In all the excitement, I forgot to post my camshaft cover gasket and sparkplug tube gasket replacement. During the first 100 miles of my trip, oil started pretty much pouring out of that escape ramp of the front gallery. I kept driving another 1000 miles or so, but just kept an eye on oil level.
Like I said earlier, Olathe Toyota came through with overnight delivery of the gaskets.
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This is pretty much what two of the gaskets looked like. And they were hard as a rock. Only one popped up in one piece, the rest fractured. I was able to fish the missing bits out of the valve train, where they happily rode for at least 1000 miles without evident negative effect.
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Gratuitous naked valve train pic
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Purple because Andre'
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If you've ever done this job, I don't need to explain.
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Victory! Runs nice, no leaks. Two of my camshaft cover bolts were sheared off and the cover was glued back on by PO. The PO also pretty much destroyed the threads trying to remove (unsuccessfully) them, so I went ahead and drilled the holes all the way through the tabs and put a nut and a lock washer on the underside. It was butchery, but it solved the problem.