When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Driver side fuel pump is out and valve covers are off. My gaskets are not due in until tomorrow or Monday so I am sitting tight for a while on the driver side and will get the passenger off tomorrow. Everything looks super clean and pretty much wear free as far as I can tell. The camshafts, rocker arms, springs and timing chains pretty much look perfect.....quite a feat with 157K on the clock. Disassembly was pretty straight forward. The most difficult parts were getting some of the hoses off the nipples and getting to a few of the perimeter bolts. I did remove the spark plug seals with the front two coils in order to get the angle right to pull them out. The back two coils came out without having to remove the spark plug seals.
Driver side fuel pump is out and valve covers are off. My gaskets are not due in until tomorrow or Monday so I am sitting tight for a while on the driver side and will get the passenger off tomorrow. Everything looks super clean and pretty much wear free as far as I can tell. The camshafts, rocker arms, springs and timing chains pretty much look perfect.....quite a feat with 157K on the clock. Disassembly was pretty straight forward. The most difficult parts were getting some of the hoses off the nipples and getting to a few of the perimeter bolts. I did remove the spark plug seals with the front two coils in order to get the angle right to pull them out. The back two coils came out without having to remove the spark plug seals.
what did you use to remove the perimeter 10mm bolts around the bottom of the valve cover? I know they’re super hard to reach! Must be even harder to screw them back in?
Driver side fuel pump is out and valve covers are off. My gaskets are not due in until tomorrow or Monday so I am sitting tight for a while on the driver side and will get the passenger off tomorrow. Everything looks super clean and pretty much wear free as far as I can tell. The camshafts, rocker arms, springs and timing chains pretty much look perfect.....quite a feat with 157K on the clock. Disassembly was pretty straight forward. The most difficult parts were getting some of the hoses off the nipples and getting to a few of the perimeter bolts. I did remove the spark plug seals with the front two coils in order to get the angle right to pull them out. The back two coils came out without having to remove the spark plug seals.
Wow, that looks really clean and in great condition, nice job brother! I think I recall reading you've owned the car since 2016 and put about 80K miles on her since? What were your oil change intervals approximately? I realize many of us use synthetic oil, but I believe oil & filter changes are extremely important for these VVT-iE motors. Hope you don't mind if I save these photos for future reference to compare with mine when it comes time for me to change out these gaskets too. And thanks for taking the time to document and photo your work!!
Thanks man. I have owned it since February of 2014 and have put 80K on it. I use Toyota 0-20 and change between 6,000 and 7,500 miles depending on how busy I am.
Where is the cheapest place I can buy valve gasket covers and spark plug seals? eBay has driver and passenger side for $90+shipping. Toyota brand. I was able to find beck & arley for $65ish. Ok to use third party or should I stick with Toyota?
Where is the cheapest place I can buy valve gasket covers and spark plug seals? eBay has driver and passenger side for $90+shipping. Toyota brand. I was able to find beck & arley for $65ish. Ok to use third party or should I stick with Toyota?
I stick with OEM because it seems to last with some exceptions. There is nothing wrong with 3rd party, for instance, Beck and Arnley makes good aftermarket products for Toyota/Lexus vehicles.
I stick with OEM because it seems to last with some exceptions. There is nothing wrong with 3rd party, for instance, Beck and Arnley makes good aftermarket products for Toyota/Lexus vehicles.
For anybody contemplating this job in the future, I have a few tips based on my experience completing the work over this past weekend:
My ventilation hoses on both the passenger and driver side have hardened and lost flexibility and both of them split when removing the hose from the valve cover nipple. You may want to pre-emptively order these parts with the valve cover gaskets because my guess is most cars will have this same condition. For my 2007 the PN#'s are 1226138030 and 1226238030 for the vent hoses.
These same hoses were very difficult to remove because they had hardened and split anyway despite my best efforts. You may want to just cut them off to save time and frustration if they feel like they have hardened.
Keep track of the order bolts are removed as the manual states they are supposed to go back in the same locations
When removing the valve cover, be sure that you can account for all of the internal rings as they are pretty easy to slip out and/or stick to the underside of the valve cover
On my passenger side all the rings stayed in place On my driver side one of the rings stuck to the underside of the valve cover
Last edited by AZGS4; 01-25-21 at 12:13 PM.
Reason: Typos
For anybody contemplating this job in the future, I have a few tips based on my experience completing the work over this past weekend:
My ventilation hoses on both the passenger and driver side have hardened and lost flexibility and both of them split when removing the hose from the valve cover nipple. You want to pre-emptively order these parts with the valve cover gaskets because my guess is most cars will have this same condition. For my 2007 the PN#'s are 1226138030 and 1226238030 for the vent hoses.
These same hoses were very difficult to remove because they had hardened and spit anyway despite my best efforts. You may want to just cut them off to save time and frustration if they feel like they have hardened.
Keep track of the order bolts are removed as the manual states they are supposed to go back in the same locations
When removing the valve cover, be sure that you can account for all of the internal rings as they are pretty easy to slip out and/or stick to the underside of the valve cover
On my passenger side all the rings stayed in place On my driver side one of the rings stuck to the underside of the valve cover
wow thanks!! Great pics! Do you have a pic of where the ventilation hoses are that you’re referring to?
They attach to the area circled in red and look like this.
thanks! Omg these hoses are $35-$40 online! Wow expensive !! Is it possible to use a flex rubber hose from autozone that you can just snip and cut? Or you gotta get the Toyota brand ones?
You know you'll get 10 more horsepower if you flip that chrome air filter cover over =). Yes I'm old enough to remember when that was a "thing" because my dad joked about it.
For anybody contemplating this job in the future, I have a few tips based on my experience completing the work over this past weekend:
My ventilation hoses on both the passenger and driver side have hardened and lost flexibility and both of them split when removing the hose from the valve cover nipple. You want to pre-emptively order these parts with the valve cover gaskets because my guess is most cars will have this same condition. For my 2007 the PN#'s are 1226138030 and 1226238030 for the vent hoses.
These same hoses were very difficult to remove because they had hardened and spit anyway despite my best efforts. You may want to just cut them off to save time and frustration if they feel like they have hardened.
Keep track of the order bolts are removed as the manual states they are supposed to go back in the same locations
When removing the valve cover, be sure that you can account for all of the internal rings as they are pretty easy to slip out and/or stick to the underside of the valve cover
On my passenger side all the rings stayed in place On my driver side one of the rings stuck to the underside of the valve cover
AZGS4 makes 2 very good points. The vent hoses on my 2007 were also too brittle to be reused. The round seals on the valve cover side should all be pulled off and placed on the cylinder head in their corresponding locations. If you leave the seals stuck to the cover there is a good possibility they will rub off while you install the valve covers and fall into never never land.
When I did my left side cover I didn't realize this. The seals were stuck on very tight. After doing my other cover i realized they do come off. I ended up pulling my first cover back off and inserting each seal into the head before putting the cover on. I was lucky to not drop any. Live and learn.
01-22-21, 05:41 PM
