Oil Leak Source - Missing Camshaft Plug Retainer

Today during one of my trips to the dump and to Home Depot, I noticed the Taco started smoking like oil was running on the exhaust. It was a lot of smoke that started fast.

At Home Depot, I checked the oil and it was a quart low. I had just checked it two days ago and it was on the mark. I could see oil dripping underneath the truck. So I figured I have enough oil to make it home without losing too much more. I made it ok.

At home, I looked under the hood and noticed the cross over pipe heat shield looked like it had been drenched in oil. It definitely had been. I stuck my hand up to feel around the camshaft plug for a leak and the plug was missing. No retainer either. So I figure some knot head worked on the engine at some point and forgot to reinstall the plug retainer. The plug had to have been installed because I've been driving the truck too much without a the leak.

I'm glad I found the leak source. This means I need to accelerate the engine replacement. I won't be fixing the one on this engine.

 

was the engine running while you were sticking your hand back behind there?
did you get a pic
this truck is out of commission for the time being

 

Not running at the time. The motor had cooled off. I couldn't see back there. I started to get a mirror but didn't. I could feel the oil that had been running down the back of the head. Then realized I could stick my fingers way up in the hole that is normally covered by the cam plug. It's storming here this evening. I'll try to get a pic tomorrow.

I'm wondering if the shop that made a mess of my VC and oil pan, right after I bought it got the idea that they needed to remove the plug retainer and just forgot to put it back on. Of couse, the old engine knocks to beat hell. But had I been out driving on the interstate somewhere, this would have turned into a bad scene.

This one is way up on the dumbass chart.

 

i opened my hood while the engine was running to show my 18yr old nephew
his jaw dropped in astonishment for some reason when he saw the fan going round under that shroud
he's never seen something like that or else he is getting the taco fever itch (or whatever its called)

i am still not sure what is to become of my recent halfassd VCG job
...i looked on the receipt and check it out, they put the Wrong mileage on the invoice, by nearly 3k miles i think
what is that going to tell you?

 

Yep.

 

Here's a picture of the right bank cam plug with the retainer bracket installed. This is how a cam plug should look.

 

Whats the orange paint there on the freeze plugs, a type of torque stripe paint?

 

LKQ (engine source) sprays orange paint on the coolant plugs as part of their used engine warranty. If the plugs are blown out from overheating, the warranty is void.

 

I had to use a mirror to photograph the cam end cap area on the head. The Vs point to the open cam where the plug (and retainer) should be.

Without those cam covers, oil runs out of the opening that's shown in the mirror. I think I lost a quart of oil in about 10 miles.

I'm reasonably certain the shop that removed the valve cover and cross threaded the some of the bolts thought they needed to remove the retainer to remove the valve cover. Then they forgot to reinstall it or decided it was unnecessary.

This is why I prefer to do my own work. It seems like anytime I outsource a repair job around here, it comes back a mess.

 

is that a pic of what was not replaced on mine? the cam plugs

 

Gotcha, I’ve never used their engines I’ve used ATK engines how do you like that brand, have you had decent luck with LKQ? Toyota uses them, and LC engineering uses ATK, I know a guy that used LKQ in his charger.

 

They are easy to deal with. The shipment was FAST on this one. I'll know more after I get it installed.

 

Cool, I hope it runs good, I thought you might have bought one or two before. Let us know how she runs when it’s fired up.

 

A buddy who does a lot of engine and transmission swaps buys from them. He turned me on to them.

 

I've never heard of blowing out a 'plug' from overheating, I wonder how they came up with that 'tell-tale' sign?

 

that is the 'full' and '1/2' moons that are mentioned in the sticky to replace.

 

No idea. This is new to me. The aluminum engines I know about don't have them. They look like the head of a shotgun shell. But the small center part that looks like it would be the primer is supposed to blow out on a catastrophic overheating event. They are not freeze plugs.