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Sponge? Round Parts of Sump

stuzbot

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2021
Messages
469
My posts are like buses. You wait all week for one and then three come at once!

Anyway, wiping things down round the sump area today, while doing my oil change and I noticed in a few places what seemed to be strips of foam placed around that area. Most tucked away where I couldn't get in for a photo, but this one was relatively exposed.

oilyspongewee.jpg


They seemed to be kind of tucked in in places such as where there was gap between the wall of the sump and some surrounding metal, or [as in the case of the bit in the photo] stuck along a seam in the sump. As I said, at first I thought these were just strips of foam and wondered why the hell Toyota would have stuck them where they were when they were bound to get soaked in oil. So decided it was more likely some previous owner had done this for some reason. To stop some rattling?... To try and mop up drips from a leaking sump?

Then I had another less pleasant thought; what if these weren't strips of foam at all, but evidence that someone had used some completely incompatible sealant to seal the sump and it had reacted with the oil and started turning into some kind of odd foam?

Anyway, I pulled a bit off and cleaned it up as best I could with brake cleaner and I'm still none the wiser. It feels very soft, almost slimy. Though that may be due to being soaked in oil. But it is porous like sponge and seems to hold its form when squished, rather than lumping together like I'd imagine a frothed up sealant would. .

spongy2wee.jpg


So I'm still not sure one way or the other. Anyone else got oil-drenched bits of foam round those parts of the engine?... or heard of a sealant reacting with engine oil to form a kind of foamy sponge? Obviously when you hear oil & foam you immediately think of head gasket woes. But this is quite solid and stable and, from what I can see, given its dilapidated state, seems to have been placed there deliberately.
 
Ah, good. So it's 'normal' then. Albeit a stinking greasy mess, after 20 odd years of soaking up oils spills.
 
im not familiar with your engine, unless someone has really stuffed a bit of foam up there to try and hide something, which you would soon find out if that was the case. i do know though that toyota use a lot of foam on there engines for the reasons i mentioned above. over the years it gets damaged and/or torn out.
 
Think you'll find there's no insulation under the bonnet/hood. For some reason Toyota didn't follow the norm on engine sound deadening.
 
Hi Stuzbot - my 2002 Landcruiser Prado has a rusted area and pinhole leaking oil from where the sponge was against the sump. I've been told that to get the sump out they have to drop the engine, so a costly exercise.
 
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Yeah the normal and normally confusing sponge :lol:

@Biffer JB Weld will save you .
 
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