Celica Forums Classic Generations 5th Generation Celica oil in the distributor cap, need help

I'm doing a tune up on my car, spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor started off with the cap.
Ummm when I was taking off the distributor cap on my 5sfe I noticed the bottom bolt was kind of oily, took off the cap, and noticed there was some oil in the cap, mostly around the bottom but some got to one of the top conductors. Which explains why my car has been stumbling while accelerating, don't know how to describe it but it would accelerate very slowly even though I had the pedal floored until it hit like 3.5k-4k rpms then it would go faster, it would do this occasionally. Recently it has gotten a little worse because it did it more often now as before it was only sometimes. Now I don't wanna replace the cap with a new one, if the oil is gonna get to the new one too. So how do I fix this oil issue?

For now I'm gonna clean up the old distributor cap, and put it back on so I can drive the car and hold off the tune up until I get some ideas from here how to fix this oil in the distributor cap issue.

What do I do now? I found some oil in the distributor cap. Is it just the little rubber seal that's around it that needs to be replaced or what? Please help, I was hoping I could just do a tune up by myself, but I don't know what to do about this oil in the distributor cap.

Thanks

You may have a leak in your valve cover gasket. I did, and it leaked onto my distributor cap but not into it. So maybe you should replace both the gasket to the dist and the valve cover.

Might be the dizzy gasket too. Either way , it sounds like a simple fix.

Dizzy o-ring?

That's what people are calling the O-ring right? So I know what to ask for if I go to get the part from the dealer.

It seems to be coming from the bottom and it got on 2 of the contacts but I cleaned it and the hesitation seems to be gone, but it will be back once the oil leaks back in there, don't know how long that will take. So just to be clear, it's the circular gasket that's right there when I take off the cap? And nothing wrong is with my distrubutor or anything?

Thanks

nope. Your distributor just gives you spark. Nothing more, nothing less.

Alright thanks, I'll try to go get the distributor O-ring at the dealership tommorow, hopefully I won't be seeing any more oil in the cap if I replace that

Yea once you replace that there shouldnt be any oil inside the Dist. I would still check the valve cover gasket. Since there has to be a source of the oil, otehrwise their wouldnt have been any oil in there.

Thanks that's a good idea I'll pick one up too, and do it some other time. Is valve cover gasket a common thing to leak? BTW My engine has 182k miles on it. But what kind of sealant do I need for the valve cover? I'm guessing I just go to any auto parts store and look for "gasket sealant", correct me if that's not true.

Is there anything special I need to know when removing and installing a distributor and replacing the old o-ring? I heard to use some vaseline when installing the gasket, it will help in putting it on and sealing better, will automotive grease be fine instead of vaseline?

I have Haynes and it tells to find Top Dead Center for piston 1 and make sure the rotor is pointing at spark plug one, mark the position of the rotor on the cap and remove it. Is this necesarry? I don't see a point in this.

Also will my timing get messed up? Because I don't have a timing gun.

Also I called the dealer the o-ring is $6 and the valve cover gasket is $16.

Don't do that. The dizzy actually goes inside of your head. It's the O-ring, trust me.

Ok thanks. So the o-ring replacement should solve my little problem of oil getting into the cap. I didn't get to it yet, I'll do it tommorow hopefully and hopefully won't have the problem anymore.

Thanks Everyone

Alright o-ring replaced, but the dealership gave me the wrong rotor. They gave me one that slides on and mine is secured by 2 screws. So I'm just gonna replace the wires and plugs, and leave the car as is with the distributor out, since i want to replace the rotor while the distributor is out rather then unscrewing it again tommorow.