PorchDawg

Expected to see crud everywhere with 220k miles...but found it quite clean.
Replaced seeping valve cover gaskets and was pleasantly pleased to see a clean engine.
Found 2 loose bolts in the rear valve cover retaining bolts. Front loosened up too, but they were easy to tighten, which resolved the leak.
Did a major service at 210k and after finding tiny hard parts in the trans pan, waited until the engine came out for spark plugs and valve cover gaskets. Good move. Didn't have to pull the plenum.
Discovered one PITA related to the plug tube upper seals. They have tiny tabs that I bent upwards, replaced the seals, and punched them back into place. I saw no other way to do that? Too late now. They're back on and ain't coming back off...I hope? Very clean inside the engine.
Cam lobes look good. Engine ran perfect, quiet, and so the valves were left alone. There were no tight valve buckets.
Once new motor mounts are installed. And transmission wedded, ready to go back in.
Replaced the rear main seal without issues. The crank was not grooved up by the seal. I did not use a gasket on the seal carrier. There was no original so just very carefully cleaned and Yamabond 4. Nice bead all around. Used a 4" pvc flat top cap for support of the seal carrier, and drove it home with a 4" to 3" pvc reducer. Perfect fit.
Also found that an old RX front wheel bearing outer race with the inner races knocked out perfectly fits the 3" plus drivers side front differential seal. Doesn't touch the dust seal.
Anything else I need to visit before re-installing the engine?
Thanks for thoughts.


The engine as it came out.

LeX2K

Cam seals will leak eventually. That is a well maintained engine sludge issues come from very short trips combined with extended OCIs.

FlexnLexus

That looks amazing for the mileage! Using high quality full-syn oil goes a long way and frequent early oil changes helps keep contaminants down to a minimum.

I always tell people, the easiest and best way to keep your engine and transmission trouble free, is to always use full-synthetic oil, change it every 3-5,000 miles maximum, flush out the entire cooling system once a year or so, do a transmission drain and refill if possible once a year or every 15-20,000 miles. Change the serpentine belt or belts in general before you start seeing cracks since worn belts creates slack on the tensioner/pulley which can cause premature wear of those parts.

I would say I’m extremely precautious and tend to “over maintain” my cars. But because I do, I haven’t had any catastrophic failures of any kind in every car I have ever owned. Some vehicles have inherent flaws which can’t really be mitigated by maintenance but you can try to minimize the affect of those inherent flaws by “over servicing” them. Just like the problematic Ford 1.5L Ecoboost engine that’s known to overheat and burn oil. Maybe changing the oil every 3,000 miles and flushing the cooling system every 6 months to a year could help negate the engineering flaws that engine has.

Just a thought. You could go another 200K miles easily the way those cams look. 😎👌

salimshah

Hardest thing to find is the one that does not exist.

Please pay attention to the grounding wires next to the firewall. You may have to do the last bit of connections with the engine in. People have reported issues on missing one connection. Too late now but tag number of wires that get grounded at each location.

During removal, you may have stressed out hoses. Please check/twist/pull each. As the vehicle ages, they become less forgiving.

Salim

PorchDawg

Thanks for the info! Little late for tagging leads...!
Have two ground groups on the backside and end of the plenum log. They are returned. The remaining misc grounds attach at the fender inner aspect (hidden beneath PS reservoir). Don't recall any leads that are not accessible with the engine installed? Hope to not challenge that theory... Stripped the ECM connections thru the firewall. The engine electrical connections are unmolested. Only transmission and those necessary for engine removal are disconnected.
Installing new 10 mm hoses with quality hoses.
Flushed the trans cooler...found it clean.
Only untoward issue now is drilling out the AC compressor high-side adaptor bolts and locating replacements for the new compressor.. Probably m6x1 Allen head will work?
Plan to reinstall the engine Sunday.
Bought Royal Purple 75-90 for the TC case. Hope that proves satisfactory?
What's the life expectancy of the cat converters? Surprised to see them appear to be clean and intact. Gotta give it to Toyota when they created Lexus. Excellent piece of engineering and transportation. When servicing or repairing I've always used Toyota genuine replacement parts or their vendor such as Denso. We bought the RX new and it's been excellent. My only concern is their transmissions. Never much cared for the mushy 1st-2nd up or down shift. We'll see how the Farrier unit shifts?
Apologies for the epistle!
Cheers

LeX2K

I've used this found it poor the fluid turned dark much faster than I was expecting.