I'm working on our 4 cylinder Camry. It has had a lot of oil leaks for the past few years, so as I was doing some other work that required the motor to come out, I decided to replace some seals.

The amount of poor work I'm finding here from when the previous owner had it worked on at the dealer is astonishing. Anyway, I found a gouge on the crank where it seals with the surface. I hit it with some sand paper to get the raised edges off, but it's deep enough I can obviously still catch my nail in it. I'm at a loss as to how to handle this. Should I just throw a new seal in there? Or should I go with one of the repair sleeves? I'm reading mixed things on the sleeves, but it seems like many of the people bashing them haven't actually used them. I did read a post from one poster saying to expect to replace the seals every 30k miles if using a sleeve. This is something I'm hoping not to do since it's a labor intensive job, but I also don't want to leave it like this if it won't ever seal.

For those of you with experience with this, what's the best route to take?

Never used a sleeve at the rear of an engine, but they work well for the old V8's crankshaft front journal at the timing cover on the front of the engine. The oil seals would wear a groove in the nose of the crankshaft and start leaking a little oil. To fix this inexpensively they developed those very thin stainless steel sleeves that slide over the nose of the crank and are glued on using a loctite style anaerobic epoxy. Several times I used them to repair a crankshaft, then put a new seal on the timing cover and bolted everything together and no more oil leak.
Your picture seems to show the rear crank flange that the flywheel/flexplate bolts to, are they using that as the sealing journal surface for the rear oil seal of the engine now instead of a seperate journal surface next to the rear main journal? If the seal is a spring-loaded rubber lip type seal I don't see any reason that a thin stainless steel sleeve couldn't be put on that flange to fix the surface for the oil seal. As it is you will have a guaranteed oil leak if the oil seal needs to ride on that grooved surface.

That existing surface will never seal.

Your choices are:
1. Sleeve it
2. Replace the crankshaft
3. Replace the motor (what else is wrong with the existing motor)

I'm thinking I may give a sleeve a try. I'm just hoping I'm not doing this job again in 30k miles. I don't really want to go with a used motor.

The main thing wrong with the motor is the idiot that worked on it at the dealer prior to me owning it. It does burn some oil, but this car is well known for that. My buddy that I bought it from claims it did it since new, and I don't doubt him as every Toyota I have experience with burned oil, and it's well documented online for these.

The car had several oil leaks which I've just let leak. The clutch finally needed replacing and I figured this was a good time to go ahead and tackle some of the oil leaks while the motor and transmission were out.
Upon going through it, I've never seen so much RTV used in my life. They used RTV for the timing cover gaskets, every gasket that they've had off before has RTV on it, etc. It's crazy. They also overtightened pretty much everything. The lower timing cover was broken at all of the bolt holes, the crank position sensor threads were ruined, etc. I've been replacing the seals, heli-coiling the cps hole, changing the timing belt, etc.

I thought about a used junk yard motor, but I hate to spend $1,500+ for another used motor with high mileage. Which is what they seem to go for in this area. I guess they are in demand enough that they bring big money at the junk yards here. This makes me miss my Honda where they can't hardly sell the single cam motors and most of them can be picked up for $3-500.

I had a 2002 supercharged Xterra that would eat front crank seals every year or so. Had a small gouge on the journal that seems to be too far out to matter but obviously did something. I spent the $70 on a speedisleeve and it was leaking again 2 weeks later. Swapped in a $400 junkyard engine and never looked back.

The good old days for sure, but I wouldn't waste my time on it.

It appears to me that the seal rides behind the gouge.  I'd run it as is.

It appears that you gotta remove the crankshaft from the motor to sleeve the journal that engages the seal.

That’s a big job.

Right up there with COMPLETE OVERHAUL of the motor.

I admire anyone willing and ABLE to tackle a job of that magnitude.

If you’re gonna go there, think about the big picture. When you go that deep, parts cost what they cost. You have no control over cost of parts. You do have a lot of control over the TIME you invest.

A used motor isn't out of the question. The only reason I'm not going that route yet is that it seems like the majority of them in finding locally are in the $1,700-2,000 range if they run and they seem to have high miles on them. If I can't get it fixed, I may end up going that route, but it doesn't seem very attractive. These motors seem to be junk, and in high demand. Which seems to command a premium. It's making me like Honda even more. The Accord motors are $3-500, because the demand is pretty low.

I went ahead and ordered a sleeve. I guess I'll see how it does. I'm hoping it'll work. If not, I'll pursue other options then I guess.

I don't need to for the sleeves that slide over the end. However, I would need to for other repairs such as welding it to fill in the gouge and then having it machined. I'm really not wanting to do that on this thing. If the speedi sleeve doesn't work, I'm thinking a used motor would be the next best option.

Please keep us posted how the sleeve-job goes for you.

Junkyard engine prices have increased a lot over the years. They aren’t making any more “old” cars and the demand to keep stuff on the road is higher than ever.

Best bet I’ve found is getting a long block and reusing everything else. The engine doesn’t even have to be from the same car as long as the block and head are the same. I had a good list of all the trucks a VG33 came in that would fit the Xterras, even if they didn’t have the special supercharged pistons. An Xterra engine might be $1500, but a 1998 Pathfinder engine is $350.

How much is a short block?

About $3800 last I checked. That's the route I would go if the vehicle was worth pulling the engine out of to begin with. I believe it would also fix the oil consumption - IIRC, they updated the pistons and rings

Would it be possible to silver braze that, carefully smooth it with a file and then polish?

Looks that way to me too, however the seal surface looks pretty rough anyways.

ETA: Oh, because OP sanded on it. If it was polished back up, I'd run it.

JB weld, of course.

Fill crack, polish smooth.

JB Weld

I actually considered suggesting this too.

JB can be very tenacious in some mechanical applications.

Problem here is repeated expansion/contraction cycles combined with lubricant, centrifugal force, vibration, AND friction. Pretty much a combination of everything that could go wrong.

All those things working against the sleeve too.

That’s why I probably would replace the entire crank if I were the person who had to rely on the repair, and who would have to be responsible for the do-over if the sleeve failed.

As a former wrench-turner (only a year at an auto machine shop after two years vo-tech in high school in the 70’s), I am fascinated with OP’s project. I hope OP will report progress and longevity of his repair.

This. Degrease the fuck out of it, smash the JB Weld in, give it plenty of time to cure, and polish with crocus cloth.

The seal wear ring is behind the gouge.

I'd just reseal it.

Part of the decision rides upon the over all condition of the car ? Body , paint , seats and other interior bits decent enough to justify dumping a bunch of time and money into it?

I would use Devon steel putty. It might hold up better under heat cycles and will be easier to work with.

That looks more like a crack than a scratch

In for the update.