I have not had a cam tower leak yet, and I have had a 07 4.7L, 11 4.6L, 12 4.6L, and now a 15 5.7L. But when I traded off my 12, one of the dealers that looked at it said it had the cam tower leak. I NEVER saw any oil on my garage floor and I go 10,000 miles between oil changes, and at 10K, the oil is usually only a 1/2-3/4 quart down from full. So, if it was leaking, it was not much.

What I toyed with at the time was a bead of J-B Weld on that seam to stop the leak. There is no pressure there, it is just oil flowing back to the pan and all they use from the factory is some liquid gasket maker, which is not much of a seal. I had planned to just clean up that side of the block real well and put a string of JB Weld on it and go on with life. I bet that would take care of 99% of any leak you had.

 

I have not had a cam tower leak yet, and I have had a 07 4.7L, 11 4.6L, 12 4.6L, and now a 15 5.7L. But when I traded off my 12, one of the dealers that looked at it said it had the cam tower leak. I NEVER saw any oil on my garage floor and I go 10,000 miles between oil changes, and at 10K, the oil is usually only a 1/2-3/4 quart down from full. So, if it was leaking, it was not much.

What I toyed with at the time was a bead of J-B Weld on that seam to stop the leak. There is no pressure there, it is just oil flowing back to the pan and all they use from the factory is some liquid gasket maker, which is not much of a seal. I had planned to just clean up that side of the block real well and put a string of JB Weld on it and go on with life. I bet that would take care of 99% of any leak you had.

I'm very curious as to what others opinions are on using JB weld on this. I currently have a leak..and honestly. I'm not worried about it. It's got over 200K on it, it does not leak a ton, and I keep the oiled topped off. I'm an aircraft mechanic on Super Hornets by trade, and when things leak..that's how we know there is oil in them.

 

mack,
Thanks for the reply. As mentioned above, I have previously owned 5 Toyotas, none of them leaked or used oil.
The belief on here that Toyota personnel have trouble programming the application path for the robot to apply correctly I think is absurd. And as mentioned by owners who have done the repair, they don't leak afterward. Just seems to me to be sloppy assembly and/or not the correct sealant. If the repair when required wasn't so labor intensive and expensive I wouldn't be so concerned about purchasing a used Tundra.
Thanks again. By the way, IMO, JB weld would only be a stop gap measure. It would only hold back the leak (maybe), not stop it.

 

I know what you mean, just curious about doing it myself or if I should even sweat it. I have about 207K in my 2011 and plan to keep it for another 3-4 years if it all works out.

it doesn’t leak terribly, but seems to be getting worse by the year. Aside from having to add oil, what’s the worst case scenario that could happen if I don’t fix it or do anything to it?

 

I'm not 100% certain. Other than it will be burning leaking oil on the exhaust manifolds.
If you have the time, tools, and confidence I'd say give it a try.
My big concern, suggested to me by my toolmaker buddy who deals with single and double overhead cam motors on a regular basis was this: by doing the shortcut method without removing anything required on the front of the engine to expose the timing marks for the cam and crank, how does one be certain that the timing won't be off by one tooth? Those gears on the ends of the cam shafts have to be in synch with the pulley marks on the front of the motor.
One member posted somewhere also on here that he repaired his 1st gen Tundra, started and ran ok. But he was concerned, took it back apart and found out he WAS off by one tooth on cam timing. Another poster mentioned that after doing the repair to turn the engine over a few times before starting: probably to make sure the marks weren't misaligned and would be tapping valves on the tops of pistons. Good idea.
Looks to me that the video posted for the repair doesn't 100% show how to do that.
The dealer "long" fix was for pulling the front accessories off to see the marks and verify when re-assembling.
Hope this helps.
Ed