I noticed a few drops of oil on the bottom of the PS pump of my '00 camry. I traced the leak back to the bottom of the intake manifold. What should I do? Just leave it? Or change the manifold gasket? Or use a thicker oil? Presently using Motul 300v double ester 0w20. Advice appreciated.
Help! My Intake Manifold is leaking oil
- Thread starter Ken4
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What engine?
I do not understand how you would be getting oil out of the intake manifold in suffcient quanity to leak on anything though? The intake manifold should not have any oil passing through it. What little bit of oil a PCV system could dump in their would never be enough to cause a leak. I would make sure it is not comeing from a better oil source like the valve cover, cam plug, head gasket etc....
If you can be 100% sure it is the intake manifold gasket I would change it.More then likely Toyota is useing a paper gasket coated with shellac. I would change it.
If you can be 100% sure it is the intake manifold gasket I would change it.More then likely Toyota is useing a paper gasket coated with shellac. I would change it.
It is the 5S-FE 2.2L. On closer examination, it is from the rear of the valve cover, not the intake manifold, sorry. It was leaking down to the intake manifold, then the PS pump. I am a bit relieved now, cos it's a much simpler job changing the valve cover gasket.
Today I went thru my Haynes manual and noticed the spec for the spark plug tube nuts was 33ft-lbs. So before I went out to buy a new gasket, I decided to try and tighten these tube nuts to spec. Surprisingly, after 5 years, the nuts seems to have worked itself loose
. So I tightened it back to spec. Hopefully that will solve the oil leak problem.
Today I went thru my Haynes manual and noticed the spec for the spark plug tube nuts was 33ft-lbs. So before I went out to buy a new gasket, I decided to try and tighten these tube nuts to spec. Surprisingly, after 5 years, the nuts seems to have worked itself loose
Simple rule, always check the simple things first. Good for you, seems like we always make problems bigger than they really are, then we check it out, and it's not always that bad...good detective work!
Rando
Rando
Bad news. It is still leaking. Not from the valve cover gasket. But oil can still be found under the intake manifold. I suspect now it is leaking from the rear of the cylinder head gasket. I am back to being really disappointed now. I have a strong suspicion it IS caused by the Motul 300v 0w20. It’s just too much of a coincidence that it is leaking at the valve cover gasket and the head gasket at the same time. Either the 0w20 is too thin or the Motul 300v is a leaky oil (as per the rumors about it). I think I am through with using thin oils for Toyotas, clearly it doesn’t work well for high speed driving or hill climbs. Right now I have RP5w20 inside and I will continue to monitor it for a while and if it still leaks, I will move up to a really thick oil like Castrol RS 10w50 to stop the leak.
For the 2000 Camry 5S-FE 2.2L, isn't 5w30 the specified oil viscosity? IMHO, I would not use anything above the upper limit of the specified viscosity. Why stop at 50 wgt, why not use some nice gear lube 75W-90, that will stop your leak for sure, blow up your engine, but stop your leak! Forgive my sarcasm, I'm in that kind of mood today. Do yourself a favor, find and fix the leak and use the viscosity specified in your owner's manual. I have a 2000 Toyota Solara SLE V6 1MZ-FE and 5w30 is specified.
[ November 30, 2004, 02:33 PM: Message edited by: noodlerooney ]
[ November 30, 2004, 02:33 PM: Message edited by: noodlerooney ]
It may or may not be a viscosity issue, I dont know. Even a 5w30 when under hill climb and high speed driving conditions will reach 115C and it will also get awfully thin.
Today again I crawled under my car to inspect. I have deduced that there is no leak from the engine head gasket. It is all a top end leak. There are 2 spots where it leaks actually. #1 it leaks down from the rear of the valve cover gasket, to the intake manifold, then directly onto the right side drive shaft where it gets slung around, wetting the PS pump and the surrounding hoses and engine block! #2 it leaks from the camshaft seal near the throttle body.
I have sprayed engine degreaser and hosed down the engine. I will keep monitoring it.
Today again I crawled under my car to inspect. I have deduced that there is no leak from the engine head gasket. It is all a top end leak. There are 2 spots where it leaks actually. #1 it leaks down from the rear of the valve cover gasket, to the intake manifold, then directly onto the right side drive shaft where it gets slung around, wetting the PS pump and the surrounding hoses and engine block! #2 it leaks from the camshaft seal near the throttle body.
I have sprayed engine degreaser and hosed down the engine. I will keep monitoring it.
Ken4 get the cam seals and the valve cover gasket from your dealer. It is best to use some RTV in the channel of cam plug to hold the cam plug in place. A lot of guys will not replace the cam plug if it is not torn. They will just do the old smilie face of RTV in the grove of the cam plug and call it good and reuse the old valve cover gasket. This is fairly common on all engines that use soft cam plugs. My Dads 2.7 Tacoma has aluminum cam plugs that are just RTV'ed in place.
Ken, after I removed my valve cover at 30K and put it back together, it did leak in the back near the intake manifold. I retorqued it and it seemed to stop. Same care 00 Camry 5sfe
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