92 camry valve cover oil leak

[rob]

I've just bough a 92 Camry V6LE. I don't know much about these cars but am a bit of a back yard mechanic. The cars leaking oil a fair bit, seems to be from both valve covers and possibly behind the timing belts. I'm thinking both valve cover gaskets, camshaft oil seals. I figure I will put in a new timing belt since it has 218'000 on it. I'll give it a typical tune up while I'm at it and although I know nothing about the valves I might as well do adjustments while I'm at it. What I'm wondering is what else I should be doing while I've got the top end pulled apart. I read something about spark plug gaskets but have no idea what those are. If anyone can give me some tips/insight on what I should be doing/replacing while I have it all pulled apart along with tips on doing the work or things to watch out for that would great. thanks in advance.

[ASG14]

Spark plug "grommets" I think you mean. They are in the valve cover's. 6 in total. Make SURE to replace those, along with the PCV grommet and PCV valve. You would always replace the water pump with the timing belt as well, and a good idea to replace the timing belt tensioner.

[davemac2]

Don't bother trying to adjust the valves. It can be a real pain. You need to find various size shims to do it and won't find them except if a dealer is willing to exchange with you. It won't make a huge difference anyways unless you have an excessively noise valve train.

You should do the distributor o-ring also as it usually gets pretty brittle with age and leaks.

dave