MTX: 3.4L V6 Timing Belt/Water Pump/Compression Check/Valve Cover Gaskets

I am continuing with some progressive MTX on my '97 V6 Taco 4x4 before the deep south summer heat/humidity fully sets in here in MS. Just inspected the replacement OEM Toyota timing belt and it is already starting to fray at only 70K miles (below). Not surprising due to all the deep mud/high water/extreme dust I wheel around in. Will do a compression test before I tear it all down and measure the valve lash. But first, it's time to get all the parts needed lined up. AirCabinMan has a comprehensive OEM timing belt/water pump kit with the crankshaft bolt, so I am covered on that: 16 Piece 3.4L TIMING BELT KIT WATER PUMP Genuine & OEM Parts with CRANKBOLT | eBay. The best priced OEM valve cover tuneup/valve cover reseal kit I could find online is at royalsouthtoyota: Toyota 95-02 3.4L V6 5VZFE Tune Up Valve Cover Re-Seal Kit Genuine OEM OE | eBay. Other parts I need not contained in that kit are the (4) semicircular half-moon plugs: 11183-62010 x 4 & a Throttle Body gasket: 22271-62040. If anyone has found a better deal on an OEM valve cover gasket kit, I would appreciate a heads-up on where. TIA!

EDIT: Yotashop has a good price on a combination kit, but some parts to include the timing belt are AISIN. No matter, this AISIN kit is a high-quality kit at an attractive price: Timing kit- Toyota 4Runner, Tacoma, Tundra & T100 V6 3.4L 5VZ OEM Timing belt Master Kit (1995-2004) Kit-1116 (yotashop.com).
The OEM timing belt is made by Mitsuboshi: Timing Belt - Toyota 4Runner, T100, Tacoma, Tundra V6 3.4L 5VZ (1995-2004) Timing Belt TB-271M (yotashop.com).

EDIT 2: toyotaparts.mcgeorgetoyota.com has better prices on all the individual OEM parts needed than the price of the TUNE UP VALVE COVER RE-SEAL kit offered by royalsouthtoyota. Shipping used to be free with McGeorge over $75 with FREESHIP in the code box. Unfortunately, that code no longer works. But even with shipping, McGeorge is cheaper than the royalsouthtoyota kit.

Routine off-roading in extremely harsh conditions has started to fray this OEM Toyota belt in only 70K miles:


OEM timing belt cog/tooth condition is still serviceable. But with the fraying on the timing belt shown above, best to put a new OEM belt on now.

 

16 Piece 3.4L TIMING BELT KIT WATER PUMP Genuine & OEM Parts with CRANKBOLT from aircabinman ordered on Monday and arrived on Wednesday. I sure wish he offered an OEM Tune Up Valve Cover Re-Seal Kit. Will order those parts, a pair of UBJs, and whatever else is needed from McGeorge once I get everything disassembled/cleaned/inspected. My Taco hunting truck/mud machine is notorious for causing loud burst of frustration due to seized parts. But it is very important to use only the amount of profanity needed to break the part loose. Go overboard and the b----- will really stick it to me. I just finished cutting a seized bottom bolt on the radiator to get it out which is about Par for the course.

EDIT: Compression check done with all 6 cylinders between 190-195. OEM Denso spark plugs were worn out, showing erosion of the electrode. Properly gapped new Denso plugs alone should allow the engine to start more easily. But I will also put on a new set of ignition wires, either OEM or Denso.

 

@leid , you are impressively thorough.

Did you forget camshaft plugs (2) 2 11188-62010 as part of the job, or you felt they are just not needed?

 

I was surprised to find that both the (4) half-moon plugs & the throttle body gasket are not contained in most of the online OEM Tune Up Valve Cover Re-Seal Kit kits. I think the reason for this is that the original plugs can be cleaned/resealed with FIPG. Most, including myself, feel it would be foolish not to at least take the original half-moon plugs out and reseal them with FIPG. The full set of (4) half-moon plugs from McGeorge is around $33 and the throttle body gasket is another $6. And the time/money it would cost to have to go back in to change them is a good motivator to do it right the first time. Another part that I found I may need is the Camshaft Position Sensor 19300-62010 after a P0340 error code was discovered. The wiring on the original sensor looks OK, but I am probably going to change it out just to check that box.

 

the half moons are re-usable because they are a metal part, so they can be cleaned off and then fipg re-applied.

I think my point to you is ensure you have 2 cam plugs for the job because they seem to be like rubbery to me on first look and not re-usable unless I’m mistaken.

https://toyotaparts.mcgeorgetoyota.com/oem-parts/toyota-engine-camshaft-seal-1118862010

it almost seems useless to me to re-buy half moons unless they were damaged because you have to apply FIPG on new ones, you might as well apply on old after cleaning up.

 

Oh yes, the (2) cam plugs will get changed out & resealed with FIPG according to the FSM. Was pricing all the OEM parts I need at partsouq, but their server went down. Will try again later.

 

You’re saying a middle eastern company is cheaper than anything domestic for OEM Toyota parts? This is a strange scenario lol

 

I have never used partsouq before. Some people have been using partouq for genuine OEM Toyota parts even over McGeorge, so I gave it a look-see. Partsouq is markedly cheaper on some parts I need & about the same price on others. Shipping my parts does not look to be that much different than from McGeorge, but partsouq does not have all the parts I need in stock right now. And they are closed from June 27 thru July 2.

 

Damn! It appears that I will have to play with some of the exhaust valve shims. Intakes are all a thing of beauty & so are all the exhausts on the driver's side head. But several exhausts all on the pax side head need to be adjusted which makes me wonder if that head was set up correctly to begin with. The very good news is that the valve train looks great indicating that the Mobil 1 5W-30 is doing its job. I was hoping not to have to chase down a Toyota valve adjustment tool (yet another SST for the collection!) that works well and the correct valve shims. Looks like YotaShop has shims but no tool in stock: Valve Adjusting Tools for Toyota/Lexus - SHIMTOOL (yotashop.com). Useful input on this especially from actual end-users is very welcome.

Lash numbers represent 0.001"s: (3) exhausts on Bank 1 (pax. side head) are fat of MAX spec of 0.014" by 0.001-0.002". While everything is apart, I would like to get them closer to target exhaust lash of 0.013" which should give me a bit more power. Luckily, I have the time to do it right. My 2020 TRD is my DD. But done over again, I would have bought a 2nd 1st Gen V6 Taco for a DD. In a heartbeat!


Valve train condition looks excellent for a 26 year old "antique" '97 V6 Taco:

 

this guy has a nice in-depth video on the 5vz-fe valve adjustment with special tool if you want to have a peak

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=08ia1PIgFz8

 

The hard part may be simply finding the Schley 88250 valve tool or a similar tool for this job. I don't see any for sale right now. It appears that Snap-On offers a similar Blue-Point YA8825 valve tool so am looking into it. The pricey OEM Toyota SST (09248-55040) is made by OTC-Bosch. Any leads on a Schley 88250 or similar quality tool would be appreciated.

 

gonna keep my eye on this thread, as this is all coming up on my taco.

 

I sure hope you can do the work yourself or have a good Toyota mechanic willing to do all the work for a decent price with your OEM parts. The cost of getting this work done at a dealership would hurt financially. Further, I have had some very poor work done by Toyota dealerships, and I do mean piss poor. That is one of the main reasons that I try to do most if not all of the work myself.

 

never done a double overhead cam engine before.

done a bunch of regular single cam timing chain motors (v6, v8). but the main thing was my really good mechanic who has done this before told me that he's booked solid for the next 2 months with scheduled work on top of the drive in jobs that show up. he also told me that it would be right at $1k out the door with the complete kit & all new belts & plugs. (he wont do it if you dont do everything at the same time)

the price really didnt seem bad for all the stuff happening there.... but ive got time to do it if properly motivated.

edit note: from pricing in your post? it seems hes actually only charging me about $300 for the labor. uh maybe its not worth me doing myself?

 

Sure! If your really good mechanic can change the timing belt/water pump/valve cover gaskets with OEM parts for 1K out the door, you are all set. Just work with his schedule and let him do the work. IMO, your mechanic saying that "he won't do it if you don't do everything at the same time" is a very good indicator of quality workmanship.

Happy 4th of July to all, especially our veterans!

 

thank you very much~! appreciate the input.

hes an excellent ASCE master mechanic in our BFE area & everybody takes the stuff they dont want to do to him. hes just always covered up.

Your pricing really made me look at this again though. wife agrees, its not worth the time it would take me to do it vs him & the warranty on his work for that price.

thanks again!

 

No luck on finding a quality valve tool so I just pulled the exhaust cam, which offers unrestricted access to the buckets and shims I need to adjust (below). Just follow the FSM instructions on how to do it. It literally took longer to find & read the directions than to actually pull the exhaust "bump stick". Easy-peasy!

EDIT: All (6) exhaust shims pulled and measured. After mixing and matching shims for what I need, I am still short (3) 0.117" shims. OEM shims only come is 0.116" and 0.118". The 0.118" would require grinding to yield the exact target valve lash of 0.013". So I have (3) 0.116" shims (13753-74190) coming from McGeorge which should yield a valve lash of 0.014" which will work just fine. Just waiting on all the parts to arrive now. Time for an adult beverage or 2. Happy 4th!

 

@leid , you are sure are lucky the intake lashes are not off. I believe that camshaft doesn't come off without pulling the cylinder head off.

This shim over bucket design in order to regulate valve lash is honestly kind of madness. I know it's popular too on motorcycles, not like Toyota invented it for the 5VZ-FE.

on Honda v6 engines, there is literally just an adjustment screw from youtube video's I've seen (Not that I've done it myself, I'm not so advanced of a DIY guy as you are =)

so some confusion I have. Isn’t the valve lash measurement between the cam lobe and the top of the shim? So when you replaced the shim, to re-check it did you just do a temporary fit of the exhaust camshaft or you did a full bolt back on with the cam caps and everything, then re-check the shim level to ensure it’s correct?

 

Just the pax side bank of exhaust valves being out-of-spec was very lucky and easiest to access, but I still find it a bit strange. The exhaust valves that are out of spec on lash are all out on the fat side of spec which is atypical. Exhaust valves normally grow/stretch over time due to heat and cycles, not shrink. I thought maybe they installed the exhaust shims out-of-order when the engine was originally built at the factory. But no matter how I mixed and matched the original shims, I could not get all of the exhaust valves within spec. They will all be in spec when I am done working on them.

Yes, the valve lash is the measurement between the shim contained in the bucket and the actual cam lobe. I already had the actual measured valve lash and the target lash for the exhaust of 0.013", so all I needed was the actual thickness of the original shim to figure out the shim thickness needed to bring lash within spec. Once I have the new shims, they will be installed in the buckets and the cam can be reinstalled. Lash will again be checked on each exhaust valve as the crank is rotated to the proper orientation for that valve. And just FYI, some of the original shims show signs of being ground down to set the original lash. So you can't blindly believe any MM markings on the bottom of the shims. All shims should be measured to verify their actual thickness.

 

Very cool. Did you learn all this stuff just being a DIY'er over the years?