Head Gasket DIY Question
 

I don't have a blown head gasket but I want to put a metal gasket in there and a shiny set of ARP studs instead of waiting for it to happen and cleaning up the mess it would make. I don't know much about mechanical stuff and that's part of the reason why I wanted to do this myself. One thing I havn't seen in all the head gasket threads is the engine timing. When you take off the head and crank all the pistons around to clean them is there a chance you'll mess up the engine timing? If so how do you prevent that little problem?

TDC of piston #1 is TDC you don't hear mention of it much so it proves that it's an easy part of the job ..

don't worry you'll do fine

Timing can be a biotch. Make sure you have everything pointed to tdc and you shouldn't have any problems you can handle. You're going to want a new timing light anyway.

Get yourself a supra repair manual (dealer or aftermarket) and study that bitch like a bible. It will teach you all about valve and ignition timing and how to install a timing belt.

But if you are too lazy to buy a book and read it I'll tell you how to set your "timing".

Open your hood, and standing with your knees against the front bumper look down at the belts and pulleys. Look at the biggest one at the bottom that has all three belts on it, that is your crank pulley and it will have a notch in it. This notch is very small and you will have to use a 19mm socket to spin the crank pulley to find it. When you do find it mark it with some white paint, I use white-out. Now after you find that notch (which if you don't know what you are looking for will be difficult) look at the cover/piece of metal directly behind the crank pulley. There should be a tab with the numbers 0, 5, 10 and 15. You will 99% most likely have to buy a can of brake cleaner and spray this tab clean because it will be covered in grime and you won't be able to read it. Now after you have found both of these, you will need to take the thermostat housing and upper radiator hose off to access the upper timing belt cover, which is the black plastic cover with 7MGTE or GE on it. Once that cover is off you will see more notches. There will be 2 on the inner timing belt cover and 1 on each cam gear. Now just spin the crank pulley until the cam gears line up with their notches and you will notice the crank pulley notch lines dead even on the zero mark on that tab. Now you can remove the timing belt and cylinder head. And when the head is off and you spin the crank around by hand while cleaning just remember to line that notch up with the 0 when you go to install the cylinder head that should have the cam notches lined up, just like you took it off. And that is how you set valve timing on a 7M.

Thanks for the info guys, I appreciate it. I believe I'll take that advice, get myself a supra repair manual and study the hell out of it.