Thank you!

 

Did you helicoil the head bolt threads? This era of engine is known for stripping them...

Good job regardless.

 

No, I didn’t helicoil. I know about the stripped threads situation. It had me pretty worried. When I removed the bolts, I thought it was going to go bad, but the threads were fine. I decided to buy ARP head studs instead for insurance. I shouldn’t have any issues with stripped threads. Knock on wood!

 

Pray...

 

Good Job!

Toyota had 4 or 5 different foundries casting blocks during that time frame. Toyota has never told us which foundries produced blocks with these issues. Likewise we were never told if this was Japan made or North America made etc.....I guarantee you Toyota knows every single block and vehicle that got engines with these issues head bolt issues that is.

If I ever need to rebuild my 2003 if I do not have aluminum threads on the head bolts I would chase the threads and put in studs myself or use shorter head bolts that start clamping sooner in the area not affected by the thin walls and poor threading. IF I had aluminum on the head bolt threads I would definitely do the time-serts or similar.

Not sure why but people on this site and other's always neglect were their make and model was built! It matters and anyone that does not think it does is ignorant!

 

Loving it...am working on my own 2azfe rebuild from my 09 camry right now - its my first engine build and I'm nervous as all hell to put it all back together!
My generation camry doesn't have the stripped head bolt problems, but it is known for oil burning. I didn't feel like shelling out $300 for cast pistons from toyota as well as another 150 for rings on top of that, so I ended up getting aftermarket npr pistons and rings for $90 total from ebay. Made sure to get pistons and rings for gen 5 camrys instead of gen 6, as all the aftermarket gen 6 pistons (although maintaining a slightly higher compression ratio of 9.8 instead of 9.6) had the shitty piston design that caused the oil burning in the first place. Went with enginetech bearings for pretty much all of it, and felpro seals. The most shocking part about it has been the 1207B seal packing - $20/tube for 3oz tubes from my local dealer, and they recommended 3!! And they actually gave me the 103 FIPG seal packing instead of 1207B.

You mentioned you did all the valve work yourself, and I see you had the same white crappy carbon on your exhaust valves that I do. I am having such a hard time getting this stuff off, even after multiple soaks in berryman's chemdip. Do you have any suggestions for dealing with that?

 

Hi DashboardSwap, Glad to see your taking on a rebuild. I've grown to really respect the 2AZ-FE because of it's small size, power output and design. However, the piston rings are a problem (low tension) and the head bolt threads can be a problem. Rebuilding the engine can be an enjoyable process, if your not rushed. My Toyota wanted to hurt me so I did get a little frustrated at times. The best example of this is when I dropped the entire crankshaft on my pinky finger when I was under the car. As far as the FIPG seal packing, yes it is expensive, but I only used 1 tube for the whole engine and I had half a tube left when I was done! The tube is 3 oz, like the one you got. See the pic below. I bought it for $17 on Amazon. I used it on the upper and lower oil pan and the timing cover. The part number for the FIPG was also 103. So, you should be fine. The Toyota FIPG is just about the best sealant you can buy.

For the valves, I used my 3/4 hp pedestal grinder with a wire wheel. I had to work at it for awhile but it cleaned up the valves really well. I didn't worry about removing material because the wire wheel wasn't very aggresive and I was planning on lapping the valves anyways. The lapping process is very time consuming, but it didn't cost me hardly anything. The alternative was a head job at the engine machine shop, but I didn't want to spend too much, so that was out.

My advice for you is to look at the online Toyota Camry Service Manual often when putting the engine back together. I have the Haynes manual which is handy, but it doesn't have enough detail and it doesn't have all the torque values and tolerances. There is a link below.
Also, I had a lot of trouble removing and installing the valves because I couldn't get a valve compressor into the tight area. I actually made my own spring compressor. I cut a 'window' out of a 17mm socket that i placed on the valve retainer hat and then used a C clamp to compress the valve. Use a thin piece of wood where the C-clamp contacts the head of the valve so the valve/combustion chamber doesn't get scratched up. I used a pick to remove/install the locks once the spring was compressed. Actually, for removing the locks you can just set the socket on top of the retainer hat and hit it with a hammer. That will usually work.

Let me know if you have any question.
Good luck!

Service Manual:

Toyota Camry: Partial engine assy (2AZ−FE)(From July, 2003) - Engine mechanical

www.tcamanual.com

Spring compressor socket:

 

Thanks for the advice Tommy! As much of a pain in the ass the whole process is, I have definitely grown attached to my car and engine as well. Good to know I won't be needing that much seal packing, I look forward to returning the other two tubes if I dont use them

I did locate an engine service manual a while back and have it ready as a reference for when its time to start assembling. I will definitely need it for oil clearances and torque specs.

The one thing I did rush during this process that I now regret is as soon as I got the engine apart, I took the block and the head to the machine shop for a decking. Boy did it make it a huge pain in the ass to clean the carbon off the combusion chamber on the head, having to tape off all the decked areas so that my dremel with brass wire brush didn't touch it, etc.

I do also kind of regret not buying pistons for the 2az-fxe (the hybrid model engine) which have a slightly higher compression ratio, because although at the end of the day the goal of this build is oem reliability, who doesn't like a little more power! Probably better off given the cost alone.

 

good day all I am looking to do a full engine rebuild on my 09 Camry 2.4l VVTI Japan built. Can someone point me in the direction of a good rebuild kit that includes everything I will need. Or should I just shoot for the stars and buy all the parts individually like @TommyT3

 

Good luck with the project - I think this is a great engine build because its a super simple engine!
I know there are kits that sell bearings together with pistons, but I think you are probably better off putting the parts together yourself through rockauto/ebay. The list provided by @TommyT3 is pretty good to start out with and make adjustments to as needed.

Some recommendations:

• for a standard rebuild, you can go with normal head bolts, you don't need arp head studs.
• if you're looking for aftermarket cast pistons and rings, NPR is a good brand to go with. They're not very expensive and they're pretty good quality. Go with pistons and rings for an 03-06 Camry. Its a slightly better piston and ring design with a touch lower compression ration (which honestly you will not even notice).
• Kings and Enginetech bearings are also pretty good for a standard rebuild.
• Get a felpro gasket kit, both the upper and lower parts to replace all gaskets.
• You will need a few things from toyota directly, notably this one specific o-ring that gets sandwiched between the block and the upper oil pan, the timing tensioner gasket, and the seal packing (use the fipg 103 you see in an image in an earlier post).
• At a minimum get a new timing chain - I think replacing the sprockets is unnecessary, but a new chain, tensioner, spring, etc. is important for a high mileage engine. I went with Cloyes.
• I highly recommend sending off the block and the head to the machine shop for a quick hone and deck.

 

Got to love an inline engine.... they are easy to work on for maintenance items. If it came time to rebuild my engine, I'd probably have to have someone else do it, as I don't know anyone and never touched an engine bay until I got my first car last September. Biggest job I've done on my engine so far was spark plugs and a new PCV valve, all OEM stuff.

 

Much respect on tackling the engine rebuild, hope it outlasts the rest of the car haha. I really considered having a shop tackle mine when it started eating oil at 285k, and going through two cat converters but looking at the shape the rest of the car was at the time, it made more financial sense to trade it in for one with a more reliable engine.

 

I just wanted to tell my story about my 2.4L Camry. Maybe it will help someone. I bought a 'cheap' 2003 Camry for my daughter about 5 months ago. I wanted to find a fixer-upper to save money. I found one that didn't run at all. The price was decent, but I thought the issue was going to be minor. I thought it was something simple because the previous owner (con-man) said it ran fine and then just didn't start one day. Turns out the engine was seized up from running out of oil. It had 2 burned up connecting rod bearings and 3 burned up crank bearings. Also, some of the bearing caps turned black from the heat. I really didn't think it was rebuildable because of the heat, but I couldn't find a good used engine for a decent price. Everything was at least $2000 with shipping. All the junkyard engines I found were burned up. So, I decided to rebuild it, but not to spend too much, just in case it didn't work out. I had to replace nearly everything in the engine (crank, pistons, rods, bearings, oil pump, etc) , but the prices were pretty good because I bought everything off of Ebay or Amazon. Everything worked out well, but I believe the excess heat caused the middle bearing casting to be too small for the crank. I had to have the bearings align honed at the machine shop. That was the only work that I didn't do myself. For the head, it wasn't warped so I just used sandpaper to clean up the surface. For the valve seats, I lapped them by hand. The worst thing about the job was how dirty everything was on the inside and outside. It took many hours to clean everything. Check out the pictures. I finally got the engine running around Christmas time and it's still running smooth today. I would say it was a big success, but I wouldn't do that again because of the number of hours I had to spend on it. I didn't get much sleep for 5 or 6 weeks.

My parts list is below:

Align Hone Main Bearings on Block	$234
Valve Springs
Used Intake Cam	$35
Cam Bearing	$8
Crank	$429
Pistons and rings - $34 x 4	included
Crank Bearings	included
Thrust washer	included
Thrust washer #2 (ruined the 1st one)	$8
Connecting Rods	$99
Connecting rod bearings	included
Engine kit gasket set (all gaskets)	included
Valve Seals	included
Balance Shaft bearings	$22
Head Studs - Arp	$179
Timing set	$148
VVT sprocket (out of stock, look at Scion TC)	included
VVT Spool Valve Filter	$8
Oil pump	included
PCV valve	$5
Water pump	included
Thermostat	$10
Air Filter	$8
Spark Plugs - (5.40 x 4)	$11
Belt Tensioner	$85
Motor Mounts (all 4)	$81
Oil	$22
Oil Filter	$3
Tranny Oil	$50
Tranny Filter	$15
Coolant	$16
bolts	$18
exhaust studs -M8 38.7 mm long (18mm+13mm)	$20
exhaust flex pipe	$15
Down pipe gasket	$4
lug nuts	$20
wipers	$5
valve lapper	$12
valve grinding compound	$6
valve seal pliers	$12
Total:	$1,587

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Hello there
I need to replace the head gasket on my Camry 2007 but couldn’t find a video showing a step-by-step to go around the timing chain. How to remove the crank shafts when they are connected to the wheels of the chain. I don’t want to mess with the chain. Is there a way I can replace the gasket and not messing with the chain?
Thank you

 

If you pull the head, you have to remove the timing chain. I don't see anyway around it. It would be nice if you could just unbolt the cam shaft sprockets with the timing chain cover still in place but you can't. The bolt head is half covered up by the timing chain cover. So, you have to remove the timing chain cover, which is a real bitch to get back on properly because you will have wet sealant on it when you try to line it up and push it on. If you touch the sealant to something as you are trying to get the cover in place, you will need to touch that spot up so it doesn't leak. I would look at the Haynes manual and videos online to get the process down. But you will have to remove the chain from the camshafts to remove the head.

 

Yeah @TommyT3 is correct, you'll need to pull that chain cover. And it is one piece all the way down to the oil pan. With limited space to work getting that off and on in the car will be a major pain. Part of the reason I elected to just pull the engine. I've seen some claim to have done the head without removing the timing cover but I simply don't see how. There is one small bolt that holds the cam chain guide in place in the side of the head. I'm not sure how you'd get it out let alone back in with the chain cover on. 🤷‍♂️

 

I have had to remove the valve cover, power steering pump, oil pan, timing chain tensioner (in the timing chain cover), crankcase position sensor (also on the timing chain cover). And the timing chain cover. The harmonic balancer and crank seal. All of these not counting the motor mounts removal. All with the engine in the car (American made 2002 Camry le 2AZFE engine). The timing chain Mark's at tdc is at 3 o'clock on the main crank, also align the thiming chain with the arrows on the vvt-i intake arrow, and the arrow on the exhaust. Replaced everything without a leak of any type. I had my brother feed the timing cover down the front of the engine while I guided it down from under the car. The most difficult part to put back in is the power steering pump. Just to let you know that it can be done in the vehicle. But to remove the head, you do need to remove the timing chain.