just got finished changing my vale cover gaskets, spark plug seals and air intake manifold gasket also.
The biggest pain in the rear was a bolt located behind the air manifold. I swear toyota makes it hard on purpose. Lol.
Hopefully nothing leaks as I'll test it out later this afternoon. here are some pictures. It's a 2007 is350.
Took me about 12 hours, that's taking my time by myself. Obviously would be less time, now that I know what to do

 

 

very nice pictures

is there a reason that prompted you to do these changes?
Is it possible to give a brief write up on the steps?

Thanks in advance !

 

when I did my last oil change, there was oil on my spark plugs, mostly the rear plugs closest to firewall. Plus I'm losing oil somewhere, before 7k miles after a oil change, my oil would be pretty low, even one time prompting the low oil light. Also with age, 150k miles and including oil on plus and losing/burning oil. I thought it was time to change them as I am deciding to keep the car for as long as I can.
Sorry, I didn't take pics of the steps. But can offer help if anyone decides to do it.

 

Good jobs man..

 

How difficult was it replace those spark plug tube seals? I see some sort of metal bracing riveted into the underside of the VC. Did that get in the way of the seals installation?

 

Did you ever have the vvti actuator recall done? IIRC, the valve cover gaskets are supposed to be changed when they do that, but, I don't think they do the spark plug seals. http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs...3v395-3180.pdf

Nice job though. Working on 4cyl's all the time makes these v6's look like a huge pain in the rear to work on.

 

I didn't remove the rivets, I just bent up the tabs. It's fairly thin and easily bent. The hardest part was removing the old ones. I had to pry it up with a flat head screwdriver.






[QUOTE=Zmon;9575491]Did you ever have the vvti actuator recall done? IIRC, the valve cover gaskets are supposed to be changed when they do that, but, I don't think they do the spark plug seals. http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs...3v395-3180.pdf

Not sure, but I think so. Maybe that's why they didn't look bad at all. Either way, I guess I would have changed it anyway since I had to get to the spark plug seals.

 

^Ok, that's what I was thinking you did. Tip...use a plastic pry tool to remove old seals so you don't damage the aluminum walls of where the seals sit.

 

So I found out by looking at some pics that either I don't have these gaskets back on correctly or it may have fell.
These are vvt oil bearing cap gaskets. From the pics they should be seated in the engine but I guess they stayed stuck up inside the valve cover instead. I didn't even pay attention to them at all.
Question is, do you think it would be ok if the gaskets somehow were not on? Maybe it didn't fall and stayed stuck on the valve cover and lined back up. Either way, I can check them now and have to open it all back up.

 

Wow... Did u use that service manual as you went along?

 

Hope they're there as that could be a bad situation if you drove the car without them. Did you drive it much after this fix?

 

I've driven it about 150miles already. Doesn't seem like anything is different.

Nope, just did it on the fly

 

Just hope it didn't flood it with too much or flow in too little. Let us know when you get the VC off and if any of the seals were there!

 

Not sure if its just in my head, but i do notice a very small amount of vibration through the steering wheel now. its not much, but not sure if it was there prior.
going to Toyota today to order the gaskets, etc.