Oil leak, Help Appreciated.

[EvoColin]

Doing some general maintanence today and noticed a bit of oil pooled up under the engine cover. I also noticed oil on the underside of my hood. Any ideas? I know that not all of you drive the same car as me but I'm kind of dumbfounded as to where to start looking. Suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

[russiankid]

It is kind of hard to say without you knowing the general area where the oil is coming from. Best thing to do is to clean it all up, this way you will see where the leak is coming from.

[EvoColin]

Yeah sorry for being so vague about it. I'm thinking it's a fuel line or something because some how the oil ended up on the underside of my hood. Something spraying it? Thanks for the advice.

[russiankid]

Originally Posted by EvoColin

Yeah sorry for being so vague about it. I'm thinking it's a fuel line or something because some how the oil ended up on the underside of my hood. Something spraying it? Thanks for the advice.

Fuel line only contains gasoline. So it cannot be it unless you are getting fuel sprayed everywhere too. My guess would be to start checking the valve cover, and areas around there. Camshaft seals, and distributor seal if you have a distributor.

[06evors]

I just sent my turbo, intake mani etc off to buschur for some work and when I removed the turbo the gaskets between the oil feed line coming off of the oil pan and turbo were both broken in the middle and might have started leaking soon enough. Underside of your hood might mean many things. My guess would be your valve cover gasket might be bad or your oil dipstick might have come out enough to let oil through. The last time I was at the track after an hour drive beating the **** out of it, 5 runs and the drive home the dipstick was starting to come out which can start a fire. Cheap insurance for that is here:https://secure.buschurracing.com/cat...roducts_id=946

[SovXietday]

Check the oil feed for your turbo, breather hoses for your valve cover, that kind of thing. I'm assuming this is in an Evo right?

[EvoColin]

Yes it is an Evo.

[SovXietday]

Ah ok, I wasn't sure. I don't recal Evo's having engine covers that's why I wasn't sure.

Can you take pics of it where it is?

[EvoColin]

I just cleaned it but I will post pics ASAP.

[EvoColin]

The pictures are of the "engine cover" (That's probably not it's proper name now that I think of it), intake and exhaust manifolds.

[EvoColin]

Holy God those picures are big. I don't know how to resize them unfortunatly

[GsrSiHatchie]

seeing as how the oil is ontop of the valve cover i would think dip stick, but then again it could be many things but it doesnt seem like a head gasket because i dont believe the spray would get it on the hood/top of the valve cover

also if its that HARSH as in spraying the hood
add oil till regular running level
fire her up
open the hood and look
if its powerful enough 2 hit the hood you should be shown the problem if not sprayed in the face
burning sensation when looking at the car may reveal a problem lol

[EvoColin]

Yes you do have a point. Thanks a lot for the help guys.

[Evo8kid]

take the spark plug cover off. If there is oil sitting in the galley, they it is the spark plug valve cover seals. there is a drain to drain the oil out of the galley, if it does leak. that is why you might have oil sitting where the intake manifold meets the head. the drain outlet is a little gold hole above that in the valve cover.

without knowing what it looks like under the spark plug cover it is hard to say. it looks like the valve cover gasket. Do you have aftermarket cams? It could be the cam seals. Remove the timing belt cover and see if oil is down there.

[russiankid]

To me it looks like the valve cover gasket. But, others have said things to check. Check those things as well, you should be able to see the leak.

[GsrSiHatchie]

yeah i was thinking valve cover spark plug seals too but wouldnt it trap the oil under the cover and not have a crazy spill over like seen there? i dont know really iv only had something like this happen to me once and it was becuase i didnt put the dip stick in all the way once (idiot i know) but the result looked exactly like the pictures my hood was covered. i just dont think you usually get splatter from valve cover gasket, cam seals, or anything gasket wise because usually there isnt enough pressure to push oil out of gaskets like projectile wise

[EvoColin]

I don't have aftermarket cams, and there was oil in the galley underneath the spark plug valve cover.

[GsrSiHatchie]

did you pull your wires and look?

[EvoColin]

I'm pretty sure it's the valve cover seal. There was oil in the galley but only a small layer (almost as if there was some in there and then it drained). I don't think it's the cam seals, there is no oil around the timing belt, just around the manifolds, on top of the cover and in the valve galley. I will most likely run into more information later on today since I will be changing my oil, hopefully I'll get a better look at everything.

[Evo8kid]

yea that is the point for the drain. to make sure the oil doesnt sit around the ignition components. change the spark plug valve cover seals and the valve cover gasket. and the PCV valve. It could have been the PCV's fault the gasket started leaking.