Both of my valve cover gaskets are leaking for sure. How do I check for cam seal leaks or vvti gear leaks? What do i look for. Im use to pushrod motors and not all this fancy stuff..lol

 

before some ones flames you which is coming soon ..oh wait ill do it ...use the SEARCH
!!!! option there a billion topic on this sorry to be rude

 

It would help if we knew which engine you have.

 

I searched.....maybe not well enough. All I read was people having issues with leaks. No photos, or how to's or what to look for's. Ill search again.
Also its GS400.

 

he said both sides ....so what engine do u thing he has???? take a guess

as for issue ...i would say just do the valve covers since the cam seals never tend to leak. also its kinda of a big job to do cam seal on the v8 ....valve covers are straight forward kinda deal ...but that all depends on ur mechanic capabilities and experience in doing valve cover gaskets ....for the gs400-30 is easy, unlike other cars where u have to remove the manifold

 

Take it easy there, Tex.

 

Ill help you out since I did just do a top end overhual. You have the 2 vvti cam gear dust covers which easily pull off with little else being taken off. You can remove these and 1 if oil is seeping behind the gear its the cam seal (very costly and labor intensive to fix since the cams have to be removed) but you will get free labor for the valve cover gaskets as the job for the cams requires them to be removed. 2 if the oil actually drains out of the bottom of the cam gear then your inner vvti gear oil ring seal is bad. (this si the better of the 2. But in any case if you mess with either be ready to do the timing belt tensioners idler pulleys and water pump. I did my crank seal as well. I will try to show you some pics below hopefully you know what your looking at. Im a SBC BBC guy myself. But have built several nissan turbo cars.

Here is pics for explanation 2 the vvti inner seal leaking should reveal oil where the screw driver head is. Yes this is a 2j but we have the same gear on the 1uz and it leaks in the same fashion





EXP 1 shown here basically if the cam seal itself is leaking the oil will seap out behnd the pully and down the front engine cover. (look behind belt where red arrow is on each bank of your 1uz. I was able to see fresh gold oil here and was bummed cause it ment cam seals.



Oh and the driver side valve cover gasket is a pain so remove what you can to make it slide in the easiest I removed the wiring harness mounting areas and was able to get it in there and use a mirror to verfiy gasket still in place.

GL hope this helps ya.

 

Think I got it. Cam seals will show behind the belt running down the Front side of the heads and block.
VVTI inner seal will puddle up on the inside of outer gear and I know what leaky valve covers look like.

What pisses me off is they did timing belt and water pump at the 90,000 mile service. It has 110,000 on it now. Figured they may of saw something. Owell.

 

Entryspeed - thanks for your description - it helped me for sure. I have a 98Gs400 and both vvti gears are leaking from the inner seal. I have read of people opening them and sealing them with gasket sealer, but all posts seem to relate to the gs300 and not gs400. You mentioned that both have the same gear above - would you recommend that I open them up and re-seal them? can I just follow the thread on sealing the gs300 and it should be the same?

It would be nice to know a replacement o-ring to use- do you know or recommend one?

thanks for the help!

btw- you said that these vvti gears leaking is better than the cam seal leaking, so I think you must believe in rebuilding them - otherwise replacing them is $275 per part! ouch

 

A 2jz and a 1uz both have 2 valve covers...

 

Maybe OP has a 7MGE PushRod with Vtec on his GS400. Its the Tru UNICORN

 

my apologies.... u are absolutely right

 

Get fluorescent oil dye and be done with it.

 

Can anyone verify that using sealant is worth the effort over the long term, or would it be better to just replace these vvti gears? I was hoping for some input before I drop a fortune to replace both gears - just to correct a couple leaking o-rings.

I didn't mean to hijack this thread, its pono the same topic and most recently posted to, so I figured we could get more info out about how to FIX the leaking vvti gear on a GS400 unless it is identical to the GS300 in this case?

thanks for any help-

Frank I see you have a GS400, did you repair a vvti gear on yours? I've got a LOT of money into repairs already, and if its questionable to use sealant to repair these, then I will just replace them, so all my money spent isnt a waste - I don't want any leaks!

 

Using sealant to fix a permanent problem is never the best solution. More or less thats a last ditch effort to slow something down delaying the inevitable. Just fix it as soon as you have the money so you have peace of mind driving.