2000 Tacoma 3.4 Timing Belt - It's a Celebration Batches ;)

Greetings everyone, hope everyone has been celebrating our Independence of those Brits, you know, so we can buy Japanese elite cars.

Been gearing up the last couple of months to change all this business, I'm about halfway through...quick shoutout to https://adventuretaco.com/ for making this straight forward so far, just wanted to share a couple of pics.

Looking back on my records, I bought this truck 9 years ago with 200k, she now has 270k...I did a thorough visual inspection of the timing belt when I bought her and it looked good...just wanted to share a couple of pics currently and look for some moral support.

I feel so good that since I've opened her up, what the belt is looking like...I've done a good amount of research, but for anyone that's done this lately on the 3.4, just little tidbits please chime in...here is where I'm at currently...

 

Looking good so far; belt definitely looks like it's ready for a swap out. Shout if you have any questions!

 

Looks good and agree the belt looks due for changing.

Whats your plan for loosening the crank bolt and removing the harmonic balancer?

Using a long 2x4 with some holes drilled in it works great for being able to loosen and tighten the crank pulley bolt with a breaker bar/torque wrench.

 

The Schley SST turbodb has on his guide works great too. Just be ready to have to put your full strength into breaking the crank bolt loose, it's torqued to 217 lb-ft. I wound up needing a cheater bar on top of my 24" breaker to put enough torque on it.

If the cam and crank seals haven't been done, this is an excellent chance to do them - even if they're not leaking, they're probably as old as the truck, and I don't know that I'd count on 25 year old seals staying good for too much longer.

I'd also give the AC idler/tensioner pulley a spin & see if it feels rough/shakes around, it's a $20 part while you're in there.

Good luck, and looks good so far!

 

Thanks for tip, I ended up using this and it came right off...I will say this, initially I didn't have the M8-1.25x100mm bolts to use the tool I had, so I had to speed up to the hardware store at like 8PM last night on the bike and thankfully I was able to secure a couple.

 

Hey Spencer, I'll be completely honest, I was quite nervous breaking that badboy loose...I had actually bought a huge breaker bar and new 1/2" torque wrench (split beam) since I didn't have anything that went over 150 ft/lbs....needless to say, at one point I felt like I was stripping it out (I was using a 12 point socket), so I checked, got a 6 point socket and it broke loose, but gd that was nerve wracking. I definitely am doing all the seals, got those done last night...went nice and easy using the tools shown (see attached pics). I think I had messaged you sometime in the last couple weeks, and I did order the AC idler tensioner pulley, and although mine is spinning fine, I'll obviously replace it since I have it.

In all reality, one of the hardest parts has been getting the timing belt tensioner off, what a pita getting to that back bolt...I know it's gonna be a huge pain to get that bolt started. Anyway, I stopped last night just short of pulling off the water pump as I was spent, about to hit it again.

 

Looks like you were on borrowed time & was about to give-up the ghost on that sucker....

 

Slow and Steady
U got this!!!!!

 

To slater’s comment…..
Heard this on Indy car broadcast today….it applies!

“belt looked like grandmother’s quilt”

 

You did, I just missed your name when I was reading through the thread. Looks like you're doing good work. Keep it up!

 

Dood, you can't imagine how many times I've taken that belt on and off, rotated those cams and crankshaft, watched videos, read threads yadda yadda over the last 24 hours to try and get these marks (static on the actual cam gears and crank sprocket not the belt marks) to actually line up...I finally gave up last night and walked away from it, I think I actually had trouble sleeping last night mulling over all the details and a little stressed/frustrated. Thankfully I had taken today off, which is really rare and had another fresh day to work.

I'm not counting any chickens before this thing is back together, running, and no issues for a couple weeks, but I think I finally got her lined up properly...I've took it through 4 full crank revolutions, and everything is still looking good...I'll be honest, I'll probably do that full cycle again...the fix you ask as of now? I had to set the TDC crank sprocket one mark short to get the original TDC crank mark on the belt to line up with that secondary mark on the anterior/front of the crank sprocket and somehow after 2 full crank revolutions, all 3 marks (both cams and crank) were TDC...I then ran the crank another 2 full revs and it was good.

One big thing that I did that really seemed to help without the timing belt slacking around during testing (as I have the timing belt tensioner backed off), was to jam a plastic tool on the back side of said tensioner (where it doesn't interfere with the rolling mechanism) to keep some tension on the belt...this seems to make the revolutions smoother and simulate what it would be like before I tighten up the timing belt tensioner and pull the pin, cause gd, I did not want to fool around with guiding that bolt on that backside again (left a/c compressor etc. on)...the saving grace on that ftr, was taking a weak telescoping magnet to hold that bolt in place while I got it started by hand.

Whew, let's keep fingers crossed.

 

i had to do the exact same thing on my Subaru 2.5L
(setting 1 tooth/mark short....pulling tensioner pin...then rotating motor 2 revolutions.....then all T marks lined up)
think you figured the same trick out

hopefully gives you confidence!!!!

BTW my Subie has (IIRC) 12 freakin T marks (DOHC's)