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I am planning on replacing the rear valve cover in a couple of weeks and have been reading the very helpful threads and watching videos to prep for the job. The youtube video by Dailydriven79 that is posted in this thread shows him using the Toyota Seal packing 102 in spots on the valve cover seal. It is my understanding it is also recommended by Lexus, yet I haven't seen anyone mention doing this in the DIY writeups. Are most folks skipping this step and still avoiding leaks at the gasket?
i've never heard of anyone not use rtv. permatex is probably more popular and accessible.
i've never heard of anyone not use rtv. permatex is probably more popular and accessible.
I ordered the Toyota Seal packing 103 (00295-00103). I also found an image from the service manual showing the locations where the RTV is placed on the rear valve cover. I also guess I'll be able to see where the RTV was originally placed on the old gasket. Thanks for the input!
Hey guys! I just want to say that I recently installed the reengineered rear valve cover as suggested earlier in this thread. My 2000 Lexus ES 300 was burning oil really bad. About 2 quarts every 300 miles!! It was super annoying to keep buying oil. I bought the car from a grandma who didn't do regular maintenance. so the car had a bad sludge problem and burning oil. smoke coming out of the exhaust like it was Cheech and Chong blowing smoke out of my exhaust.. The car had really low miles. 84000 when I bought it. I paid to get new cylinder heads done at 89000 miles. After a month it was still burning oil. My mechanic and I were going crazy trying to figure out what it was.
I ran across this thread and it saved my car. I figured why not. Might as well give it a try. So I ordered the parts recommended earlier in this thread online from Lexus of Atlanta and got a great deal.
My mechanic installed the new rear valve cover on May 10. Today about a month later I don't need to keep buying oil because it doesn't burn any more. I drove about 1700 miles so far and the car only burned 1/2 a quart.
I hope this helps anyone that has an oil burning problem in this type of engine.
My mechanic installed the new rear valve cover on May 10. Today about a month later I don't need to keep buying oil because it doesn't burn any more. I drove about 1700 miles so far and the car only burned 1/2 a quart.
I hope this helps anyone that has an oil burning problem in this type of engine.
Thanks Club Lexus!!!
So glad to hear it. Im not a big snake oil kind of guy but you can slowly clean up the inside of the motor by adding a quart of MMO Marvel Mystery Oil to each oil change. It will slowly disolve sludging and free up piston rings which may help with the oil loss you still have.
Long time listener, first time caller. So I took the plunge and replaced my valve cover. This thread, plus the other assorted DIYs and YouTube videos really helped guide me through the replacement. And I can't thank you all enough for it.
Back story... Wife needed a car and found a 2000 RX with about 119k on it. Car ran fine and looked clean but within a few weeks, I noticed a massive oil consumption issue. This is where I came across CL. So I putzed around with auto-RX etc and got nowhere, I decided to order the parts from partznet.com which is right down the street from me at conicelli Toyota in conshohocken, pa; but also had some of the lowest prices online (plus some 10% coupon codes out there). Spent roughly $215-ish in parts from Toyota.
Took a couple days off work to accomplish a sort of grand de-sludging of the Lexus. It's worth stating that the car had -some- sludge but not anything that appeared catostrophic. Started with the front valve cover as s practice run and replaced the plug seals and gasket. I extensively cleaned out the valve cover as well. Blew carb cleaner and brake cleaner to the PCV pipe etc.
Then I disassembled the car to get the rear valve cover off. This was irritating due to the wire harness which seemed to get in the way. I could barely tighten the bolt closest to the front of the head. Using solvents with a toothbrush dipped break cleaner and MMO I scrubbed out some of the junk and then reassembled the car after replacing the spark plugs. . Along the way I cleaned the IACV (had no play whatsoever) and the MAF.
I have to say... My intake ports from the rear/right head were straight black with oil. The front ones were light but the rear three were straight oil black.
Today I dropped the oil pan to clean that out. That had sludge caked on the sides. Used premetex ultra grey and resealed that up.
So the result is that oil consumption, if any, is minimal. Plus I was getting 17mpg but averaging 20mpg since I did the work. Not bad!
The work took me quite a while since I was cleaning everything like mad. I highly recommend getting the new valve cover if yours is leaking and if you're not experiencing widespread oil consumption. Better safe than sorry.
Here's my take on the MPG improvement. Oil ingestion lowers octane of gasoline. So when the manual says to use 87 octane, its correct if the engine isn't burning oil. So owners are forced to use 91 octane to help with knocking and timing retard. The engine ecu responds by using more fuel to stop the knock. Now that your engine isn't burning oil, the computer needs less gasoline and hence better MPG. You should disconnect the battery for an hour to reset the computer and your mpg could get even better as it goes thru a relearn process.
Is there any benefit to leaving the engine cover off to help with sludging? It would seem to retain heat in the valve cover on bank 2 and reduce air flow over engine.
Is there any benefit to leaving the engine cover off to help with sludging? It would seem to retain heat in the valve cover on bank 2 and reduce air flow over engine.
i've never seen sludging in bank 2 (front valve cover)...the breather is huge in diameter compared to the rear pcv.
IMO, the rear valve cover is stamped too small and wastes space that could have been used to make it larger baffle for breathing and oil drainback on the rear head. The cover is also aluminum so, its got pretty good heat dissipating properties. Heat retention doesnt appear to be the cause of sludge in these 1st gens.
Is there any benefit to leaving the engine cover off to help with sludging? It would seem to retain heat in the valve cover on bank 2 and reduce air flow over engine.
Do you mean the big plastic thing? That's just for decoration and to protect the ignition coils/wires.
I suppose, in theory, one could rip the sort of shield inside the valve cover once it's off. There's a youtube video where a guy did that on a Camry to cure his oil consumption. Did it work? I have no idea. Would I want to tear apart the engine a second time if it didn't? Nope.
Originally Posted by fastnoypi
i've never seen sludging in bank 2 (front valve cover)...the breather is huge in diameter compared to the rear pcv.
IMO, the rear valve cover is stamped too small and wastes space that could have been used to make it larger baffle for breathing and oil drainback on the rear head. The cover is also aluminum so, its got pretty good heat dissipating properties. Heat retention doesnt appear to be the cause of sludge in these 1st gens.
I had --very-- light sluding in mine. Not enough to justify any major modifications.
IIRC, cylinders 2, 4 and 6 are the rear ones, aka the 'right' cylinders. I could be wrong but I believe the sludging has to do with the high heat causing a breakdown of the oil which in turn will clog the overly small baffle holes. This creates the problems this new valve cover is designed to solve.
I've been using this diagram for a while
One of the other reasons i don't believe its high heat causing the sludging is that it occurs mostly in vehicles that are run on short trips that don't get the oil hot enough to steam off condensation from the night of cool down. Cooled oil mist gels easily in the baffles causing clogging and eventually sludging.
One of the other reasons i don't believe its high heat causing the sludging is that it occurs mostly in vehicles that are run on short trips that don't get the oil hot enough to steam off condensation from the night of cool down. Cooled oil mist gels easily in the baffles causing clogging and eventually sludging.
I edited my post but looks like you beat me to the reply.
And that makes some sense about driving on short trips. My RX only had 119k when I bought it earlier this year so it wasn't used extensively. In an case, it's pretty clear that this re-engineered valve cover does the trick.
I drove about 200 miles yesterday and any oil loss from that trip is negligible. Surely not the ~1 quart I would have lost before the new valve cover was installed.
I'm talking about the plastic Lexus badged cover that hides the wires and plumbing above bank 2 closest to radiator. I probably will leave mine off. Its mostly decorative. These engines need as much cooling as possible being transverse mounted. I may take additional steps by using foam strips to seal the condenser to the radiator and remove the plastic side panels between the radiator and rad support. This will flow more cooled air around the engine without affecting the radiator.
I just completed the rear valve cover and I was easily able to do mine without removing the wipers and strut brace. The intake runners will come out from under the brace and no extra height was needed to r&r the valve cover.
04-23-16, 06:30 AM
