I have a 1988 4 runner with a 22re that leaks oil out the back of engine.
Is it possible to leak oil out the EGR COOLER that is bolted to the back of the head? The oil looks to be coming from the EGR cooler or he cylinder head gasket. It is hard to tell because the bottom of the EGR cooler block meets with the bottom of cylinder head.

 

both of those things are possible, but it's also possible that the valve cover gasket is leaking oil.

you should be able to go the engine bay of the car wash, and clean that whole area off... blow it out from underneath both front fender wells, and from inside the hood.

wipe it off with a clean rag, make sure there isn't any oil left, then start the motor and see if you can find the leak.

 

I hope OSV is not giving a lot of advise because I took the EGR Cooler off he back of head and there is no way this can leak oil. Antifreeze so called coolant and air is the only things that can leak out EGR cooler. You would have to split the block in half for oil to come out cooler. No advice would have been better than the wrong advice but thanks for telling me how to wash an engine.

 

Wow dragon you sound like a gigantic....expert sounds like you know everything. You should just go over to pirate4x4 and ask your question there. Some people here try to help and we are not always right. But at least we try to help. Nice attitude from a guy with 2 posts. We will all TOTALLY want to help you with that attitude. Calm the F down man. Really. If your stuff isn't working right it can be frustrating. But don't take it out on others.

 

a crack in the head, not the block, could cause an oil leak in that area... yes, it would be a long shot, lol, but you didn't ask what the odds were.

if you had washed the motor off first, you would have known where the leak was.

 

My leak was from he head gasket which is now repaired. Washing this area would not indicate if he leak is from the head or EGR cooler as the bottom of the cooler is even wih the botom of head. Yes if the head did crack up top oil would get into the cooling system and if he EGR gasket was leaking i would leak a milky looking oil. You would have much bigger problems than a loss of a little oil. Hope this helps anyone. The block remark was an exageration. Sorry!

 

egr cooler just has coolant going through it. You have the valve cover half moon grommets right underneath that sucker. Or the valve cover gasket itself

 

the mounting surface on the head, that the egr cooler bolts to, sticks out from behind the block by nearly an inch.


so i'd guess that most of the oil leaking from the head gasket should travel down the back of the block, not along the bottom of the head/egr cooler... if everything was clean, you shouldn't have been able to feel oil along the bottom of the head/egr cooler.

tough luck on that deal, glad that you got it fixed, thanks for letting us know what the problem was.