timothy47129

I have what looks like oil buildup on #1 cylinders spark plug.#2,3,and 4 look great.i just replaced the plugs about 300 miles ago.it isn't too bad it wasn't oily just kinda baked on. And my truck doesn't smoke any that I can see.i did a compression test and results were 160 on 2-4 and 165 on #1 which surprised me for having 178,000 miles on it.so it seems to me it would most Likely be the valve stem seals leaking.im pulling the head this weekend to replace the head gasket due to changing the timing chain without pulling the head it's leaking oil pretty bad were the timing cover meets the head.I am going to dissaemble the head and spec out the valve guilds and valves while im at it before i replace the seals .so what valve stem seals would u use? Felpro, Or oem?


Thanks

racersg

You are on the right track. Either seals will work. Usually the felpro ones are pretty tight. so if you have a guide that is a little loose, the seals will seal for a while. I would get a OEM head gasket though. Also check when you get the head gasket, the valve stem seals may come with it. I am not sure about that though.
Good luck.

timothy47129

Yeah I planned on the oem head gasket but was going to go felpro for intake and exhaust gaskets and it was cheaper to get the felpro upper engine gasket set online than to buy the 2 gaskets at local auto parts stores. I'm about 95% sure it's the valve seals leaking on #1 I seafoam soaked the pistons about 6 months ago to burn the carbon off them and the oil control rings and I looked into #1 with a flash light yesterday and saw a small burnt on pile of carbon on the top of the piston were the valve seal has to be dripping oil on the top of the piston when it's turned off hot and it hardens up on it

rworegon

Buy a Valve Grind gasket kit from one of the Toyota OE dealers (two of many are in my sig) and you will have every gasket, valve stems, etc. you need for the job.

timothy47129

Wow kinda pricey for me.My yota is just my work beater and gas saving truck.I all ready ordered the felpro set and will get the oem headgasket and still be cheaper than the valve grind kit.I would prob go for it if it was for a $5000 truck instead of my $500 truck though.But thanks

timothy47129

Well I got the job done last night and you wouldnt belive the build up on the valves from the leaking valve stem seals.It looks like seafoam I ran in it a few weeks ago cleaned the top of the pisons well but didnt even begin to touch the carbon buildup on the bottom of the valves.It looks like my truck has spent alot of its life idling the way thing were carboned up.The valve guilds and stems meaured within spec and the intake valves and seats looked great.The exhaust valve seats looked great but there was a little pitting on the exhaust valves but a little lapping cleaned them up pretty nice.I dont know if it was sucking air past the dried up valve stem seals or somewere else but when I got it running and timed it was idling 200 rpm lower than before.The valve seals were so cooked if you pressed then with your fingernail they fell apart.Im hoping for a little better gas milage after thoroughly cleanin the build up out of the head,in the combustion chamber,in the intake,and in the exhaust manifold with a wire wheel on a die grinder.Mitchell book time for the job was 6 hours and it took me 8 hours having to dissasemble the head and measure out and clean everything.Oh and if anyone needs a labor estimate let me know I have acess to mitchell on demand 5.

Chip N Sawbones

I've got the same problem of crud building up on one of my spark plugs. I tried new NGK platinums, but there's still noticeable buildup on the #4 plug after just a few hundred miles. My truck also drinks a quart of oil every 500 miles, which may be related to the buildup. Short of tearing the engine apart, is there anything I can do to solve this? I only paid $1000 for the truck, so it isn't worth rebuilding the engine for a problem like this. It's a 1989 2wd with the 22re.

timothy47129

On older high mileage engines the oil contol rings can get carboned up and stick and cause excessive oil comsumption.saturn cars were very bad about this.One thing I found to do that works is to do a seafoam soak.Pull all the spark plugs get a can of seafoam and attach a small rubber hose to a funnel.pour equal amounts of the seafoam down all the cylinders through the spark plug holes and let it sit over night.the next day crank the engine to blow all the seafoam out with the coil disconnected since seafoam is flameable and reinstall the spark plugs and watch it smoke for a few min.The seafoam with soak down the pistons and ring to loosen up and disolve the carbon build up.I always do this if i buy something with high miles.I would also do a compression test. do it dry then do it with a few squirts of oil in each cylinder and see if the compression goes up.If it goes up the rings are worn if not the valve and seats are worn.factory compression spec new is 171 psi.There is a real good possibility your valve stem seals are old and brittle like mine.Which it is best just to pull the head the replace them since you have the remove the headbolts to access the valve springs anyway.As far as i could tell mine had the factory headgasket on it with 178,000 on it.So it was kinda preventative maintenance changing it anyway.And your on the right track with the ngk plugs as long as they were the fine wire platnum.They resist the build up since the tip fires hotter being a fine wire when compared to a standard spark plug.

Chip N Sawbones

Thank you for the advice. I'll give the seafoam soak a try. The spark plugs are the fine wire ones. They seem pretty good.