Day 4

14. Removed the cruise control actuator and cables.

15. Jacked the engine slightly under the oil pan. I used a piece of plywood to distribute the load on the pan. Also removed the right wheel and plastic panels below the engine.

16. The Toyota manual didn't show it but the power steering reservoir and hoses restricted access to the timing belt cover so we unbolted the bracket and wrestled it over the top of the head cover to give us room.

Point of instruction I hounded the boys on...reinstall all removed bolts and nuts into the location they came from. Too often I've ended up with a coffee can full of loose bolts wondering where they go...

17. Removed through bolt on the engine mount. There are two 14mm nuts that you have to get at from below with a deep socket and 6" drive extension.

18. Removed spark plugs. The access tube for the #4 plug had about an inch of oil in it. Any thoughts on how the oil is getting in there?

19. Removed the upper timing belt cover. Rotated the crank until the notch aligned with 0 degrees TDC on the lower cover. Ensured the cam timing pulley (intake side...sorry couldn't take photo...too tight to get the camera in there...) alignment hole was aligned with the head (about 11:00 as you look directly at the face of the drive gear).

20. Marked the belt relative to position on the cam timing pulley and removed it from the pulley and idler. The instructions on the manual were not helpful here. It said to push the idler as far left as possible and retighten the bolt to retain in the loose position. It said nothing about having to remove the spring to allow the idler to move, which it did easily once we removed the spring from the upper pin (you can see the pin just below the idler. In this pic, the belt has been moved out of the way below the pin for clearance).

21. Removed the head cover and stopped here for the day. Manual noted to use a service 6mm dia/1mm pitch x 20mm length service bolt to secure the exhaust camshaft sub-gear prior to removal. Will need to pick one up and a spanner wrench to remove the camshaft timing pulley. Surprisingly, the belt looks pretty new. I'll have to go through receipts again to see how long ago they replaced it.