Toy 3.4 front crank seal/cover?

I was just about to replace the balancer/pulley on a friend's truck tonight after the old one rattled off following a timing belt change by an a local shop that apparently doesn't own a torque wrench...

Anyway, I got a new pulley, bolt, key, etc. But when I dropped the skid plate, it was worse than I originally thought. I don't have a FSM for it, and before I just start pulling stuff off, I figured I'd do a little research.

What is this lower cover piece? It looks like it's dry inside and there's no oil leakage. Does it come off with just those couple bolts on the sides?

Thanks.

Its a dry cover eric. I am not sure if the upper cover overlaps it or not. Where is rix, he would know for sure

crash said:

Its a dry cover eric. I am not sure if the upper cover overlaps it or not. Where is rix, he would know for sure

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Found a little more info. It's "Timing belt cover #1" which, ironically enough, is the last thing you take off when changing the timing belt. And it looks like the upper cover does overlap it but I'm not sure if this one can be slipped out from underneath or not.

I'm kind of thinking about a big old patch of JB Weld since it just needs to keep debris out.

worked on a neon recently that someone actually took the time to stitch another piece of plastic around the bottom of the crank area of the timing cover!!! I must say whoever did it did a nice job patching it together...for the stitching they used some kind of coated hobby wire.

zukkev said:

worked on a neon recently that someone actually took the time to stitch another piece of plastic around the bottom of the crank area of the timing cover!!! I must say whoever did it did a nice job patching it together...for the stitching they used some kind of coated hobby wire.

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So nobody sees any issue with a JB Weld patch? Is there supposed to be a drain hole or anything at the bottom?

Yup, the mid coiver overlaps the lower cover.
if the crank seal isn't leaking (they RARELY ever do, even at 250k plus) leave it alone.
however... the mid cover aslo covers the water pump.
Might wanna go ahead and take 20 minutes and pull it all the way down and check it.
New (toyota) water pumps have a rubber and steel gasket, older and aftermarket (crap) water pumps use a groove and RTV/F.I.P.G., or paper-ish crap gaskets.

make sure you crank that pulley down TIGHT.
Something like 188 ft-lbs or something IIRC.
the damage to the crank snout is sometimes terminal for the crank.
Machine shops have to play lazarus and weld and re-grind the snout.

the lower cover has a small drain hole, I don't think it'll really make any difference if you fix or replace that cover.

Thanks rix. I wasn't sure what the cover was at first, then I realized the seal would be behind the timing belt. Duh. :idea:


I'm about to go out and see if I can pull the lower cover without pulling anything else to patch it otherwise I'll see what I can do with it in place. Nothing else is leaking and the water pump was just replaced literally a week before the pulley rattled itself off so I don't want to pull it all just to band-aid the plastic cover.

The inside bore of the balancer is hawged out about 1/16" all the way around. But as far as I can tell, the snout of the crank is undamaged except the surface rust from sitting.

Depending on where you read, the bolt is either 180-something lb-ft or 217. I'm in the middle of making a tool to make sure I get it tight in between writing.

Well the good news is that the lower cover CAN be removed without pulling the uppers. It's not fun for non-japanese hands, but it's do-able.

The bad news is that, if the woodruff key is broken off in the crank flush with the timing gear, you have to pull everything else anyway, so all that was a big fat waste of time.


This one might be going back to the offending shop since this is beyond the realm of "pro bono" work for me.

64FJ40 said:

Well the good news is that the lower cover CAN be removed without pulling the uppers. It's not fun for non-japanese hands, but it's do-able.

The bad news is that, if the woodruff key is broken off in the crank flush with the timing gear, you have to pull everything else anyway, so all that was a big fat waste of time.


This one might be going back to the offending shop since this is beyond the realm of "pro bono" work for me.

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IF you want them working on it again.
Maybe get a better shop to do the work and bill the first shop.
We have to do stuff like that all the time at my work.
We see lots of screwed up stuff that was "just fixed"