I own a 2003 (Gen 5) Camry with a good 245,000 miles on it. Sadly, after nearly 20 years of service it needs some maintenance. In the t junction in between the head, block, and timing cover, behind the alternator, a miniscule leak has sprang. Judging by the amount of gunk there it has been leaking for a little while. I've got a second car so no rush and would like to do this job. I've gathered all the info below on this job.
I have done the timing belt and throttle body rebuild on another more simple car and believe I can go through with the job.
Due to the fact that the engine has never been opened, I believe it would be lightly affected by the stripped head bolt problem. When you put steel bolts in a soft aluminum block the steel bolts win and shred the block, right. The repair for this is the NS300L helicoil repair kit. Also I will install some APR head studs to replace the bolts and make it easier to take apart when I swap pistons in 2 to 15 years.
Also, there is two options for head gasket: Improved design and old design. I believe the difference is gasket thickness and bore size. Old design will give a slightly better compression ratio due to it being thinner and bigger bore to compensate the bigger piston rings. I will be using an old design felpro multi layer steel gaskets.
To remove the head you need to remove timing cover, I think. To remove the timing cover you also need to remove the oil pan. And to get to all those you will need to remove a couple motor mounts, I believe. so will need those gaskets as well.
Since this car has never had a motor mount replaced I will replace those as well.
Should I also buy a new serpentine belt while I'm in there?
Feel free to correct me if I am wrong anywhere or provide more input Toyota experts. Or even recommend better quality parts, I haven't bought anything yet, this is my planning stage.
Parts list:
Felpro old design head gasket kit
NS300L helicoil thing
APR head studs for 2AZ
OEM thrust mount, transmission mount front and rear, and motor mount
Felpro Oil gasket
Serpentine belt?

 

Toyotanation.com has a thread on this issue.

https://www.toyotanation.com/threads...thread.325124/

Might look into Time-Serts which is supposed to be what Toyota uses.