Most annoying oil leak EVER!

A

A172

Member +
About 6 months ago I refreshed my engine, had the head and block skimmed and using a Speedvision gasket with ARP hardware. A month ago I noticed an oil leak by the 4E stamp and it had been there a while with caked oil around the general area. It was none of the usual suspects, valve cover, dizzy etc., it was definitely where the head meets the block.

I don't think the head or block was warped because they were both perfectly fresh 6 months ago and never overheated etc. Did a comp test and results were great across all 4. No oil in water, coolant loss or loss in power.

Recently I put on a TRD gasket. When the head was pulled nothing seemed amiss and the SV gasket was perfect. The oil leak by the 4E stamp stopped....but now oil is leaking by the timing belt cover side where the head meets the block!! :mad:

Again I changed all the seals in that corner yesterday but oil is still seeping out by the gasket area there.

Gonna retorque the head next week and if this doesn't fix it obviously gonna shave the head and block AGAIN.

This has been my 6th year daily driving with a 4efte and this is the first time I have ever seen anything like this

wtf has anyone ever went thru this shit? :mad:
 
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G

GP82

Member +
What a ball ache, Multilayer metal headgaskets can be troublesome.

The face of the cylinder block and cylinder head need to be absolute razor sharp flat or the gasket will not seal. Then on top of that you need the face's that have been skimmed/machined to come out with a very clean shiny finish so it has a very low % of roughness average. I have seen some builder's use copper spray to help fill in the micro peaks and mountains that can remain still after the machining/refacing, which show's machining might not be of the best finish, but this method to seal in my opinion makes the headgasket seal weak and prone to blowing.

Also i'm sure you know this, but follow the 4E's correct torque sequence for clamping the head down and divide the total torque by set's of 3 or 4 go's double checking the last 2 set's.
 
weeJohn

weeJohn

Lifer
Sounds like you know what you are at, but I always clean the head and block with a degreaser before putting the gasket in and go over the torque points at least twice at each stage before doing the final 90 with Toyota stock bolts. I assume you know the stock bolts are 1 use only?

Maybe if you tried a fresh set of bolts, or even went ARP (they have a higher torque setting) you may stop the leak, you can change them 1 at a time without having to change the gasket as well.
 
5e colin

5e colin

Member +
clean the faces then use heavy duty bearing grease or the likes and rub it on the block face and head with a new gasket inbetween

the greace will dry out and kind off gleu the parts together forming a seal thats 1 off the old school tricks
 
A

A172

Member +
weeJohn I have ARP bolts and they are torqued in the correct sequence and poundage

will update with the retorque but i'm already gearing up to deck the head and block

thanks for the replies
 
A

A172

Member +
Tercel said:
Are you sure its not the cam seal running down slowly and pooling where the head meets the block?
Click to expand...

A172 said:
Again I changed all the seals in that corner yesterday but oil is still seeping out by the gasket area there.
Click to expand...

besides none of the old seals, cam crank or oil, were leaking so i end up changing perfectly good seals, it's the HG bro
 
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christyep91

christyep91

Lifer
This a pain in the hole..very same leak as mine drips down to the crank pulley and gets flicked everywhere.
first head gasket was a Athena and now iv a zep and its still at it..my heart is broke in just putting a oem gasket back on it now
 
B

bongskag

Member +
I had the same problem
arp bolts
trd 0.6mm gasket

.. oil leaking under the exhaust manifold..where head meets block.
I took the cams out and a few head bolts were down at 40ftlbs and I think one was at 50, this was after about 3000miles. I changed turbo twice and it was still smoking, thats when I noticed oil under the manifold.. after asking around it seems that some people retorque arp bolts after a few heat cycles.?! I didnt know this at the time. so I suspected my turbo!
did you try a retorque yet?
 
sx_turbo

sx_turbo

Lifer
where the inlet camshaft is there is a cam cap with a rubber blank in it i have found this to be a bugger sometimes
 
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