loosing lots o oil help!!

[spocks90talon]

ok i bought my 91 tsi awd about 2 months ago runs perfect, perfect compresson, no real problims till about 2 weeks ago i went to jump my buddys honda and as i was about to leave i notice a fairly large oil spot under my car. ive been spending the last week or so trying to figure out where its leaking from but i cant pin point it.

heres the weird part...
i was doing some test to see, started the car up, it dry starts and was ticking pretty loudly (by the way it was not low on oil at the time,) i let it warm up all the way and as soon as the temp gauge reached the center(where it normally sits) the ticking stops, i jump out and rev it a little to see if it will tick again but it wont, i rev it some more this time i let it boost same deal no tick but i see a little bit of black smoke blowing out from under the exaust manifold, i look under the car and its very slowly dripping oil from under the drivebelts, i shut the car off and look under again and this time oil is dripping at a much higher rate from under the drive belts than when it was running. i stick my hand in the puddle to confirm that it is oil(which of course it is) but the oil is not even warm at all its actually about room temp, mind you this is like a minute after the car was running at normal temp for about 10-15 mins so the oil should be at least warm. this has me very confused my buddy said it might be the timing cover seal(or front main seal as he called it) or the oil pump but oil pressure is normal plus the whole dry starting thing my car never does that unless its real cold out and it wasnt low on oil either. it wasnt cold out, the car ran fine didnt blow any smoke out of the exaust even when under boost. i dont know what to do i dont want to take the timing cover off if i dont have to. if anyone has any ideas please let me know i dont wanna blow my motor!

 

[FLiPk614]

Mine does the same thing. I was told that our cars have hydraulic lifters and it ticks until the lifters get loaded or lubed... Mine drinks oil but thats because my piston rings are shot. I dunno what your problem is but i thought i would give you an insight on the ticking... I thought I was gonna blow my motor too.. Until i was told i wasn't.

Good luck with the problem.

 

[spocks90talon]

im not so worried about the tick thanks for the input though, i mean these damn cars always having ticking problims mine always ticks a little bit when i first start it if it hasnt been started for a while but it was real bad that night, oh and it hasnt been ticking that bad since but i havnt really been driving the car latly dont wanna blow that motor

 

[silver bullit]

Cheak all your fluids and see if you can pin point the leak from the timing gears pull the cover off and check to see if your timing cover bolts are tight

 

[Tevenor]

Have any loose manifold studs? Specifically on the right side as you face the engine from the bumper.

 

[spocks90talon]

all my fluids are fine, as for the manifold the guy i bought the car from said he put a 2nd gen exaust manifold on right before i bought it because his 1st gen manifold was cracked, i was looking at the studs and the last two right ones do look kinda stripped, could this be where im loosing oil?

 

[majik2k5]

It probably wouldn't hurt to pull the cover off. Just take the wheel and the motor mount off and you'll have to take the pulley's off for the cover to come off. Then put the pulley's and belts back on and start it and let it warm up, then turn it off and see what you find. Chances are you'll have a lot better luck isolating the leak with the timing cover off.

 

[Tevenor]

Oil can come from 4 spots on that side of the engine

1) A bad seal under the timing stuff ( front balance shaft, main seal, oil pump seal, etc ).
2) Head gasket.
3) One of the exhaust manifold studs actually threads into an oil galley and if loose can leak oil.
4) Oil filter housing gasket.

Take your pick.

 

[bstclum]

Ok mine just started leaking to I couldn't find the leak till i tapped on the oil filter it was loose the rod that you put the filter on has a big nut on it that is notorious for comming loose check that and let me know.

 

[chuckg]

My car leaks a ton of oil too from what sounds like the same place yours is leaking from... If you get it figured out let me know.

 

[spocks90talon]

well my oil spot isnt under the oil filter at all, i still havnt had the time to pull the timing cover off yet but i will as soon as i can, i suspect the front main seal is bad but i wont know untill i can get a closer look(damn zero clearence engine bay) its not leaking as much as i thought through only about half a quart a week or so it depends on how much i drive it, im about to just pull out a loan and get the engine rebuilt, theres not really any big problims with the motor except the oil leak but it does have 157,xxx miles on it, i was gunna get some better rods and pistons since my goal with this car is a 400+ horse daily driver but i see what i can do.

PS oh if any one knows of any good dsm shops that will rebuild my motor around the dayton, OH area please let me know!

 

[majik2k5]

Not exactly in the Dayton area, but Buschur is in Northern Ohio. Not 100% sure if they will rebuild a motor or not though.

 

[spocks90talon]

OK i figured out where my leak is, simply, the oil pan gasket i climbed under my car yesterday and had my buddy start it up and thats when i found that the oil pan is leaking from the side by the drivebelts, so a new 7 doller gasket and that should be fixed sooon thanks for the help anyways guys

 

[Spoolin4Ever]

Cool that's not so bad. Pulling it might be a PITA, but that's OK.

THanks for letting us know what it was, that always helps other peeps when they SEARCH.

 

[TurboSportAWD]

The oil pan does not use a gasket. If you check the Misubishi CAPS program, they use RTV from the factory. If this doesn't solve your leak, check your camshaft seals, as they tend to dry out and leak oil down the inside of your timing cover and drip out the bottom.

 

[AL92]

I used a topline oil pan gasket torqued to spec put it in dry and it leaks bad! It might be my used oil pan though not sure.
I bought a new improved design pan from slowboy racing and installing that with rtv this time.

Also keep hearing about tiimging cover gasket..this should not cause any leaking the timing cover does not have anything to do with leaking oil. If oil is leaking out thru there or its full of oil its got to be front case leaks or seals or balance shaft bolt hole,etc.