If you smell oil, it's probably your valve cover gaskets. If you see smoke on coasting, it's probably the valve stem seals.

 

The valve cover is what I called a "self loosening design".

Borrow a 30 mm axle nut socket from Autozone's free loaner program (with refundable deposit) if you don't own one. As well as a torque wrench. Or buy a torque wrench for about $12 on sale at Harbor Freight (all three sizes).

Check the valve cover nuts at 17 lb/ft from the center two and out. You might also want to replace the PCV valve and grommet while at it, if it hasn't been done in the past 30K miles. Find a Fram PCV valve and any one of the grommets that result in lowest shipping charge from rockauto. Use the 5% discount code in the sticky section. Or you can buy over the dealer counter.

Also check to see if the semi-circular plugs and distributor plug (behind the coils) are leaking.

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/1...eneral-maintenance-5sfe-valve-cover-removal-semi-circular-plug-replacement.html

 

Well I just did the valve cover gasket about 10k miles ago. I check it every oil change and there are no leaks around it. Also did the plug seals as well at that time. I just pulled the PCV valve off the valve cover yesterday, the "floater" is still active, but an awful lot of gunk was built up. And the grommet is rock hard and cracked. I haven't checked the distributor seals yet. I know it is leaking from there though as it is always moist with oil in right below it. I forgot to mention in my original post that my flex pipe is shot, but I'll be getting that fixed in the next day or two. Maybe I'll get a new PCV valve and see if that helps. If not, distributor plug seals.

 

Do check the torque of the four nuts again. They tend to self-loosen after heating/cooling cycles, unfortunately.

Well I just did the valve cover gasket about 10k miles ago. I check it every oil change and there are no leaks around it.

 

What is the right torque setting? 17ft/ib or 33ft/ib. I read in some of the other threads where it calls out for 33ft/ib. I think the chilton manaul at my library's auto database mentions 17ft/ib. Which one is correct though? I recently tightened valve cover nuts on my 2000 camry 4cyl. to 30ft/ib and it seems to have stopped the oil that was leaking out. Dealer told me i needed a new gasket and wanted to charge almost $200. Thanks to toyotanation I found out about the "self loosening design" and tightened them myself. Before tightening them, I was able to undo them just with my hand using 30mm socket. Autozone near my place doesn't rent out sockets but you can rent out torque wrenches.

 

Originally it was 33 lb/ft. Then there must have been a material change and the torque was specified to be 17 lb/ft.

I think by now all the seals on the shelves are the new type. So 17 lb/ft. And then recheck the torque after a few heating/cooling cycles.

That said, if 30 lb/ft works for you, then why not. At 17 lb/ft, you probably have to do a lot of checking. But IMO, it's good to check them periodically.

 

Got my new flex pipe welded tonight and installed new PCV valve. Much quieter, sound like it's running smoother, and I believe the smell is gone now. Pulled the old PCV out and it was not floating up or down in the housing. Surprised it kept running cause without the PCV, that motor idled ridiculously. But all is much better now. Thanks all for the tips/opinion/help.