I have a little oil leak entirely caused by my own incompetence, which requires taking the timing chain cover off to fix. Now before I get balls deep into this, does anyone know if its physically possible to remove the bottom pulley and timing chain cover etc with the engine in situe? Its going to be tight I realise, but have any of you guys tried and succeeded, or tried and failed ?
Thanks :-*
Yes, I've done it more than once. You need a short 19mm socket to get the pulley bolt off.
Thank you, what a superstar, experience is priceless.
All of my 1zz have leaked a bit from the same place, but since building this engine mine leaks pretty badly, its my fault. Its that damn oil gallery that feeds the tensioner. What was Toyota thinking when they came up with that.
I really like the looks of this idea here:- https://www.spyderchat.com/threads/1zz-oil-leak-persistant-drips.160069/#post-2187520
(https://i.ibb.co/zWvFCB0M/IMG-1041.webp) (https://ibb.co/zWvFCB0M)
(https://i.ibb.co/dJKch6w9/IMG-1036.webp) (https://ibb.co/dJKch6w9)
But somehow I need to pull it off without a CNC miller, or any miller for that matter. I do have a half decent drill press and a lathe.
@simonrobinson What sealant are you using?
I used this, which is what I use on sumps and timing covers for everything... hundreds of customers cars. I buy it in bulk boxes... and my surface prep was perfect.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wynns-1831054-57680-200ml-Gasket/dp/B000Y8U9OK/
But for the last 15 years many of the 1zz cars I've seen like corollas, celica, rav4 all have a dirty patch with dust stuck to them in that area. No where as bad as mine is leaking, but it seems its a troublesome area to seal.
There are likely surface height differences in the head and block where the cover bridges, and on the head there is only about 4mm of surface for the cover to achieve a seal on as there is a circle machined out to act as a drain away, it seems poorly thought out.
(https://i.ibb.co/mCF6vBkf/cylinder-head-1-ZZ-3.webp) (https://ibb.co/mCF6vBkf)
I do like the Hondabond HT and the Permatex Grey but trying to get something like a sump off afterwards can be hard work.
What sealant do you use?
I'm going to have a go at machining a spare timing cover to take a square section nitrile O ring, I'm not doing this job twice and I want zero leakage, but I will use a different sealant as insurance so I'm all ears.
@simonrobinsonElring Dirko Grey. I've not had a leak over several engines. The hard work getting the sump off comes with the good results, I'm afraid.
The dirty patch is most often down to the terrible OEM O ring on the chain tensioner.
I can send you one that works, courtesy of the club.
PM your address.
I'm good for tensioner O rings thanks, but thank you for the kind offer. When it first started leaking I thought it was the tensioner but alas it was not, its definitely leaking on the join of the cover to the head.
It didn't leak for a few weeks, then started very slowly and has got worse. I think my soft RTV type sealant doesn't have the sheer strength and thus the 5 bar whatever it is has blown it out.
I like the idea of a proper O ring between the head and the cover.