Celica Forums General Discussion General Do I have to drain the oil to change my timing chain gasket?

I found out my oil is leaking out my timing chain access port probably the gasket. I don't want to drain the oil because I just did a change after resealing my oil pan because I thought that was the leak. do I have to drain my oil in order to change the seal or can I get away without doing that??

Oil is pumped up to lubricate the timing chain and sprockets.

So yes. You have to drain oil to do the front timing gasket.

The job takes about 10 hours. You have to remove all engine mounts and jiggle the engine for clearance to remove bolts.

Before you do it, take the car to an engine degreasing shop to completely clean the engine. Then put fluorescent dye into the oil to see exactly where it leaks out and fix that leak. It could save you lots of work and headache.

I think you may be talking about a different gasket the one I'm trying to change is on the back of the engine and is fairly easy to get, the bolts look easy to get out too.
see the photo attached for the part I need to remove.

That's the timing chain tensioner. No you don't have to drain oil. Just remove 2 10 mm nuts, take it out and replace the rubber O ring. That should seal the leak.

Don't know what year your Celica is. With MY 2000 and 2001, the tensioner will run into the belt tensioner bracket and cannot be removed. You cannot push it back in as the spring is sprung. You will be stuck, You should take a power drill with a long bit and grind down the edge of that Aluminum bracket for clearance. That was what I had to do on mine. That bracket is plenty thick, should be OK to grind down a bit. That interference was fixed for MY 2002 and newer.

Be careful do not crank the engine while that tensioner is out or loose as the timing chain will jump teeth and likely crack pistons and valves. Also the torque on those 2 nuts is about 8 ft-Lbs. Don't over tighten and strip those bolts

No, you can remove the timing chain tensioner without grinding anything down. I have a 2000 GT-S that I just replaced this part on last week. There isn't enough clearance on its own, so you have to loosen the large 17mm bolt holding the belt tensioner to the left side of the engine (use 6 point or you will strip this bolt). It's a PITA to break loose, but after it's loose a few turns, loosen the top nut connecting the tensioner spring to the engine. Then, you should be able to wiggle the belt tensioner far enough away from the engine to pull the chain tensioner out with little problem. You can find this as part of the lift bolt replacement guide found here. [newcelica.org]