If you want to go the community college route, that's not a bad option. I wouldn't trust them with something huge, but valve covers aren't a big deal.

Seriously though. If you want to learn about it, you can do the valve covers in an hour, two max. Unbolt the intake, upper plenum, lower plenum and intake manifold and you're at the valve covers. Take them off, RTV the half-moons and swap in new gaskets. That's it. If you want to learn, this is one you should try to do.

Not a bad idea to try out the local CC, but if you want to learn, you should try it. I didn't know how to change my oil 5 years ago and I did a motor swap a couple months ago. You have to start somewhere and make some mistakes. This is a great engine to learn on and people around here are eager to be of assistance if you hit a snag. Best of luck to ya! BTW, if you need that valve cover, I have a couple that have been in my garage doing nothing for a while. PM me for the best deal of your life!

 

I can't figure out why these half moon plugs exist. What purpose does it serve having a removable piece of the head?

 

The half moon plugs the area that the machining used to bore the head in the manufacturing process if I had to guess being a non-machinist.

 

Amazing how everyone has the same problem. Ill be attacking the drivers side VC ASAP. Should I do both sides anyway, or do only the one that is leaking?

 

Seems like you have to take about the same amount of stuff out of the engine whether you do one or both, so it seems like a good idea to do both while you're in there.

But then there's also the "if it ain't broke" philosophy...

I'm just studying up on this job now. It's way more involved than I was hoping for...but my valve covers are caked with oil, which I don't like, and I guess it's a good way to learn this engine.

But coming from "R" series engines...it's just insane how difficult it is to change out valve cover gaskets on this engine. It took me 5 minutes to get the valve cover off my 20R Oh well.

 

I know I'm late to the party, but I want to thank you for the great DIY write up--my valve covers are cracked and leaking, and after reading this I know I can tackle the job myself. I love this forum and T4R forum, they're life savers!!

Quick, probably stupid question......... I don't need to drain the oil before I do this job, right? The coolant, yes, but not oil?

 

Oil no, and not necessarily even the coolant. You'll just lose a little from one of the hoses you disconnect. Some people say they didn't loose any.

So it's kind of up to you. Probably best to drain a bit of coolant, but not necessary. Definitely not necessary to drain all of it, unless you're using this as an excuse to change the coolant, which probably isn't a bad idea depending on the last time it was done.

The hose is high up on the engine and so you won't lose much coolant, or won't need to drain much to get it down below that level.

 

Thanks!

 

Just finished this job. Between this and one other thread on a 4Runner site, it was really no problem. But yeah, plastic wire loom sucks. Mine was a little brittle, but not bad. All the tabs for where it bolts to the engine broke, so it's just kind of "floating" now, but the rest of didn't break into a million little pieces, so that was nice.

I didn't drain any coolant, and only had a couple drops come out of one of the upper hoses. I did take the hood off, and that helped a ton with lighting and room to work.

I didn't need to bend the tabs on the underside of the valve covers to get the spark plug tube seals out. I just pried the seals out with a screwdriver, then bent up the tabs with pliers now that I had all that room, then hammered them back down after I got the new ones in. New ones slid right in with some oil and a 32mm socket.

So far, no leaks and no error codes.

I did the plugs, wires, spark plug tube gaskets, valve cover gaskets, cam seals, resealed the half moon plugs, intake plenum gaskets, pcv and grommet, throttle body gasket, and cleaned the throttle body while it was out. Then I changed the oil. With these instructions, honestly the only time I really found myself swearing was when I changed the oil. The rest went really smooth. It's actually not too complicated, as far as what needs to come off the engine. I labeled a few things and took photos, but it was pretty obvious how it all went back together once it was time.

I had two unused oil seals from Toyota...not sure if I had planned to do something more that I forgot about, or if they were something I ordered thinking it was the cam seals then realized it wasn't, then forgot to take them out of my basket...or what. I ordered all this stuff a few months ago.

I'd say just under 12 hours to do the whole job, but I was being very patient and taking my time. Having a heated shop, nowhere to be for a few days, and no work, makes it really easy.

And I felt like a real grownup when it was all back together and I had no leftover bolts...

 

I have a pretty serious leak on the front passenger side. I degreased the engine and ran it about 45 minutes and oil is pooling on the top of the ac compressor and running down to,the pan and then running back.

i can just see the bottom of,the half moon over on that side and it doesn’t appear to be the leak. I can see all the side and no leak. So it’s maybe the half moon and I just can’t see it, or wondering if the cam shaft oil seal could be bad....I don’t see anyone talking about replacing,those.

any thoughts?

I don’t drive this much and this leak started after my timing belt replacement. In 3k miles I have only lost maybe 1/4 q oil. Only reason I found it was changing the oil.

‘’Any ideas?

 

Have you tried re-torquing the valve cover bolts to make sure it's secure? They've been known to come loose (I've seen it mentioned in other posts and I found that to be true on my 99). Be sure not to over-tighten, the FSM torque specs are pretty low.