Leaking oil?

Im wondering if anyone can look at my pictures and tell me if this is something I should worry about, or if the source can be identified. This is the first truck I've owned so I'm not sure if this is a leak or if the engine is just dirty. It looks to be mostly congregated on the "lower half" of the engine, the black grimey part in my pictures.

Thanks in advance for any help or perspective. The oil level in the truck when checked with the dipstick has not changed since I bought it about 600 miles ago, so it doesn't seem to be anything really serious.

 

Looks like there may be some oil seeping from the valve cover gasket. Given that the truck is 2005 it would probably benefit from a valve cover gasket change. Though if you're good with seeping oil (shouldn't get worse than seeping) and the occasional engine degreasing then you could probably just rock on.

On my 1997 T-100 with the V6 engine and 265,000 miles I've done the valve cover gaskets twice.

 

Looks like a valve cover seep. The leak will get worse as time goes on, and you will start smelling burning oil since it is falling on the exhaust manifold.

 

Valve Cover Replacement time.

 

Nice. Don't forget to put a dab of FIPG on the front 2 corners and reseal the half moons in the back with FIPG.

 

mine looks the same, i have 178K. Just seeping not dripping. Stealership wants $1012 to change it....i cleaned my engine last weekend and noticed all the bolts were about a half turn lose on my valve cover. Cleaned up the oil and tightened them up, seeing if that helps. If not ill be changing my valve cover gasket, which will be my first! pretty excited!

 

Thanks for the input guys. I am doing my timing belt and associated replacements with a mechanically inclined friend this weekend. I had already ordered all of my parts and was planning to do the job Sunday, is the valve cover gasket something that I can do later on without taking as much of the engine apart? My Haynes manual makes it seem like it is somewhat of an independent job to the parts related to the timing belt job.

I would probably need to order the valve cover gasket from rockauto or somewhere and am not sure that it will be here in time to do it when I do my timing belt kit. Any suggestion on brand of gasket?

Thanks

 

You can you do the valve cover gaskets independent of the timing belt. I would honestly just order the OEM parts. They are not that expensive from McGeorge or Cool Springs Toyota.

Below is the breakdown for my 02, some of the part numbers may be different for your 05.




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What firstgen said. Or if you absolutely want to do them you can grab a set from your local auto parts store.

 

My 06 Tundra with 160k was weeping at the bottom on both sides bottom of valve covers. I cleaned the oil from the area and snugged down the bolts. Being down 1 qt. added a quart of high mileage. No more weeping and still full mark on dipstick after 2k miles.