Toyota Repair: Oil leak from engine, crankshaft pulley, 1989 toyota camry


Question
I have a 1989 Toyota Camry with a 2 liter 3S-FE engine;
4 cyl. engine. I live in Alaska and during our last cold snap-(-45 below) the engine developed a leak from what I would call the front main seal. The leak is coming from the passenger side of the car and of course from the bottom of the engine. It goes through about a quart every other day on average. Since I can't afford to take it to a mechanic, I was wondering if you might have an idea as to where the leak is originating from and how hard it would be to repair it myself. I have a some repair experience-so I will pretty much know if I am capable of doing the work.
Wished you could look at the car because I know that is the best way to diagnose problems...but thank you so much for this....it looks to be a good place to find out how to do stuff......

PS>  cars don't like 40-60 below very much!!!!!!!

Any info will be appreciated
Paul

Answer
Yes, I agree, strange things can happen to mechanical things at those temperatures, anyway, the oil leak your'e describing does sound like it's from the front crank seal, in order to replace it the timing cover has to be removed and then the timing belt, then the timing sprocket on the crankshaft, at the same time while in there, the camshaft seal should also be replaced and the water pump checked, it's also a good idea to replace the timing belt at the same time, it's not an easy job but it's also not impossible to do it yourself with the tools needed, the crankshaft pulley bolt can be very tight and may need an air wrench to get it off or it may be done using a long breaker bar and some way to hold it in place to keep it from turning when removing the bolt, if you decide to tackle this yourself let me know and I can send some pages of instructions from the manual if you can provide an email address that I may contact directly.