352Ford

Earlier this year I dropped a new 22RE long block I bought from Oregon Engine Rebuilders into my 88 4runner. Before I dropped it in I vacuum tested it to make sure it wasn’t going to leak oil and was sealed up tight. Passed with flying colors.


I started putting miles on it everything was fine. Then after a few hundred miles I noticed a small leak at the oil pan, timing chain, and block interface on the passenger side. The next hundred miles it steadily got worse and now it is at the point where the oil is basically draining out of there when ever the engine is running (as in would loose a quart if I left it running for a few minutes).

I pulled the oil fill cap off while it was running and was surprised to find air rushing out of the fill hole like a hair dryer on medium power. First though “O crap, the motor has tons of blow by already, and needs to be fixed/replaced”. So the crankcase is getting so pressurized that it is squirting the oil out where ever it can.

So I went and did a compression test and leak down test:

All cylinders were from 180PSI to 195PSI (actually much higher than I expected)

The leak down percentage for all the cylinders was below 5%

So now I am scratching my head, it is producing tons of pressure in the crankcase, but the leakdown and compression test results are amazingly good.

Thoughts? I am kind of baffled here.

Jerome99

I am new to thees trucks but not new to cars. how is your pcv valve looking, a clogged pcv would make crankcase pressure high.

Built2Grind

the bum who put your motor together probably either used silicone on the pan gasket or the block was not clean when they put it on. i REALLY hope you dont have 95% leakage passed the cylinders, did you mean you have 5%? some air is pretty normal. definitely check your pcv system. the break in oil can sometimes clog stuff up

352Ford

To clarify: the leak down was less than 5% on all cylinders; sorry I wrote that in a confusing manor.


The PCV system was my first thought when I noticed the oil leak too, but even when I disconnect the PCV system the air still rushes out of my oil fill cap like it’s a freaking hair dryer. If I leave it running without the oil fill cap the entire underhood area gets coated in a fine oil mist. The engine in my cobra mustang with a hard 210,000 miles is not even in the same league as this thing and it has twice as many cylinders, more miles, and a pretty tough life.

I installed the oil pan with the special Toyota gasket sealer in a tube. I could pull it apart and reseal it up, but given the amount of air rushing out, I would assume it would just start leaking again.

dwest76

just curious on this one....any updates? I have a similar issue and am thinking BHG.

shaeff

Not sure what you mean by silicone, but Toyota's FIPG is some of the best stuff I've used for sealing up oil pans. There's no "gasket" in there except the FIPG. (which is second only to 3bond, but I digress)

Did you pull the PCV valve right out of the cover when you disconnected it? The PCV on the 22re is pretty simple. Air enters through the throttlebody, and goes into the valve cover through the front hole, and exits through the PCV valve and back to the intake plenum. I'd check that the flame arrester isn't clogged up (inside the valve cover), and that the PCV is 100% clear.

You did the oil pan correctly. I've never had any oil pan I've sealed with Toyota FIPG leak, ever. (this includes numerous turbo motors that see high amounts of abuse)

Sounds to me like you need to figure out what's causing all that pent up pressure. Here's a FSM page w/ the 22re PCV setup:

soarerjzz30

You could check the oil pressure relief valve on your oil pump. If you reused the oil pump off your old engine it could be clogged.

abecedarian

vacuum tested the engine? why? The engine will never see negative crankcase pressure / vacuum.
Positive pressure will either be scavenged through the PCV in to the intake or through the fresh air duct ahead of the throttle body.

So the next question would be "are both of the valve cover's PCV passages clear"?

monsterenergytoy

I'm having the same problem but my engine was just rebuilt completely to hold a Turbo and i got rid of my pcv and it still blows tons of air

xylicon

This might be a long shot. I removed my throttle body to install a new TPS and when I re-installed the throttle body I put the gasket in backwards which in turn blocked a port for crank case ventilation. It caused the same symptoms you are describing, blowing air out of the dipstick and out of the oil fill hole.

Might be worth a check.