Had a great time today finally getting to do my timing belt. I did everything else along the way as well such as crank and cam seals, water pump, thermostat, idle bearings, etc etc etc. Installed my champion cooling 3 row radiator as well. It's not 100% direct fit but it's also not a huge deal bend back the tabs and you're ready to rock. Switched to Toyota red. Also one thing I want to say as well. I used a 96-98 crank bolt. It had green loctite on it and I also added a bunch of blue. Torqued to 217 ft/lbs. Guys in the parts department acted like dicks when I said they gave me the wrong bolt but whatever. Didnt have the correct one in stock and I didnt have time as I have a big sand dunes trip coming up so i slapped her on. Shouldn't have an issue.
Borla XR-1 getting installed Monday. Super stoked for that! Tomorrow I'm doing valve cover and spark plug tube gaskets, resealing half moons and I have some other crank seals but I cant remember exactly where they go or why i bought them. Oh well. I'll do some research. Cant wait for the top of the engine to look at good as the rest.

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Good job man! That look on your timing belt brings back memories on how mines looked when I bought my 00. I ask the PO if he did the timing belt and he says he didn't and can't recall if it was ever changed at 213K mil. But he has no worries driving cross country at that moment on the 00.
Towed the 4r back home 2 hrs away cause I didn't wanna take the chance.
Hey VernySanders, how many miles do you think you have on that belt?

Quite honestly judging on the condition of the tensioner (had leaked a ton of oil) the idle bearings had a fair amount of play and spun over for a long time and my thermostat was OEM but was completely toasted I'd say all original parts. So 251k in my opinion! Haha but thankyou! I appreciate it!

The other "cam seals" you spoke of are probably the cam plugs. They go in the rear of each head. You have to remove what looks like a journal cap to reveal the top half. Check out the DIYs on here and you'll see them. They are a quite susceptible to leaking and important to replace while doing the VC gaskets. You should also do the PCV grommet and while your in there in case it breaks apart and ends up in your VC baffle. Also the bolt seals if you don't have them. Good luck.

Nice job man! (I like the two cans of "blue fuel" on your parts bench...LOL

Seriously, I have one question; why did you decide to go with the champaion radiator? I understand Koyo racing is making an all aluminum radiator now but requires an external tranny cooler (which I already have).

The timing belt was definitely in need of replacement from the pics. One thing I didn't see is the cam "caps" that look like hockey pucks that go on the back of each cam cover. Are you replacing those as well?

Again, NICE JOB!!!!

OP, I'm right behind ya! My parts are literally "in the mail" (well, some are here) so maybe this next weekend... Did you check the valve clearance while you were in there?


Not OP, but I also have the Champion already installed. For me it was only a choice between OEM/OEM style (glued together) or Champion. Koyo came out a few weeks after, but at Twice the price of the Champion I wouldn't be able to justify the additional cost. The return for price just isn't there, nothing I've read about them makes it worth Double the Champion price (or 4 times the OEM style). Some folks have bought them, so they were able to find justification.... others can't justify the price of the Champion (I was mostly on the fence myself, but like 1-piece units Slightly more for peace of mind).

Those Champion radiators are out of stock now. They do look like a good upgrade. Maybe do it later on.

Well done! You’re not going to have to touch that stuff again for a long time. I changed mine at 130,000 miles and the belt didn’t look much different from the new one. No cracks at all. So you may be correct about yours being original. Not sure who supplies those belts for Toyota but it was the right belt. Lasts like a chain almost.

Did you paint the water pump and pulleys? Excellent.....

Sounds good thanks! I just did passenger side with new gaskets tube gaskets new OEM washers PC grommet and valve replaced. Now to do other side lol.

I am replacing cam caps as well and I picked champion because it's all aluminum and tig welded which means I'll never need to worry about the pink milkshake. I wasnt really looking to buy a koyo way too overpriced. I've heard people complain about the champion coolers but honestly idk why. They are direct fit. Tabs dont work but who honestly cares. Things got 3 rows as opposed to factory rad that has 2 rows so more coolant capacity and all aluminum equals lower temps all around and I'll Install a trans cooler as well. With engines and auto transmissions alike the cooler you keep them the longer they last in conjunction with proper fluid service of course.

Unfortunately I didnt have the proper equipment to check clearances nor did I have the shims to replace if clearance was off. That's going to be a next summer project for sure. Idk what you're doing for your crank bolt but I bought a 3ft long piece of steel about 36inches wide for 10 bucks and drilled a hole for the socket and two smaller holes for screws to go into the holes to hold the pulley 3ft is perfect length to sit it under the frame. Was going to buy schley tool but it was on backorder for months so I said screw it and saved myself 60 bucks lol I agree with you koyo is overpriced.

I think they stopped making them I got mine on Ebay and it said it was the last one but the post Is still up saying last one so either it's not the last one and their saying that to get people to buy now thinking they have no time left or they're building them to order which I doubt

I painted the pulleys and the middle timing cover it looks great. Also painted all the bolts and nuts the same gold color as I'll do with valve cover bolts etc. Valve covers are going to be painted black and plenum painted black with the Toyota emblem gold on the face. My rims are black 5 stars OEM with the same gold center caps and my grille is slightly modded painted black with gold Toyota emblem. Starting to come along. Sway bars are red to match energy suspension bushings and also my tundra brake upgrade calipers and painted the drums the same red lol... screw it looks good.

Nice. Well keep the thread updated with the painted parts.