92 TOY

Pictures of my mess. No real good picture of it, but mine was leaking mostly from the front of te pan...and elsewhere on the pan.

86 TOY

Thanks! Any pics around the timing cover and passenger side of engine? Didn't your truck stall out though? Mine still runs just leaks oil everywhere and no cappuchino coming out of the radiator and oil pan

The engine was rebuilt about 50,000 miles ago, I can't remember it they did the timing chain then or not?

Temps down in the teens this weekend, might be a little chilly to degrease.

Oh yeah, hows that oil pan of yours coming along...

92 TOY

Yeah, not coming at all. too cold, everything in the garage is frozen.

I went throgh all my pis and did not find a good one of the timing cover lower end....but believe me, I had to scrape crud of the bolt heads to get a wrench on them and you can see by how wet the pan is that it definitely had an issue with the pan.

if the engine was rebuilt , then (in my opinion) they would have had to take the cover off....don't know why they would go through the trouble of a rebuild and not do the timing cover / set.

86 TOY

I hope it's just the front main seal! I'll clean it off and see what I can figure out. Don't have a torque wrench to check the timing cover bolts-think I'd be able to tell just wrenching it? This truck has only been in my family and I can't remember ever having timing chain replaced, but I know it's had just about everything else done over the last 23-4 years. It does look like whoever put the timing cover on last did a pretty sloppy job. The belts on the crank pulley where changed about 2 months ago, think that may have contributed to a front main seal leak?

Thanks for your help!

92 TOY

Nope, no better pics, sorry.

To answer your question....es the truck stalled out. Apparently my truck is smarter than the driver and knew when it was time to stop. But any leakage seen in my pics was not as a result of that.

Get those torque specs and see what's what.

92 TOY

yes, but i thought you said it looks dry there at the front main.

92 TOY

And I just checked, the pan bolts are 9ft/lbs

86 TOY

It does to me, but what do I know? It's kind of hard to get a good look. 85TurboRunner's crank pulley looked pretty dry in the pic he posted earlier in this thread? He fixed his problem by replacing the front main seal?

92 TOY

well I'm just saying keep it simple.
If I were you, I'd start with the pan and start eliminating suspects from there.
get that front plate (splash plate or whatever it's called), 4 bolts...very simple and then get pics from the underside especially where the front main is and let everyone chime in.

9ft/ lbs certainly doesn't sound like much but my guess is because it's so that the FIPG does the sealing (or not) and the pan itself does not need to be super tight. i would also think that once a leak starts ,unless you put a new seal on it, it's going to be a weak spot.

I can't download any more pics from my camera because my stupid computer won't recognize anything in the card reader (i need a geek).

86 TOY

Thanks for the advice 92 TOY and Gnarly4X- thanks 92 TOY for bringing him aboard!! I did a little checking around town on Thursday and the dealership and another auto shop I trust in town gave me estimates of $220-$260 just to replace the front main seal, I was just curious. So right now I'm on the ledge... go for it and start tearing into this thing myself and save some money or ??? I guess there's not really any other options because if either of those places dig in they might tell me it's the timing chain, cover or HG! If that happens I'd be screwed $$$!

I took a picture of what I picked up below... 3 cans of engine cleaner some PB Blaster and a Haynes Repair Manuel from Auto Zone. I also went by Sears last night because I have ZERO in the tools department. All I've done to this truck under the hood was change the oil a few times back in high school and a belt or 2... and thats been more than a FEW years ago! My question is what tools should I start with? After degreasing the entire thing (not sure when that will happen cause it's 15 degrees outside right now!!!) I'm thinking that I'll start on the front main seal and possibly take off the valve cover to see what the timing chain looks like? Sound about right? As far as tools needed there are a couple sets of the Craftsmen sockets/wrenchs for light mechanic work that run up around $200 and I had no idea how much a torque wrench was. Would I need a 1/2" or 3/8" torque wrench? The cost involved with getting these tools exceeds the dealership cost to replace the front main seal but if I get these it'll maybe give me more of a reason to do some of the other stuff I'd like to tackle.

Like everyone else who's started these things I'm more than a little nervous because I've never done this stuff before and don't want to mess something up to the point where I can't get it running again. I keep reading your guys write ups (VERY HELPFUL!)... Gnarly4x, flyingbrass, txclimber- man what did it take you like 2 weeks WOW!!! and 92 TOY- gotta get you a bump you're all the way back on page 4 now! I've also read 4crawlers write up a few times.

Today I'm gonna order the front main seal from the dealership and try and make a call on some tools from Sears (they're on sale through today). Thanks again for your guys help! I'm not sure how fast this is gonna go but I'm anxious to get started!!!

86 TOY

Just ordered some parts from the dealership:

Front main seal- $21.76
Dome light cover- $12.18 (My old one broke to pieces the other day)
Engine oil dipstick- $24.57 (Mine is bent to heck, tough to get in/out)

FYI, didn't order this but for future reference:

Crankshaft pulley bolt (one that's supposed to be a big PITA)- $15.93

The seal is supposed to be in on Tuesday... guess I'm officially on the clock!

92 TOY

OK...

here's what I have , so here's at least wht you will need.

12 point metric sockets....14 / 12 / 10 will be what you use the most off...put them in your pocket...hahahaha
but for real....3/8 driver worked for me.

breaker bar......18'' from ACE hardware cost around $21. get a DEEP 14mm socket for taking the exhaust off (when you get to that part, hit me up and I will explain...which really you shouldn't unless you were taking the head off)

4foot length of good black pipe about 1'' outside diameter....bought that at ACE too and made sure the wrench slid inside.

Buy tools with a replacment warranty...

get a 19mm Craftsman IMPACT socket 6-point....about $9.

PB Blaster...may smell good at 1st but really will start to turn your stomach after a while.

Mechanics gloves (Harbor Freight $6)...cuz all the cool kids wear them.

Photobucket account....load you photos there instead of those thumbnails..lots of room to park your images there.

work lights...at least 2...there are some things you just can't see AND work on with only 1 light.

PIZZA BOXES...my best friend

Paper Sandwich bags / Magic marker....cuz you'll NEVER remember where that bolt goes.

webbing....about 10 feet and carpet pad (to keep throw rugs from sliding) this is how I got my Crankshaft Bolt off.

$350.....my personal estimate of how much this will cost me....hopefully not that much but you don't want to be scratching your butt looking for money later.


Clay kitty litter.......yeah, cuz you're gonna make a mess if you don't have it. Probably won't spill a drop if you have this ready...but, better than what happened to me.


OK?

Let me know if anything else.

I still say start off with the lower end of the timing cover.......not torqued down or pan not sealed.....that stuff is free to do.

Torque wrench......I don't have....but I will be getting a 1/2'' drive. I forget what the torque is for the Crankshaft bolt 90? 120?..but make sure you get one that can handle that.
I think get a small torque wrench for inch/lb stuff....in my case because we will be doing my son's 3vze next, i know i need that according to FSM.

HAYNES and CHILTON's make great places to put greasy stuff on top of........they are frustrating to read at best. You will get MORE THAN ENOUGH info right here to do this confidently.

Find the link / sticky for the FSM and download it.

Hope that helps.

Lumpy

Subscribed...

92 TOY

How'd I do?

Oh I forgot.......CD PLayer with Pink Floyd CD's...smokes and coffee.

86 TOY

Thanks for the list!!! It's amazing how people on this forum are always willing to lend advice, a helping hand and in some cases ship free parts to strangers they've never even met. Glad to be a part of this forum!!!

Kind of a change in strategy in the last few hours... I talked to a mechanic friend on mine (too bad he lives 3 hours away!!!) and he suggested dropping the oil pan to get the front main seal as opposed to removing the crank pulley. Any thoughts???

I'm headed to Sears with the wife and credit card... we'll see how far I get? Probably get a light mechanic tool set, less expensive torque wrench, hydraulic jack w/2 jack stands creeper set and some gloves (gotta be cool!). If I go the route of the oil pan first I won't need the carpet pad and I think I'll hold off on the breaker bar and 4' pipe, not sure about the kitty litter right now- my wife is 8 months pregnant and I think she's not supposed to be around something in the litter... at least that's what the pregnant books say??? Oh yeah, plenty of paper bags and pizza boxes- like a need another reason to get pizza! The photobucket account will come once I get some fresh batteries for our old digital camera (wife is not thrilled I'm using the newer one).

Thanks again for your help. I'm getting excited front main seal is supposed to come on Tuesday...

86 TOY

Glad to have you aboard Lumpy! Can use all the help I can get!!!

Man I thought I had some rust under my truck!!! Just messing with you. Sweat score on the 4runner!

92 TOY

Now THIS is what I know about......medical stuff.....

With you wife pregnant, she's not supposed to be around USED kitty litter......kitty litter as it was intended for as an outhouse for cats, a dangerous thing called toxoplasmosis. New kitty litter is OK....so no worries.

Um, yeah, about the taking the oil pan off........yeah...that's a PITA!

92 TOY

86TOY...where are you, you never answered that. Sounds like same weather as me an LUMPY except he's by Pittsburgh and I'm due east of him on the other side of the state.

flyingbrass

For bigger sockets it's hard to beat the 1/2" drive deep walled impact set at Harbor Freight. $20 or so buys a tough 13 piece set ranging from 10mm to 32mm. This one. They've stood up to some abuse. Good quality, IMO. You'd be lucky to buy a single Craftsman socket for that price, and I doubt the quality would be any better.

HF also has extensions for cheap. I don't know about their chromed stuff, but have no complaints about the 1/2" impact extensions I've used.

I've heard HF torque wrenches are also pretty good. I have an old 3/8" Craftsman and borrowed a 1/2" Craftsman from a friend. Each size has its place. You can get adapters (again HF is a good source) to use whatever drive size sockets on either wrench.

Craftsman jacks have a bad reputation these days. Add me to the club. Mine conked out while pulling my engine, and it hadn't seen much use. I bought a 3-ton floor jack at HF on sale for $50. Haven't used it yet.

I'm not saying buy everything at HF. Some of their stuff is excellent for the price. Other tools are complete junk, with of course many falling somewhere in between. Here is a site attempting to sort out the good, bad and ugly.

flyingbrass

Won't work. The front seal sits in the oil pump. The pan has nothing to do with getting to it.

Before getting carried away tearing into things, I'd clean everything off well, drive it some, then see exactly what's leaking. The front of your motor looks awfully clean for a leaking front seal.