Oil!!!

[NHRAdestined]

Ok.... my car is leaking a fairly large portion of oil on the right side of the motor... it seems that the leak is somehow hitting my cam gears and slinging it everywhere! i just recently did a project involving a ACT 2600, 3" downpipe, as well as changing all fluids in tranny and motor, also... changed oil filter and checked all seals where i thought there may be oil coming from... i have also sprayed the area down with decreaser but still haven't found any trouble area... is there a common place DSMs usually leaks? please help thanks in advance for your responses

 

[95-talontsi]

Check your Oil cap, valve cover gasket and the dip stick(it might be popping out) Those would be the most common.

 

[dedlewamp]

Ok.... my car is leaking a fairly large portion of oil on the right side of the motor... it seems that the leak is somehow hitting my cam gears and slinging it everywhere! i just recently did a project involving a ACT 2600, 3" downpipe, as well as changing all fluids in tranny and motor, also... changed oil filter and checked all seals where i thought there may be oil coming from... i have also sprayed the area down with decreaser but still haven't found any trouble area... is there a common place DSMs usually leaks? please help thanks in advance for your responses

The best thing I can offer you via the internet is to spray everything down so it's fairly clean. Then, pick up some leak dye at your local autostore and add that to your oil. Let it run awhile, then shut if off. Then take a blacklight flashlight or bulb, and take a look around the engine bay. Any new leaks will glow with the blacklight.

It's an easy way to find hard to find leaks. Also, I'd recommend cleaning your timing belt immedietly or even replacing it. You don't want to go an destroy your head because your oily timing belt slipped or broke now do you?

 

[toybreaker]

Oil leaks in the cam gear area are sometimes hard to diagnose.
There's the valvecover, check carefully around the cam caps.
The cam caps where they split at the head.
And my personal favorite..the cam seals...
Like was previously stated, clean the areas well. Usually, you can wipe a lot of it off with a rag first, and then use cleaner sparingly. Try not to let spooge get on the belt, or go down inside the timing cover.

Oil on the timing belt really makes me nervous!!! I'd find the leak ASAP.

To replace the cam seals requires the removal of the cam gears,..which requires removal
of the t-belt, so I usually do them the first time I replace the T-belt on all the cars I own.

I would most definately replace a timing belt that got oil soaked. I don't know of any good way to clean it on the car
I would go to Mitsubishi for the timing belt set, and pick up some cam seals while you're there.

And, my wife hasn't stopped laughing since she read the question common oil leaks....
she thinks dsm stands for Does Stay Messy...

 

[NHRAdestined]

ok thanks...its definitly not the oil cap, or valve cover seal, and the dip stick isn't popping out because i have that crimped to make it tight. But the thing about the cam seals i was looking at the car and thought the same thing... im going to go get the leak detector and find this baby. ill let you know how it goes. thanks again