Think I found my oil leak! Boy was I looking in the wrong place!!

[Guest bastaad525]

Now... my hopes are high here, but after looking and looking at it it SEEMS I've found out where my oil leak is TRULY coming from.

 

Oil pump gasket!!!

 

 

I started noticing a bit of oil 'tracking' along the groove between the pan and the block... the whole pasenger side of the engine. And I'm like... no way this gasket is leaking like this already... no way. So I'm under the car looking around and I see a lot of wet oil right between the oil pump and on the front of the block right next to it. Anything past there is completely dry.

 

So my HOPE is that it's leaking from there, gets onto the edge of the pan/gasket, then is blown back allllll the way along the side of the engine and coming down at the rear plate. HOPING this means that it's NOT the side seals of the rear main bearing cap.

 

 

SO next order of business is to pull the oil pump and take care of that gasket and see what happens.

 

 

I'm still only losing a relatively small amount of oil though... up to 700 miles since the oil change and used less than 1/3 of a quart to keep it at the H line.

[zcarnut]

After years of chasing oil leaks I wised up and purchased one of the UV leak detection kits:

 

UV Leak Detection Kit

 

Works great and no more guessing where the source of the leak is.

[Afshin]

Yup, I got one of those kits a few years ago (kragen now has some cheap ones I believe). Works great!

[Drax240z]

Yeah they really do work well!

[Here comes trouble]

If that's a L6 Datsun engine..As a precaution to save yourself problems......Locate #1 piston at TDC... pull the distribitor and lock and secure the oil pump/distribitor shaft with needle nose vice grips at the top before pulling the oil pump. This will prevent the shaft/gear from dropping out when oil pump is removed..

[Guest DoTheDrew888]

I had an oil leak for a long time that I thought was the oil pump. Turns out the plate on the front of the head wasn't tightened down all the way and would leak. I guess oil was being thrown off the timing chain and dripped through the crack. Check for oil above the oil pump on the front cover.

[Silent]

at least you can find your leaks. i have yet to find a valve cover gasket that doesn't leak.

and the front of my engine seems to collect road grime, so it looks like the front cover is leaking all the damn time.

 

it sucks ***

 

OH, my oil pan has a slight leak too

tranny leaks

at least the rear diff doesn't leak

 

 

ack po0

[Guest bastaad525]

I've had fantastic luck with the Felpro valve cover gaskets... much as I seem to have nothing but bad luck with their exhaust manifold and oil pan gaskets! The valve cover ones are that black rubber stuff with the thin metal strip core... very durable stuff and sometimes even reusable. Never had one leak on me yet.

[Silent]

hmm, gonna have to order me one of those, with my new go fast parts im workin on, id rather spend more time on those then work on the damn valve cover

[george.bryant]

My oil pump had been leaking ever since i got my car, like a year and a half ago. Noticed that the part of the head gasket (aswell as a big chunk on #6) that goes around the front cover was worn and oil was leaking from there. Also the rocker cover gasket at the front, it has like 2 inches in the front that is silicone cause the gasket broke and it leaked from there alot.

 

And man! It went on and on and on. But now my motor is all in bits, so i've cleaned everything and replaced all the gaskets.

 

...i was just looking at those UV leak detector kits. what an amazing product! ive never seen anything like that in New Zealand before! I may have to start selling em