daihap133

Hi folks, I am changing my timing belt and water pump on my 2000 GS400, when I got to the water inlet assembly, I took off the two bolts that is holding it, but the assembly won't even move a fraction of an inch at all, anyone has any experience on removing it while you are doing your timing belt or water pump, can you shed some light how you remove that thing?

I try to use a pry bar and hammer the housing slightly, it still wouldn't move at all.

thanks

Och

iTrader: (3)

If my memory serves me right, there's high temperature silicone between the inlet and the block.

daihap133

You mean the silicon is sticking(glue) the assembly to the water pump so that's why it won't move?

Do you remember how you get this thing off when you were doing it?

thanks

Och

iTrader: (3)

Get a big flat screwdriver or a prybar, and try to stick it somewhere into the seam and crack it open. Once it budges, it'll go.

daihap133

ok, I got the thing off, this is what you need to do, use a pry bar and pry the housing on the left side(driver side) until you lift it off by about 1/32", and then wrap 1-2 rags around the head of a hammer, so it doesn't damage the housing when you pound it. Now, pound it up(counter close-wise), so it rotate about 4-5 degree around the center of the connecting tube(4-5 degree about the most you can move it), and then pound the thing down(close-wise), 4-5 degree back to where it was originally, repeat this process until you can wiggle the assembly outward a bit, and then repeat until you can wiggle it more, and keep doing this until you can finally pull the assembly out.

daihap133

I will post some picture of how to do this when I finally finish up everything, so other people knows how to pull this thing out in the future.

jjm1975

A few weeks ago i changed my timing belt too. Information on this board was very helpfull but here is a link to a serie of photo's of a timingbelt change on a lexus ls400 (1998).

removal
http://www.flickr.com/photos/landar/...7622883357340/

installation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/landar/...7622886015670/

Good luck!

criminalR1

iTrader: (3)

just did my timing belt and water pump on one of my 400's last week I had to use a big flat head and small pry bar to break it loose .....just an Idea you might want to replace your front crank seal while you have it all apart it only a $10 dollar part I did it just as a preventative thing and for a lil piece of mind ....also make sure you pay close attention to the water tube that runs under the intake manifold into the back of the water pump I didn't and it didn't seat right so I had a leak and had to remove the manifold just to push it back in place....good luck with the DIY project

daihap133

thanks for giving me the link to the pics,

but two of the pics for checking the timing in the installation link:

LHcamVerifyTiming, RHcamVerifyTiming

something I don't understand here, if the three markings on the belt, "CR" ,"L-CAM", and "R-CAM" lines up with the markings on the engine at 0 TDC before the belt is taken off. After the new belt is put on, why would the markings on the belt no longer line up with those markings on the engine after you make two turns to check the timing from 0 TDC to 0 TDC? Doesn't make sense at all.

thanks

daihap133

I got the crank seal from the kit I got from ebay, but I am a little hesitant to do it, I am worrying if I cannot get the seal out and I damage the old seal, then I am stuck.

How did you pull that seal out? Is it difficult? I would think I would have to use something sharp and poke into the old seal to get some grip and pry the thing out, feels awfully dangerous...

Someone said in the previous timing belt post, "if it is not leaking, don't touch...", so I don't know if I should touch the seal at all...

jjm1975

the markings on the timingbelt are just for installation use. After you installed and put tension on the timing belt you can rotate the crankshaft and inspect your timing with the markings on the crankshaftpulley and camshaftpulley's. 2 rotations of your cranckshaft is 1 rotation of your camshaft.

By the way, I have 114.000 miles on my car and did not replaced my cam seals. I asked my local toyota dealer and they only advised me to change the waterpump.

criminalR1

iTrader: (3)

I just took a small flat head screw driver and popped it out and then scotch brite'd the inside of the crank gear and the the crank shaft a little and then used the crank shaft gear and a small rubber mallet to seat the new seal.....like I said before i did mine just for piece of mind and just as a precaution but if its not leaking and you don't feel comfortable doing it then???

daihap133

I once saw a video on youtube about a guy changing the crank seal on his camry, that guy has to stick a sharp point screwdriver into the rubber of the seal, and rip the thing out, after the seal is out, it is kind of deformed + a rip-mark/hole in the seal.

This is my concern, if I do that and damage the seal, and if the seal wouldn't come off , that what do I do then? Feel scary to me...

But base on what you said, the crank seal came off pretty easy. BTW, I put the belt on and may be too late to do that now.

daihap133

When I took out the crank pulley, I noticed some grey color rubber-like beads on the thread of the bolt, may be the last time the guy that did timing belt to my car use thread lock? The Lexus service manual did not say you need to use thread lock for the crank pulley bolt, did anyone of you who did your timing belt last time used thread lock when you put the crank pulley bolt back on the crank?

thanks

daihap133

Well, my car has 175,000 miles already. I don't know how long the crank seal will last. When I got the crank pulley and #1 timing cover off, it is not that dirty at all so it is not leaking yet, so I guess I don't have to change it.

For the cam seal, some post in here said you have to lift the cam out to change it, which then means you have to re-shim the vvti part, which I don't know how to do. I rather not touch that.

You are right, the mark on the belt is for initial installation, after you put the belt back on and turn the crank, the mark on the belt will start to move out of phase with the reference mark on the crank and the two cam pulleys, so it will not line up with the mark on the pulleys anymore after you turn the crank pulley over two turns. I thought about this the whole night, it makes sense, the diameter of the crank gear is about 2.5", so the circumference of it is 2*pi*R=2*3.141519*1.25 ~= 7.8", the belt is about 5,6 feet long, so two turns of the crank gear will only cause the belt to travel 15-16"(2X circumference of the crank gear) along the path, and therefore it will take many turns of crank gear to complete one return trip of the whole belt; ie; for it(the mark on the belt) to start from a reference point and return to the same reference point again.

The previous timing belt posts in this forum gives you all kinds of misleading informations, some said after two turns of the crank, it should line up with the "I" mark, some said it should line up with the "T" mark... causing you under the impression that the mark of the belt will line up with the mark on the cam pulley and crank after you make two complete turns of the crank from TDC to TDC.