Crank Bolt Removal

[motorheadsw20]

I recently had the joy of having to check the oil pump cover for leaks since I had a bit of oil coming from that area and as a result had to remove the cam covers including the harmonic ballancer / crank pulley.

Now with the car in gear / handbrake on - I did try to undo the bolt to no avail. Using the pull out screw holes with a small screw in there just bent the screws. However I read a reccomendation once upon a time that you theoretically can put a wrench on the bolt and just click the starter a little to undo the bolt. Scary excercise - but having no other options and being short on time I decided to go down that path.

Needless to say - it did the trick - though it occured to me to take couple of photos - just so somone else may use this trick in the future

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Just make sure all's well placed / and there's a bit of tension on the bolt - and literally just touch the start, don't turn it

[GlanzaAtHeart]

Neat trick - Good to have saved up the sleeve.

What kind of vent is that you have? Looks really cool

[Benckj]

I've never been keen to try that trick myself. Always managed to get bolt free using a decent impact gun. We have a couple different ones at work that I can borrow.
Interested in your oil leak repair. I always change the oil pumps main O ring and shaft seal as these seem to be the leading cause of leaks. Unlike others I tend to leave main crank seal alone unless it is seeping. Cam seals are easy enough to do if they are seeping.

[GDII]

I have used that trick many times. I normally strap the breaker bar to the suspension arm but this works well too.
Yes, a little scary but having the bar strapped to the car makes it safer. Obviously stay clear of the tools when this is being done.

Impact wrench is not always the go especially if it is a small one. The starter motor can move the whole car so has heaps of torque.

[motorheadsw20]

Vents came with the car some 15 years ago :O so honestly, I've never bothered to investigate what they were - but yeah they seem to do a good job and pull good amount of air in since they poke out a wee bit more than factory


On the oil leak front - well I got one of the http://atsracing.net/Parts/Details/E-OILPUMP high volume oil pumps from ATS racing (roughly 2 years / 6000km ago) and didn't have any issues/leaks since then - this developed just recently. It's a bummer since it's all Toyota OEM parts and I was hoping for a worry-free motoring for few years type thing after a full recondition ... I guess my dad's saying "old cars and young women require lots of work" is spot on

Oil Pump leak.jpg (265.42 KiB) Viewed 2442 times

I checked all the bolts and they are all torqued correctly - i even tightened them up a bit more with the hope it'll stop and put it back together .... unfortunately, the leak persisted

I've also had a good look higher - cam seals / valve cover - no trace of any oil there. So in a nut-shell I'll probably need to take the engine out again to have a proper look and replace the wee rubber seal that goes between the oil pump and the rest of the aluminum cover as well as the gasket that backs onto the block (doing this without engine out is probably going to end up being more work)

[Benckj]

The leak seems to be consistant with the outer oil pump O ring as I described above. When you installed the ATS pump did you replace this part along with shaft seal? If interested I can post up some pics of my gen 3 pump and OEM seals replaced.

Removing the oil pump is not a big deal with engine in the car. Most of the work is in getting crank pully and covers off. Its easyier than doing the water pump as this is higher up and strut tower gets in the way. If you need a little more access could always drop engine down a tad for working on through rear arch.

[motorheadsw20]

That's the annoying bit - the ATS pump was brand new pump - seals gaskets and all (and has Toyota markings on it so I take it it's OEM) - so i just put it in.

I definitely go down the track of the O ring and potentially the seal (just ordered those form nzgaskets/repco) since yes this can be done without removing engine.

I was weary if the leak is coming from the gasket on the back end where it attaches to the block - which needs oil pan removal - and I don't have a hoist which makes it a pain to do with the engine still in.

I didn't do myself any favors by putting nolathane engine mounts in - very little flex in them so dropping the engine a tad is a bit of a pain (i need to push it up on the gearbox side and remove gerabox mount to tilt it enough for access) but i've done it couple of times now so should be able to get it done in an afternoon.

[Benckj]

I thought the main O ring which goes between pump and block was only available as OEM. Not sure if I have a pic on my laptop but I’ll try and find for reference.

Several years ago when I dropped my engine for doing cam belt , etc I bought a full OEM gasket kit. It didn’t include the oil pump seal but Mark at Toyota supplied at no additional cost.

[GDII]

The OEM kits have never included the oil pump o ring or the shaft seal. Frustrating but just how it is. They do contain the gasket between the oil pump housing and block though.