Joining the ranks...with an 04! (1 Viewer)

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mongoose2231

Supporting Vendor
Joined
Dec 23, 2011
Threads
88
Messages
3,265
Location
Orange County, NY
So I have been a mud member for a while and I have been posting in at least three sections of this forum, the 60 section being the most popular with me. I however always wanted to have a good reason to post in the 100 section, not just to lurk and stare at pics. I started a search, an arduous one, being committed to purchase my own 100. Finally, I managed to find a nice truck from a forum member in NC. The truck is minty fresh, with factory fender flares, in thunder cloud metallic with 223k miles on the odo. Runs like a bunch of purring kittens. Truck came with a stash of records and only needed the timing belt service done. I flew in to get it a couple weeks ago. Here she is as I found her.
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I got on a flight with my brother from Newburgh, NY.
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The downside to that is that there are no direct flights to Greensboro NC, however, there is a plus side, great beers while on layover..
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My brother didn't want the Troegs Perpetual, so he got stiffed, although the 90 minute dogfish isn't to be laughed as it packs a major punch in a small package. I had a good laugh when we each got our beers.
After meeting the PO, very nice honest guy, we hit the road.
 
Drove straight through to NY in about 9 hours.
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After getting home in one piece I decided to go ahead and order a timing belt kit. The dealer wanted $1250 to do the job. I didn't really care about the cost but i am always weary of the work others do even if they are professionals. At our friend @beno 's advice, I went ahead and ordered an Aisin timing belt kit to do the job myself.
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Kit came with the Koyo tensioner and idler and an Aisin water pump plus a Mitsubishi belt. Cost me $145 bucks on Amazon.
I started dismantling the truck with the help of a write-up I found while searching. The job was pretty straight forward and I consider the most difficult part being the loosening of the CS pulley. If you don't have an SST or fashion a tool yourself, you are left with the only other option, which luckily I had, and that's an air gun.
 
Pics of the dismantle procedure:
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As you can see the belt looked in like new condition.
In fact I was debating even leaving it alone and not going through with the service but that would have been unwise.
Here, you can see the marks I made to be able to check the belt against the new one.
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The kit is a good one but missing some critical components while doing the job.

Thermostat, upper and lower radiator hoses, clamps, oil cooler hoses, by-pass/throttle body hoses. PCV valve and fuel filter are easy to address while things are torn apart.

Radiator cap, serpentine belt and associated pulleys and hardware are worth while changing out if no record of them being replaced is found.

Nice ride!
 
Hi Onur, thanks for the heads up. I finished doing the job. Unfortunately the forum was unresponsive for a while so i couldn't continue posting. I inspected everything as I took it apart and it all seemed in good working order. I will probably tackle things as I go.
 
The forum still won't allow me to continue uploading files, perhaps maintenance is being done. I will continue posting later. I have a few questions as well.
 
As of now the job is done. I noticed on some YouTube videos people trying to install the belt from the CS pulley and then over the cams, and I noticed some have trouble slipping the belt over the cams. I went ahead and followed a Toyota master tech video also found on YouTube and started getting the belt installed from the top down. It went right into place, very easily.
 
Nice. Last week I picked up a 2004 LC in North Carolina - only 3 miles from my house though.
How many miles was on the old Timing Belt? It does look good in the photos.
 
The belt had roughly 110k on it. I think it woukd have gone another 50k. It really looked new. I also found no evidence of any leaks at the water pump.
 
Also forgot to mention that the gunk on the front of the engine was due to leaky valve covers which were fixed at the dealer by PO. This truck is great!!!
 
The belt had roughly 110k on it. I think it woukd have gone another 50k. It really looked new. I also found no evidence of any leaks at the water pump.

I'm going to open the right side Timing Cover and inspect the Timing Belt on my 2004 LC.
It was last changed at 73K and currently has 187K.
Engine seems completely normal - no squeaks, no leaks, smooth and powerful, driven by lady, no off roading.
If the belt looks good, might wait until something needs attention.
 
Everyone advises against waiting to do the belt. Personally, i would just do it for piece of mind. But that is entirely up to you. Toyota is ultra conservative when it comes to the intervals for changing the belts, I would safely go to 120k or 130k but some people had theirs snap at 70k miles, so one never knows.
 
Now for the question? The truck is pretty neat, with no paint issues and the bumpers are in pretty good shape, so I was wondering whether I should go and spring for a steel bumper. The caveat is that i have one of these sitting in my basement since 2010.
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I designed this and built two back when i owned an FJ Crusier. The pic is of my friend's black truck we used to mock up the bumper on. I should really try and see if it would look good on the landie before i move on. Opinions?
 
Congratulations!

Why limit yourself with steel bumpers? Get yourself NASA-grade composite Titanium/Nanofiber bumbers/wings combos we have been secretly enjoying in Crown Vic community all these years. The best dual-tone colour scheme is Iridium Stealth with a Navy styled ship number on it.
 

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