oil leak help?

[Bee]

if on the pic yr looking down on the top of a wedge. the red bit is where it's leaking. I'm relatively new to the T3 so bear with me

i've changed the rocker cover gasket as it seemed the obvious thing to do first. when the rain finally stops i intend to check the oil filter is tight on. I've examined the haynes diagram of the engine layout, but can't see anything obvious that would leak oil in that specific area on it. I thought about the breather,i know they can spit up a bit but it seems too much as in then the oil would have to be going through it at some rate as i'm having to refill the oil after every hours to two hours driving roughly.

any thoughts from you knowledgable people? thankyou

[T'Onion]

A/c right ?
check the push rod tube seals

[Bee]

sorry, i should of said. it's 1.9 w/c stock 1984 engine

[T'Onion]

hehehe should have said could be the push rod tubes seals on any boxer

[Fritz]

Oil/water leaks are not the best things to be getting involved with at the best of times..........

All I can add is try to identify the general area of the leak by washing off as much of the spilt oil with engine de-greaser. Try 'spray on GUNK' available from most accessory shops, this will help you more than anything and take a lot of the quess work out of the equation.... Once your engine is washed off then you can have a closer look at what is going on down below.

Take care with rocker gaskets as it is possible to put them on the wrong way round and they will start leaking straight away,,,,,,,,Also pushrod oil seals can cause problems and leak oil for no apparent reason, which will mean having to change the rest of the seals on that side of the engine.

It can be a bit of an operation if you haven't done this type of thing before.

Regards

Fritz,,,,,,,,,,

[fairwynds]

All depends on which bit of the engine is oily....most of em that age are cruddy all over!
From the above, and depending on how high up the engine the leak starts, check the following:

1) Oil breather 'stack' - it has for 8mm nuts, check they are tight (but not TOO tight, its plastic!). There is a large, easily replaceable 'O' ring at its seat, if you need to change it (JK do em)

2) Front crankshaft oil seal (behind the big main pully) - not so easy to change, so come back to that one!

3) Below and behind the crankshaft pully is the oil pump cover plate. This is about 6" x 4" and is fitted with four (13mm?) nuts. They are special nuts with a sealing ring (a bit like a 'nylok' nut, if you know what I mean?) fitted on the ENGINE side of the nut. When ever they are undone they should be replaced with new ones but often are not. Sometimes garages who are unfamiliar with these engines put on the nuts (old or new) with the sealing ring on away from the engine - not good! So check the nuts are on the right way around (poke em with a pointy screwdriver, you'll soon see if they are on the right way around).

4) The same oil pump cover has a very thin paper gasket behind it, so the oil could be leaking from between the cover and the crankcase (engine)

5) The base of the oil filler tube is mounted to the lower offside of the crankcase, again, two (13mm?) bolts/hex heads and a gasket. Check the tightness of these two fixings.

Is your oil leak fresh clean oil, or just a cruddy/oily mess on engine?

The best way to trace such leaks is to warm engine, then brush on a good degreaser (Gunk etc) and leave for an hour, then brush on again, and leave....then...you guessed it......until you can use hot soapy water and detergent (washing up liquid) followed by a good rinse off. Allow to dry, then wipe, and clean again. You should be able to see the various joints well then. THEN check for tightness, as when you do, you might see oil squeezed out of joint (albeit a small amount) - if you do, sort that gasket.

Hope this helps, keep us posted.

[Bee]

thanks for the replys. i'm pretty ok with Aircooled, but not so hot on w/c. are procedures more or less the same? i really hope it's not crankshaft seal as i know what's involved having had to do it on my bug. it's not just a crud build up it's deffo a leak. it started as a little spot but is now dripping a trail if i drive slow along the road:( n it's starting to get expensive on oil
it doesn't help that i have a beam in the back n can't get to engine hatch to see from above to clarify things.

i'll follow the suggestions

[toomanytoys]

I am working in Havant, maybe we can meet up for a looksee and sort it out one eve? But I wont be back until later next week now....

[Bee]

thankyou for yr kind offer toomanytoys. it is a good one indeedy. only prob is, i can't really work on terry in the evenings as no garage n no decent lighting and also weather dependant as only got the front street:( thanks again though for the offer

[Bee]

ok. update....

it's proven to be a combination of things. the rocker cover was actually out of shape. something i didn't notice on sunday when doing the gasket (was dark dismal n raining). so bashed it back into shape n refitted. is now nice n snug n non leaking:) also there's a light leak, more a little seepage, from a pushrod tube. the crud build up is keeping it under control for now so will put on my to do list for summer. also tightened up the oil cooler as nuts quite loose n there was a layer of old oil all around the cooler, fuel pump area. so cleaned crud off n will keep an eye on n see what happens there. but main thing is, terry is no longer weeing out oil


just thought i'd say what i found for if it helps anyone else with same thing

[Fox McIntyre]

also tightened up the oil cooler as nuts quite loose n there was a layer of old oil all around the cooler

Theres an oil cooler on 1.9DG?

[Bee]

lol, well i'm guessing that's what it was. is above roughly where the oil pump is. is black and looks like an upside down oil filter?

[Fox McIntyre]

The breather tower? Only thing I can think of that looks like that..

[fairwynds]

Bee, see my reply above at 1) - ol breather 'stack' - very common as the O ring at the base of it hardens and shrinks with time.
Im coming to end of major rebuild of mine, and have over ordered....so if you want them I have.....that O ring and also Pushrod tube seals (inner and outer ones) just pm if you need em. Im Mid Sussex.