3S-FE Toyota engine odd oil leak

3S-FE Toyota engine odd oil leak

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M3 Mitch

Original Poster:

538 posts

235 months

Friday 30th December 2005
quotequote all
I have a high-mile (200K) 3S-FE in a 1987 US model Camry (daughter's car), engine is sound and has good compression etc, the valve cover is clean and clear, the "PCV" hose from valve cover to intake manifold is new. At idle anyway there is good vacuum on the crankcase and I don't think it's pressurizing due to blowby.

I recently had the head off to replace the head gasket, ended up putting a rebuilt head on it. The cylinder bores looked new, no ridge, and I mention the head work since this work assures that the head and valve cover are clean (they were pretty badly sludged before)

Anyway it tends to leak oil into the distributor. I ended up drilling a small hole in the dist. cap to let the oil out.

As far as I can tell the distributor on this engine does not have an oil seal. This is more of a nuisance than a real problem, but wanted to see if anyone else has seen this, knows of a fix, or "do they all do that"?

Thanks in Advance!

M3 Mitch

Original Poster:

538 posts

235 months

Friday 30th December 2005
quotequote all
No, it's definitely not the valve cover. The oil is leaking INTO the distributor, along the shaft apparently, and would pool up inside the cap till I drilled a very small (approx. 1mm) drain hole in the bottom of the cap (bottom as it's mounted on the engine)

Otherwise the engine does not leak any significant amount of oil.

Yeah, we did get some valve cover leakage at first till we re-read the manual and added the silicone required at the places required on the gasket..

Thanks for the reply.

deltafox

3,839 posts

238 months

Friday 30th December 2005
quotequote all
Its sounding like the distributor shaft oil seal thats gone.
It *may* be possible to replace it, but im not sure on that one.

You should be able to get one from an MR2 with the same unit, or a Carina/Celica GT with that engine.
hth.

_Al_

5,587 posts

264 months

Friday 30th December 2005
quotequote all
This pops up quite often on the MR2OC - there should be a seal in there and I'm pretty sure it's a DIY job to replace. Can't speak for the Camry though...

M3 Mitch

Original Poster:

538 posts

235 months

Friday 30th December 2005
quotequote all
Well, having called around apparently there IS an oil seal in the dist. housing, but at least Toyota does not sell it separately.

Most oil seals are a standard size, though, and like bearings you don't need to get them from the OEM.

They were kind enough to offer me a new distributor for about $500! Needless to say I passed on that.

Maybe best route is to get a junkyard dizzy to disassemble, so as not to sideline the car while I muck around with it - figure out what the seal is, "rebuild" the dist. from the junkyard and end up with a spare.

Can someone say what seal is used in the MR-2 engine? AFAIK the MR-2 has an "A" series engine which is quite different from the 3S-FE, but they may very well use the same dizzy.

Thanks for the replies so far!

Mark

_Al_

5,587 posts

264 months

Friday 30th December 2005
quotequote all