deanbrown

I've search a while now and keep coming up with pics that look totally different from my crank pully timing marks. Here is one:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...95-96-a-3.html


and here is another, for the 98:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/landar/...7622886015670/

Can someone tell me what the CR timing mark is here on my 96?

Thanks

deanshark

That's a bit different then my 93 but the mark on your crankshaft pulley is probably covered with grease and dirt. It's the same as the first link you posted. Yours is set at 50* after TDC, right? The mark, which is a little notch, (indentation) should be right at the 7 'o clock position. Yours wont have the white mark b/c of the dirt but when you find the mark, put a chalk mark on it. Look at the pic in the first thread. See where the mark is? Count the teeth (2 1/2) backwards from the threaded hole at the bottom of your pulley. Clean it and you should see it.
If the pulley was set at TDC the mark would be at the 6 'o clock position, but seeing how yours is 50* after TDC then it's at 7 'o clock.

deanbrown

Got it, thanks a lot. I can see it clear as day now, with the light in the right place. It is, as you say, 2-1/2 teeth clockwise from the bottom threaded hole, when the key is to right on the pic. It's a small dimple. I note that the service manual I own shows it completely incorrectly as a large hole that looks just like one of the three (2 threaded, 1 smooth) holes.

Cheers,

Dean

deanshark

Yeah, the 2 threaded holes are for the pulley puller for when you replace the crank seal, you're changing it right? Idk what the other hole is for. Just an idea for you, and whoever else. When I put all the timing covers back on mine, some of the gaskets didn't sit tight so I put gasket sealer around them so no more dirt and oil would get in there, so if I had another oil leak it wouldn't end up looking like your engine. Try and clean that as best you can so in the future if you have a leak you can find it easier.

deanbrown

I was not planning to change the crank seal - I thought my kits came with the cam seals only. I am just trying to figure out how to take the cam pulleys off - the belt is on still so I can rotate away. I tried putting a socket on a bolt between the spokes of the LHS cam wheel, and undoing the center bolt, but it's just pushing off the socket. There is a special tool but I don't have it.

deanbrown

Never mind I do have the crank seal. Does it look bad and is it simple to you? What about the cam seals, leave or replace?

Let me start a new thread on this cam pulley removal.

tenchu

I didn't do my cam seals on my 90, but I would HIGH recommend doing your crank seal, it takes like 30 seconds when you're down there already. I made the mistake of skipping it and putting everything back together, only for a leak to suddenly start at the crank seal. Had to take everything all apart again, lots of regrets!

deanbrown

Do you need to drain the engine oil for that? (Just put in Mobil 1 100 miles ago!)

emarknot

db...i noticed from your other thread you changed your water pump and you have green coolant... my question os....sorry, it just stares at me......but what is the reddish colored whatever on the bottom of the water pump. you can clearly see it in the 3rd picture, just above the crankshaft.

its propably absolutely nothing, it just catches my attention everytime I look at that pic.

deanbrown

Me? I never changed the water pump. No green coolant in mine. On that pic upstairs, that is red toy coolant.

emarknot

oops....sorry. when I first saw that, I thought it looked like coolant. so I went back to your other post...or so I thought....and I must have somehow hit the OTHER t-belt thread.

I think my tablet is being goofy....its not cooperating with my fingers today very well.

sorry.

deanshark

Definately do the cam and crank seals. I didn't do mine and 14K miles later (in 20* weather) I needed to do another T-belt job b/c they leaked and got on the belt. You need a pulley puller for the crankshaft gear. Same puller as you used for the crank pulley but you need different bolts to fit the 2 threaded holes on the gear. The cam pulleys slide right off after you get the bolt out. You can either make some kind of tool using the bolt holes in the gear to hold it from spinning or I used a big screwdriver through the spokes on the gear and held it against the engine (I think) to stop it from spinning. They are tight but they do come off. Idk if I told you, or whoever, but don't jamb it up against the valve covers, they might crack.

deanbrown

Ok thanks Dean, I might give it a shot. Don't want to bend the pulley spokes though, as someone mentioned they did. But the spokes with the holes in are thicker.

Just curious - how did you know it leaked onto the TB? (At least on my engine, there is a plastic cover over the bottom half of the cam seal preventing it from leaking onto the belt.) Do you check if often?

deanshark

My first T-belt change was Nov.2009 (I think) just after I bought it. This past Dec. (14K miles) it jumped time, thank god it's a non-interference engine but that's why I bought it. When I took out the T-belt it had oil on it. Not completely sure that's why it jumped time, either that or the tensionor was bad. The left cam and the crank seals were both leaking.