Took about 5 hours but we got the upper intake manifold and stuff off. The hardest part was getting the manifold to come out of the rear bolt.. there's a stud that holds that wire loom on and the vacuum lines are UNDER the manifold so we were yanking for like an hour getting frustrated until we figured it out.

Timing belt was done around 80K and at 130K there's some separation and cracking. New belt from Carson Toyota was about $25 or $30 ish.

This is not a fun job..but still better than paying $1,500 or something for a shop to do it.

I'm not looking forward to tomorrow..ugh

Anyone know if you HAVE to pull the crank pulley ? (answer: to take the head off - NO)

 

if youre replacing the timing belt also ,as it sounds like you are, then yes you do have to pull the crank pulley.

 

Wow, after another 6-7 hours yesterday we got the head off but we're stuck on the crank bolt. Wow,there's two of us with 5ft breaker bar..we tried an acetylene torch and oil to heat up the bolt..tried the starter trick. nothing worked so far.

I need to replace it but can't! LOL. We don't havea chain wrench either.

 

Time to fit the largest 3/4" or 1" impact gun you can find!

 

You remove the bolt like a standanrd counter clockwise motion right?

 

We tried a 1/2 impact..no luck.

 

BTW Here was the leaking head gasket culprit . #6 cylinder (furthest in the back..)

 

Tried the old starter trick? Remove the efi fuse, breaker bar on the ground and crank the engine?

Or is it too late for that.

 

do this. this is how i always remove my crank bolt. mine is a stick shift so its a tad easier to bump.

 

had the same pro with my gs broke many breaker bars.. go to northen tools and they have a huge braker bar and its up to 1000 lbs used it once and it worked returend it after with no pro

 

Finally got it off with a 3/4 drive breaker bar and more heat from the acetylene and a chain wrench. Whew.

NOT looking forward to putting the head bad on..gotta wait until Monday for the shop to open to get the head checked and cleaned. There are so many lines and wires..

Btw we tried the starter breaker bar on the ground and it didn't work.

Thx for the input all!

 

Holy ****. Finished around 9PM. Started thursday afternoon, worked every day until today. In total it was about 25 hours with two of us taking time to figure out stuff and clean and prep new parts., putting stuff on in the wrong order then having to take it off again..that kind of stuff.

I read somewhere that the HG on our cars always breaks near the rear and mine was the furthest (#6?) cylinder. I wonder if it has anything to do with the lack of air back there or the EGR cooling chamber..

I'll post some more stuff up later about the job.

OH - problems- 2 hoses not connected and no heater.

 

Lol, sounds like you had fun. Better than paying a shop to do it.

 

BTW , SCHLEY Crank Remvoal tool #64300 from Amazon ($60) is a GREAT TOOL for removing Lexus Toyota Crank Pully's. You will still need cheater bars(2) and 6 sided 1/2" drive impact socket for crank bolt (Harbor Freight/Northern Tool...$10 each(go 1/2" drive). And a jack handle over the cheater bar. It sure helps to also have a 300 lb football linebacker to pull on the 4 ft cheater bar! It sure get's the job done though!!

 

Here's a picture of the #6 cylinder