Oil Leak- I'M SICK OF IT! Options

[Rymaster]

This car has been leaking oil for years now, about a quart of oil per oil change.

I'm sick of it! I've had it! I hate coming off of the freeway and people looking at me like my car is some kind of steam driven train from all the smoke blowing out from under the hood!
I for one am NOT a fan of the smell of burning oil!!! And I've smelt my last smelt of it!

So after completing my clutch job I'm all in the mood to fix this too.
I'm attaching some pictures if anyone is willing to possible suggest where they think the issue may be located.
I know from the pictures it looks like it could be the valve cover gasket, but I've already did this one and the one I replaced was actually perfectly fine!

I know the oil gaskets by the timing belt cover are popular but the very left side of my engine it rather clean next to the timing belt cover. It's in the back of my engine that smoke constantly blows up from (I drew an arrow in the one picture to show you). Most of the oil seems to be resting on the left side of the bottom of the air manifold. From there on down, things are really messy! But that's the highest point with signs of oil.

Any ideas???



where the smoke comes from







THE MESS!!!










back of air manifold is rather clean!







over head pictures of by throttle









Clean next to timing belt cover




This post has been edited by Rymaster: Jul 7, 2011 - 11:07 PM

[Stambo]

i'd start with a valve cover gasket since its pooling up on the top part of the intake manifold.

[Bitter]

so change the valve cover gasket and tube seals....

[Rymaster]

But I just replaced the valve cover gasket no less then 2,000 miles ago, it's brand new...

Tube seals? The spark plug seals? But none of the spark plugs have oil on them or anything...

This post has been edited by Rymaster: Jul 2, 2011 - 10:24 PM

[BonzaiCelica]

may you have a crack in the block or head of the engine??

why such the long intake piping.

[Bitter]

Maybe you did something wrong when replacing the gasket. How about you get a few cans of brake cleaner and clean it up really well then let it idle and watch for where it's leaking from.

[96stgreendemon]

Replace your cam seal also, and make sure that you use toyota fipg sealant in the designated spots when you replace it

[RabidTRD]

I'm leaking from a similar spot in the rear.

First question is:
How did you re-tighten the valve cover?

Second question:
Is there oil under your distributor like it looks in the photo?

Also, that routing of the intake piping is killing the point of the CIA. The idea is to take air that is cool from the furthest part, away from the engine and exhaust and deliver it to the engine. You're heating your pipe by running it so close to the exhaust, therefore bringing in hotter air than you would if you had the stock air box. If you're going to run a full CIA like that, do some mods and run it in the stock location down into the front fender well. You'll have to mod the bottom of the fuse box, but your engine will benefit from it so much. You may be super heating your head running it there and may have warped the head enough for it to leak out of the rear part of the head gasket. I've seen it happen before on Civic's and Corolla's.

This post has been edited by RabidTRD: Jul 3, 2011 - 9:04 PM

[Smaay]

if you are smoking then changing those gaskets wont help, you need to replace the valve guide gaskets and or the guides themselves. you are consuming oil not leaking it if its smoking.

[stephen_lee]

sounds like its coming from the engine bay.. the smoke lol

[Rymaster]

yeah the car is smoking from the engine when the oil hits the hot engine on the outside. I'm gonna do some cleaner when i have time and see if i notice the leak.

The cam seal was recently done with my timing belt too...

And the CIA is something i've just never really worried about, the cone goes all the way to the front left fender and i've temped the air before after a run and its plenty cold. I think it was routed that way just cause there is no room to fit it between the battery and motor mount

[xrav22]

yeah the car is smoking from the engine when the oil hits the hot engine on the outside. I'm gonna do some cleaner when i have time and see if i notice the leak.

The cam seal was recently done with my timing belt too...

And the CIA is something i've just never really worried about, the cone goes all the way to the front left fender and i've temped the air before after a run and its plenty cold. I think it was routed that way just cause there is no room to fit it between the battery and motor mount

I had the same problem which is as the seals leak the air pushed the oil onto the driveshaft(I bet the boot is soaked) and as it spins it flings oil onto the intake manifold and it smokes as mine did really bad before I fixed her. By the way I notice your pcv valve is leaking as welll. Try a new rubber gasket for pcv but be careful if the old one is hard it may break and fall in. Get a new tube of some kind. I used a piece like that but it was shorter and it sat a little lower. Mabey it will work but the rubber is probably done. I probably should have went to toyo for that too.
Start at the top keeping in mind the oil will take about 3 months to burn away after all leaks are stopped.
Change valve cover gasket as it gets hard it will not prevent oil from leaking out. Since you have already you will need to snug it up a couple times or every oil change as it will loosen up. You cannot overtighten it all at once or you may ruin it.

Then if you notice the distributor o ring is bad behind the distributor the oil will find a direct line to meet all the other oil on the back of the engine so if you see the dribble there you have to change it.It cannot bre tightened.

then check power steering low pressure return line as mine was hardened and the toyota clamp was letting an iota of oil constantly dribbling to the place where the driveshaft likes to fling it. Use real clamps on it and if yours was as hard as a rock like mine was you will have to change it, just make sure you get actual power steering hose it was about 2 bucks a foot otherwise it will sweat oil. Now the fun part take off the timing cover and visually inspect what is probably the oil pump gasket leak(mine was disintigrated as I was putting in a quart a week). You will be able to see clearly the camshaft if it is leaking and if it is not(they looklike pretty sturdy seals) leave it for now. Now check fron seal at the very bottom and mine was still fine. Then I changed the oil seal and all of my leaks have now stopped and she is all dryed up. it is worth the 3 gaskets and clamps for the ps line to have a non leaking car. Some people say the oil pan can leak but a snug on pan bolts should solve that. Mine was fine. To do the procedures there are a few tutorials around this forum. I wrote one for the oil pump cover gasket somewhere. If you take off the timing cover carefully you may be able to reuse the rubber gasket type material.
Good Luck!

This post has been edited by xrav22: Jul 6, 2011 - 10:46 PM

[6G96GT]

yeah the car is smoking from the engine when the oil hits the hot engine on the outside. I'm gonna do some cleaner when i have time and see if i notice the leak.

The cam seal was recently done with my timing belt too...

And the CIA is something i've just never really worried about, the cone goes all the way to the front left fender and i've temped the air before after a run and its plenty cold. I think it was routed that way just cause there is no room to fit it between the battery and motor mount

I had the same problem which is as the seals leak the air pushed the oil onto the driveshaft(I bet the boot is soaked) and as it spins it flings oil onto the intake manifold and it smokes as mine did really bad before I fixed her. By the way I notice your pcv valve is leaking as welll. Try a new rubber gasket for pcv but be careful if the old one is hard it may break and fall in. Get a new tube of some kind. I used a piece like that but it was shorter and it sat a little lower. Mabey it will work but the rubber is probably done. I probably should have went to toyo for that too.
Start at the top keeping in mind the oil will take about 3 months to burn away after all leaks are stopped.
Change valve cover gasket as it gets hard it will not prevent oil from leaking out. Since you have already you will need to snug it up a couple times or every oil change as it will loosen up. You cannot overtighten it all at once or you may ruin it.

Then if you notice the distributor o ring is bad behind the distributor the oil will find a direct line to meet all the other oil on the back of the engine so if you see the dribble there you have to change it.It cannot bre tightened.

then check power steering low pressure return line as mine was hardened and the toyota clamp was letting an iota of oil constantly dribbling to the place where the driveshaft likes to fling it. Use real clamps on it and if yours was as hard as a rock like mine was you will have to change it, just make sure you get actual power steering hose it was about 2 bucks a foot otherwise it will sweat oil. Now the fun part take off the timing cover and visually inspect what is probably the oil pump gasket leak(mine was disintigrated as I was putting in a quart a week). You will be able to see clearly the camshaft if it is leaking and if it is not(they looklike pretty sturdy seals) leave it for now. Now check fron seal at the very bottom and mine was still fine. Then I changed the oil seal and all of my leaks have now stopped and she is all dryed up. it is worth the 3 gaskets and clamps for the ps line to have a non leaking car. Some people say the oil pan can leak but a snug on pan bolts should solve that. Mine was fine. To do the procedures there are a few tutorials around this forum. I wrote one for the oil pump cover gasket somewhere. If you take off the timing cover carefully you may be able to reuse the rubber gasket type material.
Good Luck!

Damn!! All of this happened to me way back. It was 'EXACLTY' the same **** and same reasons - very interesting.

[99gt3sge]

First try to re-tighten those valvecover bolts, they tend to loosen up after a while, and if the nuts were loose there's a chance that u might have oil in the sparkplug hole, in my exparience I have seen that same leak and its usually from the cover. And one more thing make sure when u had installed the gasket that it didn't move or come off a bit cuz that maybe another reason it could leak too.

[xrav22]

First try to re-tighten those valvecover bolts, they tend to loosen up after a while, and if the nuts were loose there's a chance that u might have oil in the sparkplug hole, in my exparience I have seen that same leak and its usually from the cover. And one more thing make sure when u had installed the gasket that it didn't move or come off a bit cuz that maybe another reason it could leak too.

Sorry forgot to mention it is a great idea to make a gasket for your oil cap. because like the distibutor o ring it gets hard and shrinks. Or buy a new cap I guess.

This post has been edited by xrav22: Jul 30, 2011 - 7:04 PM