Oil oil everywhere

[CJRW42]

Hi,

I am a new van owner with a 1984 cc1900 water cooled T25. I am a newbie to all things mechanical.

Three weeks in and I am smitten. Plan to take her to Gibraltar in August and she runs like a dream....except for one small problem.

She is leaking oil when running. After a 200 mile run she had lost about half a litre (based on she was on max at the start and now half way between min and max).

Before taking her for this run i cleaned up the engine the best I could. After the run There is a light covering of oil over the tailgate and about a teaspoon of oil has accumulated on top of the engine near the fuel pump. There is oil underneath on the oil filter, across the sump and on the pushrods (opposite side to the oil filter). I know it is not the rockers cover, their gaskets, the oil filter or the sump plug as these have all be replaced.

Afte the drive she drips about twice onto the floor and then that's it. If I have her idling on the drive then after about 20 minutes she may drip once on to the drive but can't see where it is coming from. The drip is located right near the back approximately underneath where the breather housing is. I am faily confident leak is not furl pump or breather pipe. Am starting to worry it is one of the main seals and is the spraying the oil all round just to confuse me.

Questions:

1. Any suggestions where the leak is coming from.
2. If it is a main seal (which I guess is beyond my skills at this stage) any ideas what the cost will be? I guess it is all labour and little parts?
3. If too expensive to fix now, any danger to taking her to Gibraltar and just carrying extra oil.

Thanks in advance for any advice

[Ian Hulley]

Sounds like a classic pushrod tube leak judging from where it's coming from.

Search on this forum for 'Telescopic pushrod tube' it's been covered here before .

I'm assuming by 'main seal' you mean the jacket seal ? ... No, that's just coolant

Ian

[Mickyfin]

Is there an amount of oil at the base of your oil breather tower?

[CJRW42]

Is there an amount of oil at the base of your oil breather tower?

If you are looking straight down then the oil is pooled a little to the left of breather tower. The nuts on the breather tower get wet but again, after a run everything is wet.

[CJRW42]

Slight update now that I have completed the return run. Over a total of 450 miles she has only actually leaked 2/3rds of a litre of oil. A lot for new cars but for a van this age?

[Ian Hulley]

More than you would expect .... Our's (2.1 DJ) finds it level after a 4.5 litre oil change about 1/2 way between Max & Min, I probably top up by 1/2 a litre over 3,000 miles i.e. the remains from a 5 ltr can.

Ian

[billy739]

location in your profile as a local member may be able to pop round and look / advise.

[ermie571]

hi, my two penneth worth....

I had a similar leak that would spray round the engine, and up the back door...it was the main crankshaft seal bewteen the engine and gearbox.....Hubby's was the other end.

Did the gearbox end one on the roadside with a clutch change, garage attended to Hubby's with a stack of other work.

regards

Em
xx

[CJRW42]

Update. Ok I think this leak is coming from the oil pump cover.

It is hard to say for sure but once I cleaned the engine down and let her sit idling on the drive she did start to drip from near the crankshaft.

Looking up from below I can see the rim of a square plate that look like it maybe the pump cover. Oil is dripping from here or above here.

Haynes says you can take this off with engine still in van but I can't see how.

Any ideas how much it would cost to let an expert at it?

Also is there any recommendations for mechanics in the Camberley area?

Thanks

[kit]

Spanerboy is in Guildford.

[kit]

Just copied this from BY

T3 specialist located in guildford surrey,07817 865 722,we carry lots of T3 spares in stock as well.

[CJRW42]

Cheers Kit

[CJRW42]

One year and various fixes later......it was the breather pipe.