kcebes

So I was forced to do my timing belt (130k miles) due to a leaking crank seal. (I think) Oil was leaking off the oil pump, onto the starter wire harness and dripping down. Anyway I finally finished everything today. Water pump, thermostat, tensioner, crank seal, all belts and a new radiator and hoses.

I started it up and it purred like a kitten. 15 min passed as i was adding coolant to the radiator. I checked underneath the truck and sure enough a small puddle of oil had gathered. It's dripping from underneath the crank pulley, down the oil pump and over the oil pan seal onto the starter wire harness bracket thing. The white plastic harness.

Is it possible that its not even the crank seal? Here is a short video shot from underneath. The pulley to the left is the lowest pulley on the AC compressor bracket. The mass of black stuff is the oil pan and then the white plastic starter wire harness is what the oil is dripping off of. You can see the brown oil all over the oil pump seeping down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzlfgFe-3OQ

beatenyota

are you sure that's oil dripping down? it didn't really look like it in the video. looked more like water or coolant, it wasn't very thick. did you use any adhesive on the gasket? if you use silicon or similar it can stick and actually cause the gasket to tear.

I dont know what else to tell ya, perhaps a headgasket. maybe someone with the 3.4 can help more.

kcebes

No, no adhesives were used with the crank seal. It's just a press in seal and all the service manual calls for is a light coat of multipurpose grease. I pressed in the seal with a hammer and 4 or 5 inches of 1.5" diameter PVC pipe slipped over the crankshaft so that I would not damage the seal. It went in perfect. It's definitely oil and not coming from the top half of the engine. It's coming from the crankshaft area.

kcebes

Anyone else? It's going to the Toyota dealership today. I hope I don't get raped too bad. I refuse to pull all this stuff apart again in my driveway with snow on the ground.

Greedy

Could it be the water pump leaking and picking up the residue from the old oil leak?

MTL_4runner

If it were my truck, I would clean the area off behind the crank pulley and the surrounding area very well, then add some fluorescent dye to the oil and then run the engine for a few minutes. Then tear it back down and trace your leak back to its source with a black (UV) light. Judging from the leak though, I don't think it is the crank seal because if you had as much oil leaking as I see in that video, it should be getting flung all over the engine compartment by the crank pulley as it spins. Let us know what you find out with the UV method anyway.

mt_goat

The seal has to seal up against the crank, so isn't it possible that the crank itself was worn or scratched enough that the new seal couldn't seal up? Or that the seal was the wrong size or something?

MTL_4runner

It is possible, but you should see some pretty deep grooves in the crank nose for it to leak that badly.
The UV dye test will clear all the speculation up in a heartbeat.

hross14

That was exactly what i was thinking--like in the old chevys where you had to use a thin sleeve over the balancer due to wear...but i think the dye idea is also the most logical thing to do

Adam F

Yep...time for a speedi sleeve

kcebes

Well seeing as how I don't have a garage and it's been snowing and freezing cold i had to take it to my toyota tech. Luckily a friend! $50 and he said he would fix it. Turns out i didn't have the seal in far enough. Im still pretty proud of myself for doing the timing belt, water pump and all the jazz and no leaks. If it weren't for that crank seal i would have had a flawless victory. Live and learn!

Oh and MTL...i started out driving it to the toyota dealership and pulling over to add oil every so often depending on the severity of the leak. I made it to McD's about 3 miles away and oil was being flung all over the place! It was hitting the exhaust manifold and burning off. A true mess. Thats when I gave up because i still had 20 miles to go. I called USAA and used my free towing.

MTL_4runner

Yep, then that would be the front crank seal for sure.

Adam F

Wow...$50 to do a crank seal? Must be a good friend! Because he had to pull the timing belt off and all that jazz to get at it.

kcebes

Thats what I thought but whatever! He's done a ton of em. I sure as hell wouldn't do it again for $50! She runs perfect again and doesn't leak a drop anymore so I'm happy!