Sewpra

Before I finish putting everything back together today I have two questions.

The first one is hypothetical - Timing belt off, is each rotation of the crank to TDC equal to each other? Because I have rotated it a couple times during adjustment and I want to make sure each revolution is the same position, also I have done some counter clockwise adjusting at some points.. Cams have not moved much off their marks at any point, they've never gone through even a 1/4 rotation yet since belt has come off.

Second question, in the process of lining everything up I tried putting a socket on the LH(Drivers) cam to get the hang of the "tensioning" adjustment step before putting the belt on and oddly it turned counter clockwise and jumped about a quarter revolution, I hand turned the pulley back to the same position, scratched my head, left everything lined up, and came to make this post.

I also want to make a disclaimer, this is my first time ever doing something timing related on an engine so at least it's a non interference! Or I hope.... It's a 91 that's had an engine swap and all I can tell is that it does look to have the earliest EGR vacuum layout by the intake, also I read somewhere that an interference engine couldn't be swapped in without swapping ECU's among many other things anyways.

One more thing, the "compression" "pssshhh" noise, plus resistance on the crank turning was scaring the hell out of me, I'm generally over cautious and was scared something bad was happening, sounds like it's coming from the cylinders so I assume it's normal.

Thanks in advance guys.

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LScowboyLS

the crank goes to TDC on every other revolution - so you need to see if cylinder one holds pressure (because valves closed = compression stroke) to determine if you are at TDC

sometimes the cams have some pent up energy, that is why Lexus recommends doing the timing belt replacement at 50 degrees off TDC, less tension and less likely to move the cams for you when you want them to stay still - just don't forget to put it back at 0 when doing your final alignment checks

cobalt91

Crank goes to TDC on every revolution. Only fires on compression stroke.

LScowboyLS

no, that may or may not be the definition in a scientific sense, but in the automotive world, when you are referring to TDC when reading a service manual or discussing ignition timing or timing belt alignment, TDC is referring to the piston in the #1 cylinder reaching its apex during the compression stroke

Sewpra

Cowboy, I may be dealing with beavis again at the parts desk, when I put the belt on at the crank then installed on cams I noticed the fan bracket mark and lh cam mark were a good couple inches off and much closer to each other in that regard.

When I had asked for the belt they gave me a belt with this PN - 13568-09070 and before giving me that belt they also wrote down this PN as well - 13568-59095. The 09070 one is the one they gave me, I'm sure it must be wrong because when I went to release the tensioner there was still slack. I checked on Sewell and can't seem to find a PN for 91 t belt.

The belt is a Toyota brand belt by the way.

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LScowboyLS

PM me the VIN number of your car

It may be easier to just buy the OEM Mitsuboshi or Bando belt for your year, it will have correct fitment and be a LOT cheaper to go direct!

Sewpra

Odd, I can not even find a PN for the lone belt on Google. All I see are kits, and from what I've read every kit is garbage except for Aisin/Mitsuboshi.

My concern is this, I only want the belt, everything else was changed 20k kms ago.

If I go back to Lexus they'll probably acknowledge their mistake and try to upsell me on the kit at an extra 200$ on top of the 100$ I paid for the belt, I don't want the kit and so much time has been wasted from their incompetence. I'm either going to want a refund or the kit as a complimentary exchange, this is the third time consecutively they've ordered me a wrong part.

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Sewpra

PM'd you.

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LScowboyLS

all LS400 from 1990 -1997 use the same timing belt

Toyota p/n 13568-59045
Mitsuboshi p/n CD190
Bando p/n TB190

take those silly Lexus belts back, look carefully and you will notice they are one of the two Japanese brands I listed!

Sewpra

Thank you, what the hell is this 13568-09070 belt I have? I'm guessing they can't order me the Mitsuboshi instead of the correct Toyota PN you mentioned above, I'm going to have a hard time trusting them to order that correct timing belt this time.

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LScowboyLS

Bando TB190 at amazon

Mitsuboshi CD190 at amazon

by the way, the "190" in those numbers is the length - 190cm

Sewpra

Hey Cowboy, having said that TDC on the compression is on every other revolution of the crank, what method would be best used for determining? The dealer replaced the belt and refunded my money so I'm finishing tomorrow.

I was thinking the best method would be to pull the #1 plug, and use something to measure clearance in the hole at each revolution at the TDC mark, the lesser clearance one will be the correct TDC? Is this a viable method?

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LScowboyLS

the method I use is just to look at the rotor in the driver's side distributor cap!

but kidding aside, that method is not fail safe, people have managed to put their rotors on backwards

the truly correct method is to set the crank at the 0 degrees mark, and the see if cylinder number 1 can be pressurized (like with low pressure air from your compressor and a pressure gauge) - if the piston in #1 were on its exhaust stroke, the exhaust valve would be open and the cylinder would not hold pressure

an even easier way would to just use a compression tester gauge that you can turn off the peak/hold feature, one that just shows the current pressure and that pressure will rise and fall as you turn the crank clockwise only

sayow

When doing my timing belt, I too pulled the #1 plug and placed a long screwdriver to measure clearance. As cowboy stated, TDC is every other rotation.

I am curious now though, what happens (mechanically speaking) if someone happened to rotate counter clockwise and then corrected back clockwise?

FYI Not me I swear thanks to reading here first, but i am curious.

Sewpra

I did it, today I finished the job, some odd notes though.

1: My car won't run unless the drive idler pulley isn't fully torqued to spec, belt will be too tight.

2: After fixing that my car would turn but wouldn't start, opened up drivers side timing cover to check for spark, prior to that pushed down on ignition coil cable on dist cap, spark + smoke from back of engine area and exhaust (what in the hell [edit] I've been told the smoke may of been from coolant fill procedure requiring car on, engine off while I mixed/poured coolant multitasking which spanned about 10-15 minutes and pump running too much fuel or something?) Car shook for a moment due to me not putting the PCV hose on prior to starting, then after a minute she ran perfectly smooth like before, only odd thing is after taking the car for a spin I have an oil leak coming from the passenger side, a very small one, I'm about to find out from where hopefully its not from when I resealed the pump housing because I see it's not the pan.

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