Timing Belt/Water Pump Replacement DIY

[kishanSR5]

This past weekend I did the timing belt replacement on my 2002 Toyota 4runner. I wanted to save a few hundred dollars and tackle the job myself instead of dropping it off to a shop. I used all OEM Toyota parts, ordered a kit off ebay that had everything. Now I'm not saying this is the best way nor the worst way to go about doing this but this is what I did. Anyway I took a bunch of pics to try and document everything as best as I could so here goes my first DIY.

Step 1) Make sure engine is not hot, hasn't been driven in over 6 hrs lets say. Remove the skid plates There are 5 12mm bolts holding the front main skid plate to the frame shown here

and there are 4 more 12mm bolts to be removed. 2 hold the front skid plate to the rear skid and the other 2 bolt the rear skid to the frame.
Skid Plates off


Step 2) Drain Coolant. I bought one of the large open drain pans and this made it really easy. There is a petcock on the passenger side of the radiator. Its a white wingnut dial looking thing lol, turn that counterclockwise till coolant starts coming out (have your drain pan ready) don't remove the petcock completely, just loosen it enough to where coolant comes out. It will take awhile for the coolant to fully drain. You can remove the radiator cap to aid the process if you'd like.



Step 3) Remove Upper Radiator hose clamps, then remove the radiator hose. I also removed the hose connecting the radiator to the coolant overflow reservoir.



Around this same time is when I removed my front grille too. I didn't take pics of this but there are plastic clips holding it in and they break so damn easily, anyway just use a flathead screwdriver to push the tabs down and pull the grill forwards.


Step 4) Remove the fan. There are 4 12mm nuts holding the fan down. Break each nut loose and one by one remove the nuts and put them in a container. (A racheting wrench is ideal here) Put everything in separate containers so that you know what bolts are for what.


Step 5) Disconnect the lower radiator hose from the bottom of the radiator. Leave the other end connected to the engine.

Step 6) Remove the 4 12mm bolts holding the radiator in.
There are 2 upper and 2 lower bolts. The upper bolts are located symmetrically by the one of the bolts that mounts the headlight.
This is the right (driver side) upper bolt, I mounted my relay for my Hella Supertones there.

The other 2 are located towards the lower part, close to the support that runs across.

DIY isn't finished yet, I'll post the rest when I have time.

 

[LittleCaesar]

Very nice. Keep the DIY coming.

I had a chance to get a pair of those Hellas NIB for cheap a couple of years ago and passed. Dumb mistake on my part.

 

[mattjm321]

Very appreciated. Look forward to the next post. How many hours do you think the whole project took?

 

[kishanSR5]

Very nice. Keep the DIY coming.

I had a chance to get a pair of those Hellas NIB for cheap a couple of years ago and passed. Dumb mistake on my part.

Yea they are loud haha, I actually bought them for a 1988 300zx turbo that I had but I ended up selling the car so I said what the heck and put em on my 4runner lol. I might end up selling the horns because I want something my "truck" sounding.

 

[kishanSR5]

Very appreciated. Look forward to the next post. How many hours do you think the whole project took?

Well honestly it can be done in a day. I took my sweet time with it because this was my first time attempting something of this magnitude and I wanted to do it right. But I would say its doable in a day from morning to night if you have all the parts, sealant, food etc. that you need haha

 

[kishanSR5]

Timing Belt/Water Pump Replacement Cont.

Step 7) Once you removed the radiator. Your engine bay will look like this.


Loosen the bolt where the blue arrow is pointing. This is the bolt around which the alternator pivots. Also remove the bolt holding the dipstick in place, move the dipstick out of the way and rethread the bolt halfway into the hole so you don't lose it. You will need to move the dipstick later so doing it now will save yourself time later.

Step 8) Some of these bolts are 12mm and some are 14mm. For the most part these bolts are 12mm. Underneath the car locate the tensioner pulley of the ac belt. Loosen the 2 bolts/nuts indicated by this picture


Loosen the power steering bolt/nut tensioner so that the belt can be slipped off.
Look at the back/bottom of the alternator where the adjuster is. Loosen the nut that locks the alternator in place in its track, then loosen the nut that adjusts the tension so the belt can be slipped off the pulleys. Then remove the pulleys as the belts come off.


Step 9) Remove timing cover. Loosen all the 10mm bolts indicated by the arrows. Also unclip the harness by the lower left arrow.

 

[kishanSR5]

After the timing cover has been removed your engine bay will look like this.


So next you're going to break that crank pulley bolt loose. Its a 19mm. If you have an impact, thats great use it, if not then just do what i did and it worked like a charm. grab a long breaker bar 1/2" drive 18" about? get your socket on the breaker bar and then put it on the crank bolt. Rotate the crank till the breaker bar is laying against/on the frame on the driver side. then go inside the car, get your keys turn the key to the on position, then turn the key to crank the engine for 1 sec. then turn off the car and remove the key. You should have heard the bolt break loose. You should be able to remove the breaker bar and then remove the bolt by hand.
This is a picture of what I did.

removed bolt.

Remove the mount the held the fan and the pulleys for the drive belts. there are 3 bolts, one is holding the power steering pump/reservoir to the mount. remove all 3 then remove the mount.
Next remove the crank pulley/harmonic balancer. For this i laid on the ground and looked up at the pulley, grabbed it on opposite sides and then just shook it, side to side. Wiggle it side to side and it should just come right off.

 

[kishanSR5]

Now after removing the harmonic balancer it should look like this

then remove the lower timing cover.
before doing anything else, re-thread the bolt all thew ay by hand and then crank the engine until the timing marks match up for the cams and the timing mark for the crank matches up.
Cams like this

crank like this

Once thats aligned leave it there.
Next you need to remove the ac compressor from the ac compressor mount. this is done by removing the four bolts that hold it to the mount

they are 4 12mm bolts i belive? then the ac compressor should come right out. move it to the left and set it down so you have access to the ac compressor mount bolts. You need to remove the 5 14mm bolts holding the mount to the block in order to get easy access to the tensioner. Once you have removed the bolts make sure you know which ones go where. If i remember correctly the longer ones were on top and the shorter ones went on the bottom and there is a really long one that goes in from the front, hard to mix that one up.
Next remove the tensioner using a 12mm socket
here you can see what it looks like after i removed one of the bolts


After the tensioner is removed, wiggle the tensioner pulley to loosen it and then remove the old timing belt. Also remove the crank sprocket at this time. I got realllllly lucky and mine just slide off without any effort at all. If its stuck you might need to us a few screwdrivers to pry it out. Be careful of the teeth though.
once the belt is off it looks like this

 

[LittleCaesar]

Nice clear pics. keep them coming. And a clean front engine as well.

 

[Hesk11dog]

Using a screw driver on the crank pulley can be quite risky. Try bumping lightly with a rubber mallet and it should come off pretty easily.

 

[semcoinc]

Excellent kishanSR5 :thumb3:

I just joined the forum for the Tundra brake upgrade and this is coming up on my list as well.

An excellent DIY thus far, IMHO.

Please continue.

Mike

 

[Drcoffee]

What is the preferred method to seal the new water pump?

Gasket
FIPG
or both together

 

[TheDurk]

What is the preferred method to seal the new water pump?

Gasket
FIPG
or both together

Depends on the pump.

Flat flange (new style) = just gasket
Flange with groove (old style) = just FIPG

Never both.

 

[amalik]

This was a nice DIY, but looks like it wasn't finished.

 

[nissanh]

Great work!
When you do it by yourself... apart from saving couple of hundreds, you will get the job done the best way. Someone doing it for you won't care about the bolts and threads and who ever going to do it next time, will find lots of damaged/stripped threads. remember someone here found the T-belt off the bearing due to bad threads.

 

[kishanSR5]

Sorry I haven't finished this build, I got busy with school and I completely forgot I even started this DIY. I'm going to do my best to finish it with all the pics I have.

So after the crank sprocket is off, I chose to handle the crank seal. I don't have any pics of the removal but just use a screw driver and tape the end with electrical tape so you dont scratch anything. Pretty much you gotta stab the seal and then pry it out.
Here is the old seal compared to the new one. Mine was still good but I chose to replace it anyway.


To change the cam seals you have to remove the cam gears. And the backing plate and Make sure you keep the cam gear aligned.


To do this I used the old timing belt, cut it so it wrapped around the cam gear and then I electrical taped it around so it would stay on. Then i got a buddy to hold a chain vice grip around it while i used a breaker bar to break the bolt loose. Then use the same screwdriver method to change the seals. Repeat for the other cam gear.





To tighten the cam gears back up i used the same method of the timing belt, chain wrench vice grip but used a torque wrench to get it torqued down. Torque spec is 81 ft/lbs

Next I removed the water pump. I believe there are 7 bolts attaching it



Clean up the mounting surface with a razor and make sure its clean and smooth


On the new pump i used both the included gasket and this water pump/thermostat specific sealant from autozone. its a tiny grey tube




Reinstall all the bolts and I believe they are supposed to be at 14 ft/lbs.

I used a hose clamp to tighten this hose down to the water pump.

 

[kishanSR5]

Now its time to install the thermostat. Put the rubber seal on it around the edge if it doesn't already have one. And then install it with the jiggle valve at 12 o'clock.


Then install the metal tube that connects to where the thermostat goes.

torque specs are also 14 ft/lbs i believe.

Replace the tensioner pulley at this time. It takes a 10mm hex socket I believe. And the torque spec is like 30 ft/lbs or something like that. Just make sure that it rotates very very easily along the axis of rotation but isn't loose laterally along the bolt.



Now install the new tensioner. DO NOT PULL THE PIN. I REPEAT DO NOT PULL THEY PIN. Think of it like a grenade. You gotta be 100% sure when you want to pull the pin.


Now replace the Idler pulley

it should be torqued to 30 or 45 ft/lbs, cant remember atm. but just make sure that it spins very freely as well.


Now slide the crank sprocket on and make sure the marks line up


So here is something that i did because i had the chance to, I decided to give a fresh coat of paint to my timing cover and radiator shroud to make it look a little newer. I probably should have gone with a flat black thinking back on it now but whats done is done.

Scuffed up timing cover

 

[kishanSR5]

Next step is to put the crank pulley back on along with the crank bolt. And then get that timing belt on. I won't lie, it was a pain in the ass. But you just gotta make sure all the marks line up for the cam gears, crankshaft sprocket and the belt and you're golden.
Once you are 100% sure with the timing of everything then you can pull the pin on the tensioner. If i recall correctly once you have done that, then you can bolt the AC compressor back on. Use the step for removal to see where the bolts go. Reinstall the mounting bracket for the clutch fan, pulleys etc.
Dont forget to torque the crankshaft bolt to 217 ft lbs. I had to use the chain vice grip method with cutup old drive belts and torqued it while my dad held a cheater bar on the end of that wrench. An impact is highly recommended for this service and I can definitely see why.

I also replaced the radiator at this time so if you are reusing the old one just reinstall that one. Installation is the reverse of removal so just use the previous steps to reinstall it.


Reinstall the pulleys, belts, clutch fan


Connect the upper and lower radiator hoses.
Install your sticker that shows the mileage/date of the completed job

 

[kishanSR5]

Last step is to fill the whole thing up with coolant and bleed the system. Make sure the petcock is closed on the bottom of the radiator. I chose to use 50/50 mix because I had regular green coolant before. But if you had toyota red or toyota pink then make sure you use the same exact coolant as before. DO NOT MIX ANY TYPES OF COOLANT. So I filled the radiator up with 50/50 pre-mixed coolant and then topped off the overflow. and then turned on the 4runner and let her run. Turn the heater on high and leave the radiator cap off to see the coolant level drop. You can hold the revs at like 2,000 for awhile till the thermostat opens up and then top off the coolant in the radiator. It should be visible at the fill cap. Make sure its good and then put the cap on and you should be good to go! Thats it, you're done !

 

[Drcoffee]

Just thought I would mention that you are going to overheat the engine. The jiggler needs to be at 6 o'clock. Countless threads on this.
Thanks for the pics.