Cracked Oil Pressure Sensor Housing
 

Well, I finally found the cause of the continued leak coming from the oil pressure sensor. One of the mechanics a couple of years ago over-torqued an oil pressure sensor. It's taken me three sensors to figure out why the leak has grown to now be a continuous flow of oil. Turns out, the oil wasn't leaking from the sensor, but from a hairline crack in the housing that holds the sensor (see photos).

Options for repair included (according to the Yota techs in Bozeman):

1) Take it to a machine shop and have them weld it (would have to remove the alternator at a minimum, probably the exhaust manifold and other parts as well)

2) Replace Engine (She's got 350k on her, not the worst idea, but the body isn't in great shape)

3) Due to its location, budget, and size of the crack I went for the old JB Weld trick. I sprayed the heck out of threads and the outside with brake cleaner, used one of the old sensors fully torqued in to spread the crack as much as possible. I then JB welded the outside (pushing into the crack) and inside (threading in and out with the old sensor with the 5-7 hour cure stuff. Let it cure for 24 hours for precautionary measure... and now I'm about to go fire her up. I'm not overly confident as I was hoping to dremmel the crack a bit so the weld could fill in more, but I couldn't get the dremmel up there. That darn sensor is literally in the worst possible spot on the engine to work on it.

Wish me Luck!

Good luck and worse case have it welded

Oh boy. Good luck. Thankfully the blocks are cast. Not super easy to weld but can be done. :)

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How did it go?

Well....how did it go??
 

Inquiring minds want to know.



[QUsOTE=trifectaus;3500236]Well, I finally found the cause of the continued leak coming from the oil pressure sensor. One of the mechanics a couple of years ago over-torqued an oil pressure sensor. It's taken me three sensors to figure out why the leak has grown to now be a continuous flow of oil. Turns out, the oil wasn't leaking from the sensor, but from a hairline crack in the housing that holds the sensor (see photos).

Options for repair included (according to the Yota techs in Bozeman):

1) Take it to a machine shop and have them weld it (would have to remove the alternator at a minimum, probably the exhaust manifold and other parts as well)

2) Replace Engine (She's got 350k on her, not the worst idea, but the body isn't in great shape)

3) Due to its location, budget, and size of the crack I went for the old JB Weld trick. I sprayed the heck out of threads and the outside with brake cleaner, used one of the old sensors fully torqued in to spread the crack as much as possible. I then JB welded the outside (pushing into the crack) and inside (threading in and out with the old sensor with the 5-7 hour cure stuff. Let it cure for 24 hours for precautionary measure... and now I'm about to go fire her up. I'm not overly confident as I was hoping to dremmel the crack a bit so the weld could fill in more, but I couldn't get the dremmel up there. That darn sensor is literally in the worst possible spot on the engine to work on it.

Wish me Luck![/QUOTE]