off back of the engine? I am a newb to mech work so here goes;
I just got a new '88 4rnr, that I had my regular mech go over, top to bottom.
plus all new fluids , filters, etc. It still leaks, right in the center, towards the rear of the engine. what would be a good place to start looking?
My mech says, after 250 k miles on it, not to worry about it; fixing it could just make it worse. No top engine work has ever been done on this, it does not burn any oil, but the orig owner did say he had ' bottom engine' work done on it, about 3 years ago. Don't know if it leaks while running, but you will get the spot start do develop, when you turn it off and let it sit.

 

Pics would deff help...
Are you saying its leaking between the head and the block...?



Which place mate..?

 

Usual suspects are valve covers (up top) or oil pan (lower).

 

-Rear seal?
-BTW, SCUBA that is a thing o' beauty!

 

it is a 22re engine; and looking at that pretty one, if you can imagine that big breast with the nipple, at the back bottom of the engine there, the leak on the ground would look like it was coming off the back of that breast.

 

I don't know about on the 22re, but on the 3vze, the joint between the rear main seal plate, and the oil pan is kind of funky, and the leak could be coming from there. On the 3vze, you would have to pull the front diff, and the oil pan then pull the suck tube and its assembly. After that clean everything and put a bunch of rtv or other gasket maker up in that area. Then seal everything else up and reassemble. (I have heard others recommend something better than rtv but my memory fails me right now) I have the same leak, I found it when I changed my rear main during a clutch install. I did not seal it up good enough so Ill be doing it again.

 

so dripping off the center rear of the oil pan....
as mentioned- most likely places are the rear main crank seal or the rear valve cover gasket / semi-circular plug.

 

Big breast with nipple..Only thing in that pic i can see that barely resmbles that would be the oil filter...
Maybe you need a new oil filter gasket??

 

look at the oil pan.
guess a kid your age doesn't see many nipples. they tend to poke out

 

Ohh, DUH, My bad..
I wasnt paying that much to it in this situation, cause if anyone knows of an oil leak, one of the first things to think about would be the oil pan gasket...

 

I crawled underneath today, and the cross bar, and much of the bottom/back of the engine looks pretty oily. I am thinking of getting some spray carb cleaner, and just going to town on the back of that engine, starting from the top, and spraying all down, then checking for the leak. Is this a wise thing to do, should I look to / avoid spraying anything back there, from the top on down?

 

avoid any rubber seals, carb cleaner will eat it

 

is there a better way to go for cleaning spray, or Carb or brake cleaner it?
I wonder if Break Free would do the job...

 

I just found a leak from the rear of my 22re yesterday. It's from the top of the engine somewhere around the head and valve cover. It's not the rear main seal. It is leaking on to the top of the bell housing. There's the semi-circular plug on the rear that can leak, what else is there in the area that can leak?

 

Don't use carb cleaner use engine degreaser.

 

bump .