SC430 Engine Maintenance

This weekend I tackled the engine maintenance started on Saturday and finished up on Sunday, you'll see why. Unfortunately the battery on my shop cam was low so didn't get a lot of pictures.

Here is my parts list for the engine maintenance: 

Toyota (90916-02586) Multi Rib Belt 
Toyota (13540-50030) Timing Belt Tensioner 
Toyota (13505-0F010) Timing Belt Idler 
Toyota (13503-0F010) Timing Belt Idler 
Toyota (13568-09070) Timing Belt 
Toyota (16100-59275-83) Water Pump 
Toyota thermostat (90916-03100) 
Toyota thermostat gasket (16346-50010) 
Toyota Oring thermostat housing 
Toyota Front Main Seal (90311-A0001) 
Toyota Cam Seal (90311-A0004) (x2) 
Toyota Long Life Antifreeze Coolant (002721LLAC01) x 2 
Toyota Valve Cover gaskets (11213-50031 & 11214-50011) 
Toyota Spark Plug Gasket (11193-70010) x 8 
Toyota Throttle Body Gasket (22271-500042) 
NGK Plugs IFR6T11 
K&N Air Filter (33-2220)

Everybody here should check their valve cover bolts, there are many instances that I've read on where the bolts were loose. Well that was definitely my case! Cleaning the engine bay helped verify that my oil leak was from the valve cover gasket.

This motor is really well laid out and taking everything apart is pretty systematic and went fairly quickly. It took me about two hours to get everything apart including getting the valve cover and cam covers off. Wow were the plastics brittle! I cracked two connectors near the throttle body, everything still plugs in but I'll probably swap those out soon. Also I bagged all the bolts in zip lock bags and labeled them, makes assembly easier.

There wasn't as much gunk build up as I had expected, pretty sure the seafoam helped. The little traces of gunk on the head and cams I took a nylon brush and some seafoam spray to and that cleared it out easily. The valve covers on the other hand was pretty bad.

Took some purple power to it and some steel brushes and a pressure washed it. Did this a couple of times to break down more and more of the gunk till I got most of it off.

The spark plug grommets were really brittle. There were two spark plugs with a little bit of oil on it so definitely needed to be changed. Wish they came out with a better design, this was not very easy to get off. I used a flat nosed plier to bend the tabs back.

Used a flat head screw driver to wedge between the grommet and the metal seat. Hammered it in to wedge the screw driver to bend the grommet and pop it out.

The grommets came apart in multiple pieces, very brittle with age. Cleaned up all the debris, I used a little bit of oil to lubricate the seals and the seat and used a socket to hammer in the grommet.

Also used a socket to press the tabs back in.

All done!

While the valve covers and the cam covers were out I prepped them, taped them up and had them ready for paint. Had a couple of parts ready for paint so the plan was to get everything painted on Saturday and give it time to cure and install everything back on Sunday. Shout out to my boy Jeremy for painting all my parts.

While the parts were in the booth, I went ahead with the rest of the maintenance items. Cleaning these parts take the longest time. Pulled the throttle body out and there was a lot of carbon build up but got it pretty clean. Slapped a new throttle body gasket on there and installed it back.

Changed water pump next and cleaned up the block some. All the bolts that came off were de-greased and every bolt got a little blue loctite before going back in. With everything cleaned and ready to be installed, called it a night.

On Sunday I had asked a friend of mine who is one of the best techs I know with help with the cam seals. I was not comfortable doing it myself. Well he showed up and replaced them including the front main seal.Thanks a lot Danny!

I continued with installing the timing belt verified all the timing marks were right, buttoned everything back up. Notice all the pulleys? They were all cleaned and a fresh coat of black paint was used to freshen them up.

Also painted some of the bolts.

The radiator was pretty dirty on the outside, aired out all the dust through the fins etc and rinsed it out. Installed the radiator, filled it with distilled water and also poured in a radiator flush. My plan is to drive it around for a couple of days and then rinse it out and install a new thermostat with Toyota coolant. Also filled the engine with Mobile 1 synthetic blend, going to drive with it for a couple of days as well just to get all the sea foam out and replace it with Amsoil. Also installed the K&N air filter as well along with new plugs, had already cleaned out the MAF with some MAF cleaner.

Everything went pretty smooth, going to keep an eye out for any leaks etc over the next couple of days just to be on the safe side. So far so good, I'm quite happy this is all taken care of.

-AJ Abraham

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SC430 Engine Bay Cleanup

After doing some suspensions components on a Saturday, the alignment was completely off so I didn't drive it. Since the car was at the shop anyway and I since I couldn't get an alignment till Monday I thought it would be best to clean out the engine bay.

The engine bay and under carriage never looked like it was ever touched. I know there is a slight oil leak which I believe is coming from the valve cover gaskets. Cleaning the engine bay would help me locate the leak better. It looks like the leak has been existing for awhile now, there was oil buildup everywhere it seemed. 

On inspection I found a leak coming from the oil feed line from the power steering reservoir and the power steering pump. So swapped that out before I started on the cleanup. 

I used the following tools:

- Purple Power 1 Gallon 

- Long bristle brush

- Red scuff pad

- Grey Scuff pad

- Pressure Washer

I had the car on a lift when doing this because I wanted to tackle the bottom of the car too, there was oil build up there as well, possibly trickling down from the valve cover gaskets over time. Make sure the car is not cool to the touch, when purple power is sprayed on to a warm engine it dries up almost instantly leaving a residue behind. You don't want that, you want it to penetrate the grease etc by letting it sit there and agitating it a little to help it through. A warm engine is not going to allow you to do that.

With the engine cooled down and on the lift, I took all the covers off. Engine cover, air box and intake piping. Before I forgot to, I went ahead and removed the MAF off the piping and there is a vacuum solenoid on the piping that I took off too. All the loose connectors and vacuum lines I took off I wrapped in plastic and taped it up. Also taped up the throttle body to prevent water from getting in. On the underside of the car I took all the covers off as well. 

With everything prepped I sprayed the engine down with purple power, I did the underside first, sprayed on, let it sit for about 10 minutes and agitated it with the brush to help loosen the grease up. With the pressure washer I sprayed everything off, I could see a huge difference already. All the oil build up was washed away. I did the same to the engine bay from up top. The pressure washer definitely helps to knock away the loosened build up from all the nicks and crannies. 

I let it drip dry for a bit while I addressed all the covers too. I didn't let the purple stuff sit on for a long time on the plastics. Sprayed it on, agitated it with the brush and immediately rinsed it off. There wasn't that much build up on the plastics except for the bottom tray. Looked like new once finished. Some areas in the bay needed a little more attention so sprayed those areas down again and worked the brush and pressure washed it a little bit more.

When I looked under the car again, all the build up is gone but then I saw a thin layer of dust that was baked on for some reason on the parts. The pic below shows the dust on the inside of the dust shield, lower control arm etc and it gives off a greyish appearance. The caster arm and the tie rods look fresh because they were just replaced yesterday.

Sprayed a little more purple power on there and scrubbed it with a red pad and grey pad. Red pad where metal was not smooth, like the lower control arm and grey pad where it was like the dust shield. Did the scrub down to most of the underside really, sub frame, oil pan, transmission pan, steering rack, sway bars, inner fender well liners etc. I did the underside rinsed it off with the pressure washer, did the left fender liners front and back, rinsed off and proceeded to do the same on the right fender liners. Scrubbing it down made a big difference, the baked on layers of dust etc broke down and the suspension pieces are all black again. Even the fender liner is black and not greyish anymore.

I used compressed air to blow out all the water from the engine bay, especially from all the connectors. With the MAF out I used some MAF cleaner to clean that out as well before assembly.

I sprayed on some conditioner for the hoses onto a rag and wiped the hoses and fender well down but I'll end up putting on a water based protectant on the engine covers etc once I finish all the maintenance and a final rinse in the engine bay. 

-AJ Abraham

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SC430 Suspension Overhaul

My SC430 is a 2002, 13 years old and when I got it I had already planned on doing suspensions maintenance. On my 2nd Gen GS after lowering the car and putting wheels I spent a lot of time chasing down the source of an annoying vibration I had between 65 and 70mph. I changed each suspension component at a time to see what would help it and with each component I changed it got better and better till it was no more. Huge thanks to the members of Club Lexus back in the day that reported similar issues and helped narrow my issue down. The SC430 shares a lot of the GS suspension components and so everything I did on the GS I wanted to do on the SC, but not in increments. Wanted it all said and done at the same time, and since a lot of them are interlinked it made more sense to do it at the same time.

These are the components I've changed:

Moog inner tie rods EV800543 x 2

Moog Outer tie rod Left ES80585

Moog Outer tie rod Right ES80584

Moog Ball joint Left K500102

Moog Ball joint Right K500101

Figs steering rack bushing

Figs #2 caster arm bushing.

Along with the above components the engine mounts and the transmission mounts need to be changed as well which I will do the next time I get a chance. I want to upgrade the sway bars in the near future so will do the sway bar end links then too.

I don't think these components have been changed since the day it left the factory 13 years ago!! Wow was it a bi**h. The tie rod ends were definitely shot, the boot was torn and grease all over the place, the ball joints were shot, boots torn, grease all over the place, the inner tie rod would flop with gravity, the steering rack bushings didn't look bad they were starting to separate at the edge a little from the metal collar and the caster arm bushings didn't look that bad either, slight tears in the bushings but not torn through like on my old GS. Although the bushings looked fine my tires showed inner camber wear just on the inner 1 inch which is usually caused by the caster bushing. I'm really glad I did end up doing everything that I planned on, it definitely needed it. 

I don't get to work on my car on a daily basis so to move things along quicker I got a used set of arms to press out the old bushings and press in the new bushings. Fold in the lip on one side press out the old bushing and press in the Fig's bushing. The pic shows only the press in bushing installed, the metal sleeve has to be greased and put in along with the end caps. I waited till the day of install to grease it and assemble it all together. The metal sleeve can be hand pressed in so no big deal but the grease is really sticky so didn't want it being exposed to other elements. 

When I got the chance to install the rest of my components it was all remove and replace. Still took like 4 hours to do all of it, everything seemed like it was seized on there. the locking nut between the inner and outer tie rod did not want to budge, I took both out attached, took it to a bench vise and was able to remove the outer tie rod end but not the nut in between. I ended up cutting the nut on either sides just to get it off to get the rubber boots off for the new tie rods. The ball joints took an exuberant amount of force to pop. The only thing that went smoothly was the steering rack bushing and the already pre-assembled caster arm.

Comparison of the old and new tie rods:

The ball joints were in the same condition, forgot to take a pick of it before I cussed at it a few times and threw it!

Out with the old:

In with the new:

I took measurements of the length of the tie rods and matched it up to the new ones hoping to get by till I got an alignment on Monday but that definitely didn't work out. Driving the car, it was all over the place so I'm not driving it till I get it aligned and can update then.

Also in hindsight I should have washed the underside and engine bay to get rid of the old oil buildup mainly from the valve cover gasket that I can see, hopefully it's just that. I think I might also have a slight leak from my power steering line where it meets the power steering. I'll probably clean the engine bay and underside before I continue with any other changes, it should better help me pinpoint leaks.

-AJ Abraham

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SC430 Cheap Big Brake Upgrade.

The SC430 shares a lot if the characteristics of the 2nd gen GS as far as suspensions goes. A great relatively cheap upgrade to the GS that I've wanted to do in the past on my 2ng Gen GS was to put the LS400 brakes on. The LS400 brakes are made from aluminium, so they are lighter, they have double the pistons and the best bang for your buck when it comes to brake upgrades. Since I never got around to doing it on the GS and since I'm a hoarder I had some LS400 calipers that have been sitting that would be perfect for the SC. 

I hate doing stuff twice, I'd rather take my time and do it once and do it right. Since these brakes have been sitting and almost 15 years old I figured it was a good time to rebuild it and give it a little freshening up. Fairly easy to do, a rebuild kit for about $25 to $30 and a little bit of time definitely puts my mind at ease. 

Use air pressure to pop pistons out, you don't have to split the brakes apart but I did just to clean it up better. Replaced all the seals, o rings, boot covers, locks, lubed everything up and pressed the pistons back in. 

I think I spent more time cleaning it, than rebuilding it. In retrospect I should have media blasted the outside (do not media blast or try to brush where the pistons sit), it would've been faster. 

Prepped, masked and etch primed it and now ready for some color.

-AJ Abraham

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