Oil Leak out front

[TobyA-1]

I have an oil leak that is seeping somewhere from the front of the engine. It looks like the timing belt is picking up the oil and slinging it. Any ideas what it maybe?

 

[toadstang]

Took mine to a shop having almost that same problem not two days ago, and found out I had a bad headgasket, may want to look into it

 

[turbostang79]

could be coming from behind the bolt in the cam sprocket. Did you remove the cam sprocket lately ?

 

[TobyA-1]

The leak is lower than that. More like the front cover/oil pan area. I am going to tear it down in two weeks. I just hope it is not the front seal.

 

[bhuff30]

The cam pulley bolt will definatly leak if you don't put sealant on it.
As for a leak a little lower... it could be the aux. shaft seal. that is a little higher than the front seal.

 

[TobyA-1]

what about the aux cam pulley bolt?

 

[bhuff30]

I am pretty sure it can't leak. The cam does because it is hollow. Oil flows through the cam and out to the followers.

 

[TobyA-1]

When the cam bolt leaks is it obvious? I pulled the timing belt cover and there is oil all inside. Most of it is in the bottom and the timing belt is covered in oil.

 

[boondocksaint]

there is a seal behind the cam sprocket,i forgot to put mine in after rebuild,took the sprocket off and tapped the new seal in,re-timed,ect. no more leak.when mine was leaking it was going on the timing belt and slinging oil all around it.

 

[TobyA-1]

I just took everything off the front. Cleaned it all. Put back just the timing belt essentials (pulleys and belt), so I could see where the oil is coming from. Started it up ran it for about 5 min. I don't see oil coming out anywhere?!?!?!? I must be a slow leak that has accumulated alot over time. Trying to find this leak is pissing me off.

This is a fresh engine, that I rebuilt. All seals were replaced. I don't remember wrapping the cam bolt with teflon, but when I pulled it out it had a very small amount (like one thread). Seems like if the cam bolt were leaking the majority of the oil would be around it and on the frontside of the cam pulley, but there was hardly any.

 

[Brantley]

At first, my turbo engine did the same thing you described in your first post. My problem was the front main seal and cover. It still leaks a very small amount, but not enough to go back in there and mess with it. My oil pan gasket kept sliding out in the front.

 

[TobyA-1]

I cleaned up everything. No leak for a while, I drove it for about an hour then checked it again. Now the oil is showing up again. The oil is slowly seeping through the valve cover bolts. I noticed that the hose on the bottom of the PCV valve (that travels under the intake and to some component that goes to the block) is crimped. Is it possible that bad or no PCV could cause this oil weeping action?

 

[goland55]

If your pcv system is restricted then you'll get too much pressure under the valve cover which can cause oil to leak out of the valve cover gasket. It might not have leaked right away because the pressure might have taken a little while to build up enough to cause a leak. That hose shouldn't be crimped. The "compartment" going to the block is an oil seperator. It just filters out oil from the fumes coming through the pcv system.

 

[TobyA-1]

Thanks....I thought it was the oil seperator but I was not sure....I believe this is my problem for sure, it is pushing it out of the oil filler cap too. The oil is turning black even after an oil change. I figure the excess pressure in the engine is pushing the oil into, normally, unused places for oil, causing the oil to become black and dirty. I use mobil one, fyi.

Is the PCV supposed to flow from the oil seperator to the pcv valve to the intake? The hose that goes to the small part of my PCV valve has alot of vacuum, is there supposed to be vacuum on the PCV valve?

 

[goland55]

The pcv valve (positive crankcase ventilation valve) lets the pressure from the crankcase flow through the oil seperator, through th pcv and into the intake. The vacuum at the hose going to the top of the pcv valve is the vacuum from your intake. That's normal. You should feel pressure on the hose going to the bottom of the pcv valve.

 

[TobyA-1]

Thanks for the info....I will update on Monday if this fixes the problem.

 

[TobyA-1]

The car had no PCV. This caused the oil to find weak spots in engine sealing. After correcting the PCV problem, oil continued to leak. I corrected the leaky oil pan by tightening the oil pan bolts around the leak (it worked). The front seal was leaking also. Pulled the front cover and everything else up front. Replaced front crankshaft seal and that is when I noticed something. The crank is not centered in the hole in the front cover, thus causing a weak oil seal. It is all sealed up now and not leakin.
Thank You to everyone who helped.