93 Es300 Exhaust Manifold Oil Leak?

[branlday]

I have oil leaking on my exhaust pipe causing the common burnt oil smell. After searching the board I believed it was my rear valve cover gasket, so I replaced it. While I was in there I found a significant leak that appears to be coming out of the rear exhaust manifold gasket, but that seems wierd to me. I didn't even know oil was anywhere near the exhaust manifold gasket??

So does oil flow to the manifold gasket? If it does, do I need to drain the oil before I replace the gaskets so oil doesn't spew all over the place?

Apologies if this has already been covered, I couldn't find it anywhere.

[SKperformance]

I don't think the oil has anythign to do with the exhaust leak . Are you talking about the exhaust piping where it meets the heads?

[Toysrme]

Ugh it depends. (It's 8 bolts). You dont have to drain the oil.

Oil doesn't route to the manifolds.

If your RVC gasket is leaking, yes it's going to run down the head onto the exhaust manifold.

[branlday]

I don't think the oil has anythign to do with the exhaust leak . Are you talking about the exhaust piping where it meets the heads?

Yeah, the oil is leaking from the manifold where it meets the head (8 bolts). Just to clarify, I don't have an exhaust leak smell, it is the smell of the oil that is dripping on the exhaust pipe and burning.

Ugh it depends. (It's 8 bolts). You dont have to drain the oil.

Oil doesn't route to the manifolds.

If your RVC gasket is leaking, yes it's going to run down the head onto the exhaust manifold.

I changed the valve cover gaskets initially and then I saw that the oil was not leaking down the back side. It was originating around the manifold gasket. Strange huh???

[Toysrme]

Makes more since now.

You could always be leaking oil into the cylinders. Are you burning oil?

[branlday]

I have a little bit of white smoke out the back when I gas it or if I just start it.

Man that's terrible if the oil is leaking into the exhaust chambers!

How would it get into the chambers? The head gasket maybe?

I imagine if that is the case, changing the exhaust manifold gasket won't last me too long before it starts doing it again.

Brandon

[mnewland00]

I have a 99 and a 93 ES. My 93 did the exact same thing. I simply tightened down the intake bolts and it minimized the leak. Occasionally I will get the oil burning smell, but not enough to bother me. These cars are notorious for burning oil once they reach that age. How many miles are on it?

[Toysrme]

No more notorious than any other car. The ring seal is normally awesome a high mileage compaired to many. Toyota uses good factory ring sets. What kill them is the v6's leaking from old seals. Valve covers, sometimes the main seals. Sometimes a distributor seal. (On the dizzy engines)

External oil leaks are minor problems that happen to all engines over time & can be forgiven. internal oil leaks are big flaws. We're lucky in that regard.

White smoke is just water vapor steaming in the exhaust.

The exhaust manifold gaskets are MLS (Multi-Layered Steel) Unless they're bent, they shouldn't need replacing. Like mnewland00 said, you can try just tightening the manifold bolts alittle bit.

-Brandon

[branlday]

Alright, thanks for the input. I need to see if I can get the heat shield off without removing the whole intake plenem. Then I'm going to need some really long socket extensions so I'll give it a try in a few days.

Thanks again.

[branlday]

Alright, I tightened down the bolts a little bit (I think?) They wouldn't move so I backed tham out a quarter turn and then I believe I was able to tighten them a little further. It still does the oil buring thing occasionally, but it does seem to be less frequent. I guess I will have to live with it.

I didn't respond to this question before, it has 169k miles. I just bought it a few months ago and really love the car. It's in great shape except for a few common trouble areas. I like that I was able to buy a nice luxury car for under 4k which I can maintain with toyota parts!

[Toysrme]

On the rear bank you can do two more things.

1) Tighten the two 14mm nut & bolts holding the y-pipe to the manifold.

2) The EGR pipe is inserted into the exhaust manifold & held there by compression via a huge !Removed! nut (Don't know the size, but it's huge !Removed!) AKA JIC fitting. Tighten the nut to clamp it down alittle more

How many manifold nuts did you tighten? There are 6 per manifold.

LoL! Ya! It's no doubt a Lexus, and not a Toyota Camry. It's just that when it breaks... We're lucky because we can use most mechanical Camry parts lol. Hell for that matter we *could* start using 4runner, Tacoma, highlander, celica & corolla parts too. Depending what they are. (Me and my Toyota mechanic buddy like to joke ya know... Damn it there is *something* you can swap from a Corolla to an LS430. We'll find it one day, just to *BLEEP* the snobs off LoL!)

btw... ES = Camry XLE insurance bracket. I love that stuff every 6 months!

And the baseline ES of any year costs only 15% more than the most upscale Camry XLE, is a far superior car in every regard, and holds 1/3 more value over it's entire life!

OK so the new ES350 ultra luxury is like 40 grand... (It is in the right pricerange tho for the competition, so no judging from me) bu otherwise, they are killer buys.