Dead giveaway is the location of the motor oil filler cap. Sure there are countless other differences but that's a quick tell. Bumper.com vehicle history report is not exactly reliable!

 

This is the link I use to look up vehicle info with the VIN. Gonna also do the throttle cable adjustment or see if it actually needs adjusting.

Free Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) Decoder & Lookup (driving-tests.org)

 

Yep that's definitely a 1MZ-FE - one of the very earliest specimens I would wager.

Interestingly, it's such an early specimen it looks like a hybrid - insofar as I note the fan still uses the hydraulic power steering system like the earlier 3VZ-FE.

Later specimens use electric powered motors on the radiator fans.

Regarding the source of the oil leaks? My number one guesstimate would probably be the rear valve cover gasket.

Not an expensive fix, but VERY labour intensive insofar as you have no choice - you MUST remove the upper inlet plenum along with all the other relevant hardware to gain access to the rear valve cover.

Buy yourself an extendable mechanic's mirror so that you can take a peek at the back of the head, and also in around the area above the drive belt tightener.

If budget was not a problem I'd take the engine off to a place where you can get dry ice blasted from underneath.

After that you could start seeing quite easily where the drips are coming from.

It could be from more than one place, with camshaft seals and valve cover gaskets being my best guesses.

Now... if it IS the rear valve cover gasket, or the rear camshaft seal?

It's an excellent opportunity to remove the upper inlet plenum and properly clean it and restore it.

I strongly recommend deactivating the EGR system while you have the opportunity too.

Also, if it's the valve cover gaskets that need replacing, properly clean the valve covers... like so...

In these next photos, the first two photos are the front valve cover and the next two photos are the rear valve cover.

 

Camry 1MZ switched to electric rad motors in 1996 the ES300 stayed with hydraulic that year.

 

Roger that!!! Thank you so much for this info!! Very much appreciated! in Regards to the EGR , do you mean like get rid of it? plug it?

 

Preciate you brother!

 

I personally removed the pipe which connected the exhaust manifold on the rear head to the underneath part of the inlet plenum.

I did that because it made things so much easier if I ever had to reach to the back of the rear head.

The EGR pipe was previously bolted to the back of the inlet plenum, specifically, to a an EGR appendix which then fed EGR gases into the bottom of the plenum.

Deactivating the EGR system also provided an extra benefit...

It was no longer necessary to route engine coolant through the throttlebody, the Idle Air Control valve, and the EGR appendix and then back to the manifold.

The reason? Super hot EGR gases are no longer being fed into the inlet plenum, hence the coolant route is longer required.

IAs a result, all of those little coolant hoses are removed and the connections on the throttlebody and IAC valve are now shut off with bungs.

In this next photo you can see the bypass hose that I installed. This in turn allows me to remove the inlet plenum, or the throttle body anytime I want.

It makes life so much easier when it comes to doing maintenance. And I daresay it will for anyone running an early 1MZ-FE too.




I also screwed a 27mm bronze "pipe fitting" plug into the exhaust manifolfd.




In the above photo, note the fine red circles. That's the EGR pipe that I removed. This photo is from 2019 when I dropped the engine to do some maintenance.

Take a look at the inlet manifold. See how sooty it was? That's what decades of EGR soot buildup looks like.

And this is what my inlet plenum looked like when I put everything back together. Trust me, it was filthy with decades of EGR soot.

I still have PCV gases running through the inlet plenum, but that's mostly fine mist engine oil, and PCV gases don't ruin manifolds like EGR gases do.





Also, last year when I doing all this work, I removed and cleaned the lower inlet manifold too. This is what it looked like when it went back in.

My point being, never waste an opportunity to do this sort of work if you can do it.

 

So, getting back to your oil leak problem.

This next photo is bascially the angle of your engine where most of the problem is happening.

You'll note the PS pump could be a factor. If you're losing Power Steering fluid on a regular basis, it definitely is the problem.

If you buy an extendable mechanic'smirror, use this image as a reference for where oil might be coming from.

 

Did a brake job and got that tire off and was able to see a little better up in there. Im definitely going to pressure was the crap out of it today once I get the brakes back on and outside but for now. The two red circles I just had questions as to what they are, I gathered the pulley is the power steering pump? Im not losing any power steering fluid but could this be leaking oil from where its bolted to the housing? The other red circle where the arrow is pointing, its actually forming drips at the bottom there. Was wondering what that part is.

 

Power steering pump and hydraulic tensioner for the timing belt. Tensioner only contains a small amount of hydraulic oil that is not your leak.

 

Roger that, preciate it!!

 

Greetings LeX2K,

So I cleaned the crap out of all of that area especially around the that caked up powersteering pump area, got it so clean that It didnt drip one drop of oil but of course after I drove it and took it over to my mechanic, we both got down there and looked and oil is definitely coming from somwhere above if not from the timing belt tensioner. Its the only thing that has oil coming down it and all over it. He was thinking taking everything back off that is around the timing belt area back off to see if its coming from somewhere above the timing belt tensioner area. Any suggestions as to what above the timing belt tensioner could be leaking? As I said before, He fixed the leak that was inside the timing belt cover and all those seals.

 

Sounds like the pressure sending unit (idiot light sending unit) is leaking, a common failure. Check above the crank pulley, although I seem to remember for 1994 this is on the side of the block. Can't remember.

 

Roger that, Thanks again!!!

 

If your oil leak is coming from INSIDE your timing belt shroud....

There are only two places oil can leak from.

(1) The left cam shaft seal and/or...

(2) The right cam shaft seal.

Please note... I'm using the true "correct engine terms" regarding left and right side of an engine.

In a LHD ES300, the "front of the engine" is points towards the passenger side of the car... the "left cylinder head" is at the front of the car, and the "right cylinder head" is up against the firewall.

There are several YouTube videos which show how to do camshaft seal replacements on a 1MZ-FE ES300.

Here's a good example...


It's a DIY job, but you definitely need the correct tools and jacks etc etc