Got a curious leak I need some help diagnosing:



The red circle is where there is a drip, 2 or 3 times a minute. It appears to be up under that area or coming from behind the idler pulley bracket. The green circle is like a small cavity like area. The yellow line is where you can see a little oil come to the surface. I just put a new felpro valve cover gasket on and replaced the half moon things. This leak must have been there before because there is a lot of old oil on the front of the motor and I have had to consistently add oil to motor for a while now. Opinions?

 

Did you use gasket glue when you replaced the half moons?

I'm not sure what you mean by cavity area where the green circle is located. Do you mean the idler pulley bracket covers an opening to the engine? Or can you remove the idler pulley bracket and run the engine with it off to get a better look at the leak?

 

Looks to me that the only thing that it could be is the half moons or possibly the valve cover above them leaking - there isn't any other source above that for oil to leak from. The moons can be problematic to get sealed up well. If I recall correctly, the FSM says something about gasket glue or FIPG on the moons - might want to double check.

 

Well it's definitely not the valve cover. I watched it and it's not leaking. I will have to check the FSM on the glue thing for the half moons.

 

FIPG those half moons. That's the only place it can be coming from.

FIPG= FORM IN PLACE GASKET

I buy it from dealership its specifically for making oil pan gaskets, but a tiny dab here and a tiny dab there, is very good stuff!

 

Thanks lol I didn't know what FIPG stood for. This morning I put some on both have moons and it appears to have stopped.

 

Those half moons have been horrible to me also. I had the front one come smooth out of my first 22r. Not fun let me tell u. But like the guru's all said, a bit of gasket maker (high temp) I find worked well. Not too much tho. Wouldn't want it caked on and maybe end up breaking a small pice off one day and finding its way into a not very fun place in your head.

 

Mine started leaking again when it's got cold so I'm gonna get some blue RTV and try it.

 

try a different pair of cam seals (half moons) I usually wouldn't recommend but the felpro ones seems a bit meatier to me.

part#'s are:

Felpro CP75005

TOYOTA
11183-38010

also make sure PCV is venting properly. clogged PCV makes for higher pressure in top end.

 

Yeah bad pcv's will push oil out the valve cover seal where ever it is sealed the least. My old one used to push it out the valve cover bolts, till I realized I needed a pcv valve.

 

Maybe my PCV valve is bad. I noticed the other day I had some light colored smoke coming out of the front breather port of the valve cover. I should have air going into that port, not out.

 

Front breather port???

Every 2 years before a smog test I clean my PCV valve in carb cleaner. I bought the felpro VC gasket set and have removed and replaced the same doing valve adjustments for at least 4 years now, think next time I'll get a new set.

 

The front port on top of the valve cover that you can either put a breather filter on or hook up to the air cleaner assemblely on the carb.