Timing belt and water pump?

anyone ever changed their water pump and timing belt on their 3.4? if so, what are some tips/word of advice that you would give me? I'm thinking about doing it soon.

 

Forgot his handle, but a TW member has tutorial youtube video that you may find helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xv11NRc5Xg

 

Youtube Chrisfix. Tons of tutorials everything tacoma related

 

Yep lots of info here in the forums. Just do your homework. Get the oem kit from aircabinman on eBay. He sells a couple different kits iirc depending on what parts you want. Only issue I had when I did mine, is I had a helluva time getting the crank bolt to pop loose, as well as the crank pulley coming off. And I installed the jiggle valve on thermostat at the wrong position. Also much easier to take the radiator out. Its possible without removing I think, but not that much more work and makes it a lot easier to work in there. The a.c. bracket needs to be unbolted but not removed, just "juggled" around to get to the bolts for the timing belt tensioner.

 

I ran into some stuck bolts along the way, but otherwise found it pretty straightforward. Get in there!

 

Love ChrisFix. Learned almost everything car-repair related that I know from him.
He has a lot of videos on his Mazda B3000 truck that is pretty similar to Tacomas.

 

Pull the radiator. It's a couple extra minutes work (IIRC four bolts accessed through the grill to pull it) and buys you a whole lot more room and you won't have to worry about whacking the radiator fins with an errant wrench. See pics with radiator in place and then removed. Nice to be able to work in there without worrying about damage to radiator.

I used a Schley 64400 Harmonic Damper Pulley Hold Tool and a three foot "cheater" steel pipe on top of my 1/2" socket and breaker bar to break that crank bolt loose. There's other ways to break loose the crank bolt as you will see on Google and YouTube. I'm in my late 50's and sometimes it's just easier to use the right tools. It takes a lot of muscle to break the crank bolt and to hold it solid while you properly torque that bolt back on. The Schley tool was a nice and secure way of doing it.

Buy a new crankshaft bolt from your local Toyota Dealer. They don't recommend reusing the bolt IIRC, and it does need to be torqued to spec so you will need to have or rent a heavy duty torque wrench to get it there.

As NightProwler suggets, AirCabinMan on EBay was the best price I found on a whole kit for timing belt, water pump, et al. I bought from him and they were all new original Toyota Parts, so I can echo that recommendation. See parts picture (that's my "cheater" bar on top of the parts pile).

 

I am coming around to think that it's just as well just wait for the belt to fail; no interference, no harm. I have seen guys go 300K on original belt, have also seen them fail at 100K. Any downside to this?

My 98 taco has 250K, 150k since belt last changed. Mikey

 

You'll have to tow the truck home and you won't know when it's coming to adjust your schedule around the down time and financial hit.

 

Ha! Yeah, I've always figured if you tempt fate on car maintenance, it will get you at the least desirable time/place. In my state that's the uphill grade on I-90 Vantage Hill, in August at high noon!

 

Bought from Aircabinman too. I filled in some missing parts with Toyota Dallas. My dealer here had a timing belt package for 4, 6, and 8 cyl engines. Mine was 800 and included some parts. I asked for a labor only price and provided my parts, but they added a few hours of labor back in because they didn't do idler pulleys, or tensioners or cam seals, or main seal. I was out 1000 for the whole shabang. Dropped it off at 8am picked it up at 3pm. I had to fix the jiggle valve in the thermostat. I noticed it was running 10-15 degrees hotter on my scangauge (200-203). I popped open the housing and boom they put it at 12 O'clock. So she got flipped and now I run 191 all day long.

Still the best 1k I've spent. I got 12 years and 170K miles on the original belts and seals,

 

the jiggle valve on the Tstat for 3.4 goes on the bottom, not the top.

 

Yeah, I'm surprised the dealer put mine at 12 o'clock. The FSM even says 6 o'clock. The guy in the video above got it wrong too. (If that's what you were referring to.)

 

yes and no... the jiggle valve clocking has started more debates that Hillary and Trump.

 

Lol, I've read a good many. In my experience 6 oclock gets me cooler temps according to my SG. A preferred outcome for me.

 

THANK YOU! I've been looking for a good kit and this one fits the bill.