dveneman

Hello,
Going to use my time off this holiday season to fix oil leaks and renew the TB and WP.
Wish me luck with the cams! Thank you to SHA for your previous posts on this.




The following is a list of parts I believe I am using for FYI. There may be errors in this list so do your own research please.

Toyota 90916-3100 T-stat
Toyota 15330-50011 Oil Control Valve
Felpro 61281 Throttle body gasket
Mitsuboshi TB298 Timing Belt
Mitsuboshi 6PK2240#V Serpentine belt
Koyo Idler bearing 13503-50011
Koyo 13505-50030 Idler/Tensioner
Toyota 16620-0W101 Serpentine Belt Tensioner Assy
NTN 13540-50030 Timing belt tensioner
Toyota 11213-50031 valve cover gasket
Toyota 11214-50011 valve cover gasket
Toyota T-232 Spark plug tube seals
Denso SK20R11 Spark Plugs
Toyota 90311A001 Front Crankshaft Seal
Aisin 11830004034 FBT002 Fan Bracket. Engine Cooling Fan Pulley Bracket-Aisin WD Express 118 30004 034
Aisin WPT-800 Water Pump
Denso 221-4101 Radiator
Lexus 90480-18001 PCV grommet
Lexus 12204-500220 PCV valve
Toyota 90311-A0004 Camshaft Oil Seal
Gates hose 22674
Gates hose 22672

RA40

iTrader: (6)

Keep us posted on the progress.

dveneman

This '98 LS400 is my daily driver. It has been really good to me so far. In Jan it will be my 4th year and about 80,000 miles with it. It has needed very little other than normal consumables during that time. It has about 202,000 miles on it now and I am not sure if it has ever had a new TB and WP. No sticker anywhere. I'm not a mechanic , but have done my own repairs for years. This will be my second timing belt job. Since on this model, the camshafts need to be removed, I am concerned about causing harm to the valvetrain of course.
I have the front end of engine disassembled using the 50deg past TDC method.
There was some small amount of oil in the TB area which I think is coming from the valve cover gasket. But I am determined to do the VVTi cam seals, and crankshaft seal. There is oil everywhere on the outside of the engine which is amazing since it did not drip on the ground.
I too was sent the wrong cam oil seals. I think there were were two types available in '98. This one uses the 90311-A0004 for vvti. This has delayed my progress since I do not want to remove the cams until I have the cam seals.
So I cleaned some parts and replaced the spark plug tube seals on the valve covers.
The water pump showed some signs of slow leakage.



If you have an oldish radiator, use caution when leaning on overflow the outlet at the top of the radiator. Mine snapped off straight away and I had to buy a replacement .



The whitish color is where the water pump "weep hole" was leaking.


This photo makes the inside of the valve cover look bad, but things are really nice and clean inside.




Oil leaks not yet affecting timing belt.

dveneman

After 19 years and 200,000 miles, it's ok to buy a new radiator, right?

jaaa

I broke my radiator in exactly the same point while replacing the intakes. I tried jbweld, but it didn't hold for long. But yes, after that many miles and years, it's time to change the radiator. Good luck changing the seals.

TakaM

Hey...your vacation is same as mine.
Working on my 1998 LS400 replacing valve cover gasket, timing belt, water pump, spark plugs, etc. etc.

I didn't have the guts to do the cam seal like you do but fortunately there were no leaks so I let it be.
I only replaced the crank seal.

As you have experienced, I had lot of things break in the process as plastics and rubber were brittle after 19 years, slowing my progress.
Repair, break, order parts, repair, break, order parts....has been my process.

Latest one was the idler pulley for accessory belt was somewhat frozen so I'm waiting for both idler pulley and tensioner pulley to come in. This is after I replaced electrical connector housing, vacuum tubes, and such.

Crossing my fingers I'm reassembling things correctly.

dveneman

TakaM said:

"As you have experienced, I had lot of things break in the process as plastics and rubber were brittle after 19 years, slowing my progress.
Repair, break, order parts, repair, break, order parts....has been my process."

This is exactly correct. I would not make much money if I had quoted this for someone else.

"Hey...your vacation is same as mine.
Working on my 1998 LS400 replacing valve cover gasket, timing belt, water pump, spark plugs, etc. etc."

We know how to show our friends and family a good time , eh?

TakaM

True but I always share with my wife and kids how much money I saved doing it myself and they always get impressed (ok...maybe more wife than my kids since kids still learning concept of money).
Plus they know I'll take them out to eat with money saved .

Please do report back in detail of the cam seal change. I may have to tackle that one day and although there were some posts on how to, there wasn't much detail that was useful to truly understand step by step, especially what to watch out for and where to be careful.

TakaM

And my parts sourcing continues. I should of got the fan bracket like you have. One I reinstalled the original, I noticed it wasn't spinning smoothly. Where did you source your Aisin FBT002 fan bracket? I thought of RockAuto but they have a wrong image associated with it.

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

Your very welcome, I'm glad your not going to have to stress a lot like I did when doing the cam seals. It's actually very straight forward once you get past the service bolt part.

dveneman

Sorry for the delay. I purchased it on EBay. Try searching:
Engine Cooling Fan Pulley Bracket-Aisin WD Express 118 30004 034 $164

dveneman

Well I have completed my timing belt/ cam seal project and it turned out great so far. I am not an expert by any means and this took me many hours . Sometimes I am sure we all ask ourselves if working on older cars is worth the time and trouble. But when you hit the ignition and all sounds well, it is rewarding . Plus , the build quality of these cars makes them worth saving.
Camshaft seal replacement. Like I said, I am not an expert, but will try to share my experience. Please provide input if you see any mistakes or can add to it .

dveneman

1998 VVTi .Camshaft seal replacement




Perform proper removal of timing belt using 50 degree past top dead center crankshaft position. Search for the excellent tutorial by Landar entitled :
98 1uz-fe Timing Belt And Water Pump Replacement How_to

Remove camshaft timing pulleys. These bolts come off pretty easily . You may use a wrench on the square section of the cam to hold the cam if you have already removed the belt. The pulleys must be removed in order to pull the large camshaft bearing cap near the pulley. With the pulley removed you will be able to see the camshaft seal. Maybe you can clean or inspect it now. Last chance to reconsider this project. From what research I have done, these seals last a long time and rarely leak.
Caution: do not touch the timing tube torx bolts shown in the photo below. If you do, Toyota says you need to buy a new timing tube.


Regarding camshaft movement with timing belt off. If you have the crankshaft 50 degrees past TDC, I found that rotating the cams is pretty safe. In fact , the manual does not warn against rotating cams past a certain point at all. Am I wrong here? I turned mine quite a bit during this project. Just remember the 50 degree rule, and leave the crank there until you install the belt and get ready to line up the marks.


Remove valve (cylinder head) covers. If you have oil leaks, this will be something you want to do anyway.

Remove camshafts . Install service bolt. You want to replace the seal on the intake camshaft, the only one with a seal, right? Well look at the lower, cam, the exhaust cam. It has two visible gears , a main gear and a sub gear. These "Scissor gears" are spring loaded and need to be locked together before you remove them. If you forget this , the cams will make a clicking noise when all back together.
The exhaust cam will have two holes close to each other . Turn the cam so that the larger hole (service bolt hole) is up to the top and the marks line up. (On the passenger side (LH) line up the single arrow marks, on the drivers (RH) side, line up the double arrow marks.) Insert a 6mm x 1mm (16-20mm long) into the service bolt hole. Just thread it in. No need to tighten it down a lot.
Note* The cam gears marks on the LH and RH cams wont all line up together at the same time . Don't sweat it . Just rotate the cams around a bit as you need to . The time to get them all right is when you install the timing belt. You will reference the drive pulley marks at that point.


Note* The thrust bearings on these cams are tight . Be gentle and bring the cams up as straight as you can. Prying up the cams on one end may gall these thrust bearing surfaces. Uniformly loosen and remove the 22 bearing cap bolts in several passes. Remove the oil feed pipe , 9 bearing caps, camshaft, timing oil control valve and camshafts. Set the exhaust cam aside with the service bolt sill in it.

The below photo shows the exhaust cam just resting in place while I worked on the intake cam in the bench. Note "scissor" gears with service bolt installed.


Intake and exhaust cams with bearing caps.

Keep the bearing caps arranged in proper order . Mine were stamped with numbers and had arrows pointing to the front of car.

Remove cam shaft timing tubes.
Mount the intake cam in a vice. Of course, only clamp on to the "hexagon wrench portion" of the cam shaft . Remove the straight screw plug and seal washer at the end of the timing tube. Using a 10mm hexagon wrench, remove the set bolt and then the camshaft timing tube. Once the bolts are loose, the timing tube just slides off , so be careful.

Timing tube slid off intake camshaft in center of photo.

With the timing tube separated from the intake cam, use a 5 mm hexagon wrench to remove the the 4 bolts of the camshaft drive gear and the oil seal. For this step, I did not use a cam holder tool since I did not have one. I simply gripped the cam tube assembly gently by the pulley bolts in a vice.




Cylinder head with cams removed.

Slip the new seal over the timing tube. Check for correct orientation of seal with blank side facing out . Reinstall cam gear. Depending on your project, this is likely the turning point and its time to put everything back together.

Install camshafts
Disclosure: I did not have a manual reference for the re installation of the cams, but I will describe my experience.
Carefully place the intake cam onto the head into the journals. Since you have the crankshaft at the 50 degree PTDC, there will only a couple places where the cam lobes are pressing down onto the valve cups. Note where the cam gear reference marks are located . Gently push the cam down by hand until it rests on the journals. Note also which cam lobes are making contact with the valve cups. Now place the exhaust cam in place and note the gear reference marks . Line up the marks, or arrange the cam gears so that the marks will eventually align when both cams are rotated. I had to push them down a bit by leaning on the cams and was able to wiggle them down a bit into position. Remember the thrust bearings ( discs on the front of the cams that fit into slots machined into the head) are tight fitting and do not want to fall into place unless they are going straight in.
If you are confident the marks will meet , and the cams are level, and the thrust bearings are in good alignment, start installing the bearing caps in the proper placement in which they were removed. First thread the bolts on finger tight and observe which ones will require gentle wrenching . Continue to thread on all the cap screws and gradually bring them down little by little. Do not use the bolts to force anything. For me, the cams went into place pretty easily , only requiring wrenching at those points where the cam lobes were pressing on valves.
Install the end cap onto the new cam seal. Use toyota sealant where needed on corners and where the end cap joins to the head casting. I would not use sealant around the outside of the new seal. The cap fits closely around the outer diameter of the seal and any sealant may cause the seal to pop out of place when you bolt it down.
Torque the bolts according to the manual .
Important: Do not forget to remove the "service bolt" from the exhaust cam gears.


New camshaft seal installed .

Install valve cover gasket and valve cover.
Continue with normal timing belt installation..
I hope this helps you in the event you need to change a VVTi cam seal.

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

Did you clean out the VVT-i oil filters while you were in there?

dveneman

I held them up to the light and they were spotless.