voloc22666

Started the timing belt change process, i probably should've leave it as is, as i expect to get a few years out of the car at most. Anyways, the radiator does not leak yet, but have that bad corrosion going on one side, needs to be replaced..
got almost all parts off, dont think belt is original, some numbers on it, made in italy, fine cracks outside..
questions
How do you take off that upper bolt on ac compressor? I tried everything possible in this tight space. Also people say there are three bolts and a nut? I found one at the front, bolt and the nut at the bottom and one at 3 o'clock looking at the engine, that i cant get to budge.
the whole thing used to leak oil badly, tried to tighten valve cover screws, they are not even finger tight, same problem i had on my highlander a while ago. So should i dig deeper, remove covers and replace gaskets or just tighten them up and dont bother??
now interesting question - i took of the radiator and noticed there are two pipes coming out of the engine just below the steering pump. These two pipes are connected with rubber hose. Almost looks like there was some sort of cooler attached and then removed and the pipes were just "shortened"?? What is it?

voloc22666

And as i found out these hoses are for transmission cooling, that were disconnected for whatever reason

oneround

I haven't done a timing belt on a 4.3l engine, but did one on a 4.7l and there are a lot of similarities. If I'm thinking of the same bolt, I found removing the oil filter was a help at getting a straighter shot so I could apply more removal torque. I watched a video that was the most helpful on that engine - around 20:30 in the video has some discussion on the AC compressor.
hope that helps.

I found the same loose bolts on the valve covers. You can try tightening them, but it won't be a long-term fix (if it works). The bolts got loose because the gaskets shrunk and hardened. If you go to replace them, I think you'll find the spark plug tube gaskets are hard as a rock too. Personally, if you are this far into the engine, I'd go for replacing the valve cover gaskets.

doobs

You don't mention the age/mileage of your car, but your first sentence is your key.

How much is the car worth to you? It clearly sounds like the car has significant needs resulting from neglect. These are complex cars, things aren't going to magically get better without some sort of interaction from you. How much time/energy/money are you willing to expend?

Perhaps you should button everything up. document what you know, and sell it to someone more interested. There are multiple threads here of folks rescuing derelict sc430's.

Good luck,

voloc22666

Yeah, and one of these resurrection threads are mine
I got 2003 with 244K for 2500. So far i am into it for about 500, that includes timing belt kit and leather seats replacement covers coming in. So for an extra grand i can have more or less a car that will probably last for a while..anything more then that wont be worth it since exterior has some clear coat peeling and other ugly things..

I didnt get to the bolt behind the oil filter yet, the one i was asking about is the other top one, hard to get to with anything since there is an air cond line right there..

voloc22666

Took the right cover off - gaskets are gone, so will be doing that as well

Bgw70

are you planning to reconnect the lines to the transmission cooler in the radiator?

here is a thread when I did my 2002 timing belt…it includes some pics, hope they help.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc4...bws-sc430.html

voloc22666

yup i saw that post as well, will look at another one with the notes on TB change. I do my homework before i start to annoy people with questions
Anyways, that bolt in the picture on the AC - thats the one i cant remove and another one did not budge either. So i broke a part of the fan pulley bracket and took it off finally..i will have a new one installed anyways.
BTW plugs were changed on mine to bosch +4, and most of them were there hand tight if that..
Also what i noticed - the marks on my belt are strange, one is above the groove and another is above the tooth, didnt check the new mitsuboshi belt yet, but i thought they all would be over the tooths', cause the marks on left and right are right across the grooves, if that makes sense.

reconnecting cooler lines - sure, i have new radiator coming in as well, old one was about to go bad, and probably cracked in the cooler somewhere..while doing that, maybe i will change the tranny oil as well, mine is pretty much black..or take it to the shop to drop the pan and change the filter as well

Bgw70

What AC bolt?
i circled the ones I could find

lexixel

Trans lines were disconnected presumably because the radiator was leaking coolant into them.

Still, for the amount that you paid, if the car checks out it can be a good candidate for long-term ownership. Perhaps some repaint and customization can be done, since the vehicle has little value staying full stock anyway.

Bgw70

A couple of pics from the manual…

voloc22666

i did one circled in red, rest didnt budge, so i left blue one alone and the green one - just broke the pulley bracket off of it. anyways timing belt is on, all checks out ok, waiting for the parts to come in to put it back together. after that i will have to redo the seats and figure out the navigation not working, not that i need it, but the door does not close on it either

oneround

Just in case you haven't come across it yet... Somewhat bizarrely, the radio (or at least it's 60 to 68 -Ohm resistance) has to be in the circuit for the nav door to operate.
If you need that info, a fellow forum member (khuong) pointed out the way in one of my threads (Audio System Makeover) for changing OEM radio to an Android head unit while keeping the nav door working.

voloc22666

Thats useful, did not get to that point of looking at the schematics, and will probably open up a new thread later, i just fixed inside illumination by changind drivers ecu, radio and its door works, the only thing navi does is tilt and displaying the logo for less than a second. So it is alive, just missing something. I already borrowed all the components, presumabely working and tried to replace navi unit, dvd and ac control, same result. Maybe radio, but it works fine.
will have to look into that thread

voloc22666

So i ended up changing most on the engine front end, all the pulleys (still waiting for a few to come in). I changed the bearing on one for 6203-2RSC3, another bearing price was comparable to the NSK 70SPPV0408DDUL idler pulley, will have to see if it fits right, definitely looks right. Fan motors cleaned up at least the back side and greased, there was a lot of dust from brushes, but they were still there, so will live with that for now. New radiator as well. Didnt have to undo the last bolt on the ac compressor, pulley goes in and out just fine at the right angle.
Also changed the valve gaskets, for that i had to remove most of the wiring at the front and lift it up, no way to get the covers off without it, as well as undo the bolt for the oil dipstick tube almost all the way out. I was wondering how i should've inserted gaskets for the plug tubes, i bent the tabs out, inserted the gasket and bent them back, i dont see any other way of them going in. Gasket kit came with a ton of other weird gaskets and metal washers, have no idea what they are, some probably were for VVT sensors, i dindt pull those out. About half of the plugs broke the tabs off, so no locking action anymore, plastic is really brittle at this point, so i just put a dab of silicone on them when plugged them back in..i know..should've used a zip tie. one place i saw an actual wire insulation cracked, but the wire was ok. So monday we will see if it works. Happy holidays everyone