Topic: 20r huge oil leak

[skin6061]

i have a 1980 toy 4x4 with a 20r...unknown mileage on motor with a 4 speed.  We'll the other day i was heading home to take care of my wife who just got out of surgery when all of a sudden there was a white cloud of smoke coming out of the back of my truck.  I pull over and notice alot of oil on the drivers side of the engine compartment, so i drove it to a safe place since i still had some oil pressure left.   Now i thought i might have completly blew the front seal, but after putting more oil in it and starting it i noticed the oil was comeing from the disributor bolt that goes into the head that lets you adjust the timing.   I didn't see any oil coming out of the distributor.  Should i just put a bolt back in or is the something that i might be missing..  the truck also ran fine..power wise so i don't think the timing was changed luckily.

[yotatough]

If the bolt was missing then I would just put one in it and call it good

I bought a truck once that was running bad and when I went to set the timming noticed there was a piece of rag shoved in the hole insted of a bolt. and the timing was way off

[79coyotefrg]

yes there is nothing in there besides the bolt

any bolt that size will do, but the bolt that goes there has a large (approx 3/4 inch) flat washer attached, i probably have one if you want pm me your address and i'll send it to ya

[79coyotefrg]

hey check it out skinman http://www.ttora.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1748755#post1748755

[hilux-1983]

The same thing happened to me many moons ago. I was setting the timing and never tightned the bolt all of the way. The bolt that fell out fell into one of the galleys of the exhaust manifold. Put er back in er and down the road I went. Re-set the timing when I got home. Oh, and cleaned all of the mess off of the motor.

[skin6061 [OP]]

thanks for the info, i just wanted to make sure i wasn't missing a o-ring or gasket or something...79coyote thanks for the offer on the bolt and washer but i have a few extra bolts laying around so i'll see if they will work first before you go to the hassel of sending me one.  Also thanks for the post on the ttora forum..ive been meaning to sign up there but have only been lurking for the moment.