jht3

for some months now i've been leaving stains on the pavement wherever I go. the leaks at first appeared to be coming from the bellhousing, so i assumed i had a bad rear main seal and transmission input seal

well i was wrong

my valve covers or cam seals are leaking AGAIN, for the 3rd time. drivers side is the worst offender. the dealer did this repair most recently, 2 years ago.

what i thought was ATF dripping down, i now have discovered it is the red toyota coolant. i've checked all the hoses at the top rear of the engine and all looks dry. all that leaves is another bad headgasket, or a freeze plug, right? dealer did the head gasket almost 5 years ago.


so now the list of things wrong is a ripped cv boot, rusted rockers, valve covers, and an unknown coolant leak. ugh. makes me just want to punt and try again with a different vehicle

jht3

so the valve cover fix i can do myself. dealer the best place for the gaskets and cam plugs? i assume i'll need an air chamber gasket, throttle body gasket, 2 valve cover gaskets, 2 cam plugs, and some gasket maker. anything else?


as for the coolant leak, this one is still pissing me off. i can smell burning coolant and see it dripping onto the ground, but i cannot find the leak. the hoses on the back of the engine look great and the whole area seems dry from above. i'm going to put a pressure tester on the radiator, but i'm not sure if that will help

Blurr

you should be able to reach back and feel the rear cam seals for leaks and if the valve covers are leaking, it should be easily visible. i replaced the head gaskets on my 4runner about 6 months ago along with all of the other top-end gaskets. The cam seals are still dry but my valve covers are slowly leaking again, it is most likely due to the valve covers being slightly warped as I had those gaskets replaced twice before I did it. Maybe your valve covers are warped too?

as you know, there are quite a few of smaller coolant hoses on the upper rear part of the intake. any one of them can leak very slowly and even intermittently. just start looking from the top down until you find moisture.

Patience, man. We all know what it is like to be fed up and tired of annoying problems like this. Just carve out some time and tackle each issue one at a time until they're all taken care of. Good luck!

MMA_Alex

compression test will tell you if the HG is done or not...If the HG is good then do a coolant system pressure test. It'll confirm a leak of the cooling system, and you can pump it up and cause your leak to be a lot more obvious so you can fix it

jht3

bumping my thread

still leaking coolant, but now worse than ever. i have replaced the small J shaped coolant hose, even though it didn't appear to be leaking, and i was right...i am still dripping coolant.

i cleaned and degreased my engine well, and then put a pressure tester on the radiator. at 8psi i found a coolant dripping off the bellhousing every 4 seconds. the last place i can see coolant from below is off the last bolt for the oil pan on the passenger side. no sign of a leak from the topside or passenger wheel well. the head to block mating surfaces look clean except for slight oil weepage

at this point i've resigned myself to pulling the intake plenum and manifold, and replacing the water bypass pipe #1, water bypass block gasket, and all hoses back there. is there anything inside the bellhousing i need to look at like freeze plugs?

Blurr

don't start yanking parts off until you have identified the location of the leak. follow the drip upward until you see where it is coming from.

24Runna

Check the front of the engine for the coolant leak! check right below the crack pulley. If you see leakage there, yank off the timing belt cover and have a lookse, if it above the water pump, then its the idler pulley. If the pulley still spins like it should, just take it off, and put a new gasket on. Don't let it get too far like I did, I was leaking so much I kipped a few teeth in my timing belt.

jht3

i've tried that...no luck. the leak is hidden from the top, but from underneath the leak is very evident. once it gets above the bottom of the oil pan and bellhousing, i lose sight of it.

i haven't tried that yet, but i'm fairly certain the front is dry. i suppose it is possible it is leaking from the front, and the trail then flows back to the bellhousing.


i'm aware of the usual culprits, but i've been unable to tie it to any of those. as you are aware, visibility at the back of the 3vze is difficult, and i'm trying to make sure i haven't overlooked anything that is hiding behind the bellhousing

24Runna

In my situation, it was dripping down the bell-housing too.

CRF_450R

Hey my trucks in the shop right now having the freezer plug fixxed, at first it just dripped for about a week and one night i was drivin home and coolant started pouring out. I would assume its your freezer plug... but thats just me
Or maybe your heater core?

CappyKD

I'm betting it's the coolant hose running to the Oil cooler have you checked? Either that or a Freeze plug.