I'm working on our 2001 4 cylinder Camry. It has had a lot of oil leaks for the past few years, so as I was doing some other work that required the motor to come out, I decided to replace some seals.

The amount of poor work I'm finding here from when the previous owner had it worked on at the dealer is astonishing. Anyway, I found a gouge on the crank where it seals with the surface. I hit it with some sand paper to get the raised edges off, but it's deep enough I can obviously still catch my nail in it. I'm at a loss as to how to handle this. Should I just throw a new seal in there? Or should I go with one of the repair sleeves? I'm reading mixed things on the sleeves, but it seems like many of the people bashing them haven't actually used them. I did read a post from one poster saying to expect to replace the seals every 30k miles if using a sleeve. This is something I'm hoping not to do since it's a labor intensive job, but I also don't want to leave it like this if it won't ever seal.

For those of you with experience with this, what's the best route to take?

 

If this was an easy access to replace the seal and who cared if it leaked then might blend the scratch area and install a new seal, but it is not. Suspect it’s just a matter of time before the new seal will be destroyed. If my engine I would sleeve it.

I have sleeved before in other applications and found the results fine. There may be some concern about increasing the shaft diameter and reducing seal clearance for some installations. I find no reference to oversize seals for car engines when using sleeve thus no oversize seals available assuming it matters.

Do you have links to the 30K comments of needing to replace a seal on a sleeved shaft? I suspect, but who knows, improper preparation and sleeve or seal installation might be the cause of seal failure. When installing the seal take extra steps such using protective sleeve on shaft to ease the lip over the sleeve. The internet has ideas on this.

Toyotanation.com has a thread on the exact same issue with the same engine model. Based on trial and error the owner concluded not all sleeve brands were the same.

https://www.toyotanation.com/threads...-leak.1219674/

Every sleeve manufacturer has written instructions and sometimes video’s on installing their product. YouTube has lots of videos. There are special tools for this job, etc.

Research the job, perhaps pick up a spare sleeve to practice with, get the right tool (may come with sleeve kit). When installing the seal use the right tool or make one and get the installation depth correct. Pick up a spare seal in case of screws up with seal installation as been there and done that. Improper seal installation can cause leaks.

For this job I might spend a number of hours of just doing homework, than practice the best I could before doing the job. It is worth it to do the best install possible given the issues of seal access once the car is put back together.

See private message.

 

Thanks! I appreciate the help and the link. I hadn't seen that thread before. I think I'm going to give the sleeve a go and see how it works. It seems like the best option at this point. The difficulty getting to the seal is the reason I don't really want to do this seal often.

The 30k mile comment I saw was in this Garage Journal thread:
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...sleeves.68755/

It came up through a Google search. However, it's the internet and I have no idea if he knows what he's talking about or not.

 

Read up as much as you can. Below is a decent link on the subject. The info need not be about cars but engines of any kind.

https://www.thehulltruth.com/boating...r-failure.html

In some cases its possible to move the seal in slightly where the lip doesn't ride on the scratch but it doesn't appear possible here.

Toyota tools drive the seal but they also have a stop to make sure the seal is even in the hole. Something like this might work better but not sure they make one 5SFE. I have made them out of nylon but wood might work..


As stated get a spare sleeve and seal. Like a bearing or bushing installation, you want the sleeve and seal to be aligned the shaft or hole perfectly before installing rather then force it to correct itself during installation.

 

Does anyone know a part # of a sleeve that will fit?



Well, I went to install the SKF 99333 today and it's way too wide. I was hoping it would fit, since it wasn't the part number referenced in the other thread as not working. That says it fits the V6, while he had a 4 cylinder. So I assumed that was his problem. It turns out this one doesn't fit either. It's significantly wider than the piece of the crank that it rides on. It looks like I'm going to have to find something else.

 

Alright guys, sorry for the slow response but I'm back to report that I finally found a sleeve that will work after trying several. I talked to Silver Seal as someone mentioned getting one there in an old thread. They didn't list one for this car, and going by the dimensions, the closest one they had was slightly bigger, so they didn't think it would work. After not having any luck, I'd ordered another SKF with plans to see if a machine shop could cut it down. While doing so, I noticed Rock Auto had a Fel-Pro 16278 on clearance that I hadn't tried. This one doesn't come with an installation tool and I couldn't find an installation tool for sale anywhere, but decided to give it a go. It's a different style and doesn't have the tear off lip on the back that's used to knock it on. So the SKF tool doesn't work.



I got it and was shocked to find that this one was just the size I needed. It fit great. This one has a slight lip on the inside outside. If that makes sense. So you can't push it too far on. It fits the beveled edge of the crank very well. Without an insulation tool, I improvised. I took a small block of wood and drilled a 1 3/4" hole in the center so that it would fit over the center of the crank. Then I used a 4" PVC plug (which I use for Toyota rear main seals) and held it up to the back of the wood to tap on and put the wood against the sleeve. I also used some Permatex 64000 sleeve retainer sealant while putting this on. I was able to tap it right on.



Here's the part you need:





The installation "tool" I made:





The finished product:





I really hope this thread will help others in this situation get the right part. I spent a bunch of time researching this, talking to companies, ordering different sleeves that claimed to fit, etc. Hopefully the next person that needs to do this can avoid that, and just order the right sleeve from the start.

 

Great job! Thanks for posting back with your detailed experiences.