Oil leak!!

S

SV_Dude

Moderator
So... I'm still leaking a good amount of oil. I figure I'm losing about a quart or more every 1000 miles. I cannot figure out where it's coming from. It's somewhere on the front of the engine. I cleaned the motor the other day and today I took all of the brackets and stuff off of the front of the engine. The oil leak isn't very obvious from where it's coming from. What I can tell for certain is that there is oil/dirt caked from the bottom of the engine to the top of the head. I'm wondering it the leak is coming from the valve cover (it has a new gasket and grommets) or if the leak is coming from somewhere on the timing chain cover and the cooling fan is just blowing the oil and dirt all over the place.

So, right now I soaked the engine in degreaser and I will hose it off again. I'll drive it around for about 20 minutes or so and see if the oil leak is more obvious.

I am prepared to take off the timing chain cover if need be but I don't want to open that can of worms if it isn't necessary.

One thing that I'm curious about is when installing the valve cover, what does everyone do? The book says to tighten the 4 nuts until the rubber grommet starts to squeeze beyond the upper washer thingey. Am I not tightening it enough and maybe the valve cover gasket isn't sealing very well? Am I tightening it too tight and deforming the valve cover gasket? This is all assuming that the oil leak is coming from the valve cover though, I do have oil deposits on the top of the valve cover on all 4 corners where the hardware is... maybe I am not tightening the hardware enough?
 
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Park over some cardboard and see if you can isolate the leak better.

I may be wrong, but if it is valve cover, you'll be leaking a bit while its running and immediately after you turn her off. If its a leak around the oil pump, or gasket around where the drain bolt is it may leak intermittently.
 
Eventually I'll do a 3.4 swap with a supercharger, or a 7MGTE swap. But I need to wait till my current engine dies. No use in getting rid of a $3,000 engine right now.

I got everything put back together and cleaned up. I'll top off the oil and go for a drive around town and see if I can find some evidence of an oil leak that is more obvious than what I had. Hopefully I can get this leak narrowed down, I'm tired of adding oil all the time for something stupid!!
 
I doubt that the leak is coming from something on the bottom of the engine seeing as I have evidence of an oil leak from higher up on the engine.
 
SV_Dude said:
Eventually I'll do a 3.4 swap with a supercharger, or a 7MGTE swap. But I need to wait till my current engine dies. No use in getting rid of a $3,000 engine right now.

I got everything put back together and cleaned up. I'll top off the oil and go for a drive around town and see if I can find some evidence of an oil leak that is more obvious than what I had. Hopefully I can get this leak narrowed down, I'm tired of adding oil all the time for something stupid!!
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Add some 20/50 it'll slow it down a bit :)
 
Oh My God.

Your leak is nothing. My 4-runner leaks about a quart every 100 miles of local/off road driving. It leaks from the rear main seal and the head gasket that was replaced in the recall. I talked to a repair shop owner this morning. He recommended trying a Stop Leak product first. He said they work, especially for rear main seals. He also said "put in two bottles". I did what he told me to do. I used the STP product. Now while in AZ I saw some specialized Stop Leak products for Head Gaskets. I was pressured into the sale, so I grabbed one and bought it. I find that it is a radiator additive and designed specifically for head gaskets which leak anti-freeze. I was wondering if using might not help. I never see any externally leaking anti-freeze, but have had a chronic cold starting problem. These Head Gasket remedies are expensive , but if they do the trick they will certainly save me some heavy duty repair costs or time.
 
Since Saturday I have cleaned my engine bay 100% and I don't have any evidence of an oil leak coming from the engine. The engine is still spotless and I have driven about 20-30 miles so far. With me going through about a quart or more every 1000 miles, I would imagine that some sort of an oil leak would present itself within 30 miles. I did replace the seal around my valve cover and tightened the valve cover hardware more than I usually do.

Since I don't see any external signs of oil leaking from the engine itself, I'm going to drive it for another week or two before coming to any conclusions. If I'm not losing any oil anymore I will assume that the leak was coming from the valve cover. If I am still losing oil without and external signs of oil, I'll replace the PCV valve and see if I'm not losing oil through there. I did notice one strange thing though, the hose on top front of the valve cover that goes from the valve cover to the front side of the intake plenum was wet on the inside with oil. I know that's another vent hose but it shouldn't be getting any oil in there... right?

I am however leaking power steering fluid. I have known that for a while but I need to replace pretty much my whole power steering system. I messed up a while back and assumed that power steering fuild went in the power steering system. Stupid me!! AFT goes there instead. I guess I shocked the o-rings in the system and I have a few leaks in my power steering pump and gear box. Eventually I'll replace all of that with the TG system and a box pre-tapped for the hydro assist.

@Swift: I think my oil leak is extremely excessive and is driving me absolutely nuts!! If mine was as bad as yours, I would park it until the issue is fixed. At that point, if you continue to drive it you're asking for trouble. And that leak stopper junk is the devil!! I have no experience with it but from what I have heard it will gum up everything and doesn't do your motor any justice. The leak stopper stuff is nothing more than a bandaid. Good luck!!
 
Most cars on the road leak oil. Take a walk in an urban neighborhood which allows on street parking and look at the asphalt. You shouldn't get bent out of shape driving a leaky engine. If there is a popular Auto Zone near you, visit it, and inspect the parking lot. You will see that the leaking oil has chewed up the surface terribly. I remember driving one very leaky Chevy across the country decades ago. There was so much blow-by the insulation that is put under the hood caught fire on a very hot day in a large gas station in Nebraska. The young attendant got overly excited about playing the hero, grabbed a fire extinguisher and bolted for my car. He tripped on the way out, splattering himself all over the tarmack. I just slammed the hood shut and that extinguished the fire. Then I drove off.
 
SwiftRunner said:
Most cars on the road leak oil. Take a walk in an urban neighborhood which allows on street parking and look at the asphalt. You shouldn't get bent out of shape driving a leaky engine. If there is a popular Auto Zone near you, visit it, and inspect the parking lot. You will see that the leaking oil has chewed up the surface terribly. I remember driving one very leaky Chevy across the country decades ago. There was so much blow-by the insulation that is put under the hood caught fire on a very hot day in a large gas station in Nebraska. The young attendant got overly excited about playing the hero, grabbed a fire extinguisher and bolted for my car. He tripped on the way out, splattering himself all over the tarmack. I just slammed the hood shut and that extinguished the fire. Then I drove off.
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Oh for sure! What a moron that attendant was, for being concerned about a vehicle fire at a gas station! And of course the parking spots at an auto repair store are representative of every vehicle on the road, how astute of you to conclude that all cars leak oil based on a sample of the parking spots at a place where guys change their oil in the parking lot! You're very smart, you are.

I'm so flabbergasted I don't even know where to begin with you. Your whole post just overflows with about 24 million different kinds of wrong. Stop giving advice right now before you kill somebody, you blithering idiot.
 
wow... I'll say this much at least, I don't like leaking ANY oil regardless of why or where. Leaking oil is a sign of poor vehicle maintenance and it's not my style. I would rather fix the issue and move on to better things to work on.

I do think I found the leak though. I cleaned it up a couple times and drove it a few times to try and find the leak. The oil is mostly noticeable on the alternator but the fan does a good job of spreading it all over the place. From the alternator the trail goes up to the power steering pump bracket and to the side of the head where the distributor is. So, I am thinking that I have a bad seal on the distributor where is slides into the head.

I'll throw another o-ring on it and see if the leak goes away.

I hate oil leaks, they're a pain to track down sometimes.
 
KidVermicious said:
Oh for sure! What a moron that attendant was, for being concerned about a vehicle fire at a gas station! And of course the parking spots at an auto repair store are representative of every vehicle on the road, how astute of you to conclude that all cars leak oil based on a sample of the parking spots at a place where guys change their oil in the parking lot! You're very smart, you are.

I'm so flabbergasted I don't even know where to begin with you. Your whole post just overflows with about 24 million different kinds of wrong. Stop giving advice right now before you kill somebody, you blithering idiot.
Click to expand...



Vehicles aren't supposed to leak oil, therefore when they are leaking, they should be fixed. I'm with Kid on this one, my 93 might have some shiners, but when I go to a buddies house to watch a ball game or something, and I leave, I'd be embarrassed if I left a shiny oil patch in his driveway. And as far as being on fire? That's just dangerous, not only at a gas station, but for yourself as well.

-.-
 
I replaced the o-ring for the distributor today. When I took the old one off, the o-ring was so dry rotted that it split into 2 pieces when I pulled it out with a pick. I thought I replaced that o-ring when I rebuilt the engine but I guess not.

That o-ring was obviously bad but time will tell if that is the source of my oil loss. When I'm losing over a quart every 1000 miles, it makes me wonder if I don't have more than one oil problem... not sure though. Hopefully the oil leak is fixed.
 
This is not a perfect world.

First of all, resorting to personal insults really does not attract intelligent readers. Second, your 18 year old engine will leak oil if it has seen any use. There's a practical side to using it for it's expressed purpose i.e. going somewhere and doing that within reasonable parameters. Most of the bigshot grease monkeys here couldn't make it across state boarders let alone coast to coast. They've never gone anywhere and couldn't do it if they actually tried. If you want to spend most of your time in the garage or most of your money on repairing your bucket of bolts, then sure, I agree all oil leaks should be fixed stat. Then again, if you plan on going anywhere like work, for instance, don't worry about the leaks.
 
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