Still leaking oil

[aj81spider]

I changed the exhaust cam seal and got rid of the major oil leak on the top end of the engine (see my thread earlier this summer). However it appears there is still a small leak somewhere. The oil collects on both sides of the thermostat housing, although it is more pronounced on the exhaust side. It also appears at the second head bolt back. Here are a couple of pictures. The oil in the pictures is from an hour or so of driving.





Any thoughts on where it could be coming from? Also, if I'm reading the manual correctly it seems that the cam towers only get torqued to 14 ft-lbs? (I was checking to make sure the towers were torqued correctly as a possible source) Is that right? That's not very tight.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

[redcars]

That leak could be from your oil filler cap. If you have not change the gasket lately you may what to.

[narfire]

I'll second that. If the gasket looks alright, for the time being perhaps bend the two little a bit and see if that will give it a tighter seal. Think that was what I ended up doing...

[RRoller123]

14 is right, seems low but that is what is in all the manuals.

[aj81spider]

Thanks - I'll take a look at the cap. It's brand new, and I checked it when I had the cam seal leak, but there are other brand new things on the engine that haven't performed the way I would have expected!

Pete - thanks for verifying the torque - I still think it's low, but I'm no expert and will go with the manual. They are definitely torqued to 14 ft-lbs on my engine.

[rebar1111]

Chase the threads in the head for the cambox to head bolts, then retorque.

[ga.spyder]

Its just marking it's territory

[carl]

From the pictures, you can see oil on the cam cover lower flange, just above the gasket surface. This would suggest the filler cover is leaking as suggested. Not only is the O-ring on the filler cover an issue but also the two tangs that tighten it down....if too loose it will let oil leak regardless of the condition of the O-ring.

[SpecialTool]

+1 for the oil filler cap. The torque spec on the cam towers seems low because they are aluminum; if over torqued they can distort and leak.

[aj81spider]

New cap on order. I'll let you know if that does the trick.

[aj81spider]

Resurrecting an old thread. The new cap didn't do the trick.

After a lot of work I still seem to have this problem. For many reasons I replaced my head, and just got the car running today. Took it out for a 10 mile ride and had a small pool of oil form in the same place the old head did.



I bought the new head all assembled and you can see the valve cover gaskets are cork and appear saturated in oil. There is no oil on the cam towers, and it looks like the cam tower gasket is saturated as well. It is not from the oil cap as there are similar spots of oil all along the tower. It is more pronounced on the exhaust side, but present on the intake as well.



Any thoughts on what could be causing this? Apart from being really irritating, on the old head (which leaked more) it created a real mess, eventually pooling oil in the spark plug wells.

Head is new, all gaskets in the head are new, oil cap is new. Engine was rebuilt (pistons, rings, etc) less than 250 miles ago.

Given that the head is new, Is it possible something in the block is causing it?

[BEEK]

your cam cover gasket seems to have a lot of oil on it, it is a heavy cork gasket and not a rubber one. i would replace the gasket with a oem type rubber gasket. clean and dry both surfaces before install and torque properly, i would also check the cover for being warped

[seabeelt]

+1 on the rubber cam gasket

[aj81spider]

Thanks for the suggestion - I will try that, but am not hopeful.

My previous head had the rubber gasket, and there does not appear to be any oil on the cam tower between the cork gasket and the pools below.

[BEEK]

in the photographs the gasket appears to be wet. either you have removed them and reinstalled without cleaning them, or your leak is from there. i have seen covers leak many times. check the flatness of the covers. for oil to be getting where you are showing it it can pretty much only come from 3 places. the lower gasket, the cover or from the front of the engine, check the back side of your cam gears and see if they are wet, check the backside of the timing cover and see if it is wet, check the front of the engine with the timing cover removed, see if it is wet, if none of those areas behind the cam pulley and the cover are wet, then it can be only from one of 2 places. valve cover or lower gasket