Leak- oil pan gasket?

[Soulman]

So i just brought this rig home and am trying to figure out where the leak is coming from. I get spots on the driveway about mid engine on the passenger side. Does the oil pan commonly leak on these engines (V6)? Any suggestions welcome. Thank you!

And is there any significance to the fact that there is one nut on the first pic while the rest are bolt heads?

 

[phattyduck]

The oil pan generally doesn't leak. Unless somebody used a gasket... (don't ever use a gasket on a Toyota oil pan... Toyota FIPG or other good quality RTV only!)

Check valve cover gaskets - oil will be visible all the way down from the top of the engine. Also possibly poorly done oil change (oil filter spills) if it is on the driver's side.

-Charlie

 

[TonyB66]

From reading a few threads, tightening-up the valve covers might be a prudent first step. I don't know the sequence, but I seem to recall 51 in-lbs...

 

[01thunder]

pressure wash the engine top to bottom. you should be able to see the leak then. more than likely from covers as it is coming down, not going up.

 

[Soulman]

pressure wash the engine top to bottom. you should be able to see the leak then. more than likely from covers as it is coming down, not going up.

Thank you guys. I actually tightened the valve covers tonight- just hand tightened. They were all fairly loose, maybe rotated a full turn and I was not turning hard as I was not using a torque wrench. Hopefully that helps. I will tighten them properly tomorrow or this weekend.


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[01thunder]

Thank you guys. I actually tightened the valve covers tonight- just hand tightened. They were all fairly loose, maybe rotated a full turn and I was not turning hard as I was not using a torque wrench. Hopefully that helps. I will tighten them properly tomorrow or this weekend.


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replace them, then add a little blue thread locker to the bolts and they won't walk out anymore.

 

[TonyB66]

replace them, then add a little blue thread locker to the bolts and they won't walk out anymore.

Are you saying that it is best to replace all of the valve cover bolts, I think 16 of them? Not sure if they are designed to be one-time-use...

Looks like I was a bit off before. Spec seems to be 53 in-lbs, not 51. That looks to be just shy of 4.5 ft-lbs.

Apparently the actual valve covers are known to crack. If the original gasket is in there still, it might be hard and brittle. Torquing down the bolts might even lead to cracking the valve cover. Read some discussions about that here...

 

[Acorn22]

Yeah definitely replace the VC gaskets and reseal the half-moons for sure. I had an oil leak that I could have sworn was the rear main after oil kept leaking after I changed the VC gaskets and stuff but IT WAS my oil pan. I had to drop the front diff (such a pain) and I resealed it with black rtv and have had no issues since. It is possible that it is leaking.

 

[01thunder]

Are you saying that it is best to replace all of the valve cover bolts, I think 16 of them? Not sure if they are designed to be one-time-use...

Looks like I was a bit off before. Spec seems to be 53 in-lbs, not 51. That looks to be just shy of 4.5 ft-lbs.

Apparently the actual valve covers are known to crack. If the original gasket is in there still, it might be hard and brittle. Torquing down the bolts might even lead to cracking the valve cover. Read some discussions about that here...

replace the gaskets, all of them; half moons, bolt seals, etc, then use a little blue thread locker on the bolts so they don't walk out.