Valve Covers Come Off!!

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Aug 12, 2011 | 10:49 PM

tinman

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Intermediate

Joined: Nov 2003

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From: Oswego, IL

Valve Covers Come Off!!

I'm replacing the valve cover gaskets on my 1995 Lexus SC300 with 200K miles. To my knowledge (I got the car at 120K miles) these covers have never been off before. The gaskets were hard, dry and very brittle. I got the impression that the gaskets had shrunk and receded. The bolts holding the valve covers down were not tight. I could almost able to move them with my fingers. As you can see from the pictures, oil was weeping down the side of the block. These pictures were taken with a super uber awesome camera, but much of the detail was lost when the pictures were uploaded to Photobucket.

This engine was serviced at the dealer until about 70K, then I'm not sure what or where it was serviced. I took over service at 120K when I purchased it. Since then it has had mostly Valvoline SynPower 10w-30 or 5w-30 at 6-8K interval. For filters generally PureOne.

Holy crap that EGR port on the back of the intake "Y" is a total pain!

Aug 12, 2011 | 11:16 PM

OG Dada

Lexus Champion

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Joined: Apr 2011

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From: CA

Exact same thing on mine, last Lexus service was at 70K, and how I wish I could've taken care of it with that low of a mileage, cause I got mine at 163K, and had everything that can leak leaks... Although the previous owner changed the timing belt, distributor, distributor rotors, spark plug wires and spark plugs at 152K. I've finished up fixing the valve cover gasket a month ago and it was fairly easy, it took me a day to finish up everything, and also changed all the hoses when I took it apart. I've just finished changing out my radiator for a Koyo direct replacement a week ago. Tried to fix the leaky transmission oil pan, but snagged into a problem when I was trying to install the plug bolt, it cross threaded on me, so I just reinstalled it like that since I couldn't get the damn bolt out anymore, and again saving to change the whole thing so I can fix it again.

Oh btw, mine is an SC400.

Aug 13, 2011 | 02:14 PM

GearJammin

Driver School Candidate

Joined: Jul 2011

Posts: 30

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From: SC

Amen to that y pipe!! Just took mine off today. Why in the world does that tube going into the egr have to be so frigging strong. It's like an engineer just wanted to be an @55 so he made that tube out of some NASA ******

Aug 13, 2011 | 02:27 PM

tinman

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Joined: Nov 2003

Posts: 266

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From: Oswego, IL

Quote:

Originally Posted by GearJammin

In the second generation of the 2JZ engine (in 97when it got vvt-i) it doesn't have this at all. They got rid of all kinds of little tubes running around and that EGR port is more sanely located.

Aug 13, 2011 | 02:34 PM

Candela

Lead Lap

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Joined: Oct 2010

Posts: 650

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From: NY

Well at least I can expect it now, I'm going to be doing this very soon, valve cover gaskets, dissy o-ring, plug wires, spark plugs, y-pipe gasket, throttle body gasket etc. Great pictures man it feels weird to see the motor all bare lol