In doing the head gasket and timing belt/water pump on my '92 ES300 with 3VZ-FE, I decided to replace the front crankshaft seal as well while I am was in there.

So, exactly how do you go about replacing it? I see a lot of folks saying it is easy but there are few explanations. Well, this is how I did it but there are probably other ways as well. I did not have any special tools but did fashion a simple one from readily available PVC pipe.

First, we have to get the old seal out. I did this by drilling a small pilot hole in the middle of the seal and screwing in a two inch long sheet metal screw into the seal. Then using a standard pair of pliers, I just pulled on the head of the screw and the old seal came out and off the crankshaft. Note that I only drilled deep enough to puncture the seal and then quit. Maybe 1/8 inch. Does not take much. Pics show the seal (with screw) ready to be pried out and a pic of the old seal along side the new seal.

More to come...

This is how the front of the crankshaft looks with the oil seal removed.

To properly seat the new seal onto the crank, I chose to make a simple tool out of PVC pipe that I had laying around the garage. You can buy crank seal installing tools that essentially do the same thing but are made out of steel. I did not see the need to use metal. PVC works fine.

Basically, I took a 1 1/4 inch PVC sched 40 coupler and cut a small length of 1 1/4 PVC pipe to fit into one end of the coupler. The overall length when done was 3 3/8 ". That provided the right length to slip over the crankshaft and still allow the crank bolt to engage the threads. You could probably go to maybe 3" and it would work fine.

Here are pics(a little blurry, but you can see what they are) of the coupler and short piece of pipe and then put together to form the installer tool.

Next, I put the new seal in place and gently work it onto the shaft. Then take the PVC tool and slip it over the end of the crank so that the coupler is against the new seal. Insert the crank bolt into the crank and begin to tighten the tool making sure that the tool is centered around the seal.

Using a 19 mm socket, crank the bolt on snugly and push the seal fully into place. Remove bolt and tool.

The final pic shows the new seal in place.

Hard to do? Not really... but you have to know what you are doing. The confidence gained by seeing it done is worth a lot. Hope this will be helpful to some DIY'er (otherwise, I just wasted a lot of time taking pics! jk).

Cheers.

Oh, almost forgot THE most important tool used ....
Gets me through most tough jobs.

Thanks for the write-up, very nicely done. The machine screw trick works really well, I have a seal puller and I still prefer using the screw instead. Do yourself a favour and dumb the green coolant and put in Toyota long life, your water pump will thank you.

Agreed. No way is the green stuff staying in there. Going back to Toyo red juice. Before starting this whole project, I tried to open the rear coolant block drain but it was "stuck" and I did not want to force it. Maybe the penetrating oil has now done its magic. Will try again.

I stabbed a knife gently through the old seal (without scratching the wall) and pry it out.
As for putting in the new seal, I used a seal installer kit.

That's a very detailed write up. Thank you for creating all these DIYs while you're at it.

You should do one on degreasing a nasty engine

nice write up!
looks like u had some leaks eh. kinda sludgy...just like my car. =D

i wish the 3vz wasn't such a leak monster

Ok, I can take a hint. I did use a can of cleaner to the block after I saw the gunk in the pictures! I was thinking that I should have done that BEFORE replacing the seal. Oh well. Its cleaner now though not spotless. The previous owner(s) of this vehicle definitely were not too kind on her. I am very impressed with the engineering of Lexus/Toyota. Solid design.

No one else uses the Sammy Adam's tool?

Folks
Need help. I ordered timing belt kit from ebay. All parts are OEM except seals, both camshaft and crankshaft. They are of brand LYO (Lian Yu). Are they any good? I was going to do the work tomorrow but now I don't know. I am planning to buy the seals from some local store if LYO are no good. Which ones are good? Timken, felpro are available at local stores.

Anything is better than the seals you have IMO. I personally would use the originals here (or equivalent), but if I can not, Timken or Felpro stuff is decent.

That screw trick is awesome.

Ended up buying seals at Lexus Dealership for almost $40 as I wanted to get the work done today. And the eBay seller wants to refund me $5 for mix up. Great....