1990 timing belt let go - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

littleREDtercel · 10-26-2007, 06:39 AM

I bought my daughter a 1990 Camry 2 years ago.
The car ran strong and everything still works, even the A/C, until yesterday that is.

She called me from the side of the road and I pushed the car to a parking lot, pulled the plugs and no compression. Popped the dist cap and cranked the motor. No rotor movement. OK, the timing belt is gone. Milage is 202K.

My question is this, will this 4 cyclinder (3SFE) have valve train damage, or is there clearence between the pistons and the valve when the timing belt lets go?

atobe · 10-26-2007, 10:24 AM

nope everything's still fine just replace the belt and redo timing and you're good to go again.

littleREDtercel · 10-26-2007, 11:31 AM

Thanks atobe, you just made my day.

tigertron · 10-29-2007, 08:04 AM

is this the same for the v6 as well or no?

jerfi2003 · 10-29-2007, 11:16 AM

This also goes for the 90 camry v6. I just changed mine. Biggest problem I had was finding TDC on number 1 piston since it is basically covered up by the intake.

IvanHoe · 10-29-2007, 01:04 PM

Almost ALL Nissan timing belt driven engines are interference....even the 4 cylinder ones!
However, Toyotas are just the opposite

.....the only Toyota Camry interference motors are 98'+ 1MZ-FE 3.0 V6 engines.

Here's a complete listing of makes/models/engines and if they are interference or not(Originally found it on the Gen3 side of the forum):

http://www.flyupload.com/?fid=8411768

↑↑↑when you click the link, be sure to scroll down and hit 'download'