Dont change your starter. it sucks.

[Jake Breyck]

Push starting my car was 100 times less trouble then changeing my starter.
but anyhow had a little good come out of it. i crinkle painted my intake to see what it would look like, and also eleminated some items i didnt need.

Heres a pic.

 

[cribbj]

The crinkle finish looks good!

At least with the starter change you won't get this anymore from your wife/GF/SO: "You mean you've spent the equivalent of a new dining room suite on this car, plus every moment of your spare time for the last year, and you still have to PUSH it to start it?"

 

[jibbby]

Jake, why does it suck so much to change out the starter on a 1uzfe motor? Go from the bottom up and with the proper tools it's doable...

I would say changing out the stock exhaust headers is a real challenge if you ask me... Getting the tools on the header bolts are almost impossible towards the back of the motor.. Yipes....

 

[cjsupra90]

Jake, why does it suck so much to change out the starter on a 1uzfe motor? Go from the bottom up and with the proper tools it's doable...

I would say changing out the stock exhaust headers is a real challenge if you ask me... Getting the tools on the header bolts are almost impossible towards the back of the motor.. Yipes....

I think that he is saying that cause of having to remove the intake.

 

[jibbby]

Starter motor? Intake removal? I am confused and lost what else is new.....:alcoholic:

 

[Jake Breyck]

wow jibby, really wow, ok so normal cars the starter sits on the side of the motor, im most cases its 3 bolts and it drops out my 240 i changed the starter with one hand in about 5 mins wile holding a conversation.

the 1uz the starter sits down in the vally between the heads. its under the intake, so, you take the upper intake and tb off, take the fuel system apart, take the lower intake off, take the rear water bridge off, it interfears with the harness, so i didnt take it all the way off, i bent a 14mm wrench to get to the starter bolts that come into the starter from the back. finally a few hours later in florida heat and 120% humidity the starter is out and the new one in, then everything has to go back togather.. to make it less of a pita i split it up over two days. and cleaned and painted the intake manifold and installed my block off plates as pictured.

i ended up with a damaged injector gasket becouse i didnt think to change those although i should have, so on tuesday i changed all of the injector gaskets as well.

 

[jibbby]

You know, I've changed out starter motors on all my former cars, last year on a landcruiser and yes it was a piece of cake everytime.. Usually a couple of mounting bolts and connect the wires to the cylinoid... I've never changed one out on my Lexus, hmmmm? That starter motor location slipped my mind as I have always thought the 1uz.. to be in the same simple location... All those years under my SC400 and I did not know that or noticed that... I had always thought the starter motor was hiding somewhere next to the motor...

Man, I am humbled and feel like a total rookie...... I will go climb under a rock now for a little while... He He.. First I will seek and find the starter motor installs on the 1uz's... Get familiar with it... I've change the water pump out on the 1uz..and that is in a sneeky place too.. Oh those sneeky little hard to get too hiding places for the 1uz's components...

 

[ed_ma61]

First I will seek and find the starter motor installs on the 1uz's

wouldnt thatve been a good idea before you tried to make yourself look like an assclown?

 

[cribbj]

Bit harsh there Ed.

One thing I've always liked about Lextreme is that our members don't have to be afraid to ask questions or make comments about anything.

In other forums, if someone says something foolish, one (or sometimes several) of the resident techno nazi's crawls out from under his rock and takes him off at the knees. It causes hard feelings and people become less active as a result.

We don't want that happening here.

 

[ed_ma61]

perhaps my humour isnt clear enough in text
assclown is a jesting term only

the evolution of the thread is kinda funny lol

and jake, it takes me about 5hours to remove my starter... i hate my manifold!

 

[cribbj]

True enough.

We all have brain farts, just some of us have more gas than others.

 

[jibbby]

What did I miss here fellas?...

Eddie please, don't you know by now that I enjoy being an assclown. It keeps us all amused on the forum in between all this tech drab..If I didn't post non sense from time to time surely you would miss out on some humor and good laughs, no? Now, if I looked up the starter motor location prior to posting that garbage this thread would have died already... Just trying to make the forum go round and round at my expense..... Enjoy...

John, thanks for stepping in on my stupid behalf, your a swell guy with gas...

 

[spf_lexus]

Yeah I was screaming bloody knuckles when I did mine. I "tiled" the block by loosening the motor mounts to get acess to the back bolts. Its a PITA for sure!! took me a full day from 8:00 am to 5:00pm. Mine was so bad at 180,000 that when you started the car w/ hood open it would shoot lots and lots of sparks out..... all the while being a matter of inches from fuel lines... pretty scary stuff.


Get this... came home from school today and blew my head gaskets... totally pissed!!

redlined a gear gettin onto the freeway and then..."poof" huuuuge clouds of smoke out my back window, inside the cab and under the hood... so much that i could barely make out the cars behind me, Im sure they were pissed! Anywho I am about to embark on my fist head gasket job at 200,000. I figure 2 days of tear down alone.

 

[gloverman]

We are always doing starters on these motors before fitting them to avoid doing them in the car. One night on one of our first conversions a starter failed - very surprising how quick two people can get one out when you need too. It was 11 at night and took two people 30minutes. no water lines to worry about, easy air filter system, and no egr.
One very good thing with the starter being in the valley is you nearly always get one with a secondhand motor. I purchased one motor and it was gone. Lucky I got that motor cheap.
Manifold looks good Jake. One we welded the ribs on the top up and painted. People always ask what we have done. Cheers

 

[stevechumo]

I agree with Cribbij. I understand that sometimes we could be serious and sometimes we could be somewhat teasing up the threads a little bit. No harms, gents.

I've looked at the starter of the 1UZ, it'll be a pain in the butt to change it. That's why David had came up with the idea to reposition the bolts backward in case the starter gets dead again. I don't remember the exact details on how he did it.

Shawn,

I think the engine has a high mileage so it's normal to blow the head gasket under boost, especially when you keep flooring the gas for a long distance. You may look into the Cometic head gaskets with lower compression and ARP head studs that David has.

 

[spf_lexus]

Thanks Steve, I have planned for ARP head bolts and MLS standard comp gaskets. Dont know if i need lower SCR yet, cant ever see going over 12psi. Whats the deal with the cometic gaskets?

 

[RedPhoenix]

Oh this is fun... Infact. so fun I have done it multiple times. Getting a bad starter that didn't disengage properly.


Some pics for you guys...

 

[jibbby]

That starter motor positioning is absolutely rediculous... I can't believe Toyota designed it that way... Why not mount it outside the motor?...Complete intake removal to access it is just crazy....

Now I can understand why you REALLY don't want your starter motor to go out on an 1uzfe motor....

I wonder what the car dealership charges to change one out? Probably thousands of dollars in labor alone... Yipes...

 

[spf_lexus]

yeah I had an independent toyo specialist and it ran $500 for install.... thats just to put it in!!! It ended up being $900 total....

 

[cjsupra90]

That starter motor positioning is absolutely rediculous... I can't believe Toyota designed it that way... Why not mount it outside the motor?...Complete intake removal to access it is just crazy....

Now I can understand why you REALLY don't want your starter motor to go out on an 1uzfe motor....

I wonder what the car dealership charges to change one out? Probably thousands of dollars in labor alone... Yipes...

Remember, the UZ's were designed for the LS and the SC chassis's and thus the frame rail to block clearance is very tight now throw a starter down on one of the sides like a typical ford or chevy V8 and where are you going to run the exhaust manifold for that side (no room with the started there)... So next best thing in the empty valley area.... In toyota's eyes, yes it is a PITA to change but really, how often does a starter go bad? The real problem here is once you start buying remanufactured units, the failure rate steps up damatically....