Oil leak on REV 3 Turbo (SW20) turbo (back) side of engine.

[Mr2Madlad]

Hi

Have a tubby and she has developed an oil leak on the turbo side of engine up the cambelt end.

Oil seems to of soaked pretty much the whole back of engine bar the top right and I have not got a clue as to where its leaking from.

It leaks quite a lot and the amount covers the sump and bottom of engine where when moving the wind blows it towards back of car from under neith.

Today I spent most of the day (after replacing clutch slave cylinder and rebuilding the master) stripping the rear of the engine of the exhaust and CAT etc to see if I can tell where it is comming from

Managed to remove exhaust, CAT, cat to engine mount brackets, back engine mount, the turbo heat sheilds etc and with the car up on ramp I can just about poke my head up in where the cat / exhaust used to be from under the car but can't really see much.

However I still cannot locate the leak, I initialy thought it was the oil cooler gasket but the oil is comming from higher, however I can see the joint between the cylinder head and engine block and core plugs they are all clean and no oil at that height.

I also took the turbo oil feed pipes off and checked for holes etc but the set is fine, I have not yet taken the air conditioning compressor off (as the air con works and is full of R134a gas - I charged it not so long ago) but it seems to be worse behind / above that.

I replaced the cam shaft cover gasket set a while back and used the high temp silicone in the corners as per original and tighteded the bolts to correct torq as 2 of the spark plug holes filled up with oil and I had a leak around the alternator this is known fixed and I have no weaping of oil from the cover at all, the dizzy is not leaking.

The only thing I can think of is possibly the exhaust cam shaft oil seal has gone leaking oil or possibly the top of oil pump gasket, but crank shaft and cam belt covers are clean - no oil covering them so this kind of ruels the oil pump out.

It is actually leaking quite bad and I have to top up oil every month as its leaking that much.

If I had another car i think I would drop the whole back end and replace all seals and gaskets and get engine cleaned but having to use it for work makes it a real pain to work on as I have to have it usable by Monday morning )o: Ahhhgggggg!!!!!

Anyone know what it could be or have had the same issue and now know what it is ??

Cheers

[sidewaysmk2tubby]

Hi madlad,

If you can't see down the back side of the engine very well have you tried taking a few pics to give you a better sight? I find this can really help give you some perspective on hard to see areas.

I have a similar problem but on my rev 2 turbo, I have everything of the block and can see its leaking from the oil filter area ( I know this is in a different position on a rev 3) have you checked the hose from hell? Mine seems to be coming from either the oil filter bracket location or a gasket on one of the bottom feed pipes from this.

Hope you get it all back and sorted for monday morning!

[MR2-4-Life]

rocker cover gasket, camshaft seals, headgasket edge, oil pump seal, check these and deffo check your oil return and feed lines as if split could spit oil over that side

[Mr2Madlad]

rocker cover gasket, camshaft seals, headgasket edge, oil pump seal, check these and deffo check your oil return and feed lines as if split could spit oil over that side

Hi I have now found the cause of the leak ---> its the poxey oil pump / pressure plate gasket.

Have today stripped the cambelt side of engine, removed intercooler, took air con comp off (not let gas out but took off engine and shoved out the way) took complete engine mount off, exhaust off, managed to pull off crankshaft pully without a puller using my engineering skills, 2 bolts and one bit of fat metal with 2 holes drilled in to it, cambelf off, all covers, tensioner off, idler bearing thing off (one feels really rough so will replace) took the first (oil pump) part of the main plate off, gasket well cooked and really cracked, (have not yet taken the oil pressure plate or wht ever it is off as I have a question later) fitted new seals to camshafts ready, have new crankshaft seal ready to go in plate once its off.

Having done the cambelt on the car myself a few years back I am now an expert at stripping that end of the engine with it in the car, took me an hour and a half to get it all off !

A handy tip here ---> to undo crankshaft bolt stick ur 19 mm ratchet in undo mode and then stick it on the crankshaft bolt and have the handle of the rachet touch the bulkhead pointing to back of car, take ignition coil lead off dizzy and then just blip the starter motor with the key, only a fration of a second perfect, undoes every time !!!!!

The question, do I have to take the whole sump / oil pan off to remove the big plate ?

On a REV 3 Turbo it seems to be in 2 parts a steel pan (has the drain plug bolt in it) and an alu upper part, I assume I only need to take the steel pan off and then remove the oil sucker thing that sticks down into the oil then just unbolt and carefully remove and clean all the silicone off, replace gasket, resilicone it all back up and then reassemble in the reverse order of dissasemble ?????

Any help would be great.

I also have pictures I would like to post but have no idea how to add one to my post anyone able to talk me though it ????

Oh and can I get an oil pump shaft oil seal as that is weeping oil or is it a whole new thing ? took the sprocket off and pulled the funny "+" shaped bit out and cleaned it all up seems fine no movement only a slight leak.

All I can say is thank god its a 4 day weekend and that I have a motorbike so not left without transport while waiting for new parts to arrive in with toybota !

Cheers

[Mr2Madlad]

Its all out / off

Had to take whole sump off to get oil pump main plate off, done it with engine in car

Starting to clean it all up and tomorrow will order the bits I now need from toybota.

A complete nightmare in my opinion, car on axle stands and barely enough room for me to move under there, a pit or ramps would be a godsend (o:

Fortunataly everything came undone OK, it is one heck of a messy job, got oil in my hair !

Never again !

[Mr2Madlad]

Just to let you all know that the oil leak in my rev 3 Turbo is sorted.

Changed the following:

Cam shaft oil seals - exhaust side split and weeping
Crank shaft oil seal - had a couple of cracks was not leaking but changed.
Distributer oil seal / "o" ring - rock hard and broke when removed
Oil pump shaft seal - this was leaking badly
Oil pump drive to oil pump plate seal - was split and leaking
Oil cooler seal, this was not split but leaking bad
Oil pump to engine block gasket - took plate off to clean so changed it.

A whole tube of high temp silicone to stick sump and oil pan back on.

The oil cooler seal is a little trocky to change but is pretty darn easy when the whole exhaust inc elbow from turbo is removed this gives access to turbo oil pipes so they can be removed to allow better access to oil cooler, take the 2 Cat brackets off and the turbo to engine block bracket and you can swing a cat around up there.

I left the air con comp in situe and once the lower water pipe was off I could pull the cooler to the right a little to get access to last clip and then slide off the pipe (while holding clip open with pliers)

Cleaned as much of engine I could get to up and also the oil cooler fit new seal and re-assebly is reversal of take aparty !

The cat made a nice pillow to rest my head on while working under the car while it was on axle stands (0: jus the right height saving neak pain !

Given her a darn good service now @ 88,888 miles yes all the "8"s new plugs, new leads, new dizzy and arm, new oil, filter, new water & antifreeze, new fuel filter, given the whole engine and bay a darn good clean and its all shiney.

Thanks for all help given

Cheers

[nickg07]

Good to hear you're sorted!

Im going in for a timing belt change sometimes soon. AFAIK i dont have any noticeable oil leaks...

would you say its worth replacing one or any number of the seals you changed, simply as a precaution because the car will be in a position for eacier access to these bits?

[Mr2Madlad]

Good to hear you're sorted!

Im going in for a timing belt change sometimes soon. AFAIK i dont have any noticeable oil leaks...

would you say its worth replacing one or any number of the seals you changed, simply as a precaution because the car will be in a position for eacier access to these bits?

Hi

Thanks

It depends on how many miles your MR2 has done mine was 88K and I did look after it with oil changes etc and the tubby is in daily usage but because the engine runs hotter than a N/A maybe it cooked the seals.

The parts are not that dear and from Toyota and if you say ur a member of the owners club you get 10% discount.

If anyone wants the part numbers for a REV 3 Turbo I can list them and assure that they fit my 1994 tubby, this will save Toyota time looking the bits up.

The crank seal was £9,
the cams were £6 each
the oil cooler seal was £3
the oil pump drive part gasket was £3
the oil pump shaft seal was £5,
the whole oil pump plate to block was about £5
Dizzy seal was £3
Oh and tube of high temp silicone from Halfords was £5 used to seal the cam caps around seal / joints

So the whole lot came to £45 ish and I know now its good for some years to come, you may not need the oil pump main plate gasket so that saves £5.

Once you have crank pully off you can get to all bits easy and it was easy to remove the seal from crankshaft with a screwdriver and a hammer the new one went in fine as well with a suitable piece of wood to tap it home evenly (before I found the main oil plate gasket to be split took the whole plate off then)

The only seal I have not done was the gearbox end as I had no leak this end and did not want to completely drop engine to split box off.

It comes down to money i guess if you have the £50 say to spare and want to know for the future the seals are good I would do it ells you might have to do the job again removing cam belt etc so in effect doing most of the same job twice just to change a seal at a couple of quid !

Hope this helps

mr2madlad

[Baker]

And all done on Axel stands!

That shows a true mechanic, none of this car ramp cheating stuff!