4.0 Timing Cover Leak repair help and tear down pictures.

This is my first post, but want to post How much work is involved if you want to fix this problem yourself. I happened to notice a pretty good oil leak coming from the passenger side of my front timing cover. I was losing about a quart of oil every thousand or so miles and my driveway was becoming a mess. I got a quote from 3 different garages, one including the dealership I purchased the vehicle from. No garage would of done the job for less than 1,800, and the most was wanting to charge 2,400 (dealership ofcorse). My truck has been problem free for the most part, for the entire 158,000 miles that’s currently on it. It’s a 6speed manual. So when I seen the leak i was very surprised, but thought it was about the right time and mileage for this problem to occur. I read online that the second gen Tacoma’s all the way up to 2015 I believe ( quote me if I’m wrong) all have faulty timing covers that are not properly sealed and tend to corrode and start leaking on the passenger side at around 100k-150k miles. Toyota had done a recall on them Quiet a few years ago but no longer honor it from what I researched.


This DIY project of resealing your timing cover after a noticeable oil leak is very time consuming if your doing it alone, and is no way in any form an easy job. I Managed to do this myself and save money but with the cost of having to take a little more than a full week to complete working on it wit an average time of about 4 hours a day. I took my time and carefully did everything with caution, and being as organized as possible. This isn’t something your going to want to rush because you will run into problems if you do. I’m posting pictures of the complete tear down start to finish so you will have an idea what’s all involved.

You will find yourself removing and almost tearing down a lot, that almost makes the job look like your rebuilding the engine. I also would like to be available to help anyone who happens to be having this same problem and want to tackle this themselves like I did. I can answer any how to questions you might have. I’m
Not going to list every single bolt and item I took off in this post, as I’m hoping the pictures will do most of the talking, However I can again answer any questions someone might have when tackling this big project.

 

What kind of sealant did you use? Thanks.

 

Damn good for a first post

 

Regular High temp RTV. Unfortunately gaskets are not made for the timing cover. It really is a DIY project lol!

 

WAY TOO MUCH SILICONE.

For others do not use this much. This can lead to improper torquing, and oil gallery failures.

I've made apprentices start over after seeing this.

Also check primary and secondary timing chain tension during this process. The idler chain gear should be inspected as well.

I also think you missed siliconing the bolt passages on the cover.

 

As far as amount of rtv usage I think there are ups and downs to both using the amount I did and using less. One guy will argue over the other how much to use. Your welcome to use the amount you feel is necessary.

However I can at least give some feedback on why I did it this way. My way is in no way a directive how to apply rtv to this timing cover. Like I said, you’ll find a thousand opinions on how to apply rtv.

I haven’t had any problems adding this amount of rtv for gasketing on valve covers or timing covers. Iv buildt many racing engines and pretty much use the same amount every time I’m slapping v8s together for my 86 Monte Carlo. I don’t torque to max until almost a full cure with rtv.

Iv personally been able to torque about half way, let set for about a half a day or overnight, and torque fully in the morning or late afternoon. I Haven’t personally have had any torque problems as I do use proper torque wrenches to verify tightness after the engine has ran at operating temperature for a couple hours or so. I might maybe have a little access you simply can cut with a razor blade on the edges, but nothing major that would cause concern as to for example gasketing material getting into your oil pan, causing you to lose oil pressure if it clogs up the filter screen. Been doing it this way for 18 years can’t say iv had a problem doing it my way. But to each his own i guess. Good looking on the diagram though!

 

looks like you removed the front bumper? or just the fan/radiator? nice post!

 

Great first post but completely agree, to much FIPG, if you stick a camera in there you will probably see a lot of build up on the inside. Dont think it will hurt anything, pickup screen and filter will catch the scraps that fall off. Also, please, please, please OP did you remember to change the O-Ring on the oil pump???

I have to say, that is a super clean 1GR-FE man! Nice engine!

 

Just the fan and and fan housing with coolant resivor. I was able to do everything without removing the radiator thank god. I managed everything with simple hand tools, but could have used an impact tool for the harmonic balancer bolt. Would of made things a bit easier!

 

OP, you are a beast!!!

I’d be too scared to undertake this

 

Bishop, your a Master Tech training Toyota techs? OP did a pretty good job! But, on a Master Tech level you missed alot of Toyota Factory Service Manual specific points, lol! You did point out possible chain tension issues, but I assume the OP noticed, no scarring on teeth or chain that would suggest a stretched chain, oil pressure issues to the tensioners, etc that would warrant any worry, so nothing to address. Only reason I am mentioning this is because I would hope you would automatically have spotted other issues when training your techs. Such as change o-rings and remove all OEM FIPG material on coolant channels, etc when working on a customer's 1gr-fe.

Working on your own truck is different than working on a customer's truck. OP did a good job, did he do it to Toyota spec, no, but as a Master Tech, you should and in a blink of an eye, spot any differences.

Only mentioning this for Bishop's benefit I've had bad experiences with Toyota Tech's, hope this helps some future Tech's

 

Seriously? I warned others, posted a helpful pic and you have the gall to attack me with a stupid post like this? Get bent.

He used too much, it jams oil pickups on Toyotas, its wrong.

 

I get what your saying, I take no offense. Just please respect what I'm saying. If your TRAINING Toyota Techs you need to be alot more strict in your training. Would I personally have done exactly what the OP did? No. I would have pulled the engine, full Master kit replacement. But with a shop it's quicker to just pull everything when pulling the timing cover, and while your there take another 3 hours and do full gasket replacement for what, an extra few hundred in parts?

My point is, if a person paid a Toyota Tech to repair a timing cover leak, that tech would know to remove all FIPG material and replace all o-rings along with like you stated using the correct amount of FIPG. Of all of those 3 things, the over use of FIPG is by far the least of the worries. The chances of the FIPG material reaching the journals or passages is minimal compared to loss of oil pressure from o-rings or old FIPG left in place leeching coolant. I just hope you take a 180 degree turn from being offended from my statements to taking them into consideration when training Toyota Techs. That's all I'm saying.

 

I agree with you, looked like he was icing a cake with the stuff, lol. (just yanking your chain, no pun intended @Busaryda1986 ).

Very good post and thread, gave me a sense of what I'll be doing when I replace my cams and what materials to buy.

 

Good write up and thanks for sharing! What oil was used and the intervals? I was surprised at the level of corrosion on the motor and parts at 6 years old. I would be using Fluid Film regularly on this vehicle.

 

Mobile one full synthetic 5w-30 extended protection. Mobile one extended protection oil filter. Oil change every 8k. As far as the rust yeah man, I agree it sucks out by me. I live in Wisconsin and our winters are horrible. It’s mostly the mixture of salt and snow over the years that increase the amount of rust so fast. Also the vehicle is kept outdoors year round as that isn’t helping either. No indoor garage unfortunately. Further north you go from the rust equator the worse it gets and Wisconsin weather is just horrible on vehicles. Kinda wish I had the money to invest in a complete weather proofing job when it was new.

 

Internals look good on that engine. Sucks that you have to replace a seal that should not have leaked. Hopefully I don't have to go through this.

I would use Fluid Film at least twice a year on everything to prevent corrosion.

 

How is it holding up. I am currently in the process of doing mine as we speak.

 

No problems what so ever. Sealed up nicely. The key I think for me was really just taking my time with everything. Even with the simple stuff like removing easy to get to bolts. If it seemed to give me a hard time like I felt like it may strip I sprayed it down and soaked it for a few hours and came back to it. Sure enough patience worked without a single rusty bolt breaking on me. As far as the High temp rtv goes make sure you get the high temp stuff. Don’t get regular. I just did my first oil change since the replacement and the oil level stayed level all the way up to my 8k change intervals. I did take one of the guys advice on here and used that spray to help keep stuff from rusting in the future. It won’t be 100% effective but it will help me next time I crawl under the hood for another big job. Lastly the only other thing I did after the job was go around and make sure nothing loosened up from the constant heating and cooling from the engine after about a thousand miles and nothing was loose, but always good practice to double check since your cover and block is aluminum and seeding a new bead of rvt can sometimes be tricky and can cause bolts to losses up on ya after the engines got hot and cold a few times. Best of luck to you bro, it’s a big job and a pain in the butt. But damn do you feel good knowing how much money you saved doing it yourself.

 

OP, did you have to drain engine oil before disassembly?