Whats up all.

Im kinda in a venting mods right now since I dropped my car off on Saturday to get the timing belt and waterpump changed and the guy who was doing it f-ed up and bent some valves. Now I wont get the car back till sometime next week and the headers gotta come off, which is something that should be avoided unless its truly necessary. Obviously its necessary NOW, but it wasn't in the first damn place. Just wondering if anyone has some insight as to whether pulling heads will weaken the engine in the long run. The only bright side to this is my timing belt had never been changed and my '99 GS4 has roughly 130K miles. If I would have waited and it broke on me, the labor and parts for the header pull and valve replacement wouldve been out of my pocket - since its the mechanics f-up, I dont have to pay a dime extra. But still.

Let me know if you've had experiences with taking the heads off and if that weakens the engine.

Its been a day, and I miss my GS4 already...

 

I have no clue; I'm wondering the same thing? I was interested in doing some head work so I need to know the answer to this question too.

 

Chenzo,

Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

Removing the cylinder heads from your car is a fairly invasive procedure. If your technician can't get the timing belt set correctly, I'd be concerned with his ability to do the job right.

However, if it's done correctly and in accordance with the service manual guidelines, there will be no compromise to the performance and longetivity of the engine.

 

Thanks for the response. I understand what you are saying about the ability of the technician. I'm kinda in a situation where I'd have to let him do the pull. I do have faith in him that he can do the job right, even after this mishap. He is a great mechanic, and truthfully, I am not sure why and how he made such a mistake in the first place. Again, like you said if the procedure is done RIGHT, there wont be any compromise. Unfortunately, it may be thousands of miles down the road before I can ever tell.

 

heads get pulled all the time, if he does it right you will be ok.

 

The heads coming off is no big deal. As long as he uses a new head gasket and tightens it properly you'll be all set. I do recommend making sure he goes with a gasket set from Lexus, don't let him cheap out because he has to pay.

 

make sure he does that.

 

I know of a Lexus dealer that did this to a GS400.

 

...water pump as well, the head gasket will be replaced and will be new (old gaskets dry out) and the team at the dealer will take extra time to check everything else out. Although you'll be without your ride for a few days, you couldn't pay a mechanic to spend the time that this guy is going to spend on your car. So while the inconvenience sucks, you'll be in better shape after the work than before.

That's the glass half full view from here.

Good luck
dd

 

Pulling the head isn't really a problem for you in the long run. In fact he has to replace it with a brand new headgasket and head studs so you might actually be better off in the long run with the new parts in there. It's not easy work doing a headgasket...trust me I've done a few lol. As long as he uses all the proper parts, gets everything to spec, and doesn't mess up in the process then you'll be good to go.

A lot of people doing timing belts on the VVTi motors get confused because of how the VVTi pulley operates. It has like 60'degrees of play in it. It needs to be rotated to where it touches the correct end. If you mix that up then your intake camshaft will be a whole 60'degrees out of whack.

 

Re: Bent Valve after timing belt change

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Quote:
Originally Posted by DREGS3
You were correct there was other damage to other valves. The Toyota dealer replaced all valves, seats etc. just my luck I should've spent the extra money and went to Lexus. The service writer was saying there are two version of my engine in the 2nd gen. GS300 for 1999. Everything is being put back together and hopefully there's no other problem.

The good thing is they corrected their mistakes plus you now have a freshly rebuilt head!!! Keep a close eye on it for a while to ensure there is no leaking of coolant, I might even have your local Lexus dealer do a leak down test on all of the cylinders to make sure all of the valves are seated properly or at a minimum a compression test.

This happen to me in Nov. of 2005 by a Toyota dealer. I haven't experience any problems. As long as everthing is put back together correctly you shouldn't have any problems.

 

Yeah, I figure that if I didn't get the timing belt replaced and it snapped and I needed to pay for this out of pocket, it would have set me back a lot more.

I will make sure that he does this. Thanks for the advice.