Small oil leak turned MAJOR SPRAY and now the Alt is dead too

[1vicissitude]

So my car has had a small but persistent leak from what I am assuming is the rear main seal and somewhere up front as well. I have cleaned the engine down many times to try to track it down and the rear is obvious, but the front eludes me. It really hasn't been a huge issue, I just occasionally top it off and use Valvoline Maxlife, and life goes on.

 

However, yesterday I take the car out just maybe 5 miles down the freeway to a friends house. We ended up heading to the shooting range in his car so I left mine at his place. I get back maybe two hours later and it looks like at least half a liter has hit the floor in this time period. I pop the hood and there is a lot of oil sprayed all over the underside of the hood, and it has even pooled up on the cross member and around the steering rack. I still have some oil pressure, but it is low.

 

Anyone ever encounter something like this, and if so what was your issue?

 

My best guess is my front timing cover seal is toast, and the radiator fan flung oil everywhere? It's a huge mess all over the spark plug side of the engine, the underside of the hood, the alternator, the cross member and around the timing cover.

 

Speaking of which, I noticed my amp meter is no longer moving when the car is on, only goes backwards with brake lights and blinkers. I am assuming the alt ins't charging anymore. Was fine before this oil mess, could that much oil kill an alternator? It was also raining heavily a couple weeks ago and I might have missed it until now. Granted, I had no idea either could kill an alternator. (I'm just guessing as it is the only variable that has changed)

 

Also, before anyone asks. I have not performed any recent services on the car other than an oil change. It has been running and driving fantastic. Usually I know to go backwards and recheck what was redone, in this case I'm at a total loss.

[seattlejester]

Putting the valve cover gasket in incorrectly had the same effect for me. Leaks right under the valve cover, on the spark plug side, radiator fan blows the oil everywhere and right on top of the alternator.

 

The amount of oil lost kind of throws me off though. I would have stream of oil following me after a drive, and a small pool if I left the car running, but with the car off oil would drain below the head and I wouldn't have any oil leaks. Except for at my rear main seal.

 

For the RMS, take a look at the install guides. It usually has to do not with the RMS itself but with the gasket and the wideners used in the last crankshaft bearing holder. If you pound them in with the beveled edge facing the wrong way, it will cut into the gasket and cause a leak no matter how many RMS's you replace.

 

Honestly I would say to ditch the ammeter and use a volt meter instead, as long as it doesn't dip below 12 the alternator is doing it's job, although you probably have a quite a bit of a drain if it's reading that low.

 

The witness marks on your hood kind of make me want to throw the valve cover theory out the window though. To make it to your hood it would have to be from a pressurized source which points either to the oil pressure sender, oil filter, oil pump. I would start with the valve cover gasket and go from there and check any of those sources.

[1vicissitude]

Well I threw the battery on the charger, got to love optimas.  I had forgotten like 2 oil changes ago i replaced mine with a felpro unit. After some reading these appear to be a total POS. I will order a genuine nissan right now.

 

After changing the valve cover gasket I think I am just going to give Bar's RMS stop leak with a thicker grade oil. I have plans to build a new engine anyways to replace the old l24 block in there. Honestly pulling the engine to get the RMS, the front oil seal, and timing cover gasket sounds like a huge pain for an engine I am going to replace sooner than later. I will look into pulling it if the valve cover gasket doesn't solve the problem.

 

As for the alt, the ammeter was moving just fine a few weeks ago. The plug was a bit loose on the backside so I seated that properly now. I'm probably just having issues keeping the big ol optima charged with the 45w amp with how much the car gets driven. 

 

Thanks for the help, I will report back once I have the new gasket and everything is cleaned up again.

[beermanpete]

The alternator belt is coated with oil and is slipping. Once you fix the oil leak and clean everything it should be fine. If it still does not charge well replace the belt.

[NewZed]

The rear crankshaft seal is the wearing part.  You can replace it from underneath the car with the transmission out and dust cover removed.

 

I don't think that those "stop-leak"s for oil work for long.  They have swelling agents that soften the seals, I believe, but the material also weakens and wears faster.  The leaks come back.

[1vicissitude]

Well after seattlejesters suggestion I closely looked at the valve cover gasket. On the messy side there is quite a bead running along the valve cover gasket. The bead runs around on the backside of the VC too, which wouldn't be there if it was from the front being blown upwards. The mech fuel pump is also very messy, and the bracket had some oil pooled as well between it and the VC.The clean side (carb side) there is nothing.

 

So hopefully changing to a genuine Nissan VC gasket will bring the car back to just having a small RMS leak. I drive the car maybe 5 miles a week if I'm lucky. I really get to enjoy it maybe twice a month. Building a flat top 2.8l block is something I really want to do, so if this fix can hold me off until it's installation I'll be a happy camper. With how rarely I drive the car I always check the fluids before taking it out anyways, so a small leak from the RMS onto a piece of cardboard is no big deal.

[seattlejester]

Well glad you might have found the problem. The belt slipping on the alternator makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. It would take a lot of oil to jam up the alternator.

 

Just plan for replacing the RMS the next time you do the clutch. If it is indeed the RMS it sits right there. I was in the same situation didn't drive very much, but it does get annoying knowing that you have an oil leak. People tend to point it out fairly often as well.