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eclane was correct on the bracket position. And actually it belonged on the nut at the tip of his left arrow. Once the bracket was off and with a bit of feeling around I came upon two black wires with white stripes (ground?) sharing a common eyelet. I mounted that to where the bracket was matching one of my before photos. Put everything back together it started and ran without errors. I let the engine come up to temps so I was seeing closed loop operations and saw the bank 1 O2 sensors doing their thing. It will be a bit before I can drive it, but it seems reasonable that this was my issue.
eclane was correct on the bracket position. And actually it belonged on the nut at the tip of his left arrow. Once the bracket was off and with a bit of feeling around I came upon two black wires with white stripes (ground?) sharing a common eyelet. I mounted that to where the bracket was matching one of my before photos. Put everything back together it started and ran without errors. I let the engine come up to temps so I was seeing closed loop operations and saw the bank 1 O2 sensors doing their thing. It will be a bit before I can drive it, but it seems reasonable that this was my issue.
Sounds like you found your problem. Those black wires are indeed the other ground connections.
Lexus has retained the bottom of the valve for further study but returned bits of the stem and guide today. I do not know what to make of it. The stem is in order top to bottom and clearly bent in that it no longer moves through the guide. There was no obvious impact with the piston and Lexus nor the machinist suggested otherwise. The lowest bit of the stem is covered in carbon soot and the fracture line between it and the next piece up seems to be on that line. It is also sheared along the stem there not just across. FWIW
I guess these things do a freaking ton of work, but what a PIA when they go wrong......
BTW I've learned to love Scotch-Brite pads for cleaning everything from battery posts to aluminum surfaces I use maroon on heads and blocks. Here's a list of the pads and equivalent grit
7445 - White (1000)
7448 - Light Grey 600-800)
6448 - Green (600)
7447 - Maroon (320-400)
6444 - Brown (280-320)
7446 - Dark Grey (180-220)
7440 - Tan (120-150)
I used these recently on my resealing of upper and lower oil pan project. They worked brillianlty
Years ago I found out my Corian countertops were Maroon. That saved me a fortune...
BTW, 5,000 miles on and the Lexus is running really, really well. I can't thank you guys enough for all of the help and support through that mess.
This is amazing, you really inspired me to push my mechanical skills forwards with bigger projects. Hopefully next summer I have time and resources to pull the engine and trans to do an engine bay restoration and reseal both the engine and transmission.
Thinking about doing both head gaskets, and the rear main/trans input seals.
