Oil Leak

Hello Boys,

have finished running my 318 in the 69.....runs great....

I have developed an oil leak on the passenger side behind and above the oil filter....near where the block and tranny dust cover plate meet....


I checked the security of the oil pan bolts....they seemed a bit loose, so I tightened them up....

After I ran the engine up to temp....I saw that I still had some drips of oil under the motor....
I investigated, and figured I cinch the bolts up a bit....It appeared that I had not tightened them at all....

I checked the service manual and it says to torque them to 15 lbs.....

any thoughts on this?

thanks,

Mark

Sometimes over-tightening pan bolts can cause the leak to get worse. The pan "puckers" in between the bolt heads and the oil seeps past the gasket, which no is longer in contact with the pan rail.

Found this out the hard way, drove 2000 kilometers across Canada with leaky valve covers. I put new Gaskets in before the drive but ended up way over torquing the bolts. Did my best to fix/flatten the bolt holes on the covers but a couple of them were split apart and not even silicone would seal them. I think I ended up going through close to 17 or so liters of oil, by the time I reached my destination i had oil dripping off the entire length of my back bumper lol. Best rust protection ever ;)

Thanks for the replies....

new gasket....I thought the pan was straight....and I was careful to not overtighten the bolts
until today....I felt as thought the pan may have been "panning" a bit...I don't feel the leak is worse....it's just not sealing properly...

any ideas as to why the bolts seem to have loosened up?

thanks,

Mark

Just throwing this out there as a thought: Are you running a cork oil pan gasket? If so and the bolts were loose, I would suspect that perhaps some of the gasket absorbed some oil. So even though you now have tightened everything up, you may end up with some residual oil drips for a period of time. As for loosening up: I've seen that happen before which is why it is always a good thing to just go through and double check torques after a certain amount of run time. You don't need to do ALL of them but intakes, oil pans, valve covers...all good candidates to check. I know, for example, I had the same problem you described with my Jeep CJ's 258 dripping oil after 6 months of running. Checked and like you, the oil pan bolts were finger tight. Tightened them but still had some drips for a week or so afterwards. Just to hammer the story home: I had a weird intake/carb whistle that started happening several years after the rebuild. Real weird problem too. Sometimes it would do it at highways speeds. Then sometimes at 30 MPH. Then sometimes at idle. But only after driving it. The problem wouldn't start at idle. Only would start at road speeds and only when the engine warmed up. Sometimes I'd pull over and it would be whistling away right until I got the hood open! Then it would stop...of course. And damn I tried everything! New carb base gasket (I'm running a Weber carb on it), cleaned the air filter, took the carb apart. Thought it might be the carb and almost bought a new one but didn't. Thought it might be the air filter too. Fortunately I didn't start throwing new items at her and took my time 'cause nothing fixed it and buying new wouldn't have fixed it 'cause....then I decided to check the intake bolts....BINGO! They were loose. Tighened them up and a year later she runs good and w/o a whistle. Hope that helps.

Thx again for replies
i am using cork gaskets but dont think its a seepage problem
the oil only leaks when the the engine is running
I will double check rear pax side of motor for leaks and will double check
all bolts for correct torque
I dont want to deform the pan so I will try some sealer around the right rear bolt
which appeared wet when I looked under there last
thx again
Mark

Hello All,

I just got home and investigated the oil leak some more.....

nothing from the top of the motor....oil sending unit, manifold, and valve covers all dry...

it appears that the oil filter mounting plate is not sealing properly.....

I have cleaned the area, and torqued the fitting a bit more.....hoping this will seal the leak...
the area around the mounting plate was seeping oil....will see how this works....

anyone else dealt with this problem....any other solutions other than replacing the plate and gasket?

thanks,

Mark

Hey all,

on another board, I was told to make sure the threaded "nut" that holds the oil filter plate in place and also mounts the oil filter was in backwards....
I have taken it out, and put it in correctly....

lets see if it seals this time...

thanks for replies...

Mark