big oil leak when warm. (1 Viewer)

[agb0]

new to me fj62 is finnaly up and running after 3 years of sitting. of course, that just means more gremlins come out of the woodwork. lol. im new to cruisers, mud has been a great resource so far! i love it.

anyway, see the attached picture. once the truck warms up, this starts leaking oil pretty good. maybe a drop/minute. and then stops again as soon as everything cools down. it kinda smells a little like oil burning or something. oil level/pressure seems to be fine so far.

what do you think the culprit is? rear main seal?

thanks in advance.

 

[cruizakid]

I would say it's the rear main because mine did the same thing

 

[STUDLY 60]

Looks like a rear main seal. clean well and repeat. My oil pan does the same thing when warmed up. Very slow leak around oil pan shield. I have new one waiting untill next oil change. Good luck

 

[Wile E Coyote]

The 'Mud consensus on leaks in that area is that the vast majority are from the oil pan gasket, with the rear main seal being a distinct second. Search the 60's section for yourself to verify this.

 

[87 HJ60]

It could also be caused by a leaky rocker cover. Mine had a leak from the rear of the rocker cover. The oil would leak down the rear of the engine making it appear like a rear main seal leak. Take a look at the back of your engine to make sure.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

It could also be caused by a leaky rocker cover.

This x2. forgot the valve cover gasket.

 

[TexasAgFJ60]

I first thougt mine was the rear main seal. I put some dye in the oil and it was the oil pan gasket. Put a new one on and now I think it is more a bad oil pan than the gasket.

 

[lehiguy]

Rust holes under the skid plate are not uncommon. They always tend to look like a rear main leak.

 

[slcfj62]

And your oil pan looks rusty.

 

[agb0]

thanks for the info guys. I will do some some cleaning and investigating tonight.

I still need to swap all the fluids since she has only seen 300 miles in 3 years before i bought her. sounds like a good time to put in a new oil pan gasket and check on the rust in the oil pan. may have to wait til i get back from VN mid feb (car need to be inside while im gone for a few weeks, so this cruiser will goto the storage unit)

 

[Dieseler]

Also check between the #5 and #6 spark plugs the oil journal there sometimes leaks and runs down the side and gets blown along the oil pan to the rear of the pan.

 

[lehiguy]

Get the Toyota pan gasket, it is one piece, the after-market junk is three-piece.

 

[sl33py]

clean and hunt.

There are so many possible causes it's tough to have us tell you from a pic. I agree that the rear main gets a bad wrap... It's the low spot and whamo - it must be the rear main! hehehe. Take your time, check your pan for obvious holes (at that rate...), and try the die if you can get it clean enough to tell the difference.

welcome and GL!

 

[agb0]

okay. finnaly got her moved to my new workshop. 5000 sqft split 5.5 ways, score! beats the hell out of the dinky garage in my 80s townhouse.

anyway, i decided to tackle the oil pan gasket.

what kind of alarmed me was that i found that most of the bolts were barely tight at all. and also, the rear of the seal came apart pretty easy once i got the damn thing free.

question 1: does anybody have the torque spec for the oil pan bolts? i dont have the fsm for the 3fe, but the little haynes book says 83ish ft-lbs.

the parts of the seal that didnt break while dropping the pan are almost like concrete... well it is cork, but the parts that are still there are very stuck.

question 2: what is the best way to get this crap off?

 

[1911]

question 1: does anybody have the torque spec for the oil pan bolts? i dont have the fsm for the 3fe, but the little haynes book says 83ish ft-lbs.

INCH-pounds. 83 ft-lbs. would break them all off, after squeezing the cork gasket completely out.

 

[agb0]

INCH-pounds. 83 ft-lbs. would break them all off, after squeezing the cork gasket completely out.

check... im a tard. used to dealing w/ te-m all the time for work. ha.

thanks for correcting me.

 

[NYNick]

Ok, I just went through this entire procedure...TWICE, because my old pan turned out to have pin hole leaks in the side of the pan.
My bolts were also almost hand loose when I removed them the first time. Kind of scary. When I put the new gasket on, I just snugged them up pretty well, no arm wrestling them, since my torque wrench doesn't go to 7 foot lbs.

As far as the gasket removal was concerned, I used a putty knife to get most of it, and then a razor blade scraper, dental pick and small screwdriver to get every last bit off, along with some brakekleen. I spent alot of time with this. What the heck, you don't want to have to do it again if you didn't clean it well enough!

I'm happy to say, after the new pan and second new gasket, not one drop of oil has hit the garage floor since. I'll go back and snug up the bolts a few more times, but never too tight.

Good luck with this project!

 

[agb0]

thanks for the input guys.

the removal/cleaning of the gasket has definitely been the hardest part of this procedure. the area around the rear of the pan was fairly easy to get off, but up at the front there was a lot that sayed with the block and was quite a pita to get off while under the truck. heatgun helped a lot here.



today i will get it back on the truck

question: when applying the black rtv, should i apply just to the pan? or pan and block side of the gasket??

it would appear to me that when the old gasket was orginally done, only the pan side was done, maybe both sides around the gasket "drops"

and a pic from outside the shop. its been a gorgeous weekend here. minus the pollen. allergies are starting to go nuts.

 

[agb0]

did a test fit with the gasket.

i wanted to seal the gasket to the pan first, let that get nice. but from the test fit, it looks like i need to go ahead and do it all in one go based on how it looks like the cork sits.

so i think my procedure will be this:
1) black rtv to the pan.
2) set gasket in place.
3) add a little more rtv to the block side of the gasket.
4) and install.

any advice? will try to tackle this last part tomorrow.



unfortunately, the more i look under there, the more i think it may be a rear main seal issue. but im still crossing my fingers. if that is the case, it looks like she will have to sit a while until i get back from colombia on one of my rotations. could hopefully then dedicate a good solid week to fixing that issue.

 

[agb0]

finally got this done.

i just want to put this in this thread in case anyone else searches and ends up reading this:

get somebody to help you install. it will make things a million times easier.

first attempt was a fail, but second try w/ a friend went much smoother and we got everything lined up properly. now the RTV is curing, and hopefully she will hold some oil. s