Front Crank and Cam seal change

I'm at the point now of changing the front crank and cam seals on my Na . I have absolutely no history about the services which where done to the car, so IMO it should be a good thing to change these. engine has around 130k Km (not sure about that since it was at one time converted to miles?!?! ).

So I searched a bit around on how to (best) change the crank and cam seals.....but as I was reading more and more I also got more and more confused. some say you have to take off the cam caps to replace the cam seals, other don't do this...some use some sort of oil or lubricant to install them, others push them in dry.

to be honest I have never done this before and I'm a bit careful with things like this, so any advice would be appreciated!

as for the front crank seal, I read that it could be installed wrong/to far in.....has anyone a pic of a correct installed front crank seal as reference?

thanks in advance for your help guys

To be absolutely honest I would not bother until (if) they leak.

The front crank seal needs to be flush to the oil pump casing, not past this. The difficulty can be getting it in 'square'/'flat' as it's reasonably tight and you can get one side in and then the other can pop a bit out etc, some make tools to press it in absolutely square.

The cam seals I've heard (probably read the same threads you have) of someone doing them dry and then leaking and redoing them with gasket sealant.

I wouldn't touch the crank seal unless it was leaking

Cam cover seals i fitted dry on my TT and had no problems, also replace the washers as they have a seal on them, you don't touch

the cam caps

Be careful not to over tighten the bolts and seeing as you have an NA i'd fit a new set of sparkplugs at the same time

I had done this on a Toyota engine of mine before. Might want to inspect the cambelt and tensioner while you at this. I read on the mkIV manual to press/tap the cam seals in all the way using a dolley or SST of Toyota. As mentioned above change those flat washer seals that are under the cam cover bolts. No need to remove the front caps unless you want to remove the old seal easier but then dont forget to apply the seal packing under the cam caps liberally when replacing them. Back on to how I do them, I apply red Loctite sealant, its the one in the white bathroom silicone looking applications but a smaller size. I apply this to the edge of the cam seal and then use the correct size socket for the outer rim of the seal. Place the seal in by hand to help it at first with alignment and then gently tap it in. I did the same on my oil pump when I replaced that as well. Difference is here, once the seal is in 3/4 way, use a small size 10, 3/8" drive tube socket rear, and gently press on the edge of the seal flush as you maneuver the socket around the diameter till it sits flush with your oil pump. You could use something else, as long as it is flat and strong.

Out of curiousity, do you have a tool to break the crank pulley bolt loose? I use a cheater/breaker/power bar to undo that using the starter method while in neutral but the ignition chords must be removed as well as the injector plugs and give it a tap of the key or two till it comes loose

The washers with the moulded in rubber inserts that hold down the cam covers have zero oil retaining functionality. If you look at the rubber gasket routing on the underside of the cam covers you can see oil cannot get anywhere near the stud and bolt holes in the covers. The rubber inserts are presumably there to let the things expand and contract. One thing worth saying is I am now seeing a fair few cam covers with cracks in them by the bolt / stud holes where people have sought to cure oil leaks by tightening the retaining nuts and bolts far too much. The correct torque is probably FAR less than most would think is correct doing them by "feel". if you crack one a new replacement is VERY expensive, assuming they are still available.

If you need to remove the front cam bearing caps they need the old sealant digging out of the grooves Toyota put in them to retain the sealant, and a LITTLE new sealant applying. The sealant stops oil eaks from the cam chambers escaping the front caps wich form part of the overall engine sealing. Again, I usually see rebuilt engines oozing silicone on every joint. What has oozed outside and is visible has also oozed INSIDE and oil agitation, heat and time means this will fall off and block the oil pickup strainer. The correct amount of sealant, again, is probably FAR less than most people using it for internal gaskets expect, and most use too much. It doesn't just look horrible, it can kill your engine! I did a Skyline engine rebuild that had died catastrophically due to sealant in the oil strainer last year.

Finally beware old or new sealant, oil or grease getting down blind bolt holes. Tightening a bolt into it creates immense hydraulic pressure, more than enough to break a piece of the block or whatever off and for it fall unknowingly into the innards of the engine. poke it all out with a pocket screwdriver, steam and blow out with a HIGH pressure air blow gun.

The aforementioned RB26 engine also had a piece of block floating around the sump for this very reason. I think I posted pictures of the blocked strainer and the hydraulic fractured casting in here.

thanks guys for all the kind infos!!!

to be honest those cam seals look pretty new to me.....strangly!?!?! if thought while everything is apart it would be a good time to change old seals out to prevent doing the whole procedure again.

not sure about the crank seal at the moment....haven't had the time to get the crank sprocket off yet.

one thing I noticed is that the engine was full of oil, in the front. this could be caused by the dizzy , because it's oily as shit, but not sure. I will try to post up some pics of the engine shortly

as you can see it's full of oil....btw I already cleaned the upper part of the head in this pic

Dizzy (seal) oil leak is common on NA's so yes I suspect that's the source of the oil, that and/or the cam covers.

So here's a close up from the crank seal....thoughts?!?

it doesent look too bad, tbh. The crank seal, It looks dry and dusty like perhaps the oil has come from somewhere else and settled there?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]222183[/ATTACH]

 

So here's a close up from the crank seal....thoughts?!?

Leave it alone!

that's what i thought too......it sort of looks like the oil has come from the dizzy and made it's way all the way down the engine...IMO. i'll clean everything and have a better look at it afterwards.

If you disturb front seals that are NOT leaking it's very easy to fit a new one that doesn't run exactly in the wear groove on the nose of the crank and find you have now created a leak.

Understood

still the cam seals looked a lot worse and oil was leaking from there...just a bit.i replaced them,but i'm not sure if i have to push them in any further

Took some pics

They look fine, put it in the oven, gas mark 4 for 2 hours, remove foil and brown at gas mark 6 for about 10 minutes

;P i knew that something like this would come just wanted to protect the camshafts and stuff from debry since the valve covers are off all the time.

But now on to the topic,are they really fine?

btw i think the guys over at elmhurst toyota sent me a wrong water pump....does the TT pump have a seperate water outlet on the pump itself?

They look fine, put it in the oven, gas mark 4 for 2 hours, remove foil and brown at gas mark 6 for about 10 minutes

For a second.. and i mean a second, i thought you were being serious.

;P i knew that something like this would come just wanted to protect the camshafts and stuff from debry since the valve covers are off all the time.

But now on to the topic,are they really fine?

 

btw i think the guys over at elmhurst toyota sent me a wrong water pump....does the TT pump have a seperate water outlet on the pump itself?

They have a little drain nipple underneath that should have a short rubber hose on it to divert any leaks from going into the alternator. water should only drip out if the seal has gone in the pump (and it's knackered). The N/A and TT pump look very similar without their backing plates, but have slightly different hole patterns. Be sure the pump you get is for a TT if that's what you have. I see people buying "TT" pumps off Ebay and finding they are N/A ones, or Lexus ones with the wrong fan pulley flange size on them all the time, then asking me to fit them If I buy the wrong part *I* get to eat it, if they do *THEY* get the pleasure, plus get to pay for some PITA time whilst my ramp is tied up