Hello everybody! Good day to you! Welcome back! Glad you guys are here! I Am super glad to be here one last car before the end of the day. This is a 2006 Toyota Highlander It is from the land of rust and salt and snow and sleet and hail and stuff like that. Seeing as how this is a car from a foreign cold land of corrosion starting the engine, we are going to do a rust and corrosion inspection and possibly a tune-up at 190 702 miles on the odometer. Now when I say tune-up we're looking for ignition components primarily.

Now we need to understand that this is the engine. I Think it's a 3.5 liter that has the back Bank of spark plugs underneath of the intake manifold. So what I'm going to do is we're going to pull one of the spark plugs up front and it just take a look and see if uh, if those plugs are worn or not. If they, if they're worn, then we're going to pull the intake off and then put a set of plugs in it probably the three coils in the rear since they are under the intake.

We're going to determine that based on, uh, the condition of our front spark plugs. So let's get to it. So let us parking's yotto, power it down and of course the ever so popular popping sea Hood Yeah, that's right I flipped the thing around when you guys weren't looking I figure if I'm going to be under the hood I'm not going to be in the corner against the wall. so we're doing this in Reverse Come here There it is.

Oh I was wrong. 3.3 liters. Yeah, this is what I was talking about. See this big old intake manifold right here.

Well, our ignition components are way back there behind it. We can see one of the coils right down there. so we need to get the coils out and the plugs out. But before doing such things, we're going to pull one of the front, uh, front plugs and see what that looks like.

Let's see. Oh, this thing's bolted down. Hang on. Need some tools here? Let's get uh, some light on the subject here and pop this cover off.

Got three little uh bolts Fasteners whatever you want to call them. Three of those and then some rubber grommets that hold it all in position. here. There we go there she is.

Look at here. We've got a valve cover leak that's kind of a big one too that needs to be sealed up. That is not good. All right now.

One thing to uh to note in this particular instance, these coil plugs and these Toyotas are like nitroglycerin. If you like, look at them wrong. They break. So I'm going to try as hard as I can to get these guys to come out without breaking the tabs and there it goes.

Broke right off. Look at that. Try the next one. Oddly enough, the rear ones don't break as much as the front ones do.

Must be a heat thing. Yep. Destroyed. That one just disintegrated.

Yep, is what it is. they're gonna break. No Re I Warned you pull these coils out I Wonder if they, uh, if they're leaking inside as well? that one's dry? Okay, okay, let's see what we're looking at here. Let's get this guy out.

Let's see. Oh well, no, they're not the greatest. Okay, I've seen worse. These aren't too terrible, but we can see a little bit of erosion on the anode in the electrode.

Oddly enough, there's no carbon tracking on these, so they may have been replaced once before. Looks like we've got Iridiums or yeah, something like that. Iridiums ngks. Okay, okay, I'm pretty good with the recommendation of the spark plugs.

Let's uh, let me just check some maintenance items real quick. Looks like the wipers are new. Let me take a peek at this. Engine Air filtration element.

Make sure this thing's in good shape and that looks really new. I Saw the bottom of it. No need to proceed any further with that at this time. So we're going to be looking for front and rear spark plugs, valve cover, gaskets, and whoa there it is.

Flashlight Gravity Always Flashlight gravity. Motor mounts looking good. Those things like to break this torque Mount Here No, No fluid has been changed in the radiator because this thing just had a uh, a timing belt replaced on not long ago. Looks like the drive belt alternator has been replaced.

Very good. Okay, let's get this up in the air and do our undercarriage corrosion inspection. Oaks The rack is set. I Just checked it, rack setting this side I Double checked it.

Moving on to our subscribe button, let's see that's pretty good on the locks. Good to go. Let's go down below and begin our inspection. Let's see what we have here.

Looking fairly normular, Do another one that's four-wheel drive these. Northerners Really, really like their four-wheel drives. It's probably a necessity up in the land of the cold, in the snow, in the sleet, and the salt in the rain. What do we got here? A little bit of oil that might be coming from that valve cover.

Let's take a look up here. Oh, filter, it's coming from the filter. That's what that is. Okay, moving on out back.

our structural Integrity is intact. This is good. There's some surface crusties. Yeah, that's uh.

Eric O style right there. bushings. Those are okay. This stuff's okay.

Let's see. Yeah, that's good. Good, good, good. All right.

Yeah, it's It's fairly solid. Not too much for concern. A little bit of rust on those rotors. Let's see.

how's our pads looking in there? Like eight mil, eight millimeters? Those are. Those are fine. We're not gonna do anything with the brakes. Okay, so it looks like we're gonna handle that oil leak and do some tune-up action.

Let me run inside. I'm gonna go build the estimate, let my guy know what uh, what we found here and what we didn't find and then we'll go from there. So stay tuned because this should be a very good video. All right guys, We got an approval.

We are ready to rock and roll on this. First thing I'm gonna do is pull this air box off of here. Uh, like I said earlier, the intake's coming off and then we can get those plugs and coils and then valve covers uh and be removed successfully. Let's see if I can get this clip off without breaking it and survey says no problem.

Yeah, it's only the uh ignition coil connectors that like to break I don't I don't get it. and like I said, it's only the ones in the front. Yeah, no matter. Yeah, it is what it is.

let's get this thing broken loose. I Can tell this intake has not been removed in quite some time. that's pretty stuck. Let's just get behind it.

Break that. Bond These come off the pry bar. No seriously. I can't get the rubber boot to come off.

That's not okay. Please come off. I Would like to get this done before end of day so come off Now there no more nice guy on this one. Get rid of that air filter, get that stuff aside and we'll start pulling the intake down.

Let's get some Uh emissions hoses disconnected here. We're gonna pull off this uh, solenoid pack. First foreign. then I can get to the bolts and everything that hold this intake down.

And once that guy is removed, we, uh, we should be on easy street here. Got to be real careful with these hoses because they are brittle and hardened and I don't want to break them I'm afraid. I Don't have time for uh, breaking things today. Just wiggle that guy right out of there.

Okay, there's some 10 mil nuts that hold this bracket down. Pull that off. These things also like to break those little 10 mil studs or whatever. I've broken many, many of them.

This can just hang out right over here for now. Right here. there's a bracket that attaches to the throttle body. Let's pull that guy off.

Nut gravity: I See: I'll get it in a minute real quick. Let's de-dust this area with a blow gun. Foreign. Okay, looking up some.

We've got the stabilizer bar here that's going to be in the way. so let's unbolt that thing from the shock. Tower Get that out of here and the other side. Over Yonder Here's our brake booster vacuum hose.

Let's go ahead and slide this guy off. We'll set that right over there. So before we unbolt the bolts in the center of this intake, there's a couple of brackets in the back of it and I need to unbolt those brackets they're bolted onto the cylinder head down below. I think those are uh I think they're 12 mil.

It should be. Oh no. I guessed wrong. 14.

yeah. Unclick this guy. Hopefully these come out uh with some ease. These are not fun bolts to fight with back there.

Not at all, you know. Finish it off with a little stubby ratchet finger wrench. Yeah, it's a it's a little stubborn. I'm just glad this isn't a hybrid.

The Hybrid: I've got to pull the whole wiper cowl out of it and then contend with the Uh electronic control unit which is like the size of another engine. Those are not my most favorite job. should have been an astronaut. Yep, it's okay though.

We all fill our Niche right. I'm just getting the experience. so I can take over the world all right? So there's another bracket right back here. but I can't reach it.

So I'm going to go ahead and pull this uh throttle body off. There's a five Fasteners on this throttle body. they're all 12 mil. Let's pull these guys out.

Can I get to this one? uh, kinda not really. Nope. I'll move this clamp some that should, uh, that should help now. Can I reach it? Nope.

Oh I'm silly I was taking the wrong bolts off without taking the right bolts off. First the actual throttle body comes off of this throttle body adapter. I Made an error in my haste and then I need to correct my error. No worries there we go.

Set that aside, let's take our gasket screen device that with us now. I can get to those other bolts that there it is I could not reach this thing. Put that throttle body installed I think there's one more bracket behind it so I'm still gonna have to remove this little adapter thing I think at least that's how you got to do it on the hybrids I need to get this removed there. Now we go.

Let's get that one out of there. This is what I was trying to achieve the whole time. and then the one on the bottom that's the far away one got you one more back here. and then our throttle body bracket adapter should come off of there.

There we go. Release Okay, the last bracket bolt is right right back here. I Can barely get my finger on it, so let me try to get in there with the tool here. Well, there will be no try I will do I will get in there with the tool.

The question is aggravating, is that going to be? This is why these bolts are often found. Uh, not installed I think I got a bite on it right? Oh, I'm so close right here. Got it? I think okay I can't get after it with that uh, longer ratchet wrench because I don't have any any throw it's running into the firewall and whatnot. So I had to switch that out with a shorter one.

but now I have less leverage for unclickages. Oh, come on. Okay, that didn't work. Let's try a ratchet and a socket here.

Maybe that'll give me the yeah, that's good. It's got a good bite and I can get some leverage on it I think don't slip. Yeah, oh, that thing's in there too. It's like corroded on threads.

Feel really crusty. No worries. I Can always just demo saw the intake right? Just chop it off. You know there are some people who claim they can.

They can do this job without pulling this intake. That's probably harder than just taking it apart. All right, we're loose. Let's try the little handheld guy I Know you guys can't see what I'm doing back here.

My apologies. uh Joe regret on francais. it's a whole nother language. It's so close I can feel the the nut getting wobbly.

All right, there's my tool and I'll just two finger the rest of this There we go. All right. So that's all of our bracketry on the back. Let's get the front uh, bolts and studs in the on the intake here 12 13, 13.

So we're gonna have a nut here and another over there on the other side right here. there's gonna be a it's like a 10. Sorry guys. try again.

There's a 10 mil right here and that actually just holds onto this ground wire. so we'll set that over there, put the nut back and the remainder of these uh Fasteners or bolts that are going to be the eight millimeter hex variety shoot I'll break them loose. one clicks and then we can spin them out with the tool. This intake's the hardest part psychologically.

Once you get through it, it's all smooth sailing. but nobody likes to pull off the intake. Pull these guys out. Beautiful.

That's what. I Like This little plate comes out and my upper intake should be nice and free. unless up PCV hose. there's always that.

PCB hose gets me every time. All right. come out. Hose is off.

Foreign. There we go. Got her little sticks and towels in there to keep dirts and debris and anything else. Sockets, tools, bolts.

keep that stuff out of the intake. There we go. All right. moved you guys in a little closer.

Let's go ahead and get the nuts for the coils off bolts. I Said nuts because I was looking at the nuts for these uh, wiring harness clamps. that old brain word association thing. Let's pull these guys out.

um, pry driver I must unclip them see that one didn't break. it's always the front ones I Do not understand. All right. Never mind that one broke insert foot and mouth.

All right. I'll rephrase. it's usually just the front ones there. we go usually.

but because I said that naturally I had to break one of the rear ones just so Murphy's Law could prove me wrong. The coils out. Three coils out. Now let's get the wiring harnesses disconnected from the valve cover the big one, the little one and then we can unbolt this cover and then remove this guy.

Sounds like a neutral drop. Oops. Okay, let's get these brackets separated. Some get those off the studs.

It's good. We need some clearance here. Get this one off this one right here. and I think I can leave these fuel injectors connected.

Sure change my mind. All right. Fuel injector wires disconnected. Set those aside.

All right. Now we're getting to the good part. I Can get this. uh, this cover removed here.

Probably get the far away bolts first. There's one in that corner down there. I've got to maneuver around this wiring harness. it's uh, it's quite secure.

that was 10 mil gravity. Hang on. Got it? I got it? It fell. but I got it.

No worries. let's see like this. up sum space for my my flanges down there. Okay, there's one.

I'm on bolts. it's loose, got her. The others are not as difficult. I think there's three or four on the back side.

other ones right down here hanging out right behind this bracket. which is fun. Different wobbly. Get the Low Pro wobbly.

The other one was too deep and it was interfering with this bracket flips. There we go. I Have no idea how I could function in this career without wobble. Drive Sockets Foreign.

Yep, right down there behind this other bracket. Thanks Toyota You know what? I know what? I'll do? Oh crap yeah there. I didn't bend it. it rotates on.

its. uh, on. its Bolt There it is. Now we're getting somewhere good.

more speed. Oh no no no, Come here. There we go. That's all of them.

Crack this thing loose. Get this cover out here. There we go now. I Just need to sneak this thing past the uh, this big old wiring harness and we're in good shape.

which is hard to do because like I said, it's in there pretty tight. a little more clearance here. Um, out you silly valve cover. There we go.

That's the easy part. getting them back in. Yeah, sludge in there. getting them back in is the hard part.

All right. let's go take a look. You can see there was a bunch of oil and build up down that bottom corner that's got to get cleaned out. and there's some places on this uh, cylinder head where there's silicone, some sealant like that right there.

we have to get rid of that, scrape all that off, and then we'll clean this surface, reapply some sealant, and then we'll get that gasket on the cover, and then reinstalled. Okay, so one other thing I need to get a hold of on this is there's like a little Half Moon shaped uh plug that goes into that head and that plug also has sealant on the bottom of it. So I need to pull that guy out I'll just get a hold of it with some pliers and give it a Target should pop right out of there. it is you there.

See the sealant right here? I'm gonna reseal those I don't want this to leak and then someone's got to do the job all over again. That would be bad. All right. let's head over to the bench with the valve cover and uh, replace the spark plug tube seals in the cover and then we can get that thing re-gasketed and reinstalled.

Okay, so these tube seals are held in with some little tabs. Uh, some folks say the bend them I like to cut them off. it's easier for me I don't like to bend them so we're just going to cut them off. We go very thin metal and then we can just knock these out with like a punch.

Flip this over. Let's go in there with a pry bar and a hammer or a punch or something. Knock those out and then we'll press the new ones in. super easy.

For starters I Choose pry bar. You can't get it out with pry bar. Usually they come apart while you're doing this. Yeah, look at that I've got half of it out.

Loud noises Hammer noises How how I hit my finger on that stud and that hurt before I hit the stud y finger? Well I got two of them now I can't fry a bar this third one Negative: Come on there it is. Yeah, this is the other operation that people never do type of job. They don't like to change these and I don't know why. All right, let's bust out the valve cover gasket set.

Get in there carbide box opener. All right. Remember Fun! We're here for fun. I Know that that's not the appropriate and specified way to, uh, open a box or a bag.

Or a bag around a box or a container. But that was my fun way. Anyway, let's get these seals pressed in, tap them down a little bit with some dead blow action, Just make sure they're fully seated There we go, and then we get the perimeter gasket set up. I Believe these are both the same.

Give it to me Why? Okay, yeah, I believe these are both the same. Figure it out pretty quick and and they're not foot in mouth twice. Let's try this one. Yeah, there we go.

Now we're cooking with. Crisco We got the right parts set this guy in position here. press it down, make sure it's fully seated because we can't allow it to come out while I'm trying to put this cover on the head and this is the hard one. All right.

good to go back over to the auto. We'll get the silicone sealant set up, our TV sealant set up on uh on the cylinder head itself, and then we can get this cover back into position and once this guy's in, it's smooth sailing. Okay, so here comes our little Half Moon Puck thing. It's got some sealant.

uh down on the bottom of it. We're gonna slide that guy flashlight, slide that down into its home right there, press it down, and then we need to put a little bit of sealant here here and right here. that way oil can't make its way out at uh, at the little seams right there there. we go a little bit right there and one more up here.

All effect. Okay, front piece is easy, just stick your bottle in there and just give it a dab. but the rear I'm gonna do that with the flanges. that's a lot.

but you know this is a it's a difficult Corner in there and I'm not chancing it so we're just gonna use a lot. There we go. all right now. let's back up and get that cover in position.

It's doing this. no mistakes, it's just gonna happen. So what I need to do is make extra careful. Super duper thousand percent positive that I don't scrape that blue gasket on anything because if it rubs across just like it just did, it'll come out of its uh little Groove and then I must start over.

Which would this leaves me? The problem is, you can't see that you failed until it's already like in position here. and I think I think we're good because I can't see the back side of it now. so I just got to keep the fingers crossed and I hope that it's all lined up where it's supposed to be. Feels good.

Let's go ahead and get a couple of the bolts in. I'll do the back side, two in the back and then two in the front and then I'll do the the edges, the left and right side afterwards because I need to go ahead and clamp this down so it can displace that sealant and allow that to set up. two of those guys that are in ring ring. Come on you talk! Tick Tock Running out of time in my clock now I'm going to tighten down the ones in the rear first.

That way, it's going to kind of lean this cover in that direction. so when I uh, tighten down the ones in the front, it'll achieve very good clamping. Force There we go. Perfect.

Woohoo! Okay, so I've got a mirror with a light on it. I'm just going to look back behind here and take a peek at the seam this one and we're looking to make sure that that gasket is even and has not come out. And so far, so good. Everything looks good.

Let's see I know you guys can't see. Just take my word for it. and how does it look on this side? Are we in good shape? Yeah, first sure are. So let's get those remaining bolts in and then we can proceed.

What I'll do is: I'll toss the intake back on after we do the spark plugs and after uh I get the new coils in. Then we'll come up to the front valve cover and knock that one out. Click. There's one more I think it was back over here I Cannot bleach feel it.

can't see it, can barely feel it. but I know it's there. Got it foreign? Get some torque on those first bolts that I put in and we'll come up to the front. finish it off a little more.

Okay, one more right here. I Think Yep, get that guy in. Oh, it's getting hot. Um I'm in a position of reduced airflow and the task at hand is making me sweat.

There we go. One more click. last one right over here. There we go.

All right. let's pull those spark plugs out and uh, get this thing uh and get the new ones installed. Slip this uh this guy back down over its bracketry. Let's go ahead.

Good Good Good Good Good Good good. O2 Sensor I can plug this back in I Took that off for clearance. Okay, all right, all right, Spark plugs. Let's go ahead and yank these guys out on kicks.

Foreign about the same condition as the first one that we pulled out. Not terrible, but not great. But since we're going through all this work, we'll put new ones in on clicks. Same condition on that one.

Yep, Okay, here are three of the new ones. These are: NGK plugs I got Iridium Ixes. They're pre-gapped no need to set the gap on them. plus Sierra you're not supposed to set the gap on Iridiums and Platinums.

Yes, you can check them, but you're not supposed to change the gap and I prefer not to check them because checking them actually does put some load on the electrode. and I'd rather not invite the opportunity to damage it. But I can visually check them with my micrometer and they look to be 44 000 to me, so that's what we're gonna go with. You can't do that.

Three click pre-click plus p All right. Okay, let's get in here with some actual clicks. Go ahead and tighten these up to the specified torch kicks. We were crushing the Crush Washer two and noodle Trace All Right Tickets is complete.

Good to go. Let's get the coils Dropped In All right. So we've got three new coils. Uh, like I said, we're not doing six new coils just to save cost, but for the future, in order to, uh, not, have to pull this intake again in the event of a coil failure.

Uh, I'm gonna go ahead and replace these just the way it's the better way and drop these guys in. that one's wrong and I'll get them connected before they go down all the way because those connectors are kind of recessed in the valve cover ing one oh, right in front of me. There we go. and that one right there.

Okay, that's three coils. We'll do the three bolts and then we can also do the three nuts for that wiring harness. Screw that guy in. that one's not straight at all.

It's like 40 degrees off there. I Can't see you guys actually have a better view than I Do believe that. Beautiful. all right.

Uh, let me get the nuts in for these little brackets. Probably could have waited on that one because the connector's in the way. Nice harness clicks now. I Need to fix or, uh, solve this broken connector problem right here.

There's a couple ways to do that. You can throw some silicone on it or throw some zip ties on it. I've done both methods and I get equal amount of flack for either. Well, either or so.

uh, maybe I'll use uh I'll use zip ties this time I prefer the zip tie method, personal preference and all. So check this out. What I'll do is we'll pull this connector out, run a zip tie into it Loop it around and zip it. Then we'll put the connector on, zip it down all the way, and the square part, the head of the connector or the zip tie is going to, uh, meet up with the tab that's on the uh, the coil, and it's going to lock it in and prevent that coil from the connector from releasing.

See that? Okie dokes We're ready to get the intake reinstalled first. I'm going to pluck this uh old plenum gasket out. You can reuse these. they're not.

Uh, they're not a one-time use only, but they're relatively low cost and I like to replace them with blue ones so you know they're good. Get this guy out of here, set the rest of this stuff aside and get this gasket in into its new home. It's this way. Shapes and colors.

Yeah, all right. let's get this in. its Groove It's got little tabs hanging off of it so you know that it's aligned. It's good.

and let's go ahead and pull the towels. I'll give these Runners a shot with some air just in case there's any dirt in there. Okay guys, here's the deal. We all went step by step in a very detailed fashion through the valve cover replacement on this 3.3 liter.

Toyota Highlander That being said, I have boatloads of footage and I did not edit very much out so this video is getting rather long. We've got a couple hours ahead of us I'm trying to cut it down but I cannot squeeze it all into one single operation. Therefore, unfortunately this is going to have to be a to be continued. So as always I'd like to thank you guys for watching this video.

Hope you enjoyed this video. If you did enjoy this video, you know the drill. Go ahead tap that like button down below. Drop me a comment or two while you're down there.

and if you have not already, please consider tapping that subscribe button. That way you do not miss out on any more of my future content and that will end my moment of Shameless self-promotion So again, and as always, thank you for watching and most importantly, do not forget to have yourselves a great day! End of transmission I'm gonna go ahead and get that PCB hose right now because I said I wasn't going to forget it.