The whole story is a long one. I'll make it as short as possible.. The previous owner was a service manager at a shop and had one of his guys do the timing belt. As he was heading home, the original engine went boom. The tensioner was set into place, the bolt ran in by hand, then forgotten about. Tensioner backed out and bent some valves. Previous owner found another engine with 7x,xxx miles (supposedly) and swapped it in. I bought the car with around 138k on the chassis.. the previous owner had the timing belt done by someone else but I'm assuming they rushed through it and didn't check their work. Just because everything lines up when you toss the belt on doesn't mean it will after rotating the crank by hand. They would've know that if they would've just taken their time.

I've never done a timing belt on a 1uz but I did my mom's 3uz sc430 which is quite similar. I've done somewhere close to 100 VW's at this point, quite a few JZ's, too many RB's. Then more chain driven engines than I can count. I really don't want to time anything up ever again but here I am!

 

Make sure to keep the metal pin for the belt tensioner. Whenever you have to re-adjust the belt, you have to remove the tensioner completely off the block, press down on the hydraulic shaft and re-insert the pin. Re-install the tensioner, adjust the belt accordingly and then pull the pin.

 

I have more than enough of the pins from the VW 1.8t tensioners. Hopefully they'll fit. If not, I can grind one down a touch. I got lazy yesterday so I didn't pull the car apart like initially planned.

 

looks clean!

 

Freshly painted grill.

I think I did pretty good. I saw a real chrome one on ebay for $700USD so I became inspired.

 

HHello Members posting pictures of my 92 ls400 with 106000 miles.

These are Scion rims with Lexus center caps and Vogue tires 245/40 R18

 

Yep....social distancing and not another car within 1000 ft. lol

 

 

Gs350 18" wheels. Waiting on coilovers.

 

I bought this 1995 Lexus LS 400 for $7,700 with 66k from a single retired owner who garaged the car it's whole life. He paid roughly $55,000 for it off the lot in 1995. I put in a new ECU, cruise control ECU, Coolant Temp sensor (Better gas mileage), new radio antenna, and new thermostat since the thermostat was stuck and not letting the engine warm up to proper temp. Timing belt, Serpentine belt, Spark plugs, distributor caps, and rotors were done at 45k miles but it was in December 2009. Even though it has only about 20k ago, it was over 10 years and there is no record of the water pump, tensioner, or pulleys being changed! Which makes me wonder how many more miles I can squeeze out of them if they really are the original water pump, tensioner, and pulleys and they really are 25 year old OEM parts. I hear most people say to change all those accessories every 90k or 9 years. I also drain and filled transmission fluid and coolant and put in a new air filter. The car makes a slight clanking noise when turning really sharp at slow speeds, which I hear are the classic strut rod bushing. I spent about $500 on parts and saved on labor since I did the work.

 

My girls together.

 

Love the jade green JohnAndic. Those wheels sure do date the car though.

 

Thanks. It seems to me as if the Green was a popular pick up here in Canada. I like your black one too. Those rims look pretty beefy.

Looks how expensive billypower wheels are!! I am looking at other wheels. I like the stock ones though, they are good quality.

$$$ so much money

 

I always liked the 98-00 5-spoke wheels. I think they fit the car very nicely, especially in the machine polished aluminum finish.

 

they really have to be quite pristine though to give the proper effect, when they get scuffed and faded it especially takes away from the LS presence






ughhh to be able to drive that out of a showroom... those fortunate bastards 20 years ago lol