1996 4Runner massive oil spill after 6 minute drive?

[falkon240]

First time I've seen that seal fail on this forum.

Is your harmonic balancer messed up (wobbly or loose)? Perhaps if it is, it destroyed that front main seal but that may be a long shot.

Otherwise, I'm not sure how that seal could fail so badly to cause that much oil to leak out so fast.

other than it loosing oil like crazy, does it otherwise run ok?

My buddy/mechanic says the crank pulley was installed incorrectly so you were close.

I agree, never heard of a front seal failure since I've been on the forums.

If they are going to pull the pulley, might as well go all out and do timing belt, new rad, water pump etc... Then you should be good for a long while.

I had him change the timing belt and water pump as well.

It needed a coolant flush anyway since I never got around to doing it.

 

[thegipper]

My buddy/mechanic says the crank pulley was installed incorrectly so you were close.



I had him change the timing belt and water pump as well.

It needed a coolant flush anyway since I never got around to doing it.

Weird, I can't imagine how the crank pulley could be installed incorrectly but you never know I guess.

Good call on the timing belt and water pump.

How old is the radiator and I'm assuming you have an auto tranny?

 

[octanejunkie]

I had a defective oil filter fly off my Astro Van about 10 years ago on Thanksgiving. Aside from the car behind me I was the only guy on the road in an industrial area. The guy behind me sped up to catch me and told me. Had he not been there, or not told me, I would have destroyed that engine working on a holiday. It was a happy holiday season for me that year.

Now my worthless comment to the OP. I've seen guys install the wrong torsional vibration dampener (also called a harmonic balancer) on SBC engines and have a similar failure - front seal becomes ineffective and it just pisses oil out the front of the engine.

Similarly, the old Chevy 283 block had provisions for front mounts, the lower bolt on the passenger side opened to the crank case. If you converted to side mounts and didn't put a bolt in that hole you had a hidden oil leak that was hard to find because the wind from driving blew the oil it backwards and it barely leaked at idle. Good times.

Glad you found your problem and did the necessary PM while you were in there.
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