99rs

M98 = Torsen LSD goodness


I wanted to see something cool inside but nothing really is there


This is the CV axle protector I swung out of the way. You only really have to undo one bolt and loosen the other


Nice and tight fit




And gauge cluster just because

dae3xt

man, that is a lot of work. And you definitely know what you are doing... I hope you still have the car.. Our sportcross became an Unintentional Exotic due to the low number of these cars sold..

99rs

The previous owner paid a sack load of money to get the timing belt and water pump replaced at 90k kilometers. He took it to a shop in Calgary that he’s been going to for years. The pump started to leak and got progressively worse which prompted me to redo the whole timing belt service. Since the shop messed up the water pump I figured they probably screwed something else up as well……I was unfortunately right.

Start with placing a large order to your favorite online parts place







New water pump goodness with all seals


New tensioner since I had a squeaker



Here is how it sat before any work began


The leaking water pump.





Jack it up and start taking parts off the car

99rs

Remove airbox


Remove radiator




Remove accessory belt





I bought the tool to hold the crank pulley in place. Worked like a treat with 2 breaker bars.




I had to put an extension on the one holding the pulley as my breaker bar was too short to reach the ground


Here is a picture from just in front of the passenger side wheel


Here is a picture of me taking that picture

99rs

Popped off with no fuss


I dosed it in this Rust Check stuff but not sure if it actually did anything other than frost the bolt over a little bit


New tensioner. It looks as if there was too much tension since the belt wore down the pulley. That or the previous owner idled the car a lot. It was from Vancouver so lots of traffic is a possibility.




Slide the crank pulley off using a tool or gripping really hard


Make sure the first timing mark is still correct


Once I pulled the pulley off I was shocked at what I saw. I’ve seen hack jobs before but dammit this one pissed me off. The previous Calgary shop forgot to put the timing belt guide washer on. So they decided to cut apart the timing cover to slide it on instead of taking everything apart to do it correctly. Here is what it looked like






After you pull the cover off here is what you should see. Notice the leaking water pump which was leaking inside of the timing belt housing as well

99rs

Remove the water bypass tube/extension


Remove the pump itself. The frost plug I’ll be installing the block heater into is behind the bypass pipe. More on that later


Le pump


That’s basically it for a timing belt job if you want to stop there. I also wanted to check on the spark plugs so begin with the top side of the engine. Remove throttle cable




Take off the y-pipe bolts and the whole thing comes off as a unit




Little bit of oil in the intake chamber but not too much to worry about



Intake butterfly valve which apparently helps with low end torque


You should be left with this

99rs

Take off the spark plug wires. Notice how much crap accumulates in the holes. Clean it out as best you can











Only after you’ve cleaned the spark plug crevices out is when you take the valve covers off. Don’t want any sand getting into the cam shaft areas

Exhaust cover off

99rs

Both covers off


You can then proceed again with getting the cam gears off. You hold the camshaft with a 32 mm wrench


Here I’m “pumping” the oil out of the valve



And again curse the previous shop. It seems like they were using SAE tools on the metric hardware. I bought a new bolt to replace this one


Pull off the outer cap of the vvti gear


Then pull off the vvti gear and take the backing plate off. For reference notice where the “disconnected” vacuum hose connections go….basically nowhere. They just connect to each other.


Pull the cam shaft retainers off. On the vvti side there are some Allen bolts you have to take out




The cam seals just pop out nice and easy

99rs

Here is the vvti oil control valve housing


With the ports


Here is the vvti gear itself. Mine wasn’t leaking but I’ll rebuild it anyway


Mark the locations for reference


Mine in particular was clocked all the way to the right


I had to separate mine with a socket as it was together pretty good


The culprit o-ring


The other side

99rs

The driver gear


All 4 together


One of them had some gouges on it. Not sure how they got there




There is really only 1 way it can go back together. Some people say you can install it backwards but I didn’t see how


Here is the motion of the gear itself. The oil pressure “pushes” the driver gear out which rotates the outer driven gear to a different position


The replacement o-ring and its seat


Put everything back together and torque it down. I used 10 ft-lb.


Scrape the old valve cover gasket off

99rs

Realise why you had a ***** of a time removing the valve covers. Manual says to remove the torx studs. I didn’t have the E5 bit so I just double nutted




Put the cam shaft retainers back on. I use The Right Stuff. It’s never done me wrong but use whatever you feel comfortable with




Connect the oil feed to the vvti oil control valve. Use new gaskets


My filter had a few bits in it


Then replace the cam and crank seals. I used the pipe adapter shown to push them in. Conveniently the small side was perfect for the cams and the larger side was perfect for the crank

99rs

Decide to take a break and clean the radiator off to let it dry. It was filthy




Break out the new water pump now. I honestly wasn’t too impressed with the casting as there were many rough edges but it was acceptably smooth where it counts







Looks like FedEx used the water pump as a soccer ball


Comes with all of the necessary o-rings/gaskets except for the water bypass tube. Luckily the dealer sent me extras

99rs

My water pump bolts needed to be cleaned off as they were covered in crap




Put new pump on




Put new thermostat in. Mine looked like it was used already. Came out of a sealed package so not sure why


Install the bypass tube (more on block heater later)


Put the bypass tube on

99rs

Connect the alternator


I sprayed all of my connections with this cleaner. It’s not overly necessary if the rubbers on the inside of the plug were in good condition


Put the crank sprocket back on and don’t forget this little retainer


New idler pulley






Obtain a new bolt, clean the exhaust pulley off and re-install. I did the same method of holding the camshaft with a 32 mm wrench and tightening to proper torque

99rs

Install the vvti pulley


It should move freely back and forth like before


Overall


Install new tensioner


Take time to clean off all of the build up inside the pulley grooves


Bust out the shiny new timing belt


Re-draw your markings on it but not necessary. This is a very easy engine to align properly


Obtain new timing cover from friend's blown Supra engine