CoedNaked

So here I am, driving up a sort of hill/windy road during one of the first rains in Vancouver in several monthes. My truck is fish tailing here and there due to the oil that has accumulated on the road over the past few dry monthes mixed with the fresh rain water creating a slip n slide o' fun. Well not really fun, I had to slow down or I'd be doing a few 180's. So I'm slowed down nice and good, cursing those b*stards who don't maintain their vehilces and let oil leaks drip away and ironically I have now found one. I'm probably one of those jerks!

Since I've owned my truck, which has been for the past year and a half roughly, I've lost a bit of oil between oil changes which I top up. I figured I was burning oil, but now I might not be. I usually start my truck every morning and then go back into the house right away to get my tools so the truck can warm up a bit. So I always walk right by the tail pipe. On cold mornings I'll walk by and about 5-10 seconds after starting she'll start burning off exhaust condensation in the form of steam which is normal. On warm mornings, I wouldn't see anything as there wasn't any condensation in the exhaust pipes to burn off. But I have never once seen any blue burn out of my truck in the morning. I figured maybe I was burning oil, but since it was synthetic oil perhaps it didn't burn blue, or maybe it only burnt it when things were up to operating temperature...but I knew other people who burned oil and had bad rings who always had a bit of blue come out in the morning. Oh well I figured.

So fast forward to this past Saturday. I had my truck up on the lift at a family members dealership and I was pressure washing the undercarriage. Before I started, my brother who was there pointed out that there was some oil around the bellhousing gasket (or I think that's what it is - on the transmission) and he shines a flashlight up and thinks it might be coming from the valve cover or possibly a rear main. I figured oh well, maybe it was residual oil from when I had my oil change a few weeks ago as I know if you don't do it properly when you take off the oil filter it can throw a bit of oil over some of the front suspension and such. So I just pressure washed away and thought little of it, keeping it in the back of my mind. Well fast forward to today. I did an inspection. Went under the truck, and sure enough on the transmissin there is a little oil, I shined the flashlight up and see an oil drip somewhere around under the valve cover, and a small oil stain on the exhaust manifold. But I haven't seen any evidence on the driveway, which I usuaully look for. I then went topside and popped the hood and the leak appears to be coming from the drivers side valve cover towards the firewall.

So I'm hoping maybe this is the source of my oil loss problem, it has gotten just slightly worse over the year and a half I've owned the truck, and the reason I haven't see any real oil leak issues on the driveway is because the synthetic oil adheres to metal surfaces so well taht it drips on that it only really burns off or gets thrown off when I put the truck in motion.

Thoughts?

Also, if it is the valve cover, would it be a simple as tightening the bolts (I understand they aren't tightened with that much torque) or is there a gasket that could be toast?

4X4YO

I'm kinda new here.. but I've worked on cars and trucks a like for the last 5 or 6 years or so...

Replacing the valve cover gaskets (something I need to do as well) would be a good idea. It probably involves pulling the intake plenum off to get to the other side assuming we have the same motor (3VZE). You'd have to replace a few gaskets. Assuming the surfaces are aluminum the gaskets are probably rubber and are dry and cracking. you don't want to tighten them down more A, because you can easily break/over-torque aluminum and B, that'd just break the seal more. I vote replace the gaskets and clean the hell out of everything(like you already do), and check again after.

Hope that helped.

navyredneck

I replaced my valve cover gaskets and one of the cam seals and it cut my oil leaks in half easily. I'm currently running the auto-rx treatment in hopes that it will help stem the flow from my rear main seal. I was using 1.5 qts per 3k miles. Currently down to about half that.

gregbreakseverything

I heard a rumor that synthetic oil is a engine rebuilders/machiners worst nightmare because it adheres and protects so well.

I would also replace the seals. It isnt that expensive and isn't that bad of a job either for peace of mind.