akarocket

About 2 months ago I adjusted the valves on the truck. I decided to go the cold route and adjust them to 7 and 11. Previously I had done the 22re power trick with the Autolite plugs, advanced timing ETC. I decide to go back to stock with the plugs, everything. Got it back together and ran great.

A few weeks later I noticed a oil leak coming from the front of the motor. Traced it to a front crank seal or oil pump seal. I replaced those with new parts and a speedi sleeve. Fast forward another week and I find another leak . This time it looks like the distributor O-Ring. Replaced that and I thought all is well. Today I drove it on the interstate a while and ran it pretty good. Found another f^^kng oil leak . This time I traced it back to the pinch bolt on the distributor (needs sealant guys, in case you didn't know).

I decide to check the PCV because I thought it was clogged. Checked out fine. I then removed the hose closest to the oil cap and capped the Intake fitting. I discovered what I thought was a lot of pressure. I also took the tube off the throttle body and noticed a small amount of oil in there. I happened to have one of those cheap PCV breathers laying around and decided to attach it to the front nipple on the valve cover. man that was a mistake. After getting back from a test drive it looked like a oil rig exploded under my hood. I had oil everywhere.

I am beginning to think rings. The thing I don't understand is it runs really well and I don't see any smoke from the tailpipe. If anything there is excess moisture in the tailpipe (but no smoke white or blue). I guess I need to do a compression test. Is anybody running a breather filter on the front tube on a 22RE? If they are I guess I have bigger problems.

What say you?

abecedarian

there are two hoses from the valve cover to the intake plenum, and one has a PCV valve and the other doesn't. One supplies fresh air to the crankcase, and the other recovers blowby (through the PCV valve) into the plenum.
When you plug the 'supply' hose, it's no wonder excess pressure builds up. The supply is part of a closed system drawing air in through the AFM. By installing a vent to atmosphere, you've rendered that whole part of the system useless. And who knows what downstream systems are borked.



scared yet?



stop and consider the air flow in the system.

drew303

I've yet to understand how the PCV and the the open hole actually work exactly, or how it is in any way shape or form a Positive Crank Case Ventilator.

Both openings on the valve cover are just that, openings. Theres a baffle in the top of the valve cover but neither is in anyway plumbed to anything specific.

on a 22r, the front vent just runs directly into the intake, which theoretically should be some kind of vaccum, not the other way around but on a carb, you dont really get much vac via the intake =p

anyone care to elaborate? Besides, the motor runs fine with or without the PCV installed. And them dumb things break way to damn easy.

drew303

oh and oil tends to find its way into the intake via that front hose, so I guess there is some vaccum there.

akarocket

I did not plug the hose. I vented it to atmosphere. I plugged the intake to prevent a vacuum leak. The breather on the valve cover was supplying the fresh air. Unfortunetly the pressure blew by the crankcase breather.

I don't see how the front hose could supply air when it is sucking vacuum the opposite direction.

akarocket

Breather looked like one of these:

akarocket

Well I did a leakdown test on #1 cylinder and I have air coming out the hole in the valve cover and the dipstick . Guess it must be rings. The thing I don't get is it is not blowing smoke out the tailpipe. Engine still seams to be running good as well. As much air as was coming out the dipstick I am surprised I had 135 lbs of compression in that cylinder. I guess now I need t figure the next step.

toyota-erik

the only way to know for sure is to pull the piston. The ring might not be broken but instead have an excessive ring to land clearance on the #1 compression

yotafreakshow

Did you figure out what was going on? My 87 22re blows oil spray out the filler cap when opened while idling. I guess I need to check the compression...the motor runs so smooth, it would be hard to imagine that the rings are bad. My old 85 had developed a bad miss and was blowing the dipstick out, found #4 rings broken into 25-30 pieces...still hanging on in the grooves somehow. New rings fixed it. Is there any other way to leak pressure into the crankcase...headgasket? No fluids mixing, some oil and water have disappeared since I last checked/changed though no obvious smoke. The engine does have 304k on it! There is too much pressure for the pcv to take, that's for sure. Way more than I would consider normal. I have had 5 of these trucks/4runners w/ 22r/e, I've added oil during idle before, and never had oil spray blowout in my face. May be a slight idle drop and evidence of a little blowby floating out, nothing more. Lots of oily/dust sludge building up around distributor seal, valve cover seal (newer), oil slick in TB coming from front breather tube all indicating excess positive crankcase pressure..if there should be pos. pressure at all. Just trying to dig up some comments.

mooreboom2

i just suffered the dipstick blowout on my 89 while i was on the hiway. as long as i drive it in town its ok. i wonder if that would contribute to some overheating because of heat displacementin the cylinder.

heliopil8

There is a metal baffle riveted to the underside of the valve cover to prevent excessive oil from reaching any of the openings in the valve cover. There are three separate chambers in it. The PVC chamber is plugged. Take a small right angle pick and clean out the crap at the rear of the baffle lay the valve cover down right side up in the parts washer and place the solvent hose in the PVC port and let it flush for 30 minutes, then flip the cover on its side and verify a good flow of solvent out the back of the breather. All done.

jennygirl

Digging this up, experiencing some similar symptoms w/ the oil in intake coming from breather hoses.

Did either of you guys figure it out? Was it piston rings?

Flashlightman

Good Morning all, i have a similar issue and was looking for troubleshooting ideas.
I rebuilt my 87 EFI 4 runner about 12 years ago, seemed to run fine as its taken my family over the rubicon and fordyce trails (SAS and dual cases).
I'll admit i don't know alot about the EFI and all the vacuum lines and i am wondering if i hooked something up wrong, lots of very late nights and beer. On the trail i have experienced excessive crankcase pressure to the point that the 1/2 circle seal on the back of the valve cover would blow out on occasion, so i hooked up a breather that allowed pressure to escape and seemed to drive ok and it passed CA smog a few times. My son rolled it and its been sitting for 10 years.

Fast forward 10 years, my younger son wants to drive it now, so my wife took it to our trusted mechanic, (although he is not computer/tech savy) for diagnosis, all i have heard from the mechanic so far is that "there is too much crank case pressure" "all cylinder are producing between 190 and 205 psi" and that "the plug are black".

Any suggestions or comments would be very much appreciated.

Thank in advance.

Thommo Thompson

if the compression tests are that good but theres too much case pressure, id suspect valve guides, in particular the exhaust.
They are a commonly replaceable item and the exhaust ones go first.
unfortunately theres no way tobtest it without taking it all apart. but that is required anyway with a ring job, so u should just remove the head and have it inspected for valve stem to guide clearance.

Thommo Thompson

and black plugs are either incomplete combustion (dry furry black) or burning oik (hard and dense black stuff).
if hard and dense, then its just another indication that the stem to guide clearance is excessive. it just bursts the valve stem seals to oblivion and then sucks lots of oil past it at startup and a small amount during operation.

Flashlightman

right awn, i appreciate the help.
The shop just called they can't figure it out, confirmed all cylinders are putting out between 195 and 210 psi. they checked the PCV system and said it was working. so ill be driving it home tomorrow, doing some more research and probably tearing it down. They said they couldn't get it to run good enough to smog check it.
if anyone know a good toyota guy in Sacramento CA area, let me know.

Brian

Thommo Thompson

damn.
i have always wondered if it would be possible to replace guides with the head on haha.
it would make it easy to heat up the head for removal.
one cylinder at a time.
warm her up till shes really hot,
pop the rocker cover,
set the piston to bottom dead centre on its way through compression stroke,
fill combustion chamber with rope through spark plug hole,
turn crank so that rope bundle pushes up on valves at top of compression stroke,
remove valve springs from that cinder with overhead spring remover.
remove seals
use slidehammer on locking grips frimly attached to the guide seal rim to pull out guide
pulling it out around the valve stem in place
push new guide in carefully so as to no go beyond specified extrusion.
it would be scary, and a few special tools and a bit of patience, but it would be cool to do without touching the headgasket

millball

On a 22r type engine, the headbolts run thru the rocker arm towers. Can't get to the valves and springs without removing the rocker assembly.

When the rocker assembly is off there are no headbolts installed. The head is just laying on the block.

Thommo Thompson

oh well that sucks.
jees i see that as a bit of a high risk failure point.
more metal to go through means a longer head bolt, the longer the head bolt, the more elasticity it has, the more elasticity it has, tge more retorquing over time is required for the hg shrinking.

thats a let down in my opinion of the design of this motor.
i guess thats how its done with sohc as theres not much room.

shafner30

yotaman in santa rosa ca is the man he is the toyota wizard very close to sacramento