Dumb question regarding easy crank seal replacement
 

I watch too much YouTube and I really like Scotty Kilmer's channel. As a mechanic he teaches a lot of shortcuts. Lots more entertaining than cable TV...

The video that has me confused is him replacing a crank seal in just a few minutes, without doing a timing belt job. It is a toyota 4 cylinder but shouldn't be that different in application to my 5vzfe (my crankshaft seal is leaking currently).

Here's the vid:

In the remarks someone has a question, same as mine, where Scotty gives a 'no' answer.

Even if you modified the procedure to bump the starter with the timing belt on the crank pulley, keeping the crank pulley aligned with the cam pulleys, how would you get the tensioner to let off enough to get the belt off without requiring replacement?

Sooooooooo not possible. Totally different design. Basically the difference between a timing chain design and a timing belt design. There's no way with a timing belt. The seal is behind the belt and the pulley. Both need to come off first. It's a PITA. Especially if the crank timing pulley decides to not come off easily. Which is fairly common.

Sorry.

The only similarities between those engines is they burn gas, be thankful you don't have to do the rear main…

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I won't do a rear main unless the trans has to come off. Besides it's pretty rare to have a bad rear main on a 5vz. If you're going to do the front main, go ahead and at least replace the timing belt while you're in there. It absolutely has to come off to do it anyway. Good time to inspect idlers, false water pump, and water pump too. I don't think it's too bad a job, just clear out a solid day to do it and have you FSM handy to refer to.

Ok, I got to the crank seal this evening. With 262k miles the belt looked good and the timing pump gasket is bad but otherwise looked good, too. I noticed the crank seal wasn't flush at all and basically fell into my hand when I touched it. Looks newish, however. Maybe just a bad install job?

Doing cam seals while I am at it.

Thank you very much for the info on the rear main. That should encourage me enough to run synthetic after this. Just replaced valve cover gaskets last weekend.

Hmmm...and that's the easy one to install. Just pound it in as far as it'll go. Done. You can't install one too deep if you tried. And you might find the seal isn't totally flush no matter how hard you push on it. It doesn't need to be. Just keep going until it stops.

Don't do that for the rear main though. You can knock that sucker straight out the back side of the retainer, if you aren't careful.

Got the truck running again today. Biggest mistake was putting the AC idler pulley on backwards which locks it. Definitely took a lot of life off of the belt before I realized and reversed it.

Thanks again for all of the help. It does feel nice to have all new OEM components on the front end of the engine again.

Hello, can anyone tell me what is the steel ball in the block above the rear main seal? I believe I have an oil leak there on my 2003 3.4L , manual trans with 4X4.

I'm not sure, but I think that's a sealed off oil gallery? They drill the block most of the way through cast metal, this connects with various other laterally drilled holes to get pressurized oil fromt he pump to where it needs to go. Then they seal that end of the drilled hole up with a metal ball and hammer it into place?

If it's leaking, it's not going to be easy to seal. Most of the time oil galleries like that are sealed off with a screwed in plug. I'm not familiar with the 5VZ block though.

Thank you for the reply. I went to the Dealer today and they didn't have much to say about it unfortunately (only referenced replacing the engine block if there was a leak in that area)
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Failed FelPro Rear Main Seal and signs of leakage at the steel check ball in the block as well (my current concern). FYI, stick to the OE Toyota rear-main seals. Apon inspection there is a major difference in manufacturing and design internally. The OE version has a reinforced steel skeleton structure internally behind the sealing lip. All the aftermarket seals do not...
... I don't understand why Toyota would seal a major oiling channel with a hammered in ball .vs a sealed plate of some type. Initially, I was thinking that it was some sort of check ball with some type of spring tension that also requires a certain oil pressure range to maintain and when it leaks it would be a sign for a needed repair. I'm at a loss and cannot find any reference information online on it as well so assume it is an uncommon issue. :/

Yeah, sorry. I have no clue what a field repair on that would entail. Removing the ball, drill and tap for a screwed in plug?