Assembly lube, RTV, service bolts (to hold cam gears), swear jar, first aid kit.

 

I just noticed the service bolts while reading though the procedure. Where do I get those?

 

Either borrow them from another part of the car or most auto parts places have em. Bolt supply house is another source but you should be able to find a couple of fasteners somewhere on the car that will work.

 

Fel-Pro gaskets are usually pretty high quality, one of the best IMO. Although considering how difficult they are to replace, OEM may be your best bet. If you wanna save a little money, You can buy a cheap gasket set, and buy OEM intake/head gaskets. Those are really the only important ones. Also get a tube of your preferred FIPG, I was told by a Permatex rep that Ultra Grey is the best of the RTV's, so that's what I use.

Not sure if you're planning this or not, but at that mileage and with low compression I would send the block off to be bored, hot tanked, and surfaced, along with the heads. You may want to fit new valve springs (they lose tension over time) and definitely have the guides checked for wear and the valves/seats ground if they need it. Also have the heads surfaced. The machine shop will be able to tell you what oversize pistons or bearings to get. This is imperative for a long lasting motor, don't expect to just hone the cylinder and slap some new rings in it, or it won't be long until it's burning oil and low on compression again.

Also send off the crank for polishing/grinding if it needs it.

I don't know what a crate motor costs, but with all the machine work and parts required, it may be a better idea to just get the crate engine. It will cost more, but you get a warranty and a low chance of there being a problem.

 

Fel-Pro gaskets are usually pretty high quality, one of the best IMO. Although considering how difficult they are to replace, OEM may be your best bet. If you wanna save a little money, You can buy a cheap gasket set, and buy OEM intake/head gaskets. Those are really the only important ones.

The gasket set worked out to around $45-50 after comboing with some other stuff so it was definitely "cheap". So OEM intake manifold and head gaskets, but not exhaust?

Also get a tube of your preferred FIPG, I was told by a Permatex rep that Ultra Grey is the best of the RTV's, so that's what I use.

I use non hardening (blue bottle, but black gunk) for stuff I know I will be taking apart, and red (hardening) for critical areas or water areas. I'll check out the gray stuff.

Not sure if you're planning this or not, but at that mileage and with low compression I would send the block off to be bored, hot tanked, and surfaced, along with the heads. You may want to fit new valve springs (they lose tension over time) and definitely have the guides checked for wear and the valves/seats ground if they need it.

I bought standard pistons/rings/bearings etc, I figured we'd see how bad the engine was, and if is too bad, pick up a low milage core and rebuild that instead.

Also have the heads surfaced.

I was under the impression you can't have them surfaced, or is surfacing different than shaving them?

I don't know what a crate motor costs, but with all the machine work and parts required, it may be a better idea to just get the crate engine. It will cost more, but you get a warranty and a low chance of there being a problem.

Crate 3VZ motors seem to start in the $800 range for no warranty (basically used) and $1400 for "Good used" with a warranty and $2000 on up for remans with a warranty.

Recommend to use the red long life Toyota coolant.

Only available from Toyota I assume?

Give the motor mounts a close look with the engine out.

That's on my list!

Are you pulling the trans with the motor? ...Might replace the trans output shaft seals while it's out and easier.

I assumed with a transverse engine you had to pull them together? I did buy a filter and a pan gasket. Are you talking about the CV axle seals?

 

I rebuilt my 3vzfe engine in my Lexus ES300 5 speed. I used mainly Toyota parts and gaskets except the pistons which are the Topline .020 bore pistons due to ring land damage. Recommend to use the red long life Toyota coolant.

 

IIRC, the bolts holding the T-Belt's rear metal covers in place are the correct threads & a good length to use for cam gear service bolts.

A few things that may come with the FelPro full set?:
Exhaust manifold gaskets.
The gaskets that go between the manifolds and the exhaust Y-pipe (x2).
Valve stem seals

Give the motor mounts a close look with the engine out.

Are you pulling the trans with the motor? ...Might replace the trans output shaft seals while it's out and easier.

 

The seller already shipped them, so I asked about swapping them. If all else fails I can just resell them on ebay I suppose.

 

Is the engine burning oil? Did you do a leakdown test to see where it's loosing compression? Have you checked/adjusted the valves?

Out of the 3 high mileage engines I've replaced head gaskets on, NONE of them had any noticeable cylinder wear as to having a ridge on the top of the cylinder where the rings didn't travel. Those engines were, 95 Ford Windstar V6 @ 150,000+, 95 Honda Civic L4 @ 150,000+, and a 2000 Hyundai Elantra L4 near the same millage. Had those engines been from the 60's with that mileage, there'd be a huge ridge and a ridge reamer would needed to be used to get the pistons out. I could still see the cross hatch on the cylinders on the Windstar. The crank bearings were a different story! I could see copper on a couple of the inserts!

I'm willing to bet that if I pulled my Camry down at 300,000+ miles and measured the cylinders, they'd be within the manufacturer's tolerances. I checked the oil the other day and it's still like honey.

What compression should you be seeing?

 

leakdown test

I have never heard of a leakdown test before today! Fascinating, I think I need to get one of those.

The guy I bought it from did a compression test on each cylinder (and oddly, on the intake manifold). it was 120 125 120 120 50 50.

What compression should you be seeing?

FSM says it should be 170+ with a minimum of 142.

It has a blown radiator at the moment so I've been unable to do any detailed testing. The top tank is ruptured in the middle! So it is anyone's guess what happened, either it overheated then blew the radiator and the headgasket, or the radiator went and then the headgasket went. The radiator is original as far as I can tell, very crusty inside. The hoses are original too I think, they have a date stamp of 3/29/1992, and yet they look great!

She starts up fine after the battery was charged (except for the awful racket from the PS pump).

The oil is halfway down the dipstick and is dirty. Inside the oil cap it looks a little grungy but nothing extreme.

My old camry, that my sister has now, has 210k miles and still purrs like a champ. Oil is still clean, etc. I hope I can get this Camry to run as well as that one does!

 

You're in kind of a pickle, not being able to run the motor because of the blown rad. Compression testing really should be done with a warmed up engine. If I was you, I wouldn't buy parts and commit to a full rebuild until the heads are off. Then you can inspect the bores, heads, and valves and have a better idea what it really needs. Yeah, it's more difficult pulling the heads with the motor in the bay, but it's not crazy-bad, IMHO.

 

Two adjacent cylinders will low compression points to a blown head gasket, which could be why the radiator is popped.

 

Okay this is driving me nuts. Could I get the proper part number for the output shaft seal? I've searched here and elsewhere and am only getting more confused!

Rockauto has one for "right" and one for "left" which are different sizes, that makes no sense because the same CV axle is used for both sides?

 

The seals are not the same. Hope these are the right numbers the diagram is a bit confusing, also I might have the sides mixed up. :|

LH - 90311-50011
RH -90311-40028

 

Interesting that the same CV axle would use a different seal depending what side it is on.

Just to be sure, the V6's A540E uses the same CV axle on both sides?

SURTRACK Part # TO8007
Front Left
Front Right

Am thinking of doing the axles when they are out. Or do these axles generally not go bad? On the second gen tercels, they're usually shot by 100k miles.



Rockauto has these seals:

TIMKEN Part # 712551 {#9031140010}
Right; 4 speed trans.; Trans. code A541E
Right; 4 speed trans.; Trans. code A540E

TIMKEN Part # 710112 {#9031150010, 9031150011}
Left; 4 speed trans.; Trans. code A541E
Left; 4 speed trans.; Trans. code A540E

I can buy those with confidence?



I did find the input shaft seal (torque converter seal) which amusingly is the same one used in the tercel's automatic.

 

Just to be sure, the V6's A540E uses the same CV axle on both sides?

They are the same, the beloved bolt on type. I don't replace axles unless the boots are gone never had a bad one where the boots were intact but I'm sure it happens. Oil seals are shared by many, many Toyota vehicles for example the V6 camshaft seals were used from 1988-2010-ish.

 

So, this doesn't look right:

the big one is the 710112, the little one is the 712551.

TIMKEN Part # 712551 {#9031140010}
Right; 4 speed trans.; Trans. code A541E
Right; 4 speed trans.; Trans. code A540E

TIMKEN Part # 710112 {#9031150010, 9031150011}
Left; 4 speed trans.; Trans. code A541E
Left; 4 speed trans.; Trans. code A540E

Is one side really that different than the other for the cv axle seals?

 

I've only done the larger one looks like the correct seal. The other one is different so that's probably it.

 

Looking at the images in the parts diagrams, they do look quite different in size. The CV axles in this trans bolt onto the ends of stub shafts sticking out, and the seals go behind those stubs. So even tho the CV axles on each side are identical, the seals apparently aren't.

 

Alright thanks! I'll wait and see! The only other concern is no dust lip like others I saw, but it looks like it'd be covered anyway...

 

How often do knock sensors go bad? Should I preemptively replace while the engine is out?

 

It seems to be somewhat rare, judging by how many posts I've seen for them over the years. KS's are expensive too, if you buy OEM. IIRC, I paid $120 each for OEM.

 

Those seals look about right. The passenger side is the smaller one. Do you see NOK on the Timken seals? Some reboxed seals were made by OEM (NOK of Japan).

I tried the Beck Arnley catalog and saw:

Driver side:

Passenger side:
Notice the dust lip not on the Timken one. However, Beck Arnley are pretty much aftermarket these days. They used to rebox/rebag some OEM parts. But the passenger side intermediate shaft will have a metal dust cover, so the dust lip really isn't necessary.

 

The deflector on the axle works in conjunction with the lip on the seal.