First: Are Your Balance Shafts Staying or Going?

You cannot choose a chain kit for this engine until you have answered that question, because the three kits differ almost entirely in their counterbalance parts.

Our own position is that we prefer to see the balance shafts removed — they are one of the only common bottom end issues on an otherwise tough engine. The removal kit, the bearings and the install tool all live on the Rebuild Kits, Gaskets & Seals page, along with the full case for and against doing it.

Come back here for the chain once you have decided. The choice below depends on it.

Timing Chain Kits — Read This Before You Order

There are three 3RZ chain kits and the difference between them is entirely about the counterbalance system. Ordering the wrong one is the most common mistake on this page, and the product names do not make it obvious.

  • Standard kit — every timing chain component plus the counterbalance chain, with its tensioner and guides. No counterbalance gears. This is the kit for a normal engine where the shafts are staying.
  • Basic kit — timing chain, sprockets and guides. No counterbalance parts at all. This is the kit to buy if you have removed the balance shafts, and it saves you paying for parts you have just deleted.
  • Deluxe kit — everything in the standard kit plus the counterbalance gears, for an engine where the shafts are staying and the gears are worn.

The short version: deleting the shafts? Buy Basic. Keeping them? Standard, or Deluxe if the gears are worn.

The kits include a heavy duty timing chain, upper camshaft sprocket, lower crankshaft sprocket, chain guides, chain tensioners, timing cover gaskets and the front seal.

Chain only

The heavy duty timing chain is available on its own (OEM 13506-75020), but we will say what we tell customers on the phone: we recommend replacing the chain as part of a whole kit rather than on its own. A new chain running on worn guides and a tired tensioner does not stay a new chain for long, and the cover is already off.

Covers and Gaskets

The timing chain cover is a brand new genuine Toyota part (11301-75021) — worth knowing about if yours is corroded, cracked at a bolt hole, or has been sealed one too many times.

Cover gaskets are side specific and both are genuine OEM replacements: driver side and passenger side, fitting all years of the 3RZ.

While the Front of the Engine Is Apart

A timing chain job opens up access that is expensive to buy twice. If the cover is off, it is worth doing:

  • The balance shaft delete — by far the cheapest time to do it. Kit, bearings and tool are on the Rebuild Kits page.
  • Front crank seal and balancer seal — see Rebuild Kits, Gaskets & Seals.
  • Water pump — on the Cooling page. It is driven off the same front of the engine and it is the wrong part to replace separately six months later.

Working out which kit you need, or whether your balance shafts are already gone? Tell us what you are looking at and we will work it through with you.

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