole, which leaves no room for compression of the washer.

Anyways, I found the part number for this bolt. It's 90080-10288 (MSRP $1.75) and supposedly it comes with the washer. That's what I'm going to buy.

BDSL

Guys, I always put a little bit of "blue" loctite on the bolts. That will prevent them from loosening and WITHOUT over-torquing them.

EEngineer

^that won't solve the problem over the long rum

over the long run, the valve cover gasket will flatten and harden. when that happens, you will need the extra torque to hold the gasket down.

what mrBooby is saynig is exactly right. the stock bolt is too long to overtorque, it'll bottom out. with the extra washer, it's doable.

OceanView

I ordered 16 bolts today and will work on replacing the old ones this weekend.
Do you guys think it will be ok to just change one bolt at a time without replacing the valve gasket?
If not, I gotta order them too.

EEngineer

there's no point in replacing the bolts if you don't replace the gasket.
replace the spark plug grommets while you are at it.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

Be prepared to curse whoever designed this engine. I'm doing the valve covers, and what I thought was going to be an easy fix, turned into a maintenance nightmare. It's a lot of, "well since I'm already here, I might as well..."

So far, I bought all 3 (yes three) coolant hoses and new clamps, new spark plug wires, new spark plugs, new valve cover gaskets, 16 valve cover bolts, spark plugs gaskets, RTV, intake plenum gasket, intake manifold gaskets, thermostat (decided not to mess with it), coolant, pcv valve + grommet, and some other little stuff like special sockets (Torx E6 and 5/16" Allen). I also had to fix my front brakes, but that's completely unrelated. Oh and I had to get a new headlight housing. I've spent over a grand in parts and the car hasn't moved in almost a month....

There is also the power steering and the sway bars which will need to be taken care of down the road. The reason I'm mentioning them is because I found the issues while doing other stuff.

About the washers: I rather replace the gaskets when they go bad again (hopefully not in the near future), than over tighten my bolts. I like to stick with what the Toyota Engineers had in mind.

OceanView

Oh My, that sounds fun!
Good luck with all that stuff.

I'm gonna hold off on doing anything major until I can put my car in the garage for a month or so. I also have many things I need to do to get my car up to date. I need to change the timing belt, water pump and all the seals near the crank as I have an oil leak. I know this will take me a while as I have never done this before and will be taking my time doing the research and buying the necessary parts and tools. I know that it will be worth the trouble as these cars will last with proper maintenance. I really think I can get 500K miles on mine.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

I would love to learn how to do a timing belt, but I just don't want to risk messing something up. So when the time comes, I'll just buy all the parts and let an experienced mechanic do everything. Another reason I won't touch it, is because I don't have air tools nor do I have a strong enough torque wrench for the crank bolt(to tighten it when I'm done).

tomf

I just changed the timing belt on my 95 Camry v6 with the 1MZ-FE engine, the same as yours. It was not too difficult. The hardest part for me was getting the power steering drive belt back on. I was going to replace the water pump but I needed a tool to hold the camshafts. (I've ordered a tool that should allow me to hold the pulley's when I remove the retaining nut.) I'll replace the water pump next time. There are several good video's and DIY's around. I also followed the service manual instructions for a 94 Camry. That was nice because it showed what bolts to remove and where they were located when removing parts.

I thought I screwed up trying to remove the camshaft pulley. I rotated the pulley off TDC. Then I noticed in the replacement instructions it said prior to installing the timing belts to rotate the camshafts and crankshaft to line up the timing marks. So I did. No problem.

OceanView

That's good to know.
What is the tool that you need ?
I probably will need to order it before I start the timing belt / water pump replacement.