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Oil Leak

Enzo Ocon

Enzo Ocon

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I've got some oil leakage in my 68 Satellite's 318. It mostly is in the form of little pools in the crevices of the intake manifold. There is also a thin coating of oil residue everywhere on the engine bay so it's really hard to pinpoint exactly where it's coming from. And now I'm panicking a bit because the transmission was just rebuilt past couple weeks and theres oil on the front of it. Looks like motor oil though... Can the engine oil be leaking onto the outside of the transmission? I also noticed a lot of oil on the underside of the car in general. I need to deal with these leaks asap. Any insight appreciated.
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The oil pressure sending unit is on the block behind the intake. They can leak and the oil runs down the back of the block and front of the trans. But I also think, by the picture, that you have valve cover gaskets leaking too.
 
Oil travels up the intake manifold bolt threads. Pull one at a time clean and seal with Permatex #2 or silicone sealant.
Mike
 
493 Mike said:
Oil travels up the intake manifold bolt threads. Pull one at a time clean and seal with Permatex #2 or silicone sealant.
Mike
Click to expand...
Red "X"... Oil won't travel uphill from the intake bolts. If you notice, the smiley face where the exhaust crossover passage in the heads is filled with oil, and not even close enough for oil to get there from the manifold bolts. The valve cover lip and bolt areas are covered in oil, so my first choice is leaking valve cover gaskets. Fix that first, then go from there.
 
69Bee said:
Red "X"... Oil won't travel uphill from the intake bolts. If you notice, the smiley face where the exhaust crossover passage in the heads is filled with oil, and not even close enough for oil to get there from the manifold bolts. The valve cover lip and bolt areas are covered in oil, so my first choice is leaking valve cover gaskets. Fix that first, then go from there.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree somewhat. I have a newer built 360 that I did myself and I see the oil coming from the intake bolts and staining the intake.....it ill travel up through them if you don't put a bit of silicone or sealant on the treads when installing. I agree in checking the valve covers first in this case because that's alot of oil, but the oil will come back up through those pesky intake bolts and stain/add residual on the intake as I found out the hard way. I gotta pull them one by one and get the threads sealed up in the coming weeks.
 
91r/t said:
I have to disagree somewhat. I have a newer built 360 that I did myself and I see the oil coming from the intake bolts and staining the intake.....it ill travel up through them if you don't put a bit of silicone or sealant on the treads when installing. I agree in checking the valve covers first in this case because that's alot of oil, but the oil will come back up through those pesky intake bolts and stain/add residual on the intake as I found out the hard way. I gotta pull them one by one and get the threads sealed up in the coming weeks.
Click to expand...
I didn't mean to infer that the manifold bolts can't leak, they do. I only was saying that in this example, it surely looks to me that the valve cover/bolts are leaking due to the amount of oil above the manifold bolts.
 
69Bee said:
I didn't mean to infer that the manifold bolts can't leak, they do. I only was saying that in this example, it surely looks to me that the valve cover/bolts are leaking due to the amount of oil above the manifold bolts.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with that. That would need to be run for years like that to pool up that bad. I had issues when they were trying to run my big block without a PCV valve and the pressure built was pushing oil past the gaskets just like this. Either way, I would look at the valve cover gaskets. It can also come out of the rear corners of the covers if its leaking bad enough and puke down on the trans bellhousing area.
 
I had oil on my exhaust pipes just as you do in your picture. It ended up being a leaky valve cover in the far rear corner. Blowing back. So hard to see unless underneath with a mirror and flashlight. A rag/bristle brush with some paint safe solvent and a few hours will go a long way to cleaning off all that residue to identify exactly where the leak is after the next start.
 
are those black crinkle aluminum valve covers? I think they might be hitting the high points on the intake may need thicker gaskets
 
69Bee said:
Red "X"... Oil won't travel uphill from the intake bolts. If you notice, the smiley face where the exhaust crossover passage in the heads is filled with oil, and not even close enough for oil to get there from the manifold bolts. The valve cover lip and bolt areas are covered in oil, so my first choice is leaking valve cover gaskets. Fix that first, then go from there.
Click to expand...
I stand corrected. I didn't see the twisted rocker cover gasket either.
Mike
 
If you have access to a blacklight, you can cut to the chase by putting engine oil dye in. Wash the engine down with some EB-1 Gunk or citrus based degreaser. The foaming type cleaners don't do squat and some will kill paint. I use the citrus cleaner from Depot made by Zep. Its a concentrate that I put into a small pump up sprayer. With the pump up, you can get upside down with the wand and into much tighter areas than a spray can. Regardless, get it cleaned off, put the dye in then drive it for 10-20 miles. Hit the engine with the blacklight, in a darkened garage or at night, so you can more easily see where its peeing from.
 
All above plus PCV hooked up & working?
 
Any recommendations on whether rubber or cork gaskets for the valve covers are better?
 
Enzo Ocon said:
Any recommendations on whether rubber or cork gaskets for the valve covers are better?
Click to expand...
They both work, or you could use rubberized cork! No matter what material you choose ensure the bolt hole areas are flat. They tend to bend over the years. I lay the hole over a gap in my bench vise and flatten it with a small hammer.
Mike
 
From my own experience, I would shy away from rubber. Rubber seals well, the FIRST time! If you need to do a repair in the field, they most likely will not seal again properly, unless all of the oil can be cleaned from them, the valve cover lips, and head sealing surface. Fifty miles from my destination to put my car on the boat while PCS'ing back to Germany, I broke a valve spring. Fixed that (temporarily), and on my way again. once I got to Easton, MD, I found out that I had lost 3.5qts of oil as the really nice Direct Connection silicone rubber valve cover gasket had popped out, being covered in oil, because it was too slippery to stay in place. Longer story short, that broken valve spring, and rubber valve cover gasket, cost me thousands too repair all of the damage I found.

That being said, I agree with mike, and usually always go with the black cork-rubber gasket for the oil pan and valve covers. Fel-Pro part number for the black cork-rubber is VS50184R
 
I liked the rubberized cork too. If you transition to cast covers, that helps also. I would do a periodic wash session on my cars, using the Zep orange cleaner in the little Hudson sprayer, as a just because. Get it warmed up, put it on some stands and get the wand in there to distribute the solution. Apply several times then rinse off after 20 minutes or so. As I mentioned before, the foaming cleaners don't work worth a darn but they do an excellent job at killing paint and wasting money. The Gunk EB-1 is my primary one for heavy goo and NAPA has there own version. Berrymans used to have one, B33 I think plus the citrus oil based aerosols work great. Having either the petroleum based cleaners or citrus oil based ones, they will penetrate the slime to get it dissolved. Thats where the foam fails, it does not penetrate. Also don't use the purple cleaners. They are caustic and kill paint like a mofo plus don't penetrate the goo. Diluted I've used them for textured hard plastic interior panels with a brush to get junk out of the texture. Work good there but they chalk the plastic so you'll need a protectant after cleaning. If you have heavy thick goo and don't care about killing paint, Easy Off or similar oven cleaners work quite well. You need to watch out for the overspray getting on you or surrounding items.
 
Pull the pcv valve out of the valve cover. Block the breather and the dipstick. Spray the suspect area with soapy water. Use low psi compressed air ( 3-5 psi) in the pcv hole (seal with rubber tip blow gun and hose) in the valve cover. What for bubbles. Works every time. There will be no guesswork as to where the leak(s) are.
Doug
 
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